Grave Babies on Seattle’s Musical Influences and the Best Way to Die

Grave_Babies

Before Grave Babies’ show at Death By Audio, I sat down with songwriter Danny Wahlfeldt, Tyler Robinson, Keith Whiteman, and Mitch Saulsberry, who regaled me with stories about everything from their beginnings in a basement to the best way to end their Farewell Tour 2011.

Kelly Knapp: Tell me about Grave Babies.

Danny Wahlfeldt: Grave Babies was a recording project I had for maybe six months, or more like two months, when I recorded a first LP. It was in the basement where Tyler and I lived together, and I got him to play keyboards for live shows. Then Keith offered, after about a year, to play drums.

Keith Whiteman: My other band – we used to play shows together – Arbitron, and it was good. I like their stuff.

DW: So with having a drummer it got dramatically more interesting. It was pretty bad before, I think. We went to Austin for SXSW, just the two of us, and I think every show was probably the worst show of all time.

KK: How has your sound changed since then?

DW: The live shows have gotten way better, just because there are more people on stage doing stuff.

KW: I think people respond to a bigger sound.

DW: Before, it was kind of broken. And then Mitch came in on bass just a few months ago?

Mitch Saulsberry: No it’s been a while, maybe like five months.

KW: Right after SXSW.

DW: Yeah, for SXSW this year we went down as a three piece, and that went a lot better. And then we did the 7”, and that was recorded a while ago too…and now we’re driving around.

KK: Did you have an agenda for what you wanted to sound like, or was it just what naturally came out?

DW: It was just a recording project…I just started recording a bunch of stuff, around the winter of 2009. I just started recording all sorts of weird stuff, and then the stuff that I thought sounded the coolest was the stuff that I started calling Grave Babies. Tyler and I talked for a while and came up with that name after a lot of the stuff was already recorded.

Tyler Robinson: Yeah, there were some bad, bad names we came up with.

DW: Vitamin Baby Slaughter.

TR: It’s amazing what you can come up with when you’re stoned and texting each other. Just the dumbest things we could think of. I’m glad we never played a show with that name. I just was thinking of the most ridiculous shit I could think of.

DW: Vitamin Slaughter, that was your idea. I wanted a baby in there.

KK: And you even have a song about eating babies?

DW: It’s not about eating babies, it’s about industrialization and society, and how it destroys and corrupts, from the moment you’re young. I figured “Eating Babies” was a more enticing way to say that to people

KK: What made you finally settle on Grave Babies for the band name?

DW: It took a while. We did a lot of name hashing. We were trying to come up with a name that was appropriately dumb, but not too dumb.

KK: It’s a fine line.

TR: We had a few words that we were trying to switch around, like does this work or does this sound too much like some other band?

DW: We’ll see if anyone thinks a band called Grave Babies could be any good.

KW: I think it worked out well. It’s not too hard to say, either. People usually get it on the first try.

KK: And you recently put out your 7”.

DW: Yeah, Hardly Art put a 7” out. We had an LP – there’s a label that we did an LP and a single with from Denmark called Skrot Up, and that was originally an LP on cassette that he put out. He was only doing tapes for a while, and he wanted to start putting out vinyl, so he put out our LP. We put the tape out on vinyl because they were all gone, and I think he was still getting orders…people were asking for it so he put it out on vinyl. And then the single was before that, with him. And then, It took a while, playing around down town before the Hardly Art thing happened.

KK: Which single was that?

DW: The Hardly Art one was the single “Pleasures/Deathwish”, and the Skrot Up single was “Gauge Your Eyes Out,” and “Traumatic Visions” was the b-side.

KK: What is “Pleasures” about?

DW: It’s a little softer, I guess, it’s more personal. I think it’s more of an optimistic song. It’s more me trying to reassure myself that everything’s fine.


Grave Babies – PLEASURES by hardlyartrecords

KK: Yeah, I was reading descriptions of your sound, and some reviewed it as “goth/noise/rock” and for that single it was like, “Shimmery pop.”

DW: I think everything it’s been described as has been labeled by someone else. I never thought about it. It just kind of was what it was, and then when people started calling I stuff, I guess it seemed appropriate. It wasn’t necessarily intended.

KK: What would you call it?

DW: Well, the other day I said it sounded like a Cure record played through a distortion pedal. I thought that was good. It used to be Black Flag and The Smiths.

TR: I don’t know where you came up with that one.

DW: I’m just making shit up, I don’t know!

MS: Like Circle Jerks playing with the Cocteau Twins.

KK: And you’re almost exactly in the middle of your tour right now.

DW: I think so, yeah.

TR: Yeah, we’re just about to take it back. Circle around and go back west.

DW: Yeah, this is pretty exciting. I’ve never been to New York, Mitch has never been to New York. I haven’t seen a lot of the east coast.

KW: I’m excited for Lawrence, Kansas. That’ll be the climax.

TR: Indianapolis. Can’t wait. I’ve heard great things.

KK: How has the tour gone so far?

DW: It was pretty good. The west coast has been fun because we’ve done that a few times now, so it’s better every time. We’ve never really been further than Austin, so it was kind of all new after that. And there have been people out, and people have been interested, who have heard the song and the 7” , so that was nice.

KW: We’ve been playing with friends old and new, that’s always fun.

KK: So it’s not a drag. Is touring like a great chance to get out of Seattle for you?

DW: yeah, everything’s a great chance to get out of Seattle.

TR: Yes, we get to say farewell to our jobs and our lives in Seattle.

KK: Are you guys all from Seattle?

KW: We all live there, but we all grew up in different places. Mitch is the closest, from Spokane, WA. I don’t know, I’ve been missing Seattle more and more. When we go to other shitty cities, I’m like, Seattle’s not that bad. When I left it, it was pretty dreary.

DW: Everywhere we’ve been the people have been nice, but I wouldn’t want to live in a lot of the places we’ve been.

KK: So the touring kind of makes you appreciate it a little bit more?

DW: Yeah, and since it’s home it’s where your bed’s at. When you drive around you don’t have a bed, and that’s kind of a bummer.

KK: Has the Seattle scene really influenced your sound?

DW: In a way, like I didn’t like it at all.

KW: Yeah, there are a lot of basements in Seattle that are just wet – I can’t remember the number of times I’ve played, like been practicing in a basement with a leather jacket on. That doesn’t happen in too many other places. Like, consistently. Not just January, February.

DW: Not because you want to look cool, because you’re fucking cold.

KW: That has a lot to do (with it). And there are a lot of things that are good about Seattle, in terms of where you can play music, and how you can play music.

DW: I think the city, for me, has changed a lot since I’ve been there. I’ve only been there for about three years. Originally it was kind of a bummer, like I’d moved there with a girlfriend and then we broke up, and blah blah. I just thought it was kind of a bummer, and it was just me hanging out with Tyler and texting each other funny band names, and I was recording all the time. Then the more we started playing with people and the more we started doing stuff, it’s gotten a lot friendlier. I kind of resented everything before.

TR: Yeah, we used to think every band in Seattle sucked, until we started playing with some of them.

DW: (laughs) They’re not that bad anymore. It is kinda nice.

KK: So you think your sound would have been a lot different had you guys been based in a totally different city?

DW: Yeah! I was wondering about that more recently, actually. Because after I moved there I started recording and playing different stuff, and I don’t know how much – I’ve never lived anywhere other than Illinois and Seattle, my whole life – so I have a feeling it had to have in some way. And I was wondering along this trip if I ever moved anywhere else, if something else would happen. Maybe it’s just the isolation, when you move somewhere else and you don’t know anyone.

TR: Yeah, you live in a basement, you never see the sun, it’s cold as shit, and there are spiders everywhere.

KW: I did that too, when I first moved there. I certainly didn’t yell as much as I used to when I would play music.

TR: Yeah, you were an angry motherfucker. I miss seeing you vent on stage, screaming into the microphone, breaking your guitars.

DW: He vents on the drum kit.

KW: I do.

KK: Am I going to get to see that tonight?

KW: Yeah, you’ll get to see me slam the drums as hard as possible.

DW: You broke your snare head like, three shows into the trip.

KW: Yeah, that’s why I like drum machines. I first started seeing them when they had a drum machine, and I play music with drum machines all the time, and so does Danny. And I was like, I would love to play along with the drum machine. I think that if I had said, oh let me be your drummer, you would have been like, nah, we need the drum machine. But when I initially went in there saying I want to play the drum machine. That’s fun, then it’s just like your drum buddy.

Grave_Babies_fire_ass_drummer

KK: What goes through your minds when you’re on stage?

DW: I’ve been thinking about more and more, just random shit. It has nothing to do with what we’re playing. I think just because we’ve been playing every day I start thinking about other stuff. Like, what am I doing after the show?

KW: See, I get to listen to the song, since I have the drum machine, and that’s cool. I like that the best, when I can hear everything, and I think wow, I like this song. It’s fun to play along with the song and hear it. I’m not on autopilot mode with drums because it’s a little bit different, but it’s like I’m just listening to the song. Whereas I think if I was playing guitar, you kind of start to wander a little.

DW: I start listening out for everybody. Mitch and I have been having problems with tunings lately, so I’m trying to listen to that.

KW: Grave Babies, tryna be in tune.

DW: We just bought my first tuner the other day. It was hard for me to do that.

KW: Is that why you ran out of the car on the way in?

DW: That’s why I paid for it and was like, I’ll take responsibility for it and buy this thing. Mitch offered, but…

KK: And this is your Farewell Tour?

KW: Until we play with Thee Oh Sees and Total Control on November 29th.

DW: Who knows what’s going to happen. I think we’re playing again in October, in Seattle, somewhere else. But I told everyone not to wait and see if we make it back. Who knows, we may not make it back. There’s a really cool bowling alley in California; we might just stay there.

KW: Oh yeah…no.

KK: So what do you think would be the best way to go out, if you didn’t make it back?

DW: We’ll just fly off a cliff or something.

TR: Laverne and Shirley, just off Grant’s Pass or something.

DW: Yeah, just take a wrong turn, or slip on a banana.

KW: Considering that’s my van that I have to drive to work, I’d like to make it back and not think about that so I can get to work!

TR: Well, you’ll be dead, so…

KW: Oh, alright.

TR: We’ll all be holding hands, and just fly off the side of a mountain. Or, when we go to Salt Lake City we can take that most dangerous highway, and shoot off and be in the pile of cars that line up.

KW: I’ll be driving, that’s not gonna happen. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.

TR: You gotta give us a little control.

DW: We’ll let Tyler drive. We’ll let Mitch drive!

MS: Then it would certainly be a farewell.

DW: He doesn’t have a license.

KW: We do have to do some go-karts in Indianapolis, though, just so Mitch can drive.

DW: Oh yeah, go-kart pile up! That’s how we’ll go out. After almost drowning in the bumper boats.

Grave_Babies_Danny_and_Mitch

Stay connected with Grave Babies on Facebook, listen to their tunes if you haven’t already, and catch them on the last leg of their tour.