Skalars in Limbo
"The future is like the fortune cookie I received," Jessica Bultler says. "Nothing is certain but the unforeseen,";
Two years ago, the Skalars were rising stars of the ska explosion.  They blended Soul and Motown with old Jamaican sounds on two well received CD's, Skoolin with the Skalars and Change Up. They logged a lot of miles and played a lot of show and made a lot of friends.  They also ran into more than their share of problems along the way. They began as Isaac Green and the Skalars; probably the only band named for their non-singing, non-musician manager.  Isaac used to tour with the group, dance on stage and MC the shows. He eventually realized his strong suit was business and left the touring band to devote full time to management. Green wasn't the first member to go, and may not be the last.  Right now, the bottom has fallen out of the ska's boom market and the Skalars are sidelined while two of their members are being, well... scholars.
I spoke to lead singer and alto sax player Jessica Butler via phone from her home in St. Louis, Missouri. Between her gig as a record store clerk and playing in another band, Jessica took time out to mull over some ancient history and contemplate the future skalarship.
";Ethan was going to play with Skavoovie and the Epitones while their guitar player went back to grad school," Jessica beings when running down the whereabouts of her band mates. "We weren't going to play for at least a year anyway because Dave and Evan had to go back to school or they would lose their financial aid."
"There were three people who were completely different on the first record,";  Jessica muses on the band's recorded past. ";The keyboad player Jason, Amy the tenor player and Michelle the bari player.  The whole change was gradual. The person I see the most is Michelle. She comes from a very pragmatic family and they wanted her to finish school. She does come and play with us every now and then. That's really cool. People love to see Michelle.";
";Jason was always quitting or on the verge of being fired," Jessica continues. "We're still friendly with him, but this was his hobby. He was a crucial member of the band.  We borrowed $10,000 to buy our van and trailer. We paid him back within four months and he was fine with that. He wanted to see us do well."
"Amy left immediately after the first album was recorded," Butler continues. "In hindsight, everyone realizes that she probably shouldn't have been on the album so much vocally. Amy put a lot of heart and soul in the band. When I was living in France and the band started going somewhere, she was there.  Then I came back and backed her up on sax and vocals.  I think she realized that singing backup was fine, but that I was starting to take over. She's an engineer and wanted to work for Monsanto. She didn't like being on the road, but she wanted to be on the album. There was a big bone of contention about that, and there still is. I'm going to be here and I'm dedicating my life to this band. I think it was very unwise, but that's who band was at that time."
"Having three girls playing sax was the most amazing powerhouse you can imagine," Butler reminisces about the original line up. "I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to connect on a female, woman-power energy level like that again. Sometimes it's unfortunate that I didn't take advantage of it as much as I could have.  We were all young women and we were all feeding off of each other energy wise.  It was impressive to me, like seeing Dance Hall Crashers. It's not like; finally women! It's like; finally you're where you should be."
After Skoolin' With the Skalars was released, the band embarked on a marathon of touring. They played on several ska package tours, including "The Bottom of the Bucket Tour"; with fellow Moon Ska red headed step-children the Articles and Magadog. All that touring produced it's share of hardship. One particular incident became immortalized in the song "Box of Death.";
"That was hell,"; Jessica laughs recalling the incident.  ";Years ago, Spring Heel Jack had van problems and had to rent a truck to tour in. They started joking, calling it the "Box of Death". When we were on tour, driving from Idaho to Seattle, Isaac finagled his way into driving. We're up in the mountains, Isaac hits a patch of black ice and totals the van. We're stuck on top of this mountain for hours. The cops wouldn't bring us down because it was too snowy and there were at least a hundred accidents they were trying to deal with. We finally got 17 people into an ambulance and road down the mountain.";
Once off the mountain, then the fun began. None of the Skalars were over the age of 25 and no car rental company would rent to them. ";We were calling everyone," Jessica says picking up the story. "When we called Spring Heel Jack, Rick said; Get the Box of Death!"
While car rental agencies won't rent to people under 25, truck rental companies will. Of course, moving trucks were never designed with passengers in mind. "We put two couches in the back and put everyone there, for the two people up front"; Jessica continues. "It's totally illegal to put people in a moving truck. Every time we went to a gas station, we had to have a lookout. We made pictures of what we thought the scenery was and pasted them on the walls. We drove through the mountains in this thing; Highway 1 going through California. You got sick in the back because the turns were so wind-y."
In January of 1998, the Skalars launched another tour as a run up to recording their second album.  They were headlining shows now and momentum was on their side. Just as things were coming together, health problems sidelined the band.
"I got two nodules on my vocal chords from being on the road and not singing correctly," Butler confesses. "The only way to get rid of them is through surgery or being silent. My doctor told me not to talk for six months.  That obviously didn't work. My voice still hasn't completely healed over a year later."
"We did our second album knowing that we wouldn't be able to tour on it,"; Jessica says bringing things up to date. "We wanted to put it out because we knew it would be better than the first and people were asking when we were going to do it. We got Eric from Greenhouse and Tyler from Spring Heel Jack to play on it. We've mature a lot and I think our second album is 137% better."
"I think the album is selling really well for a band that is not on tour. That goes to show that we're not bubblegum.  Moon isn't helping us out with advertising, probably because we're not on tour and they don't know if we're going to be together.  I wish they'd show a little more faith in our fans and our music."
"It's really sad that we're not playing right now.  Even if we don't stay together, we know we were a great band.  We want to do a third album. We've all agreed to that. I think after Ethan and Dave graduate, we're going to try. That's so far in the future that it's hard to project."
"I do really, really miss being on the road.," Jessica admits. " What I really miss are the people I used to get to see every few months.  When I look back on my life and how rich my experience was and how luck I was to meet every god damed person I met.  I know that's what Ethan really loved and what Isaac loved.  Knowing that what we're doing is something that people are enjoying.  Obviously, we're never going to be big rock stars, but people liked us for being big college dorks that we were."
UPDATE 2001:  In Amsterdam, I ran into a concert promoter from St. Louis. I asked about the Skalars and Jessica Butler and learned that the band is long gone. I also learned that Jessica is living in Paris studying jazz composition. We may still see more of this talented woman!