"Getaway Cruiser" has two mini-CDs already out there, but this album is their full-length debut on Sony's, 550 Records. They have a unique sound blending rock, hip-hop, and r&b to create something different for the masses.

The band came together while attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. College is a great time to spread your wings, a great time to make new friends, a great time to start a band and become a rock and roll star. Starting off around town, playing small gigs in the area and building a following, "Getaway Cruiser" is moving into their own. The band has a mature outlook on their musical career. Despite the mounting successes, the signing with 550 Records for one, they keep their heads in reality. This is a band that is out there to make good music. The bottom line is to do everything they can to make the song better, make the song the best it can be.

Some comparisons have been made to the band Garbage. I disagree. I can see where one might be tempted to compare the two. The female vocals, I suppose, but you're talking apples and oranges. Besides, you can't take the lyrics by themselves any more than you can just shut out the words and listen to the music. It's a total package, and to discount one or the other is to shortchange yourself. It also does a serious disservice to the band's work.

With all that said, I did have a problem with the first song on the record.
"I'm Fine (I Find)" fluctuates between catchy and annoying. The lyrics are quite simple. The chorus, however, gets under your skin easily after a few times in the player. The things that kept this song above water for me were the music and the addition of guest vocalist Pras (from the Fugees.) His lyrical refrain gave me a break from the somewhat droney chorus.

"Come to Stay" is one of my favorite tracks on the record. I think the
musical effects on this song are absolutely specatacular. There are just so many interesting sounds combined to create this song. I had to keep relistening to this one, and each time I noticed something new.

The lyrics in "Something About You" are so simple it seems like there must be more. The whole song is very straightforward, musically and lyrically. Then, at the end, you're treated to a fantastic blend of instruments, including harmonica, that once again proves to me the creativity this band possesses.

The band creates an interesting cover of Tony, Toni, Tone's "Let's Get
Down," complete with accordion. It sounds odd, I know, and yet it works. I think that's one of the most appealing things about this band. They aren't afraid to try things and they come up with new combinations and new sounds.

Kool Keith makes a guest vocal appearance on the next track, "Wasting Away." This song is definitely not an upper, but there are so many levels to it, both lyrically and musically, that make it, in my opinion, one of the best songs on the record. Harrison's lyrics are a bit dark, and Keith's add to the emotional atmosphere. The music weaves in and out, wrapping it all up into an exciting mix that kept me putting it on repeat.

Harrison's vocals on "Out of Control" are some of the most appealing on the album. They're deeper-sounding, and really give an indication of her range. Once again, the song displays the musical combinations that hooked me from the first song.

This album is definitely one that you have to hear to appreciate. You have to put it on and settle down and listen. It's impossible to catch
everything the first time through, and if you try, you'll miss a great deal.
There are layers to the music that you can overlook on the first time
through, but if you give it more you'll get that much more out of it.

Watch out for this band. I think this record is just the beginning, and
with their attitude, they're only going up from here. Go out and pick it up
and give it a try. Treat yourself and enjoy the music.

I spent a pleasant afternoon in conversation with Drew and Chris Peters
of "Getaway Cruiser." The brothers talked to me in turn, as they said that their voices are so similar that they are often interchanged when they do interviews. So, in order to keep me from getting confused (thanks, guys!) they took turns at the phone.

AMZ - I see that you all met while you were going to school. Is that
right?

Drew - Yeah. Well, were all U of M students, and most of us graduated.

AMZ - I'm curious. What did you study while you were there? Was it
entertainment related?

Drew - Actually, you know what? I was in psychology. I got a degree in
psychology. My brother, Chris, and Mark (Dundon) both got degrees in
history. Oh shoot, what did Dan.....Dan was communications, maybe, I think. I don't know.

AMZ - So, a little of everything then?

Drew - Yeah. Funny enough, it's not musically related just because I
think that most of us were under the impression that going to school to be in a rock band doesn't really quite make sense.

AMZ - So this was a hobby that just kind of grew?

Drew - Yeah. I think for me, you know when you're 18 and you go to
college you don't really know exactly what it is that you want to do and
what you're interested in, and it wasn't until I was about 19 that I got
really sucked into the aspect of being in a band. The whole spiel, you
know? My brother was the music editor for a paper, and I became a music editor as well, and started reading about it and all that sort of stuff.

AMZ - Just got dragged right in there....

Drew - Yeah, because like I said before, when you're 18 you have no idea what you want to do. I don't think any of our parents would have been too supportive if when we were 18 we said...

AMZ - "I wanna be a rock star."

Drew - Yeah - and even when I was in school, and doing the band as well, I can see how it would bum out some parents to know that their kids are pursuing a rock and roll band. I can sympathize with my parents, going in to the office and someone saying "Oh, Dr. Peters, how are the kids?" "Oh, well, they're still doing that rock band thing..."

AMZ - "It's just a phase, they'll outgrow it...."

Drew - Yeah, I think it's just a parent's worst nightmare.

AMZ - So where does the band name come from?

Drew - Actually, some friends of ours were in a band from Detroit, nothing you would have ever heard of, and they formed a new band and then they called it Getaway Cruiser for about a week. It was one of the few times when all of us, all of us - being myself, and Chris and Mark, heard this band name, Getaway Cruiser, and we were like, "Wow, that's a great name." Then, a few days later, they decided that they wanted to change it because they thought it was silly. Then a few days after that, we started Getaway Cruiser. Well, we started this new band and then we called them up and asked them if we could use the name that they came up with.

AMZ - What about the logo? That really struck me right off.

Drew - That was put together by an artist named John Hobbs.

AMZ - Is he a friend?

Drew - He's a Detroit artist who did some poster work, and that logo was actually on a poster that we saw and really liked. So, when it came time to put the record together, we called him up, inquired about it, and ended up purchasing from him.

AMZ - Then it wasn't designed specifically for you?

Drew - No, but it looks like it, doesn't it?

AMZ - It does. It's really striking.

AMZ - I had some questions about your song writing process, because I was reading a lot about how you lay down your tracks and such. Do you generally all get together at once?

Drew - No, we have a formula that is in effect about 90% of the time.
Chris and I will go into our basement and we pick out some records and
assemble some sort of rhythmic track, some rhythmic loops. Then he'll pick up either a bass or guitar, I'll pick up a guitar, or whatever, whatever it is that we're into at the moment, and come up with the music.

AMZ - Okay, "whatever it is you're into." Do you get into a kick where,
maybe, like you're into the accordion that day, and everything you're doing is with the accordion?

Drew - Um, yeah. Sometimes I guess. It just depends. You know, when I
hear a piece of music, or when I hear a rhythmic loop of some sort, it'll
sort of pop into my head what direction we're sort of going and we'll just
pursue it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

AMZ - Do you all write the lyrics?

Drew - No. The next step, Dina will come over and the three of us will
work on the melodies. She writes all of her own words. There are 2 songs that she didn't write the words for, because they're old, before she was a part of the band.

AMZ - What do you do when you're not doing music?

Drew - I own a recording studio in town, and whenever I have a spare moment, I'm over there - either working on new Getaway Cruiser stuff, or working on a remix, or recording a band from Ann Arbor.

AMZ - Do you prefer doing the live shows, or would you rather spend time in the studio working on new stuff?

Drew - I like both pretty equally. I think they're both different
animals. When we're in the studio, I definitely enjoy making it a "studio"
track. I don't worry too much about how, or if, it'll translate live. We
have songs that we don't play live. We just recorded them, we like the
recording, but we don't feel the need to play them live. But then there are other tunes that I think, from the live aspect of things, I really enjoy
playing live because I think that it's something we spend a lot of time
working on, trying to get it to sound as close to the record as possible. I
think there's a real fullness to our live shows. I find that the fact that
you have this huge PA system that's pumping out all these different sounds that we have, some things just come through better live than they do on our record. Just because there's more room there to fill, whereas when you're listening to it on your little home stereo, a lot of times things get a little lost in the mix.

AMZ - What is your favorite song of Getaway Cruiser's? Or what is your
favorite song to play live? Are they even the same song?

Drew - I love playing "No More Blue" 'cause I play my Tascam 488 on
that, which is an 8-track cassette recorder that I put these different
sounds on, and for some reason I really enjoy playing it just because I
guess it's so different than a guitar and it's such a weird, quote/unquote,
instrument to play.

AMZ - It does give it a unique sound.

Drew - Yeah. It's just droney, sort of "My Bloody Valentine"-y,
mellotron sounds. I like the fact that you can get some pretty unique sounds.

AMZ - What about music videos? Any plans?

Drew - Um, no. Right now MTV doesn't really play more than 3 videos a
day so it's not terribly economical to record a video, cross your fingers
and hope that MTV plays it. Usually they don't, to tell you the truth,
unless you're Madonna and they're guaranteed to play it. It's better to, or at least our logic is, ship the single to radio and see how things go there. If radio picks up on it, then make a video, then give it to MTV, because MTV will play things that are on the radio. So our single goes to radio, actually, in about 2 weeks, and we'll just have to see how things go. We could always make a low-fi video, but when we make a video we want to do it right. We have some ideas for it and I'd rather just wait and see how things go.

AMZ - Do you think it'll be more of a concept video or a live thing?

Drew: I'm not too into most rock videos. I'm more into R&B videos, to
tell you the truth. I'm more into videos that serve the song. Not videos
that sort of distract you. You know how you can be watching a video and you sort of tune out the song because there's so much...

AMZ - There's so much visual information to process.

Drew - Yeah. We definitely want a video that serves the song. We have
some ideas, but I'm not going to be acting out any dramatic scene where the love of my life is taken away from me, or something like that, and I have to rescue her.

AMZ - No big costume changes or anything?

Drew - No, I don't think so.

<At this point, Drew has to go run errands and I spoke with brother,
Chris>

AMZ - I'll ask you a few of the same questions I asked Drew. What's
your favorite song?

Chris - On the record? I'd say that my favorite song is probably
"Strung Over." It just clicks. I really like that tune. I really don't
know exactly why. Another one of my favorites, that we recorded in the
sessions but is not on the album - it's on an EP that's floating around - is
"If Your Girl Only Knew," which is actually a cover of an Aliyah song.

AMZ - Is that your favorite song to play?

Chris - I like playing them all. Playing live, then making music, writing
and recording it, are two totally separate things. I think that when you're
writing, you sort of do everything in the service of the song, to make the
song better. But when you're playing live, it's all about self-indulgence.
Just enjoying playing your stuff and rocking out and being adored, you know?

AMZ - Do you prefer one over the other?

Chris - No, like I said, they're both totally different. One is, I
think, more selfish than the other. Being on stage is a selfish thing.
You're up there, everyone's looking at you, and you're just doing your thing and rocking out, having a blast. That's really what it's all about. But
when you're writing, the way Drew and I write, it's always about "let's do
what's best for the song here." Whether that be not play at all, or pick up
a different instrument. It's always about making the song a better song. I
think a lot of musicians, unfortunately...well, actually, we're sort of
dealing with this right now on a couple of other projects we're working on. There's just a lot of musicians out there that, uh, my brother works with them all the time when heproduces other bands in the studio, who have more of an outlook like, the drummer feels obligated to play the drums all the time, have the drums really loud. The guitar player wants to hear his guitar. With a lot of these musicians, it's all about what "they" can do, what "they" bring to the song. It's not about making the song a better song, it's about what I can do up and down this song. We don't look at it as a forum to show off. It's more of a forum to get the song out.

AMZ - So, would you say that your main purpose is just to entertain
people, to make good music, or are you trying to "say" something with your music?

Chris - Since I'm not the lyricist, I'm not directly saying anything. I
think that rock and roll is all about having a good time. Put it this way,
give me Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and you can keep Joan Baez. I don't really need the politics from a screwed-up 19 year old's perspective. Which is, not to sound cynical, a suburban, upper-middle class, 19 year old perspective on politics and Nicaragua. I really don't need it. I much prefer to celebrate what we know, write about what we know, having fun, and maybe not having fun. I mean from Dina's perspective, obviously a lot of the songs are about not having fun. But let's write about what we know, let's talk about what we know, and when you get up on stage, let's have fun. That's what it's all about. We'll never capture it the same way that Little Richard did because I think a Little Richard show back in 1956 - 57, was probably the most amazing thing you could ever see.

AMZ - How did you get hooked up with Kool Keith?

Chris - We've always been, especially Dan, the drummer and I, have
always been big Kool Keith fans. You know, the Ultramagnetic MCs, and Dr. Octagon? Those were his earlier projects. Actually, I remember before we went out to make the record, I remember saying to Dan once when we were driving around signing our independent records, because Dan and I run an independent label called Skillet Records on which we released an EP, "Phones Calling." We used to drive around Detroit, put records in the stores, and I remember saying "It'd be so great to get Keith on one of our records. How amazing that'd be." But we never really pursued it hard. We were just working on the record one day in Philly, and the day before, I just heard that Keith was coming by because Keith knows Joe Nicolo, one of the producers of our record - Joe "the butcher," who's just a seminal hip-hop producer. Keith just came by the studio one day, dropped in, said hello. We played him the track and he liked it, and he did his thing. He put a lot of time into it. He sat down with Dina and they talked about the lyrics, and he wrote his lyrics around hers, and he did a great job.

AMZ - It came off really well. It's a great song.

Chris - He's just a really great, really eccentric guy. A very nice,
polite, decent guy, but very weird. Weird in a great way. I think he's a
genius.

AMZ - What kinds of things do you like to do when you're not doing
music?

Chris - I don't do anything else.

AMZ - Nothing else at all?

Chris - If I'm not making music, I'm reading about it, or listening to
it. Other than that, it's like, my family.

AMZ - Do you see yourselves still making music 20 years from now?

Chris - Sure. I mean hopefully with this band, but if not with this
band, then with something else.

AMZ - Well, thanks for your time.

Chris - Have a great one.