Interview: Olaf Alverson of Local Rock Band, The Cellar Dwellars (Part One)

The Cellar Dwellars – a local rock band based out of Blairstown, New Jersey – is gearing up for their Thanksgiving homecoming show at Roy’s Hall in their hometown on November 28th. The band is composed of Olaf Alverson on vocals and guitar, Adam Rose on guitar, Logan Bennett on bass, Nathan Evans on drums, and Jack DeMange on keys. I sat down with Alverson himself to discuss the band’s journey so far ahead of their highly-anticipated show.

Let’s start off with a brief history of the band. How’d you come to be?

So, we started in North Warren at our high school – it was one of these things where I was in a different social group. I played soccer and I was really into athletics. At the time, I was playing guitar – I had just played this gig with my father’s wedding band, and I was like, “Wow, this is really awesome. I love playing live music.” It was really fun, and I thought it’d be really cool to do this with people my age. So that’s where that started. I started asking around, “Hey, do you know anybody who plays music?” and they pushed me right down to the band wing, like, “go take a look over here.” So I walked into the band room during lunch one day, and I think Adam  and Nathan were in there hanging out and playing something. I said, “You guys are pretty good. We should start a band.” In an effort, that’s how it started, and we began to play during lunch and at all the holiday stuff. 

Then it kind of translated out into the local restaurants, and at that time, I sort of just assimilated whatever it was I was playing with my father’s group, because I already had the materials for it, so that was really easy. After I met Nathan and Adam, they were like, “Jack should come do this too; he’s pretty good.” Then later on I was looking for a bass player and someone – I forget who – was like, “Yeah, this kid Ryan Torsiello, he plays bass, but he’s really into reptiles.” And I was like, “Perfect.” And the other band members had already known Ryan, so that kind of took its course until everyone split up for college – so then things obviously got kind of different. That’s when Logan came in, and Ryan went off to college and stepped away. But we went through a whole process; there’s no bad blood, so that’s how we’ve gotten here today.

I know you’ve opened for major touring acts that some of the readers have heard of, like Saving Abel, Smash into Pieces, Patent Pending, et cetera. So what’s it like to open for these well-known bands?

It’s a really interesting thing to do, especially when you are completely and utterly irrelevant in terms of the local scene. The only reputation that we have when we do this is usually at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, and the only guys that know us there are the techs. So for us it’s kind of like hit or miss; we go down into the green room sometimes and hang out. But for the most part it’s one of these things where we take the time to prepare the best half an hour of music we can put forward. We go there, load in last, soundcheck last, all this stuff, and we kinda just perform to the best of our ability like it’s the last show we’re ever gonna play. It’s really done from there on a musical level. 

But on a materialistic level, it’s awesome. You go in there, they’ve got all the crazy lights, you get to play through the big and loud equipment, and make a lot of noise, and you can feel yourself when you’re playing. So, from a kind of “rockstar fanfiction” kind of a deal, it’s an absolute dream. But from a realistic musician’s perspective, it is only cool for about half an hour while you’re playing. I mean, it’s definitely just me because I have a really weird taste in music, but a lot of times I don’t really know the band that we’re opening for. So upon us going there is kind of my first contact with the band as well. But every single time we’ve been there, the bands have always been super nice. The dudes in Saving Abel, we talked to them, and they were the nicest guys. The guys from Patent Pending were totally crazy, really funny, and nice. It’s a cool experience to meet people who do that for a living.

Of course you have to ask every musician this question: What – or who – are your main influences and inspirations as a musician?

Oh boy. I feel like in general as a guitar player – especially recently – it has varied. My overarching influences, I’d say easily: Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, stuff like that. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come around to guys like Danny Gatton and Joe Pass. Recently I’ve been on this absolute YouTube hole with these dudes out in Nashville called Guthrie Trapp – who plays country music – and Tom Bukovac who’s the most called session musician in Nashville. He played on all the Morgan Wallen records. It’s really crazy how these dudes are so unbelievable at playing guitar but no one knows who they are. So these guys both put out videos, and I’m like, really into that.

The other guy that I always plug when someone asks me is that during COVID, I was enrolled into this online guitar course called Active Melody, which was run by this dude named Brian Sherrill. And Brian would basically break down fundamental concepts to understanding the fret board and how to string together ideas into really tasteful and intriguing compositions. So you’d learn a composition, but he’d highlight certain techniques. So that was what – at least in my playing – where I took a big leap. But to anybody who’s looking for straight up guitar influences… Hendrix, Page, Eddie Van Halen. I’m all over the place.

How about as a band? Who do you look up to as a collective?

I think that amongst our group we’ve gone through a lot of really weird phases of liking certain bands and not liking certain bands. I think now, heading into our gig at Roy’s Hall, we’ve found our voice as a group. A lot of it, for us, we love that shoegaze thing. That thing that Hum will do, I personally love that thing that Quicksand does. A lot of riff rock, basically, is our influence. When we write, at least, there are some songs – specifically “Will It Hold” and “Loss of Form” – where the whole song is based on a riff. So any band, really, that is in that ‘90s kind of a deal where it’s bringing out just the riff – where the riff is the heart and soul of the piece – that’s what we do. And I think the best comparison that I could make is Hum or Pearl Jam. 

There’s a few of them that are a little bit more industrial, so I throw credit to Nine Inch Nails. It’s all about that riff, really, when it comes to that. And we are very, very blessed to have Jack on the team, I’ll always point that out. It’s so cool to have him add not only his own parts, but also some cool textures as well. On “Loss of Form,” he does this cool string part in the back of the bridge that makes it sound enormous. We definitely push boundaries in terms of genre when we perform, but it’s a fun mix.

What made you decide to go from NWR’s house band, playing school events, into an actual band playing actual paid shows? Bands don’t have to do that. So, why’d you decide to?

Because it’s a really great time. What we all realized is that there were a few weird and intricate hiccups through the changes of lineup and how people would come and go when we’d go to college. At least for me, it’s like, you realize that it is a rare thing to have with a group of people having a good time. Like, I wait all week to play in a bar with a bunch of people who don’t know who we are. For me, that’s cream of the crop – just getting to rip for people that are just hanging out. Like, when everybody starts dancing, it’s such a good time. 

And then on top of that, you’re doing it with people you’re friends with, and that’s just the icing on the cake. At least for us, that’s probably what it is. The other guys have known each other way longer than I’ve known them, so in a way, I’m the “new addition” to the band. They’re all way tighter. We said recently that some of the best times we’ve had are playing music together. And I think that really makes it worthwhile for everybody.