How did Bailiff form?
I met our drummer, Ren Matthew, at a Green Mill jam session. We started talking about music and it turned out we were both looking to form a band that had those blues elements but was not a traditional blues band. We played as a trio for a year and parted ways with our former bassist in early 2008. It took us about 10 months to find the right bassist. We put up ads everywhere, handed out our CDs at live shows four nights a week and told everyone we knew. At one point I started wearing a t-shirt that read “Bailiff seeking bass player” and eventually we started offering a $200 reward to anyone who found us the right person. The word finally got down to Adam Schneider in Charleston, Illinois, about four hours south of Chicago. The music and personalities clicked as soon as we met up to try it out. Was there any particular inspiration behind the name “Bailiff”? We really liked names where you weren’t sure if it was a guy or a band, like Leadbelly or Pink Floyd. I came across the word “bail
