The Pistola Press

Alec Ounsworth, a Philly native better known for his work with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, has been working on a few side projects in the last year or so. One of them being Flashy Python and the other his solo record, Mo Beauty. He will help launch the record tomorrow in New York City at a few CMJ Festival shows as well as play a show in Philly on Saturday night. He’ll open for Dr. Dog at the TLA, playing tunes from all three of his musical projects. Earlier today, I had the opportunity to talk to about the recording process of Mo Beauty in New Orleans, his thoughts on the Philly music scene and what the future holds for CYHSY!.

Colin: So from what I understand with your new record, Mo Beauty, it was recorded in New Orleans. How did that come to be?

Alec: Well, I met Steve down there. Steve Berlin, who produced the record and he suggested to me that we make a record together in New Orleans. And I said, “OK”. (laughs) It’s pretty much as easy as that.

Colin: Did you play all the instruments on the record?

Alec: Oh, no, no. I played a little less on this record than I did on any other. George Porter, Jr played bass, Stan Moore played drums, Robert Walter played keyboards, and my friend Matt Sutton. There was a bunch of people actually. That was kind of the core group and there are a bunch of guests. Steve played saxophone. I played some synthesizer, sang, played acoustic guitar mainly for percussion and I wanted to be as far removed from this and not have to do as much on this as I could. Just cause I finished another record shortly before that where I did play most of the instruments.

Colin: Did recording in New Orleans influence your music at all? Cause I assume it’s different than Philadelphia..

Alec: Uh, kind of. To me, not so much. To me, New Orleans has similar ethical quality about New Orleans that was reminiscent of Philadelphia, to me. I mean I don’t think it directly influenced, at least the construction of the songs, which was done up here in Pennsylvania. I think that obviously the musicians who are from New Orleans. Sometimes some of the guys who played who are just stellar  are Mark Mullins, Greg Hicks, and Craig Klein, who are the three trombone players. I asked them to do on a couple songs something that was like typically New Orleans, I guess.  Actually, on one song. Some sort of Preservation Hall, King Oliver Creole Jazz Band type of thing. Generally, I didn’t give that sort of direction. It was more like, ‘You guys are great musicians and I’m not gonna say you are only New Orleans musicians because it always goes further than that.

Colin:Right, very true. For Saturday night, it’s listed as Dr. Dog and Flashy Python. I understand Flashy Python is your other side project. Are you going to be playing a solo set and then with Flashy Python or will it be like a mix?

Alec: No, no. Basically, the guys in Flashy Python, Flashy Python is going to kind of encompass everything. I mean Flashy Python’s gonna be songs we did on this New Orleans record, the songs from Flashy Python and Clap Your Hands(Say Yeah). I think when we start to go out it’s gonna be.. we’re going to do everything.  I mean we could play probably for like four hours but we won’t (laughs). We’ll probably lean on the Flashy Python album maybe a little bit but maybe not. I don’t know. It’ll depend on the night. On Saturday, seeing that we’re opening for Dr. Dog, it’ll probably be about half the New Orleans record and half Flashy Python.

Colin:Cool. Will it be your first time playing the solo stuff?

Alec: No, we played one kind of practice show at Johnny Brendas a little while back.

Colin: I always have a hard time getting in there. I’m only 20. I have to bargain with them to get in.

Alec: Oh, I see. Is the show on Saturday an all ages?

Colin: Yeah,  it’s at the TLA so I’ll have no problem.

Alec: Ok, cool. Yeah, it should be fun. Do you remember that the band The Teeth? They’re from Philadelphia.

Colin: I’ve heard of the name but I’m not very familiar with their music.

Alec: They broke up about a year ago, I think, and 3 of the 4 guys from The Teeth are playing. I mean The Teeth was great, that was a great band and these guys are excellent musicians. The other guy who is playing is on the Flashy Python record and the New Orleans record. He’s the guy who plays baritone guitar and pedal steel and that sort of thing. It should be cool. As always, Dr. Dog will put on a good show, I’m sure.

Colin: Last time I saw them, they played a free in Rittenhouse Square a few summers ago. That was a cool show.

Alec: Oh yeah, I missed that show unfortunately. They’re great. They just keep getting better live too. We’ll have our work cut out for us. We’re planning on pulling the rug out from under them.

(Both laugh)

Colin: When you’re writing songs, do you think like, ‘This will be for the New Orleans record and then this will be for Flashy Python and this..’

Alec: ‘…this will be for Clap Your Hands’ . I used to think that way. And now I don’t think I do anymore. I think it’s starting to all blur a little bit. I think the Flashy Python record could have been a Clap Your Hands record, the New Orleans record very well could have been the Flashy Python record, you know what I mean? I used to say, ‘I don’t want to do this with Clap Your Hands and I do want to do this with Clap Your Hands. But at this point, I don’t know. There are a lot of pretty versatile musicians that I am being introduced to and the songs are taking such a shape that I could.. Depending on the album, I can reshape a song in such a way that it makes sense in that context. So I have a feeling that a little bit down the line, I probably won’t separate it into these three categories, you know?

Colin: Yeah, definitely. What are your thoughts on the Philly music scene? Brooklyn has a lot of great bands coming up, do you think Philly will ever get recognition like them?

Alec: There’s a lot of great stuff in Philly. I don’t know much about the New York one, honestly. I know a lot more about Philadelphia and a lot of my friends who are on the Flashy Python record are kind of involved in that. A couple of the guys from Dr. Dog, my friend Quinn is in it who has a band that used to be called Nazareth but not anymore. A bunch of The Walkmen guys are down here now.

Colin: I saw them like two weeks ago. They were awesome.

Alec: They’re great. Matt (Barrick) plays on the Flashy Python record and Billy Dufala plays a little bit of sax on Flashy Python, he’s in Man Man. And Buffalo Stance, I don’t know if you know Jamey (Robinson’s) project Buffalo Stance, which is really cool. I could rattle off a long list but in Philly there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening down here. I think people might be coming around to understanding that now or maybe we’ll just remain forever a little bit undercover, which is fine with me (laughs).

Colin: I feel like we’re coming up a little bit. I’ve noticed as of late that music is starting to build so much. I’m really excited to see where it goes.

Alec: It’s a small enough music community that everybody kind of knows everybody else to a degree. I think everybody is starting to get a little more recognition than in the past, perhaps. It’s always been a pretty amazing community. With New York, I don’t even really know. I’ve never got into it because I never lived up there. Like Clap Your Hands is as much from Brooklyn as like… the solo record I just did, I might as well be from New Orleans, or something like that. You know what I mean?

Colin: (laughs) Yeah, good call.

Alec: It’s kind of confusing to me. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, it just so happens a lot of cool stuff is shooting up in Philly.

Colin: Definitely. What are your plans for the rest of the year after you get done these few shows? Are taking the record out on the road?

Alec: Yeah, we’re going to be.. I mean we’ve been practicing a lot for live stuff and we’re going to be playing some scattered shows. Probably like Baltimore, DC, Philly, type of thing in November-December. Then we’re going to do a bit of a tour in late January through probably early March. I think I’m going to call it Flashy Python but I don’t really know yet. I might call it be my own name. I don’t really know. I’m trying to figure out which one would be the most efficient (laughs).

Colin: (laughs) I see. Anything new from Clap Your Hands in the near future?

Alec: Uh, not that I’m aware of. I mean some of the other guys are working on their own stuff and that’s all well and good.  You know, not that I know of, I haven’t really been keeping up too much on everybody.

Colin: You seem busy with your other endeavors…

Alec: Yeah, that’s the thing. I think the last time I practiced with Clap Your Hands we kind determined that, you know, I have two records coming out and I want to try and run around with that. Sort of start fresh and see where that takes me.