thePULSEClosing the Gap
Traffic Jam’s CD drives through rock/folk barriers
March 2004 – It’s hard to find a band that successfully bends the boundary between folk and rock, as Bob Dylan did in the 1960s and the Dave Matthews band did in the 1990s.
That’s what makes Traffic Jam, headed by Clark grad student Raffi Der Simonian, so unique. Der Simonian, on vocals and guitar, is supported by other band members Richard Houghton on bass guitar, Ryan Pratt on drums and Ben Coakley on lead guitar. The group’s music rocks stridently electric at times, dripping with guitar riffs, scratchy chords and throaty vocals. But it is also highly influenced by folk, often humming with the serene sounds of acoustic guitars and mandolin.
On Mind the Gap , the group’s second album, the songs flip stylistically back and forth between rock and folk, creating an edgy juxtaposition of contemporary and vintage music genres. The album also features an eclectic mixture of local guest musicians, including Dave Dick on Mandolin and Banjo, Steve Mossberg on piano and organ and Ryan Foss on Sax and Harmonica. “I think that our stuff definitely has its own unique flavor to it,” says the 23 year old Der Simonian, who wrote the majority of the songs on the album while an undergrad at Clark.
Mind the Gap includes a mixture of songs ranging from political and introspective to optimistic and lighthearted. Its lyrics reflect the hopes, dreams, anxieties, frustrations and often blindly optimistic beliefs of a college student trying to find his place in society. “Some of [the songs] are fierce or introspective…reflecting different internal dilemmas that we deal with,” Der Simonian explains. “Others are…fun and carefree.”
With the instrumental pieces “Mind the Intro” and “Mind the Outro,” the first and last tracks of the album, Traffic Jam also gets a chance to showcase its musical chops, creating an intimate blend of mandolin and acoustic guitar. Laced in the background of the two tracks is an unusual mix of recorded laughter, warnings of “Mind the Gap” and hissing of London’s underground tube trains, taped by Der Simonian with a mini-disc player during a semester abroad in England.
Der Simonian bares his deepest feelings in song lyrics on Mind the Gap . With “11:11,” he sings of his optimistic faith that anything can come true when a wish is made as the clock reads 11:11. In “Taste It” he urges the band’s audience to “celebrate each day;” and “Happiness,” which he says is one of his favorite songs on the album, offers sound advice on appreciation for everyday life. Accompanied by sax and piano, he expresses his ideals on contentment saying, “life is too short to always be down…happiness is found in obvious places.”
Conversely, his inner frustrations come out in “Crazy Nights’” lyrics, while “Destiny” is an intimate portrait of his anxieties and uncertainties about the future. “How am I supposed to know what tomorrow brings?” he sings. “…Where lies my destiny?”
Der Simonian also uses Mind the Gap to express his deep philosophical beliefs. “Blinded” paints a distinct picture of a road trip he took to New York City shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The lyrics express his rage over his belief in America’s indifference, the blind security of military strategy and government hypocrisy. “We kill so efficiently with a super technology,” he sings. “Nothing’s changed. It’s such a shame. The world’s gone blind now.”
And Der Simonian’s intense, philosophical side doesn’t stop with his lyrics. The Album’s title, “Mind the Gap,” serves a “metaphorical purpose” that was inspired by his semester abroad in London. The recorded warnings of “Mind the Gap” in the underground tube system represent for him what he calls “the gap” between cultural differences he experienced growing up in a house with an Armenian father and a French mother.
To help promote sales of the album, Der Simonian says he is exploring the solo/acoustic route, playing a series of local gigs at Worcester’s Tammany Hall and Leitrim’s Pub with a collection of different musicians, including Bill Mayo. “I’m trying to mix it up as far as…hav[ing] a more diverse array of instrumentation than just what you hear on the CD,” he comments. “It…gives it a different sound each time you play.” He and his fellow Traffic Jam members also hope to “generate some buzz” about Mind the Gap by attracting attention from the local college audience and booking college shows in Worcester.
With graduation in July and a band that is garnering attention from folk and rock fans alike, Der Simonian recognizes that his future is wide open. The song lyrics to “Destiny” say it all: “With my intuition and my love of rock and roll…I’ll lay my hand in yours and leave the rest to fate.”
