The Pistola Press

One of the most buzzed about bands at the end of 2009 was Real Estate. They put out a fantastic record in the summer which was very well received by the critics.. Lucky for us, the band will be playing a show before they head over to Europe for a few weeks. Tickets are still available for the show. Lead singer Martin Courtney dropped by earlier this week for a quick interview to talk about growing up in New Jersey, the recording process of their debut album and more. Interview, link to tickets and MP3 download below.

Download: Real Estate – Beach Comber

Tickets for the show can be found HERE.

The Pistola: So you’re from New Jersey. What part of Jersey are you guys from?

Martin: Me, Matt(Mondanile) and (Alex)Bleeker were all from Richmond, New Jersey, which is in Bergen County. It’s like 20 minutes northwest of New York City.  Our drummer, Etienne(Duguay), is actually originally from Massachusetts. We met him a couple years ago but Me, Matt and Bleeker grew up together.

TP: Did you guys grow up playing in bands and stuff like that?

Martin: Yeah, there were a lot of different bands in high school between us and all our friends. So we played together in a lot of different stuff and separately. This is the first band that we’re all in together in a really long time. We played in a band together when we were like.. 15 or 16. That’s the last time we all played together.

TP: How old are you now?

Martin:How old are we?

TP: Yeah.

Martin: Uh… I’m 24. Matt’s 25. Bleeker is… 23. Etienne’s 24.

TP: That’s cool. Being so close to NYC, would you go in to the city for shows?

Martin: Definitely. We did that a lot. I used to, kind of, steal my parents car and tell them I was going to Bleeker’s house then go to New York, go see shows and stuff. That was right when I first got my license when I was like 17. Even before then… I remember when we all went and saw Weezer or something when we were all freshman in high school. We got Matt’s parents to drive us in. That was the thing to do especially like senior year of high school. We would just go to a ton of shows cause there was nothing really to do in our town.

TP: You were probably just a train ride away too.

Martin: Yeah, exactly. It was easiest enough to get there. It was a good resource to go there all the time.

TP: Do you live in the city or are you still in Jersey?

Martin: I live in Jersey City so I’m right across the river from Manhattan. Matt and Bleeker still live in the area where we grew up. Etienne lives in Brooklyn. We’re all pretty close together, but we don’t live that close.

TP: Right. That’s sweet. When you recorded your debut record, was it recorded in a studio or was it recorded on your own? It has such a raw feel to it. It’s really great and adds character to your music.

Martin: It was all recorded by ourselves. Not in a studio. Most of it was recorded at our friend’s house, he has like a 16 track reel to reel that we used. Some of it was recorded at my house or apartment on a 4 track, some it was recorded on an 8 track. Once, the first track, “Beach Comber” was recorded digitally by Jarvis, the drummer from Wood. He does a really good job. It’s all home recorded, mostly analog.

TP: For your next record, I don’t even know if you thought about it yet, but do you think you’ll use the same method or go into a studio?

Martin: I’m not really sure. I mean as of right now, I don’t see us being able to go into the studio. We might record in a studio. It’s really expensive, you know? We might go for it but I don’t know. I want it to sound good. Even the way that we recorded the first record, we were trying to get it to sound as good as possible. We don’t necessarily want it to sound lo-fi but we do want it to sound homemade.

TP: Yeah, you definitely have that distinct sound. I’m sure a lot of bands or artists go for that kind of feel and don’t get it from the studio. Since everything is so polished in the studio.

Martina: Yeah. It would have to be a good situation; it would have to be a good studio. We would have to see eye to eye with whoever ran it. We might end up just recording with Jarvis again. He’s a really good producer and he does a good job. And it’s free.(laughs) Or relatively free. It’s better to record with your friends, I think.

TP: Free things are always good. Friends know what you’re going for, they’re more familiar with you.

Martin: Yeah, exactly. And being under the gun in terms of time and we have a lot of freedom to basically do whatever we want. I feel like being in the studio we would have to be really on our shit, we would have to know exactly what we want to do.

TP: So you’re heading over to Europe soon. Have you ever travelled over there or played there?

Martin: I’ve done some travel. I spent some time in Spain and France. I lived for a couple months in France when I was in college. That kind of thing. But we’ve never toured over there or anything so we’re all really, really excited about that.

We’re getting that whole thing together Even today, we were trying to figure everything out. We’re leaving in two and half weeks and we still don’t know exactly what we’re doing. We’re all trying to figure it out last minute. We just got our tickets and everything. But yeah, we’re psyched. The fact that we get to go over there and play music.

TP: Are you just playing England or other countries as well?

Martin: We’re doing England and a lot of mainland Europe too. Like most of Western Europe except for Spain. We’re actually gonna go back to Spain in May for the Primavera Festival. Supposedly, it’s amazing so I’m really psyched about that.

TP: How did Saturday’s show with The Extraordinaires come about?

Martin: We’re friends with those dudes. Bleeker, our bass player, has known Jay(Purdy) from The Extraordinaires for a long time through college and stuff. They’ve known eachother for a while. We’ve been meaning to play with them and they asked us to play the show so what the hell?

TP: So do you have any New Years resolutions?

Martin: (laughs) Umm…. (long pause).. not really. No. (laughs).. keep writing songs and try to make a good second record. That’s my biggest thing right now in my head. To just, we need to make our second record really good.

TP: That’s a good one. So would you rather get eaten by a grizzly bear or a great white shark?

Martin: (laughs) Umm.. probably. Shit, that’s tough. I would probably say a shark because you could just drown instead of getting ripped apart. That seems a little bit less painful. (laughs)

When Nathan, the lead man of Holiday Shores, stopped by for an interview last month, he had mentioned how the band recently filmed a music video in Philadelphia. “It was like an old meat packing factory. It was really weird. We were in there for like 7 or 8 hours, it felt like, just shooting this video.” The factory Nathan was talking about is located somewhere near The Barbary. Other than the opening scene which appears to be somewhere in the subway in Center City, you would have no idea it was filmed in Philly except that he mentioned it in the interview. You can read the interview HERE. The video surfaced the other day, check it out below.

Brett Dennen will play The Trocadero Theatre tonight with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. He’s been working non-stop all year and shows no sign of letting up.  I had the opportunity to catch up with Brett earlier on this week for a quick interview. He’s a really nice guy who does a lot for others and the community. More people should take inspiration from him and help out others in need. Interview below.

Colin: So what have you been up to this year? I know were on a headlining tour and you made a few stops at festivals. I actually saw you at Bonnaroo.

Brett: Oh, great! I’ve been touring a bunch, I’ve been touring pretty much straight since the album came out last year. Did a couple tours in the US, both headlining and opening for OAR, a bunch of festivals, been touring in Europe this year. I’m touring straight until the end of the year and at the top of the year I go back to Australia then another tour in Europe. In between those two tours, I’ll be making another album to release next summer.

Colin: Damn, you’re keeping yourself busy and working hard. Non-stop. Does that ever get draining?

Brett: It does. It’s really tiring. It takes a lot out of you. You expose yourself to a lot of different germs and sicknesses that can be really taxing on your body. You also know that doing what you love, you know? It makes it easier. I think anybody would give up if it wasn’t something they loved to do but I absolutely love doing it.

Colin: Definitely. I know you are involved with a bunch of different organizations that help out different communities and stuff like that. Have you done any work with that lately?

Brett: Yeah, I mean we do what we can. In some cities we bring out non-profit organizations to partner with. I’m involved with the Mosaic Project which is a non-profit organization that I started with a couple of people about seven years ago. I keep myself pretty busy with that and music and other things.

Colin: Very cool. You’ve been touring so much, have you had any highlights?

Brett: Yeah, we’ve played some really big shows. We’ve played some incredible festivals. I had a lot of fun on this last tour that we did in Europe. Just playing to crowds I’ve never played to before and meeting people and seeing beautiful cities. To me, it’s all great, whether I’m playing some town I’ve been to a million times or some place I’ve never been before. You know, I sing the songs every night but I learn something new about them every night. It just gets better and better.

Colin: So if you weren’t playing music for a living, what would you be doing instead?

Brett: I probably would be doing something that involves community work. Something hopefully in education. Working with children and community. Maybe not a school teacher but in something more community oriented, community driven.

Colin: When you were growing up did always have a strong sense of community or helping out others?

Brett: Yeah. I mean it’s just the way we were raised. My parents pretty good at teaching us that early on. That that’s important, you know? The work you do, it’s not just for yourself but for others.

Colin: On your tour right now, who’s going to be opening for you in Philadelphia?

Brett: Well, in Philly, we’re doing a co-headline with Grace Potter. The opener is Robert Francis. He’s this guy in LA or he’s based out of LA who has an incredible voice and he’s kind of straight ahead 70s anthemic rock. He’s pretty cool.

Colin: Awesome. Have you played in Philly before?

Brett: Yeah, I played the TLA and other venues. I’ve played all of them. The World Café…

Colin: What do you think of the city?

Brett: I love Philadelphia. I think Philadelphia is a great east coast city that’s maybe not as crazy as New York but people still like to have fun. There’s a lot of great singer/songwriters who’ve come out of there. I have a friend named Amos Lee who is one of my favorite singes/songwriters out there and he’s based there. I think it’s a good city for music.

Colin: I agree. Earlier on you said that you were working on a new album for next summer. Have started writing and planning for that? Or is it just in the early stages?

Brett: The songs are already written and feel like they’re pretty much done in terms of writing and arranging. Now it’s time to just record them. I’m looking into studios. Hopefully it will be a studio somewhere far away from where I live, where me and the band can go live there for a couple weeks and camp out in the studio and work late into the evening, Wake up there, work some more, drink wine and just have it kind of be a retreat.

Colin: Is that how you normally record your albums?

Brett: No. Normally I make records in LA, use players from LA and everybody just comes to the studio, spend all day there and everybody goes home at night. Then come back the next day. This time I want it to be more of like a everybody lives together and works together and that’s all we think about is the record for two weeks.

Holdiay Shores‘ frontman, Nathan Pemberton, is a young guy who’s just starting to explore what lies ahead for him. Everything has happened so quickly for him and his band that they are just starting to get their feet wet. After playing two well reviewed CMJ shows in NYC last month, Holiday Shores is in the middle of a few week tour with Evangelicals. Nathan stopped by a few weeks ago to talk about his music, college and the band. Interview below.

Colin: How did you come to be Holiday Shores?

Nathan: It was something I was doing in high school. I took a break for a bit in college but the last year and half of school, I started writing, recording and playing again. I asked my roommates to play with me, started getting this lineup going. It’s a fairly recent thing. I’ve been playing for a while, releasing music under various names.

Colin: That’s cool. Where’d you go to school?

Nathan: I went to community college in Sarasota then FSU for my last two years of college.

Colin: I guess you’re all done with that now?

Nathan: Yeah, I graduated in May so I’ve been kind of hanging out since then. Working and what not. Not using my degree (laughs).

Colin: (Laughs) So what’s the writing process like for you? I hear so many different instruments and noises, are they fixed like that in the beginning or do you add pieces as you go on?

Nathan: I guess a lot of the record I did myself. My friend Josh helped me a lot, he plays in the band, so does my friend Ryan, who also plays with us. But a lot of it started with one layer and more and more layers would get added. Nothing was really set in stone until the recording happened. I’m not good enough of a songwriter to have a complete idea finished before I start recording. The writing takes place during the recording process, for the most part. Things kind of get stacked on each other and more ideas get added until it feels like it’s complete.
Who or what influences your music?

Colin: Uhh.. I don’t know. It’s kind of a hard question to answer. Pretty much the typical stuff. I guess the record was kind of written in a really hectic time with school and everything. So I was to some extent a huge influence was just the pressure of trying to get something done. As far as the influences go, we try to add as many elements as possible to it. One thing I can safely say about the record is you can’t pigeonhole it too much to one sound. Each song is like kind of comprised of all these ideas and different feels. Something like that.

Colin: How did the whole process of the record getting picked up happen? You just graduated in May so it had to of happen pretty quickly.

Nathan: Yeah. The way it worked out is that the label that we’re on now, twosyllable records, had contacted me last summer and they had asked me if I wanted to do anything because they  had heard an EP I put out. We kind of just made plans to do something and it evolved into doing a record then putting it out. I told you I kind of had a dead bind which helped me focus and get the work done for it. So we had an agreement to do something before I had finished the record so it wasn’t like I was shipping out the record looking for people to put it out.

Colin: That’s sweet how it all happened for you.

Nathan: Yeah. I’m not lazy but it’s kind of hard to be super motivated to like create a really… It’s really hard in my mind, especially with school,  to finish something or push myself to do tons of music stuff without an end where it’s released. Luckily having the deadline from the label kind of gave  me the excuse to blow off school and bury my head to finish the record. I don’t think it would have worked out too well if I hadn’t had that offering to put it out.

Colin: Deadlines always help me get my shit done otherwise I’ll keep blowing it off.

Nathan: That’s exactly how I feel as well(laughs).

Colin: So have you guys ever played in or visited Philly before?

Nathan: We haven’t but we were just in Philly a week and half ago. Our friend Scott is doing a music video for us and we were in Philly doing a music video at some warehouse. It was like an old meat packing factory. It was really weird. We were in there for like 7 or 8 hours, it felt like, just shooting this video.

Colin: Do you know where in the city?

Nathan: Uh… 2^nd and Oxford.  I think that was the street. It’s on a street close to this club called The Barbary. It was right down the street from there.

Colin: I know exactly where that is. Is that video out yet or will it be out soon?

Nathan: No.  I think  he’ll be finishing it up in a week or two and it’ll come out a week or two after that. I don’t know if you’ll be able to recognize anything cause it’s all doors and there’s a bunch of green screens and stuff. At least you’ll know it was pretty near(laughs).

Colin: (laughs) Definitely. So after you guys get done touring with Evangelicals, do you have any plans? More touring or anything like that?

Nathan: Um…  not at the moment. Probably write some more music, take it easy and I think February/March, we’ll probably be back out touring and stuff like that.

Deastro will open for Max Tundra tonight at Kung Fu Necktie. Randy Chambot is the man behind Deastro. The electronic music he plays reminds me of a junior version of Animal Collective. It has a real direction and structure unlike so many electronic acts out there today. Randy  stopped by to give us a few details on his upbringing, his favorite word and what we can expect in 2010. Interview below.

Colin: Can you give a little background about yourself? Like where did you grow up? How did you get into music?

Randy: Yeah, for sure man. I grew up in Detroit Michigan, right outside the city. I got into music pretty early on. I’ve been singing in choirs since preschool and just always had a love for it. Singing “Joseph” with Donny Osmond when I was 9 and all kinds of weird stuff. I sang in this senior’s choir with my brother, I was like 13, cause it was the biggest thing. I could do really great Jerry Lewis impressions at the church we went to. That’s pretty how I started getting into music. I started making electronic music when I was 12. I got like a boom bite program from a friend. And now I’m doing the same thing(laughs).

Colin: Was the church a big thing for you growing up?

Randy: Oh, for sure. I mean my dad was a youth pastor for over 10 years. I went to school to be a pastor. I’m not a Christian anymore but the church was definitely pretty big part of my life growing up.

Colin: What school did you go to?

Randy: I went to North Central Bible College. It’s out in Minnesota. I only went for a year then I was just like…. We had to do street witness as part of our curriculum, which it’s just whatever. Some guy at a bookstore, I tired to convert him. He was really smart and was like , “You should read this.” (laughs) He gave me this book and he pretty much witnessed me in a weird way. So I just realized that my answers kind of fell short and a lot of people’s do. Anybody with an ultimate thing that can be from a philosophy about life. Whenever you are saying that something is not provable is the truth, it needs to be more about the faith and the best parts of it, not the law, so to speak.

Colin: I know your music started off as a solo project. Where did you find the other guys?

Randy: They’re not playing with me anymore.  They broke up in September.

Colin: Oh, really?

Randy: Yeah, we were just not making any money and they couldn’t afford to do it anymore. So we kind of had a little bit of a falling out. They thought I was making money (laughs), which isn’t the truth. I was giving them everything I had. I toured solo in Europe in September. They told me like 10 hours before I left they weren’t going to play. Now I’m putting together a new band. We’re starting again in December. Right now we’re just touring as a duo.

Colin: You design all the artwork for your music, correct?

Randy: Most of them. Keepers and Moondagger weren’t drawn by me. My friend Jesse did Keepers. I draw a lot of my own artwork any solo stuff, usually, that comes out,  I do it all myself. Some kid told me that it looks like his little brother could draw but way more time spent on it (laughs).

Colin: What are your interests and hobbies? Do they have any influence over your music?

Randy: My interests are like books, friend I guess(laughs). Books, music and friends. Community or something like that, Detroit, music and friends I guess. All things sci-fi.

Colin: What kind of books?

Randy: Anything man. Right now I’m reading Rama Q and this philosophy book my roommate gave me. It’s just like a textbook. He’s taking a class and just lets me borrow them.

Colin: What’s your favorite word at the moment?

Randy: Umm… boosh.

Colin: Boosh?

Randy: (laughs) Yeah.

Colin: How do you spell that?

Randy: B-O-O-S-H.

Colin: Cool. Will this be your first time in Philly?

Randy: Yeah, it will be. Actually, no. We were suppose to play and it was Super Bowl Sunday so the show got cancelled cause of the game(laughs). No one came out. So yeah, this will be our first time in Philly.

(Silent pause)

Randy: Sorry about that man. Housekeeping just knocked on our door. My dad was in Boston last night and he travels for work right now. So he happened to be here with me and got us a hotel room which was awesome. We have been just crashing on floors. So we felt like we were rockstars for a minute. We didn’t throw a TV out the window, just chilled and watched TV.

Colin: No crazy groupies or anything like that?

Randy: No groupies. We had one that wanted to hang around but we were like, “My dad might be here,”(laughs).

Colin: That’s awesome. What can we expect from Deastro in 2010?

Randy: We’re going to work on a new album. I think it’s going to get a lot more serious than some things. It’s going to change completely. I don’t think it’s going to sound like how it does now. I think that I made this music. I mean I didn’t really listen to a lot of music growing up. So like 20 onward for me was like my first experience with everything. With the world of music and making music and I was pretty outside of it growing up. I just feel that I have changed so much in the past 3 years from that. Also, I haven’t really stopped touring since then. At the end of not going to this thing I gone to my whole life. I just always wanted to be a youth pastor growing up. I didn’t know what to do. So I was like, “Alright, I’ll do this!” I’ve always done it but never seriously. It’ll keep changing constantly.

The Walkmen‘s music has a  raw, unpolished  feel to it. The band members, while dressed in suits and fancy shoes, are very laidback and down-to-earth. They seem like genuine human beings. Hamilton Leithauser puts so much behind what he sings, it’s incredible. The highlight of the night was when they played “We’ve Been Had” from their first record, Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone. It’s such so cheerful and enlightening, the song reminds me of my childhood. Partly because of the Saturn car commercial.

Leithauser also mentioned that they had just finished up a new record in NYC. It should be out sometime early next year. I had a chance to interview drummer, Matt Barrick, a few weeks back. Check that out HERE.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, who have had a killer year, opened the show. I spoke to lead singer Kip Berman on the phone the other day. He filled me in on the past year of touring, who designs the album artwork, and more. The interview can be found HERE.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

The Walkmen

The Walkmen just started their headlining tour with Here We Go Magic. They had a killer year so far with more to come. They a make in stop at the TLA in Philadelphia tomorrow and tickets are still available. Go check them out. What else are you going to do on a Wednesday night? Matt Barrick, The Walkmen‘s drummer, dropped by The Pistola Press to answer a few questions.

The Walkmen – Photo by Nick Ray McCann

The first time I ever heard of The Walkmen, I was like in 7th grade and I saw Saturn car commercial that featured “We’ve Been Had”.  I remember I memorized a few lyrics and looked it up on the computer. That was right when you guys were getting started. How did the commercial come about? How’d they find your music?

We’re not sure how it that works but someone who worked on the ad approached us about using that song. It was quite unexpected.

What was it like working with Chris Zane on You & Me? Was it different compared to your previous records?

We randomly ended up working with Chris Zane because he works at the studio affiliated with the label that put out You & Me, Gigantic, and we were very pleasantly surprised. In the past, it has always been a struggle in the studio getting things to sound how we want them and with Zane, he was able to do this very quickly. He’s very good at capturing how we sound playing live which is more difficult than it would seem.

How do you go about incorporating horns into your songs? They’re in a few tracks on You & Me. Do you write the songs with the horns in mind?

Paul (Maroon) took up the trumpet a few years ago and started adding them to our eight track recordings. The parts became more involved along the way and he had to get Pro Tools just to have enough tracks for the parts. In the studio, we generally get professional horn players to play the parts, though sometimes Paul does them.

It’s been a little over a year since You & Me’s release. Have you guys started to work on anything new?

We just finished another session with Chris Zane in which we recorded thirteen new songs and we are working on writing some more since they all probably won’t make it on the record. so things are moving faster than they ever have.

A lot of great new music came out so far in 2009, are there any artists/albums that have really caught your attention?

We are big fans of Thee Oh Sees.

You’ve had the opportunity to play in large arenas with Kings Of Leon and headline smaller venues like the TLA and 930 Club What kind of tour do you like more? The small intimate venues or the 20,000-seat arena?

We enjoy playing smaller venues for fans of our music, rather than arenas where people could care less, though we did enjoy playing at the Spectrum in Philly.

Imagine life on Earth was no longer inhabitable; the air became toxic. Would you rather live in a bubble under the sea or on a space station?

Bubble

If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be?

Foghorn Leghorn

Last record you bought:

Thee Oh Sees, Hounds Of Foggy Notion

Last drink you had:

Root beer

Last musical instrument you bought/acquired:

Washboard

Last good advice someone gave you

Get in the left lane (driving in Ireland)

Last time you felt like a kid again

Yesterday

What’s one song you wish you wrote?

Moon River

TV On The Radio announced just a few weeks ago that they’re taking a year long break so they can take rest from it all (first reported by MTV). A hiatus that the band earned after the year they had following the release of Dear Science. Gerard Smith(keyboards/bass) dropped by back in June to talk about a variety of things from his art history background, his thoughts on band members who act as the producer, and what he’ll be up to during the band’s hiatus.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

Colin: Hey what’s going on?

Gerard: I’m now looking at a rolling hill landscape which I don’t know what people mean by rolling. A series of hills that are laid out before you?

Colin: Maybe it’s never ending…

Gerard: Yeah, wouldn’t that constitute for some kind of strip or wouldn’t it have a different now.. I don’t know.

(Both laugh)

Gerard: Uh, oh, here comes the Home Depot truck.

Colin: Watch out.

Gerard: How you doing man?

Colin: I’m doing pretty well, just hanging out. Enjoying the nice weather.

Gerard: It’s fucking raining here dude. What are you talking about?

Colin: (laughs) Where are you?

Gerard: I’m soaked (laughs). I’m in Sunsbury, Canada.

Colin: Oh, geez. We’re in different countries right now . What are you doing up there?

Gerard: It’s a travel day so we just stopped off here so the driver can rest. Then we’ll make the rest of our way over to Toronto.

Colin: Very cool. I heard Toronto is a cool city, I’ve never been there. I’ve been to Montreal.

Gerard: Yeah, Toronto’s alright. I like it cause they got wicked good West Indian food.

Colin: I’ll have to keep that in mind whenever I make a trip up there. Alright, so how did you guys get involved with The Roots Picnic. That line up’s pretty killer. I mean The Black Keys, Santigold, The Roots, of course, and you guys.

Gerard: Is it SantAgold or SantIgold?

Colin: I think it’s SantIgold. It was SantOgold at one point, I think.

Gerard: Yeah, uhh, The (Black) Keys are gonna be there, really?

Colin: Yeah.

Gerard: Wow, I didn’t know… Well, I know  Jaleel (Bunton), our drummer, always been really active musically. And on top of being active musically he used to bartend at a relatively popular New York bar called Max Fish.

Colin: I’ve heard of that actually. A friend of mine told me a story where he threw up on a famous actor’s shoes the other night. It was pretty funny.

Gerard: Yeah, that’s usually the case.

Colin: I forget the actor’s name (Josh Hartnett) but my friend was pretty proud of himself.

Gerard: I never really went to bars much but I guess that’s kinda the place, a lot of people go there, you know?

Colin: Yeah, I heard it was pretty run down at one point and now it’s making it’s way up.

Gerard: No, well I think…

Colin: Maybe the area was..

Gerard:Yeah, the area was definitely fucking questionable for a good long while. It’s probably no worse than a lot of other places.

Colin: I mean I’m in North Philadelphia and that’s pretty bad.

Gerard: Yeah, no worse than Winnipeg, fucking Canada. Holy shit dude. I thought I was going to get stabbed in the dollar store.

Colin: (laughs) You gotta watch out for that.

Gerard: (laughs) Depending on what you consider a party, I suppose, yeah. So you’re in Philly? That’s a rough town too.

Colin: Yeah, definitely. I go to Temple University, not sure if you ever heard of it. It’s in a rough neighborhood so I have to watch myself sometimes.

Gerard: Yeah, man. That’s the way it was in New York for a while. I went to school at Pratt(Institute) for a little while and man, that place is fucking shady. You know, like buying drugs or buying weed through a wall.

Colin: Through a wall?

Gerard: (laughs) Yeah. You know, you go in and knock on the wall.

Colin: I’ve never experienced that one before. I’ve had some shady encounters.

Gerard: You go into the bodega. Have you ever seen that movie Half Baked?

Colin: (laughs) Yeah.

Gerard: You know that scene where he talks about buying weed?

Colin: Yeah, yeah.

Gerard: And he has to pull his pants down. It was like that.

Colin: (laughs) That’s hilarious but scary at the same time. So you guys are hitting up Bonnaroo as well. Are you excited for that?

Gerard: Yeah, it’ll be interesting. I’m a lot less attentive than I used to be. I have to, unfortunately, inform you. It’s like, “I don’t know. Cause I’m in another spot or something” I’m becoming real absentminded all of a sudden. I left my bag in a really weird spot in a venue and couldn’t find it. I haven’t really been keeping track of..like I used to be really, really, really attentive of where we were in a tour, like how many dates in we had and how days off we had and all that. Now they’re kind of just like.. rolls off my shoulder now. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean it’s always nice playing the festivals but it’s a little bit stressful too, you know?

Colin: Yeah, it’s probably hectic at some points.

Gerard: Everything is super last minute and stuff. It’s like the battle for food. You’re like, “Oh man,” cause if you’re at a festival, you’re nowhere near a place where you could just walk  to, grab some food. Then you’re like, “Geez, do I have enough food to survive? How many meal tickets do we got? Am I going to miss a meal?”

Colin: This is going to be my first time down at Bonnaroo so I’m preparing myself for some craziness.

Gerard: For spectators, that’s totally like the benefit of it, you know? If you’ve been at on the road and you’re getting all groggy and crossed and stuff. You’re like, “Oh man, am I going to make it through this thing?”

Colin: How many days are left…

Gerard: (laughs) Yeah. Well, no. It’s like I said you’re just kind of in the middle of nowhere. Everyday you at least hop on either catching a shower or getting meals in you.

Colin: Meals are important, gotta keep your mind straight. So David (Sitek) produces all your albums. Do you find it beneficial to have him as your producer? Instead of an outside source for the producer role.

Gerard: Well, yeah. I mean cause he’s one of the two founding members of the band. A lot of people sorta overlook that fact. It’s funny like the ‘facts’.. I get a little bit nerdy.  Cause I took a couple of art history classes so I fancy myself to be a little bit of a fake historian.

Colin: (Laughs) It’s cool. You could fool me. I’m not too up to date on my art history.

Gerard: Oh, man. You gotta work on that. So I feel like you kinda got to understand someone’s roots and stuff like that. I was talking with a friend about (Henri de) Toulouse-Lautrec the other day, right? Toulouse-Lautrec from what I recall and what I gather is his parents were first cousins. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a picture of Toulouse-Lautrec but I hope maybe you’ll go look one up after this little conversation. Very short man, that’s a result obviously of his parents being first cousins and what not. But you know I think that was the slight that nature gave his folks for being first cousins. So Lautrec always renders but he’s a great painter. I always looks at the way he paints. The way he painted things was just like… he painted big people so grotesque because he was in this world of like grotesque people. He was this little guy and stuff.

Gerard: So how this connects to the TV On The Radio. I’m saying you know, it’s always nice to know that , like if somebody’s  gonna like report on something or look into something, you figure that cause you this is not Boston. You know, Brian Wilson was the producer for the Beach Boys..

Colin: Yeah and Jimmy Page produced every single one of Led Zeppelin’s albums too.

Gerard: Every fucking Led Zeppelin record and little did I know that he wrote most of the lyrics. The guy’s a genius, one of the greatest. Yet another instance, you got Johnny Marr in the studio. They would do basic tracking then he was the one sitting there doing all the auxiliary tracking after that, you know?

Colin: It’s impressive to see a band member take that role.

Gerard: I totally freaked out when I met that dude. I was like, “Oh my goddd…it’s Johnny Marr”

(Both laugh)

Gerard: Think of having to deal with Morrisey and having to overcome, just all the dynamics of having to be in a relationship cause that’s what being in a band is. You know, being in this relationship and having to carry on working after the fact. It’s a lot to ask. That’s a lot to deal with. But I think it’s important, it’s pivotal. Just like the way people are interested in knowing where there food comes from and like how it’s grown and what not. I think the same should be set for people’s artwork and the art that they feed off of.

Oh, for instance, I have another example. Kim Deal, she produced The Breeders first record, Pod. I’m pretty sure because I think I was looking at the liner notes the other day. Check me on that and then you can call me out if I’m totally wrong(laughs). She was the producer on that record and I was just like, “Wow!” And I think  of like her having that involvement in the record that I guess at some point, Kurt Cobain said it was one of his favorite records ever and stuff. He took them out on the road with them. I think it’s just a great record. I think it’s important for artists to stay close to their materials. I mean when you think back to like Rembrandt and them. These people had to crush their own paints and pigments to make the oils, you know?

That was just what was available back then. It’s like certain conventions or certain points in technology development allow people a certain grasp of what it is they’re doing. I think more and more, that would stereotype of big time record deal and the big time record producer and stuff. It just seems like a random thing to me. I always imagine people just, you work on your music then you went and recorded it. I think if anything artists should be faulted for having playing a role or not. It’s like that constant thing, which I’m guilty of as well. You know, you go to get your car fixed and people are  always saying, “Oh, I’m always getting ripped off by my mechanic” You know?

Colin: Yeah, just do it yourself.

Gerard: Yeah, but I think that privilege and ability has been sorta taken away from people, you know? So yeah, I think it’s totally important.

Colin: Definitely especially having your own member. They know exact what you guys are going for.

Gerard: Yeah! Also when I first met Dave cause you know I joined the band well after it had been established. Dave has always been experimenting with sound and he had a real philosophy. He had philosophy and an idea of how he wants to approach music making. To have someone else’s philosophy to be apart of what it is you’re making, if it jodds well like Flaming Lips for instance. Like Soft Bulletin, that record works amazing. And I really appreciate Dave Fridman’s role, it’s like amazing. And Steve Albini even more so because he tries not to really put that sort of like, he doesn’t have a suggestive hand so much in his production style.

Colin: Cool. So  your album has been out for quite a while now. What was the recording like throughout the whole process? The album turned out great and other publications thought so as well, they thought it was amazing. Was the recording process different than previous recording sessions?

Gerard: No, it was the usual grueling, crazy, madness you know? (laughs) We just get in there and get it done…

Colin: Does Dave have his own recording studio or did you guys go to a different studio?

Gerard: Dave had his own studio at the time, like an old studio in Brooklyn. It was right next door to the studio actually that Dave started working at Headgear, which is where most of Desperate Youth, (Blood Thirsty Babes) and part of (Return to) Cookie Mountain had been recorded and engineered in.

If anything’s different or something that I could point out is like this time, it was more of a collaborative effort on two songs in particular, which would be ‘Dancing Choose’, Dave had some beats already set up. You know he laid out the basis of that song and he appreciated it and he worked on top of it and that became ‘Dancing Choose’. And Taleel recorded most of the instrumentation for ‘Crying’ before we really tucked into the studio properly. We all had brought in things we were working on and we kind of put it all together. I guess if anything we brought what experience we have accrued throughout our time working together. And we have this record to show for it, you know? I mean it’s definitely a lot more organized, I feel like. Although, it was a pretty rigorous schedule. I feel like we’re definitely taking advantage of the fact that we’ve been a band together and really have a better understanding now of where it is we sit with eachother; in terms of who’s playing what role and who’s doing this role. I always take a backseat and I wasn’t there for the mixing, I wanted to stay back in New York and just start working towards the live show. Cause I knew I would be playing a lot more keyboards so I started working on that and stuff like that. All those guys went out to LA and worked on the mix. So I guess that was a bit different as well for us to go outside of New York.

Colin: Going away from your home base to LA, which is pretty different from New York.

Gerard: (laughs) Very different, yes. That’s the other thing, I’m a little scared of LA.

Colin: You’re not the first person I heard say that.

Gerard: (laughs) Yeah but it’s a wonderful place and that’s where the record got done….did.

Colin: Who wrote the string and horn section on Dear Science? Did you guys have a part in the writing process?

Gerard: Yeah, it was sort of a mish mash. I don’t know if anyone sat down and wrote lead sheets, that you give to the string players and what not. Usually it’s base around the basic chords of a song. . Take whatever key, whatever chords, and take individually notes out of those chords and build your string section to accompany whatevers happening at the time. I’m sure the string players themselves, this woman Janice and two of her friends must have sat down and done a bit of their homework and stuff like that, listening to things. So I know Taleel played bit of a role, I know Kyp(Malone) did quite a bit of ranging on the end bit of ‘Lover’s Day’ for instance. And I know, I’m pretty sure Stewart Bogey might of helped a bit. He’s one of the instrumentalists and one of the horn players. He’s been touring with us of late as well.

Colin: That’s awesome, it’s very cool. I love that aspect of the album. A lot of bands try to incorporate strings and stuff nowadays and sometimes people don’t pull it off.

Gerard: Yeah, I was worried about that actually. I had the same thing, you know? It’s like that classic indie rock band adds a cello player into the situation.

Colin: Have you ever heard of Ra Ra Riot? They’re one band that incorporate the strings really well.

Gerard: I’ve heard of them a little but I’ll try to look into them. I know 33 has done that as well. I think with a good bit of success. I know once again Flamings Lips has done it properly. Even though, I think a lot of the time they’re synth-strings but even just that notion. Who else? Oh and Neutral Milk Hotel the use of the horn in Neutral Milk Hotel, I feel is almost pivotal. I feel like it would an entirely different record without horns.

Colin: That’s pretty cool how something that’s not a traditional rock instrument, if you want to call it that, could have such a big difference on an album.

Gerard: Yeah, it really is. And at times that horn doesn’t sound like one, it’s so distorted. It’s kind of totally, totally amazing. I really, really appreciate it.

Colin: So I always ask a random question to the artist. Would you rather get pecked to death by vultures or devoured by piranhas? Either way, you’re going down and have no chance.

Gerard: What got me there? That’s what I want to know.  (laughs)

Colin: Umm, let’s just say you were wandering around, the vultures came out of nowhere and there was a pond filled with piranhas. You had to pick one- either jump in the pond or get attacked by the vultures..

Gerard: (laughs) Uhhh, you know what, even though I don’t wanna. I’ll say the piranhas because hopefully I would drown to death.

Colin: (laughs) Ok, good answer.

Gerard: The vultures…I don’t know.

Colin: They would peck you alive. So what’s your favorite thing to do with the band beside play music?

Gerard: Uhh, I don’t know just like whenever we’re like hanging out, everyone has got great stuff to say. So I’m really stoked about everyone’s input on things. You know? That’s definitely the saving grace of being apart of this. Everyone’s like relatively good humor cause I know it can really be, it can be very different. It can be difficult in band situations like relationships. You’re in this relationship and that can be really, really difficult.

Colin: It’s good to see bands with a good relationship and friendship. You don’t want to see a band on stage that don’t like each other but they play music because they have to or you know what I mean?

Gerard: Yeah, I feel like that happens quite a bit. I’ve witnessed that at one point. We went out on this tour and like the first night of this tour, this band started screaming and freaking out, where the tour manager had to… umm…

Colin: Intervene?

Gerard: Yeah, and like turn this music up really loud. And I was like, “Oh, man, that’s a total bummer. You guys don’t need to be doing that,” You know?

Colin: Right. They act like children where their tour manager is their parent, getting in the middle.

Gerard: Yeah,  that’s the thing, again that’s the dynamic of the relationship. I have a friend who has one of my favorite quotes. It is “The only that gets in the way of the music is impatience.” I just that quote to death. Because it’s just we’re all working towards something but you know, everyone tends to wanna get their own way. You want to have your voice be heard, it’s tough. It’s difficult at times to be like, “Oh, ok..well, you have to give up on it,” you have to let go of a lot of things to like progress or to have a successful collaboration you have to be like, “ Oh, ok..well you’re going to get this and maybe I’ll get that down the road or you know, I’ll get this and you kind of just take this thing” You know?

Colin: Yeah, definitely. So what are your guys for when after you get done touring in August? And in 2010?

Gerard: Per usual, I have not a clue. I’m gonna try and figure out how to have a little bit of a routine schedule. And try and be able to either taking my son, drop him off to day care and I might take some piano lessons. I want to just to embrace..uhh.

Colin: A normal life, in a sense.

Gerard: Yeah, trying to get back what little bit of life I can and appreciate that. That’s always the catch 22 or the snag of…you know? You have to give up somethings for yourself.

Colin:Right, make some sacrifices..

Gerard: Yeah, as much as I’ve enjoyed talking with you, I would have loved to been at a movie right now.

Colin: (laughs) Well, I appreciate you talking to me.

Gerard: And like you know, all the other things. I’m just trying to be a little more serious about my craft, I think, for me, personally. I’m just trying enhance some of it, take some piano lessons, play a lot more and work on new stuff.

Colin: That’s awesome though. You only get better by playing more, progressing and new ideas will come and such.

Gerard: Yeah, hopefully. That or I’ll turn into Yes or somebody.  I’ll have my own jazz odyssey(laughs).

Chris Kilmore of Incubus stopped by before their show at the Festival Pier in Philadelphia last August. He’s one of the most down to earth people I’ve ever spoken to. Incubus just finished up their Monuments And Melodies Greatest Hits tour but that doesn’t mean it’s the end. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more from them in 2010. It’s just a feeling..

Colin: So do you guys feel like old men now that you have a greatest hits out?

Chris: (Laughs) Yes, that’s a great way to explain it per se (laughs). Yeah man, you know, when they said were gonna do a greatest hits albums, I was like, “Oh no, this is the end. Are we old? Are we going to face reality here? (laughs) You know, I threw it around a little bit and thought real hard about it then the thought came to me or the memory came to me, I should say, about how many bands I got turned onto by their greatest hits album. And I sorta say, “Well, you know, that’s actually pretty cool. Hopefully this album turns on a bunch of new people.” I sorta wrapped my head around it and we put this thing out and now it’s out and I’m like, “This is an awesome album”. It’s a pretty sweet album.

Colin: Yeah, definitely, with the B-sides especially for the new people getting to your music. It shows your diversity, you know?

Chris: Yeah, it definitely shows our diversity and our growth and hopefully it shows you what direction we’re moving in and have been moving in. That’s just the revolution of the music, you know?

Colin: Right, definitely. What was rehearsal like for tour?

Chris: It was a lot different than most of the times we get ready for tour. We practice for like two weeks then breakout. Everything we need to learn, we learn like during soundcheck or something like that. This time, you know, it’s been so long since we’ve toured everybody had to start listening to the music a little earlier and get familiar in their own time before we got together. We got together, I would say, two months before we started the tour, maybe a month a half but that’s a long time for us. Jose had been taking drum lesions, I’ve been taking key lessons, Mike was at Harvard studying music theory and some science. Everybody was excited to see eachother and already knew everything. I think Jose was probably the most prepared. He came in knowing every single song in our arsenal. That’s like some 86 songs or something like that, he could play every single one of them (laughs).

Colin: That’s awesome (laughs).

Chris: Yeah, so we were prepared and we got two weeks through rehearsal and we’re like, “Wow, maybe we should have always started rehearsal this early.”(laughs) But you know, we had a good time just jamming out on new ideas and things like that. This tour has been awesome. You know I mean, my perspective is jaded, obviously, because I’m up on stage and I’m in the band and playing with these guys. But I think we’re playing better than we’ve ever played before.

Colin: Yeah, I saw you guys at Radio City(Music Hall) the other night and you guys were really tight. It was sick.

Chris: Oh, thanks man. Which night did you see?

Colin: I actually went to both nights(laughs).

Chris: Oh, sweet.

Colin: Yeah, yeah. The first night I was really close, I actually had a front row ticket through your presale. And then the next night, I was a little farther back but it was still awesome. I loved it especially in that environment.

Chris: Thanks man.

Colin: So comparing setlists from this tour and your previous tour in 2007, they’re a little bit longer. Did Mike’s hand play a role in the lengths of the sets at all?

Chris: You know, probably. Like I know for a while he had problems with his hand and he was always icing it after the show and things like that. 2007 for sure, he was definitely having a lot of problems with it. I think the break helped him out a lot and we sort of just put a setlist together that we thought would be good without thinking of how long we were playing. When we finally played the set a few times then we were like, I think we were getting ready to play LA, Los Angeles, and we were like, “Lets pull up an old set list to see what we played last time we played.” And we looked at it and it was so short compared to what we were playing. We were like, “Whoa!”(laughs) We didn’t even know that. So it’s cool. We play, I guess, an hour and 50 minutes, just under two hours with the encore and everything. Everybody in the band thinks about an hour and half is a good time. After that, people start losing attention and things like that. For me, I see it both ways. I can be at a concert where a band plays three hours if I’m having a good time. Time will just fly by but if it’s something that I’ve seen a bunch of times or if I’m not really feeling part of it, then three hours can be grueling (laughs). So we try to keep about an hour and half. We jam and we play a lot of music and we have fun so that tacks a good 20 minutes onto it.

Colin: Up on stage you have a bunch of instruments. Which one is your favorite to play at the moment?

Chris: Oh man. I don’t know if I can tell you that. That’s like pick which is your favorite kid.

(Both laugh)

Chris: The Rhodes is probably my go to instrument, the Fender Rhodes. Nothing beats the turntables and scratchin’, that’s my love. Nothing beats that but the Moog and all the pedals I have, I just like making weird sounds. So I got all the instruments hooked up to all kinds of crazy pedals. Just off the top of my head, I would say the Fender Rhodes. It can sound real crazy, I can get it to sound like a distortion guitar, I can make it sound like a weird spaceship or I can make it sound like an old vintage keyboard. Real pretty and a little platonic pitch just ringing out. It’s just a beautiful instrument.

Colin: Definitely, very cool. I noticed that you guys are playing a new version of “Dig.” How did that come about?

Chris: Well, “Dig” is probably one of the hardest songs we’ve ever wrote in the studio. We wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote it. All of our songs sorta kind of just flow and they just come out. It’s real obvious how they should go, “Dig” was the exact opposite of that. We kept struggling with it and struggling with it and it just took us a while. We banged it out in the studio and it was in a range that was really hard for Brandon to sing. It’s two different things singing in the studio and singing on the road, two totally different things. It’s like playing an athletic sport. Like running a marathon in Denver opposed to Los Angeles, you know what I mean? When you get up in altitude things become a lot harder (laughs). You know so when we actually got that one down and put it on the record and started playing it live, it became a different thing. It sort of fell out of our setlist because it was a real difficult song to make it sound good live. We didn’t want to abandon it so this time around we thought about.. we dropped it, I don’t know if it’s dropped a whole step, it might even be a step and a half, I’m not quite sure. But we dropped it down, just parts of it and parts we put back in the original key and we just messed it up. I think it sounds cooler then it does on the record.

Colin: I thought it was great.

Chris: Yeah, everybody’s real stoked on playing it and it just breaths new life into that song, you know? That’s what you need after you play these songs for thousands and thousands of times. You gotta make them fresh and creative.

Colin: Yeah, definitely. Another thing I noticed at Radio City is that your dreads are getting pretty long. How long have them been in the making?

Chris: (laughs) Oh man. I haven’t had a hair cut since ’95.

Colin: Holy shit.

Chris: Yeah, I think I started locking my hair in ’96 so I mean it’s been a long time. Most people’s hair just stops growing at a certain length. My shit keeps going….

(Both laugh)

Chris: Who knows if it’s going to stop.

Colin: Hey, that’s cool.

Chris: I think I don’t cut it just to see how long it’s gonna go. It’s so long it’s gets in the way for a lot of things. I can’t even tie my shoes. I bend down to tie my shoes without tying my hair.

Colin: Maybe you’ll get a Guinness Book Of World Records some day…

Chris: Oh, I don’t know man. Some of those guys got dreads that drag on the ground.

Colin: (laughs) Definitely. How’s Jose (Pasillas) managing being a father and a rockstar at the same time?

Chris: You know, I think he’s doing a good job at it. He really misses his kid, it’s obvious. I got a dog for the first time and I left it home and I miss her. I can’t even imagine if I had a kid. So he misses her a lot but at the same time, he’s doing what he loves to do. So it’s a weird, weird dichotomy there. You want to be home with your kid but you want to be playing music and doing what you love but he’s handling it well. He said the other day, he couldn’t look at pictures sometimes. He can’t look at pictures because he gets all teared up (laughs). He’s like, “I can only look at pictures at certain times.”

Colin: (laughs) Very cool. This may sound kind of strange but whenever I interview an artist, I always ask a random question. So um..

Chris: Ok.

Colin: Imagine yourself in a real life Jurassic Park. Would you rather get eaten by a T Rex or a velociraptor? You have no chance of getting away.

Chris: Oh, velociraptor for sure. No doubt.

Colin: No doubt?

Chris: Yeah cause they’re smarter and run in packs, you know. I think I could outsmart a T Rex (laughs).

Colin: Oh yeah?

Chris: But velociraptor is a little smarter animal, smaller, alittle faster. From what I know it’s a little more aggressive (laughs).

Colin: (laughs) Nice. While you guys were on hiatus, did you have a chance to check out any live shows or anything like that?

Chris: Yeah, you know I’m always checking out live shows and it’s always something random. I’m never really looking for shows to go see. It’s worth of mouth kind of thing comes by. So I always check shows out but it’s just random. I guess one of the groups I like to see live is The Roots. They’re one of my favorite hip-hop bands…

Colin: Didn’t you guys just play with them on (Jimmy) Fallon?

Chris: Yeah, we played with them. It was pretty sweet. Ben (Kenney), he used to be in the band. So when Ben got in the band, I sorta stopped bumpin’ all my Roots albums in the back lounge cause I didn’t want to weird him out.

(Both laugh)

Chris: But then he started bumpin’ them so I was like, “Alright, cool. We’re cool.” (laughs) Yeah, so I try to check them out, anytime they play. They got a full schedule these days. I live in the mountains in Los Angeles and I’m a hermit. I stay locked up in the mountains a lot. Sometimes I go through long stretches without seeing or hearing new music.

Colin: (laughs) Cool. Do you and the rest of the band have preshow rituals that you go through?

Chris: Not really. I just try to stay as relaxed as possible and not have a ritual. Cause then if I break the ritual for some reason then it might weird me out a little bit (laughs)

Colin: (laughs) Right…

Chris: So I’ve always been like that . Brandon (Boyd) warms up, he’s got to warm up a little before the show. Right before we go on we do this thing called the ‘claw’ where it’s just basically we all just put our hands in the middle and you know, say, ‘Have a good show’ and that’s about it. (laughs) Nothing special.

Colin: So what’s Incubus’ plan for when you’re done touring? I know Mike’s heading to Harvard.

Chris: Yeah, he’s gonna go back to school this fall. My plans I’ll probably get a little more serious into playing keys. I took a lot of lessons in the last year and it’s not really now until I sort of stepped away from them and started doing what I do with the band that I realized how much they actually helped me. And how proficient I’m getting at those things. I’m just planning to surround myself with these keyboard cats and a bunch of DJs. Try to mesh those two worlds together. I think being a DJ turning into a keyboard player or being a DJ turning into any other kind of musician, I think you have a little bit different perspective on the music. As opposed to being like trained or self taught in something. Where people can actually teach you, you can go take guitar lessons , you can go take piano lessons, you can study the history of guitar and things like that. Where the turntables, none of that stuff has really happened up until the last couple of years. I think I have a little different perspective than a lot of these keyboard cats I’ve played with. It’s always fun just bouncing ideas off of them and trying to see how they think about things. I’ll probably do that, take a bunch of lessons, maybe take some classes. Just stay on top of what I do , so it doesn’t leave me.

Colin: Definitely, that’s sweet. Do you guys have any new material in the works?

Chris: Yeah, we’ve been writing like crazy on the road. Mike’s been writing a lot of stuff and burning CDs and giving them to us. So you know, they’re all just ideas right now and until we actually get together and put them together, that’s all they are…just ideas. But there’s a lot of them. A lot of them floating around right now.

Colin: One last thing, have you in fact perfected the art of rolling?

Chris: ….Yes, yes. I can roll anything. (laughs)

Before Peter, Bjorn and John went on tour with Depeche Mode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Peter and John after their performance in Philadelphia this past summer. They’re lively stage presence carried over into our conversation as they were very friendly and had a great sense of humor. The band just finished their tour with Depeche Mode and will head out on the road again in November. Maybe when they get done the upcoming tour, they’ll explore a new genre….trash metal.

Colin: Your most recent album is much more dance oriented, was that intentional? Was it like organic in the studio?

Peter: We had like a constant progression for more beat oriented stuff, already with Writer’s Block and then the instrumental record we made. So it’s like a constant progression but maybe we took it even further on this record. Next time will be something different again.

Colin: On your instrumental and most recent album, did you record them at the time same time? Or were they different periods of time?

Peter: We did it a little earlier. That was when we were still touring Writer’s Block, we went into the studio and did Seaside Rock, as it’s called. Which was just great rehabilitation after all the touring. Just to go back into the studio and have fun. So you know, I think that’s a great record.

Colin: How did you get the song titles if they don’t have any lyrics?

Peter: Uhh..that’s a good question actually. (Laughs) It was easy for some of them cause some of them have dialogues. There are three tracks that have dialogues from our local villages where we come from. So they are actually telling a story so those three it was easy. The other ones were a bit more weird, I guess, but …
John: It was from the last track, “At The Seaside”. We have like our alter-ego band name. We found it on like an old poster or something. It was bright, like a cartoon drawing of a beach. Then we played a gig…
Peter: In Brooklyn like really early on when were started to tour in the US before our proper shows we played a secret gig at Union Hall, a small place, under the name “At The Seaside”. So we’re still planning on making a record under that name. (laughs)
John: But the fun thing of that gig when we were “At The Seaside”, it started off we did some kind of stand-up comedy because it was a stand up comedy club. They asked us, “Can you do like something stand-upish?” and we were like, “Um, yes…of course.” (all laughs) After a couples of beers later…ahh so bad. We did like a fake soundcheck, that was suppose to be funny.

Colin: Was it funny?

Both: No(laughs)

Colin: (laughs) Where’s you favorite place to play music, whether it’s in public or private?

Peter: Hmmm…that’s a tough one.
John: What’s the name of the place in Chicago?
Peter: Yeah, that was good. The Metro..
John: 9:30(Club) in Washington
Peter: Yeah, that’s great too.  We’re going to do that tomorrow.  That’s a great club.

Colin: That’s a great venue. When you spend your time practicing and rehearsing, where are you guys? Are you in a low key setting, are you in someone’s house? Where do you guys feel most comfortable?

Peter: It’s kind of different, it’s very different for us. We have a small rehearsal space, a really crappy one, a cheap one in Stockholm.  It’s situated under a bar which is convenient. (laughs) But we try not to go there that often but when we need to do the rock out, you know, play heavy, we have to go there.
John: We call this guy Lelle, who has this space that’s not ours but his. And when we’re a bit drunk sometimes we call him in the middle of the night and just say, “Have you seen the guitar stand somewhere? “ (All laugh)
Peter: Cause you know the time change and everything, Sweden to America. He’s been phoning us a couple of times like when I was in LA once. He phoned me in the middle of the night  and it was his lunch break or something. And he never stopped talking, I was like, “I’m sleeping”. He’s like, “Oh, ok so you’re in LA? That’s great. I’ve been to LA, you know? I’ve spent sometime there. Also doing shows? Oh, that’s great!” And he never stops.(laughs) So now we’re not calling him anymore.
John: You can have his phone number..

(Everyone Laugh)

Peter: Then we a little, well not we. You(talking to John) and Bjorn have a space so we do some rehearsals in there sometimes when it’s softer.
John: We don’t rehearse that much actually.
Peter: No(laughs) we play shows.
John: It’s going to be our new thing.
Peter: We’re going to start to rehearse now (laughs).
John: Our next record is going to be trash metal.

(Everyone laughs)

Colin: I’ll keep an eye for that. So this summer you guys are touring with Depeche Mode. You have been around for 10 years or so and they’ve been around for almost 30 years, I guess. Are you intimidated at all? What are your thoughts going into the tour?

Peter: It’s really big venues and it’s not our audience so it might be a bit nerve-racking, but at the same time I think it’s going to be really fun. We’re going to bring along out girlfriends and it’s kind of early shows so a bit relaxed. It’s great. And hopefully there’s a lot of older people who still buy records. So they kind of get into us and buy the record. That’s the goal.  And also, the new record is kind of influenced by 80’s synth-pop.

Colin: Right, I can definitely hear that influnence. I noticed with the tour dates they’re kind of spread out so it looks like you guys have more time to just relax.

Peter: Yeah, we’re going to do some gigs in between them(laughs).

Colin: So what city are most excited for?

Peter: On that tour? Actually, I’m most excited to go to New Orleans cause I’ve never been there. And we’re not going  to play there,  we’re just going to stay there for two days. I’ve never been there so I look forward to that.

(Bjorn walked in and sat on the couch)

Peter: That’s our bass player.

Colin: Hey man…. so I always ask artists a random questions. Would you guys rather get eaten by a grizzly bear or a great white shark?

John: I’ve had this question before.

Colin: Really?

Peter: Not really…similar.
Bjorn: Get eaten by…

Colin: Either way you’re going down, there’s no chance.

Peter: I want to be ripped to pieces so I say the grizzly bear.
Bjorn: Yeah, shark cause then you’re drowning. That’s boring(laughs).

Colin: Yeah, that’s the easy way out.

Peter: Yeah, I want to have some flesh taken off me for a while and then die gradually.

Colin: What did you guys think of Kanye’s remix or sampling of “Young Folks”?

John: Dope.
Peter: Shit’s dope. Drums are crazy

Colin: (laughs) Were you in contact with him?

Peter: No, he just does what he feels like. He’s the king of the world, right? (laughs)

Colin: What world? His own?

Peter: America(laughs)

Colin: Have you guys seen any good films lately?

John: Yeah, Involuntary. Its Swedish. It’s one of the best Swedish films,kind of a mix between documentary and Roy Andersson type with a dark undertone humor.

Colin: After you get done touring, what are your plans?

Peter: We’re gonna make another record pretty quick. We want to do that.

Colin: Trash metal?

Peter: Yes, trash metal (laughs),