As I leaned against the sullied toilet bowel, with my brain awash in guilt and my stomach aching to calm itself, the last song off a twelve-track LP completed its final few revolutions on our dorm room’s record player.  I don’t remember much about what acts of debauchery preceded this specific moment in time, but I will try to paint you a picture nonetheless.

It was early 2008. Probably January. I was beginning my second quarter as a sophomore at Ohio University (no, not the Buckeyes. The Bobcats). Some of my best mates and I had been drinking – and had been drinking quite a lot. The night began low-key enough. We went to a Mexican restaurant for a friend’s birthday where I partook in way too many margaritas drenched with way too much tequila. I had only been drinking socially a little over six months at the time and I rarely binged, so I still had this odd sense of alcoholic invincibility. How naïve of me, I know.

The evening progressed. Where we headed after the Mexican restaurant, I have no idea. Eventually I ended up here, next to this toilet. Puking my guts out around two in the morning. My friends, huddled just beyond the door, conversing and carousing in the main room. And as I clung to the toilet with all my strength, my friend Brian listened to my simple request – he put on Boxer by The National.  For the better part of the next hour, I would continue puking every ten minutes or so – regretting that extra shot of bottom-shelf vodka, that extra can of PBR, and every sip of those damned margaritas – but through it all, that twelve-track LP continued to spin. It was on this night I truly heard Bryan Devendorf’s unique drumming, Scott Devendorf’s understated bass lines, the Dessner (Aaron and Bryce) brothers’ incredibly playful finger-picking and, especially, Matt Berninger’s crooning, soulful lyrics.  It was on this night I truly heard The National.

Since that night, I have seen The National perform on four separate occasions (two of those times I shared alcohol, I illegally snuck in with the lead singer’s mother, Mrs. Berninger. She’s a fun lady – but, alas, apparently taken). I own all of their albums on vinyl (yes, even their self-titled debut). I have a couple t-shirts of theirs. I frequent their online web forum. I have all their rarities (even the Game Of Thrones cover, their duet with St. Vincent, and the (oddly coveted) Tarquin Roughs, which, no – I won’t share with you. The band asked me not to). I have framed artwork (that’s a combination of fan art and my own DIY design) hung up above my bed. I even re-purchased all their albums and gave them to my father as a Christmas present with a binder that possessed pages full of each song’s lyrics (which, by the way, I’m pretty certain he probably never opened. I’m okay with it). Hell, their soon-to-be-released album, Trouble Will Find Me, has already leaked – but I won’t allow myself to imbibe until May 21^st, the date the band actually wants me to listen. In short, I’m a super weirdo fan who should probably be kept at a safer distance from the band than I’ve previously been allowed because my love for them borders on über-obsession.

Now that I’ve aired all my dirty laundry, I can get to the point – The National, to me, are not just a band. Their catalogue of songs are my verses. They are my psalms. They are my Gospel.

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When I first truly heard the album that one fateful night, I didn’t immediately get it. I didn’t immediately understand what I was listening to. But the seed was firmly planted and the more I listened to their multiple works, the more I was unable to be satiated. They had accumulated four whole albums worth of material up to this point and I had just heard about them for the first time only a few months ago. Every time I had previously attempted to weather through the two albums of theirs that I had in my possession – Alligator and Boxer – I never made it. I always had to stop. I would say I didn’t like Matt’s voice, I would say the sound just wasn’t my style, but none of these reasons were true. The truth was that I thought their music was too depressing. And too relatable. And too… honest. And honesty was something I didn’t want to deal with at the time. Not in the least.

After that fateful night, however, I discovered something profound – I had discovered a refuge. I had found a sounding board for some of my most real fears, my most real quandaries, my most deep-seated secrets.

And so the entirety of The National’s catalogue immediately leapt its way onto my iPod. Alligator and Boxer took the majority of my attention, while a couple tracks from Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers made their way into the rotation. I still have difficulty completely adoring their self-titled, The National, and back in 2008 it was no different, but I would occasionally dip my toe into that album’s waters when the moment struck me (and still do). This coupled with their oft-cited “progression-altering” Cherry Tree EP (their first work to be fully produced by Peter Katis), soon-to-be-released Virginia EP, and scores of other singles and b-sides became the soundtrack to that winter and spring of 2008. These songs began an intellectual, emotional journey that would completely change my life.

I’m a writer, but not a “music” writer – I have a rather narrow interest in music; rap, hip-hop, punk, country… I claim complete and utter ignorance when it comes to anything concerning those genres – but the moment I began to scour through the five dozen or so completed tracks by The National? I gulped, devoured, slurped down the ruminations from lyricist Matt Berninger like a word-starved lunatic.

It wasn’t just the words Matt was singing, nor the phrases. It was the evolution of the band’s story – the deliberate, thoughtful process through which Matt decided what lyrics to match with which songs. And, just as importantly, the order of tracks on each album and the interconnected lyrical symbols, thematic motifs, and even character names that re-appear throughout their storied discography which shape their catalogue in a way that’s very specifically ‘The National’.  Matt’s lyric-inventing process, while only vaguely touched upon in their first documentary A Skin, A Night, is clearly a sleep-deprivation inducing endeavor for Mr. Berninger. Their albums are all the better for it.

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What mostly tugs at one’s heartstrings when listening to The National is how earnest, honest, and generous Matt’s characters (or the separate members of Matt’s psyche, however you prefer to think about them) tend to be – even if they are, ultimately, a little spacy, deviant, and perverted as well. They’re eternally worried about the safety, health, and love lives of their own personal loved ones – and equally concerned that their own private wants and desires might be their ultimate undoing or, worse, their loved ones’.

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“Green Gloves” is a perfect example of the former, a song entirely about wishing the best night upon your friends who can’t be near you, and hoping to one day know everything about the new friends (and lovers) your friends meet while you’re not together; “Blank Slate”, on the flip side, is a perfect example of the latter. Matt suggests during this track that he “tackle young girls off their beautiful bikes” or “jump out of a cake with a hard-on and sing” (and, nope, not kidding about either of those).

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Having grown up Catholic, one of the strangest and most comforting of reiterated symbols throughout their work is that of angels. Neither good nor bad, angels are merely minor deities who go about their duties – leading men to their afterlives in “Mistaken For Strangers”, never letting the famous ones come through “England”, and shedding their feathers woefully in “Gospel”. Religion, and specifically Christian based religious figures and ideals, are nothing more than mere myth when brought into the National’s lyrical fold – they’re just another minor figure in the modern American society we’re all a part of. Even more outlandish, the angels in The National’s lyrics seem to constantly regret being affiliated with their own respective denominations, opting to “stay the night with the sinners” because they’re “afraid of the house” of the lord, which is too “desperate to entertain”. And angels are even less interested in the human race than we perceive them, according to Matt’s point of view: “You wouldn’t want an angel watching over you? Surprise, surprise, they wouldn’t wanna watch another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults”.

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In other words, as a scared teenager turning into an adult – having been raised with the fear of the Lord and what awaited me in hell for any ill transgressions – it was incredibly comforting to listen to a band not only dismiss the notion of Christian religion as not-eternally-damning, but relegate their symbols and sanctuaries as nothing more than mere caricatures of Americanized moral authority.

And that’s precisely why I clung to Matt Berninger and this rag tag crew of musicians. See, I was in a funk myself during this time in college – I had been attending Catholic, private schools for twelve years prior to attending Ohio University, which is quite the liberal, public institution. I was stuck up, pretentious, one of those kids who doesn’t condemn individuals for drinking and smoking, but certainly puts their nose up at others who partake in such activities (thinking back, it’s a wonder now that I made any friends during my early years at Ohio University at all).

When I finally did make friends, however, I began to realize that their lives weren’t lead by an invisible deity who bestowed an afterlife of damnation upon them for certain slights – most of the people who I clung to didn’t prescribe to any religious creed at all (and, if they did, they’d grown out of it during their first years at OU). Still, the group of friends I had surrounded myself with all possessed a deep-seated moral code. We all cared about each other – our hopes, our fears, our futures… we all wanted the best for one another. I was convinced up and until I attended Ohio University that people who participated in “morally unsound” acts were “morally unsound” people. But what was morally unsound? What was unfair? What was unkind?

Ultimately, The National taught me how to be a nice, fair, kind person – mythical, invisible deity present or not. No matter what the characters in any song we’re going through, none of them ever succeeded by being premeditatedly evil or rotten. Sure, there are the occasional songs where Matt’s personal neuroses accuse Matt of being all of those things (“Conversation 16” and “Karen” come to mind), but Matt always reins his own malignance in before he would ever truly act on it. The mind may wander, but Matt’s characters – The National’s characters – never act on these malicious musings. They keep their vain and uncomfortable thoughts in their heads – in their “buzzing, three-star hotel(s)” (“Blank Slate”), in their “dollhouses” (“All The Wine”) – and they seem to be much better off for it. And, no matter what, if they are unsure how to act or behave in any given situation, there’s a simple, all-encompassing solution that practically sums up the entirety of The National’s catalogue in one single line from “Baby, We’ll Be Fine”:

“All we gotta do is be brave and be kind”.

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As Boxer came to an end during that awe-inspiring, puke-filled evening in January 2008, my friends Becca and Brian came into the bathroom to make sure I was still okay. Neither were religious, neither were doing this deed to be a Good Samaritan; they were simply checking on me out of the kindness of their hearts. And I was okay. I was going to survive, margaritas be damned.

However, I did have one tiny request for them… “Play ‘Gospel’ again”. The two chuckled, probably thought it was a joke at first. But as they entered back into the main room, I heard the muffled vocals of Matt Berninger lightly counting off ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ just as the lilting piano chords and faint acoustic guitar began. And I listened, quite contemplatively. The final song on Boxer is called “Gospel” and is, even though vaguely, about one simple subject – love is war.  It’s as simple as that.

If we want to stay in touch and be there for the ones we care about, we have to fight through great distances, media oversaturation, and sloppy social networking. We have to be willing to be there for our comrades, care for them in their times of need, and mourn with them when they are mourning. We have to learn to stick together, to let others into our hearts – and to do it without fear of punishment or reward – if we want our time on this Earth to mean a single damn thing.

As the final lyrics floated by that fateful night, I began to stir. I moved into my dorm room and tucked myself into bed. I took the blankets and laid them over my weakened, frail, post-puke body – thinking of nothing other than the friends I had made over the years, the friends I had lost, the friends that I hoped would stick around forever, and all the friends I had yet to even meet.

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“My angel face is falling / Feathers are falling on my feet

My angel face is falling / Feathers are falling on my feet

Darling can you tie my string? / Killers are calling on me

Darling can you tie my string? / Killers are calling on me”

The National’s songs are my verses. They are my psalms. They are my Gospel. I can’t wait to listen to Trouble Will Find Me for the first time… on May 21^st, of course.

– Conor Patrick Hogan

For more of my mish-mashed musings (in real time, no less!) follow me on Twitter: @CPatrickDood

So during our last interview, you were just about to leave Indiana and head out to L.A. and Sargent House. How cool is it now to be officially in the fold?

Things out here are great! Good weather, good hikes, and I can be as involved or uninvolved in it all as I want. A big change from Indiana, that’s for sure.

Anything you miss about Indiana? Are you homesick at all?

I miss my dogs and cats a little and the general family/home feeling, but it’s pretty exhilarating to be out on my own. No plans to return to Indiana anytime soon if I can help it, not that there aren’t some great people there.

What’s life like living with Cathy and getting to meet / hang out with Sargent Houses’ roster on a regular basis? Any awesome stories yet?

Cathy’s great, of course. She’s very helpful, but lets me do my own thing. We have some fun times. It’s been pretty surreal meeting some of the artists, but they’re all so down to earth. Everyone has been so polite and understanding even though I’m a bit of a weirdo introvert.

Has spending time with so many great musicians changed your approach to your music, singing, or guitar playing?

There is definitely pressure to be better and to do honor to these other musicians that are on the label in the sense that I may be some kids introduction to Sargent House and if he likes me, he’s more likely to check out the other bands. I haven’t really played music with anyone out here yet so my approach is still the same, just more vast and improved.

You’ve been hard at work practicing and writing the new album, how is that process going?

Pretty well. I’m just about wrapping up the writing process. I’ve been putting a lot more discipline into writing now that I’ve had some recording experiences and understand it a bit more. I really like the direction it’s all heading in. These songs are much, much, much different than anything from the Retcon era, at least to me.

Have you started recording the new full length yet?

Not quite yet. I’m still adding some finishing touches and making sure every note is ready. The album won’t be coming out until 2014 so I’m going to have a lot of time to tailor these songs. I won’t have any excuse to put out a half –assed album.

Retcon was just released. Did you add any additional tracking to the songs? Was it weird hearing your EP’s re-mixed and re-mastered?

It was weird hearing those songs at all. Other than playing a few of them live, I’ve sort of disassociated myself with them. It’s not that they’re necessarily bad songs, I just don’t personally relate to them anymore. They’re all over a year old, some of them two years old. I did go in and add bass tracks to the songs that were originally featured on Colossal Grin. I think it came out well as a complete project.

Thinking back on the songs on Retcon, is there anything you would change about the compositions?

By all means! When those songs are performed live, you can definitely hear things I changed or added or took away. That’s one of the things I’m trying now on the full-length, working out the kinks now so I don’t have to later. I can’t stand a lot of the singing either. It’s not the sound so much as the style that aggravates me.

How have your shows in LA gone? How have the crowds responded?

I had two shows that were smaller and essentially rehearsals for my voice, but even then, the reception was great. I got to open for Maps & Atlases, which was cool. I had gotten 4 wisdom teeth out 3 days before the show so my voice wasn’t at an optimal level, but there was still a lot of good feedback from the crowd and the guys in the band.

With all this time spent practicing are there any significant changes you’ve made to your live performance?

I actually noticed I was a lot more static these last few shows, which I’ll fix. I play the same songs everyday in the Glassroom so I guess I just sort of forgot to translate that over to a live performance setting. I’ve gotten a lot tighter pedal-wise, thanks to some changes in my pedal board, but also the hours of practice everyday.

You will be playing your first European show in a couple months. Have you ever been overseas?

Yeah, I actually spent three years growing up in Daventry, England and was lucky enough to travel around Europe a lot. I was barely 4 years old at the time though, so this will essentially be a new experience for me. I cannot verbally express how excited I am though.

What other shows / tour plans do you have in the works?

There are some things that are getting potentially set up that I can’t talk about quite yet, but am very excited about…But I am going to be doing a full US/Canada tour with And So I Watch You From Afar later this year. I’m a big fan of their music and they’re the nicest guys. I couldn’t ask for a better first tour.

You’re like an internet celebrity now. How cool was it to have the “Ampersand” Glassroom video blow up the way it did?

I wouldn’t go quite that far…It was bizarre to watch it all unfold, for sure. Lots of people saying lots of good and bad things about something I was featured in. I guess it’s a good way to prepare for the rest of my music career.

Seems like you spend a lot time with the dogs of @SargentDogHouse, which dog is your favorite?

I love them all a lot, but lately Jimi has been getting on my last nerve. He’s seriously got the biggest ego ever and he’s turning into a bit of a brat. Syd is the most unique dog I’ve ever met, but she sort of does her own thing. I got to take care of Cornelia for the first few days we owned her, so she and I have a bit of a bond. She’s a fun one.

Any new music you’ve been really into?

I really like ASIWYFA’s new release, but honestly I’ve just been on a massive U2 kick for the past month. Everything from Boy to Pop, they’re all great. I think they’re one of the most important bands to date, despite everything since 2001 onward. I’ll never stop listening to King Crimson, but that’s pretty far from new.

Links:

Download Retcon here

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Sargent House

So I’ll start by being completely honest in saying that when I heard some of the initial teasers and demo tracks that were leaked by Yew over a year ago I was very underwhelmed, but I have learned quite a few times that you cannot judge an album based on any of these sound bytes. And I am glad that I didn’t, because this little gem of an EP has been playing non-stop in my playlist since it’s release.

Yew, if you have not heard of them, is a side project from members of the Connecticut band Jacobi Wichita. Consisting of Matt Swain (drums/keys/samples), Ben Lopez (guitar/bass/turn tables) and Brendan Rodriguez (vocals). Swain recently told BGM, ”Yew is basically a group with in the group… kind of like a Wu-Tang thing where the members make projects with in the band.” Also, stating that while Jacobi Witchita is not broken up by any means. However, Yew will be what the group’s focus on for the time being.

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While I’ve been listening to the Too EP I have been toiling over different bands to compare Yew’s sound to. The music first reminded me of a funkier version of early Portugal. The Man releases like It’s Complicated Being A Wizard and Waiter: You Vultures!  However, I would have to say though that naturally the most comparable band or sound is Jacobi Wichita. JW’s last release Lambsey .Divey EP (released in 2010, the EP was one of Jon’s Top 5 album picks for SLUG Mag’s Annual Top lists) definitely showcased the band stepping closer to perfecting their sound. While Yew is a bit hard to pin down, think along the lines of the intensity and vocal prowess of Glassjaw, some incredible guitar riffs mixed with a little latin and reggae grooves, while always maintaining a hip-hop and urban undertone, accompanied by some really impressive and particularly well utilized sampling and turn tables.

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Too opens with the track “Doe,”  setting the tone for the EP, a smooth groove and chunky bass line lay the foundation for some haunting keys. The following tracks “Ray” and “Winston” showcase what is truly great about this record, which is the perfect blend of live instrumentation and electronic-synth’s. (Note: All 5 track names refer to the Ghostbusters movies and the “Doe, Ray, Egon,” scene).

These guys are very talented musicians, there are little musical flourishes throughout the EP that fit in so well that you almost miss them the first listen through. Whether it be Lopez’s scratching, Swain’s bass drum triplets at the end of “Winston,” or just a catchy distorted bass riff, this EP gets even more rewarding after multiple listens. The Too Ep also proves to be great footing for the progression of singer Brendan Rodriguez’s vocals, the record features his falsetto more prominently, but it is definitely a treat when he lets loose. His range and tone place him next to some very great frontmen such as Daryl Palumbo (Glassjaw, Head Automatica), Brandon Boyd (Incubus) and Ryan Hunter (NK, Envy on the Coast). The closing tracks “Louis” and “Egon” round out the album nicely and  bring a little more guitar back into the mix, while never being too in your face or drowning out the rest of the sound.

With Too, Yew takes all of the same Jacobi Wichita feel and attitude puts an electronic spin on the sound, which definitely sets itself apart from previous JW based efforts. However, it will also feel very familiar to any JW listener, enough so that it seems like the next logical step for the band and their sound. I couldn’t really imagine the next Jacobi Wichita release sounding incredibly different. Regardless, simply put, this is a fun EP and my only gripe would be that there is not more to listen to.  Whatever direction the members of Yew and Jacobi Witchita decide to take, I hope that we get to hear some more material in the very near future.

Rating: 4/5

Download Too here

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BG: Ultraviolet is your sixth full length in more than a decade. When I heard Time Will Fuse Its Worth back in 2006, I remember being blown away by the unique mixture of heaviness and the psychedelic, almost indie stylings. Nowadays it seems like more heavy bands are incorporating unexpected sounds into their work. Do you think the divide between heavy music and indie is breaking down?

PC: I think it is, definitely. I think there’s a lot more people out there who want to try all kinds of things. I think there’s an audience for bands that want to do that type of thing now too, so it helps that there’s a lot more people doing it.

BG: Absolutely, the music audience seems a lot more accepting to listen to things not quite as standard these days.

PC: Oh yeah, definitely. I remember when we started doing this kinda stuff, it wasn’t really quite that way yet.

BG: Have you noticed a change in the live show audience over the years?

PC: I mean, all I can really do is base this off of Kylesa. I go to all kinds of shows and to be honest, most of the shows I go to, if I go to a punk show its mostly punk kids, if I go to indie show it’s mainly indie kids. There’s still a lot of that. But at Kylesa shows, over time, there’s become a mixture of people.

BG: I personally think its great that all these different crowds are coming together to enjoy their mutual enjoyment for you guys.

PC: Well I think its the open-minded people from all those crowds *laughs*. We’re getting huge, bigger crowds because of it. I think we just have a pretty open-minded fanbase.

BG: Very true. Anyway, lyrically, Ultraviolet feels a lot darker than your past works. I’ve read in previous interviews that this is due to a darker period of your life after Spiral Shadow. Do you feel as though the process of recording and touring for Ultraviolet will act as a means of catharsis for you guys?

PC: It definitely already has. Making that record, it was good for both Laura [Pleasants, co-founder of Kylesa] and I to vent some of our frustrations. That being said, we didn’t want to make a ‘woe is us’ kinda record. I think the things that we were going through, everyone has to go through. It’s a part of the human experience. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is, these are common life struggles. Even though its a bit darker and based on personal experiences, we wanted to write in a way that hopefully people could relate to.

BG: It definitely seems just vague enough to be able to reach that moment of solidarity with anyone experiencing downtime.

PC: Right, right.

BG: Speaking of Laura, she picks up a lot more of the vocal work on this record. Was this a conscious decision on your part or was it something that organically came about?

PC: It was definitely organic, it wasn’t something that was necessarily planned out. I took on a much bigger role as a multi-instrumentalist on this record, playing a bunch of different instruments and laying down a bunch of different tracks and I just kinda stayed focused on that. As the songs were getting finished I would hand them over to her and we were talking about vocals, I was just like, do whatever you want. When she’d come back, she’d have all these ideas and I thought they were great. I’ve never felt like we’ve had to be equal with vocals, it’s not something we’ve ever talked about…

BG: Its just something that’s come into being.

PC: Right. And I think we both felt she was inspired, she was on top of it, I didn’t feel like I needed to go in there and scream over everything *laughs* you know? Or go ‘ooohh I need that part!’ I felt like I had enough space to say what I wanted to say on the record.

BG: The addition of the more melodic vocals on her part are a great addition to the band’s sound.

PC: Thank you!

BG: Would you say that your production work for other bands has changed the way you produce for Kylesa, or would you say it’s more of an inverse relationship where your production for Kylesa has influenced how you produce for other people?

PC: I think the main thing is that it’s helped my technical skills out over time. But other than that, I try to approach each record with its own sound, I try to encourage bands to come up with their own sound. I wouldn’t work with a band and come up with something and take that and give it to Kylesa, that wouldn’t be right. And I don’t give too many Kylesa secrets away either *laughs*. I look at the process and try to find an original way to approach it with each record. But I mean, it does help, with each Kylesa record that we go in to, because I’ve been working with other bands before that, my technical knowledge has improved. So that’s been a huge help.

BG: Practice makes perfect.

PC: Yeah, exactly.

BG: I have to ask: Kylesa records have always had pretty trippy album art but I’d have to say Ultraviolet takes the cake for being the most fucked up *laughs*. Can you explain what exactly is going on with the artwork?

PC: *laughs* Yeah, sure. It’s done by Sean Beaudry,  and we gave him a certain amount of his own freedom to do what he wanted. We’ve always found that’s a good idea with artists, if you give them freedom, they do their best work and put themselves into it as well. But I did have a couple ideas I wanted for the front cover. The scarab…that’s some imagery that, lyrically, we’ve used in the past, but we’ve never actually used it for album art before. I thought that it fit pretty well with this album, you know, just kinda look at it as scarabs basically being dung beetles that make things out of shit.

*everybody laughs*

PC: We kinda had a huge pile and we’re making an album out of it. There’s other symbolism like that on there as well.

BG: The art really fits the psychedelic feel of the album, that’s for sure.

PC: Cool.

BG: You guys begin touring on May 10th, and its been a few years since you guys have embarked on a major tour like this. Are you looking forward to it?

PC: Oh yeah, definitely. I’m really looking forward to it.

BG: Have the logistics of touring changed for you guys since you started out?

PC: Well, other than taking a little bit more time off than we normally do, not really. When we started the band, Laura and I agreed that touring was gonna be a huge part of what we do, we were gonna play as many shows as possible and we have since day one. I don’t see that stopping any time soon.

BG: The last two tracks on the new album, “Quicksand” and “Drifting”, are some of the most melodic and beautiful arrangements you guys have ever crafted. Do you think this is in any way indicative of the band’s future?

PC: Uh…it could be? *laughs* It’s hard to tell right now where we’ll go next. One thing that seems to be is that each new album will have a new idea slightly put in place. We have a tendency to take that new idea on the following album and expand on it more. If you look back on all the albums you can kinda see that. For example Spiral Shadow had a bit of, like, cold-wavey influence to it, and we expanded upon that more on Ultraviolet. So you know, its kinda hard to tell right now. I’m sure we’ll expand on something from the album. But who knows, maybe we’ll end up being a heavier, more brutal group…I just don’t know at this point.

BG: This leads into my next question about the electronic influences on the record. What influenced your decision to include all these subtle electronic undertones?

PC: A lot of it was just learning how to do it. We spent a lot of time touring for Spiral Shadow, so a lot of times late at night, when we’re just driving through the night, I would just mess around on the computer and learn a little bit that way. Then when Corey (Barhorst) left the band, somebody needed to take over keys so I got a keyboard and just started learning. I fell in love with the whole thing. And as well playing the theremin a couple years back, I kinda took that on, and messing around with all that, I really found that I enjoyed it and it was an interesting way to write besides just playing guitar or whatever. I think just having some time messing around with that stuff and learning it, you get influenced by it.

BG: It definitely adds a really cool vibe to the band’s sound.

PC: Right on, thank you. One thing is, like, stoner rock and that kinda stuff generally has warmer tones, and I think the electronics help with this album giving it a colder feel to embody the lyrics. That was one of the intentions as well

BG: Makes sense. Anyway, I’ve heard from a lot of bands that the drummer is easily the most obnoxious member of the group. Kylesa has to deal with two of them. So would you say the rumours are true and if so, how do you guys put up with them?

PC: It’s not true at all actually *laughs* Carl is probably the farthest thing from obnoxious. He’s really chill, you can always count on him, all the things that you hear, all the drummer jokes, Carl is none of them.

BG: So you don’t believe the hype is what you’re saying.

PC: At least not as far as Carl’s concerned.

BG: You guys have a fairly active Twitter account now, and just last week you guys did an AmA on Reddit. How did that experience go for you guys?

PC: It was actually a lot a of fun. We weren’t really prepared that we would get that many questions. We were pretty low on the typing, but we tried to go as fast as we could. But yeah, it was cool, I hope we can do it again.

BG: It’s a neat interface that allows for that direct connection between the fans and the band. I think with social media heading in the direction it is that this is gonna become more and more of a common thing. Do you think this is the case?

PC: I think it should be. I hope it is. I mean, it’s great for us, and I think the other people involved enjoyed it too. I think its pretty awesome, I’d definitely be up to do it again.

BG: I think you guys did a great job with the last one.

PC: Cool cool, thank you.

BG: Alright, last question. The music scene and industry has changed a lot in the past twelve years or so, since you guys started out. What advice would you have for anyone trying to break into the heavier music scene these days?

PC: Do it because you love doing it. You’ve gotta really like what you do, because it’s gonna be a hard road, it’s not gonna be easy. So, I would say, make sure it’s what you really wanna do. And if it is, then you’ll figure it out.

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Tour Dates / Pre-Order Ultraviolet here

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Modern Vampires of the City is Vampire Weekend as men and not the boys that had us dancing to the perky, preppy, absolutely poppy, collegiate adventures of their self titled debut album and the synthy, world pop follow-up, Contra. Their debut was casual like a jam sesh on Columbia University’s lawn in between classes and on Contra, their horizons were broadened; lead singer and songwriter, Ezra Koenig’s lyrical skills were strengthening, but their tongue-in-cheek self proclaimed “Upper West Side Soweto” sound remained fundamentally the same. In short, Vampire Weekend and Contra were two halves of a whole and Modern Vampires of the City embodies the growth and maturity that a bands third album should.

.It is undeniable that Vampire Weekend have always been like-able, but with Modern Vampires, instead of being charmed into catchy hooks our affinity is earned and that makes for a more rewarding listen. Consequently, the Afro-pop guitars and Paul Simon Graceland comparisons are still very easily discerned as this album’s foundation. Vampire Weekend knew what they were doing when they created themselves as the freewheelin’ Ivy leaguers; adulthood was inevitable, as was analyzing more mature themes of life, the passage of time, death and even religion. This perfectly orchestrated progression has made the maturation of their sound that much more profound. Modern Vampires of the City is being called the third of a trilogy, the end of an era.

“Morning’s come, you watch the red sun rise, the LED still flickers in your eyes,” comes the opening line of the first track “Obvious Bicycle”, immediately painting the scene as that unsettling limbo between the end of the party and the hangover that inevitably follows. This line simultaneously works as the perfect segue between albums and intro into Modern Vampires. The vocals climb a staircase of tinkling piano that continues to ascend above Ezra Koenig’s “Listen, listen. Don’t wait”, which could be misinterpreted as a plea, but could also be the album’s mission statement.

Skittering drumming, crashing cymbals and keys create the inescapable “Unbelievers” before the track flourishes into a lush horn section. The vocals are as luminous as the keys and the lyrics succeed in maintaining optimism despite the track being an admittance of- and almost homage to- skepticism. “I know I love you and you love the sea,” Koenig muses, “wonder if the water contains a little drop, little drop for me.”

On stand-out track, “Step” we catch a glimpse of what has become retro-Vampire Weekend. The cheerful harpsichord reminisces “M79″ while vocal manipulation is used to further emphasize one of the new album’s themes of mortality: “Wisdom’s a gift, but you’d trade it for youth.” We’re given only a millisecond to revel attentively in the ghostly closing before the manic “Diane Young”- the album’s first single- explodes and rattles your thoughts loose. Wait, is Koenig singing “dyin’ young”? The play on words is so obvious it hurts, until you realize how well it works: “Irish and proud, baby, naturally, but you got the luck of a Kennedy.” The vocal distortion continues through triumphantly hectic drumming, beachy guitar riffs and reverb, sprinkled with keys. It is a glorious clusterfuck of a song.

Thematically comparable to The Flaming Lips’ track, “Do You Realize??”, Modern Vampires of the City aims to create self awareness, but it also welcomes the urgency of life. Vampire Weekend throw the album’s mission statement out on its ear as they seem to shift audiences with the final “Young Lion”. Their advice to their younger counterparts? “You take your time, Young Lion.”

Assuredly this album will be hailed as one of 2013′s best but more importantly, it will become a milestone in Vampire Weekend’s career.

RATING: 5/5

Purchase Modern Vampires in the City here

-Amanda “The Bearded Lady” Best

One of Us is the Killer is released following two strong singles. ”Prancer” was released via digital outlets on March 12, whilst the first music video ”When I Lost My Bet” featured mannequins blowing up and a few mysterious scenes with blood. It was fair to say that the two songs did their job — they hyped up the album for its release. No doubt then that my own expectations were hyped up as well.

Listening to this it’s clear to say that One of Us is the Killer will  be another chapter in the books for Dillinger.  Whilst Greg Puciato’s vocals are the most important part of Dillinger for me, he’s also backed up by some amazing musicians as well: Billy Rymer on drums; Liam Wilson on bass and the last remaining founding member Ben Weinman on lead guitar / programming / backing vocals / keys.

The album starts off with aforementioned single ”Prancer” a burst of noise followed by a catchy groovy sections and then jumping back into the adrenaline-fulled passages. ”When I Lost My Bet” is a Jazz-sounding song with the odd burst of noise here and there, featuring a catchy chorus. The title-track ”One of us Is the Killer” is really soft for three-quarters of the song, only opening up for the chorus, but then for the last quarter it really just explodes into life. ”Nothing’s Funny” has a great opening passage of music, but then quietens down for the verse with only the bass, drums and vocals, and when the guitar jumps back in suddenly it’s really heavy.

As I sat through my first listen of the record there are things which caught my ear and there are other things I missed, but overall I love the complexity of the music — with Dillinger, you don’t always know what you are going to get with every release. I was really drawn into the record from the first few notes right until the last. Like I said I’ve been a long-time fan, waiting for this album with anxious and excited hopes. The production is fantastic: it helps when the production / mixing can help pick out all the little nuances of the music and then make the bigger and heavier moments seem that much more epic. I love how the album flows and with the random softer moments followed by bursts of rawness and sound.

In my opinion, I think that this could be Dillinger’s best offering to date. They seem to be much akin to fine wine, in that they get better with age, One of Us…is really a solid album. Dillinger don’t seem to miss a beat and they attack the senses in every possibly way. Truly something to behold.

There is so much musical density in this, it’s just…amazing. When I heard the first two aforementioned singles I was a little bit unsure, yeah they  hyped up my expectations a little, but 2013 is becoming somewhat cramped now with so many good releases. Safe to say that all bets are off and Dillinger’s release is yet another solid, mind-boggling, headache-inducing album, and I’m extremely happily with the end result. Highly recommended — with attached health warnings.

RATING: 4 / 5

Purchase One of Us is the Killer:

iTunes at: http://bit.ly/DEP-iTunes

Google Play at: http://bit.ly/14iT16h

Amazon MP3 at: http://amzn.to/19lChMr

Keep Dreaming comes out May 14th (tomorrow) which you can purchase here.

How did The New Trust come about? Can you give me a brief history about the band?

I started writing songs for what would become The New Trust in around 1998 or so, making some demos and playing the songs with friends from the North Bay. I was playing bass in bands that were busy recording and touring at the time, so it took a while to get motivated  and to put together any band of my own. In 2000, Sara and I got married after years of living together. We decided that The New Trust was a band that we could do as a team and began writing and arranging a handful of songs. Around that same time, The Velvet Teen – with whom I play bass – started recording and touring regularly, with only a break in 2003 during the extensive process of recording Elysium. Sara and I jumped on that (then) rare lull in activity to ask our friend Michael from Benton Falls and 19-year old Julia Lancer to start playing with us, and within a few months, The New Trust had a recording done and some shows booked.

What’s it like being in a band with your wife? Does it make it harder when the band disagree’s with each other? Is it difficult to separate the band from your personal relationship?

There are pros and cons with being in a band with your significant other – as there are with anyone, I guess – but it’s definitely different. If it’s harder on anyone, I think it’s the other members of the band who have to endure the behaviors of the married couple. Things like snarky comments, occasional fights, etc. Non-married bandmates can be more civil in a lot of ways for conventional societal reasons, where if you hang out with married couples, you occasionally hear them say some pretty brutal shit to one another. Married people are gonna show their emotional involvement more, where a bunch of dudes in a van usually aren’t. Also, feeling ganged-up on by a married team who can’t help but prioritize each other, surely must be problematic for the other members of a band with the same configuration as ours. After ten years as a band, however, Sara and I are practically as close with Julia as we are with each other, and try hard not to make her feel like a third wheel. Admittedly, we have chased a couple guitarists away though…

I think a lot of band dudes will think of time with their band as a vacation from their girlfriends or boyfriends, and that’s okay. Personally though, I consider time touring with The New Trust to be more like vacation with my family. We bring our dogs with us on tour and try to see as many friends along the way as possible. We’ve been doing it long enough and frequently enough to (mostly) keep the debauchery to a minimum, and to know what works for us without stepping on each others feelings.

One of the things that initially grabbed me when I first heard the band was Julia’s drumming. I feel like she’s the female version of John Bonham. What’s her relationship like with the band after all these years?

We get that a lot. Julia is an outstanding drummer, for sure. I can’t speak for what she thinks, but from my perspective, she is an absolute cornerstone of the band. Our sound has changed over the years to accommodate her style, and she just keeps getting better. The fact that when we started the band, she was a teenager, and that she’ll be 30 in a couple months? That speaks well of our relationship, I hope. We’ve truly watched her grow up – through serious relationships, huge life changes, big moves, into the great friend and wholly solid person she is now. It’s really been amazing. I’m ten years older than she is, so when the band started, I was her age now – which is crazy. All three of us have grown really close…

What were the writing sessions like for Keep Dreaming? Was there anything different about coming up with this batch of songs compared to previous albums?

For Keep Dreaming, we put together 8 songs that we felt were varied enough, but have a very similar feel. Like our last album, Get Vulnerable, all of the songs are a bit dark. This time the subject matter is mostly dreams and loss – death in particular. Real fun, right?! Anyway we had these songs mostly done when we left for tour in October and our goal was to play them every night for 20 days on our way to Chicago. We pretty much played six of them every night, and two fell out of practice. We got to Chicago, met Steve Albini (an absolute gentleman and consummate professional) and started setting our stuff up. Overall, I think that this records sounds truer to what we actually sound like than anything else we’ve done. It’s raw and unpolished, with only a very few overdubs. We’re very glad to have worked in such a classic recording environment, and we had our run of the studio to stay up real late, getting those last two songs ready. When I play or hear either of those 2 songs, all I can picture is the three of us playing those songs in the studio at 3 in the morning. Steve had plenty of helpful suggestions and we’re totally happy with how it turned out. After 5 days in Chicago, we left with the finished record in hand, which is rare in this day and age.

That is impressive to have the album completely done in five days. Can you elaborate more on what it was like recording with Albini? Did you constantly ask him questions about Nirvana’s In Utero? Haha. Because that’s probably what I would have done.

We did our best to keep our cool in regards to questions. We’ve collectively read more than a few Albini interviews, so many of our questions have been answered. Steve did volunteer quite a few great stories about many bands, some about crank calls he made while recording Nirvana, and he is a veritable encyclopedia of the dirty joke, past and present. He was very helpful with getting good takes out of us and if we had a problem, he was always encouraging. Once, Sara wasn’t happy with a guitar take, and wanted to do her tracks over. Steve said (and I paraphrase), “Well, if you consider a band to be individual instruments, then that would make sense. But if you, like me, consider a band to be one instrument, with three people playing it, then you should all do the song again.” We did, and I’m sure that the recording was much better for it. With Steve, the simplest solution is usually the best. If you want to cut two halves of a song together, literally cut the tape and splice it together. I nearly shit when I first saw him do that. If you’re not happy with a take, do it over. There’s no fixing or hiding things in post production, and the only computer in the room is the laptop steve checks during breaks. Throughout the session, we had a lot of nice talks about food, travel and bands we like, and Steve was engaging and a lot of fun to be around. He was good with our dogs, too.

How is it touring with your dogs? Does it make it tough to find places to stay between shows? Do you have to make a lot of pit stops?

It’s the best! It really has made tour even more fun, if you can believe it. We get to see dog parks in each city, some of which are amazing. The off-leash park in Minnetonka, Minnesota is grandiose. During the show, the dogs will usually just chill out in the van. It’s just a big crate on wheels. We’ve had no trouble finding places to stay, we just have to find people with dogs (or at least people that don’t mind em) to stay with, or if we have to stay in a hotel, we go to La Quinta. They’re dog-friendly and have no extra fees or limit to the quantity or size of dogs that stay. If no houses or La Quintas are available, we have a pretty sweet van-sleeping system, as well. As the tallest, I’ll take the back bench, Jules takes the middle bench and Sara sleeps under the seats, down the center of the van with her head between the driver & passenger seats. The dogs each sleep on the front seats. We’ve also done a lot of camping on tour since we’ve been a three piece. It keeps our spirits up and the dogs have a great time. None of us want to be apart from each other, so touring with them is better than the alternative. Murray & Stella have seen more of the country than a lot of our friends!

Those are some well traveled dogs. That’s really cool. Any memorable tours, shows, or crazy events that stick out in your mind from the years out on the road?

Too many to count. Our first big tour was The Jealous Sound’s 2003 tour for Kill Them With Kindness. We toured the U.S. with Minus The Bear & These Arms Are Snakes in 2005, and every night was crazy with those guys. We went to Tijuana with Ampere. In Taiwan, we took a child-size train up a mountain and a gondola over a waterfall into a magical village full of koi ponds, a haunted house, an ostrich farm, archery range, and a beer garden. We’ve been to nearly every US State, all over Europe, and Japan and have played shows with so many great bands: Cursive, Sebadoh, Engine Down, American Steel. We’ve made a ton of friends while in this band, and watched kids grow up into parents. Our favorite tour so far was last year, though. We booked much of it on our own and played with different great bands practically every night. Des Ark – our favorite band, and some of our favorite people – played the east coast dates with us. It’s often times hard to talk about singular crazy events that stick out, but there have been plenty. For me to tell the stories without firstly getting some people in trouble, and also without Sara and Jules corroborating would only lessen their impact. I think the stories are better if we all tell them together, so anyone who wants juicy details will have to come talk to us at a show…

You mentioned Des Ark as a favorite band. Are there any other acts, past or present that you are really into? Any that the band can all agree on?

There are plenty of bands that we collectively love and listen to in the van. There are the bigger ones: Engine Down, Cursive, Shellac, Mew, Radiohead & PJ Harvey’s first two albums. There are some lesser known bands that are our favorite, but aren’t around anymore, like Party Of Helicopters, Colossal, Malady, Push To Talk, and Meneguar. We also listen to our friends’ bands a lot: Not To Reason Why, Starskate, Themes, and more. We are constantly playing music in the van and learning about different music from each other.

Okay final question. What does The New Trust have coming up in the future? Any touring plans? Have you started writing any new music yet?

Keep Dreaming, the album we recorded back in November comes out in a couple days (May 14), so our goal is to tour as much as possible. As of now, we are playing all over the West Coast through July. We have a few new songs in the works and a few that were written for Keep Dreaming, but didn’t make it onto the album. I’d like to get those songs out there. I’m always making grand plans that may or may not come together, but I think I wanna do a few 7-inches next. Maybe some splits with bands we love, that kind of thing. Just keep on keepin’ on!

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Your local music scene may be a dying art form, and in a few more years could become a completely outdated musical platform.  Blame it on reality TV, social media outlets ,or yourself.

Up until about 5 + years ago there was a general sense of anticipation and excitement in checking out a new band for the first time, an unknown struggling artist, and coming away loving them or going to see the local favorites that became your friends.  The bars that showcased live music were well known and it was evident in the overflowing crowd.

This was a community of music lovers.  Not only would you get to hear great music but have stimulating conversations with fellow music addicts. It was a place to lose yourself other than seeing an over-priced concert.  For 5-10 bucks you were exposed to live, loud rock and roll, hip-hop, jam-bands or folk, whatever your desired tastes, pretty much all was welcome as long as it was original.

Today, it seems altogether different.  I myself have not been as loyally devoted to the local music scene as back in the day, chalk it up to getting older, but I still check it out on occasion, and the vibe just doesn’t feel the same.  There is a void where there used to be a room filled with energy so palpable you had goose bumps, and the high you got from seeing a performance in such a small intimate setting.

And I think the main reason is this: a large part of the scene was made up of musicians.  In any given city’s local music hangout, the creative leaders not only performed, but hung out there.  They were the driving force of these establishments, the magnetic energy that drew in the crowd and kept them coming back.  The musicians were the biggest supporters of the music community.  They would frequent on nights that they weren’t performing to promote their upcoming shows, getting to know people, handing out flyers, and spreading the word.

Nowadays with people being able to make music & distribute it right on their computer, there is an attitude that it’s not necessary to get out in the trenches amongst fellow musicians and the common people in order to build an audience.  And the endless amount of music competition reality shows doesn’t help the cause.

Aspiring artists have become spoiled by reality singing competition shows like The Voice and video-sharing websites like YouTube.  They don’t want to live, breathe, and suffer for the art anymore, because they don’t have to.  Why go out to a dive bar night after night and perform for little or no money when you can just share your music on Soundcloud and promote it on Twitter.  As a result there has become an extreme lack of desire to go out and explore and support the local music scene.  Your local bar that once catered only to live music has to now find other ways to draw people in, some by incorporating a DJ room, having a comedy night, or adding a food menu.

The young generation only need to be exposed to things that are larger than what is right in front of them.  Learn not to settle for instant gratification but desire to make the human connection.  I saw this on Record Store Day with so many young kids exploring unfamiliar territory and liking it.  And hopefully aspiring musicians will long to be inspired and true to the art of making music by surrounding themselves within the community because they are the energy source, musicians feed off of people and vise versa, and that is a beautiful thing.

I’ve heard the following from Dave Grohl on different occasions and it couldn’t be more right on: “When I think about kids watching a TV show like American Idol or The Voice, then they think, ‘Oh, OK, that’s how you become a musician, you stand in line for eight f-ing hours with 800 people at a convention center and… then you sing your heart out for someone and then they tell you it’s not f-in’ good enough.’ Can you imagine?” he implores. “It’s destroying the next generation of musicians! Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy and old f-ing drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they’ll suck, too. And then they’ll f-ing start playing and they’ll have the best time they’ve ever had in their lives and then all of a sudden they’ll become Nirvana. Because that’s exactly what happened with Nirvana. Just a bunch of guys that had some crappy old instruments and they got together and started playing some noisy-ass s*&t, and they became the biggest band in the world. That can happen again! You don’t need an f-ing computer or the internet or The Voice or American Idol.”

Disenchanted with what mainstream metal/hard rock was becoming, I looked to the music enjoyed by the weirdo goth geeks hanging around the halls at school, and discovered stuff that now recalls the origins of alternative music – most striking and memorable were the Smiths (the immortal Queen is Dead came out in 1986), Hüsker Dü (Zen Arcade – 1984), and my personal favorite, the Meat Puppets and their life-changing disc Up on the Sun (1985). I cite this memory not to express any disillusionment with the state of indie rock, but to emphasize the benefit of searching for fresh, provocative, and challenging music – especially given the current popular, and perhaps misleading, persona of alternative and independent rock as a bastion for overhyped pop indie folk bands like Mumford and Sons or one-dimensional anthem machines such as Matt and Kim.

I caught a show a few weeks ago at the coolest music venue in Vermont – Higher Ground in Burlington – that I think exemplifies some of the freshest sounds in contemporary independent rock. From guitar rock to lo-fi synth pop, to all out experimentation, the bands involved in the show were impressive, but also cover a wide spectrum of what’s pushing the boundaries in the realm of independent rock n’ roll.

With their odd choral arrangements, ill-timed guitar riffs, and darkly syncopated percussion rhythms, the current manifestation of Dirty Projectors is one of my favorite bands right now. David Longstreth has constructed a haunting trio of a female chorus around his unusual guitar riffing and solos, and now that he has finally arrived into the realm of slightly more mainstream song structures, the band has produced music that not only provides some interesting listens (his music always did), but is also fun to listen to. I was blown away the first time I heard Swing Lo Magellan last year, and like Up on the Sun and the Queen is Dead, I will probably count that experience as one of those turning point moments in the development of my musical tastes. I’ve long considered Longstreth’s Dirty Projectors the standard bearer of the Brooklyn sound, but with the last two albums the band has endeavored to produce something both typically experimental and satisfyingly consumable for the masses (or at least the masses of indie rock fans who venture beyond the trappings of easy hooks and feel good string bands stomping on bass drum pedals). I’ve missed seeing Dirty Projectors live several times around NYC last year, but after a long drive through the Green Mountains finally caught up to them in Burlington.

In addition to Dirty Projectors, the show also featured the guitar-based rock band Delicate Steve and the synthy stylings of Burlington musician Ryan Power. Power brought a fantastic backing band and a cool concept, reminding me of Nite Jewel, and fellow Vermont indie rockers Blanche Blanche Blanche. Like those bands, Power offers a low-fi sound relying heavily on keys, synths, and a skilled drummer who employs electronic pads but crashes and rides real cymbals. I found the strength of Power’s performance to arise mainly through the outstanding rhythm section as the bassist played seriously funky grooves, particularly when the band slowed itself down with a song in the middle of the set. Power has been around a while and is preparing to release his sixth album this June – check out this review of his work and the link to a new song “The Prize” on Sterogum. http://stereogum.com/1341612/ryan-power-the-prize-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/

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Departing from the thoughtful electronic sound of Power, Delicate Steve lit up the venue with incredibly intricate guitar rock. Delicate Steve is the creation of guitarist Steven Marion and his nicely composed touring band. Along with his own guitar work, the band leader employs an additional guitarist Christian Peslak – who together trade riffs and solos through almost entirely instrumental songs with varying rock styles from hard to folk to progressive. From the initial riff of the first song in the set “Flyin’ High” to the slide guitar of “Don’t Get Stuck (Proud Elephants)” to the country rock of “Wally Wilder,” the performance unforgettably rocked. The most interesting moment of this portion of the evening was the finale, “Butterfly,” that offered a provocative use of a drum machine and a guitar solo progressing into something symphonically akin to the sound of fireworks over Red Square in Moscow accompanied by a rock version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

The Dirty Projectors played it honest and easy (don’t ask me what that means) – almost all of the set except for two songs satisfyingly came from Swing Lo Magellan and Bitte Orca (the most notable exception being one of my Dirty Projector’s favorites, “Rise Above”). The execution of the songs was top notch and crowd pleasing, but the most attractive aspect of the performance was Longstreth’s looseness and playfulness exhibited during songs such as “No Intention” as he employed starts and stops on his guitar while shooting sly glances over to his muse and guitarist Amber Coffman.

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Speaking of Coffman, I would credit her emergence in the band as the creative force responsible for Longstreth’s turn to a more accessible palate of tunes. Coffman’s sugary sweet vocal has been a welcome addition to the Dirty Projectors sound, however, her role as a guitarist has progressed over the years, and she demonstrated her capable handling of the instrument through renditions of “Dance for You” and “About to Die.” And then there is of course the Dirty Projectors signature syncopated chorus, most effectively exemplified during the performances of “Beautiful Mother,” and “Stillness is the Move.”

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Is it possible that we might look back at the current onslaught of pop indie folkers like Mumford and Sons, and Lumineers as the 2010s cheese ball equivalents of Guns n’ Roses and Twisted Sister? Are Matt and Kim or the Killers this generation’s versions of Poison and Motley Crue? In 2035, will we be shaking our heads at the the silly simplistic lyrics of “Hey Ho” (or is it Ho Hey?) and the hipster disguised as hillbilly fashion sense of its creators?

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I certainly hope so as payback for this generation’s ridiculous use of the sub-rock category “hair metal” as a way to flippantly dismiss an entire decade of hit-and-miss heavy rock music. Whatever the future reputation of what passes as indie rock might be, I don’t foresee David Longstreth and Amber Coffman penning lyrics about “Parental Guidance” and “Turbo Lovers” any time soon.

I read that you guys took almost eight months to write the new album, is this the longest you have spent writing a collection of songs? What’s your song writing process like?

Actually, the writing process was much faster on this album than on the previous ones. We were really feeling inspired this time around, and we were practicing/writing together like 5 times a week! The process itself is a combination of everyone’s individual ideas and a lot of jamming at the practice space.

You and Joe are both trained in musical theory; do you find that this causes you to over-complicate individual parts or songs? Do you ever need to scale song structures back or simplify things?

I don’t think having a background in music theory necessarily leads to overcomplicated music. Yes, Joe and I do have strong backgrounds in musical education, but I think that when we are writing for Intronaut, we are always trying to make sure that it’s about the music. We don’t have to search for simplicity. It finds us.

Habitual Levitations features more clean vocal melodies than previous albums. What is the reasoning behind the change in vocals? Any vocalists that inspired the new singing style?

I think that after Prehistoricisms, we really felt that screaming all the time just didn’t suit the music we were writing. I asked Sacha, “Can you sing in key?” He said, “Yes!” I said, “Me too! Why are we not using our voices as instruments??”
Our music focuses a lot on melody and harmony, so at a certain point we figured either we become an instrumental band, or we start using our voices with some sort of musical purpose.

It seems that as the band has grown that you have gotten involved more vocally with every release, has this changed the writing process at all?

Thank you for noticing! Most people still think that it’s all Sacha! The clean vocal thing was really how I started contributing vocally, beginning on “Valley Of Smoke”.  I’m not much of a screamer, but vocal melodies and harmonies is more of my thing, so after we all agreed that that was direction we were heading in, I was able to start contributing a lot more.  I also wrote all the lyrics for the last 2 albums, which makes the approach to writing vocals much more personal for me.

Do you have a favorite song off the new album or one that you’re most proud of?

Not particularly. I think that we are all very proud of the album as a whole, and we tried to write the album as one cohesive musical statement.

I’m currently obsessed with “Milk Leg”, especially the latter half of the song which to me has a really hazy jazzy vibe to it. What inspired this particular part?

I honestly don’t remember.  It just sort of “happened” while we were all writing and jamming.

I saw that you posted a link to a review on the bands Facebook page that totally misunderstood the new album and gave it a bad review. Do you find a lot of backlash now that your sound has become less metal oriented? How do you guys handle criticism?

It wasn’t just a bad review, it was an AMAZINGLY BAD review!  We thought it was hilarious.  Criticism is just something that comes with the territory, so we try to pay as little attention to it as possible. We’re only concerned with writing music that we stand behind.

Have you started writing any new music since the release of Habitual Levitations? What direction do you see the band’s sound going in the future?

Yes, Sacha and I have already gotten together a few times and have started writing some new stuff. I don’t know what direction the band is headed, but we are definitely feeling more creative and inspired than ever before!

Seems like the band spends a decent amount of time touring overseas, do you prefer shows over there as opposed to the states? Are the crowds different?

I don’t think that one is necessarily better than the other. They’re just different.  The hospitality and general subsidization of the arts is definitely better over there, but our shows are probably better here in the States, because we’ve done so much more touring here.

If there was one aspect about your previous albums you could change, what would it be?

Probably some of the guitar and drum tones.

Any memorable shows that stand out to you from all your years of touring?

Well, I got to do a duel drum jam with Danny Carey on my 30th birthday when we were on tour with TOOL, so that was pretty cool!  Every one of those shows was like being in a dream. Also, Justin came out and played the song “Valley Of Smoke” with us, for the the one-and-only live performance of that song. Also, touring with Meshuggah was pretty fucking amazing as well!

Favorite song or songs to play live?

“A Sore Sight For Eyes”, “The Welding”, “Core Relations”, “Gleamer”.

So you’ve had the opportunity to tour with Tool and Meshuggah. Are there any other dream bands out there that you’d like to hit the road with?

We would love to tour with Mastodon again, and also maybe Opeth would be pretty damn cool.

Any new albums or artists out right now that you guys are really enjoying?

The Atlas Moth, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, Cloudkicker.

Favorite album or artist of all time? 

Come on! That’s an impossible question to answer! Maybe Pink Floyd?…

Links:

Official Website / Tour Dates

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