Syracuse bassist Erik Henning is hanging 10 as Polar Bear Club makes international music waves
By Jessica Novak
Life on the road is pretty glamorous for Erik “Goose” Henning, bassist of the Polar Bear Club. When he picks up the phone for an interview, he’s speaking from the parking lot of a Taco Bell in Twin Falls, Idaho. The night before the band did a show in Boise and now they’re road-tripping for a gig later in the evening at Salt Lake City.
But there are complications. The guys usually travel with about seven in their 15-passenger van, but the trailer for Fireworks, one of the other outfits in the current tour’s caravan, broke down in California. So they’ve had to redistribute bodies and equipment among the other vans and trailers belonging to the bands Such Gold and Balance and Composure.
Now there are 10 people crammed inside Henning’s van as he chats about being a Polar Bear Clubber, as well as the band’s new album, Clash Battle Guilt Pride (Bridge Nine Records). And it’s downright awkward for Henning to give an interview since it’s usually the duty of lead singer Jimmy Stadt.
“Everyone’s laughing at me,” he says, and you just know there’s a smirk on his kisser. “We’re all in the van right now and everyone’s listening. I don’t do interviews. I’m not very good at them.”
Henning makes it through the questioning just fine, however, as he explains how a band with members from Rochester and Syracuse went from playing local shows to touring Australia, blowing up Bamboozle, and getting ink in Alternative Press magazine, including a 2010 cover. Henning is also stoked about coming back to Central New York with Polar Bear Club for a show on Friday, Oct. 14, 6:30 p.m., at the Lost Horizon, 5863 Thompson Road. The aforementioned bands Balance and Composure, Fireworks and Such Gold will be on the bill, plus the group Summer People.
For Henning, learning the bass was accidental, much like his nickname. “I got the nickname skateboarding with my friends in like eighth grade,” he explains. “They just thought it would be funny to call me Goose. It’s followed me ever since. It’s pretty much just my family and girlfriend that call me Erik.”
Not long after attaining his nickname, Henning’s neighbor told him that he needed a bass player for his band The Great Sleep, so he decided to give it a try. The immersion into music spurred his interest and soon he was picking up lessons and going to show after show with Devin Chavis, a family friend who has played guitar for local groups including Grey Tide and currently for EgoDestroys. Chavis knew Erik Henning’s father, Bob Henning, because Chavis’ fiancé used to work at Kelly Cole’s, a restaurant that Henning once had a partial ownership. It’s now known as J. Ryan’s Pub, 253 E. Water St.“I was at the restaurant one night with the guys I was playing with at the time and Bob’s like, ‘Oh yeah, Erik just got a guitar,’” Chavis says. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah? What did you get? And if you want lessons, man, let me know.’ He {Erik} started coming to the house, I was giving him lessons, how to read music and he was into the kind of music I’d grown up with so I started introducing him to people and he started playing in a band that was pretty good. But he was always the better musician.”
One of Chavis’ introductions included Emmett Manke, the now former drummer of Polar Bear Club who helped bring Henning into the band in 2008. When Henning hopped on the band’s “gravy train with biscuit wheels,” as he jokingly refers to it now, he had already been a fan for about two years.
Polar Bear Club started out in Rochester in 2005 and gained popularity among Central New York fans with the 2006 EP The Redder, the Better (Triple Attack/Luchador Records) before making the national jump. The band released their first full-length Sometimes Things Just Disappear (Redleader Records) just after Henning joined, although he is not on the album. The CD’s rave reviews bolstered Polar Bear Club’s popularity, which led to concert dates alongside the likes of The Gaslight Anthem, American Steel, Crime in Stereo, A Wilhelm Scream and Cancer Bats.
A 2009 label switch to Bridge Nine resulted in even more heavy-duty touring,
but the extra effort has paid off. “When we signed to Bridge Nine that was definitely a big step for us,” Henning recalls. “A few different labels approached us at the time, but Bridge Nine had the same views on the band as we did, so we went with them. And that’s that.”
Bridge Nine issued their sophomore album Chasing Hamburg in September 2009 on both 12-inch vinyl and CD. Meanwhile, the band played Bamboozle in 2009, did the 2010 Warped Tour and headlined concerts in Australia last winter. Polar Bear Club, which also includes new drummer Tyler Mahurin, rhythm guitarist Nate Morris and lead guitarist Chris Browne, also earned a spot on the massive 2011 Australian festival Soundwave, and played alongside bands such as Iron Maiden, Rob Zombie, Slash, Social Distortion and Primus.
After several years of extensive touring, the band got to work on a third full-length, Clash Battle Guilt Pride, which received an explosion of positive responses following its Sept. 13 release. According to Henning, album producer Brian McTernan made all the difference: “We had the extra ear that we really appreciated and respected. It wasn’t like some guy coming in and telling you an idea and being like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ We all really wanted that extra opinion and it definitely shows in the songs.”
The band recorded at McTernan’s Salad Days Studio in Baltimore, Md. and since Sept. 1 has been touring to promote the CD, including legs on both coasts, throughout the Midwest and into Canada.
Longtime pal Chavis beams when talking about Henning’s accomplishments.
“It gives me a lot of pride knowing that this kid from Syracuse is doing something cool,” Chavis says. “I always told him to work hard, keep a level head and have fun doing it because, let’s face it, it’s the music industry. If you take this shit too seriously, it’s gonna eat you up.”
Polar Bear Club’s 2011 dance card has no signs of slowing, either. “After this tour we’re home for a week and we play a couple shows down in Florida at a festival called ‘The Fest,’” Henning says. “Then we drive home and the day after we fly to Europe to play with Rise Against and Tom Morello and the Nightwatchmen. Should be pretty cool. Then we come home and don’t really have much planned after that.”
After all, downtimes are few when you’re riding the gravy train. With biscuit wheels.
Tickets
for the all-ages show are $12, available at the Sound Garden, 310 W.
Jefferson St. For information, call 446-1934 or visit www.thelosthorizon.com.
