Tier up

>> The Essex Green divide, with plans to conquer

There’s enough blame to be shared by Baron’s songwriting partners, singers Chris Ziter and Sasha Bell, particularly Ziter, who recently relocated to Cincinnati.
 

“Biggest mistake he ever made! He moved there for romantic reasons—he met a guy named Paul,” says Baron as laughter erupts in the EG tour van. “No, I’m just kidding. He’s seeing a wonderful woman named Meredith, she’s got two kids who are great, so he’s got his hands full. It makes it a little harder [for the band] now that he’s all the way out there, and we like to tease him, but I’m really happy for him.”
 

Baron, Ziter, Bell and their old bassist Mike Barrett founded the Essex Green in 1997, when they all moved from Burlington , VT , to New York City . They had already been playing together as Guppyboy, but the name change didn’t go down for the reason you might suspect (because “Guppyboy” sucked), but because one of their bandmates, Zach Ward, refused to come along for the ride. The other band members have since recorded with Ward’s Sixth Great Lake project, but otherwise Ward is living a relatively quiet life in Maine . To this day, Baron has mixed feelings about having left Vermont.
 

“I didn’t want to move either,” he says. “But actually, I have to say I absolutely don’t regret it because I have met the most amazing people. There were times when I wanted to be anywhere but New York , but the experiences I’ve had there, I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s like a primer–I feel like I could live anywhere now because New York challenges you so much. Actually, I’m afraid I’d be bored out of my mind anywhere else.”
 

The Essex Green still have day jobs to keep them occupied between tours, despite achieving some success in places like Sweden , where they’ve had a hit on the radio. They’d like to graduate to the next tier in North America too, but Baron doesn’t believe that radio play is the key.
 

“There’s lots of bands that are on independent labels, like Will Oldham or the Shins or Yo la Tengo, or even Belle and Sebastian—they’re played on college radio and NPR, but none of those bands are on mainstream radio or TV. The average American doesn’t know who the hell Yo la Tengo is, but those bands are living off their music, and we’d like to do that. Obviously, MySpace helps, but the biggest thing is touring, and since we don’t do that very often, we’re trying to find other ways. Maybe, if we keep putting out records that we’re proud of, we can have a sustainable career.”

With Camera Obscura at

la Sala Rossa on Monday,

Jan. 29, 9 p.m., $15