Get to know the bluegrass trio, Damn Tall Buildings!
Get to know the bluegrass trio, Damn Tall Buildings!
Damn Tall Buildings is an inspiring bluegrass group that embodies attitude, grit, and a busking spirit. Their unmatched performance with great enthusiasm every time they take the stage is a testament to their passion for music. The trio, made up of Avery Ballotta (violins and vocals), Max Capistran (guitar, banjo, vocals), and Sasha Dubyk (upright bass and vocals), each possess a unique talent that brings their music to life. Read more about the bluegrass group as Avery dives deeper into who the band is and how they got started.
1. Where did the band name come from?
Its primary inspiration comes from a song by the great John Hartford, In Tall Buildings. In the two verses of the song, John plays out a story of a man who cuts off his hair, puts on a suit, goes to work in tall buildings in verse one, and by verse two he is retiring from the tall buildings, looking back where he wonders what happened “betwixt and between going to work in tall buildings”.
We added the “Damn” as our defiant response to the idea of missing out on what happens “betwixt and between”.
2. How did the group come together? Whose idea was it to start it?
We started out as many bands do—by busking! We all met while we are going to college in Boston, MA, and would meet up after classes and play on a corner on Newbury Street. We have really always played together for the love of it. After enough months of busking, we were inspired to come up with a name for our group thanks to a local filmmaker who wanted to make a video of us playing at night with the street lit up. It’s been off to the races ever since.
3. Who are your biggest Bluegrass inspirations?
We could name many folks from the old days up to now (including many of our peers!), but to list a few—John Hartford (of course), The Stanley Brothers, Del & Dawg, the list goes on…
4. What does your normal day-to-day routine look like when you’re not performing? Are you recording music? Working on any other projects?
We are recording music! We’re working on our next album so we’re spending a healthy chunk of our time off-stage recording and producing these new songs here in Brooklyn.
Day-to-day varies, of course, but the majority of the time Max and Sasha are not on
the road, they are teaching a good many folks music at their music school in Brooklyn (Crown Heights Music School). I (Avery) spend my off days writing, playing, and recording music and have had the honor of being in the producer seat on a growing number of in-studio projects. (list of published work on my personal website)
5. What do you consider your best performance? Why?
That’s a tough one! We have been so fortunate to get to play for a great number of awesome audiences of all sizes all over the country, and now, beyond the U.S. it’s hard to narrow it down.
Our favorite shows tend to be the ones where audiences and we all feel present in the “room” together. The best part of playing all these shows is getting to share in moments of deep connection with folks from all over and learn together how to show love to our fellow earthlings.
6. What was your worst performance and how did you overcome it?
Musicians are funny in that any given night it might not matter how objectively good, bad, or great a show is, we can find a reason to find problems with our performance—soaked in varying degrees of vitriol.
Over our 11ish year career so far, we’ve found that listening back to live performances can shed a healthy dash of objectivity that’s necessary for letting go of needless self-berating habits. We’ve learned that at the end of the day when we focus on the joy we feel when we play and lean into what feels good, a lot of 
shining moments come through in performance that end up better than if we “try hard” to achieve the same thing.
Of course, it’s relevant to note, that the more time spent doing anything the more perspective you get on the sliding scale of “good” or “bad”. But as far as overcoming the effects of a bad show, we’ve found we can all be a little kinder to ourselves, and when we take the pressure for “perfection” off, the full scope of the goodness of things replaces the heavy feelings.
7. Where do you see the band in the next 5-10 years?
Another good question! We’ll be touring as long as we’re able, and have been doing a lot of co-writing with each other so we imagine we’ll continue making records. Who knows what the future holds, but we’ll be making art at a hearty clip more likely than not!