Sinking Ship

Despite donning wacky maritime fashions and playing what the band describes as “sloppy” rock and roll, area band Sinking Ship takes its mission more seriously than it might appear; it wants to entertain the audience.

The four local musicians who comprise this sonic crew, Captain Kram Henasey, Noj Thompson, Mit Conley, and Nosaj Fraticelli (hint: read those first names backwards), state they “borrow subtleties and blatanties from the classiest of classic classy bands of yesterday, while striving to push forward in creating the crap of tomorrow.”

Hopefully the band isn’t referring to its most recent release “The Bottom” as the aforementioned crap. The eight song CD, which was recorded at The Bilge in Lambertville, NJ, offers rock romps, most of which will be played at the band’s gigs scheduled for Thanksgiving week.

When contacted for this interview, Mit let us know that Noj and Captain Kram were on a mission in Costa Rica and though unavailable for comment on this story, both would make the local shows this week.



Have you heard from Noj and Captain Kram? I know Costa Rica is beautiful at this time of the year.

It is beautiful... Because it’s free. And that’s what the good Captain and Noj are doing down there: Keeping the beautiful places free. So no I haven't heard from them. We've been maintaining radio silence in order to not damage the mission.

What’s the back story of Sinking Ship? How did you guys get together?

We all come from parts unknown including Southampton, PA, Yardley and Levittown, PA and Titusville, NJ. But the good Lord (and probably the bad Lord too) brought us together one fateful weekend during a bad snow storm at “the Bilge” in Lambertville, NJ. A few bad decisions later and here we are.


Your press photo features you guys on the beach, is it a tribute to “Lost,” “Gilligan’s Island” or “The Poseidon Adventure?”

It is not a tribute to some cheese dick TV show. How dare you try to re-conceptualize our already highly conceptual concept! What was captured in that picture was an honest moment between four men. Four men who just plummeted a finely crafted Ship straight to the Bottom. A Ship that we love! You see the “Ship” is a metaphor for our music- our vibe if you will- and the “Bottom” is were we like to take each member of the audience and each show. We drive that “Ship” straight down not for love or glory my friend, but for freedom (and we’re trying to get laid)

You’ve got shows coming up in Philly and the ‘burbs this week, do suburban audiences react differently to your music than city crowds?

Certain audiences do react differently to our shows, but I don’t think it is a matter of geography (i.e. Suburban or Urban). We try to make each show sloppy in its own unique way. I think most crowds love our level of suck and that’s what we are going for so it is a real communal exchange of energy. The sucky energy from the band being fed from the crappy energy of the audience multiplying the drunken slop the band is serving up then being half digested and regurgitated back at the band from the spurting spectators all coming to a giant orgasmic explosion of craptactularity!

Have you ever played a room/club, or for a crowd that really sucked?

No. It’s really quite amazing. We have never ever played a room with a small crowd, a crowd that sucked or was inattentive, or didn’t like us. Our a gig were we were treated like shit, didn‘t get paid, got our time slot chopped in half, our nobody bought a CD. We've never had stuff thrown at us. Never drove two or three hours to play for the bartenders in an empty room. I really don’t see what all the big fuss about the “music industry” is. This has got to be the easiest business out there!

Do you play only Sinking Ship originals, or do you mix in cover songs as well?
Ya, we dabble. We dabble.

Whose idea were your costumes?

Well that’s one of the many bad decisions we’ve made I talked about earlier. But we think in order for the concept to work we have to make fun of ourselves as much as possible. So the Crew decided to costume up every show.

During your live show, do your costumes ever get in the way of your musicianship?

Nothing gets in the way of our musicianship, nothing! Except maybe alcohol, our lack of musicianship and our costumes.

In a gang fight of costumed bands, who wins Sinking Ship, KISS, the Village People or Slipknot?

First of all music is not a competition. Musicians and bands should be helping each other, not looking at each other as the enemy. The fact that Bands enter stupid contests like “battle of the bands” is quite honestly upsetting. (although if a “battle” offered us a slot we would probably take it, but that’s not the point)
The point is Music is not a sport and we are a band for the people. We have no time trying to prove who’s manlier, Sinking Ship or the Village People? We are lovers of all types of music, all types of bands and all types of ladies. Amen

But to answer your question I think GWAR would probably win that battle.


Where can fans get your new CD? Were you able to make your live material translate in the studio?

Well I think that’s something each listener is going to have to decide for herself. Which she can do at www.sinkingship.net or she can buy the cd directly at www.cdbaby.com/sinkingship.
But just on a personal note, I don’t think that modern homo sapiens have been successful inventing a means of capturing what we do live yet. But we do have a great crew of honest working kids working on it in the “research cabin” of the Ship.



A few of these shows are right after Thanksgiving, what are your holiday plans? Are you worried about the effects of tryptophan (from Thanksgiving turkey) on clubgoers?

Worried? We can’t wait! In fact we’ve been injecting pure tryptophan into our ear lobes all week! Right on!


- Philly Edge 11/23/05