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Twisted Tymes


Band: Twisted Tymes

Members: Gary Flaharty, drums, guitar, bass and vocals; Harry Cotrell, drums, harmonica, bass and vocals; Jess Kopp, bass guitar and drums; Dan Welty, lead guitar, bass and drums

Who we talked to: Flaharty and Welty

How did the band get together? Well, it was kind of an accident. (Kopp and I) started going out together. I bought a drum set when I moved in with her and her dad. She kind of learned a couple things off of me. I met (Welty) through her brother . . . and (we) became really goods friends. When me and (Kopp) bought a house, we actually moved in beside (Cotrell).

Where did the name come from? There's a tree called a twisted redbud. It's a pretty cool looking tree. (Kopp) thought we should name the band Twisted Redbud. I don't know why, but I just said Twisted Tymes and that's what stuck. There wasn't really (anything) behind it.

Can you describe your sound and style? We do a lot of original music and . . . we add our own original twists to (the covers we do). We do a couple older country tunes like "Long Haired Country Boy" (by Charlie Daniels Band) and "Family Tradition" (by Hank Willimas Jr.). We kind of rock them out a little bit and make them more upbeat. One thing we really like is that we all switch around instruments.

When did you start playing music? I started playing the guitar when I was young. My dad had played music. I got in a band when I was in ninth grade. (A friend) taught me how to play the drums. He taught me a lot about music and I learned a lot on my own. It's the same thing with (Welty) and (Kopp) really, because all I did was show them a very little thing and they went on and . . . taught themselves how to do the rest.

Who are your influences? My biggest influence would probably be my dad, honestly. He wrote music for many years and back in the '80s, he had an album out with his band. My father just died about a year ago. If he could still play today, I'd love (for) him to play with us. It's something he never got the chance to do. Several friends of his still play with us.

What local places do you like to play? We play Zingers, and we play The Glad Crab quite a bit. We're playing at the Tourist Inn (for our CD release party). That's our first job down there. We've got a couple special guests helping us out with that. The first set, we're going to do a friends of Twisted Tymes thing. We're going to have a different person come up and . . . play along with us and tell how we know them.

What are your thoughts on the York music scene? We've been around here for a little bit now playing, and we have quite a few people who know who our band is and come out to see us play.

What was it like making your first album? It was a great time. Our buddy . . . recorded it . . . in his attic. You wouldn't know by listening to it. We're actually planning to go in and start recording our next (album). A lot of places don't want to book you without something to hear first. Now that we have the album, I think it will help us get more gigs.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF