Rich Pagen
Home || Music || Photography || Links || Contact
Ed Macy Lies:
Mike Musty - guitar, harmonica, vocals
Rich Pagen - guitar, drums, vocals
***Tell us about the band. Who are these guys?***
Mike Musty and Rich Pagen were friends in college at Notre Dame, both
graduating in 1992. After not seeing each other for a number of years, they
were fortuitously reunited by bumping into one another at a Minneapolis bar
called the Bryant Lake Bowl in 2001.
In the years since they had last seen one another, Mike had become a
computer guy and had started an urbanism/architecture business with his
brother in Minneapolis. Rich had become an environmental educator and
ornithologist, most recently teaching marine biology on Catalina Island in
California (where he met his girlfriend Kristin who, being originally from
Minnesota, was a substantial part of the reason why he happened to be in
that Minneapolis bar that fateful night in 2001).
Both had also been off on musical endeavors of all kinds during that near
decade of near lost-contact. Mike had written scores of songs with acoustic
guitar and harmonica, and had played solo at countless open mics, as well as
with various other musicians in Minnesota and New Mexico. Rich, after
playing drums and singing in bands in college (most notably Jasmine Groove),
had gravitated more towards acoustic guitar and composing songs. He recorded
two solo albums (Something from nothing (1995) and Fluid (1998)), and two
albums with compadre Hayden Mattingly under the band name Raincrow (Between
blue moons (1999) and A part of it (2001)),
getting into playing various instruments (including bass and drums) on
multi-track recordings. He also played out at coffee shops, bars, farmers
markets and even a sushi bar/comedy club, some solo, some with Raincrow.
Rich continued to teach on Catalina Island, but was frequently back in
Minneapolis for various amounts of time. Finally, between two shipboard
seabird biologist jobs, Rich moved to Minneapolis in late winter of 2004,
and it was at that time that Ed Macy Lies truly came alive. Mike and Rich
each dug out countless songs from their respective vaults, and after
considerable time and musical exploration, decided on the songs that best
complemented one another. Soon, a studio was squeezed into Mike and his
brother Pete's new office space for their business (OK, it actually took up
the vast majority of the back room), and later moved into the basement of a
large house on Girard Avenue. Shows were set up at coffee shops (including
the one that was recorded for the live CD) and Ed Macy Lies was on fire
until Rich had to leave for his seabird job on the East Coast, that started
in late June of 2004.
Rich still returns to Minneapolis between biologist jobs, and Ed Macy Lies
continues........
***Where does the name Ed Macy Lies come from?***
So glad you asked. Like any band, Mike and Rich had a grand old time sitting
around spewing out potential band names, each idea usually as bad as the
last. This one stuck. Here's the story........
"After returning to San Diego from a research cruise in December 2003, Rich
met up with his friend Matt (who he had grown up with back in New York).
They drove out to Anza-Borrego state park to disappear for a few days in the
desert. Upon arriving at the Visitor Center there, they asked the volunteer
working the desk (whose name was, by the way, Ed Macy) for advice on where
to go, the only stipulation being that they wanted to get out in the sticks,
and not see many people. Ed Macy went on to recommend a "rarely traveled"
road going out into a desert wash, and so off to the wash they went. And
sure enough - two days into the camping trip and not a soul in sight. On the
third day, however, while hiking up on a ridge above the wash, several cars,
one after the other, started to appear flying up the wash, clouds of dust
rising behind them. Soon Rich and Matt's slap-happy conversation turned to
how the seemingly kind retired man behind the desk at the Visitor Center was
actually a liar spinning a web of deceit and distrust. Rich and Matt went on
and on with this theme as they hiked, laughing their heads off, coming up
with ideas for overly long and ridiculous band names that dealt with Ed
Macy. Four months later, in a living room in Minneapolis, Mike and Rich
decided that band names like 'Ed Macy and his spawn of lies, pain and
neglect' would be easier to remember if shortened to 'Ed Macy Lies'."
***Anything else to say?***
Enjoy the music and spread the word...........-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home || Music || Photography || Links || Contact