One of the more enjoyable aspects of my former job as a local newspaper reporter was that it gave me the chance to sit down and talk to people that might not have otherwise ever entered my life. The guys that make up the local band The Harlequin’s Interlude — Carl Bishop (Lead Vocals), Cole Crossland (Guitar, Vocals), Steve-O Addison (Guitar), Sebastian Sparks (Bass Guitar), and Kyle Connell (Drums) — were five such individuals.

Regrettably, my interview with them that was to have lead to an article occurred less than a week before I resigned and the time never presented itself for me to write anything about the band or their music. Now that I find myself writing for Blogcritics, I thought this might be a rare wrong in my life I might be able to correct.

Hailing from the Grand Prairie region of Arkansas, the five guys that make up The Harlequin’s Interlude find themselves in a unique position. As talented as they are and as eager as they may be to play their music and share it with as many people as possible, there simply isn’t a real local music scene.

“Unless you’re a church band or a bunch of “good ol’ boys” playing country music, there really isn’t any place to play other than the occasional bar,” explains Bishop.

Earlier in mid-2006, the band did get to play at Vino’s, a well-known bar in Little Rock that features rock bands. After hammering out some original songs and practicing for months in their own neck of the woods, the band was definitely excited about the gig.

“It was great. Vino’s was my goal in life,” laughed Connell. “That’s all I wanted to get out of this. At the beginning, I didn’t think we’d make it.” When the band finally did take the stage, though, they were all grateful for the fact that many of their friends and local fans made it there to cheer them on.

“That definitely helped,” said Bishop. “It was nerve wracking, so it helped that we had a lot of people there for us.”

Part of the “fun,” explained the rest of the guys, was how jinxed everything seemed.

“Vino’s is a hot spot in Little Rock for local music, but their equipment has been through so much,” begins Bishop. “Our monitors went out constantly and we had strings break on us. Then, they’d tell us to turn everything all the way up, which meant that we couldn’t hear anything at all,” explained the rest of the band in a laughing chorus.