G.O.T.R

Cult Time did an awesome interview with James (most of it is below). GOTR is the band in which James' frontlines. He plays and sings. There's some info about the band on here along with some lyrics on the lyrics page:

How the band got together...
Aaron Anderson and Charlie DeMars were in a band together called Soccer Hooligans. After releasing their Self-titled debut album, Soccer Hooligans broke up, months before the "never-released " EP Thesis was due to be released. Aaron and Charlie then formed the band Power Animal with other local musicians one being Kevin McPherson a Local Jazz Bass Player who was hip to the fresh rock beats that Aaron and Charlie liked to Jam Down.
After a few shows the the Band broke down to a trio; Aaron, Kevin and Charlie. After a few more shows Charlie Quit His Job at a Corporate Clothier and moved to Los Angeles. Charlie Moved in with his Step-brother Steven Sellers who was writing Film Scores. Charlie was then introduced to James Marsters. Charlie had no idea who James was, but they all hung out together. Charlie and James were playing guitar and writing songs when they got the brilliant idea to form a band. James and Charlie played a couple shows together before they invited Steve and the remaining members of Power Animal to join the group. So that's it. I hope you are all cool with that. It was a real emotional challenge.

Band Members:

Vocals/Guitar: James Marsters

Lead Guitar: Charlie DeMars

Bass: Kevin McPherson

Drums: Aaron Anderson

Keyboard/Guitar: Steve Sellers

Quotes:

It's just me and a guitar, so I'm not going to be doing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins. I do Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. That's all the good stuff, man. That's when they had good songs written for just voice and guitar. I wish I could do Johnny Lee Hooker, but I'm not that good." - on his acoustic performance at 14 Below, Santa Monica on 29th August 2000.

"I like Belle and Sebastian, Beck, Catherine Wheel, the Charlatans, The Cure, Digable Planets, Miles Davis, Al Green, Benny Goodman, Arlo Guthrie...I'm rifling through my CD collection right now." - James

"I'm really into my guitar", he says, his face lighting up. "It's going well. I'll write whatever I'm thinking. 'You screwed me, I know you're going to hurt me. Go to hell.' or 'You're beautiful, I'm thinking about you all the time'." He also finds that music is an outlet for any frustrations he is feeling."
James has also had the opportunity to jam onstage with Four Star Mary, the band who appear on Buffy as Oz's group Dingoes Ate My Baby.
"That was fun", he laughs. "They're very good. They just turn my guitar up and give me lots of distortion! They're good guys, and I'm learning from them. Playing with a band is an entirely different thing from playing by yourself. With a band, the whole point is to keep exact rhythm, so you come in and out. You have to hit everything cleanly, or else you muddy the whole thing up and it disappears. When you're playing by yourself, you can just go with your own flow, and switch it up as much as you like." James
 

"Four Star were at the Garage in Brixton [actually The Garage is in Islington - MM], and they were having such a tight set that I really didn't want to go up. I really try not to screw up their sets. But everyone was expecting me. It worked out pretty good though, I have to say. We did especially well on The Cars 'You're Just What I Needed', the old cover. We were going to do Cheap Trick's 'Surrender', but Cheap Trick had played there the night before and had performed 'Surrender', so we thought we'd be tempting fate!" James

"They advertise it and let Buffy fans know it's happening... otherwise no-one would show up! I play at the 14-Below club and the Opium Den about once a month. It's fun and I'm getting better at it. I'm writing more songs and getting introduced to more musicians. People from Four Star Mary want to record with me. It's taking off slowly which is good." JM

"All music. I like Miles Davis, Bush, Palace, sometimes known as The Palace Brothers, Al Green, Bob Dylan, Digable Planets, Benny Goodman, Billie Holliday, Johnny Lee Hooker, The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Morcheeba, Roy Orbison, Nirvana, Charlie Parker, REM, Lou Reed and classical, Beethoven." - James

JM: "Roger Daltrey gave me this guitar, man!" It turns out that the Buffster and ageing rocker were chatting, and Daltrey gave him a new guitar because his one was rubbish'
 

Cult Times: We hear James Marsters plays too...

Steve Carter: "James Marsters also actually plays guitar and writes songs and has done some shows. We were playing a show for this fan party and James came up on stage with us. He learnt a couple of songs, and once we'd done them everyone's, like, screaming for another song. James says, 'OK, have fun' I went, 'No, you have to come with us. It's OK, the song's in C, just play C.' So he only knows one chord from the whole song. I turned around and looked at him in the middle of the song, and he looks like more of a rock star than anyone you've ever seen. It's the antithesis of Seth; James doesn't know what he's doing but he's just a rock god, whereas Seth can play guitar pretty good but he just looks so uncomfortable!
He's gonna be in England the same time as we are. He's gonna be playing in Glasgow which should be insane. The kids up in Glasgow are out of their tree."
Interview of Steve Carter, the guitarist for Star Mary which is the LA band behind Oz's band in Buffy
 

- A few of the musicians whose work James has covered in his 14 Below shows are Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Neil Young, and Nirvana. His own musical tastes are varied, but he's a big fan of Miles Davis.

"Oh man, yeah. To sing Sid Vicious, man. That's the best. David Semel who directed it, he's one of the producers over on Dawson's Creek, and who is absolutely wonderful by the way. He took it in one take. When I read the script, that was my favorite part because I love Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols. And they're going to let me sing My Way. I used to sing it on the set all the time. I don't know if they heard me. The whole Sid thing was a bit of a touchstone that the character started with. Joss wanted the Sid and Nancy of the vampire set. I'm not sure if he got that [laughter]. People keep saying that he got Billy Idol, but you do your best. But I'd often be hanging around the sound stage singing My Way, so when I got that in the script, I was really happy. Then we got to film it. It was like "Take one. Ok, let's move on." I'm like, "Nooo! I want to sing this all day." James

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