We’ve been working feverishly to get all of our CMJ stuff done. Check back later today was we start to post a ton of photos, reviews, interviews and very special sidewalk performance videos from bands like The Spinto Band and Robbers on High Street! Be on the lookout! We have it covered!
Polyvinyl Records is undoubtably one of the best indie labels out there today, if not of all time. With a roster that includes everyone from Of Montreal to Headlights, they held a stellar showcase at the Bell House during CMJ where every performer seemed to be more brilliant than the one before. The venue, which was packed to near capcity, was one of the must sees on Friday night.
I arrived just as the band Owen, also known as one of Mike Kinsella’s many projects, was about to hit the stage and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have heard both good and bad things about their live performance, but I never thought I would experience what I did. Owen played none of their own songs but instead performed nearly all of the Oasis album, (What’s the Story?) Morning Glory (Epic), which was a confusing yet brilliant surprise. Not all of the fans in the crowd were pleased with this fact, but Kinsella and company couldn’t care less as they laughed it off saying “Hey, it took a long time to learn these songs!” There was no end in sight to their madness and they pulled it off well.
Up next was Aloha frontman, Cale Parks who was showcasing his solo work. Taking a far different approach from what he does with his band, Parks stuck to playing digital drums and singing, bringing a very interesting performance to the stage. One ongoing trend of CMJ this year seemed to be the use of digital drums though Parks mastered them like no one else did at the festival.
Also to take the stage was James Husband, the glam drummer from Of Montreal. Husband is currently showcasing his new solo project, joined by Dottie Alexander and Davey Pierce also from Of Montreal. This was one of the first of his solo performances and he did it like an old pro. A stretch from the glitz and glitter of his regular gig, he brought a bit of retro, garage and twee to the stage, and though most people would not have expected it from him, it fits him like a glove.
I stayed just long enough to catch Headlights who displayed a variety of tracks from their newest album,Wildlife (Polyvinyl). With three shows in two days at CMJ, Headlights lit up the stage with their male and female counterpart vocals. They come off sweet and sugary on their albums but onstage they unleash the lions, and the crowd seemed to like it. Singer Erin Fein’s voice is heavenly and it fills the room, taking the songs to a whole new level live.
In all, it was a fantastic night of music. Polyvinyl has proven itself to be a label that can stand the test of time, as we wait in excitement for more good things to come.
The Demon Beat is THE band to lookout for in the coming months. Hailing from West Virginia, these boys play their instruments like it was 1974 all over again. The trio made up of Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman and Jordan Hudkins have been blowing away crowds on the east coast and they’re bound to only get bigger. The band will be releasing their newest album titled Shit We’re 23! (Big Bullet) will be out November 3rd, so be sure to pick up a copy! We had the chance of sitting down with the hillarious boys from The Demon Beat and here’s how it all went down.
How did you come up with the name, The Demon Beat?
Tucker: Who wants to feel this one, Adam?
Adam: It’s from the story about this band I used to be into, one of the guys, well they used to be on a Christian label and he was wearing a Rolling Stones shirt and this guy came up to him after the show and said “You shouldn’t be wearing that Stones shirt, because Keith Richards went to Africa to study the Demon Beat.” Which is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard….and it’s still one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard(laughs).
How did the band form?
Jordan: I’ll feel this one Adam. So Adam and I were in a band beforehand, a four piece op rock band called the Kamikazanauts and this is like you go to college and form a band of your friends, so after that Adam and I were talking that we’d really like to o sort of a classic rock duo. Adam had written all of these really cool riffs that he had played for me on an acoustic guitar, and I didn’t know how to play drums so I was like “I’m going to go home and learn how to play drums over the summer so we can form this band in the fall when we come back to school.” We came back to school, he had all the riffs, I had the drum skills, so we form a two piece kind of in the vein of The White Stripes, The Black Keys that sort of thing. It was really popular at the time so we tried to cash on that.
You could be Meg White!
Jordan: I don’t know how to play drums, surely I’ll be better than Meg White! So we got together and played our first show at a coffee house in Martinsberg, West Virginia. We set up in the corner in front of the flavor syrups and played in front of a few of our friends…
Adam: We got a standing ovation!
Jordan: We got a standing ovation. Our initial idea was to write a 40 minute long song, which we did…
Adam: I did!
Jordan: I didn’t have anything to do with it. Adam did everything. We started playing pen mics in our local town and after a while we were like, we need some bass, you know? To round it out. We needed some bass, and we had this guy playing with us and it wasn’t really working out and he couldn’t make an open mic night to play and Tucker was there and he’d seen us and so he filled in and he worked up chops in a band called Thunder Struck, a classic rock cover band, so he really knew how to weigh in down. Like seriously he broke the void, he was perfect it felt really good and we kept playingtogether. Kept going, keep on keeping on, I think that’s how the old poem goes. Then we came here and you were here and you had a tape recorder in my face. What’s a demon beat?!
Who are our influences?
Tucker: Musically? The Dada actually, anything Dadaist.
Jordan: I’m into impressionism!
Tucker: No actually musically, The Who, The Stones, anything on classic rock radio.
Just so we can pitch it. We got into this brief period when we were really into Stack Records.
Jordan: Then we got really into Spacehog for a day!
Tucker: For a day….
Jordan: We quickly fell out of our Spacehog phase.
I didn’t see that coming…
Jordan: Now we like The Arctic Monkeys (laughs)
How does the band write songs? Is it collaborative or does everyone bring in their
own songs?
Jordan: Adam is the primary songwriter.
Adam: Yea, usually what happens is the songs come about one or two ways. Sometimes I’ll have like I’ll kind of know exactly how I‘ll want things. I’ve made some demos where I’ve played all the parts and then they’ll listen to it and adapt it, because he’s (Jordan) a much better drummer and he’s (Tucker) a much better bass player. Sometimes it’s that way, sometimes they’ll be downstairs waiting for me to come down to start practicing and they’ll just be fucking around, and it’s awesome. We’ve written a lot of songs that way. I write the words all the time. That’s why there are so many drug references (laughs).
Crack habit?
Jordan: Adam is really into crack sheik. That’s his look. All he eats is rice and old seasoning, but he doesn’t put it on rice he just licks it out of his palm (laughs).
At what point did you think that music was something you wanted to pursue in your
life?
Tucker: We all came from towns that were full of industry, and you went, well Jordan, for you it was coalmines, right? And for Adam plastic…And for me it was chicken factories and when you grow up there it’s pretty depressing and you know when that’s your future you feel the need to do something else. I think we all just kind of found music. It was like a dead end in all of our towns.
Jordan: Man, you know what? Having a job blows. The coolest thing in the world….well you want to see the world, see the country, why not do it playing music? Why not?! That’s what I think. Our college just blew. I was going to drop out but I thought why not and just finished it out.
Tucker: I graduated and couldn’t get a good job, he graduated and got a decent job.
Jordan: I make 500,000 dollars a year (laughs). Can you believe that? Do you want a beer later? They have a beer that’s actually in an old sheep bladder…it was bladder-ed in 1835, I’ll buy it for you! It’s 90 dollars a glass. It’s called ‘Bladder Brow’ (laughs).
Adam: He’s the least charming person you’ve ever heard!
Jordan: You don’t have to be charming when you make 300 million dollars a year!
What inspires you to write a song?
Jordan: Robots.
Adam: Just anything, most of our songs are about really deep shit and some of them aren’t about really deep shit.
Tucker: It’s getting angrier.
Adam: Actually I had a friend told me I was clinically depressed lately.
Jordan: The more we go to Philadelphia pissed off we get…No Philly’s cool, right?
What do you prefer more, being in the studio or being on the road?
Adam: Anytime we’ve been in the studio it’s been less than 2 days. But we love those 2 days. We’re probably not a good enough band to answer that question! We like both I guess.
Tucker: It depends on the weekend of shows. It’s just a really fun weekend but we’ve only been to a studio once, other than that it’s just recording in the basement.
Adam: We’ve sort of got a lot of shit in our basement so we kind of live in a studio. Sort of.
Jordan: We did record in the studio where 2 Live Crew did their record. Put that on the front page!
Tucker: We also recorded where they do the voice overs for that show, Backyardigans.
Jordan: How does this work? Are you going to transpose all of this directly?
Pretty much, yea.
Jordan: So it’s just going to be a question and all the shit we say? (laughs) Is this going to be in there? What I’m saying right now? I’m cool with it.
What’s your favorite song to perform live and why?
Adam: We like to do this song called “Bad Man” and I get to do windmills and stuff, so that’s cool.
Tucker: We all get to do solos.
Jordan: I like to do it because I get to do paradiddles, and they’re my favorite drum rhythm.
Adam: Right, yea you figured out what paradiddles were 4 months ago!
Tucker: I still don’t know what a paradiddle is, I figured out how to pronounce it 4 months ago.
Jordan: It’s paradiddles, not per-diddle. Like two diddles. A pair of diddles.
What was the first band you were a part of and was it awful?
Adam: I was in a band called Skele-Toothpaste (SPELLING) for 2 weeks, and I quit because of spiritual differences. Then they went onto become Scenes from a Movie and went on the Warped Tour and I’m in a dark concrete part of Brooklyn so obviously made the right move. I’m kidding, they did go to Warped Tour but they’re douche bags (laughs).
Tucker: The local guitar player found me one day in my house with a bass guitar, which ironically was my thunderbird bass. He told me “I’m going to teach you bass” and what he meant by that was going to point and tell me to play that note. So for along time I didn’t know anything about music when I played it.
Adam: Jordan, tell us about your first band experience…
Jordan: Well if you do need to know, my first band that I was ever in was the great Elementary marching band. I played saxophone. We played the “Duck Tales” theme which was a real scorcher, everyone loved that one. Actually as far like, stupid bands go Like band-bands, I was in the Kamikazanauts in college. I already told you that already, what more do you want? (laughs).
How has your music, songwriting wise evolved since you first started?
Adam: Like a tadpole to a frog, not so much as evolved as it’s grown. I think the more you play, the more shows you do, the more you write. Everything gets better. We’ve all gotten better as musicians, we’ve all gotten to know what each of us are going to do and embrace it. Like I can write more towards the way he plays drums and more towards the way he plays bass. Plus we have more fuzz pedals now so that means we don’t have to write as much. We can just turn them on (laughs).
Tucker: We’ve gotten lazier!
Is there a big music scene where you live?
All: NO!
Wow that was in unison!
Tucker: There’s a lot of talented people but there’s one and a half places to play…
Jordan: One and a half?
Tucker: Well we tried to play the second place and they told us that we were too loud. So I mean like, all of West Virginia is kind of like that. There’s a couple of really cool venues, and a lot of really talented people but they don’t end up doing anything. There are some really good bands in West Virginia that are on the cusp of exploding.
Jordan: And they’re all better than us but we’re the only ones who drive to New York! Keep your eyes peeled for West Virginia bands to take over the scene. Williamsburg may be cool right now, but West Virginia is going to blow up. West Virginia is the new Williamsburg. Nirvana was a really good band.(This is where Adam’s eyes get really big)
Adam: Okay right where he says that can you say in parenthesis “This is Adam’s eyes get really big.”
Jordan: Can you transcribe exactly what Adam just said?
Yes! You blend a bit of blues and rock, if you had to chose just one
to play forever, which one would it be?
Jordan: I hate blues. I really don’t like blues! That’s just me though. I’ll put blues into rock, but no, I don’t play blues. Adam just puts blue on top of what I play. I refuse to admit that I play blues.
Tucker: You wouldn’t have rock without blues.
Jordan: True there’s that history.
Adam: I can answer your question by saying I don’t want to play with Jordan anymore (laughs).
Jordan: Oh well, you win some you lose some! If you need me I’m back on a mega bus back to West Virginia in the morning. I’m taking mega bus this time! I may get my head chopped off by an ICP fan or whatever happens. I don’t know I heard something crazy happened. Strike that from the record! Please.
It’s totally in there. Tucker, how did you decide to start Big Bullet Records?
Tucker: I was procrastinating for finals in my senior year in college and I was really pissed off because we were talking about how there was a lot of really talented people in our town but they didn’t do anything. So I was like “Hey I’m going to help them book shows and make records and all that.” All it is basically like he does the artwork and stuff, I book the bands and help manage them and stuff, and get into the press, stuff like that. Help promote bands in area and bands like Dandelion Snow, and we friends on the label, and it’s like a community. A bunch of fans helping each other out, pooling our resources to make everything a little easier. Also I don’t ever want a real job, so one day I can pay my rent from running a record label, that’s my goal. It’s all about how the world sees you.
At what age did you start to love music?
Jordan: I was born loving music! I came out of the womb with a “Jesus Christ Superstar” soundtrack. I was dancing.
Adam: Jordan was one of those baby’s where that they put the headphones on. They played all musicals and ABBA.
Jordan: Actually my Mom had a record that was like “Classical Music for Your Uterus”or something like that!
Adam: Classic Uterus?!
Jordan: Mr. Holland’s Ovaries. Hey Adam, you like music!
Adam: Well my parents only kept a few records from their collection. It was Magical Mystery Tour, Are You Experienced? And around 13 I heard Jimi Hendrix, but I also heard The Cardigans “Love Fool” and “Love Fool” made me want to play guitar and Jimi Hendrix made me want to have big hair, which I don’t have right now. But yea, around 13.
Tucker: My Dad claims he named me after the Marshall Tucker Band,, but my Mom claimed she named me after a hot firefighter. My Grandfather’s middle name was Asbury.
What’s your favorite city or town to play a show?
Tucker: I like New York. It’s always a favorite.
Adam: I like North Carolina, you can drink on the street. We’ve only been there once by the way.
Jordan: We’re going back, I swear! We’re we going next weekend? Raleigh! We’re playing the Eastern Regional Final Roller Derby after party. Are you listening America? This is live right?
What is your favorite album of all time?
Adam: He’s not really big, but I like Kevin Devine. He’s from Brooklyn. I’m into that singer/songwriter stuff. I love Kevin Devine.
Tucker: I’m going to get lame on you and do an either/or. It’s either Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix, or The Who Live at Leeds.
Jordan: Those are good ones. If I had to pick it’s probably either The Blue Album by
Weezer or Ratitude by Weezer. Do you know about Ratitude?!
I do know about Ratitude….
Jordan: And you’re very upset! You like that new single, right?
I haven’t heard it actually.
Jordan: You haven’t heard it? There is a lyric in the new single that goes…have you heard the new single Adam? It goes “The summer was the best we ever had, we watched Titanic and it didnt make us sad.”
Wow that’s why I haven’t listened to it.
Jordan: Emily Dickinson is a really good poet. I like The Blue Album by Weezer and I
like, I’ve been listening to a lot of Cake lately, and I like Cake but it’s not my favorite.
If you weren’t in the Demon Beat, what would you be doing? Would you be playing
in another band?
Adam: Playing in the Demon Beat. I would move to the city and start selling drugs because I’d be too poor to do anything else.
Jordan: I would sit back and ride on m 500K a year salary. I don’t know what I’d do, I’d probably sleep on a bed made of mermaid hide.
Tucker: I’d probably date a girl and so something to make my parents proud. Not express myself anymore.
Become a lawyer?!
Jordan: Hudkins, Meisterhans and Riggleman. That sound’s awful! Do you want to be in our law firm? What’s your last name?
Nastasi.
Nastasi, Hudkins, Meisterhans and Riggleman, we play hardball ya’ll.
What are the immediate plans for the band’s future?
Jordan: I know, I know what it is! We’re playing a show at the Charleston in
Williamsburg tonight, tomorrow we’re going home and chilling out, we’re playing a
couple shows, playing some more shows, we are booked up until November until our CD
release extravaganza is. Statewide CD release extravaganza, West Virginia. Spread the
word. New Williamsburg. We’re putting out an album in November. A record that we
recorded, did we talk about this already? We just recorded a record in New York City,
with our good friend Chris in Dubway studios, Manhattan, it comes out in November and
it’s called Shit, We’re 23! We’re going to put that record out and see where it takes us. It
may take us to new heights. Or it may take us to new lows. We may play SXSW too.
Where do you see the band in 10 years from now?
Adam: I’m trying to die while I’m young here. Past the age of 27.
Jordan: What’s that poster, Forever 26?
Adam: Forever 27. We want to end up on that.
Since the first time I heard Sam Roberts back in 2002, he has always been one of my favorite artists. Recently we had the honor of meeting Sam when he and the band stopped into New York City for a show at the Gramercy Theater. Roberts is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. It’s always great to meet one of your musical heroes to find out they are one of the nicest people around. Enjoy the interview, I sure did.
At what point in your life did you think that music was something you wanted to pursue for a living?
I don’t remember what the exact age was that when it transformed from being something that I did into something that I thought I could do to sort of meet life’s more practical requirements. I just knew that at some point, getting a job would interfere with me devoting the time I thought need to be devoted to playing music and writing music. So I think when I really started to get into the writing side of things and realizing that was something I could do, that I thought I could do, and then maybe if I stuck to it then other people would connect with me somehow. Before that I just played, I just played because it was a natural instinct for me to always want to have an instrument in my hand. I grew up playing violin back home in Montreal so I was always playing one thing or the other. I never really thought of it as a career and then I started, teenage angst cracked in and I started writing my first few songs, talking about your lost loves, you’re in grade 9 and you realize that other people share your painful experience. Then I thought well maybe this is something that I can do. Then it took another 10, 12 years to make it a profession. I’m holding on tight. I’ve got my white knuckles gripped on the rings trying to stay on this bucking bronco.
You were known for playing in Northstar, but when you released We Were Born in a Flame people really jumped on it. Were you really surprised?
After so many years, like I said, of trying and not succeeding, I was shocked by success, absolutely. Because it would have been much more rational on our part to assume that well after so many failures, you’re just going to continue; Not that I saw them as failures I just saw it as sort of part of the inherent injustice of the universe that people really get what we were trying to do. I never really took the blame, I didn’t really want to take the blame. Maybe it was the songs, maybe it’s someone in the band, it’s always someone . else’s fault. Then something kept telling us to keep trying and trying and trying. It happened in the most unlikely fashion. A demo tape was mailed to a radio station in Ottawa, and there was two competing radio stations in town and we mailed it to both of them. One started playing it then the other heard about it and they got into a bit of a showdown. And from there it spread across Canada, it didn’t make much of a dent down here, stateside, but I don’t think we could have scripted that entry into the world of successful musicians. I have no idea how it could happen, so be ready for anything.
What inspires you to write a song? Is it always personal, or is it a story?
Both. They’re obviously personal experiences that for some reason I feel compelled to write into lyrics and share with other people. I think we all need to get those things off of our chest, and for me music is how I do that. But it’s not always that, a song is also a vehicle for storytelling. I guess to some degree I can tear myself apart. Storytelling is based on the things you notice when you wake up and when you go to bed at night. It could be anywhere. You have to be open to seeing, to translating, to recognizing an experience that’s worth telling a story. But I think that’s something I’ve been developing more and more. At first all of my songs were personal. Then I realized you can tell just as much of a story though someone else’s eyes without pouring your heart open.
Is songwriting something that has always come natural for you?
No I had to work at it. I think if I looked back to my first few songs, my lyrics were very cliché, you probably heard them a thousand times before, but from any number of different bands. It’s more about the drive to share something, and you can get better about how you go about the sharing. If you shy away from expressing yourself than you’re not going to be really good about writing songs. You have to hone your craft. I think it’s something I’ve gotten better at by practicing, but I still…you have to go back to the drawing board, with any craft. Not necessarily methodical about it but you have to practice at some degree.
Do you write any songs when you’re on the road?
No, but I gather stories, I gather the information. It can be a riff stuck in my head or a lyric or a line stuck in my head, a melody that repeats itself over and over and over again. When I go home I take that jumble of music and try to make sense of it.
Are you constantly writing songs or small handfuls for the record?
I think lately, before we started touring all the time which was 8 years ago, 9 years ago, I used to write…write a song here, write a song there, I had the luxury of time I suppose. But now being on the road because I don’t write much while I’m on the road, I really have to make the most of the time when I’m not. I tend to write 10, 12, 15 songs, and that’s to me what defines an album. They have a cohesiveness, they reflect an unidentifiable piece of time not just bits and pieces. I like the unity that comes with that.
How long does it take you to record a whole album?
A long time! It does. Long gone are the days of Bob Dylan and Neil Young when they put out 2 records a year. There’s usually 2 years between record releases, so that’s become the average. A lot of that has to do with when the record comes out we go on tour. We’re on the road for at least a year, a year and a half. The last one I think took us about nine months from the beginning of the record’s recording. The next one? Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea. I really don’t. I want to think it will be fast and efficient.
It never is.
I know!
What are the differences you see between Canadian music fans and U.S. music fans?
We’ve had really good experiences on both side of the border, to the point where I don’t necessarily distinguish between them, I don’t think this is a typical Canadian audience, this is a typical U.S. audience. In our case there isn’t a noticeable distinction between the two because we have a huge audience in Canada, but when we play down here and we’ve been growing the past couple years, it’s just amazing. It’s rock and roll music and hopefully if you’re doing it right people are going to want to hear it.
One time I saw you play at this tiny music festival in Pleasantville, NY and I was like “What is Sam Roberts doing here?”
Ohhh we’ve done some weird things! I remember that one! I got a photograph of us playing from behind the crowd. A woman knitting on a blanket, and the shot was taken between the knitting needles of me on the stage sweating it out up there. We’ll play anything for anyone who wants to listen.
Such a weird choice!
It was hot and humid and in the middle of summer, and people knitting, playing softball behind the stage. Not exactly your quintessential rock and roll festival moment, but it keeps it interesting I guess.
How has the relationship changed within the band over time? You’ve seem to be playing with the same guys for a long time.
Since High School, you know. We’re obviously at the core of how we’ve managed to keep going and how we managed to stay excited about this opportunity to make this our life. To do this with your oldest and best friends is just meaningful to all of us. It allows us to have faith and be able to keep it together. It’s a positive force in our lives. So many bands have the seed of self destruction sewn into the heart of them whether it’s crashing with creative ideas or egos, or just the grueling lifestyle of being on the road and what that can do to you psychologically, it can drive wedges between people. It’s hard to live like that with anybody. So I think we’re very fortunate that we strong friendships that we value above and beyond any success we may or may not get from the band, so as long as we keep that in clear focus and make sacrafice. It’s hard when you grew up playing soccer with someone and allow the petty differences to interfere with that. It’s good because I know at least the guy’s got my back and vice versa. We don’t know how the next batch of songs are going to go, or how the next record is going to go, or how is it going to be received, will it be received it all? There are so many burdens, so many questions all the time that we can’t answer, but if you can trust in the people that you play with then it’s above and beyond the call of duty.
What’s your favorite part about being in the recording studio?
Just those moments when something appears, as if by magic out of nowhere. Something that didn’t exist before. Forcing it’s way into a musician’s hands, through the people that are playing them, a voice, whatever it may be. That spark, to me, it’s magic, and it’s what you create, it’s why you always create, for it to be something. After the record and you’ve been there for 12 months or a year, then you’re ready to get back onto the road. For the first few times that it happens, there’s nothing quite like it. The song didn’t exist before, and all of a sudden it’s great.
What’s your favorite and least favorite parts about being on tour?
Well there’s the stuff you can talk about and the stuff that’s best not discussed! The hardest part for me is being away from home. I got two kids, and I’m married and I’m out here. I do it for me because it’s a passion of mine, but also now I’m doing it for them. It’s how I earn a living, it’s how I pay the bills. It’s a responsibility now that comes with it that at least gives me a sense of there’s a purpose beyond my own. It’s a fantasy to do what I do but at the same time in fulfilling that, I’m kept away from them. Even if it’s only for 2 weeks, kids grow up really fast in two weeks. So I just have to make up for it when I’m home, but I do love when I get to be home I’m there from morning to night. I like it.
Do they go to your shows?
They do, they have those big headphones. When I just had my one daughter it was easy, but I have 2 now and it’s double the trouble.
You’ve won 6 Junos, do you ever get surprised by your recognition from the industry?
I think everybody fantasizes it. I’m not going to lie to you and say I don’t think about that. But giving an acceptance speech at an award show, like anyone else I fantasized about it. But we were so wrapped up in trying to get a break, once you’re involved in their pursuit for long enough, you stop thinking about those crazy fantastical moments, and have mini dreams that evolve from day to day. I forgot about that dream for a long time, and then all of a sudden it was ours. We had a hit song on the radio, and then a few of them, and then the next thing you know we’re giving a speech. Our first two years were so full of information and life experiences I’m still trying to untangle them and find out what the hell happened. Walking up there to accept it is just something. I think because we felt we really worked hard for it, that was our reward. A tip of the hat for sticking with it when we could of so easily thrown in the towel and stopped everything.
What’s your favorite song you’ve ever written?
That’s a hard one! Every record I’m like “That’s the one, that’s the one!” I never know what will stand up for the test of time for me. Maybe “Bridge to Nowhere” if I picked a song out of hat right now. It’s hard. I like “Waking the Dead” too on the new record. But for me personally, it’s a song that’s more direct and personal. The one that’s closest to me.
You’ve done some great collaborations with K-Os and Mistress Barbara. How did you get involved in those?
When it comes along it has to be a song that I feel a connection to. Not just for the sake of doing it. K-Os and I are old friends, so that came pretty easy. He’ll bring me into the studio and fall asleep on the couch. I’ll do my thing and he’ll take what I’ve done and stretch it any which way he thinks is a good idea. Mistress Barbara just kind of contacted me like “I’m from your hometown, I’m a DJ” and I really liked the song and I was happy to do it. I like to get outside of what I’m doing. It’s rewarding. I’m happy people ask me.
What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you in tour?
Ah probably hitting a deer with our bus. It was one of the most jarring moments. In Northern Ontario and we were all pretty traumatized as we saw it flying into the highway, into the air. BANG! Like Rudolph the red noise reindeer. Then there was the time we were kidnapped by Albanian clowns.
I’m afraid to ask…
Yea you’re better off not knowing all of the details. Heavy duty clowns in Montreal.
Who’s your all time favorite artist?
That’s a hard question, because it changes all the time. One day it’s Bob Dylan, another day it’s Ray Davies. If I listen to a great Kinks song I’m like “Kinks are my favorite!” if I listen to Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan then that’s my favorite. That’s a great thing about a record. My Dad’s record collection shaped some of my singing and songwriting. I got into The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, that was what was going on when I was a teenager. But I was into the Charltans, Spiritulized. Something about being a teenager and your music of the moment identifies you. Then it becomes your whole world. You chose your friends based on your music, your clothes, everything, the way you talk, everything.
10 years down the line, where do you see yourself?
Probably in the basement in the Blender Theater here still doing it, I hope. Actually I do see myself retired I Florida playing shuffleboard, prematurely perhaps, in a crushed velvet tracksuit. I’m prepared.
Brooklyn’s own Dandelion Snow aka Roger Harvey is certainly a name to lookout for. Harvey gave us the honor of performing acoustically outside on an apartment stoop early one night in Brooklyn. Dandelion Snow can be described as having brilliant melodies, and haunting tones as Harvey’s voice is perfect in every way. Be sure to check out the video below! Playtime #3, Dandelion Snow.
Watch Dandelion Snow perform live in Brooklyn HERE
Andrew Kenny has to be one of the most interesting figure in music today. Formerly of the American Analog Set, Kenny is currently on the road with his new band, The Wooden Birds. There’s quite a difference between the two bands, and there is a bit of reasoning behind that. Recently we sat down with Kenny to talk about the past, present and his very scientific future. This is one interview you don’t want to miss!
Modern Mystery: What made you decide to start The Wooden Birds after American Analog Set who were pretty successful?
Andrew Kenny: Well, they were kind of separate decisions first of all. American Analog Set didn’t want to tour any longer, and it’s not a very responsible thing to do to try put out your records or find somebody to put out your records and not follow through and support them. So that kind of was a door that was closing. In the meantime, I had been putting songs aside for slightly more up tempo, maybe a little more poppy, a lot more vocal project. I said since this can’t tour anymore we’ll have fun and record every once in a while, still record songs, stuff like that. But this is a really good time to start this other thing that was always going to take time away from American Analog Set, but not any longer. The timing is just right.
How did you get involved with the musicians you wanted to make up The Wooden Birds, like Matt Pond?
Well I had to stumble through making the record on my own. I wanted it to be very small and I had a good idea of what I wanted it to sound like so I just kind of did it. And then when it came time to put a band together, I found people. I played them the record and then I said, not even asking “What do you want to play?”, it’s more like “Do you like the record? Could you see yourself being something in this band?” and then I got those people together and said “Alright, somebody’s got to play the guitar, somebody’s got to play the bass.” And there’s no drums on the record, but you got to have drummers these days. Kids like the drummers. But seriously, unless you want to play in cafés and Barnes and Nobles, you got to have a drummer. So Sean plays drums, he was my drummer when I did solo shows in Austin. Leslie sang on the record and I asked her if she wanted to join up and have your pick of guitar, other guitar, bass, whatever you want…she picked guitar. Originally the guy who helped me produce the record, Chris Michaels, played steel guitar and he wasn’t able to come on this tour, and I was literally just like the day he told me, I was on the phone with Matt Pond and we were talking about he has a record coming out in the fall and I said “You got nothing to do, you should join the band!” and he said “I can’t believe I’m about to say ‘Yes’ to this but I am.” So yea, that’s Matt Pond. But really it was always made, the music is especially made for friends to play, right? It’s not a showcase of anyone’s musicianship, it’s more like, very short vocal heavy songs. I knew that putting a band together after the fact, I’m not going to get it right the first time, I’m not going to get it right the second time. I’d rather have people coming and going and having a good time, then I would be trying to find the exact lineup forever and forever and forever. Music is made to have fun with.
Do you find that a lot of American Analog Set fans are receptive of The Wooden Birds?
Well, yes, but in my experience, and my experience isn’t endless. I’m only so old and I’ve only been at this so long…in my experience people don’t usually come up to you and tell you how disappointed they were by a show. It’s usually them saying “I really enjoyed that” or “I’ve enjoyed your music for a long time, thanks for coming.” That don’t say “Really? What was that?” Something about your voice and an organ, nobody says that. So yes , people have said “Wow” I feel like I waited almost ten years to hear you play “Aaron & Maria” and now you’re not going to play it. This band is made to play “Aaron & Maria”. It’s always thumbs up in every way. Not so much on this tour because we’re supporting another band, but when we did the tour to support the record and we would play an Analog Set song it was obvious there was obviously a portion of the audience there to see what we are up to now. Speaking about the Analog Set as a really popular band, I mean we only played The Bowery opening for other bands. We were kind of a small band, we were just around for a long time.
How has your songwriting evolved over the years?
I’d like to think that it has a lot, but truthfully it really hasn’t that much at all. There’s a song on the record called “Hometown Fantasy” that sounds like The Wooden Birds, and it was the first song I wrote over twenty years ago. I found it on a demo tape I made, literally right after high school and I put it on the record and it fits perfectly. So really I guess I haven’t grown that much. I’d like to think that my lyrics are better than they were on the first Analog Set record but then again, I think by the time I hit maybe Know By Heart I think I was taking my lyrics a lot more seriously and doing a better job. So really I’m happy with every comment and everything on the record. Really songwriting wise, my songs are my songs. If I made them sound different it wouldn’t sound like me anymore.
How long did it take you to record Magnolia?
I guess when it finally came down to it, maybe a couple of months. Like maybe just under three months. You know on the record how there is the hammered out percussion on the guitar, the bass always sounds the same and fits in that little palm muted pocket, the rhythm guitar always sounds the same, so I recorded the songs many times over the previous year until I figured out okay, this is how the pieces fit together. And once I enjoyed how they were put together the rest of the dominos just fell, and like okay now, I think it took me about three months to get it right. When it probably came down to it, the reason that it took longer than it really even should have is because we recorded it all on a piece of tape. We pieced it together as a demo and then when it came down to it, let’s get all of these performances. We stripped everything down and built the songs up again, so all of Leslie’s performances are a vocal performance. So it took a little bit longer than normal, like a Frankstein job. But some bands take years to make a record.
Was having Leslie’s voice very prominent on the record something you had planned or did it just happen?
I wrote…. As I was writing these songs and picking the songs that I wanted on the record, I wanted every song to have a female and a male part. It’s not always call and response, although it does happen, but I wanted two voices to be there, and the backup vocal I wanted just as strong as the lead vocal. I didn’t want to double myself at all, I wanted it to be something I hadn’t done before, I wanted another human voice. I loved Leslie’s voice for a long, long time and I have recorded her over the years in her projects. I played the demos for her and got her involved really early, and she just kind of hung in there with me recording. The first half of the demos were written with her in mind, and she sang them so beautifully that the second half of the songs were written with her exact voice. I know where your range sounds good and I’m writing this part for you to sing. If she hadn’t it wouldn’t have come out the same way. She’s awesome.
What inspires you to write a song? Is it always personal or is it sometimes a story?
It’s a house card, I don’t want to think about it too much. I don’t know where it’s from, and I’m just glad that I get to write songs and I really have a lot of fun doing it. But some of the time I think that’s a good idea for a song, sometimes it’s a melody, sometimes it’s a guitar part, I have no repeatable method at all. The fact that they actually do come out so much specifically is always a huge surprise to me. But as far as lyrically they’re all heartbreak and heartache and lost love, love….this is my bread and butter.
You lived in Brooklyn for a while, what made you decide to move back to Austin?
Well, I love Brooklyn. The rest of the band still lives in Brooklyn, obviously I have roots here, as so many do as well. But it was a small apartment and my wife and I decided it would be nice to have a window and a dog, trees and a garden and stuff like that, it’s all stuff you can have here, but it takes a lot of work to pull it off and we’re closer to family down in Texas, so it wasn’t like “Brooklyn?!” it was more like “Brooklyn is awesome and we should come back and visit,” but we’re getting on in years, and we’re not going to be pushing a stroller down 7th Avenue and Park Slope.
Down Park Slope doesn’t sound like a good idea!
Maybe not down Park Slope, maybe just the sidewalk down 3rd Street (laughs).
What is your favorite thing about being in the recording studio, or recording in general?
My favorite thing about recording is, it’s making something from nothing. Like before you begin, there really is nothing, nothing exists, but when you’re done, a song exists, and it’s almost like magic. You’re like “I like this a lot” and a few minutes ago, the music didn’t exist and now it exists and I like it. It’s so valuable to me it should have a raw material, it should have a coal turned into a diamond. It costs time, that’s the raw material, but I just like the magic.
What’s your least favorite and favorite part about being on tour?
Wait my least favorite, or favorite?
Both!
I think my favorite part is getting to kind of experience the culture of music in a way that makes me feel comfortable. Like if I don’t have a reason to be in the club I am the most uncomfortable person there. I’m always against the wall or I’m too tall and I’m in somebody’s way and I want to leave. Unless I absolutely love a band, I will never go out and see one. I always feel that I’m in somebody’s way and I’m dealing with loud people and drunks. For some reason when I go on tour I get to see bands every night and for some reason being contractually obligated to be at the venue makes me comfortable to be there. You can all think I’m not cool enough to be here, and you’re right, but the fact is, on September 26th, or 27th, A.K. can be at this location and it’s going to be okay. That’s the way I think about it, is that I have a reason to be somewhere. My least favorite thing is that I miss my wife a lot and we’ve only been married for three years so I feel like I’m missing a lot, well what I think is a lot, like 3 or 4 months out of the year, I feel like I’m missing out.
Who are your influences, or artists that inspired you to play music yourself?
Probably the ones that you would think…
Like Black Sabbath? (laughs)
(Laughs) A little Sabbath, a lot of Angular Maps, no I think it’s not always music. I think Chris Leo, Ted Leo’s younger brother. He’s the first Leo brother that I met. I think Chris Leo is the most inspiring person I’ve ever met in my life. He’s basically a cartoon character of himself, he’s just so creative and so out there that everything he touches just turns beautiful, it’s great. He’s probably my number one inspiration even though I never played guitar with him, he’s number one.
Do you ever find it hard to bring what you did in the recording studio onto the stage?
Well, yes, but not anymore because when I made this record I thought how it was going to be on the record, but really when it comes time to I also knew what the guitar was going to be, what the bass was going to be. I kind of made these songs with a separate live version in mind. It’s just experience. I don’t really get on and go I put the kitchen sink into this record and now how am I going to do this with 3 people, 4 people. I chose songs that I thought I could bring out live. Back in the Analog Set we would just plow them out in the studio, and whatever we came up with was what the songs were and when it came time to play them live that was kind of a holy shit moment. So we could maybe play like 50% of the record, and the other 50%, sometimes my favorite 50% got canned. So this project was live and learn.
What was the first instrument that you learned how to play?
The first instrument that I played was violin and that was in grade school, and I was made to play it and I haven’t picked it up since grade school. I really didn’t enjoy it at all. I hated it. I remember I was in 5th grade, and you might be too young to remember, but there was this show called “Real People,” and there was a show called “That’s Incredible.” One was on ABC and one was on NBC. “Real People” was just like poor country reporters like “We’re going to go to Waco, Texas and meet a little lady that can sing like the dickens!” and they would find a girl who sings in a church choir. Then they’d meet a guy that was like turned license plates into bird houses, he’s a real person! You know the program I’m talking about. This was a nationwide program. My Dad loved it. He also watched “That’s Incredible” from time to time, but less often. So one night I was practicing in my room and he was like “Hey Andy get in here, get in here,” so I walked in there and he’s like “I’m just watching TV, I’m watching “Real People,” and there’s this little girl playing the violin. Now she’s 2 years younger than you, and she plays like she’s a songbird. Listen to this, she’s a virtuoso! And if you just practice a little harder, you can be on “Real People” you can be a real person if you just practice a little more.” Then it was like “We’ll be back with more musical savants on “That’s Incredible”” and it was like “Okay Dad, you want me to be on “Real People” but that was “That’s Incredible”, this incredible, gifted, savant child and all she could do was play violin and she couldn’t like use a fork and a knife. Then he never made me practice again. He realized the absurdity of his perspective and he was like “You can go and play soccer.” I also sucked at soccer by the way. I found it upsetting. But I played violin first and I didn’t even buy a guitar until I was out of High School.
What is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you on tour?
I don’t know. Weird is sort of a broad thing. I get really weird around guns. I grew up around guns and a lot of my major Birthdays were “Gun Birthdays” like I got my first shotgun. But there was a long period of time when I never touched a gun, and at some point guns started to freak me out. If there’s a gun in the room, then I my eyes is always on it, do you know what I mean? So you can have a gun in the back of your pickup truck, you can have a license to have a gun in your house, you can have a license to carry a concealed weapon, you just have to let the powers to be know that it’s happening. You can do that, it’s not a crime. At some point I got weirded out by them, a couple of times if there’s been trouble at club with payment or parking, they’ll pull a gun as a sort of leverage, and that’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to me. Whenever guns are produced to make an argument more, I don’t know, I kind of turn into a person who wants to get the gun, because I’m not going to fire the gun. My reaction is to get the gun away from the person that might fire the gun, and not shoot it. That’s probably a weird feeling, I’m not myself.
At what point did you think that music was something you wanted to pursue as a career?
Well that never happened before, but the closest it ever came, was I moved to New York to go to graduate school for biochemistry, and even though I like making music, science is the only thing I’ve ever done in my entire life that I ever felt good at. Like I can do this, “I’m doing science!” I can run my bench, I can execute whatever calls, I can help my lab manager see a project through. From beginning to end I feel very accomplished, I’m a published author when it comes to science anyway. I feel good about it. I left my graduate program to make the last American Analog Set record, because I thought I really, really wanted to…I couldn’t see myself not making that record, so I think that was the moment when I put my boat in the dock and just sent it down the river. I don’t have any regrets exactly but that was probably a hard moment. I was 32 then, so it wasn’t like I was 16.
Do you ever think you’ll go back to finish graduate school?
I don’t know. If you’re invited into an Ivy League graduate program and then you bail to make a record, I don’t think they’re going to let you go back to them. I will go back to science definitely. What I gave up was a Ph.D. and a really good job, and what I got on the flipside was some time to make music and still work in a laboratory and be a good employee. I’ll probably never do my own science, and that’s fine, but I traded one for the other, but I’ll still do science one day, as long as people are catching cancer, they’ll be people like me to look after them.
What’s next for The Wooden Birds after the tour?
Well after the tour ends, I’ll just drive home, and I’ll be tracking our second. This is the first tour I’ve taken a guitar along in the van, and I’m just making sure I have all of my ducks in a row for the new songs I want to do. So when I get home I want to just start banging on the guitar again, working on songs and rhythms and start writing and recording. That’s definitely the next step unless we get offered another tour, I don’t know if we’ll play it, but they’ll be more recording.
Where do you see yourself musically in 10 years?
In 10 years I really don’t see myself making music in 10 years, and the reason being is I know people that do it at that age for that long and they’re way more talented than I am. I’m not saying I’ll be weeded out by that time but I think at some point I’ll need to…I’ll say okay “I’ll make songs, but I’ll just play them at home for my wife and that will be fine.” Right now I really enjoy this project and being in a band and I’ll see it through to a logical conclusion musically, maybe three more records or something, and then I think I’ll find something better for me. I can’t be in my forties without health insurance, it’s just not right. It’s not right for my wife. She deserves better than a gypsy husband, so in 10 years I will definitely not be making music continuously, but not in a bad way just because I’m looking at myself when I was 20 like “Would I trust a later 40 something writing songs about boys and girls being in love, who’s like 30 years removed?” I wouldn’t trust that person, I wouldn’t trust person that now! So once I run out of stories and songs that will be it.
Modern Mystery 