Emerging Brooklyn band The Echo Friendly is a name you may start hearing more often. They’ve gotten recent recognition for having their song “Same Mistakes” in the closing credits of the fourth Girls episode, but they also have a band and life philosophy more withstanding than that. In a conversation with band members Jake Rabinbach and Shannon Esper, we talk about their mumblecore sensibilities, and how their real life relationship and what’s important to them has inspired their music.

Kelly Knapp: When did you guys start making music as The Echo Friendly?

Jake Rabinbach: Well, our first show in New York as The Echo Friendly was almost exactly a year ago. Shannon and I started the entertaining the idea of singing duets together in Fall 2010. That’s when we first started thinking about it and I started writing some songs for us.

KK: Is that how it all came about – you guys were already friends and decided to start a band?

JR: Shannon and I made a movie together in the summer of 2009 called Open Five, directed by my friend Kentucker Audley. Kentucker and I wrote it together, and I acted in it, and so did he, and then we cast Shannon. Shannon and I also went to the same elementary school and Jr. high school in Montclair, NJ.

KK: Oh, so you guys go way back.

Shannon Esper: We weren’t really friends, but we knew each other.

JR: Yeah, we were in jazz band together – Shannon played flute and I played guitar. So, she was recommended to me by somebody else we cast in the film. I was looking for a really strong female lead that I believed I would be attracted to in real life. So the other person in the film recommended her, and I knew her so I emailed her, and that’s how we met.

SE: That’s how we met, and then we were friends, and then we dated, and then we stopped dating, and then we started dating…

JR: And I basically was trying to…we were dating, but we’ve always have a sort of turbulent time. I was sort of looking for a way for us to communicate, really, and to get Shannon to come over to my house. I had this one song called “Boats,” that I was working on, and I had been on tour with this band called Francis and the Lights for a long time, and “ Boats” was the first song that I wrote when I came home from being on that tour, and I had done some recording with my old band, and I wanted to start new. I wrote the first half of “Boats” and I saw Shannon, and we went to a record fair, and I made a joke about her singing with me, and she was like, no wait, seriously? And then I said I had already written a song, which wasn’t true. I had already written half a song, and then I went home and I wrote a verse for her to sing, so she would come over. That was Sunday, so she would come over on Wednesday, and then I wrote another one in between so we’d have more time together. So, there was an urgency for me to try to get more songs together so Shannon would hang out.

KK: And is being in the film world with Open Five how you know Girls Lena Dunham?

JR: That is actually how I know Lena. I met Lena because Kentucker was in New York casting Open Five, and she was a fan of Team Picture, his first movie, and they did a short together called Family Tree, and Lena sent her first feature form Oberlin called Creative Nonfiction, and Kentucker and I loved it, so we wanted to see her and hang out with her in New York. This was in summer 2009, before Tiny Furniture came out. We hung out, and talked about making movies, so we knew each other from that.

SE: And she was a fan of Open Five.

JR: Yeah, she was really into Open Five, so I emailed her our music video for “Same Mistakes,” and just said hi, this is what I’m working on, haven’t seen you in awhile, looks like you’re doing great! And she loved the song and wanted to use it, which was an unbelievable blessing for us.

KK: It’s kind of perfect for the show (Girls).

JR: It’s amazing. I couldn’t think of a better placement, and I just feel really lucky.

SE: When we were in SXSW and saw their hastag, #mistakesgirlsmake we were like, yes!

KK: What was the inspiration behind the song “Same Mistakes”?

SE: Mainly, everything’s effed.

JR: Yeah, I was upset, I was beating myself up, and I was sitting in my bedroom, which was the backroom of my mom’s office, where I lived for a while, where I wrote most of our songs. I literally was so angry and upset, mainly about things with (Shannon), and I just said, I’m going to write the dumbest thing I could possibly write. I’m going to write something that no body will ever hear, that I thought was just stupid for me, in that moment. I wrote two verses – the first two - and I played it for Shannon a couple days later, and she was like, that’s the best one you ever wrote.

SE: We are definitely recording that, it is so good!

JR: And I really wouldn’t have known. I really would have just not even played it for anybody. It was for us to sing and I played it for her. Then I wrote the other verse about my friends being a drag and that was just stuff that we were talking about. Like, for a while your friends all want to hang out late and party, and have a good time, and then they all get into relationships. And when all your friends get into relationships – and for me especially; I was living on the upper west side, far from all my friends in Brooklyn, and I felt really isolated. I was just like, everybody is fucking in relationships, they all want to go to bed early, I stay up till 4 or 5 a.m. Shannon was the only other person who was up late and was also single, and going through hard times, and trying to be an artist. She was the only person I really could connect to at that time. I think that’s a lot of what the song is about too. As much as it’s about everything being effed, it’s about us finding each other, and we share that feeling.

KK: That’s really great, because it’s a simple concept but something that everyone feels at some point.

JR: Yeah, I think often, that’s the best thing. Those are my favorite songs. My favorite pop songs are super simple. It’s nice that everybody likes it so much.

SE: We knew they would, though.

JR: I guess so. For a long time I had lost hope, because we released it as a single last summer, but now people are writing on Twitter that they feel less alone, and they feel understood, and it’s making their day better and helping them sleep. I’m overcome, that’s amazing. If we can do that, we don’t have to do anything else. That’s what I’m trying to do, is just have that conversation with a lot of people.

KK: Do you have an album that the song is on, or just the single?

JR: Yep, we do. Nobody’s heard it yet. It’s not out. It’s an album about our relationship, and our ups and downs, and what we’ve been through together. It’s all really personal, factual, 100% - I don’t think I made up anything.

KK: Is your relationship your main inspiration?

JR: I mean, at a certain point, I felt like I didn’t know how to write songs. I was feeling sort of lost, and I was like, I think the only thing I can do here is just say what happened. And if I say what happened, then they’re not bad lyrics. I started doing that, and it became easier and easier. I write Shannon’s parts in the songs, but she writes - we would be up late on g-chat or hanging out or something, and I would really try to get her to…one time I asked her to write me an email, and just say something you’ve never said to me before.

SE: And the band almost broke up.

JR: It was devastating, horrible.

SE: But we wrote a really beautiful song.

JR: Yeah, so I really just started taking facts from our life. Sometimes that was hard, sometimes that was awesome.

KK: Did the things that you never said before end up in a song on the album?

SE: They did end up as a song but that song’s not on the album.

JR: It’ll come out someday.

KK: Is that something that you think differentiates you guys from most other bands?

SE: I think. I don’t know another band that does this.

JR: We’re really big over-sharers, which I think is more in common with mumblecore movies; the way I write lyrics. That’s like when I read a Tao Lin book, I feel like, whoa, that’s really saying exactly what happened in this really simple, beautiful way. I would definitely aspire to do that; that’s what I would like to do. It’s not literary, and I don’t even think of it as confessional, it’s a conversation. I don’t think there are really other bands that are doing that right now. I don’t know, I’ll probably start writing different kinds of lyrics soon. Even if you get toward the songs that were at the end of the record, I’m starting to branch out into larger concepts, but I really for a long time just felt like I don’t know what else to say. I have nothing else to say, except exactly what happened. I don’t know how to talk about this any other way, especially if she (Shannon) was going to be there and be a part of it. I can’t get away with making shit up and just having it be my perspective if she’s going to be singing it. I have somebody else that I have to account for, it’s not just my thoughts…which is challenging, and frustrating, and also the reason that I’ve been able to write as many songs as I have. It’s like a set of parameters.

SE: The craziest thing is just how well we know each other. He’ll send songs to me and I’m like, I don’t even remember saying that, but I know I said that, and now here it is in this song and I’m going to say it again, so many times. Fuck!

KK: So when is this album coming out?

JR: We don’t know yet. We’d like it to come out as soon as possible, but we want it to be right. We want as many people to hear it as possible.

KK: Are you planning more shows, some touring?

JR: Yeah, we want to do it all. The goal is to tour and have a relationship with our fans, and do something meaningful. We went from a week ago not really being sure who was going to listen. Now, there’s people who seem interested in hearing our music, and we want to tour and get this new album out.

KK: Who else are you listening to right now? Who would you want to tour with?

JR: I like so many bands right now, I don’t know. I’m really excited about the new Twin Shadow record coming out; I really loved his first record. I loved EMA’s record last summer. She’s unbelievable. The Youth Lagoon record is great, the Cloud Nothings record is great. I don’t think we sound anything like any of these bands, though. I’d go on tour with any band that I liked, even if we didn’t sound like them. I love the War on Drugs record, the Kurt Vile record, Smoke Ring for my Halo. I like that Daughn Gibson record that just came out. The White Denim people have a label, and they put it out. It’s all country music samples and it’s awesome.

KK: So what is coming up in the near future for you guys?

JR: That’s the big question. We don’t really know. This is the first show we’ve played that we’ve ever played that we sold a lot of advance tickets, and we know there’s definitely going to be a lot of people there.

KK: And it’s like your one-year anniversary.

JR: Yeah, it’s awesome. I think right now we’re just trying to enjoy this week and play this show, and tomorrow is Shannon’s birthday.

KK: Oh, happy birthday!

SE: Thank you very much!

JR: The thing I’m thinking about right now is that I don’t have to hide in the backroom and just hold my breath and hope that people come. That’s awesome. My mom’s coming, Shannon’s parents are coming, it’s going to be a nice little celebration.

We’ll probably release another single soon, and let it trickle out. I think that if people love the song, they’ll probably like the rest of the record – there’s a real sound on it.

KK: Do you already have a song in mind for the next single?

SE & JR: Yeah.

SE: And the video. We shot a video for it and it’s being edited.

JR: Yeah. I don’t want to say what it is.

KK: So it’s a surprise?

SE: Yeah, it’s a surprise.

JR: And I could change my mind. And also, if one video is ready before another – we’ve been working on a lot of video stuff.

KK: That’s cool that you guys are also involved in film, and can really collaborate on a couple art forms.

JR: Yeah, we’re really interested in the visual element of this band, and we know a lot of film people, and those are the people who have been super supportive and helpful.

SE: They’ve been really reassuring for a really long time.

JR: Yeah! A lot of the times when it was hard and we didn’t know what was going to happen next, our friends in the film world would be like, let’s do this. And that would be a project for us to work on that was creative, but also about building the business. That’s been really fun, so people will see more of that from us, for sure.

SE: We have really talented friends.

JR: These people are world class, amazing. Also, it’s wonderful to share back with them. Our friend Paul directed the “Same Mistakes” video, and he’s so talented. I saw him in a bar last night and he was like, yeah your video has like 10,000 fucking views on Youtube. And I was like, yeah I know! That’s so great, and that I could give that to him, he can get more exposure too...it’s just family vibes. That’s part of why collaborating is so fun, is that you get to share it with people. And that’s what I feel about making music with Shannon. Regardless of where we’re at in our relationship, and friendships, we love each other. I don’t know what the point is if it’s not about doing stuff with people you like to be around, and you know and understand and feel close to. It’s not fun, otherwise. It’s like, do something else where you might make money.

With an ode to Gatsby-era debauchery and smoke-filled jazz joints, Leftover Cuties will steal your heart and thrill your soul. In between albums, the band decided to release an EP of covers to serve as an appetizer while they finish recording their sophomore effort. With Departures, the band picked six eclectic songs and put their own twist on them. Though they’re known for “Game Called Life,” the theme song from the Big C, the Shirli McAllen-led outfit is ready to show the world that the Cuties are here to stay. On the eve of the EP’s release, we had a chance to chat with McAllen, and here’s what happened.

What's more fun: playing house parties or venues?

Without a doubt: venues. I think that any artist who writes their own music would take a listening room over playing background music at a house party. My favorites are medium sized theaters. We recently played at the Warfield in San Francisco and at the El Rey in L.A., and we loved every minute of it. The audiences were so engaged and warm and it's so nice, especially as the front person, to know that people are there to listen and appreciate music.

Of the zillions of songs written in the world, how did you decide to cover these few that encompass the Departures EP?

"You are my Sunshine" and "Poker Face" have been a part of our live shows for a while and came to be some of the crowds' favorites. So those two were no-brainers when it came to picking the songs. "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor was actually suggested and voted on by our Facebook fans. When it came to picking the last few songs, it was much harder then we thought. We went through hundreds of songs looking for a one we knew we can make our own. Bob Dylan has been a huge inspiration in my life and I always wanted to sing one of his songs, so we decided to give "Don’t Think Twice, It's All Right" a shot, and it stuck. Coldplay's "Trouble" came up on my iPod one day when I was driving and I thought it would be an interesting choice. We couldn't be happier with the result, we are really proud of it.

How are songs by Bob Dylan and Lady Gaga transformed into Leftover Cuties songs? Is there a common link or was it completely random?

This EP is very eclectic. It's sort of strange to see Dylan's name next to Gaga's, I know, but the one thing linking all these songs is the way they we've transformed them. Our sound and approach is what make them all work together.

Is the EP going to serve as an appetizer to a future full-length that's in the process?

Yes, we are working on our second full length that we are planning to release in the Fall. We've been writing a lot and we just can't wait to get in the studio and lay the new songs down.

Are there plans for any gigs?

We are celebrating the EP release at Hotel Café on 5/16. Next, we are headed to San Diego's Soda Bar and there are a few more dates in the works.

What's more badass: playing the Hotel Cafe or at the Cosmopolitan in Vegas?

These are night and day, but they are both badass for different reasons. We just got back from Vegas and the Cosmopolitan was so fun! We played three nights in a row and we had a blast. It's cool because Vegas is the city of huge productions and it's nice to win a crowd with simply your music. We definitely gained some new fans out there. Hotel Café is a great listening room. It’s intimate and it's a great place for your fans to come see you and really hear you.

 

Which bandmember has the worst driving skills? What happened that led you to decipher this?

That would probably be me. I get nervous when I have people in the car with me and my driving skills go down the drain. Luckily, the guys always drive, so it's a non-issue. Out of the guys, Austin, our ukulele/bass player likes to take the most chances; he's sort of a wild card.

Who wins in a fight: Borat or The Dictator?

I have no idea. But I love Borat.

What do you hope fans get from this EP?

I hope they get a kick out of some songs and I hope they are moved by others. The song selection on the EP is not really a representation of the band's roots; rather the interpretation of the songs is more representative of where we come from and what we like. We hope our fans enjoy that.

Of all the places you have yet to play, what place is number one on your list and why?

Venue-wise, I would absolutely love to play at the Orpheum in LA, simply because its a beautiful old theater and I've seen great shows there. City-wise, we are all dreaming of Barcelona. It's such a beautiful city, and we'd get to eat tapas every day and play for Spanish fans.

The Los Angeles-based sextet, RACES, had a great 2011, which found the band signing with French Kiss Records, playing numerous shows in its hometown, and geared up for a record release. But last year was just a push for what the indie-folk outfit has in store in 2012. Not only is the six-piece’s debut full-length, Year of the Witch, slated for a March 27^th release, but the harmonious troupe has spent the first part of 2012 on tour, opening for El Ten Eleven, performing at SXSW, and slated for a West Coast tour with NO in support of the record release. While on the road, RACES found the time to chat with me about life on the road, the origin of the band’s name, and what LA groups to keep on your radar.

Katrina Nattress: You guys are in the midst of a national tour with El Ten Eleven right now, how does it feel to be on the road?

Garth Herberg: Being on the road is a drastic lifestyle change. You travel light and are constantly meeting up with and leaving behind old friends and new. In a way it’s really therapeutic because you’re forced to let go of your surroundings every day. I’ve come to accept that being in the van for hours, playing to new crowds every day, and sleeping wherever I can is what I want to be doing right now. You have to be willing to put up without some creature comforts and personal space in order to get the high of performing and pushing the band forward. I consider everyone in the band to be a good friend and awesome human being. We’re still getting to know each other and getting used to being confined, but so far I’m feeling great about where we’re at and what we’re doing.

Devon Lee: Touring is not glamorous, but it is beyond fun. The hours of driving, sleeping in strangers’ beds, not eating properly and dealing with unexpected weather conditions (ie. driving in a blizzard), all fall away once I am on stage. The bond I feel with the band is meaningful up there. We could have just bitched and moaned ten minutes before playing, but all of that tour stress means nothing when people are enjoying our live performance! Plus, on this particular tour, we are surrounded by the awesome dudes and crew of El Ten Eleven. I am grateful to be opening for them every night.

KN: What’s been the highlight of the tour thus far?

Lucas Ventura: Wade and I busting each others' faces open with snowballs in Aspen.

GH: The New Parish show in Oakland was fantastic. We played to a great crowd of people. It totally exceeded my expectations.

KN: What I love about your live performances is the band’s energy--the songs really come alive. What do you hope your fans get out of seeing you live?

Oliver Hild: A feeling of the need to give us their money. This stuff is hard.

Wade Ryff: A momentary escape from the day to day.

Bre Wood: A common response we get is about the energy we give off while playing. That's been the greatest compliment so far. It's really all about how we can make the crowd feel and the impression we leave.

KN: What do you think is the most important factor in a band’s live performance?

GH: Bill Hicks put it like this, “Play from your f%$ing heart!”

KN: When you first began, your band was called “Black Jesus.” What caused the name change?

WR: A new phase.

KN: Why did you go with “RACES?”

LV: Syd from Frenchkiss has a “Drunk List of Bandnames”. We were flustered and couldn’t come up with a good replacement for “Black Jesus”, so he helped us out with that one.

KN: How long have the six of you been playing music together?

BW: A few of us have been playing together for many years. As a band we all gathered in a practice studio for the first time a few days before our first show.  Some of us never having met before. We played music that night and I think we all felt an instant connection.

KN: French Kiss signed RACES when you guys had nothing but a 7” released. How do you feel this instant signing affected the direction of the band (if at all)?

WR: I think the biggest change is that everyone is more dedicated to the band now.  Before [French Kiss] came around some members were still playing in other bands and treating RACES as more of a side project.  It has pushed the band as a whole to work a lot harder together.

KN: Tell me about the writing/recording process of Year of The Witch.

WR: At that point in time, the band didn’t meet all that much. I would mostly write the songs, and then bring them to Garth. He and I would work out arrangements for the backup vocals or work on structure and then bring stuff into the band room.  After we had a bunch of songs, we would go into the studio, (which was a warehouse for a concrete company that belonged to a friend of Oliver’s) a couple times a month and record the songs we had. We didn’t know we were making an album when we started.  Oliver would engineer all the sessions and he and I produced it together.  At a certain point we realized we had an album and got Niko Bolas to mix the record out of his room at Capitol Records. That was real exciting... getting to be in Capitol Records use the same Echo Chambers that Frank Sinatra used.

KN: Do you feel like being signed caused a larger amount of pressure on the release?

LV: It's made us have to wait longer for it to come out. I think the pressure comes in all the stuff that comes along with releasing an album. Touring, promoting, and the business elements that musicians are not inherently good at...

KN: There are a lot of bands in the L.A. area, what do you think makes Races stand out from the rest?

OH: We have a song about the Lakers' Metta World Peace.

KN: Which L.A. bands should we be listening to right now?

WR: I heard some of Aaron Embry’s new music and was blown away.  I always find myself coming back to Blake Mills too. He’s one of my favorite songwriters.

LV: Hit City Records in L.A. has a bunch of great bands on their roster. Superhumanoids, PAPA, and Princeton are all bands I think are great. NO is another great group.

BW: I always have a great time watching So Many Wizards perform. I just love their sound. As Lucas said, PAPA is a great band with a great EP "A Good Woman Is Hard To Find".

 

KN: What can we expect from Races in 2012?

WR:  More shows, more songs, more money, more problems.

Although Korallreven is a recently formed band, making music is nothing new to Daniel Tjäder. Since 2001, the musician has played keys with Swedish dream-pop heroes, The Radio Dept. Nearly a decade later, fellow Swedish music maker, Marcus Joons, had an epiphany during a trip to Samoa, and when he returned home, Korallreven was born. The duo released its first single, “Honey Mine,” in 2010, and after dealing with a series of life events, Joons and Tjäder released their debut LP, An Album by Korallreven, in November of last year, via Acéphale. Celebrating the release, the whimsical electro pop outfit will be playing selected shows in the US this month (check out dates here). Amidst gearing up for the band’s first tour in the States, Tjäder was kind enough to talk to BestNewBands.com about the making of Korallreven’s debut release, the US tour, and what the band has in store for 2012.

Katrina Nattress: Tell me about how this band came to be.

Daniel Tjäder: Marcus went to Samoa and had an epiphany of a certain kind of music. Some time later, we found ourselves living in the same city and got to talking about how to make this happen. So we started outlining what would become Korallreven and our first album.

KN: What is the meaning/significance behind “Korallreven”?

DT: Well, Korallreven is the Swedish word for Coral reefs, and quite close to the Samoan word for spirituality. Coral reefs are beautiful, sharp and sadly endangered.

KN: Two years passed between your first single and your debut LP. What was the reason for this?

DT: In short, life came in-between - but I think the songs benefit from it in the end. Marcus moved to NY, I was on tour a lot with The Radio Dept, day jobs, love, breakups, etc., etc…

KN: Take me through the recording process of An Album By Korallreven.

DT: Well, as you pointed out, it was a prolonged process spread across two years. The majority of it was conceived and recorded in my apartment in Stockholm under poor sound conditions, and some of it in New York, under even poorer conditions. Quite early on we had a clear idea of how we wanted it to sound, but it took us a while to get there - in part, because Marcus was living in New York and I was in Stockholm. We’d send versions back-and-forth and slowly mold them into what would become An Album. It was then mixed and finalized in a proper studio.

KN: What was the best part of the recording process?

DT: When something unexpected happens to the song you’re working on. When you come up with ideas in the moment, make mistakes that throw the track in new directions. The haphazard things that just occur, the ones you never foresee.

KN: What was the worst part of the recording process?

DT: Apart from a stormy personal life throughout the whole process, it was struggling with the tools - having to learn everything as you go. It took us a while to be able to actually create the sounds we wanted to hear.

KN: If you could do anything differently, what would it be?

DT: I don’t believe in life after death. What’s important is what you do here and now...in this life. I also don’t think you ever get another chance to do the same thing twice. But we all have a responsibility to learn from our past mistakes and experiences, and to make things better as we move forward. With that, and with Korallreven specifically, there’s a lot that could‘ve been done differently. And it will be, on our next record.

KN: Critics say the record works best as an album-length experience. Was this pre-meditated?

DT: From the very beginning, wanted to create a collection of songs that fit well together as a series, from front-to-back. Perhaps we also had ambitions to make the album more than the sum of its parts.

KN: You’re gearing up to play in the U.S. for the first time. How do you feel about this?

DT: We're absolutely delighted! Can’t wait.

KN: Have you visited the U.S. before?

DT: There's probably no other country, apart from Sweden, where we've spent more time over the last couple years - Marcus lived there for a majority of that time, and I've toured and spent many holidays in the states. For us, it’s a bit like a second home.

KN: In what city/venue are you most excited to perform?

DT: Well, honestly, we are quite excited to play all of them! Personally I have very fond memories from playing both Bowery Ballroom (in New York City) and the Independent in San Francisco before.

KN: Do you think you’ll be back for a longer tour in the future?

DT: Definitely. But I can’t tell you when, where or how, at the moment.

KN: It’s great that you got Victoria Bergsman on board to perform with you on your West Coast dates. Will she just be joining you on “As Young As Yesterday,” or have you incorporated her into more of your live show?

DT: Don’t wanna spoil too much, but you’ll see…

KN: What can one expect from your live show?

DT: Instruments will be played, people will sing and dance, and it will all be set against a wall of by breathtaking visuals by Jamie Harley.

KN: What are your plans for 2012?

DT: Touring, some work, record, more touring, time off, some more recording...with hopes to keep surprising ourselves in the process.

Over the past year, Young The Giant has been one of the fast rising new bands in alt-rock. With songs like “My Body” and “Cough Syrup” becoming national and international staples, they have grown from a regional phenomenon to stars. With a three-month North American tour commencing next week, we caught up with Francois Comtois and Sameer Gadhia to chat about their new music and a bunch of things and here’s what happened.

DK: Why and when did you decide to change your name from The Jakes to Young the Giant?

FC: That came after we were signed to Roadrunner, so in 2009. We came to the realization that this would be the last time we could change our name. We didn’t think that The Jakes fit us anymore. It was a band started five years before and only two of the original members were still around. The name didn’t represent us and hence warranted something new. We kicked together a bunch of names for a while and nobody seemed to agree on anything. Finally, Sameer said Young The Giant and we looked at each other and judging by the looks on everyone’s faces, nobody hated it so that’s how it happened.

DK: When do you think you’re going to start the sessions for a new album?

SG: We see the second album as the true test. We want people to see that we’re very creative, we don’t get into writer’s block and we’ve kept flowing for three or four years and have no signs of stopping.

DK: Are you excited to debut some of your new music on the upcoming tour? Are you planning on switching up the set a bit on this time around?

FC: Absolutely. We did a lot of tours where we were opening for a bigger headliner and that required that we play a similar set, if not the same exact set night in and night out. We got to the point where I was playing drums entirely on muscle memory. There were entire portions of songs where I was thinking of my girlfriend or what I want to eat later on and stupid stuff like that when I should be concentrating on drumming. It was strange because I started to feel exactly like a robot. I think we want to avoid that as much as possible an whether that means playing more new material or bust out a couple of more covers, and break up the monotony a bit.

DK: What’s the oldest song that the band performs?

FC: “Cough Syrup.” It’s funny because that’s one of the songs that got us signed and it still gets such a strong reaction when we play it live. I never thought in a million years that song would be the one to get us to where we’ve gotten. You can never predict what songs people are going to connect with.

DK: Were your parents always supportive of your musical endeavors?

SG: At first they weren’t super approving because they thought it was very important to go to college. When we started to see some success, and more so when they saw how passionate about what we were doing, they really became supportive and now I can’t stop talking to my parents about music.

FC: Sometimes I feel like I’m doing interviews with my parents when I come back home. Sometimes they’ll ask questions about how things are going and I feel like I’m giving them the answers I’m giving to some blog writer. But they’ve been so awesome about it and are so happy and proud that I think that I try to be more patient when they ask than I would have been before.

 

DK: Having played the VMAs and Unplugged, you’ve done stuff that bands dream of when they first start out. Is it hard to stay grounded, at least amongst each other, that all of these things that were once dreams, are now becoming reality?

SG: Luckily, I haven’t found it difficult because my best friends are in this band. We constantly bring each other down in a joking way that keeps us together and focused without getting overwhelmed. When we first started playing music, we never wanted to lose sight of anything, regardless of how much we accomplish. Hopefully none of us ever become assholes and think we’re more important than we really are. That’s not to say that it’s not incredible and awesome to do stuff we dreamed, but it’s how you deal with it that makes you who you are.

DK: With the new songs thus far, have you started to experiment with your sound by adding any new instruments or sounds to the existing material?

FC: The earlier songs that were on our first album were the result of only having certain instruments at our disposal. We were working on strictly guitar, bass and drum songs because we didn’t have any other instruments to make any other sounds. Now that we’ve gotten to the point where can afford new and different instruments, we can be more meticulous about finding the perfect tone and we want to take that opportunity to get the sound we want right.

DK: Does playing to sold out crowds, reaffirm to you guys that your musical direction is the right one for the band or do you not discuss nor care about things like that?

SG: We are definitely evolving on our terms and don’t want to fall into a trap of doing the same thing over and over again. At the same time, we don’t want to do something too different or too crazy that it doesn’t feel like us. We’re starting to be a little bit more experimental with what we’re doing; yet still maintaining the pop sensibility that defines our sound.

DK: Why are you guys touring despite having not started the new album?

SG: It’s going to bridge the gap between the first and second records. People are going to see the direction where we’re going.

 

Gold Leaves is Grant Olsen (Image by Kyle Johnson), who you may know from Arthur & Yu. This has been a busy and productive year for him, culminating in the release of his debut album, The Ornament, followed by a US and UK tour that he just recently wrapped up. On this album, Olsen conveys his knowledge and appreciation of an array of diverse music styles, from country to R&B. Olsen comes across as a crooner somewhere in between it all, in an honest and thoughtful endeavor that already sounds like a smooth, classic collection of songs that sound like a sunset.

Kelly Knapp: Your songs pull from many different elements, from doo-wop to country.  What makes a good song for you? Do you feel you have to be in a certain emotional state to write a good song?

Grant Olsen: Hmm, good question. There are so many different pieces of music that fit under the category of a “song,” from some 20 minute tune like “Halleluhwah” by Can to a song like “Wooly Bully.” Or there are songs like “Milkshake” by Kelis, or “Rock Bottom Riser” by Bill Callahan.  All of those songs draw from, or at least elicit, very different emotional states I think, but I probably think they’d all fit under the category of a “good song” in my opinion.  And I think I’ll still feel that way about them in 40 years.  There’s only so much you can do with 12 notes and a handful of different time signatures, so if you can make something stand alone and sound unique, that’s really quite a miraculous feat.  I’m still really trying to figure out how to do that, but participating in the enterprise of the practicing artist has been alright so far.

KK: PItchfork’s review of Ornaments complimented you with having one of the “most flat-out pretty voices in contemporary indie rock.” Do you think of your voice as another instrument? How much do you concentrate on communicating lyrics within an arrangement when you’re writing a song?

GO: Well… I have a lot of work to do on my voice.  I’d like it to wear it in to the right shape like an armchair or a shirt I feel comfortable in at any moment.  I still don’t feel that way about it yet, but I hope it gets better with age.  I think I’m wanting to write songs that would sound better with a wiser mouth, if that makes sense.  I’m also thinking about taking some voice lessons this month to explore what all it is and isn’t capable of.

As far as communication goes, I do enjoy playing with emphasizing unconventional syllables or certain parts of a line in order for it to stick out a bit.  What I feel is important to communicate sometimes changes night to night and I end up singing the songs a bit different every time. That can really mess up harmonies at times, but the guys I’ve been working with have been pretty patient and have learned to work despite of me.

KK: You began work on Gold Leaves about 4 years ago, but had to scrap most of the material when the bulk of it got stolen. Do you think you would have made an entirely different album had things been different?

GO: Yeah,  I had a bag with a laptop and some notebooks and my cell phone with some sketches stolen. I’d hope that the best songs would’ve stuck with me, but I record a handful of ideas a week and lots of them in a stream-of-consciousness fashion and when I go back to listen to them months later, I sometimes have no recollection of what they are.  So I really have no idea what most of that material would’ve been.  I guess it doesn’t really matter now, but I don’t think those songs very stylistically different than what came out on this first Gold Leaves record.

KK: The Ornament was also crafted after you experienced several deeply meaningful events in your life. Was the creation of this album also a very cathartic expression?

GO: I was more of a relief to finally put out the record than anything. The events over the years ran the gamut of high’s and lows and weren’t extraordinary to anyone else’s normal life-stuff I wouldn’t think.  I’ve been pretty lucky really.  I do turn to music for catharsis for sure, but probably more as a listener. Heh, really the first thing that came to my mind with “cathartic expression” was a dude on a mountaintop with his arms out-stretched and the horrible 360 degreed helicopter shot.  Like Creed or something.  I’m not that comfortable with myself for a full cathartic expression yet. It’s always good to have something to look forward to I guess.

KK: Through the course of making this album as Gold Leaves, what did you discover about yourself as a musician? How different was the communication of ideas from when you were part of Arthur & Yu?

GO: Honestly, it showed me how much work I have to do as a musician.  I feel like the songwriting aspect is coming along, but there’s so much I need to learn about music itself and guitar and piano and gear that will keep me busy for a while.

I’d say the communication of ideas was pretty similar to Arthur & Yu because most of this album was demoed first, with me playing everything, however shabbily.  The big difference is that I had the benefit with Gold Leaves to go into the studio with musicians that were much better than I am and have some objective ears when beginning the recording process.  I left a lot of the songs open in parts that I felt were more malleable and we were able to add some more improvisational touches.

KK: What aspect of the record are you most proud of?

GO: Besides Arian Behzadi’s art and the people I got to work with, I guess I feel like it’s a really cohesive record.  I feel like a lot of what was in my head came through, and that’s the most I’ve been able to do that so far.  I’d have to attribute a lot of that to Jason Quever for helping me make that happen.

KK: Any piece of music from another artist you’ve been listening to recently that you think is really inspiring?

GO: Some recents this week have been Smokey and His Sister, Hoyt Axton, Night Beats, Curt Boettcher, Kourosh Yaghmaei, Val Stöecklein, some Korean songs from the 70’s on youtube and High Llamas.

KK: Nothing gold can stay - what does the future hold for Gold Leaves?

Ha. Well, I just got done touring for 7 weeks and am going to take a couple weeks off from shows for the holidays.  We have a few shows in Seattle at the beginning of the year and we’re hoping to get back on the road a bunch in Spring.  Other than that, it’s a goal to get the next record recorded in the first half of the new year.   We’ll see.  I have a bad habit of saying that.

Image by Kyle Johnson

You can grab a copy of The Ornament over at Hardly Art, and keep up with Gold Leaves on Facebook.

It's been a few months since BestNewBands.com caught up with Young Buffalo. Since Daniel's Q&A with now former member Alex Von Hardberger, they've hit some bumps and had some changes of plan, but also released a new track and have kept moving forward. Here's an update on their musical trajectory.

Kelly Knapp: The last time you guys were mentioned on BestNewBands.com, I believe Alex did an interview in July – what has the last 4 months been like for you guys? You’ve played CMJ, done some touring, a new release…

Jim Barrett: I don't remember this, but I'm sure it went well.  Actually in the past four months we haven't been that active. Alex had to move on for personal reasons in October and is not playing with us anymore.  We didn't play CMJ, and the only touring we've done has been recently as of the end of November and these first two weeks in December.  Other than that, I recorded Baby Demons in September/October and we put that as pay-what-you-want on our Bandcamp.

KK: What was the inspiration behind “Baby Demons”?

JB: I'm not really sure.  I'd had the song demoed and I just did a fresh version on better equipment and it came out pretty well.  I was debating on whether to use it for Young Buffalo (or with my other project ILLLS), but since the chorus ended up exploding with harmonies I figured it was a better fit with YB.  I'm not very sure what the song means to me yet, but the lyrics are definitely about how we all have personal/emotional baggage and shit and how our friends closest to us normally know have a better idea as to what we really need to get through it. I guess?

KK: Your tour with The Vaccines and Tennis and canceled – bummer – have any dates been rescheduled for that yet?

JB: Yeah that one kinda took the wind out of our sails.  We're hoping to maybe get a few dates with The Vaccines when they come back over stateside this spring. But, who knows if we will get them.

KK: One of the questions Daniel asked you this past summer was After the tour, what's the plan for the rest of 2011, and Alex said: More touring and hopefully getting back in the studio.” Can you update us on that?

JB: Well the touring thing didn't really pan out, as previously stated, but Ben and I are hoping to get back in the studio early 2012 and finish up an LP that we started about a year and a half ago.

KK: As far as the new album, what can we expect from that? Any new direction or surprising material?

JB: Honestly, we've only discussed it a little bit.  I think mainly what we're going to try and do is build off the EP and recordings we did over a year ago at Sweet Tea studio here in Oxford.  Also, now that our touring band is four members, I think we'll try and get our newer material to sound closer to what we can recreate live.  I'd say most of the newer material is kind of moving closer to the direction that Baby Demons is heading towards, and also Ben's new songs are sounding bigger.

KK: You may have been asked this before, or maybe you stated it, but is your name a reference at all to Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield?

JB: We've actually never been asked that I don't think!  But, no it's not.  We're big Neil Young and CSNY fans but no, that's not why our name is Young Buffalo.

KK: What’s your favorite effect to use?

JB: On my voice, I like to use cathedral reverb and delay on a few songs.  As far as guitar, I've figured out a way to get my delay pedal to sound like a crazy chorus pedal.  Really vibin' on that lately.

KK: What are some of your favorite bands right now that you think deserve more attention?

JB: Definitely a lot of local bands here in Oxford, MS.  Dead Gaze, Gray Things, Flight, and Child Star to name a few. Our friends in these bands are doing a lot of cool things and people need to hear it for sure.

KK: What are your new year plans? Any new years resolutions?

JB: We're doing a big locals night in Oxford and my band ILLLS is going to play along three others. Ben actually plays drums for us so we'll be ringing in the New Year in style.  I'd say probably to finally release an LP and tour the world, and make dollar bill$$$.

High Places are duo comprised of multi-instrumentalist Rob Barber and vocalist Mary Pearson (Photo: Hisham Bharoocha). The two have come far since their beginnings as a band almost six years ago, relocating from one coast to another, touring art spaces and DIY clubs all over the world, and most recently releasing their third full length, Original Colors, all the while absorbing every aspect of their journey. Their experiences have served as inspiration for their creative output, in addition to a well-documented path they’ve taken. The story of High Places could actually make a great documentary one day, but in the meantime, here’s a somewhat lengthy, yet substantial read from when I caught up with them during their recent run through Brooklyn, one of the band’s old stomping grounds.

Kelly Knapp: How is the tour going so far?

Rob Barber: It’s been really smart. It’s been good, but it’s been really smart as far as how it’s been set up. Our last album, we basically did North America, leaving from California, leaving our van in Philadelphia and flying to Europe, and then coming back.

Mary Pearson: We love touring, we love performing, but that’s a really long time to be away from home. Just having a couple days between legs of the tour makes a huge difference.

RB: We did the west coast and we came home for five days, and then we came out and did the northeast and Canada, and Midwest, and now we go for a little bit, and then we go to Europe. So it’s rather than basically trying to do it all in one shot, breaking it up a little bit.

MP: After like, five and a half years of doing the band, we’re finally figuring some things out.

RB: Yeah, I mean, we’ve toured a ton, and we still like touring, but we realize that we have to break it up or you start to look older.

KK: What kind of things do you do when you have an off day in a new city?

RB: Hiking.

MP: We go to botanic gardens a lot, especially when we’re in different countries. It’s really interesting to see native flora. And we like to eat. We’re both vegans, so we’re really into food. And coffee.

RB: Yeah we hunt for really good food. Hopefully not as much coffee. I’m trying to cut back.

MP: Yeah, we’re trying to mellow on coffee a little. Caffeine’s not always the coolest thing on tour.

RB: And trying to find stuff between cities, stuff that’s more rural and outdoorsy.

MP: We try to take photos of where we’re going, and document food that we’re eating. I like to try to make a little path, to show friends who are also on tour, who also like to eat nice stuff.

KK: I think that’s cool. I’ve looked at your blog, and it’s cool to have that visual of what you’re doing.

RB: It’s also for – we have some friends that we’ve toured with, and they also have the same diet choice we have, so it’s almost like leaving a trail for each other, like, this place has good falafel.

MP: A lot of that stuff ends up inspiring, like the photos and just the traveling and all of that ends up inspiring our art quite a bit.

KK: Did a lot of that inspire your new album?

RB: I think everything we’ve done has always been somewhat about traveling, and basically the experience of escaping. The second album was more about the personal condition, but the first and this last record – in different ways – tend to be more about transporting.

MP: Yeah, and I think being on the road, and being on an airplane, and getting that perspective, you really start thinking about your life. Traveling is really good for that. Touring is like…every day is sort of like Groundhog Day, in that you do sort of the same thing, so there’s this timeless quality and you can really analyze your life. I always come home with post-tour resolutions, like I want to cook more, or hike more. That sort of thing just really gets you to think about life, and it’s really good for artistic inspiration, I think.

RB: Being able to travel so much is definitely such a nice byproduct of this line of work, but at the same time, it sort of makes you appreciate a sense of home more too. When we first started the band, we lived here, and I had been here for a long time – most of my life – and basically my escape pod was touring. Now when I’m away, it’s kind of like my time to just be in this meditative (state), like I can’t do anything right now except just travel, play, travel, keep moving. So it kind of cleans you out, so when you get back home you feel really re-charged and inspired to work.

MP: And then daily life is kind of exotic too, like getting the newspaper and seeing my cats feels really great.

RB: Gardening, stuff like that. As opposed to coming home from tour here (NY), and I’d want to sleep for five days.

KK: So does L.A. feel like more of a home base?

MP: I think it’s easy to be really domestic in L.A. You can sort of - Rob always calls it choosing your own adventure - it really is like that. You can create your own world. I think most places are like that, but L.A. in particular doesn’t just have one identity. There are so many different neighborhoods and areas that you can really create your dream environment, and I think for us, that’s made us much more domestic than we’ve ever been. It was so fun being in New York, but sometimes you’d come home really exhausted after tour and be like, oh yeah I forgot, the pace of the city is really fast, and I don’t have much space to call my own here. Just being able to spread out a little bit, I swear there are more hours in the day. Maybe it’s just all the sunlight, but the pace feels really slow in L.A.

RB: That’s a big part of it. Here, we’d stay up all night all the time. We’d work all night on stuff, and you’re out late too, more often. And I think in L.A. it feels kind of sick to waste the day.

MP: At least for Rob and I. We’re more dramatic about really getting our money’s worth in L.A. and every hour of daylight we can get.

RB: Especially in the summer. Basically from dawn to 8-10 or 11 in the morning, the weather is perfect. And then it gets to the point where you’re in the desert. It’s not humid – and I’ll take dry heat over humidity any day of the week – but it gets to the point where you’re not going to go hiking at 1pm in July. You’ll perish. It’s like Abraham, you’re toiling.

MP: We made that video, “Alto Lugares,” that was shot at dawn. The song is basically talking about hiking at dawn, so it’s pretty literal, but it was really a practical thing. We were like, we can’t be out in the desert in the middle of the day, so we’ll have to leave at 5am and just shoot for as long as we can, until it’s sweltering.

KK: What about the difference in music scenes? What’s the major difference?

MP: I feel like right when we started the band in 2006, it was when the internet was really taking off, like the MySpace thing with bands. I remember that we were really floored, because we made one song and put it on MySpace, and then we played a show in Michigan shortly after that, and people were singing along. That was really weird at the time, but I feel like because of that, we felt a connection to bands in different places. So while there is a different scene in L.A. we felt connected even when we were in New York. But there are similarities. Here, we played a lot of warehouse-y punk shows in Brooklyn, and in L.A. there’s that venue, The Smell, that’s really similar. And just being all-ages friendly and not like a typical venue. That made it an easy transition, and a lot of our friends in both places travel a lot, so I feel like where they’re based matters less.

KK: What’s it like to come back and play shows in Brooklyn?

MP: It feels good. It feels like home, still. That’s how we got started playing, and we’ve always played with – we’re borrowing our friend’s speaker cabinets, but they’re just like ours, and we always bring our own PA. That got started because we played warehouse shows in Brooklyn, and you just never knew what sort of sound system you were going to get, for better or worse. We tried to just make that a constant variable. But both bands we’re playing with tonight are based here.

KK: You’ve played with them both before?

MP: Yeah, we’ve played with Matteah before, and we’ve played with Peter, who plays keyboards in Test House and various bands. He played with a band called Soiled Mattress and the Springs, and his latest band was Silk Flowers. There’s a lot of crossover, and I feel like there’s always been that between New York and L.A. Flights are relatively cheap and direct, and people split their time if they can, if they have that luxury. That’s kind of a dream; I’d love that.

KK: What about your new song “Senora.” How did the concept for that video come about?

MP: That was our friend Keith. He’s a new friend, but he had done a video for some friends who are in a band in L.A. called Hecuba. They’re really awesome, and he did a video for them that was like, dancing cats. It’s really great, actually. It’s pretty sassy.

RB: You have to be a cat person.

MP: He contacted us and was like, hey I’m friends with Hecuba, and I like you’re music; I want to do a video. So we got together with him, and he was telling us some ideas he had, and one of his ideas was to do a sort of Popeye-inspired video.

RB: Well, he gave us all these sort of high concept ideas, and we were kind of like, hmm…

MP: And then he goes, ‘you won’t like this idea, but I want to make this video sometime…’

RB: He’s like, ‘oh, I have this other weird one…I don’t know, I always wanted to make kind of like, a really graphic live action Popeye with reverse gender…”

MP: No, he didn’t say reverse gender.

RB: Oh, that was your idea. But he said that and we were like, we like it!

MP: Sold! And then I was like, can I be Popeye, please?

RB: I only thought of this today, but I had always made the joke that if I was ever in a movie I would want to get killed. Preferably by a ghost or something, or a monster.

MP: If I’m ever in a soap opera, I’d like to get killed off in like two episodes.

RB: But I always made that joke, because I’m not a very performative person. I’m like, you know I shouldn’t really be in it too much. I’m kind of awkward. But then today I was just thinking, ah man, I should have been killed. It would have been so great if at the end of the film you (Mary) killed me.

MP: You were one of like, three people who didn’t get killed.

RB: I know! It just would have been so good if my cameo was being killed.

MP: Especially at the hands of your band mate. That could be therapy for bands.

RB: Yeah, that could be like, role playing for bands.

MP: I’ve never actually wanted to kill Rob, I have to say.

KK: What about the evolution of your music in general. I remember first hearing you guys in 2008, when you had 03/07 – 09/07 out, and your sound then was very organic, eclectic, and experimental, and you could hear all these more traditional instruments in an electronic environment, and now you’re refining your sound even more.

MP: It’s sort of been an accident, I think. Just as we go along, we sort of figure things out a little bit. We’ve always liked to challenge ourselves, and I always think of it as a sort of trajectory that you’re traveling along and collecting experiences, and it’s always going to change your sound. To me, it all sounds like High Places, and I really hear the two of us in everything we’ve made, but it definitely has evolved and changed directions here and there, but I think that we’ve sort of been building on these same ideas. We’re still obsessed with the idea of taking acoustic and organic sounds and manipulating them in this more inorganic way, and just that sort of dichotomy is really interesting to us. I think we could explore it for another five years, easily.

RB: That too, and it’s also like, I’m not really a musician. I’m more of a visual artist. I’ve always make music and sound stuff, but I always treated it more how I treated visual work - very collage-like and layered, and lots of little parts and assemblage. That’s how our music really is; it’s basically assemblage-type artwork, just using sound. I also tend to think about the emotional color of some sound that I might make or come up with it. I hope it doesn’t sound hokey, but essentially what I’m getting at is that it’s sort of like…when you make a lot of work, sometimes you start to feel like fall in your comfort zone of a certain palette, and the way to challenge yourself is to throw out those tubes of paint.

Rob Barber

MP: And the nature of experimentation is to try new things.

RB: And then start working with a different palette and challenge yourself on that level. And I felt like we used all these sort of homespun acoustic sounds on the first record; and we still kind of do – we still actually use a lot of the same sounds, but we color them differently.

MP: We’ve always been real immediate in just grabbing whatever’s in our line of vision and using that.

RB: Yeah, we don’t tend to use a lot of pre-fab gear. We tend to make a lot of the sounds still from like – it just sounds a little colder or more industrial at times now, because of just playing around with our comfort zone. I think if we kept re-creating the same songs, they would get distilled into something that wasn’t as interesting as the original thing. It’s not really something self-conscious, you just do it, out of being bored of the same materials.

KK: So even if you’re not still using mixing bowls or something, you’re still using layers and experimentation.

MP: Even on the last record, a lot of the percussive elements just started with us making sounds with our mouths and using that to make beats, and at the time we thought we were just recording ideas so we would remember them and re-create them later, and then we just ended using a lot of those sounds because we thought these sounded how we wanted them to. But the way we’ve always worked is just passing short recordings back and forth to each other, so we take one person’s very short, simple idea and then we add our own, and then back and forth, back and forth. So, it’s really hard for us to control our overall sound, because the other person is always taking it and pulling it in a different direction. It just always ends in some place that neither of us planned on. I think it’s hard for us to talk about genre and sound, because the other person gets in the way of it ever going in one specific direction, which is cool.

KK: Has that all translated to your live show as well, the same kind of evolution?

MP: Definitely. We’re constantly trying to figure out how to re-create the sounds in the best, most dynamic way.

RB: More physical, at least. Our approach is essentially like a photocopier or something. It’s essentially that with music, and trying to make it more…increase the physicality. We’re not against people who use laptops live, but for us, I’d rather be physically hitting something than trying to use a mouse pad. I don’t like the division between having a computer and having an audience, too. It’s just a personal preference.

KK: What’s the best thing about playing live, for you guys?

RB: For me, it’s really honestly playing with friends in different towns. Context is really important for us. We like playing in a lot of different environments on tour, and we actually play more art-type spaces as opposed to traditional music venues, and we like to do more of a combination of more underground shows – which is how we started here – and then maybe a traditional club environment and then maybe an art space. Just basically so you don’t have the same – back to the whole Groundhog Day analogy – because all clubs kind of look the same.

MP: And we’ve always been interested in this idea of High Places being an installation that we set up, and it takes on the environment of where it is, so it’s cool that one day we can play outside. Like, we did this outdoor show in Paris, in this sunken courtyard, and what we were playing just took on this totally different meaning than it would at a dark club at two in the morning.

KK: So do your songs require an elaborate setup, or how much equipment is involved?

RB: We’re on a budget, so there’s things out there that would maybe be easier to use for what we do, but we end up kind of cobbling stuff a bit more, like homemade in a sense. Like, we don’t use a click track or anything; we just try to play together. So it ends up being maybe more human – we have a sort of looseness so we can change things up a little bit so they’re a little different than the record.

MP: But we do use samplers and other electronics on stage, and I manipulate my vocals.

RB: But more in a sense of physically playing an instrument. Like, with a lot of electronics, they’re connected through midi clocking, and everything is sort of working off an essential brain. Our central brain is having to still make eye contact. We actually have to count, and there’s one song where there’s a couple breaks, and I always see Mary tapping during the break and then coming in. We don’t have en internal electronic clock that keeps us tied together. And that kind of gives it more of an element of chance.

KK: Back to talking about evolution, where do you see High Places in the future?

MP: I think the one thing we’ve learned about High Places is that it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. We never thought that we’d still be doing this five and a half years later. I mean, we’re stoked, but there was no long-term goal for like, let’s be on MTV someday! But, I would think that for the next five  years, we’re just going to do a lot of traveling, make a lot of music. I feel like we’ve always been working non-stop, but lately we’ve been so inspired to make new tracks, and I can’t wait to go home and make a bunch of stuff.

RB: Yeah, we’re trying to get away from the whole album, tour, album, tour, cycle that we’ve been doing for a few years. We want to make singles and just make things always, rather than being unproductive for six months while touring, and being more like, let’s break things up and make a single, or just drop a weird song for no reason other than to just do it, and be less tied into albums. There’s a lot of stock – you make an album, and it’s main thing is that there’s one single off it, and there’s a bunch of reviews of the album. When you’re making singles, it’s always just kind of like popping things out, and it’s a little surprise, and a little video pops up.

MP: And every time we make a song like that, we learn a lot about how we work and how we want to work, so it’s good for us.

RB: Definitely. You’re not locked into an album mentality when you’re trying to think about 11 or 10 songs.

MP: Yeah, writing an album’s like writing a novel. Writing singles is like a short story.

RB: You can have more fun with it, you can experiment, you can make a song that sounds really weird or really different. It’s just a lot more artistically free.

 

High Places are currently touring around Europe, where they are no doubt gathering more inspiration for whatever short stories they come up with next. Check their blog for photo updates on their adventures, and like them on Facebook for more news.

I was given an opportunity, recently to ask Ryan Karazija, formerly of Audrye Sessions, currently of Low Roar (check out my review of their new album here) a few questions in our ongoing series 10 Questions With Matty D. I found him to be extremely intelligent and affable, willing to answer some questions, but shying away from others. His new record is unlike anything he’d put out previously and the curiosity of that sound, that feel drove the interview in my mind. During the course of my research I found that he was a huge fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and was compared so frequently to Thom Yorke of Radiohead that it seemed to almost be a running joke.

Matty D - So Audrye Sessions breaks up, you move to Iceland and you make an album diametrically opposite to anything you made before. What was the impetus for the melancholy feel?

Ryan - I feel like everything I have done has always had a melancholy feel, but in a band the ideas would go through a bunch of filters and sometimes by the time they made it out to the other side they were not the same. Which at times can be good or bad. A lot of ideas I would write, just never saw the light of day, they just felt inappropriate for the project. This is the first time that the ideas came out and were recorded immediately. Everything was so quick. It was a really nice process.

Matty D - Why did Audrye Sessions break up?

Ryan - I feel like that is something that should be kept between the 3 of us, unless the 3 of us decide to share that at some point all together.

Matty D- Who is your favorite author of all time?

Ryan - Shel Silverstein

Matty D - What is your favorite drug?

Ryan - I've done my fair share of experimenting and I have found that I don't like them. I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to buy me a beer, though.

Matty D - Is it a symptom of people not being able to divulge themselves from previous work that new emerging artists find themselves often compared to legends of the past or do you find it flattering that people compare you with someone like Elliott Smith or Thom Yorke?

Ryan - I don't think too much about this at all. Actually, I don't think about it at all. I guess it is nice to be compared to amazing people like them. But at the end of the day, I am not them, will never be them, nor do I want to be. I am just doing my own thing...not trying to be or be like anyone else. The minute you do that, whatever comes out is not sincere. Of course, it is hard not to be influenced, that just seeps into you without you knowing, but the minute it is self-recognized...I guess that’s when it can get a little dangerous. Actually, I have no idea what I am saying.

Matty D - Does Iceland provide you with the solace you need to write songs that you feel are better?

Ryan - I feel like I just needed a change in my life...and I got it here...but it could have been anywhere.

Matty D - What artist's music makes you cringe?

Ryan - I don't want to bash on anyone...maybe after a few drinks...but not here :)

Matty D - Is it hard to watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in Iceland?

Ryan - Well I can't watch my DVD sets here...but i can watch it free on tvduck...which is awesome. I really love that show.

Matty D - Do you ever run into Bjork?

Ryan - She is sitting across from me as we speak.

Matty D - What are your long term goals for Low Roar?

Ryan - Well....make records and tour. We are working on 2 separate new records right now for Low Roar. Basically, with this project we do what we want to, when we want to, how we want to. There is no one to tell us not to...