Soundcheck Magazine Issue 37

SOUNDCHECK

Hi-Res Concert Photos:

FUN FUN FUN FEST

MAGAZINE

robert

ellis

Maverick Gentleman of Americana Music

Deafheaven * MĂ˜ * Spanish Gold * The Rural Alberta Advantage * The Preatures Night Terrors of 1927 * Wildcat! Wildcat! * JOHNNYSWIM * Wild Moccasins

Issue 37 April 2015

Cover Feature 16 Robert Ellis

Contents

issue 37

Interviews 06 Mø 10 The Rural Alberta Advantage 66 The Preatures 72 Deafheaven 76 Wild Moccasins 78 Wildcat! Wildcat!

178 Night Terrors of 1927 180 Spanish Gold 184 JOHNNYSWIM 186 Blank Range 190 The Wans 192 Knox Hamilton

F-Stop Concert Photography 26 Austin Concerts

Ringo Starr, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Charli XCX, Arctic Monkeys, Gogol Bordello, July Talk, The 1975, Young Rising Sons, Weezer, St. Vincent, The Black Keys, Willie Nelson, Billy Gibbons, Ben Howard

82 FunFunFun Fest

Judas Priest, Death From Above 1979, Alt-J, Atmosphere, Dinosaur Jr, John Waters, The Blood Brothers, Run the Jewels, SOHN, City and Colour, Jello Biafra, SZA, Amon Amarth, Pallbearer, Mineral, Peelander Z, Modest Mouse, Fred Armisen, First Aid Kit, NAS, The New Pornographers, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Gary Numan, Courtney Barnett, METZ, King Tuff, Glassjaw, Zorch, Fat White Family, Twin Peaks, Communion, Wiz Khalifa, Rocket From the Crypt, Chelsea Wolfe, Dum Dum Girls, Foxygen, Pissed Jeans, Angel Olsen, The Internet, Gardens & Villa, Iron Reagan, The Bots

St. Vincent Frank Erwin Center December 19, 2014 photo by Randy Cremean

www.soundcheckmagazine.com Co-Publishers: Michael & Tricia Marshall Editor-In-Chief: Randy Cremean Director of Photography and Design: Randy Cremean Cover: Robert Ellis at ACL Fest 2014 by Randy Cremean

Associate Editor: Amy Price Contributing Writers: Amy Price Contributing Photographers: Amy Price “Connecting the artist and the audience.”

Soundcheck is dedicated to offering artists a vehicle to promote their music to audiences, as well as providing a thorough and objective source of information for music fans. In an effort to keep the content fresh and original, Soundcheck actively seeks creative contribution from new writers, photographers and graphic artists.

PO Box 164194, Austin, TX 78716 The views expressed in Soundcheck Magazine do not necessarily reflect those of its parent company, Soundcheck Publishing, LLC or its ownership and staff. © ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2014

BY Soundcheck Publishing, LLC. Soundcheck Magazine ® is a registered trademark of Soundcheck Publishing, LLC.

At Soundcheck, we connect the artist to the audience. Over the last eight years, we’ve had the honor of interviewing and photographing many of our favorite bands. Check out our interview archive to get inside the heads of bands like The Flaming Lips, Givers, Fang Island, Free Energy, The Besnard Lakes, Beach House, Freelance Whales, King Khan, Beirut, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, Justice, Octopus Project, Why?, Dan Deacon, Fanfarlo, Man Man, Sondre Lerche, Justice, Ra Ra Riot, DeVotchKa, Los Campesinos!, Fujiya & Miyagi, Yeasayer, The Cribs, The Faint, No Age, The Ruby Suns, Flogging Molly, Islands, Cloud Cult, Frightened Rabbit, The Raveonettes, Clinic, British Sea Power, Cut Copy, The Sword, Liars, Les Savy Fav, Architecture In Helsinki, Portugal. The Man, Dirty Projectors, Au Revoir Simone, TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes, Glasvegas, Girl Talk, The Walkmen and many more!

Also from soundcheck magazine

Austin City Limits: Season 38 Commemorative Photo Book In addition to incredible photos from every taping for Season 38, we've included the programs, posters and set lists for each artist.

Available AT shop.acltv.com/store

M Ă˜ Authentically

Strong

interview and photos: Amy Price

D

anish singer-songwriter Karen Marie Ørsted, better known by her stage name Mø, is a kinetic and multi-talented force of nature. Her debut studio album, No Mythologies to Follow, was released in 2014 and since then she’s been playing to larger and larger audiences attracted to her strong, honest and likeable onstage persona and eclectic electropop music. Wearing her stage outfit of basic workout clothes, little to no makeup and hair pulled into a ponytail, Mø met with us at Soundcheck to talk about influences and how she’s fast becoming a role model for young women and girls.

One of the things that really struck me is that you come across as a very strong individual onstage. I see a dearth of strong female musicians in our business today. How do you see yourself helping to change this?

If I think too much about wanting to communicate about, oh, these and these things, I get confused. So I’m really just trying to be myself. Of course I think about what I stand for and what I want to preach. But it’s really more about just about embracing the flaws, because everybody nowadays is so obsessed with being perfect, and wanting to project themselves in the most perfect and flawless young-forever way. In the media it’s all about glorifying these perfect icons. So I think it’s so important to learn to live with the flaws and to embrace the imperfection.

And to be like ‘fuck if I don’t sing right’ and ‘fuck if I don’t look right’, not trying to be someone that you’re not. I think basically because all my life, and especially in my teen years, I was always searching for who do I want to be, and trying to be someone else.

But every time I would fail because I’m so bad at faking at being another person. A lot of people do that because they feel safe if they put on a shell. But I feel like the best thing I’ve ever done is to actually fucking tear down that shell and just be myself.

Your videos have you with no makeup, wearing workout clothes and being completely confident in who you are. Even sitting here for this interview, you are the same way.

That’s right. I can’t be anyone else. I think it’s important to say that to young people. It’s sexy to be ‘RAAAHHWWW!” And strong.

How did you come to this? This takes a tremendous amount of confidence.

I guess it’s because I used to be in a punk band for five years. It’s so different from the mainstream commercial kind of industry.

Being in the underground environmental activism for so many

years taught me a lot of things about myself, and people and what’s important. I still feel insecure sometimes - I’ll be like uhh, I don’t know - but it’s so important that you talk about it because if you try to (be someone you’re not), then you seem fake. The least charming thing in the world, the thing that’s so un-charming, is when you’re faking. You know when you’re lying - to be a fake person - that’s not adorable at any point.

I really admire that and I feel like you’re going to reach a generation of girls are coming up and in their teens and preteens with this kind of message.

I really hope to!

You didn’t know you are going to be an icon did you? Don’t stop!

No I won’t, because it’s what really makes me happy. So I’m going to keep on doing it.

I can’t be anyone else.

I think it’s important to say that to young people.

It’s sexy to be

‘RAAAHHWWW!’ And

strong.

THE

RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE interview: Amy Price photos: Randy Cremean

C

anadian band The Rural Alberta Advantage was born from an ‘open mic’ night in Toronto, but has its musical roots in small town Northern Alberta. Nils Edenloff, lead vocalist and guitarist for the band, brings that sense of rural place to the band’s songs, while Paul Banwatt on drums and Amy Cole on backing vocals and keyboard round out the sound that binds just enough music with lyrics to hold the songs together. Alternating sonic space with layers of melody and rhythm, the musical contrasts in their songs serve to communicate deeper feeling than the lyrics alone would do. We interviewed the band late in 2014 during a tour in support of their release Mended with Gold to explore how Alberta continues to influence their music, and the role that an isolated house (and a somewhat terrifying experience) on the Bruce Peninsula played in their last album.

Tell us a little about how the band was formed.

Nils: Paul and I were hosting open mic night (at The Winchester in Cabbagetown, an area of Toronto), and no one was there. And that’s where it started being just us, with Paul playing really loud drums and me on acoustic guitar stuff. At one point there were five people in the band and it didn’t make sense. Amy was in the initial 5 person lineup.

However the sparseness of the music just leant itself to the three of us. And then the first time the three of us started playing together, I felt that something special happened, and people started noticing more than they ever did.

one of you (Nils) is from Alberta. Why do you use this name?

Nils: When we first came upon the name, I’d recently moved to Toronto, and I found myself writing a lot of homesick love songs to the place where I grew up. The music scene (in Toronto) is really intimidating, and I was trying to figure out how I could stand out and do something different.

It was embracing who I was as a person and the perspective and memories that I have. These songs were in reference to memories I’d specifically had about growing up in Alberta.

So as much as the name represents us, I kind of thought that it represented the songs as well. It just made sense to keep it (the name). Even now, there’s references to Alberta.

How do you all write your songs?

Nils: Lyrics usually come fairly late. For the most part, I’ll have either some snippet of an idea that we can play with, or sometimes it’s a fully-formed song. Most of the time I bring it to Paul, and we rip it apart. We find something that works between the guitar and the few lyrics that we do have, as well as the cadence and how the rhythm of that plays with it. Either something works or it doesn’t, and we keep at it. Once we have sort of a general idea that we’re excited about, that makes sense, then the three of us get together and flesh it out a bit more. Then we either keep going with it, or start from scratch again.

For the most part, this is how a lot of the songs end up getting developed, which is why the drums end up being such a prominent thing. In other bands, the drums and rhythm part end up being an afterthought - like ‘here’s a song, now it needs a beat - let’s put it in there.” We try to put the beat in there at the ground floor that we’re building on. I think that’s why the drums are such a huge part of the music.

Did you all always know that you’d wanted to do music?

Amy: No, not at all. I’d studied music from when I was a kid, and took piano and voice from the time I was 8 years old until I was 18. I never ever thought it would be a career, ever. I’m really surprised I’m here right now, and happy.

How do you plan to be a working musician? It’s such a risky venture and you have to go all in. We were fortunate to get success kind of immediately. I felt from the time the three of us started playing together there was this momentum and there was no time to question it. It just kept happening and we kept riding it.

Paul: I always knew I would play drums, whether it was on the side as a hobby or working as a touring musician. I stopped playing for a couple of years. I lost who I really was for a while, until I started playing drums again and actually felt like myself again. It’s always been important. It’s actually Amy who found me in a club, and asked if anyone knew a drummer. I was there, and it was like a wakeup call actually.

You call yourselves Rural Alberta Advantage, but only

Woven throughout your music are many subtle nuances and distinctive sounds. How do you develop your songs so that they balance this with the melody while still maintaining an approach of ‘less is more’ sonically?

Nils: I think we try to give each instrument its little space to work in, and if it’s lost in the mix, is it really important?

In terms of our performances, it takes time to craft those things - the minimalist approach of it.

Amy: And there’s only three of us, so it’s already going to be a lot more minimal than many bands, and the way we write the songs. We try to never have more than just what’s necessary, if we can help it.

Paul: To be honest, it’s a lot of management of “Amy Resources”. We basically ask her to turn what sounds like a skeleton or something into a band playing. She adds the bass, she adds one or two keyboards, she adds percussion, and she adds harmony vocals. Nils and I played shows early on, just the two of us, and it didn’t hit any harder than when we were playing open mic night, just two people jamming

“The first couple of nights I was there it was nice and warm and the windows were open. You could hear the wolves howling, and then they told me to worry about the bears and don’t leave the food out. I got there super late and had planned to barbeque. I was sitting there in the dark, barbequing, and thinking I’m like, prey.”

- Nils Edenloff

Amy Cole, Paul Banwatt, Nils Edenloff

together. Amy is kind of the glue that makes the band.

You all have been a band since 2005. What are the key things you’ve learned over this nine-year period of producing 3 albums, although you’ve said that your music really hasn’t changed that much.

Nils: I think we’re much better musicians than we were when we were first starting out. We have a better sense of what we do well, what our strengths and weaknesses are, and I think we’re better at playing to them. Even in ‘08 and ‘09 when we were doing more touring, and toured the States and stuff, I think we really didn’t know what the hell we were doing. We did the best that we could, but we weren’t sounding as big as we could. Over time, we’ve developed our sound to address some of the deficiencies we had early on. Some people look back at that time as sort of ‘oh, I liked it when they played on toys’ and stuff. But we were a smallsounding band, and once we graduated to playing larger rooms, we had to make our music sound bigger too. And it was a lot of those things that we never could have considered when we were playing small little scrappy places in Toronto to five people on one speaker PA. All those things are things we’ve learned and tried to grow with the amount of space people have given us over time.

To help stimulate the creative process, you spent time in a house up on the Bruce Peninsula (a remote area northwest of Toronto), and that seems to have been an interesting experience.

Nils: I wanted to try and get away from the city, just out by myself and focus on the music.

Amy: We went once. He went for a couple of weekends on his own. It was a lot scarier by himself, probably.

Paul: It’s pretty creepy anyways.

Amy: It’s pretty creepy but not terrifying, like we’re all going to die. Well, I mean I was a little scared.

Paul: I didn’t want to sleep in that one room.

Why was it terrifying?

Amy: It was so solitary. It was just this house in the middle of nowhere. There was no one around at all. Like just nothing.

Paul: And those windows… all I can remember is windows..

Amy: And it seemed lived in, but by like five people long ago. It didn’t feel like ‘oh, this is a cool place to hang out’ as was advertised by Nils’ friend.

Nils: There were enough aspects of life there - that someone had been there before, but not enough for you to feel

comfortable. The first couple of nights I was there it was nice and warm and the windows were open. You could hear the wolves howling, and then they told me to worry about the bears and don’t leave the food out. I got there super late and had planned to barbeque. I was sitting there in the dark, barbequing, and thinking I’m like, prey.

Paul: Honestly, it’s the windows. Every time I would look at the window, I would think that the next time I looked at that window there would be a guy with a knife standing there.

Nils: Yeah, because on the lowest floor there was a big bay window in one of the rooms where a bed was. There were no curtains covering it. If you have the lights on, you can’t see out and everyone can see in.

What’s next?

Nils: We don’t even know what the next year is going to hold. Ideally we’d like to do more touring, play some festivals and stuff like that. But right now we’re not really sure what’s going to happen. Once we get off the road we take a little bit of time to decompress, not that we don’t want to see each other. I think we’re going to want to see the people that are close to us a little bit more. Then, try to get back to it. I feel when we were recording, we were in this groove that was really great. We were driven and focused on finishing this record. I think if we kind of get back in that head space, who knows? We’ve never really been a band that has a specific 5-year plan. We’re more a reactionary band that as the opportunities come, we make the best of them. In 2011 when the last album came out, one thing or another prevented us from doing another big tour of the states for a while. It’s fun to get back to these places and see that people haven’t forgotten about us, which feels good. It’s been as fun as hanging out with four people can be, 24x7 in the van.

Paul: The downside of putting out a record only every three years is that you don’t get to come back to places as often.

There are a bunch of cities on this tour that we haven’t been to in a long time. The push really happens when you put out a record. More this time than ever before, I’m feeling we’ve got to do this sooner rather than later.

Nils: I don’t think there was this feeling the last time like we’ve got to do this again, whereas now it feels like we should be doing this again in 2 years. We’ll try for that.

Knowing that the Bruce inspired an interesting song, maybe you should take something from all the cities you’ve been visiting.

Paul: Yeah, maybe next time we should just throw Nils in a lake: strand him in the middle of nowhere and see what happens. It would be a great record!

photo: A. Price

robert

ellis Maverick Gentleman of Americana Music

Making it into many of the ‘Best Albums of 2014’ lists is no small achievement for any musician, yet for Robert Ellis it’s well-deserved recognition of his dedication to writing and producing songs of the very highest caliber. Ellis is a nomadic maverick with his compositional roots deep in Texas, nurtured by the rich Nashville songwriting community and his new home city of Brooklyn and tempered through hundreds of days playing on the road. The stories are unconventional, with unexpected characters and perspectives, from how the lights of a chemical plant ‘burn steady like a kerosene lamp’, to the TV-based Walt Disney’s father-figure impact on a young protagonist. The music as well is unconventional. Ellis has been influenced by a spectrum of musical genres - everything from old-school country to jazz - and he’s as likely to incorporate a down-home phrase as he is to include a flight of improvisation into his performances. Most classify Ellis as an Americana artist, but in reality he’s shaking the tree and producing musical fruit that looks and tastes differently from everyone else.

He’s had some powerful mentors along the way, starting with his great-grandfather who was essentially a father to him, to Rodney Crowell who has been a musical guru/father figure to him. Crowell in fact has name-checked Ellis as one of the best - and potentially most Dylan-esque - of the younger generation’s songwriters. Still, given his diversity of artistic expression and independent thought, meeting Ellis isn’t what one expects. He’s old-school friendly and polite, and considers his responses before speaking - not to be careful with what he says, but to be sure that he says it all.

Engaged in conversation, he is keenly intelligent with a creative and unconventional perspective.

He’s not reluctant to buck tradition, but does so in a way that wholly respects other’s point of view.

We had the opportunity to talk in depth with Robert Ellis recently, and although he does not suffer insipid questions well, we managed to avoid the ‘small talk’ and delve deeply into what matters most to him.

interview: Amy Price photos: Amy Price & Randy Cremean

What are some of the pearls of wisdom that Rodney Crowell shared with you after you moved to New York City?

I don’t know him that well - I’ve played a few shows with them - but the interactions that I have had with him are so intense. He looks you right in the eye, and he’s given me serious wisdom.

When we were in New York, we sat down afterward to have a beer or whatever, and I told him I had moved up there. So many people from Nashville have been like ‘why did you move to New York? Good luck there, you’ll get tired of it’ - all of this bullshit. He said to me ‘this is the perfect place for you right now.’

The main thing I get from living in New York is that people experience you as a composer rather than as a songwriter. People take you seriously in New York if you’re a writer. Which is a weird thing, because in Nashville songwriters are a dime a dozen. Every guy on the corner is a songwriter. But in New York, after you’ve gotten to a certain level, people are like “ oh, you’re a composer!” It’s cool to be able to experience yourself like that.

It informs what you’re writing and what you’re thinking about.

What kicked you beyond songwriter to composer, from the way you see it?

Obviously I feel like I’ve grown a lot from record to record, and I feel like what I’m doing now is miles ahead of what I did on previous records. At the same time, I don’t think it’s all that much different - it’s just a notoriety thing. People start to take you a little more seriously when you get certain shows, or when you get nominated for certain things or whatever. I don’t feel much different when I’m writing songs. It’s still kind of the same motivation - still the same things that I want. I still want to just make myself happy and do what I think is interesting.

I don’t know if there’s been any real change internally, but I feel that people are definitely starting to listen to the lyrics. A lot of that is marketing. Like for this record, we reference a more song writer-y kind of crowd. I think that’s paid off, because in interviews people want to talk about the craft rather than talk about ‘so you’re from Texas; did you have a horse when you were a kid?’ And just like all this bullshit. For Photographs, the interview circuit for that for me was pretty arduous. I felt like I just had to answer a bunch of questions that I could care less about.

What many people don’t realize is that in Texas we don’t just all run around not wearing shoes. Or sit around singing cowboy songs all day long.

I’m 25 years old, and I’ve had the fucking internet since I was 12. I’m not living in some secluded mountain town. Those questions were always like ‘so how did growing up in rural Texas inform your songwriting?’ It’s kind of like the interviewer is answering the question as they’re asking it.

Actually it’s not about growing up in rural Texas - It’s about growing up in a small town. How did you overcome the boredom of living in a small town?

I just played guitar and at a certain point and became obsessed with that and that’s all I wanted to do. It was definitely an escape. When I was a little older, I discovered drugs and alcohol and that became an escape that I’m still fairly proactive in (laughs). The small town thing was really cool in some ways.

I think it was more the people who were around me, like my grandfather - he was my great grandfather but he had a lot to do with raising me. He was in World War II and went through the Depression. The work ethic he instilled in me - whether it was fixing a car or building something for the house or shoveling shit - I feel like I apply that to guitar. The only way I’m going to be as good as I want to be is if I’m practicing in a pretty significant way. When I’m not on the road, I try to work every day. I try to go through stuff I haven’t learned and I try to transcribe solos. I push myself to be better and better and hopefully that doesn’t stop. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a small town thing, because there are lots of lazy folks in small towns. But yes, the people I was around definitely had a lot to do with it.

You’ve mentioned Randy Newman as being one of your favorite artists, and he’s had several well-publicized bouts of ‘writer’s block’. How do you deal with those times when the songs and the stories just won’t come?

He (Randy Newman) was asked recently if he ever gets writer’s block. And he said ‘no, I just lower my standards,’ which I loved so much! That quote kind of hit me in a cool way such that I should stop getting in my head about all this and just finish something. Whether it’s some stupid song that you know no one is ever going to hear, anytime you can just sit down and do something, you’re getting better at your craft, you’re getting better at knowing your own voice, and you’re figuring out what you don’t want to do. I try to write really frequently, but at the same time there was this Willie Nelson kind of autobiography thing called The Tao of Willie that I read and it was really good.

In that book Willie said he had written a string of hits - “Nightlife” and “Crazy” and all these that became epic tunes. Then he went through this period of about a year where he didn’t write anything, and he said he kind of started to panic. I think it was Ray Price that he talked to - it could have been someone else who told him that songwriting is like a well. At a certain point, you drain the well and you have to fill it back up with experience, whether that’s playing golf, or relaxing, or being in a new place. He said that after that, he stopped stressing. I don’t really stress about it. If I write one song every three months, I’m super happy. Sometimes I go through periods where I am just churning them out, but sometimes I will go six months and I won’t write one thing that I think is good.

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

In doing the research for this interview, I got the impression that the source for much of your songwriting is intuitive, that you connect intuitively to some emotional point in your life, and sometimes it was something else. But then you apply the craft to it. Is that a relatively good description of what you do?

It’s all different. Some of (the songs) are from my perspective.

The majority of them are kind of character studies, especially lately. I’ve found if I am writing for characters that I’m creating, I can be much more honest about things than if I am writing from my perspective. I can be brutal about their motivations.

Sometimes it’s totally a reflection of me and how I’m feeling you can’t help but put yourself into your characters. But I feel a lot more comfortable externalizing it now. I could say really bad stuff about myself that I don’t feel like is about myself. For instance, with a song like “TV Song”, I didn’t know what it was going to be about when I started writing it. And that’s the fun part of writing to me. You get one little thing that grabs you maybe it’s like something a character said, like what they’re doing, watching TV or something. As you’re writing, the characters reveal themselves, and they tell you what they’re going to be like - what their motivations are. And sometimes it’s surprising! When I wrote “TV Song”, I’m not speaking totally disparagingly about television. Parts of it are really romantic and kind of beautiful, and parts of it are kind of rough. When I started writing it, I had no idea that was going to happen, but if you let ideas lead you in directions, it’s really beautiful what can happen. I believe it’s Tom Waits that said that there is this other sort of space where you’re taking ideas from rather than creating them. When I can get into that mindset, it’s a really therapeutic.

It’s like tapping into the universal ether - the song that goes on forever.

Yeah! And outside of that, I really want to say something that’s interesting to me. So I really take great care in a song like “Steady As the Rising Sun”. That song was pretty much just going to be trashed. I hated it. It took me changing one line in the song to turn it around. And the line was - it was kind of a love song - ‘you’re steady as the rising sun.’ And the chorus was ‘I know your love won’t let me down.’ I played it and honestly it just sounded like Christian music to me, because it was so positive - like I love her and I guess that’s the moral of the story. But I changed that line to ‘I hope your love won’t let me down’ and that changed the entire song for me, because it became this kind of thing where you are saying one thing but betraying me in the following statements. To me that’s what make a song leave the room and makes me want to show it to people - for it to be like multilayered and maybe a little complex. I don’t think that people are generally one way all the time - you don’t feel just happy - sometimes you feel anxiety with happiness. All that stuff kind of plays into what it is to just be alive.

You were raised in a very traditional Christian home. But you’ve expressed that you are a proud to be an atheist. How do you reconcile your upbringing with your beliefs?

It was really rough for me being in a small town to abandon my faith. And it was simple stuff, like deciding as a kid that I didn’t want to go to church anymore. That was terrible - not allowed!

You had to! But at some point if you really look closely at that stuff, in a scholarly way, I feel like a lot of it at least makes you ask questions, even if you don’t abandon it. There are vestiges of that time that I still think are really meaningful. I think the idea of saying the blessing is a really beautiful and amazing thing. Before you have a meal, think about what you’re eating and think about how you should be thankful for it. Not everybody gets it. There are things about that I still hopefully keep.

But I guess I feel like now I’m starting from the null position with everything. If somebody makes a claim about God or Jesus or whatever, if they have compelling evidence I would totally take it into consideration. But I just no longer feel it is healthy for me to let my circumstances - small town Texas or whatever you happen to be from - define what I think and what I believe.

So it was a huge struggle, and still to this day if I openly talk about this stuff to some family members, it’s a huge issue. But I can’t be afraid of that anymore. And honestly a lot of the people I would be really bummed about hurting have passed away, so I’m kind of in the clear.

Like your great grandfather.

Yeah, totally. But the more I know about him as an adult, and the more I think about that, I don’t think that what he believed was so simple either. Aside from being a Baptist Christian, he was also a Mason and he was an avid reader. The more I know about him and his life, I think that a lot of people - especially in the South - just do what they have to do to fit in. Being a free thinker is not encouraged there.

I remember when I decided I wanted to play music and I wanted to drop out of high school, I had guidance counselors and teachers who were saying ‘don’t do this! You’re never going to make it!’

The statistics are against you.

They are. I just don’t think they’re against me!

Everyone was saying that I needed to go to college and become a teacher, or become a doctor and play music on the side. To me, having a backup plan was almost like an admission of defeat.

This might sound dramatic, but if I wasn’t doing this, I think I would be at the minimum a very depressed person. This is the reason that I get up and still have interest in being alive.

Outside of this, there’s not a lot that makes me feel this way.

People always ask me what I would do if my hand got cut off. I

photo: A. Price

say I would find a way to make music, but if I couldn’t express myself in some musical way, I’d fucking off myself. I have no idea what else I would do. So I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice in that arena.

Many musicians have stated that this is the only thing that makes them happy. There were usually people in their lives who got behind them and helped them to find their way.

I was very lucky to have my mother - who was a piano player encourage me a lot. And I had people around me who were like ‘do it!’ and who taught me how to practice and hopefully to get to where I wanted to go.

You’ve mentioned a number of people who are your key musical influences. Have you had a chance to meet any of these, and if so, what did you talk about?

I did meet Randy Newman. I was on a tour with Dawes in Europe. We played this place called the AB Club in Belgium.

Randy Newman was playing the main room, and me and Taylor from Dawes are both Randy Newman nuts. And our show became secondary to the fact that he was in the room next to us.

Neither of us took offense to the fact that we didn’t watch each other sets - we would just walk over to see Randy Newman. So I emailed a guy that I work with, and I said, “do you know anyone that can get to Randy Newman - a manager or somebody?”

And he contacted Randy’s manager and he emailed her, and she arranged for me to go back and meet with him. So I went back there after my show. He was SO sharp - like I would never want to be on his bad side. He made a couple of jokes, had me laughing and I was like, “ Mr. Newman, I’m a big fan and kind of nervous.” And I told him we did ‘Rider In the Rain’, and he said, “that’s good - I don’t play that one anymore, so it’s good that somebody’s still doing it.” Then I politely thanked him for his time and I just got out of here, because I didn’t want to ‘fan boy’ out on him. I could’ve asked him a million questions.

I’ve had to be careful because with some of my heroes, the illusion and the mystery would have been better to keep. When I met George Jones - we played with him - he was really old, and he wasn’t in great physical condition. I made some comment to him like, “hey, I’ve been opening up for you the past few nights.” And he goes, “oh really?” He had no idea, which is fine. He was probably on the bus until just before he played and went straight out there. But it was very much like I was ushered in, shook his hand and then I was done. I didn’t need to do that.

When I toured with Willie Nelson, standing this close to me 10 times, I didn’t say a word to him. Still to this day, I haven’t met him, because I want it to be in circumstances where we’re both interested. I don’t want to just fan boy out on these people, because their music has meant so much to me. I don’t want to bum them out in any way. If I got the slightest hint that I was annoy-

ing Willie Nelson, it would just crush me. Hopefully there will be a situation one day where it makes sense for us to meet each other, and we can talk. That would be the ideal, if somebody like that was aware of me and wanted to meet me. I would be like, ‘yes!’ And then I would have a million things to say. But I just don’t want to come in cold and start spraying them with questions about songwriting.

Willie works harder than anyone I’ve ever been on tour with.

He’s a badass! At the end of every show, he stands out there on stage while the band’s still playing, signs stuff and shakes hands. He probably stays on stage for an additional 30 minutes that he doesn’t have to, just for the fans. He has one of the longest running and biggest touring operations of anybody. And at this point, at lot of those folks are family to him - they’ve been with him for 40 years! That requires a lot of responsibility. If he doesn’t go out, they don’t work. And I find that so admirable.

If I were him, I’d be chilling in Hawaii with Woody Harrelson!

Part of the reason he does it is obviously because he loves it.

But I’m sure he feels like it needs to keep this thing going.

His family and friends are all there too, including his sister Bobbie.

The cutest thing in the world was her and Paul English helping each other walk around. I almost cried when I saw that.

You’re pretty broad in your musical influences, and I noticed that the breaks between songs in your set are filled with jazz riffs.

You’re not going to hear me do any Michael Buble type stuff.

But I’m a huge Chet Baker fan, and recently I’ve been learning a bunch of his vocal tunes. And yes, we play stuff in our set.

Last night, we had sections of free improv stuff. We’d blaze through a Charlie Parker hit at like quadruple time - I think it was like “Confirmation” or something. Just the two of us played in unison really fast while improving. I love that stuff; I practice that all the time, and when I’m home all I’m doing is trying to transcribe solos. I think that stuff has already seeped into what we’re doing now. On songs like “Pride”, the harmony is not really Americana. There’s a pretty crazy key change that has a bunch of 2-5-1 progressions. It’s very much rooted in the playing jazz for so long - that’s why it would just be natural to write that.

I would love to do an album of standards at some point. I think you’ve got to wait until you’re like 60 or something to do that though - isn’t that what everybody else does?

Don’t wait until you’re 60! People do that only because they’ve made their career elsewhere and can afford to do it.

Jazz doesn’t get enough attention. We all like to talk about Miles and Coltrane, but no one really likes to go and see

what’s coming out these days.

Yeah, the jazz that’s really cutting edge and hip is playing to like 20 people in a club. Like Mary Halvorson: I don’t know why she’s not huge! Some of them make it to this high level. I love Brad Mehldau, and he’s made it to a place where when he tours overseas and does well. But we played this club in Chicago recently - a small club, maybe holds 200 people - and I saw the poster for him. It was like, “Brad Mehldau’s playing here tomorrow?? Why am I playing the same venue as that guy?

He’s a fucking genius!”

As a side note, in this country I feel there is a trend towards anti-intellectualism that is really appalling and probably really frustrating for people like him. At one point, somebody like Beethoven would be put on a pedestal by society and people would say, ‘look at what he’s doing - its magnificent!’ But today we do this with acts like Lady Gaga, which is performance and there’s an art to it, and I do like it in some regards, but it’s not the same. There’s composers like John Adams who are making a meager living, and of course Brad Mehldau. These people are geniuses in every sense of the word. They should be the ones that are selling out huge arenas.

The Americana thing is great. They’ve embraced me with open arms. I don’t know where else we would go. If my career is petering out soon because of Americana embracing me, then so be it. That’s a silly thing. I think that it gets a bad rap because a lot of it is very middle of the road, and safe and kind of lame. But every genre has that. And there are interesting things within Americana. There are people like Lake Street Dive, and the Milk Carton Kids. I don’t see how you could hear music like that and hate on it. It’s really well crafted - these are good musicians who have thought a lot about the songs. I think the genre is doing a really good job of going in a cool direction. The common thread with everything is the songwriting. As long as there are songs involved, Americana will get behind it. They’ve given me opportunities that I never would have had.

There’s a lot of differences between audiences in the US and in Europe. Many jazz artists spend their time there because the audiences are more receptive to music.

(In Europe) they really respect people taking risks. They have a different context for music. Being from like Texas, I am ‘country’ when I go over there. It’s really weird, because if I played some of the music that we normally play in a in a honky tonk in Houston, people would be like “what is going on?” It’s weird, the context they have for music over there, but it’s also really good because I feel like I can play just about anything and they are accepting of it. They think it’s authentic, no matter what it is.

Is there anything in the works for a new album and new music?

Yeah, I’ve been writing a ton. I’ve got probably five songs written. I’ve been producing some random stuff here and there, and really getting a feel for what I want the tone of the next record to be. I’m starting to pinpoint it and know what it’s going to be.

I hope people like it, but I would really be surprised if there is much guitar on the next album. A lot of it is going to be heavily electronic driven. If we do use real drums, I have a feeling it’s going to be in sort of an interesting way with samples and electronic stuff. I’ve been getting really into programming. I bought a couple of mono synths and am working to learn them.

I just want to do whatever I can to keep taking risks. So far in Americana music, no matter how broad it might be no one has done that. I think it’s because it’s kind of terrifying.

The Lights From The Chemical Plant is available now via New West Records http://www.newwestrecords.com

F-Stop: Austin Concerts photos: Randy Cremean

Ringo Starr ACL Live October 12, 2014

Rodrigo y Gabriela Gabriela Quintero ACL Live October 16, 2014

Rodrigo y Gabriela Gabriela Quintero & Rodrigo Sanchez ACL Live October 16, 2014

Charli XCX Emo’s October 17, 2014

Charli XCX Emo’s October 17, 2014

Arctic Monkeys Alex Turner Cedar Park Center October 28, 2014

Arctic Monkeys Matt Helders Cedar Park Center October 28, 2014

Arctic Monkeys Alex Turner Cedar Park Center October 28, 2014

Arctic Monkeys Alex Turner Cedar Park Center October 28, 2014

Gogol Bordello Eugene Hütz Stubb’s November 01, 2014

Gogol Bordello Eugene Hütz Stubb’s November 01, 2014

Gogol Bordello Sergey Ryabtsev Stubb’s November 01, 2014

Gogol Bordello Elizabeth Sun, Pedro Erazo & Eugene Hütz Stubb’s November 01, 2014

July Talk Peter Dreimanis & Leah Fay Red 7 November 5, 2014

July Talk Leah Fay Red 7 November 5, 2014

July Talk Peter Dreimanis Red 7 November 5, 2014

The 1975 Matthew Healy Austin Music Hall November 25, 2014

The 1975 Matthew Healy Austin Music Hall November 25, 2014

Young Rising Sons Dylan Scott Austin Music Hall November 25, 2014

Young Rising Sons Andy Tongren Austin Music Hall November 25, 2014

Weezer Brian Bell, Rivers Cuomo & Patrick Wilson Austin Music Hall December 2, 2014

Weezer Rivers Cuomo & Patrick Wilson Austin Music Hall December 2, 2014

Weezer Scott Shriner Austin Music Hall December 2, 2014

St. Vincent Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

St. Vincent Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

St. Vincent Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

The Black Keys Dan Auerbach Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

The Black Keys Patrick Carney Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

The Black Keys Dan Auerbach Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

The Black Keys Patrick Carney Frank Erwin Center October 8, 2014

Willie Nelson & Friends Family New Year Willie Nelson ACL Live December 31, 2014

Willie Nelson & Friends Family New Year Billy Gibbons ACL Live December 31, 2014

Ben Howard Austin Music Hall January 16, 2015

Thomas Champion, Luke Davison, Isabella Manfredi, Gideon Bensen, Jack Moffitt

B L U E P L A N E T, O P E N E Y E S

T H E P R E AT U R E S words: Amy Price photos: Randy Cremean & Amy Price

photo: A. Price

A

ustralian band The Preatures are garnering plenty of positive reviews in the US. Band members Isabella ‘Izzi’ Manfredi, Jack Moffitt (guitar), Thomas Champion (bass), Gideon Bensen (guitar and vocals) and Luke Davison (drums) have fabricated a sound that’s at the nexus of soul, rock and pop. Izzi’s slinky, soulful voice glides over songs that swing from upbeat danceable pop-rock to reverb-heavy psych-synth and parts in between, crisply produced with a sense of space and a nice sprinkling of musical hooks. The net result is a flavor-rich vibe that goes down as easy as shaved ice on a hot summer’s day.

2014 was a landmark year for the band. After a successful turn at SXSW 2014 in Austin, they followed up with a series of recording sessions with Jim Eno in Austin, resulting in their recently released album Planet Blue Eyes. It didn’t slow from there; the band toured heavily on several continents during the year, with appearances at major music festivals including Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Coachella and Austin City Limits and even a set of dates supporting the Rolling Stones in their home country.

We spoke recently with Izzi Manfredi and Jack Moffitt, who told us how their album came together during a discussion over a meat pie, what their ‘blueprint moment’ was, why Izzi does handstands on stage and why Mexican food is not on the menu when they’re touring.

Let’s start with the SXSW 2014 experience, and the decision to record your first album in Austin.

Moffitt: In 2014 we had reached the point where we has decided to make our record and were really unsure about how we’re going to make it, where we’re going to make it. We knew we didn’t want to be in LA, and didn’t necessarily want to be in New York either. We wanted to go to another city in the states.

So we started looking around. We looked at places in Chicago and Nashville obviously, because Nashville is Nashville. Austin kept coming up, and Jim Eno was one of the first people that we toyed with the idea of approaching, because Tom and I, the bass player in the band, both love what he has with Spoon going on, it’s brilliant. They’ve got that really special thing about them that’s really difficult to describe. It’s like nothing’s wasted - you’re don’t feel like there’s anything unnecessary happening. Part of the ethos that I was working off of when we did the song “Just How You Feel” was that I was manning the taping machine, with the simplicity and placement of everything. And I like that about the Spoon records.

Jim happened to be in New Zealand, which was very close to Sydney (Australia), and we met up. We just spent a good part of the afternoon talking about records that we liked, about records coming up, about Spoon, and….

Manfredi: … Jack took him for a pie. Totally Australian.

Moffitt: We just clicked. I really enjoyed his positivity and that he was willing to co-produce with us - with me.

Manfredi: What we were really looking for was someone who would be open to facilitating our vision rather than imposing their own will and process on us. This is totally wanted in a lot of cases, to (have a producer) whip the song and the band into shape. And that can’t be discounted. But that wasn’t where we were at for this record. Who is to say we wouldn’t go and seek that out in the future? But for this particular record we really felt like Jack had hit on something with “This Is How You Feel” that we wanted to see if we could take further into record.

Moffitt: For us it was sort of a blueprint moment.

It sounds like there was great chemistry between you all and Jim Eno. Moffitt: Yeah, there was a definite degree of that. And I think we struck on it without being fully aware of what it is that we had found. And that’s why we had spent so much time not necessarily mining it, or trying to kill it with kindness, but definitely acknowledging that it had changed us. It was a really important thing for us to learn. We were really open to new things after that.

Manfredi: We were a lot more open, just about just going with the song.

Moffitt: It’s funny. You start out thinking about things like ‘we’re not this, we’re not that, we’re definitely not those things’. But for us, we became prejudicial about the things that we’re not, and we decided to change that: to take it away from being a stigma and more about it as an activity or an acknowledgement, to be open to these things that we may otherwise be totally down about.

Manfredi: It was cool to work with Jim as well because he’s in a band - he comes from that place. He’s not talking to you like you’re a stranger.

He’s (Jim Eno) been on this road before.

Moffitt: Well, actually Jim was really underhanded about it.

He really didn’t want to let it get in a way of what we were doing, but we were always very aware of the struggles that Jim was going through with tidying up that record. He was really excited about it but the backend of records are always very painful.

Manfredi: You always get this kind of post record blues I think, and (with this record) we had just experienced it for the first time. It’s like coming down after a really big night - “I’m never doing this again”. And Jim is there going ‘oh guys this is your first record - you’ve just got to get through it.’

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean Moffitt: This is not to say that he was disregarding our concerns. What he helped us recognize was that some things don’t matter. Mentally you have to walk away from all of the things you are concerned about, enough to realize that some of them just don’t matter.

The production of the record is quite pristine and beautifully put together. Was this Jim Eno’s vision or was it intentional on your part?

Moffitt: That was really my vision: to have the space and the separation and the fidelity, but without being too clean. I miss real reaction in those records that don’t leave room for imagination. It’s so easy to fill up records when you’re in the studio and you’ve got all this stuff around you. We had those moments where we were looking around and realized that we’ve just filled this up - there was way too much stuff here. It’s easier to subtract than to add things after the fact that don’t necessarily make the songs better. I really appreciated the simplicity of the Spoon records, and that’s why I was drawn back to Jim because I liked that they had a modern focus but they weren’t overly articulate.

You spent quite a bit of time in Austin recording your album. What were your impressions of the city, and your thoughts about the food here?

Manfredi: I can’t do Mexican food. When you’re five people constantly in a van or in the same space together, Mexican

food is generally not a great plan. We kind of learned that lesson early on.

Moffitt: Mexican food, however beautiful and fantastic the food is, and we do love Mexican Food, is a disrespectful food for your peers.

Manfredi: We really got into barbecue. It was awesome! I love Ruby’s. We ordered in Ruby’s most nights because it was close to the studio.

Moffitt: We did try some other places. We went to this place called the Iron Works, and we went to Maudies a lot, because we were right around the corner from there. So that was definitely one of those breakfast taco hot spots where we were there every morning.

Moffitt: (We enjoyed) the hospitality and the general sensation you get from people in Texas, specifically in Austin.

It’s real warmth, and it’s nice to be around genuine people. I think that for us it’s a big deal when were on tour, when we’re around just each other more often than not.

Talking about your band, your bassist (Thomas Champion) plays more like he’s on guitar than on bass.

Moffitt: Well, that’s definitely his intention. When we started out as a group, Tom was the other guitar player in the band.

And we just needed a bass player. For better or for worse, we

photo: R. Cremean relegated him to the role. Fortunately for us, he is so excellent at writing bass lines. There’s a lot of people who will tell you the guitarists make the best bass players, because it is a level of imagination there that extends beyond.

Manfredi: He’s just got a lot of soul, and he’s really the heart of the record. I don’t think we really realized it until we were back with our mastering engineer, and he was like ‘the record is just full of bass riffs!’ And we were like all yeah, we hadn’t really noticed it before. There’s melodic imagination as well.

Moffitt: There’s a certain disrespect for what people sometimes relegate the job of the bass to, which is overly simplified.

We’re very lucky that we have Tom. I believe we would be very different if we didn’t have him; (we’d be) pretty boring.

Izzi, you have talked about using your sexuality to sell your music. We have a great American word for it: “sassy”.

Manfredi: Yeah, that’s just what I do. It’s funny, because I got most of my moves from watching David Byrne in “Stop Making Sense”. Of course, I don’t have the physical angularity of David, or the weirdness. So it comes out in its own way. But I love everything about the choreography and the stage - just the performance.

Where did the handstands onstage come from?

Manfredi: About a year ago, I tried to do a cartwheel, and I

couldn’t do one. And that was just unacceptable to me. It made me feel really old. So I thought I got to get back to the stage where I can be doing handstands and cartwheels and feeling like a kid again. Being on stage is like being a kid. That’s what music is really about, trying to get back to something.

Moffitt: It’s also about losing some of the inhibitions around yourself. When you’re a kid and you’re just having fun, you really don’t think about why other people are looking at you or that you might be a freak or a weirdo. I think you just enjoy that.

Manfredi: I think it’s just really a free thing to just do a handstand or a cartwheel. It’s just really childlike to me, and I like that. When I was younger, I always had such a tough time and I just felt older than I was, that I was trying to grow up really fast. I wanted to be very mature and be very adult - to do adult things and go to university and live in an adult world. But then the older I got, the more I just wanted to be a kid again.

A Balance of Power and Vulnerability

DEAFHEAVEN words: Amy Price

George Clarke

photos: Randy Cremean

D

eafheaven, led by vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, is playing music that’s been described as both beautiful and brutal. According to Clarke, it comes from the vocals and the drums. “We play at a fast pace a lot of the time which also sort of adds the intensity,” Clarke notes. “But we’re a band that really appreciates dynamics, and we like to incorporate a lot of different styles, not just metal, into what we do.”

This style has changed over time, moving from rough, edgy and relatively unrefined metalcore to something that blends elements of post-rock into its black metal aggressive and abrasive passages. “I think it’s more refined. I always aim to be better than what we are, but for now I’m happy with what we’re putting out, and I hope that we just continue to perfect it. “ Lest you think that Deafheaven is going to keep doing the same sort of music, think again. Clarke believes that the worst thing you can do as a musician is to just be stagnant, and this band has been about pushing boundaries since their early days. They don’t like to write while they tour, but while they’re not on the road, their songwriting progresses in a very healthy way. In fact, for their next record Clarke hinted that their guitar work will get a little more intricate, and they may be blending some pop music hooks and sensibilities into their music.

Pop? Yes, indeed. Clarke notes that when they were younger, they rebelled against the ‘verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge’ structure of pop music. They’ve since come to realize that it’s actually a lot more difficult than they’d imagined, and in fact represents a whole new way to challenge themselves.

But, why pop and why now? Simple: it’s confidence. Both Clarke and McCoy were going through so much growing up, and dealing with the financial turmoil of starting out, that they felt uneasy about everything. As Deafheaven gained a measure of success and allowed them to stabilize their lifestyles, the music too has progressed. “For the next record, we’ll definitely enter the writing process feeling stronger and better about ourselves,” says Clarke. “There’s not a lot of room for second guessing when you’re doing what you love, and doing it to the best of your abilities.”

Kerry McCoy

Clarke started out early going to metal shows and being entranced by watching the bands. Though it’s a cliché, Slayer was the band that blew him away when he was younger. He had the opportunity in fact to play with them over the past summer. “Every time, Slayer is just sonically perfect - totally well done. They do what they do. They’re pretty linear as far as the music goes. They stick to one style, and they do it perfectly.”

A Deafheaven performance is a dynamic event. Clarke takes the experience he grew up with in metal and tries to re-create it onstage. He jokes that his “aim is to be half Phil Anselmo and half Freddie Mercury. Those are like my two guys and somehow I combine them.” Plus he dances onstage. “I always have to dance a little bit,” he notes. “It’s just a fun part of performing. I channel those experiences and try to do the same myself, and definitely relate to the crowd.”

Deafheaven performances though are about more than the music: it’s about sharing a deeper connection with the audience. “Especially with our music, I think it’s important to share that emotional experience with the audience,” says Clarke. “It’s important to touch. There are certain things that I will just say to one person. Whether you’re playing to 5 or to 6,000 people, it’s important to have an intimate connection with one. Hopefully that person goes away thinking ‘that was really intense!’”

All of this comes from an unexpected source: love. “It’s weird - it’s really all based around love,” says Clarke. “People get confused, because what I do is very aggressive, and our band itself is very aggressive, but it’s very much a positive energy.” During a performance, people jump onto the stage, briefly interacting with Clarke before diving back into the crowd. And just as often, Clarke reaches into the audience to touch an upstretched hand, or to say something to an individual, while remaining totally in control of the moment. “Yeah, it’s all love. It’s not an aggressive move.

I like to think of it as a giving thing. When you’re in the moment like that too, it’s a bit of a power trip, which I’m not ashamed of it at all. Adrenaline is rushing, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it was fun to control the entire show and dictate to the audience. I think to a certain degree they enjoy being dictated to. We have this whole weird connection. A balance between power and vulnerability.

It’s letting everyone know that you are who they came to see while at the same time letting them know that we’re all in this together, and that’s what really grounds the experience.”

“It’s important to touch. There are certain things that I will just say to one person. Whether you’re playing to 5 or to 6,000 people, it’s important to have an intimate connection with one. Hopefully that person goes away thinking ‘that was really intense!’”

Shiv Mehra , Stephen Clark, George Clarke

Improv of the New Wave Road Warriors: Ten Minutes with

Wild Moccasins interview and photo: Amy Price

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ild Moccasins have been generating some buzz in their dates over the past year. The Houston-based collective of Zahira Gutierrez (vocals/keyboards), Cody Swann (guitar/vocals), Andrew Lee (guitar) Nicholas Cody (bass) and John Baldwin (drums) are an ethnically diverse group, drawn together by their common interests in music. In fact, their sound came together as a new wave type of beat that they were all into, especially at the time they were making their sophomore album 80 92. “It was the tie that bound us”, according to Cody.

Comparisons to the B-52’s are definitely warranted, but there’s a 60’s influence with an underpinning of jazz from that time - territory they are continuing to explore through incessant touring and live shows. “We were never a kind of a band that could jam or anything when we first started it was always just very thought out,” noted Cody.

“But playing live so much it helped us to get behind a groove and there were so many happy accidents. Being into jazz as well helped us be just fine with happy accidents and it’s something that’s allowed us to be more free. And I think that when we were recording the last album - 88 92 -the drummer and I both like a lot of funk and disco and jamming like that kind of thing for a long time. We decided to make this into a part of the song.”

What is your songwriting process?

Gutierrez: It’s always changing. Sometimes I start with a melody then I go to Nick or Cody and ask them to help make a melody around the song. Or sometimes Cody will start with the skeleton of a song, or someone will start with a chord progression and we all kind of work on that. So it is a very collaborative effort.

Cody: That’s one of the biggest changes on this last album: that the songwriter role has really shifted. Now everyone is participating. And the roles are changing besides songwriter too. It’s like I’m playing more lead guitar. She (Gutierrez) is bringing in stuff, and not singing at all as on the last album. It’s kept it fun.

This is your second record for New West. How did you first get signed to this label?

Gutierrez: The owner of the New West was living in Houston. He saw us a lot since we were playing around town.

He’s an investor in the record store that some of the band members work at. He kept seeing us, and he knew that we worked really hard and he was always into the music. So one day, he noted ‘you guys are already working really hard and you’re always touring, and putting out records yourself. So why don’t we give it a shot? Why don’t we work together?’

Cody: It was still very much a courting process. We were doing everything on our own, booking tours and managing ourselves, putting out records. There was really no need for a label. But it came about so organically in the relationship that it just didn’t make sense not to include these people who genuinely cared about us as part of the process. It was very natural.

Gutierrez: We had established a great relationship with pretty much everyone at New West before signing, which isn’t the most common thing, though people think it should be. Some people get signed and don’t ever meet anyone at the label beforehand.

Cody: And then they don’t sell and they get dropped. It was very much like ‘we’re all patient people, this is a slow boat.’

What will people discover when they listen to the new album?

Gutierrez: We put a lot of time and effort into the songs.

We’ve been playing the songs for a bit now, to develop them live. I hope it shows that we did develop the songs while touring constantly. I think it’s a really fun album.

Cody: Not that I would isolate anybody, but I do think that it’s a good album to listen to if you’re right around our age (25 to 27). Our first record was very introspective because everyone just kind of looks inside themselves around that age (20 or 21). But we wrote this one from like age 23 to 26, all from around that time. I think it came out of us at a point when you start finally looking outside of yourself, observing the world. You become concerned with affecting other people rather than how other people affect you.

Gutierrez: You’re getting into the real world, establishing relationships with other people and breaking relationships with people that you had before.

Cody Swann , Zahira Gutierrez, Nicholas Cody

Vocals Times Three Ten Minutes with

WILDCAT! WILDCAT! interview and photos: Amy Price

A

Passion Pit show during SXSW 2013 included a relatively new group from Los Angeles that had not yet recorded their first EP. There was something remarkably memorable about this band, Wildcat! Wildcat!, and not just because of their amazing cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”.

Flash forward to late 2014 in Austin, where Wildcat! Wildcat! - Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson and Jesse Carmichael - played Fun Fun Fun Festival. The band released their first full-length album earlier in the year, No Moon at All, which revisits and updates their original EP material while further expanding their synth-driven, vocally mellifluous indie pop sound. Though the band had not been back in Austin since SXSW 2013, one of them still had a ticket from the show in the pocket of the jacket he was wearing. It must be fate.

Wildcat! Wildcat! took time before their after show during FFFFest to brief us about their new album, spreading their music overseas and kicking their visibility up through a deal to write music for a film.

You’ve just released your first LP with Morgan Kibby of M83 and White Sea producing. What did she bring to your music?

Taylor: We had the furniture in the room - it just took a woman’s touch to put it in the right place. She was a great person to work with and really knew how to handle the three of us. She understood how to challenge and push us - all the things you would want somebody that you’re working with to do.

Your vocals have all three of you singing, both at octaves and in various harmonies, which gives your music a unique vibe. How did you develop this?

Wilson: I think a lot of our writing was done not necessarily in the room: it was done during recording, just coming up with different ideas. What we thought sounded the best were a lot of vocal parts, layered on top of each other, and it took a bit for all of us to get comfortable with the fact that we were all singing together. When we first started,

we had an extra guy (they have one additional musician in their band now) and all five of us were singing together onstage. We’d love to get back to that point one day, and have another person on stage to sing. How it developed was less conscious and more just what felt the best.

Taylor: It builds camaraderie when everyone is singing together. Everybody’s got a piece of the action. It wasn’t a conscious thing - everyone passed stuff back and forth. It kind of works out in a way that we all feel comfortable with.

What are you all working on now?

Wilson: We’re trying to get overseas, for sure. We haven’t done an overseas tour yet. Our album isn’t even out over there yet. So that’s definitely something we are prioritizing for 2014. And we might be writing a score for a movie, as a group. We’ll see how that goes, and we’re talking to the directors right now.

That’s actually a really nice way to get your music out there.

Wilson: It sounds fun. You get so caught up in the band thing and the tour, and how do we handle our social media, and so on. All of this is so much self-promotion. When you can be a part of the vision instead of just the vision - helping to grow something from the ground up - it feels like a good opportunity for us. When you’re involved in a movie, you’re a part of something bigger.

Taylor: On the flip side of that, as a band we felt that everybody in our group of friends, and even beyond that, has contributed their creativity, pushing what they’re good at (to help) this band. When we play at home in LA, it really feels like a family. There’s 700 people in the room and it’s a family. We’ve been very fortunate with the people we started out with, and been friends with, who have contributed with assets they have that would cost a lot of money - contributing them for free or really cheap. In a way, the music that we make belongs to so many people. It’s not just the three of us - there are so many people involved, enjoying what this is.

Michael Wilson, Jesse Taylor, Jesse Carmichael

F-Stop: Festivals

FUN FUN FUN FEST We covered more than seventy artists at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2014, the one Austin festival that’s gone big and managed to retain a uniquely Austin vibe. Transmission Entertainment pulled off yet another edgy and superb feat of music programming for 2014. Features such as the BMX bikes, live wrestling and top-notch comedy on the Yellow stage provided something for everyone, while perfect Austin fall weather helped keep attitudes positive and the music grooving.

photos: Randy Cremean & Amy Price

photo: A. Price

photo: A. Price

Judas Priest Rob Halford

Judas Priest Richie Faulkner & Rob Halford

photo: A. Price

photo: R. Cremean

Death From Above 1979 Jesse Keeler

Death From Above 1979 Sebastien Grainger

photo: R. Cremean

Alt-J Joe Newman

photo: R. Cremean

Atmosphere Slug (Sean Daley)

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Dinosaur Jr. J. Mascis

John Waters

photo: A. Price

John Waters

photo: A. Price

The Blood Brothers Jordan Blilie

photo: R. Cremean

The Blood Brothers Johnny Whitney

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels

photo: R. Cremean

SOHN

photo: R. Cremean

City and Colour Dallas Green

photo: A. Price

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine Jello Biafra

photo: A. Price

SZA

photo: R. Cremean

Amon Amarth Johan Sรถderberg & Johan Hegg

photo: R. Cremean

Amon Amarth Johan Sรถderberg

photo: R. Cremean

Amon Amarth Johan Hegg

photo: R. Cremean

Pallbearer Brett Campbell

photo: R. Cremean

Pallbearer Joseph D. Rowland

photo: R. Cremean

Mineral Jeremy Gomez

photo: R. Cremean

Mineral Chris Simpson

photo: R. Cremean

Peelander Z

photo: R. Cremean

Peelander-Z Kengo Hioki

photo: R. Cremean

Peelander-Z Yumiko Kanazaki

photo: R. Cremean

Modest Mouse Isaac Brock

photo: R. Cremean

Modest Mouse Isaac Brock

photo: R. Cremean

Ian Rubbish Fred Armisen

photo: A. Price

Ian Rubbish J. Mascis & Fred Armisen

photo: A. Price

First Aid Kit

photo: R. Cremean

NAS

photo: R. Cremean

NAS

photo: R. Cremean

NAS

photo: R. Cremean

The New Pornographers Neko Case

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart Jacob Sloan & Kip Berman

Gary Numan

photo: A. Price

photo: R. Cremean

Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett

photo: R. Cremean

Courtney Barnett

photo: R. Cremean

METZ Alex Edkins

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

METZ Hayden Menzies

METZ Alex Edkins

photo: R. Cremean

METZ Alex Edkins

photo: R. Cremean

King Tuff Kyle Thomas

photo: R. Cremean

King Tuff Kyle Thomas

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

King Tuff Magic Jake , Garett Goddard & Kyle Thomas

Glassjaw Daryl Palumbo

photo: R. Cremean

Glassjaw Justin Beck & Daryl Palumbo

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Zorch Sam Chown (a.k.a. Shmu)

Fat White Family Lias Saoudi

photo: R. Cremean

Twin Peaks Cadien Lake James

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Communion Jeremy Jenkins

Wiz Khalifa

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Wiz Khalifa

Wiz Khalifa

photo: R. Cremean

Rocket From The Crypt

photo: R. Cremean

photo: R. Cremean

Deafheaven George Clarke

Chelsea Wolfe

photo: R. Cremean

Dum Dum Girls Dee Dee Penny

photo: R. Cremean

Foxygen Sam France

photo: A. Price

Pissed Jeans Matt Korvette & Randy Huth

photo: R. Cremean

Crowdsurfers

photo: R. Cremean

Angel Olsen

photo: R. Cremean

The Internet Syd tha Kyd & Jameel Bruner

photo: A. Price

Gardens & Villa Adam Rasmussen

photo: R. Cremean

Iron Reagan Rob Skotis & Tony Foresta

photo: R. Cremean

Iron Reagan Ryan Parrish

photo: R. Cremean

The Bots Mikaiah Lei

photo: R. Cremean

The Bots Anaiah Lei

photo: R. Cremean

Blake Sennett & Jarrod Gorbel

A Lump of Coal In A Shiny Candy Wrapper The Music of

Night Terrors of 1927 interview and photo: Amy Price

J

arrod Gorbel and Blake Sennett, the duo behind the rising success of the band Night Terrors of 1927, have been busy.

In addition to issuing an EP this past fall and maintaining a heavy touring schedule, they’ve just released their first full length album, Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Their music places lush and danceable synth-pop and indie-esque melodies atop lyrics that are dark, occasionally post-apocalyptic and oddly sinister at times. This juxtaposition of dark and light is at the core of what they create, and through this purposeful construct they manage to produce something that many people will enjoy while remaining true to their own unique vision of the world.

We spoke recently with Gorbel and Sennett about their music, its origin and their collaboration with Teagan and Sara.

The name “Night Terrors” evokes haunted, spooky images.

Did you have this in mind as you selected the name?

Sennett: I think we connected around our mutual anxieties a little bit as friends. The music is dark, and when you call your band ‘Night Terrors” of anything, you’re doing it intentionally, trying to be a little bit dark. The stories are meant to have some depth and to be cathartic.

On one hand the stories are dark but the music itself is gorgeous and light. There’s an incredible contrast between them.

Gorbel: I think it no matter what the lyric or the production is, on my side as a singer the vocals come from an emotional place, and it’s usually not a happy one. I’m not just singing stuff happily or even trying to. We tried to do that a couple of times and it just didn’t work. So there is that split. I think the music works for many people.

Your music seems to be intensely personal. It’s almost like you don’t want to listen to this with other people, but in fact you’re playing it to larger and larger audiences.

Sennett: Yeah, it’s trying to combine those two worlds of appealing to the masses, but also being as honest as possible.

Gorbel: I think it was also a natural effect of both of our yens for consumable music, trying to make something we liked. I think we both like a dark story - something that can have some catharsis and some depth to it. At the same time I like things that are packaged - something consumable that my ears want to enjoy. So for me, it was kind of like what we’ve dug. We started talking about it more than doing it, and at the end we were like no talking, and the music kept coming and coming, in a flow.

The wheels spun more and more easily. I think we made something that both of us can be proud of, and both connect with.

You have both been in other bands, doing other genres and other types of music.

Sennett: I think we brought all that experience to this. Some of the things we did in our past bands we do in this band, but better.

Gorbel: It all comes together. All of our past experiences come together to make this new thing we’re doing, but maybe it’s a little more digestible for people - maybe even for younger people who won’t fully decipher what all of the stories are about. That’s OK, as long as they are feeling the emotion.

Exactly. That’s the thing that comes across - the emotion.

That’s why there’s such an interesting dark and light presence, because the emotion comes through as you listen to the lyrics, while the music is so uplifting. It really fits together nicely.

Sennett: I think some of my favorite stuff does that - from contemporary music to Bob Dylan with his loping melodies and his quick shuffle guitar. Then you hear the words and you’re like ‘whoa! He’s talking about a traumatized young girl!’ Or a house servant who gets murdered. Lil’ Wayne and Drake do the same thing today where it sounds like a dance song but the themes…

I think we like that - that lump of coal wrapped in a shiny candy wrapper.

You’ve recorded a song with Tegan and Sara, which was included on your EP as well as your recently released album.

What have you learned from this association?

Gorbel: They are a band that have paid their dues, and have built up their audience the real way, over time and through touring not to mention that they’re just great. When you have somebody (like them) championing you, and being part of your music and supporting you, their fans listen. They have real fans - not just people who turn on the radio and say ‘I like this song.’ These are people that really love the music. Now we’re getting all their fans to listen to us, or at least check us out and give us a chance.

We’ve played at a show or two with them already and I think it helps too that stylistically there’s at least a crossover in the eighties kind of melancholy sort of way.

Sennett: There is nothing gimmicky about Tegan and Sara.

They’ve been writing great songs for a long time. Anytime you can collaborate with someone artistically who has been doing something like that, you have to. The more experience I get with music, the more exciting it is to collaborate. When I was younger, I wanted it all to myself. Now the magic is when you have that friction with other artists and it’s the most fun - the most spontaneous things happen.

Spanish Gold A musically polygamous supergroup breaks out

words: Amy Price photos: Randy Cremean

Dante Schwebel

Considering their impressive musical lineages, it seems like a no-brainer that whatever Dante Schwebel (Hacienda, City & Colour), Adrian Quesada (Brownout, Brown Sabbath) and Patrick Hallahan (My Morning Jacket) chose to create would be heady stuff. However it doesn’t come close to describing Spanish Gold’s genre-spanning mix of rock, funk and 70’s and 80’s musical sensibilities. The songs on the band’s debut album, South of Nowhere, are loaded with clever musical hooks, layers of slinky vocals and masterful musical performances. However dealing with a band is like dealing with a marriage - or plural marriages, if you’re as busy as these three are.

All of you still have active gigs outside. How do you balance your work in Spanish Gold with your other projects?

Hallahan: I think that’s the next question with this, because up until now, we’ve kind of figured out a way. For me personally, My Morning Jacket has been recording and touring dormant, and it’s getting ready to pick back up pretty heavily. So yes, it’s going to be interesting trying to figure all that out.

Schwebel: It helps to have calendars far in advance. You can do it - you just really want to do it, because it means not being home very much. So if you have an understanding family situation, you can make it happen. That’s what it takes.

Creatively, it seems like it would be hard to keep this many projects going.

Quesada: It is. But for me one thing I’ve found is that being involved in a few projects keeps you on your toes, and it makes you a better musician. It makes you appreciate the others. Every time I go on a Spanish Gold tour, when I come back and play with Brownout I feel it has refreshed me - kind of hit the reset button, which makes me appreciate it more. During the day to day grind of touring, it’s like trying to keep a marriage exciting.

I’m musically polygamous!

Hallahan: So let me get this straight. I’m going to take over this interview for just a second here. So you’re saying that having a second band is like having a mistress!?!

Quesada: I think it’s like having two marriages you know.

Hallahan: So in essence, I’m your mistress?

Quesada: Exactly!

Hallahan: Ah - I quit! (laughter) But Adrian, you actually have another mistress, because you have Brown Sabbath too!

Quesada: Yeah, which is Brownout’s mistress.

Hallahan: So what is that say about you?

Quesada: Yeah, exactly, right?

Schwebel: Ladies man… (laughter) Hallahan: That’s right (big laugh) Schwebel: Dude magnet, because it’s all dudes! (more laughter) Hallahan: Even better!

Patrick Hallahan

“Everything that they brought to the table in terms of feel, in terms of tone, composition, I immediately identified with. It wasn’t something I set out to identify with - it was just this thing. It’s funk, it’s soul, it’s rock, it’s all these things going into it.”

- Patrick Hallahan

How do you see the influence of being on the U.S. and Mexico border (where Quesada and Schwebel grew up) in your music?

Schwebel: Sonically, it’s not the goal to sound that way but I don’t think we can hide it. Personally speaking, I don’t think I’m capable of hiding it - the look and sound are the way it goes.

What’s unique about that area is that we’ve heard the Memphis band, we’ve heard the Motown band, we’ve heard the L.A. band, the New York band, so it’s different. Maybe that’s the freshness hopefully - that no one has heard a border kind of sound. Maybe this is it.

This is a really cool, chill sort of sound. It’s something that’s really unique.

Schwebel: Yeah, you don’t hear about too many bands from that area. The influences are from all over the place, whether it be hip hop or R&B or rock and roll, Dr. Dre, Madonna, whatever.

It kind of just comes from where we come from. Patrick spent a lot of time in Texas, just hanging out with us so we’re starting to rub off on him. Once you’ve had plenty of the food…

Quesada: He’s an honorary Texan.

Hallahan: Everything that they brought to the table in terms of feel, in terms of tone, composition, I immediately identified with. It wasn’t something I set out to identify with - it was just this thing. It’s funk, it’s soul, it’s rock, it’s all these things going into it. And I was actually kinda hoping that there would be more Spanish lyrics. I think they were like “ah, I want to get out of this”, the Spanish stuff, and I was like “I want to get out of a rock band to be in a Spanish thing.” So we kind of met in the middle.

Quesada: We musically aimed right at a simple bulls eye: let’s just make a good rock and roll record, and let’s not hide who we are. Let’s not hide that we’ll jam to Bell Biv DeVoe as much as we will jam to Sir Douglas Quintet or The Beatles. So let’s not hide any of that, and let’s not be ashamed that we like Bell Biv DeVoe, because we all do. But let’s just make a good rock and roll record and not hide who we are, so it comes out. But it’s not like we sat down and said we would make a South Texas electroLatin-funk; it was just let’s make a good rock and roll record and everything.

With one album under your belt, what are the future plans for Spanish Gold?

Quesada: Certainly, My Morning Jacket is about to get back to work, which is cool. We didn’t really know what to expect, and didn’t look at it too hard when we made this record. We took it one step at a time, because what if the record didn’t sound very good? Then what good were all those plans? We made the record and we felt strongly about it, then we started to do some touring and picked up offers to play, and got invited to do more things. If it seems like people want another record, then we’ll find we can do it. If people want it, you do it. It’s kind of where we’re at. We wanted to do the first one, and if there’s a reason to do another one, we’ll keep going.

“We musically aimed right at a simple bulls eye: let’s just make a good rock and roll record, and let’s not hide who we are.

Let’s not hide that we’ll jam to Bell Biv DeVoe as much as we will jam to Sir Douglas Quintet or The Beatles. So let’s not hide any of that, and let’s not be ashamed that we like Bell Biv DeVoe, because we all do.”

- Adrian Quesada

Adrian Quesada

Abner and Amanda Sudano Ramierez are

JOHNNYSWIM interview and photo: Amy Price

T

he musical duo of Amanda Sudano-Ramirez and Abner Ramirez, known as JOHNNYSWIM, has been making genre-spanning music for a while now, and their latest LP release, Diamonds, is growing their audiences for their interesting blend of folk, soul, blues and pop. Intelligent and engaging with oodles of charm and humor, Abner and Amanda are a duo in both their professional and personal lives, having recently expanded to a family trio with the birth of their son Joaquin.

We interviewed them recently in Austin about the origins of their relationship and what’s on the horizon for them musically and personally.

Obviously now the relationship comes first. But when you all first met, which came first: the music or the relationship?

Abner Ramirez (AR): The music was 100% a ruse to get alone with her. She wanted to write songs, and my dream was to be a singer anyway. I’m so thankful that we are aligned, because I would have dropped anything just to be around her.

Amanda Sudano-Ramirez (AS-R): I graduated from Vanderbilt in 2004, but was done in 2003.

AR: I got kicked out of Trevecca (Nazarene).

AS-R: I studied classical communications - the pre-law route.

All of my friends are now lawyers and I’m here. So I’m like “have fun, wearing your suit!” I think I win.

So you saved her from a life as a lawyer, wearing a suit.

AS-R: I would be in a cubicle right now. Thank you, honey.

AR: You’re welcome!

AS-R: When I was in college, I had seen him and I thought he was really cute, but he was also all that these girls who were very popular. I was at Vanderbilt, just working my butt off.

You were a smart kid and thought “I don’t need this” AS-R: Exactly! I am not going to go and like spend money shopping with these girls. If that’s what he wants, he would never like me. So kind of had to assume he’s a jerk. And so for four years there would be times where he was trying to talk to me. I would see him walk in my direction, and I would just literally make eye contact and turn and walk away. It took a little bit of time, but when I moved to New York, I came back to visit my family for I think it was Easter holiday, we saw each other in a coffee shop.

So I moved back to Nashville after I met him, once we started writing together a couple of months later.

So Nashville played a role in the relationship, but what role has it played from a musical perspective?

AR: Even though we’ve lived in LA for five years, we made our album in Nashville. We wanted to go back to Nashville because (in) Nashville the consciousness of music is about the song, about the passion, about the heart, about the integrity of what you are making. Everywhere else it seems, especially LA and New York,

it’s about the profitability or the fame of it. “Is it going to make me famous?” is the question in LA, and “is it going to make me money?” is the question in New York.

AS-R: Exactly. And we love that. So we go back (to Nashville) quite often. Our band is all Nashvillians except for one, so we tour from there most of the time, and we start from there and move around. So Nashville is still very much a hub, and I think it affects the psyche of our music more than anything else. But we like having a beach nearby.

You just released your first album in 2014. And you all have a very ambitious schedule in that you are doing a Christmas album (released November 11), which is really a lot, to drop two albums in a year. Why did you do this and what are you hoping to accomplish with this?

AR: Since 2012 we’ve been gone 80% of the time, on the road and playing. The reality is that we’ve only put out an EP and one album. Now because there’s full wind in the sails and great opportunity, and we love Christmas, we wanted to take advantage of a little bit of down time, which was a grand total of four days that we had.

AS-R: We thought, “Oh we can do this, we’ll keep it really simple, we’ll record it at home.”

AR: We’ll keep it just an EP, will give it only five songs.

AS-R: We’ll do one day at the studio and record drums and bass, to get that, and everything else will just do it home. We did the main chunk of it, and we were kind of like “man, we might be in over our heads”. We were supposed to go to Paris for three or four days. That flight got canceled because of the pilots’ strike (in France). So we ended up having four days at home and it was great.

AR: It would have been impossible to finish the album without it.

AS-R: We realized “what were we thinking?” We never would have been able to actually get this done properly had we not had these couple of days off. So it all works out.

What’s your favorite song on the new album?

AR: We wrote a song called “Christmas Day” in 30 minutes.

That doesn’t typically happen for us - we’ve written only one other song that quickly. It’s just one of those moments…

AS-R: … it’s about being at home and being cozy and talking about Christmas…

AR: …and we wrote it. The biggest part of creativity is consistency. If you don’t keep showing up - Amanda said this the other day - you miss those days when everything falls into place. And most of this stuff happens when you’re just being determined and consistent anyway. But it made me happy for all the days we’ve got together writing and nothing being able to write anything, that we have these kind of days sometimes when everything just seem to fall together. It’s just a cool song - I just love it - it’s my favorite track.

Jerry Lives!

An interview with

BLANK RANGE words: Amy Price photos: Randy Cremean

Grant Gustafson & Jonathan Childers

N

ashville based Blank Range is on-target with a sound that blends jam-band psych goodness and warble-spacey guitar with American southern rock-and-roll, tossing in the occasional Lou Reed/Velvet Underground vibe. Given its delightful variability, their music seems to defy consistent classification, but it’s all good. The band made the run of several large festivals in 2014, including Bonnaroo, ACL Music Festival, Lollapalooza and CMJ, and remains focused on building their fan base through continual touring while honing those unique sounds. We spoke with lead singer Jonathan Childers and lead guitarist Grant Gustafson, both of whom hail from Northern Illinois (as does 80% of the band).

How did you all end up in Nashville?

Grant: Aaron (the bassist) and I moved there about the same time four years ago.

Jonathan: Grant went to school to study jazz guitar. He wanted to move somewhere where he could pursue playing music. I kind of met him when I was living down there already - we came through on a tour, and I stayed with him for a weekend. It was a great time! So I decided to move down there after that.

You describe yourself on your Facebook page as an American rock and roll band. That’s pretty broad. So how would you really describe your music?

Grant: I don’t know if I had much of the hand in writing the bio.

Jonathan: We kind of like to keep it broad, so it can come from the listener’s perspective. We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into anything. We like all sorts of different kinds of music, so we like to incorporate that all in.

When I listen to you I hear southern rock and roll on top of blues, with a psychy-kind of thing thrown in. But you’re even more diverse than that.

Grant: Everybody in the band is really into music and likes listening to the albums, checking out new stuff. Our tastes are also different. I don’t know if it is conscious or subconscious, but we never decide to go all the way in one direction, to have a song that’s like our psychedelic song or our country song. We just work to piece it all together.

Jonathan: After a lot of shows that we’ve played, they will bring up the house music, and the guy that’s running the sound will

often play something that reflects what he thinks we sound like.

It’s always totally different, and it’s always a great compliment to hear whatever it is. It’s fun to see how different people interpret the sound.

It seems like there are three lead singers in the stand which is pretty interesting. How do you match up the vocals from a musical perspective? Every one of you seems to share lead vocals.

Grant: We’re trying to expand that further. At least we’re open to it anyway. Generally one of us might have an idea that we come in with, and the rest of the band takes it and runs with it.

So it’s really a group process. Everybody has a big hand in the creation.

Your bassist plays a lot like he is a lead guitarist. And it’s not only the music - it’s the moves on stage. He moves like a lead guitarist.

Grant: Oh yeah! He’s into it, he’s all over it!

Jonathan: He has those melodic bass lines.

In Nashville, who do you listen to, or hang out with, or want to be like?

Grant: We’ve got a lot of buddies there. It’s not segregated, but there are different scenes that you can be a part of. We’ve always kind of kept it general, I guess. We’re friends with the Diarrhea Planet guys, and Music Band who are often on the road with Jeff the Brotherhood.

Jonathan: It was really cool to see Los Colones here today.

Grant: The Wans, Simon and Mark, those guys are great and I see them all the time.

Grant, tell me about your guitar. You mentioned that you have a new one but you’re also playing your older one, and it has an interesting piece of artwork on it.

Grant: I play a baritone guitar. A buddy of mine, Sam Wade who is a painter and an artist in Nashville, painted that. I finally did some Swiss army knife work to it and put some spray paint on there. It’s something now! My younger brother just finished building another baritone guitar. I didn’t play it all today. I got it like four days ago. We played in Chicago last weekend and my brother came to the show and he gave me the guitar. We’re doing a little bit of setup and fixing some things that it will be ready to roll here in the next couple of days. I’m really into 1960s Italian Western soundtracks: Ennio Morricone and all that stuff. I really

got into that stuff while I was in college six years ago or so. I got a baritone a few years ago and played it ever since. I don’t own a standard tuned electric guitar anymore.

You’re been on tour with another rising band, Benjamin Booker. Can you tell me a little more about that?

Grant: We met them in Nashville. He recorded that album that’s blowing up right now at the Bomb Shelter. It’s just a house over on the east side of Nashville that he’s been working on for several years, and he’s got a great studio there. They recorded the album there, and we met them last winter.

Jonathan: It’s been really fun going on tour with them. They are three of the coolest dudes that you can ever be out with. It’s been fun seeing their set every night. We’ve been selling tons of tickets and it’s nice to play in front of crowds every night.

Grant: They’ve sold out so many of the shows where we have played with them - it’s crazy! It’s fantastic and we couldn’t be happier. We’re grateful for the opportunity - it’s been awesome!

People always come up and we get the comment that they’re really surprised (after hearing them play) - that they really liked us.

Have you all done an EP yet?

Grant: Yeah, we put out a cassette tape EP right as Aaron joined the band. We have been friends with him for a little while as a group, and we had been recording those tracks. He came in and laid down bass on them and then we put the tracks out a few weeks later. That was in April 2013. We did a 7 inch single, 45 RPM record last November.

Any other recording plans in the future?

Grant: We’re gearing up to the real deal: a full-on LP. I think we’re going to be doing that over the winter, due out sometime next year.

Last remarks?

Jonathan: Jerry lives!

the

10 Minutes with

WANS

interview and photo: Amy Price

Mark Petraccia, SImon Kerr, Thomas Bragg

Nashville-based rock band The Wans make music with a bite. Their blend of hard rock and blues seems to have deep southern roots, but the three members - Simon Kerr, Mark Petaccia and Thomas Bragg - came from somewhere else. And, as hard as their music might rock - and that “The Wans” is slang for “The Ones” in Simon’s native Derry, Ireland - they aren’t beyond a little self-deprecating humor. Or finishing each other’s sentences. During their recent performance in Austin, we took time to speak with them about their roots, recording their first album and their observations on Austin’s BBQ and taco culture.

How did you all come together as a band?

Simon: I moved to Nashville (from Derry, Ireland) with my parents - my dad is a songwriter -which is why we moved to Nashville, and then I took it up.

Simon: It was an awesome experience. We did everything live including the vocals.

Mark: We did all the tracks in a week. Then we kind of sat on it, added a few bits of shiny stuff - ear candy floating around. Vocals, everything was done together live in a room in a week.

Because of this, it sounds like you have been really close collaboration as a band - good chemistry among the three of you.

Simon: We hang out a lot (laughter).

Thomas: Even if we’re not doing anything band related, were always kind of together, at least in some formation.

Mark: I came to Nashville for the recording scene actually. I run and operate a recording studio in Nashville. So that attracted me there, the concentration of musicians and studios, and just that level of professionalism.

Simon: We’ll find ourselves saying the exact same goofy thing at the same time and it’s like ‘oh my god and we’ve been in the van together way too long’.

Simon: We were dating these two girls at the time, which we’re not dating anymore. We were moving their furniture and that’s how we met initially.

Mark: It’s like the cheesy relationship that your friends have where they end up finishing each other’s sentences.

Mark: Yeah they were moving in together and we were the hired flesh required - the movers of furniture...

What’s next?

Simon: … and then we just started talking about everything. I had a Clash CD in the car. We just started talking about music and it turned into a jam session.

Thomas: I was touring and making records in a band called Love Drug for a good long while. We made a record there and decided to stay. Then I liked what these guys were doing.

Simon: We stole him away.

Mark: More writing and more recording.

Simon: We have a pretty strict writing regimen. We meet up every Sunday in my living room. We write everything on acoustic, so we’re trying to get back in the regimen of that - writing more songs.

Since you’ve spent some time in Austin, would you tell us something about the taco and BBQ you’ve enjoyed here?

Thomas: So I wanted to play with these guys.

Simon: Austin’s tacos are amazing! Torchy’s are wonderful. They put queso all over the trashy taco.

Did you all come from bands that were doing similar music?

Mark: shut uuuup!

Mark: Sort of. I was in a band that was doing nothing outside of local Nashville shows, musically at least on my part doing similar stuff. I had been without a band for a year or a year and 1/2. Simon was playing in a group called the Hollywood 10, and had left that outfit. It just seemed to be perfect timing.

Their guacamole is fabulous!

You talked about the mutual love of The Clash. Was that one of the seminal things that really drew you together?

All: We haven’t had any barbeque! This was supposed to be BBQ day!

Mark: Well I think that was just the initial one because it happened to be in the CD player, and I had London Calling in my car, so it was serendipitous.

We talked about The Clash, we talked about The Buzzcocks, we talked about the Eagles of Death Metal (which is just sexier Rolling Stones). From there we just started playing. And Boots Electric. Don’t let the name confuse you.

Dave Cobb produced your album, and it sounded like he sort of adopted you during the production. How did that come about?

Mark: Through my engineering work, I’ve done countless records with Dave, engineering for his production. So I was working out of his studio almost exclusively for a year and 1/2. And through doing projects with them, we developed a friendship. He came and heard the band, and was interested in working with us.

All: OMG yeah! SOLD! Interview is over!

And what about barbeque?

Thomas: They like to make fun of me. I may have had one beer more than I should have while we were doing an interview (earlier). At the end of it, I didn’t realize that they kept the camera rolling, and I said “ you guys promised me barbecue day”. It was supposed to be today and it didn’t happen.

Simon: The last words that rolled out of his (Thomas’s) mouth last night he looked at me and said “Barbecue Sunday! Tomorrow!

Lads, when you come back to Austin, we promise to make one day BBQ Day for all y’all.

KNOX HAMILTON Start With the Rhythm interview and photos: Amy Price

K

nox Hamilton may be a relatively new band but their soaring music, catchy lyrics and hooks with tight melodic vocals are getting a lot of attention. The band’s four members - brothers Boots and Cobo Copeland, Bradley Pierce and Drew Buffington - are sweet, well-mannered Southern gentlemen who hail from Little Rock and are just launching into the national music scene with their first tour in late 2014. We spoke recently with the band, who describes what they do as ‘making music that you can dance to’ (but may be better described as ‘music you can sing along to’).

You all are really just launching yourselves into the national music scene. What’s changed and how are you all promoting and positioning yourselves differently now?

Boots: We all quit (our day jobs). We were all officially done like a week before we went out on this tour. So this is it. No more adult jobs. We all do this now.

You said that you make music you can dance to there is much more to it than that. What would you consider to be a successful show, when everyone’s dancing or what?

Boots: I think the ultimate is the singing along. That’s what so cool about music - it’s like community. One of our favorite things is that when you go to a concert that we all love, we love to sing along with the band. So when we see other people singing along with us, we think that was us, or that is still us when we go to our favorite band’s concert. Dancing with us is one thing, but singing along with us let us know that we have friends out there.

Pierce: When they know the words, we know they’re really listening.

You’ve been touring with Colony House, and you’ve also been playing with Nikki Lane. Who would you like to tour with next?

Boots: Local Natives - they’re amazing live. I would love to see them. The coolest thing about (touring with) Colony House is that we’re learning a lot - not just about live performance, but life on the road. This is our first tour after all.

It’s cool to go and really watch a great band every single night and also to learn from them.

What are you learning about life on the road, as compared to just being a musician? Is it everything you thought it would be?

Boots: It’s much more exhausting than I thought it would be. I knew we would have to work hard, and that nothing good would happen unless we did work hard, but I for one am shocked at how always tired we are.

Pierce: When you get up on the stage sometimes it’s like

‘I’m so tired’. When the audience is really into it, it’s easy to kind of lose yourself in that and just put on a good show.

I was really worried about that, just going up in being like a zombie onstage, because we were so tired, but it took care of itself.

Boots: It’s really the only 45 minutes a day that we’re actually awake. We’re just going through the motions during the day until then.

Pierce: We knew that (life on the road) was going to be hard work, but the little details of that hard work, like booking hotels every day and just getting from city to city (is hard work). We’re punctual people and we like to be on time, and sometimes it’s not always possible. The actual perception was that it was going to be hard, and the reality is that it’s harder than we thought.

Bradley: Turns out we are a lot lazier than we thought we were, or that we wish we were.

Cobo: We already want to be like U2 big, and have a crew with lighting and all that stuff.

So who is on your wish list to tour with?

Cobo: Fleetwood Mac just added some 2015 tour dates.

We’ll open for them any day! Let Stevie know that was Cobo.

Stevie Nicks is still a fox, right?

Cobo: She’s awesome!

How did Boots and Cobo get to Arkansas? You grew up partly in Sherman Texas.

Boots: Our dad is a pastor. I was in the womb when my parents moved from Westborough, Louisiana to Sherman, Texas. We were both born in Sherman and lived there for the first 15 or 16 years of my life. Then we moved to North Little Rock and my dad took a church there. We moved twice because of churches.

How has being the sons of the pastor played into your music? Are your parents on board with your music career?

Boots: Our parents are most definitely behind us. My parents have been to two shows - one in LA and one in Dallas - so they’re super pumped for us. It helped us as far as just playing. I know that the performance is a little different, but we’ve been playing together since we were five - we were playing in church, so that helped.

But there was no negative feedback from them that you’re not playing secular music…

Boots: Not at all. They’re very cool Christian parents, which is sometimes tough to come by.

Cobo Copeland, Drew Buffington, Boots Copeland, Bradley Pierece Tell me about your new album. Touring for the first time is a learning experience, and making your first album is a learning experience too.

Who are you working with, and where?

Boots: Alex Aldi is mixing our album. We’ve been working with Ken Coomer, recording some vocals with him in Nashville, but mostly we just work with our friends in Little Rock. We use church studios and home studios - just kind of do it on the fly with our buddies.

Sounds like you got some good recording expertise within your group.

Cobo: We let our friends, our buddies, do the engineering. We’re very specific with our ideas.

Drew: We know what we are looking for. We don’t know the technology all the time, but we can tell them what we’re looking for and they’ll capture it the best way.

Boot: We tell them what we’re thinking and they make it happen.

Do you start with lyrics or music first?

Boots: Music absolutely.

Pierce: I think that is probably why the description of ‘songs that make you dance’ is a good description for us, because it all starts with the music, and that’s what we love. The music that you can feel always starts with the rhythm.

Boots: A lot of times our lyrics will match the feeling of the song, instead of having the lyrics first and put them with some kind of music. We’ve done it that way a few times, but mostly it’s like this song is upbeat and dance-y and has an encouraging theme. Music is a template.

When can we expect your new album?

Boots: The album will be out the first of next year (2015). (The EP, The Great Hall EP, was out in late November.)

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