The Awkward Off Vs. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

At the HANDLEBAR in GREENVILLE, SC I was surrounded by JASON ISBELL and his 400 UNIT.

Isbell is known for his time with Drive-By Truckers, but he and his 400 Unit are a force all on their own. Sincere and a bit country-fied, these guys aren’t afraid to let their upbringing in Greenhill, Alabama show in their songcraft.

I had the chance to sit down with the guys before their show and learn a bit about their songwriting process, the trials of touring, and what they have in common with a psychiatric ward.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: Alright, my name is Nichole, and I am lucky to be here at The Handlebar in Greenville, South Carolina with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. How are you guys doing?
Jason Isbell: Hey, we’re good. You good?
NB: Would you mind going around and doing introductions?
JI: Sure. Yeah. I’m Jason.
Browan Lollar: I’m Browan.
Chad Gamble: I’m Chad.
Jimbo Hart: I’m Jimbo.
Derry deBorja: I’m Derry.
JI: I’m Browan.
BL: I’m Chad.
JH: I’m Derry.
JI: I’m Jimbo.
NB: Good, now that we’ve confused everyone…how has this tour been going?
JI: It’s been pretty good, you know. We had a weird week when everybody was afraid of the swine flu. Because we were in Texas and that was a little strange. You’d be surprised about how many people that affects. There was some rough weather out there too. For the most part it’s been good. It’s been a short one. We’ve only been out for a couple of weeks.
NB: Yeah. Because I know last year was a bit hectic. You had some stolen equipment and a drummer…
JI: …just take off.
NB: So this one’s just getting on it’s feet…so no craziness yet.
JI: Nothing that bad.
NB: Just the swine flu.
JI: Nothing that wasn’t just temporary. Nothing we had to plan around.
JH: Nothing that wouldn’t pass with time and dead nerve endings.
NB: You guys are going to do a little bit around the south, and then you are going to the U.K., right?
JI: Yeah, he and I [points to Browan]…we’re doing the U.K., and we’re doing Holland. And we may do a couple of shows in Spain. We’ll be over there for a couple of weeks. Between now and then, we’ve all got some shows with Gomez in the northeast and the midwest a little bit. And we’ve got a few full band shows between now and then too. When we get back, we’ve got a lot of festival stuff.
NB: Busy busy.
JI: I guess so, yeah.
NB: Do you guys have a good following over in Europe?
JI: Well, we’ve been over there once with this band, and we did really well. I remember a lot of good crowds. It depends on the city, really. It’s just an individual thing. If we play somewhere that is a smaller town that doesn’t have a lot of access to music, then they might not know what’s going on. But in the big cities, we’ve done pretty well.
NB: Yeah, I’ve heard your brand of music does really well. They tend to like the genuine, southern-fried.
JI: Yeah, there’s a lot of copycats over there. Like Norwegian country bands and stuff that are pretty comical. You can find them on myspace. You’ll have a real country twang and then in between the songs they say something in Norwegian.
NB: Your songs, both of your albums are very story driven. I was wondering if maybe these came from real life experiences or maybe your imagination.
JI: It’s a mixture of all of that. I usually take like three or four people and pack them all together into one character so nobody can recognize who I’m writing the song about exactly…and go from there. They all have something to do with things that have happened to me or to us or to my friends or family or something like that. But I try to stay away from being extremely literal…because you don’t want to make anybody feel too bad or too good about themselves.
NB: Have you ever had anybody recognize themselves in a song?
JI: Oh yes, always. They always figure it out.
BL: Virtually all of the songs are written about me.
JI: Yeah, that was a low point for both of us.
BL: Yeah, every track that didn’t make it on the album.
JI: Yeah, auto tuned and all.
NB: Oh man, I can’t wait for that one. Jason Isbell remixed. I’m not even sure I can wrap my mind around that one. So in your songwriting process, do you have a common thing or is it kind of different for each song?
JI: It’s different always. I pretty much just take it however I can get it. I’d like to be sitting somewhere by myself with a notepad and a laptop, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I’ll sing into my phone. Sometimes I’ll sing into one of their phones and record it. Luckily now, we’ve got voice memo on mine. The last one of mine, very often I would have to borrow one of theirs and call my answering machine and sing into my answering machine.
Dd: I thought you were just sweet talking me.
JI: Yeah, all of these messages rhyme…
Dd: He’s so creative with his messages…
NB: Oh, now everyone knows. So, this latest album, from all of the reviews that I’ve read, I heard that the whole band was more involved with this one. Is that true?
JI: Yeah, y’all go ahead. I’ve answered that question a bunch.
BL: Jason would bring us a demo usually either on his computer or something he had done in Garage Band or something that he had had around for a long time. We are in the studio, and none of us had heard any of his songs before that.
CG: It was all fresh. It was like, here, here’s this baby, raise it. But it worked out. We all sort of did our thing. If we weren’t sure, we’d ask around “Hey what do you think about this..does this suck…is this good?” We didn’t really have one guy that was like “You do this.”
JI: It was nice to not have it that way. It was more fun for me. Sometimes you need that. If it can work in a way where you don’t have to have that, it can be a lot more enjoyable.
NB: It has a very nice organic feel. You can almost tell in the album that it wasn’t that way.
Dd: Plus, having played together on the road so much before going into the studio, we could bring that energy from having played together on stage and bring it into the writing and recording.
BL: There was definitely a dynamic that we had from playing the same songs over and over and over again. We had a style, but we didn’t have any songs to back the style up. We had the songs that had been written and performed by other bands or by another collection of musicians, but we really didn’t have a chance to go in there and play some of our own stuff. So, we were all ready to do that.
JI: I think we knew where we all fit too. Touring a lot really showed us what parts were best, what sort of places in the frequency we should position ourselves and who we should play off of and who we should listen to.
Dd: Yeah, we all sort of instinctively started looking around the room at people for cues for building the song.
JI: Even though nobody had heard the songs before.
BL: Jason and I—having two guitarists…two lead guitarists in the band. I think it was kind of unspoken but we both, neither one of us, wanted to make a guitar album.
JI: Yeah, yeah I always do somehow. I feel like all players should be able to show out at some point without making the record sound…masturbatory. It could have very easily gotten to that point. But yeah, I love guitar rock. At the end of the day, I like guitar-driven rock and roll. Even though I did write a lot of these songs on piano. A lot of them, after he plays piano on it, I would have to go in and learn it on guitar because I’d never played it on guitar before. That was a little weird. But it was good. It was a really easy experience for me.
NB: I think that comes out in the album that you guys had been playing together on the road and it just comes together. It’s a really natural sound.
JI: Good.
NB: I usually don’t ask bands where their name comes from because it’s usually a very boring story. Or they just look and me and say “We just put words together.” Usually it turns out very badly if you ask that question. You guys, I’ve heard, have a very interesting story. I was wondering if you would share that with me.
JI: Does somebody want to do it? I’ve talked a lot.
Dd: Let Chad do it.
NB: I like this group dynamic, we can have popcorn story time.
JI: Yeah, we need a fire.
BL: Chad has the flashlight.
CG: In our hometown of Muscle Shoals, the fourth floor of the hospital is the mental health ward. It’s called the 400 Unit. And once a week, every week, they give the patients fifteen dollars, put them in a white van, and send them out to the town to get lunch or whatever. And it’s very close to what we do everyday. We get a fifteen dollar per diem. We ride around in a white van. The only thing that we do that they don’t do is rock out on a pretty consistent basis.
JH: We don’t know that.
NB: You guys don’t get nametags, though.
JH: Well, we do have laminates.
NB: It’s getting closer and closer the more we talk about it.
JH: I think they get better drugs than we do, though.
JI: On a regular basis, they probably do. They probably need them a little more than we do.
NB: You guys have a lot of influences, that I’m sure you’re probably tired of being hammered upon. Coming from Muscle Shoals, which is one of the most unassuming music capitals of America…while you do have your influences, you seem to always have something new, and it seems like you have your own vision. I was wondering if this was something that just came about organically with your band or was this something planned? Do you have a direction?
JI: I think we all probably plan that individually. We don’t really discuss it, but it’s a big part of just putting these people together. I think that’s one of the biggest parts of putting a band together. You want to find people that each have a vision that works into the whole. I don’t want to say that we want to be any certain kind of band. We’re just a rock and roll band, but I do think we all have some very similar influences that probably accentuate each other really well. I think we’re all familiar with the music that was made at home, but I think we are also constantly listening to things. And we try to pay attention to that as much as possible. And I think it’s pretty important to everyone in the band to not wear their influences too directly on their sleeves. I think it’s very important to cover a broad spectrum with the things people hear in the music.
BL: I try to play guitar like Robbie Robertson if he could play guitar.
JI: That’s a good way to put it.
BL: End of story.

The Awkward Off Vs. Pretty & Nice

I sneaked up on the members of PRETTY & NICE as they were engaged in an intense match of Yahtzee around a table at NEW BROOKLAND TAVERN in COLUMBIA, SC.

I managed to distract a couple of them from their game for a quick interview before the show, and the guys kept me laughing. After discussing the finer points of Music Crammers and basement recording, we got into a heated debate about animal facts.

After their show, the dudes were kind enough to train me in the fascinating sport of Erotic Photo Hunt.

Ironically, they hate the way they sound on tape, so they made me promise not to post the audio.

Full Transcript:
Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole, and I am here at New Brookland Tavern with a couple members of a band called Pretty & Nice.
Jeremy Mendicino: Hi, I’m Jeremy.
Holden Lewis: I’m Holden, the other one.
NB: Alright, we’ll start off the bat talking about what hit people. I think a lot of people got introduced to you guys on this latest album. You guys fit a lot of sound space? Your secret?
JM: We have a machine that takes large sounds and compacts them.
HL: We call it our Music Crammer.
NB: Music Crammer. I knew it. I knew there was a secret.
HL: Or MC.
JM: A supa-MC.
NB: And at the same time, it’s not too sugary and not too in-your-face antagonistic. And one of the biggest labels from everybody that has written about you has been “pop.” For some bands, this is a bad word. For some bands, they’re okay. Pop has become a sort of vague thing. I didn’t know how you guys felt about being labeled that way.
JM: It’s a word.
HL: We were probably the first ones to use that, to call ourselves that. Unfortunately most people associate “pop” with Brittany and not The Beatles.
JM: And not Justin you mean? We’re more Justin than Brittany, it’s true.
HL: So no, the answer would be that we do not despise that.
JM: We don’t dislike any word really. We’re word acceptors. We’re word crunchers. It’s a by-product of the Music Crammer.
NB: It really encompasses more. It’s almost ironic sometimes to say pop.
JM: Well, we don’t use it ironically. We are a hyper-ironic band.
NB: Post-post ironic. Pretty & Nice.
JM: Yeah, I hadn’t seen the term post-irony written before I said it. Maybe I came up with it, but you just used it so…
NB: It’s a good word.
JM: We’re post-ironic pop…junk. It’s like if you have too much information, and you try to spew out a cohesive sentence, it either rambles or it’s just entirely off topic. That’s our music. It’s either rambling or entirely off topic.
NB: I like that. So, if you were to make your sound into a sandwich, what kind of sandwich would you make?
HL: Oh God.
NB: If you hate sandwiches, you can do a wrap or something.
JM: If our music was a sandwich, what sandwich would it be?
NB: Yeah.
JM: That’s hard. That’s easy, actually. It would be peanut butter and jelly with something inside, like chips…with chips inside of it.
HL: Crunchy peanut butter. And on toast.
JM: Toasted peanut butter and jelly with chips in the middle.
NB: We’re getting specific. What kind of bread?
HL: A simple wheat,
JM: You know how Fry Hoppers makes a country white?
HL: Oh yeah, that’d be good. Canadian white or country white…a thicker white bread.
JM: A thicker white bread so that when you toasted it, it doesn’t get all flimsy. I like to think that our music isn’t flimsy.
NB: I wouldn’t say so. You have an almost-familiar sound, like something that people forgot they liked and it comes up. And I know you guys have always been barraged with “You sound like this person…you sound like this person.” Probably another one of those questions that you guys hate having. I guess as far as your sound, has it been something you’ve planned or has it just happened organically?
JM: It’s pretty organic for the most part. The songs are written independently of the recording style. Often, we will go into making a record with certain concepts in mind, if not actual audio concepts then vague overarching, nonmusical concepts.
HL: Yeah context and feeling.
JM: Oftentimes a song will be written organically. We’ll kind of mash things around and edit things up. Holden will write some weird part that will go in the middle. And then, there’s it’s done…it’s a song. When we get to recording, it takes on a more specific personality.
NB: Do you guys tweak things a lot? I know you spent six months on this last one, was it? Is that true?
HL: Six or seven, yeah.
JM: It depends on what you mean by tweaking. When we have an idea, it is dedicated to tape. We don’t record everything clean and then decide what we want it to sound like later. It’s a very organic process insomuch that we make decisions on the fly, and they are printed to tape. And they are stuck…we’re stuck with it. If something ends up not working a month later, then we just get rid of it. So something that was once a cornerstone goes away, and everything on top of it is sitting on top of nothing.
NB: I think people can hear that when they listen to the album.
JM: There are parts of the record where things will just get yanked out of the mix and everything else just hovers above it. We’re not scared of excess. Not like Broken Social Scene excess. Not like 117 tracks excess. Not like My Bloody Valentine fucking excess. But if we have an idea, we’ll push it and push it and push it until it’s like way the fuck over the line. We like where things sit when they are over the line.
NB: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?
JM: Robotic arms.
HL: Oh, one tentacle with suckers on it.
NB: Left or right?
HL: That would be my left arm, and then the right one…that’s tough.
JM: Soft robotic arms, I’m revising.
NB: Like cushioned? Or people-like?
JM: Like bionic arms. Red-velvet coated bionic arms.
HL: My right one would just have a shoe at the end of it.
JM: A tentacle and an arm with a shoe?
HL: Yeah, it would be a normal arm. I would just wear a shoe on the end of it.
JM: He’d replace his arm with that of another person.
HL: I do it already, and I like it so much. It’s worked so well.
NB: So your recording process, we were talking a little bit about it earlier…I’ve heard, and I want you guys to confirm it was all analog right?
JM: Yes.
NB: And also I’ve heard you use a lot of interesting equipment…junk.
HL: Yeah, we buy a lot of cheap guitars, cheap amps, and cheap keyboards. You know, kind of junky stuff and then play with it until it sounds nice.
NB: I like the sounds that come out of it.
JM: It’s cheap gear. It’s expensive gear. It’s analog. Certainly there are a lot of sounds that originate from digital sources. It’s a combo of everything.
NB: You guys have this basement lair in Boston.
JM: The last record was definitely recorded in a basement. Maybe for the next record we’ll venture out of the basement into the living room.
NB: You guys have such a more expansive sound. It’s almost like you made this one in a room with windows or something.
JM: Yeah, that’s honestly, literally what might happen. It might actually sound a little larger sometimes. And those moments would have been moments that would have been captured there.
NB: You’ll have all of the reviewers all over that. They’ll love that. So, you guys tour quite a bit.
HL: We try to. We didn’t for a while after the record came out and while we were working on it and that was kind of frustrating, but now we are. We have lots of tours going on.
JM: And no time to record.
NB: So if you could replace your tour van with a dinosaur, which one would you choose? Or you can keep your van as is.
JM: Our van is a cross between a raptor…
HL: I think a stegosaurus.
JM: It’s got a little bit of a raptor feel in the paint job, and it’s sort of a stegosaurus shape. But it also might just be a cockroach. They’re dinosaurs.
NB: Yeah, they’re dinosaurs. I guess. And you said originally it was tough touring all the time?
HL: Oh no, it was tough not touring. We were frustrated that we weren’t out more.
JM: Either we feel landlocked and bored, or we feel over-toured, like we’re getting nothing done but driving from city to city. It’s twelve one, half a dozen the other.
HL: Ebb and flow.
NB: Any fun stuff to keep you occupied while you drive around?
HL: We’ve played Yahtzee a little bit for the past couple of days.
JM: I listen to music. I can’t read because I get carsick, and I don’t like playing Yahtzee.
HL: My mom got me a gameboy.
NB: Oh man.
HL: We were watching The Venture Brothers for a day.
JM: We watched the entire first season in an evening.
NB: My favorite cartoon ever. So, I think Holden called me when you were doing press stuff for radio, and you were walking dogs.
HL: Oh yeah, cool.
NB: So, do you guys still have day jobs?
JM: Not at the moment.
HL: Yes and no. I might start doing that again a little bit in the middle of the summer, but I won’t for the next month and a half because we are touring and taking care of other business and family stuff. I think in the next two months, we’ll each be home for like a week and a half.
NB: I always find it fascinating when people have real lives outside of magical tour lives.
JM: Yeah, we’ll get some home stuff done. The intricacies of our schedules are really boring.
HL: We use the g calendar though.
NB: Yeah, I didn’t have a computer for a day, and I missed everything. So, your website says, that with every purchase, you get free pins and loveletters. Is that true?
HL: Um, it was true.
JM: When did we not?
HL: We haven’t been sending out the love letters as much.
JM: The love letters happen specially when you request them. But there are some people that we just don’t love. And we’re not liars.
NB: Yeah, I wasn’t sure if there were ranges of love.
HL: There are definitely ranges of love. Why shouldn’t there be? Should we love everyone equally? We’re not God.
JM: When Gorbachev ordered that T-shirt, I didn’t send a love letter with that one.
NB: Touching on the day job stuff…since this last album, you guys have been getting a lot more press. Has that changed anything?
HL: Some. Sometimes.
JM: I’ve changed my underwear.
NB: That’s good.
HL: Touring’s a little easier.
NB: Yeah, I imagine that getting booked is a little easier.
HL: Yeah, getting booked is a lot easier.
JM: Yeah, that’s it. It’s getting booked. There’s a notoriety that we’ve gained since the last record. But I wouldn’t say that anything else is going much easier.
HL: We haven’t exploded or anything like that.
JM: I’ve exploded.
HL: We only explode at each other, occasionally. But we’re still just a little hard-working band.
NB: And I’ll leave you with one question. If you could be any animal, what would you be? And possibly why.
HL: I’d be a dolphin. They swim and have fun all the time, and they’re pretty smart.
JM: I don’t know. I’d probably want to be a wolf. Like a timber wolf.
HL: Be a malamute, those things are huge.
JM: No, I just want to be a spry, mean. So I’d want to be a wolf still, though. And I’d have lots of wolf sex in the timbers.
HL: But they wouldn’t be having sex for fun because only dolphins do that.
NB: Bonobos…the chimps do.
HL: I thought that was more of a socialization thing.
JM: Yeah, that’s for fun. Any animal that has hot sex—that’s what I’d be. Because I just love the hot sex.

The Awkward Off Vs. Howlies

Atlanta band HOWLIES stopped by the WSBF studio in CLEMSON, SC for a live performance and interview.

I was goofing off in the radio lounge when they informed me that I’d be doing the interview for the show. Luckily, I’d been a fan of their latest album, so I could make an attempt to disguise how ill prepared I was. Not only did the guys put on a great show, they kept me laughing throughout the whole interview. We even liked them enough to take them to Super Taco, the best restaurant in the history of ever. Howlies came back to WSBF for our spring concert, wowing everyone.

Now that I think about it, it’s amazing the FCC didn’t explode when we did this interview.

Special thanks to Justin Pino for sound production and cohosting and to Claire Lacy for cohosting.

Full Transcript (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: Hey this is Nichole Bennett, and I am here with Howlies, who you just heard three tracks from. If you guys could take just a second to introduce yourselves, that would be awesome. Are we set up?

Aaron Wood: Our bass player just walked down the hall, so we’ll speak for him.

Justin Brooke: I’m Justin, and I play guitar.

AW: My name is Aaron, and I play drums for the band called Howlies.

Brandon Morrison: I’m Brandon, and I play guitar. We’re the band called Howlies.

AW: Buh buh!

BM: And Matt, who’s down the corner plays bass.

NB: Are you guys sharing earphones? I guess so. I guess the first question is what actually a Howlie is.

JB: It’s Hawaiin slang for tourist.

NB: I was wondering if it was a creepy monster or not. Did you know that?

Justin Pino (doing sound): Howlies? No I didn’t know that!

Claire Lacy (cohosting): Tourists anywhere or just Hawaii?

JP: I remember reading that on your Myspace page.
JB: I think literally it means someone who has no soul.

BM: Which is appropriate because we sold our souls to rock and roll.

NB: Ah well, if you are going to sell it… How did you guys decide on that name?

JB: The devil told us to use it when we signed our contract with him.

JP: Considering how much influence you guys have from the devil, you don’t sound like you are from hell.

JB: He said, “This name will sell.”

NB: Especially without a “the.” It’s really difficult to be like I’m here with…Howlies! You guys were Paste’s band of the week last week. How do you guys feel about that?

JB: This week.

NB: This week! This week has not gone by fast enough.

JB: It was good. We also had that happen on Spin.

JP: That’s right.

NB: Yeah, I was just checking that out.

JB: It made my mom proud.

AW: I told my younger brother, and he was like “What’s Paste magazine.”

CL: That’s awesome.

JP: Have you guys already gone over band history? How did you guys form as a band? How did Howlies happen?

JB: We were out in the backyard, and there were some dogs barking. So we started barking too. We had had a few adult beverages. That’s where it started.

JP: Hey everybody, let’s start howling. We sound good howling, we could be a band.

NB: Makes sense. Logical next step.

AW: We actually strung up microphones in the back yard to record the symphony of howling between us and the dogs. We tricked it out with some reverb, and not more than a week later my hard drive crashed.

NB: Like a cracked-out twilight bark. You know, like in 101 Dalmations?

JP: Throwin’ out the Disney references.

JB: What is this you speak of? I’ve only seen 102 Dalmations.

JP: That is like the remake times two.

NB: You guys do have no soul! I guess if we are talking about your influences, other than dogs…what would you say influences you as a band?

AW: My libido.

JB: The moon. Was the moon mentioned?

NB: The pull?

AW: Tidal.

NB: Howlies, here in Clemson with a tidal influence…also sexual.

JB: Also I would say other music has influenced us. Other music that came before our music.

JP: Wait, I wasn’t aware that music happened before Howlies.

AW: Can you wrap your mind around the fact that music existed before us?

JP: It’s that whole chicken and egg thing.

JB: It was called “music” not “the music.”

JP: I bought a box of eggs the other day only it was empty…

NB: Does this have anything to do with what we are saying?

JP: Yeah, the whole Howlies and the egg thing.

NB: So, serious question. If you could replace your arms with anything what would it be?

AW: Two more penises. That’s an obvious answer.

NB: I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.

BM: Can you say that?

NB: Yeah, sure.

AW: Brandon, in addition to playing guitar for our band, also freelances for the FCC. Hey, I have a serious question for you guys and it relates to my last answer. Have you seen the movie Edward penis-hands?

JP: Oh man, Claire just said that.

AW: I wouldn’t even need drumsticks anymore. Justin brings up a good point.

NB: There is the FCC! Someone go get that door. That was just one answer. There’s at least three of you guys in there.

JB: I would replace my arms with two Matt Forsees, life-size. The top of the head would be right where my shoulder is. There would be another one on the other side.

Matt Forsee: Does that mean my face would be in your armpit?

JB: No, you would face outward.

AW: Just think, if you face did face Justin’s armpit, you could apply his deodorant with your mouth.

MF: Then you would have to realize that the things I’d replace my arms with would be redwood trees. So there would be four redwood trees sticking out of Justin.

JB: We would need a bigger van, for sure. I think what everyone is wondering now is Brandon, what would you replace your arms with? And we turn to you.

BM: I would go with bowling balls.

JP: You know what? I heard that that is really cool. I heard it’s not fun not having fingers or elbows or extremities other than bowling balls. But I hear it’s pretty tight.

MF: You could go to the bowling alley and clean your arms.

NB: What weight? I know I use the pink ones that are like six pounds.

BM: I like the twelve.

NB: You can have different things on each hand. You guys didn’t know this?

AW: In that case, I’m going with one penis and one vagina.

NB: We are strictly speaking about anatomy.

AW: I am going to quote a popular song in Atlanta now. You just do you and Imma do me.

JP: This is getting rated R.

NB: This is the best interview ever! What is the most embarrassing CD in your collection? Go.

BM: Nordic Law. It’s like Sweet Home Scandanavia.

JB: I have Kenny G live.

NB: Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth.

JP: You know, it’s really not that bad.

NB: No, I’m a saxophone player. No self-respecting saxophone player likes Kenny G.

JP: But he can play forever though.

AW: Kenny G and Sting should get together and have a tantric sex fest.

NB: Oh, I think I threw up again.

CL: No more throw-up questions. Let’s do something legit.

NB: Legit…like, what’s your spirit animal?

JB: Mine is a domestic house cat.

MF: Mine’s a giant scorpion.

NB: Okay, so this band now has problems getting along.

BM: I think mine would be a brown recluse.

AW: My spirit animal is Kenny G.

JP: That just happened. I think you just created a black hole on Earth. Everyone is inside out now.

AW: Actually, new band name. The Kenny G-units.

NB: So how is the Atlanta scene?

AW: The Atlanta scene is amazing right now. There are a lot of great bands there and a lot of local venues where bands can get their start. The last two or three years it’s been getting a lot of attention, and we are happy to be a part of that. That is the most literal answer I’ve given.

NB: If you were in a haunted house, what would you scream?

BM: Who here is a seventeen year old with a fake ID? Where do the high school girls hang out around here?

NB: This haunted house is really scary.

AW: I would throw a live chicken at someone and yell “Bird Flu!”

NB: What song is stuck in your head right now?

BM: I’m a little teapot.

AW: The song that is stuck in my head is “I Only Have Eyes for You” by The Flamingos. I have a bad habit of singing whatever pops into my head in mixed company. I did it on an elevator recently and got really weird looks. This one girl did start singing along.

NB: My life as a musical. By Howlies.

JB: Cherish by Kool and the Gang is stuck in my head.

AW: Can you give us a few lines?

[All of the  Howlies break into song]

MF: Now that’s stuck in my head.

JB: You’re welcome.

MF: I always have the chicken dance in my head. It’s a curse.

AW: The thing about the chicken dance is the bridge.

[singing]

NB: I know it. I went to public school.

AW: The song that is stuck in my head is from Team America, and I’ll omit the swear words.

[more singing]

NB: You guys are headed to Chattanooga next, right?

JP: Where are you guys playing in Chattanooga for our Tennessee listeners?

JB: We are playing in J.J.’s Brohemia. We are playing with Those Darlins from Nashville, TN.

NB: You guys just came from Asheville as we mentioned earlier. How long has this tour been going on?

JB: Since Saturday.

NB: Brand new. That’s why you guys are so fresh.

MF: And nobody’s sick yet.

JP: Where did this tour start?

MF: Greenville, North Carolina. That is one of our most favorite places to play.

NB: So I guess as of Saturday…the best and the worst moments of this tour?

JB: They were both the same moment for me. The best and the worst. I basically had to grab this guy by the neck and slam him down on Aaron’s drumset in the middle of a song. It was awesome, but I was kind of feeling bad about it because I’m a pacifist and I don’t usually do stuff like that.

AW: He was pretty inebriated. It wasn’t like he was fighting back at all. He just went down with it.

NB: And now were are going to play some music from bands that Howlies like and then get back to the live set. Whoa! The CD players are sleeping.

JP: Those lazy CD players!

MF: Question: can we interview you guys? How is college going?

JP: Two thumbs down.

[conversation degrades into lottery talk and Chuck Norris jokes]

The Awkward Off Vs. Her Space Holiday

On the air and on the phone at WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC I chatted with Marc Bianchi, frontman for HER SPACE HOLIDAY.

We discussed his roots in the hardcore/emo scene and his dabbling with short films. Marc was kind enough to tell us about how Her Space Holiday has changed over the years, especially with regard to this latest album. If he was any animal, he’d be a lemur, and he proved to WSBF just how much of a sweetheart he really is.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: We have a very special guest, Marc, of Her Space Holiday. How are you doing today?

Marc Bianchi: Good, how are you Nichole?

NB: Good, good it got on. I had some doubts. We were just enjoying some tracks off your latest album. Is there anything you want to tell us about it?

MB: No, just that it was really fun to make and probably my favorite record so far.

NB: I think I’m going to have to agree. I got into your work with Past Presents the Future, and I like this one even better. Is there a story behind the title XOXO Panda and the New Kid Revival. I know you had some side projects under those names.

MB: Yeah originally when I was recording these songs it was under the pretense that it wasn’t going to come out as a record. I was just getting a little tired of making electronic music and having themes in songs that were all in the same vein and kind of dark. I was thinking of taking a break, and a friend of mine asked me if I ever made songs about things that made me happy and were a little more lighthearted and stepped away from the electronic music. I said no, so I started making these songs and sending them to her. She called me Panda for some reason, so everytime I would send her a letter or something it would be signed XOXO Panda. Initially when the Japanese record label I work with, And, heard it they wanted to release it. I wasn’t sure if it should be a Her Space Holiday record or something else, so I just called that as the project title. So how it worked in Japan was the band was XOXO Panda and the album was The New Kid Revival. When the labels over here wanted to release it, we decided that we were just going to have it as the new Her Space Holiday record and just kind of combine the names together.

NB: Is this a direction you are thinking of taking for the future? Less electronic and more…happy?

MB: I’m not sure because everytime I make a record I say to myself that this is the last record I’m going to make. Just by doing it for so long—Her Space Holiday has been going on for 14 years. There’s moments when you feel revitalized and other moments when you feel stagnant. Since writing so many songs through the years, I don’t know what else I have to say. I am going to take a break for a while, but when I come back to it I’m sure it’s going to be a combining of this newer style or returning to the basic acoustic music combined with some of the electronic. This was a pendulum swing in exactly the opposite direction.

NB: You’ve been involved in music in a lot of different areas. You started off in the hardcore/emo scene, didn’t you?

MB: Yes, yes. I guess when I was 19 I started playing in hardcore bands. I’m 35 now, so I’m not a young man. I’ve been touring and recording music for a really long time. I’ve switched through the areas, done different types of music. It’s still fun. It still has the same fun to it.

NB: I’m trying to introduce our listeners to some of your work. How would you describe it to someone who has never heard them before? What would you want them to get out of it, is a better question.

MB: Musically, I’m not sure what I would want them to get out of it, but on a philosophical level—and especially with this record being The New Kid Revival—the whole theme out of that is just getting back to the basics and creating just for the sake of creating. Obviously if you listen to the music I make, I’m very limited by what I can do singing or writing. Not to put myself down, but I think the message is that if you want to make music it doesn’t matter what your skill set is. Or art or writing or whatever. If you love to do it, just do it. Hopefully that was the main thing they would get from listening to the record—just do whatever you want. It doesn’t matter what your skill set is.

NB: Yeah I feel like that is one of the good things that came out of this internet age is that people feel like anybody can make art.

MB: Yeah, I’ve watched the industry change, even in the past five years. It doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you have an internet connection, you can have a thriving outlet for people to hear your music. You don’t need a label. People say there is an oversaturation of things out there because of that, but I think that’s not a bad thing.

NB: Speaking of art, this past week I’ve been enjoying some of your shorts. How did you get into filmmaking?

MB: Filmmaking, that is a very generous term. When I originally started recording this record it was going to be a soundtrack for one of the short films I was making. I used to compartmentalize things. Like, if you are writing you need to be in the mindset of writing, and if you are making movies you need to be in that place in your head. But then I got to realize that without the pretense of releasing these songs, that when you do anything creative it seems like it comes from the same place. So someone who does one medium can easily do something else, even if they are not as skilled at it as their primary thing. I don’t have a video camera. I have this old Canon that has thirty seconds of video on it. It was that and some cheap movie editing program that was thirty dollars from Best Buy. I don’t know how I got into it. I think it had to do with lack of sleep and too much time on my hands.

NB: They’re enjoyable.

MB: Slightly embarrassing, but whatever. That’s a chance you have to take.

NB: Yeah, I guess you put yourself out there, but you put yourself out there anytime you make any sort of art and share it with anybody.

MB: That’s another thing with the internet age. Any kind of blogging that people do or anything that is in a public forum. You are going to put yourself out there. People are going to enjoy it, but mainly people are going to bash it. You have to understand that.

NB: Back to the music—are you going to be touring to support this album?

MB: Yes, definitely. In February, I’m going to Australia for about three weeks. The U.S. tour—I have some dates from my booking agent. They haven’t all been confirmed, but we are looking at all of May to be when the U.S. tour happens.

NB: Cool, hopefully you’ll come to the southeast.

MB: We are going to try. We haven’t toured in the U.S. in four and a half years, so we are going to go to as many places as we can.

NB: That would be great. So how do you actually translate from studio to performance?

MB: It’s different with this record, and I like it. Because I played all live instruments, and they aren’t samples or sequences or any electronic editing, it can all be recreated with real people. It’s different with each tour because I don’t have a solid band. I have different friends go. In the past when we would go, we would have a laptop that sequenced. I would play guitar, and my friend Kenneth would play bass. A drummer, Kaitlyn, would play with us. It was just trying to keep up with the record. Because this is more organic, it’s easier to have it be its own thing live. We’ll have six or eight people playing. There are a lot of fingersnaps and tambourines on the record, so we at least have to have four tambourine players.

NB: A tambourine section—that will be impressive. How do you go about your recording process, your songwriting process? I guess it’s not always the same.

MB: With this one it’s different. In the past I would have all of the instrumental arrangements and then put vocals in. This one is more traditional where it is starting with a piano and singing or a guitar and singing and building it off that. Laying those two tracks down and building off that. So it’s a lot more traditional this time.

NB: Yeah I think that comes out in the album. If this is the first album that people are hearing, they are definitely getting something different than some of the older stuff.

MB: Yeah, it’s been interesting as far as some people’s reactions. Some people like the change. Some people hate it. The funniest thing that I’ve seen in reviews is that people complain that I seem like I’m happy now, which is really funny to me.

NB: Yeah! That used to be your thing!

MB: Yeah, I was such a sad, sad man. I don’t really feel any differently than when I made those records. It’s just that I kind of was tapping into a smaller bit of what I was feeling. I mean, we all have sides—optimistic sides and sides that are really bummed out. This one incorporates a lot more by just teetering on the light side of things.

NB: Even on some of the older stuff and the new stuff as well, the song may sound happy but the lyrics can be really sad.

MB: Yeah, this album is still pretty heavy lyrically, and there’s a lot of sad things going on. The music is so drastically different. Especially in some of the reviews people come across it like it’s a very light, pop record. But there’s a lot of death and pain in the record still, it’s just set to toy pianos.

NB: And you meet people like that. They have these things, but they are still a toy piano of a person. I have one more question, and it’s kind of my signature question. If you could be any animal what animal would you be?

MB: I’d probably be a lemur.

NB: A lemur. That’s a pretty good choice…why?

MB: I have no idea. It’s just what popped in my head. I just saw myself as a lemur. I don’t know what lemurs are known for, so I’m going to have to look up lemurs to see if I just had a psychological insight that I didn’t know of.

NB: Thank you so much. We are enjoying the new album, and we hope to see you in May.

The Awkward Off Vs. The King Left

On WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC, Corey Oliver from THE KING LEFT called us for a phone interview.

Corey is the singer and a guitarist of The King Left, a band out of New York. They just released an EP called New York Nothing. Join our phone conversation as we touch on the songwriting process, their two EPs, and what it sounds like when God sneezes.

We even talked about the band Howlies, who show up later at WSBF for an in-studio and as headliners for our spring concert.

Special thanks to Ben Lippert of WSBF for letting me take over some of his show for this interview.

Note: the interview starts at the end (last quarter of the file).

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: I am here with Corey from The King Left, a band out of New York. Hey Corey.

Corey Oliver: Hey how are you?

NB: Good. You guys are on tour right now. How is that going?

CO: So far, so good. We got a GPS on Black Friday. It’s been working wonders. We haven’t gotten lost yet, which is pretty amazing for us. We usually get lost leaving the house.

NB: Yeah, I was up in New York for the first time in October, and I definitely got lost. Are you guys originally from New York?

CO: No, I’m from Atlanta originally. I went to school in Ithaca, where I met Graham and Ian. I met Mark through them because he grew up in the same town with them. We just decided…why not, and here we are three years later driving to Pittsburgh.

NB: So where does the band name come from?

CO: I don’t actually have a good story for that, and I keep meaning to come up with one because where it came from is really boring. Whenever someone says come up with a band name, I go crazy because I like to think up cool band names. It’s hard to do. I just had too many words in my head, and I was listening to The Beatles. The words just sort of fell together. It struck me because it was a “The” name without being “The Somethings.” It’s a sentence too, which is cool. Then, I ran it by people who were usually harsh with the band names I would come up with, and they were all pretty enthusiastic about it. So we kept it, and I need to come up with a better story than that.

NB: So you guys have been together three years?

CO: Yeah, a little over three years actually. I don’t know the exact date. I don’t know if you count our first meeting or the first time we played together or the first time we had practice. We actually played together before we had practice. We did a recording of a song, and that was how we really came together. We recorded a song for a friend having never played together before, and it worked out really well. We decided to be a band, and we actually started months later when school was over.

NB: What made you guys decide to come together? Just similar interest?

CO: It was just sort of out of convenience. Mark played guitar, and I played guitar, and I played guitar. We all wrote funny songs together at 2 AM after a couple of beers. When my friend asked us to record a song we had, one of our more serious songs, we said “Sure, no problem.” We needed a drummer, and Graham happened to be in the music school. He played drums, and he got us time in the music school to record it. It wasn’t like we sought each other out. We just sort of fell together, boy-band like.

NB: You definitely have your own niche and genre. What would you say are your influences?

CO: We all like Radiohead, and we all like The Beatles.

NB: That’s a good solid foundation.

CO: I don’t know. We are inspired by a lot of different stuff. After those core influences, we branch out drastically in the music that we pull our inspiration from. The way we write songs—we all bring our own thing.  Ween, Beck, Elliot Smith. The good stuff, basically.

NB: A lot of the people here in Clemson, SC are hearing you for the first time on WSBF. How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?

CO: God sneezed. Raucous and messy.  We get a lot of people saying that we sound like different stuff, which doesn’t mean anything to me. We’ve gotten Modest Mouse and The Dismemberment Plan before.  I guess some of our songs are dancey and some are ballady. We’re trying to play as many types of music while sounding like one entity, for better or for worse. Sometimes it doesn’t work that well.

NB: Yeah, I find you guys hard to categorize, which is why I asked those things.

CO: That’s why I liked that term in the early nineties “alternative rock” because it was this blanket term. You sort of knew what to expect by not knowing what to expect. So I guess we’re alternative rock.

NB: So you guys are on tour heading to Pittsburgh. You are on tour with Howlies, right?

CO: They’re great. I love those guys. They’re from Atlanta too, which sort of piqued my interest in the first place. I sought them out and really fell in love with the song “Aluminum Baseball Bat.” If you haven’t heard it, find it and watch the video. It’s amazing. I mentioned them to Graham and Ian, and they said they’d already heard of the. So I was like, I’m late to the party here. When they came through New York, we all made a point to go see them, and I thought these guys are really on to something. Super fun. Very high energy. Great show. I put them at the top of the list of bands that I wanted to see if they’d go on the road with us. Things worked out, and here we are! I can’t wait.

NB: What has been your favorite show so far?

CO: We just started Thursday, so that’s our favorite so far. Hopefully, we’ll top it each night. But I wouldn’t hold your breath. Mercury Lounge was really great. We had a lot of fun playing with the Howlies and a couple of other bands from New York who were there to kick off. It was a great show, but we’re looking to have a lot more fun on the road here.

NB: Yeah I got to see The Mercury Lounge for the first time. I got to see Rival Schools up there. I know you guys have worked with them.

CO: Yeah Sammy and Ian. They did our first two EPs, produced and engineered them. I can’t say enough about those guys they are really great. I am so psyched that Rival Schools are back together.

NB: Yeah they are fantastic live.

CO: Yeah they seemed to be having a lot of fun. It was great to see them up there playing together again.

NB: So how did you guys start working with Ian Love and Sammy Seagler?

CO: Yeah that was happenstance too. Sam Seagler and his band Nightmare View, right before the reunion of Rival Schools, had ties to Ithaca. One of the guys knew Graham, and they were playing a show in Ithaca and asked us to play with them, and we did. Sam was drumming with them at the time, and saw us and saw some potential. He asked if he could possibly work with us recording. We were like, okay why not? It ended up turning into two EPs, and we’re really really happy with it.

NB: You mentioned earlier that all of you guys bring something to the table when you are making music. Tell me a little bit about the process of bringing it all together.

CO: Whoever has a lick or a structure or something they want to build on, they bring it to the table, and we’ll start jamming on it for a little and see if anything comes. If it doesn’t, we might discard it. If we like it a lot, say its mine or its Marks, then we’ll be stubborn and keep it by bringing it out and reworking it. Sometimes I’ll write a song that will just be me and a melody and everybody else adds their stuff to it. You go in with the idea of how something will sound. But you go away with something completely different. It’s become the band’s sound, which is cool. In my head, all of my stuff sounds like Radiohead songs, but we usually don’t pull that off

NB: Yeah, you guys definitely make it your own sound. You have such a conglomerate sound, that I was actually suspicious that everybody was involved.

CO: Yeah there is definitely a songwriter aspect to it, but we’re all songwriters. We’re more songwriters than we are talented musicians. We just come together as songwriters to try to make the best possible song. We don’t have many ten-minute jams, which would just be atrocious. We just approach it as how do we make this song as good as possible, what do we want it to sound like, and everybody puts their stuff in. Hopefully it’s good, and hopefully people can connect with it.

NB: We have two solid EPs out. What is next for you guys?

CO: We have five songs recorded now that we are trying to turn into a full length, if we can, early next year. We did it with a producer that we just found fantastic. We are hoping to garner some interest with these, and get the funds to make a full length and go on tour for that. That’s what we aim for. If we get that, then we’re doing something right. If not, there’s always Taco Bell.

NB: If you guys make it down to the south, WSBF-FM Clemson hosts concerts. We are that in between stop for Asheville and Athens.

CO: Yeah, I’m dying to go to the south. My brother lives in Atlanta. He’d love to see us play. I have a lot of friends in North Carolina too that would love to see us play. It would be nice to get down there and play. We’ve been both sheltered and blessed with our little New York City niche, and we’re trying to break out of that right now.

NB: Almost through with the questions. But I have this one really weird question that I always ask bands: if you were an animal, what would you be?

CO: I would be  tiger, hands-down. Graham what would you be?

Graham Rothenberg (from inside van): Frog!

CO: Frog, that is weird. Ian! Animal!

Ian Bullett (from inside van): Bear or Wolf!

CO: A bear/wolf hybrid.

NB: Yeah, I had someone pick space alien last Wednesday.

CO: I guess that falls under animal.

NB: There’s not that many rules to that questions, so I’ll let it slide.

CO: Yeah that would be an animal. It’s not mineral or vegetable. Unless they were eggplant people.

NB: Thanks so much.

The Awkward Off Vs. Bryan Poole (Of Montreal)

While music director at WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC, we celebrated the release of OF MONTREAL‘s latest CD by trying to interview as many band members as possible. By adding BRYAN POOLE to our collection, we had two out of five.

Among his other musical endeavors, Bryan is the guitarist for Of Montreal. Join me on college radio as we talk about gumball machine metaphors, his many musical projects, and how he got his wings.

Note: the interview starts about a third of the way through the file.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: You are listening to WSBF-FM Clemson. I am Nichole Bennett, the music director of the station, and I have something very special for you. In the background you are listening to a track of off Of Montreal’s latest release Skeletal Lamping. The band is currently on tour, and they were kind enough to let us do a phone interview. In a few minutes we will be calling Bryan Poole. He’s the guitarist of the band, but that’s not all he’s been. He’s involved in the whole Elephant Six Collective era of music in Athens. He was the bassist for Elf Power for many years and one of the founding members of Of Montreal. He’s also been involved with Olivia Tremor Control and Great Lakes, to name a few. Additionally, he has a side solo project title The Late B.P. Helium, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to ask him a little bit about that.

Right now I believe they are in Florida. We’ll double check with him. If you want to catch Of Montreal in this area, you can catch them on the television. On December 18, they will be on the David Letterman show. Over winter break you can catch them December 30^th and 31^st at the 40 Watt Club in Athens. That should be an interesting New Year’s show. I’m sure to be there if I can get a ticket. If you miss them at their New Year’s show, you can catch them January 4^th at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Seems like they are circling around the U. S., and then they are headed to Europe.

The way that Of Montreal has worked lately since the release of Sunlandic Twins, Kevin Barnes has just been doing the records himself, and the band has just been a touring band. We’re mainly going to talk to Bryan about some of the stage stuff. If you’ve never seen an Of Montreal show, it’s pretty theatrical. Personally, I’ve been seeing them since my freshmen year, so over time it’s gotten even more and more bizarre. For instance, Kevin Barnes actually hangs himself during the show.

We are going to give Bryan a call, and see if they are ready for an interview. I apologize because the interview was originally supposed to be at 1PM, but I think that Mr. Poole’s phone was dying.

If you are a fan of Of Montreal, you will probably like his work as The Late B.P. Helium. Elf Power shares some of their psychadelia, but it’s a bit darker. About every person who lives in Athens is in Elf Power. Speaking of bands that everyone in Athens is in, I believe Bryan plays with Dark Meat, and I’m going to ask him about that because hopefully they will be coming to Clemson in the spring.

It’s ringing—good. Well, I will give you sample track while we are waiting for Mr. Poole.

I am here with Bryan Poole of Of Montreal and also The Late B.P. Helium. Hey Bryan, how are you?

Bryan Poole: I’m pretty awesome.

NB: You guys are on some sort of crazy tour right now.

BP: It’s pretty good. It’s like a gumball machine. We keep spitting gum out for people to chew. Only good balls, not like pre-chewed gum. It’s like one of those things at the mall that has a big spiral. It’s a big event. You watch that gumball go around and around, and you finally get it. And you’re really happy, hopefully. Unless you wanted the pink one and then you got the purple one.

NB: I keep checking your tours, and you guys keep coming around here. You guys are actually going to be at the 40 Watt for New Year’s?

BP: Yeah, we actually added a second show because I think that one is almost sold out. We added a second show the day before, on the 30^th, which isn’t technically New Year’s. But if you wanted to celebrate two New Year’s.

NB: New Year’s practice?

BP: No, it’s going to be a totally different show. We have The Gerbils.

NB: OH.

BP: Yeah, The Gerbils are going to play with us, and they are not playing on New Year’s Eve. They are old friends of ours, Elephant 6 compatriots.

NB: We talked with Davey Pierce last week about the stage performance. It looks like it’s gotten even more and more theatrical.

BP: Yeah, since you’ve talked to Davey, we’ve probably added a cannon or two. We’re not shooting out people, though. We’re shooting out objects that keep you warm and satiated.

NB: I was wondering if you guys pick your own stage costumes, because I’m a really big fan of the wings that you have.

BP: Yeah, we all figure it out. Those came to me when I was in Tuscon, Arizona about a year and a half or two years ago. I walked by this girl’s shop and looked inside and there they were. They weren’t open, but she let me in. I was her first customer, and I bought those wings. She’s made me a few other sets since then. She’s really awesome.

NB: So you guys are in Florida now?

BP: Actually, we are still in Athens now. We are leaving slowly…slowly. Oh, I was about to say a bad word. We are driving right now, and my little shortcut got messed up. Detour. Road’s Closed. Yeah, we are leaving tonight and going to Florida. We are playing five shows. Florida always seems to get its own tour because it’s the penis of America. Nobody really likes to go there unless they have to. Wow! I say that, and I’ve come across this big truck that says “humpin’ to please” on the side of it. It’s really awesome. It’s kind of a one-of-a-kind. It’s got a camel with a 66 and the stuff that might come out of somebody’s private parts.

NB: I’m really glad you are on-site to report this for our listeners.

BP: Yeah, this is what is happening in Athens. I’m sure this is happening all over Clemson, you know.

NB: I hope. I really hope.

BP: Do you guys know about Greenwood, South Carolina?

NB: Yeah, it’s relatively close.

BP: We have lots of friends from Greenwood, and there are probably some Greenwoodites that decided to go to Clemson instead of Lander. And I’m saying you probably made the right decision on that.

NB: Actually, a lot of the music lovers from Clemson travel to Athens. It’s only about an hour and a half away.

BP: Now, why doesn’t Clemson have the same music scene that Athens does?

NB: That is a very good question…that we are working on. We have good radio!

BP: Yeah? How many watts are you kicking?

NB: We’ve got three thousand.

BP: We’ve got 26,000. But 3,000 is better than 300. I’ve definitely been on some stations where you couldn’t get it past the parking lot. Or cable FM. I played a benefit once in Richmond, Virginia, and we wanted to tune in. They were like, it’s only on the cable.

NB: A lot of stations are internet-only as well. We went to CMJ this year, and I realized how lucky we are.

BP: There’s this thing called Orange Twin. That’s a group of friends of mine, loosely affiliated. My solo records are on Orange Twin Records, and it’s kind of run by Elf Power. It’s turning into this land conservation project. It’s starting to be a grand eco-village on the outskirts of Athens.

NB: I’m so glad you mentioned that. A couple of weeks back I was at the No Age show in Athens, and I got to meet Jim of Dark Meat. They were talking about the conservation project.

BP: Dark Meat is a band that I play in when I can. You must have partied all night to stay at the Secret Squirrel.

NB: Yeah, we are trying to book Dark Meat for our spring concert. Maybe you’ll be able to visit if you aren’t busy with your things.

BP: Yeah I haven’t talked to Jim lately. They got to open up for Quintron and Miss Pussycat, but I was out of town. Dark Meat, one of Athens’ finest.

NB: This is a nice segue to talk about some of your solo work. How do you balance the many bands you are in?

BP: It used to be that we would just tour in the spring and the fall during the normal times that bands tour when colleges are in session. We’re lucky to have a following that we get offers to tour in other times of the year. Once an album comes out, we tour for at least a year or a year and a half almost straight for each record. Then we’ll finally take six months off and recover and Kevin can work on a new record. And then we do it all again. Before, it was a lot easier to be able to have my own band and play with other bands, but to be honest now it’s kind of hard. In fact, I was talking to my friend Josh McKay of this band, Pancha. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. They were the great band of Athens from the early to mid 90’s to the 2000’s. We have a band, and we play ESG covers in Athens. It’s kind of a party band. We have an original project that we’ve been trying to get off the ground, but our schedules never meet because he tours with his band too. I told him we have to do it because I’ve been doing interviews, and I’ll be a liar if this doesn’t happen. I miss Athens and my friends and being a part of the scene when I’m not here, so it’s difficult.

NB: Well I guess we were talking about camels earlier. My favorite interview question to ask is if you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

BP: Besides human being or space alien? I think I would be a space alien because hopefully they are smarter than we are. Supposedly the Egyptians and the Mayans were hanging out with them. They probably come down every now and then, but they’r probably hard to spot. They like doing their own thing. They probably like to be voyeuristic gods. I’d like to be a space alien, and I think that qualifies as an animal if they are living matter. I can’t say from what planet or star system.

NB: That’s justified. That’s good. With that, I’ll say I cannot wait to bring in the New Year with you guys, and I’ll let you get on with your busy day. Thank you so much.

BP: Yeah, for whoever’s listening. If you are looking for a good party, we are having one…or two. Spend the night. Hang out at the Secret Squirrel. Take care. Party on.

The Awkward Off Vs. Davey Pierce (Of Montreal)

While working at WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC, I was able to do a phone interview with Davey Pierce, bassist for OF MONTREAL.

For my first interview ever, I was live on-air with the bassist of one of my all-time faves. Say what you will about Of Montreal being over-hyped–they put on an art piece of a show.While Kevin Barnes has taken over most of the songwriting, members of the band still play an enormous role in creating their theatrical stage presence. Join me as we talk to Davey about their crazy stage setup, and the surprising secret behind their ideas…alcohol and volleyball.

Note: the interview starts about a quarter-way through the file.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: We are here with Davey Pierce, the bassist from Of Montreal. How are you Davey?

Davey Pierce: I’m doing pretty good. How are you?

NB: Great. I actually caught your show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta last Saturday.

DP: Oh, did you?

NB: I just wanted to say that it was fantastic.

DP: Oh thank you so much. Yeah, that was fun for us, having our friends Limouzine open up for us. We were sort of star-struck by them. They were pretty awesome.

NB: Yeah I really wanted a pair of pink pants like that.

DP: Spandex Man Dot Com.

NB: Noted. I’ve actually caught you guys on each of your tours and this seemed to be the craziest yet. I was wondering how much prep work goes into your stage show?

DP: A lot actually. We worked on the ideas for this tour for a good two months before…trying to get the logistics worked out. Like, you know…Kevin wants to hang himself…how do we do that? It’s still in the process of being perfected. Everytime we go back home we go back to our welder and say “Hey what we have here isn’t working…we need you to make it work a little better.” By the end of this tour, everything should be goin pretty smoothly.

NB: Awesome. Well, I guess that gets me to my next question. So, where do these ideas come from? The hanging himself was Kevin’s own?

DP: Yeah, the hanging himself was Kevin’s idea. It started with Kevin saying he wanted to do that, and everybody threw in ideas of other ways to off yourself. It’s gotten a little bit of negative stuff. Up until the Tabernacle show, we did a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. People were upset that we would do a suicide scene and then cover Nirvana for some reason. The ideas…We also play volleyball a lot, and there’s a lot of drinking involved. While we are doing it, we all just spout out random ideas. Eventually, half of them come into play.

NB: That makes a lot more sense now…that volleyball is involved.

DP: Oh, volleyball is always involved.

NB: How much do you guys vary the setlist from show to show?

DP: We can’t really vary it too much because of the way the show is set up. It’s weird for us. Normally we would play a different setlist every night. But this one has to be so structured to have all of the little sketches happen on time every time. We can’t vary it too much. We try to a little bit.

NB: What direction does it go from here? Crazier and crazier?

DP: Yeah hopefully. It’s constantly evolving everyday. We’ll say “you know, leading up to this part I want to do this other little thing.” It just kind of snowballs and snowballs. Now we have six performers, and it’s kind of crazy. Hopefully it will get bigger and bigger, but you never can tell.

NB: I’ve heard rumors of a live DVD. What can you tell me about that?

DP: We shot a show at The Avalon in Los Angeles last year at the end of the Hissing Fauna tour. We recorded the Atlanta show at The Tabernacle last weekend. Hopefully it will be a two-show double-disc DVD showing about it. Where we were and what we are now and what’s going to be in the future. I’ve seen the footage from the first one. I haven’t seen the second one yet. The first one looks incredible. Our video guy, the guy who does all our live stuff, is editing it now. I went through and mixed all of the audio. It’s gonna be pretty awesome.

NB: Oh cool. Well, thank you for joining us today. Listeners, once again this is Davey Pierce, the bassist from Of Montreal. Thank you so much for your time.

DP: No problem. Thank you