It seems that recently I’ve been enamored by groups that work on the outer fringes of genres, The Kitchen Dwellers springs to mind, so it’s not surprising that a new-to-me act called Damn Tall Buildings caught my attention and led me to requesting an interview.

This trio is made up of Sasha Dubyk (upright bass and vocals),  Max Capistran (guitar, banjo and vocals) and Avery Ballotta (violin and vocals), and even though they deal with the four obligatory bluegrass instruments, they are not confined by them. And even though they come from diverse hometowns — Dubyk from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Capistran from Bedford, New Hampshire; and Ballotta from Bozeman, Montana — they have joined together in Brooklyn as a cohesive, tight unit that makes music that will move you in more ways than one.

I reached out to the band and Avery Ballotta happily agreed to chat with me about his band’s upcoming show at One Longfellow Square on Saturday, May 11. Our conversation follows!

Q: How’s it going, man?
Ballotta: Oh, good. I’m just settling into a week with my wife here in Michigan, which is nice, after a really awesome Southwest run. We were playing in New Mexico and down in Durango this last weekend — it was really awesome, really amazing.

Q: Cool. I’ve been listening to some music on your website and I would imagine it is representational of what you do in a show.
Ballotta: Yeah, musically, but definitely in some of the videos you get a taste of the show. The live show experience is definitely pretty unique to itself in the sense that the music is still the same but the energy is really palpable, and we just have a really great time playing together.

We’ve been doing it for so long that we know the ins and outs (chuckle) of how to make it feel good for everybody. So I think that is it pretty representational of the show, but only musically, the energy in the room is pretty undeniable.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
Ballotta: We’re in our 12th year, we’ve been at it for 11 and a half years as a band. We all met in Boston playing out on Newbury Street almost every day for a long time, and then we sort of transitioned into venue shows, bar gigs and all that stuff. Now, over a decade later, it’s turned into a lot of theater shows and a lot of listening rooms and festivals and stuff — it’s been a real joy to craft this show.

Q: Well, it definitely sounds like you’re having fun.
Ballotta: Oh, yeah, for sure!

Q: Now, is the latest album you have out Sleeping Dogs?
Ballotta: Yeah, that’s the latest record. We’re working on a new record as we speak and we have two (songs) sort of in the can, they’re in the process, and then we probably have another 10 that we’ve got some basic tracking for and stuff like that. So, yes Sleeping Dogs is our latest record and it’s been really fun to tour with and mix in those songs with some of our older songs — that’s the joy of sticking with something for so long because all of your opportunities just keep expanding.

Q: And the chemistry between the three of you must be that much tighter, too, as time goes by.
Ballotta: Oh, all the time, yeah, we are all best friends, and Max and Sasha are married, but that happened well into our career (laughter). That gives a good example of our tightness which just continues with every show.

Q: Speaking of shows, have you done much touring up in Maine?
Ballotta: Yeah, we’ve played Ossipee a few times and we’ve played One Longfellow Square once before, always loved that venue, and we’re excited to come back there; and especially playing with Cold Chocolate, they’re good buddies of ours, so that’s going to be a really fun night. We grew up, starting in our early 20s, playing music together all over the Northeast. We spent sixish years in Boston and then we’ve been in New York for just about seven … oh, and Max is from New Hampshire originally so that’s his neck of the woods.

Q: Earlier you mentioned performing on the street so I would imagine that that busking you were doing can be a real baptism of fire.
Ballotta: Oh, absolutely! I like to talk about it because we really learned a lot of performance lessons through busking and connectivity, too. It’s a beautifully honest way to perform and enjoy music — we tend to stop for folks who catch our attention, that’s true for everybody. Our training in busking brings a lot of focus back to the actual art and the experience itself which I’ve always found very helpful in our approach.

Q: And I would imagine that the spontaneity, too, that can come from busking is part of the growth of your craft, correct?
Ballotta: You bet! It’s amazing, it inspires you because you’re more connected with everyone in the surrounding area … if we’re all sharing space intentionally we’re all there, and that in itself definitely inspires some spontaneity (laughter) and it’s also entertaining, at the very least.

Q: Well, what can folks expect from your show there at One Longfellow?
Ballotta: Like a lot of what I’ve been saying about the energy of the room and the feeling that we’re all there together. A lot of shows can sometimes feel like there’s a wall between the stage and the seats, our show very quickly invites everyone in the room to be there fully — be fully present together — and it astounds me every time how quickly that feeling permeates the show. And from there, it’s just a lot of fun. We’re just playing the music together, really just having a great time bringing a lot of the older bluegrass tunes and a lot of our material, as well— both from our earlier releases and we’ve got probably a good few to a handful from the upcoming record that we’re working on. There will also be some good stories and just a good time in general.

Q: Is there anything that you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Ballotta: Um, nothing’s really coming to mind. We’re just excited and thrilled to be coming back to Maine and coming back to One Longfellow Square. We’re especially excited for the show and we can’t wait to share the evening with everybody.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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