Eight questions for 17 Hippies: Eclectic German band to perform at MSSU w/video

By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

There’s an audible sigh from the other end of the phone when the inevitable question comes up, but it’s a good-natured sigh.

Go ahead, Christopher Blenkinsop’s sigh signifies. Ask it and let’s move on.

But when a band is called 17 Hippies and there are not 17 members (there are 13, and who quite frankly do not look like hippies) it’s a natural question.

“We were thinking of putting a FAQ on our Web site explaining the name of the band,” said Blenkinsop during a phone interview from the band’s base in Berlin, Germany. “But everybody seems to like asking about it, so we just thought we’d go ahead and keep answering it.”

The eclectic German pop band — which weaves together a variety of musical styles from around the world and performs in English, German and French — will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Taylor Performing Arts Center at Missouri Southern State University. The performance, offered as part of the Germany Semester, is free and open to the public.

Blenkinsop — one of the founding members of the group and who sings and plays the ukulele and bouzouki — answered that question and seven others in advance of the band’s Joplin performance.

Q. How did the band come up with the name 17 Hippies?

A. “In the beginning, we were more or less a loose connection of musicians in the Berlin scene. There were classical, folk, jazz and rock people. We started to meet once a week and swap melodies. The wall had just come down, and music was changing very fast. There were new sounds that were blending in with ours.

“There were three of us (when the band started). Every week, we would play and have the same core of musicians, but with a different variety of others.

“‘Hippy’ is a general word. It’s used here to describe a guy who is trying to do something but only half right, but it’s used in a nice way. Depending on (when the band played), there would be 19, 24 or 25 hippies. Seventeen sounded good.”

Q: You and the other band members play a variety of instruments (from Persian hammered dulcimer to accordion and clarinet). How has the combination of instruments helped develop the band’s sound?

A: “I think that the main thing that gave us our sound was that we never had anything like an audition to get this sound or that sound. I never listened to a hundred violin players and picked the one that I wanted. It just happened to be these people, and it’s important to have them play what their style is. It’s about the individual.”