Category: Interviews

INTERVIEW: The New Pornographers (CAN), October 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

This was a fun one. Carl “A.C.” Newman is a legend of indie rock in my eyes, and you’ll rarely find a band as consistently great as his main squeeze, The New Pornographers. This chat is another one of the best that I wrote this year – even now, I’m really happy with it. I love the album Carl was promoting, as well. It’s called Together and you could do far worse if it’s your first New Pornos album. 

– DJY, October 2014

***

Carl Newman is on the line from Woodstock. No, he hasn’t created some kind of awesome time machine – the man, his wife and, their dog all live in the small town of Woodstock in the state of New York. “Y’know the story, right?” asks Carl, as he delves into the heritage of his home.

“All the people that were gonna put on the concert were originally from Woodstock, but they couldn’t find a place here to do it. So they had to go to Bethel, which is about thirty miles away – but they still called the thing Woodstock.” Living in such an important area to rock history must mean that the Newman family always has a story to tell whenever someone asks where they live – and Carl is inclined to agree. “The funny thing is,” he says, “is we’ve accidentally met quite a few people of note just by living here.”

“For instance, one of my favourite stories is that my next door neighbour is this old folk singer called Happy Traum. A lot of people know him because he did some duets with Dylan, and knew him from the Greenwich Village days. He invited my wife and I over to thanksgiving dinner, and we were sitting with John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful. Even better, we went to his 4th of July celebration and Donald Fagen was there! We didn’t talk to him, though – we were afraid of him!”

It’s more than evident that Newman is a very lucky guy. Not only is his home life truly rock & roll, but his day job keeps moving from strength to strength. The New Pornographers, the band which Newman leads, have just released their fifth album, Together, another uplifting exercise in full-voiced indie rock. Though its title may seem somewhat plain, Newman is quick to insist there’s a lot more to it than one might think.

“The word showed up a few times in the songs we were writing,” he explains. “It made me think of when we first began, in 1998. One of the first cover songs we ever learned was a song called Together, by a band called The Illusions. It made me think that the word “together” was a throwback to our beginnings – in a sense, calling our record Together was like our way of calling it Get Back.

“On another level,” he continues, “I also like the idea of appropriating a really generic word. So often when you’re trying to name a song or an album, you’re always trying to think of something really clever – like, “let’s think of something someone’s never heard before!” I always liked it when bands took a really generic word and made it their own – like calling your band Kiss or Love. You make it your own just by being who you are.”

Before going in to work on Together, Newman also got into the studio as a solo artist to contribute to the benefit album Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox. Knox, a New Zealand musician, suffered a stroke last year and has undergone severe treatment. To raise funds to assist Knox and his family in these troubled times, a slew of indie rock royalty – Newman, John Darnielle, Jeff Mangum, the late Jay Reatard et al. – each contributed a version of one of Knox’s songs to a double album, with all proceeds going to Knox’s treatment.

“That was an honour,” says Newman when asked of his contribution. “He really truly is one of my favourite songwriters. People talk about how I’m influenced by Brian Wilson and Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach – and I love all those people, but when I sit down and write a song, I think I’m closer to Chris Knox. I just love the way that he just sits down and plays his guitar really hard. There’s nothing incredibly fancy about it. He just plays urgently and writes these amazing songs. I’m just a massive fan. I don’t know how he’s doing these days, but I really hope he’s doing well.”

Newman, along with the rest of the Pornographers, will get his chance to visit Knox’s native country this November when the band brings the tour in support of Together to Australasia. Although the band are looking forward to returning to Australia, Carl feels obligated to bring the best show he possibly can to the land of the long white cloud – particularly after the band’s last visit in support of 2007’s Challengers.

“The Auckland show we played last time was the drunkest I have ever been on stage,” admits Newman. “There were a couple of songs we should have been able to play in our sleep, like Mass Romantic from our first record [2000’s Mass Romantic ], and Chump Change from our second record [2003’s Electric Version ]… I think I played a verse twice or something, and the whole band was just looking at me, thinking “Holy shit!” When I walked off stage, my wife was there – she came with us on the last tour – and she’s usually the most supportive person in the world. That night, she just looked angry at me, just saying “that was terrible!” I felt so bad, man, I went and apologised to everyone in the band and promised them it would never happen again – and it hasn’t!”

So, if any Kiwis are reading, hear this promise from Carl: “I owe one to Auckland. I’m hoping they come back and let me prove that I can put on a better show!”

INTERVIEW: Sage Francis (USA), September 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Up until recently, this was potentially the quickest interview I’d ever done. Your boy Sage wrapped things up about 7 minutes in and was straight on to the next interview. It was a timing mishap or something like that, but I certainly got all that I needed out of him. He’s a bizarre and often hilarious character, and one that I always have time for. In the spirit of keeping things brief, I’ll leave it here.

– DJY, October 2014

***

There’s something we have to clear up with Sage Francis before the interview begins. It’s not anything major, nor is it some long-winded and unnecessary rant about the conventions of live hip-hop. It’s simply a formality: how do you prefer to be addressed? Do you call him Francis? Sage? Mr. Francis? Paul, his real name?

The man in question pauses on the other end of the line to consider the question. “…can you call me Dirty Uncle Frank?” Gee, don’t see why not. How are you, Dirty Uncle Frank? The line cracks with Francis’ cackling laugh. “Ohh man, this is gonna be interesting.”

Francis – sorry, Dirty Uncle Frank – is on the line from his home in Rhode Island, New York. He’s in the midst of what he calls a “marathon” of phone interviews for publications all across the world. While the promotional aspect of music is a drag for some people, Francis describes the experience as “breezy.” “I feel like I’m taking a quiz where I know all the answers,” he says with a laugh. This, believe it or not, is his downtime – he’s currently getting to the tailend of a major world tour, which will end right here in Australia.

It’s all in support of his most recent album, entitled Li(f)e – and, even though he’s probably told the story countless times, he’s more than willing to explain just how those parentheses came into play. “There’s an old lyric of mine where I say ‘life is just a lie with an F in it/and death is definite,’” says Francis.

“That lyric, in particular, is something that my fanbase kinda flocked to and they just owned it. They created that spelling of life with the f in parentheses, representing that lyric, and people even started getting it tattooed on them. I kept getting sent these pictures of this tattoo, and it really made me step back and think. I was like ‘Wow, people have been really taken by this lyric and are adopting it to their own lives and what they’re going through, and the believe in it enough to the point where they get it permanently marked on them.’ So I titled the album like that as sort of a tribute to that. It’s an understanding that there is a lot of meaning behind the symbolism of that, and I elaborate a lot on that in the subject matter of the album.”

It’s an album of bleak storytelling, heartbreak, isolation and family – and appears to be simultaneously the most and least personal record Francis has done. This is in reference to the tandem of both first and third person perspectives mixed into varying degrees on Li(f)e. “I guess I find it easier to write in first person,” says Francis when questioned on which writing style works best for him; before adding: “It’s easy for people to talk about themselves, I find. I also really love to be able to adopt someone else’s story for my own voice. I think it gives both me and the listener a break from me – I’m sure most of my fans have heard enough about me by now.”

Indeed, Sage’s evidently dedicated fans have come to learn a lot about the man behind the music through a lot of dark, introspective works over the years. With Li(f)e, however, it’s interesting to note that it’s the music behind these stories is more of a change than ever before. Borrowing from contemporaries such as Canada’s Buck 65, Francis spends a lot of time on the record rapping over acoustic guitar, jazz brushes, strings and a whole world of instrumentation beyond a simple 808 beat and a sped-up soul sample. Although Sage understands it was definitely more of a risk, he also claims it was exciting to be working within this new territory.

“I was receiving music from people that don’t typically provide soundscapes for hip-hop lyrics,” he says about the challenges of thinking outside the square. “I had to adapt to their sounds, to their time signatures and their song structures- which is fine. I feel like I give rap lyrics a lot more respect than others, on account of the fact I think that it can work with this.”

He then goes on to philosophise on where hip-hop stands sonically in this day and age. “Hip-hop has a history of taking from other genres and making it its own. Now, in 2010, I feel like there’s been a similar sound in hip-hop for quite awhile – the wheel has been spinning,” he says. “It’s a typical sound, and it’s a sound that I like, but I also feel like that there are other things that can happen with hip-hop, and with rap. So for me to sit there and think about how my lyrics can work within, say, a country and western style or perhaps a bluegrass style, that’s fun for me. I know I can do it, it just takes a little bit of readjusting. It brings out other things in me, and it’s fun.”

So there’s still conventions left to break in the field of hip-hop? “There’s a million conventions to break,” Francis responds. “I’m one of a few people who will step outside the norm and piss off the core base of hip-hop…” – there’s a pause. He mumbles something to himself, before correcting himself. “Actually, that isn’t true. I’m not one of the few. I’m one of the many, but I’m one of the few that people know about. There’s a lot of people doing super out-there shit, doing things way out of the norm and breaking tonnes of conventions. But they’re not getting the exposure and they’re not getting the support, so most people won’t know about them. So I think it’s important that one tries to understand the foundations of hip-hop and know how to create traditionally before going out on a limb and being like ‘look how crazy and different this is!’ You have to prove yourself before you go too far.”

INTERVIEW: Ben Kweller (USA), September 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Let’s make something clear. I don’t care if you’re a metalhead, a dance nut, a hip-hop head… whatever you are. If you don’t like Ben Kweller, I’m calling shenanigans. The highest order of shenanigans. How could you say not to that adorable, forever-twentysomething face? Those insanely catchy songs? The joy that just thinking of Ben Kweller brings? Naturally, motherfucker brought the sunshine in this interview. Haven’t had the pleasure since, but I did finally get to see him live in 2012. He was really great. Of course he was.

– DJY, October 2014

***

It’s seemingly impossible to find Ben Kweller in an unhappy mood. The chipper singer-songwriter is in high spirits, on the line from his house. He even sounds upbeat about housework: “I did some yard work today!” he reports happily.

Kweller lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Liz, and two kids – Dorian, 4, and Judah, five months. The Kwellers made the move shortly after Dorian’s birth. “A lot of people still think I’m a New Yorker,” says Kweller, formerly of Brooklyn, “but I made the move after I recorded [last album] Changing Horses. It was actually recorded down here in Spoon’s studio – y’know the band Spoon? And after being here for like a month, we were like “man, let’s just move to Austin.” I grew up in Texas, and it’s nice being near my parents – I think it was a good change.”

Aside from raising both his family and his plants, Kweller has been working on a new record. At the time of the interview, its working title is Go Fly a Kite. “It’s basically code for ‘go fuck yourself,’” says Kweller with a snicker. He talks at length and with a great excitement about the album, which marks yet another change of direction from the down-beat Americana of Changing Horses. “It’s definitely a rock & roll record,” he comments. “A lot of electric guitars, piano and what have you. I’m really happy with it.” It also marks a musical change of having significantly less musicians than last time, whittling it down to just bassist Chris Morrissey and drummer Mark Stepro. “I did that one record where I played everything myself [2006’s Ben Kweller ] – and that was fun, and I might try it again sometime, but there’s really nothing like playing with other people. I think the thrill of music can be found in reacting to another person when you’re playing, seeing what they’re doing – y’know, just creating something as a group.”

The way Kweller discusses the lyrics of the record, Go Fly a Kite may also feature some of Ben’s darker work to date. “It’s kind of a grittier subject matter,” he says frankly when asked about the songwriting process. I had a big falling-out with one of my best friends. He had this new girlfriend that just came in and didn’t want him to do anything with the friends he already had and the people who loved him. She just wanted to push him away from everything. So there’s a few songs addressing all that – one called Gossip, and there’s another one called Jealous Girl.” In spite of all this, Ben is also quick to assure that “there’s still that Kweller optimism” when it comes down to it. Don’t let the bastards get you down, right, Ben?

It seems out of character for Kweller to be singing about such interpersonal dramas – he’s usually the type to sing sweet lines like “I’m in love with someone who’s as pretty as a flower” and “I’d do anything you want me to.” The twenty-nine-year-old may seem like one of rock’s biggest softies, but Kweller laughs good-naturedly at the suggestion, adding that he’s definitely “had his fights.” “I just have a different outlook on life,” he continues. “I try to stay positive and deal with the bullshit that comes my way, but always remember that tomorrow is a new day.”

It’s on this note that conversation switches to Kweller bringing his sunny disposition, as well as his two-piece band, to Australia for the first time in about eighteen months.”Oh yeah!” says Kweller with a smile so obvious it can be seen through a phone line. “Can’t wait for that. It’s always so much fun in Australia. I’m ready for my Vegemite in the morning!”

This tour will also see Kweller playing on the south coast of New South Wales for the first time ever, as a part of a three-day blues festival. Despite being a frequent visitor to Australia since the famous Bens tour in 2003 (alongside fellow ‘Bens’ – Lee and Folds), Kweller has never played many places beyond the capital cities. Exploring the country is always a treat for him, however – “I’ve been to a few outskirts,” he recalls. “I had a friend who lived in Geelong, so I’ve been to the suburbs; and I’ve been to the little beach-y towns. I seem to have a good time everywhere I go [in Australia] – the people are always so mellow. Kinda reminds me a bit of being in Texas, actually. The land looks the same, and the people have the right vibe.”

INTERVIEW: Silversun Pickups (USA), September 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

When I go back and look at things like this, I find myself increasingly grateful for what I was able to achieve a few years back for a no-name freelancer more or less working for peanuts and some extracurricular uni work. It comes to a head here, where I get to interview the lead singer of one of my all-time favourite bands. I couldn’t begin to tell you what this band means to me, and especially what they meant to me at this point. I think that around this point, I’m starting to find my voice as a features writer, as well. It’s not entirely there yet, but I can really see it in this article. I’ll never not love this band, essentially. This is a good one to revisit.

– DJY, October 2014

***

Call it cabin fever, or ‘brain damage’ from touring as he puts it, but something tells us that Brian Aubert is not quite all there as he calls from his Los Angeles home, barely a week off coming off tour.

“I’m looking at my dog right now – what does it want?” questions the Silversun Pickups frontman. “Food? You wanna eat? Whatcha wanna do? She’s not talking to me – we need some kind of translation device, like the movie Up … although my dog would be all like ‘throw the ball, throw the ball..park! Park! Park! Park! She wouldn’t really be the kind to sit me down and go ‘so, Brian, what do you think of the new Band of Horses record?’”

Okay, so maybe Brian’s losing it just a little, but when you consider the band have been constantly touring for the past year or so on the back of their successful sophomore Swoon, it begins to make a little more sense. The band isn’t particularly sick of the album, either.

“We’re still in somewhat of a love affair with it,” says Aubert when asked to look upon the record in retrospect. “When we hear things like that it’s been out for over a year, it kinda blows our minds. When we’re playing it live, we kinda bounce off a few things, and then you end up bouncing off the things you bounced off a little while ago – it’s important for us to go back to the record and kinda see just how far we strayed.” Aubert also sees Swoon as a very personal album, making the experience all the richer.

“When I listen to Swoon, or even when I’m playing the songs live, I think back to where I was when I was writing it and what was going on. There was a lot going on. The thing is, I don’t feel that way anymore – I understand it, but I can’t quite get to that level of despair. It makes me happy to think that, because it was such a cathartic experience. Because of Swoon, I was able to get through a lot. I’m so happy that I just had something that I could just put things in, and that’s where they lay now.”

Interesting that Aubert – along with bassist Nikki Monniger, Chris Guanlao on drums and keyboardist Joe Lester – now revisits these experiences with countless sold-out audiences across the United States and Europe. Although the touring is considerably more extensive than ever before in the band’s career, Aubert maintains that much less has changed than what one may think. “I feel like this tour essentially picked up where [debut album, 2006’s] Carnavas left off,” he comments.

“That was a big shock for us – we were so excited that Lazy Eye was on the radio, but we just thought it would be ‘that one time’ in our career where we were on the radio. We figured we’d just keep making music, and whoever stuck around, stuck around,” continues Brian. But then we were amazed at how well this record has been doing, and everything just kicked off. The actual touring process, I’ll admit, it’s harder than ever. Although, I think our psyches are more readily prepared for it – personally, anyway; though I’m sure the rest of the band would agree.”

One would hope the group are prepared for their upcoming tour of Australia, opening for the chart-topping aviary Birds of Tokyo on their national tour, as well as stopping at the NSW central coast for the Coaster Festival. Any doubts that the band are ready are swept away the second Aubert is asked if the band are looking forward to the tour: “Oh, GOD, yeah,” he chirps.

“Birds of Tokyo asked us to play, and it’s so nice that they did. The reason we’re there is because they’re bringing us. But yeah, the last club shows that we did you would have had to drag us out of there kicking and screaming. The Annandale in Sydney, the Ding Dong in Melbourne… those were definitely some of our favourite shows of the last world tour. Who knows what’s gonna happen this time around?”

INTERVIEW: The Butterfly Effect (AUS), June 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

I loved this band so much back in the day. They’re an opportune band for angst-ridden teenagers in Australia, what can I say? Begins Here is a fantastic album, one that definitely holds up in the wave of so called “progan” (prog-bogan) bands of the time. I really didn’t like their third album, Final Conversation of Kings, but I think I only subtly dug at it in this feature. Glenn’s a good dude and an easy interview. I remember being in a great mood during this talk as I’d just finished uni for the semester. I was recording on a barely-working USB mp3 player with a completely cracked screen. Punk as fuck, right?

Also worth pointing out that the fourth album discussed in the interview never happened. Clint, the band’s singer, quit in 2012 and they’ve only briefly played since with a new vocalist. Not sure where that’s at, maybe they’re done?

– DJY, October 2014

***

“Hey, mate, what’s going on?” It’s refreshing to hear the voice of a successful Australian musician – in this instance, The Butterfly Effect’s bassist Glenn Esmond – sounding like they’re chatting to an old mate as opposed to a scheduled interviewer.

It’s early Thursday morning, and Esmond has been enjoying a bit of time off from the road and working on some new material with the band. “Writing songs of all sorts and kinds!” he reports enthusiastically. He continues to discuss the influences behind the early stages of what will become the band’s fourth album.

“We try not to get too easily influenced to the point where whatever you’re hearing at the time ends up on record. I think that it’s always just life stuff when it comes to the writing – y’know, if you’re in a bit of a shit mood you’ll go and write some dark riffs. If you’re in a happy mood, you’ll be writing happy riffs. But yeah, I think it’s all sounding pretty cool so far. It’s sounding a bit more demanding than our other stuff – like, you’ve got to give it a bit more time. We’re only at the demo stage at this point, though; so we could end up with a set of three minute pop songs. Who knows?”

Who indeed. If one can criticise the Butterfly Effect for anything, it certainly can’t be for resting on their laurels. Though their last album, 2008’s Final Conversation of Kings, didn’t fare as well in a commercial or critical sense as its predecessor Imago, the band’s attempts at expanding their sound and progressing were definitely sewn amongst the tracklisting.

This was evidenced especially by the seven-minute Worlds on Fire, complete with some of guitarist Kurt Goedhart’s most brooding and dark guitar sound yet, as well as incorporating a jazzy trumpet solo. Is there any clue as to which direction the band will be taking this time around? Esmond isn’t so sure just yet.

“Ahh, who knows, man? The kind of music we’re doing – y’know, it is what it is. There isn’t too much thought into the process. It’s kinda more that we just see what happens and you work with what you get. Some bands will say that they work towards a certain idea or concept, but we’ve never really been one of those bands. I think that each of our albums are totally products of their environment. Any of our recordings is just a reflection of us at the time, just going with it.”

Even though the album is far from completion stage – Esmond predicts an early 2011 release – he promises that the band will be playing a handful of new songs on their upcoming tour dates. The band’s tour dates for the rest of the year kick off this weekend, as the band take to the stage of Luna Park this Queen’s Birthday long weekend for the annual Come Together festival. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a good one!” Esmond enthuses when we broach the subject.

“We’ve played that a couple of times and it’s always pretty good – the crowd always has kids that are really into it and I’m really keen to be kinda co-headlining alongside Gyroscope. The Gyro boys are always up for a laugh and they’re a killer live band. I’ve heard a couple of good things about House Vs. Hurricane, too; will see if I can check them out, for sure.”

Shortly afterwards, the band are gearing up for a tour entitled ‘Four Wheels And A Heartbeat’. It begins in Adelaide in late June and ends in Darwin (“the ski club there is in a really beautiful place!” says Esmond) in early August. The band will be stopping in a string of remote and regional areas – a far cry from their capital cities tour of last year that culminated in the filming of their live DVD at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. When asked about the extensive tour dates, however, Glenn is quick to point out that it’s not as great a stretch from what the band have been doing normally for the past few years.

“Yeah, I think we’re known for being a band that is known for playing a lot of regional shows. We’ve been doing it for so many years, so we just thought it would be good to just get back to doing it. It’s cool we’re getting to play a lot of places that bands don’t normally visit. We’ve played a couple of these places before with a band like Grinspoon, but I think it’s really remarkable to be able to play a bigger place like the Enmore and then play some RSL to a couple of hundred people.”

No matter where you see the band over the next few month – from Come Together to Campbelltown – rest assured you’ll bear witness to a solid, energetic performance from the Butterfly Effect boys. Esmond’s certainly looking forward to the rest of 2010.

INTERVIEW: OKGO (USA), February 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Yeah, yeah, treadmill, yeah, yeah, yeah. OKGO are awesome – they’re a weird and innovative band that are always pushing visual boundaries and occasionally pushing their musical ones as well. This chat was Tim, their bassist, was surprisingly fantastic – he was just in a great mood; and the interview flowed really well. Hopefully, they’ll have a new record out soon.

– DJY, April 2014

***

“Greetings from Copenhagen!” reports an enthusiastic and talkative Tim Norwind, bassist and backing vocalist of Chicago band OK GO. Yes, kids, “the treadmill band” are back. Only this time the band aren’t playing anything that sounds like Here It Goes Again. In the five years since the release of their last record, the breakthrough Oh No, a lot has changed in terms of how the band creates their music.

“We spent two and a half years touring on the back of the last album, playing songs off our first two albums,” Tim explains. “All those songs are really sort of guitar-centric. We all learned music through guitar, in a way – we just learned a bunch of punk rock songs and then wrote songs using those chords.”

Seems simple enough, and it certainly garnered the band a few major hits along the way. However, the formulaic ways of writing had become stale and dissatisfying.

“In those five years, we just sort of expended all of our rock & roll and our punk rock influences,” says Norwind. “Hitting a big chord on a big guitar plugged into a big amplifier just wasn’t exciting to us anymore. We needed to search for something different.”

This search lead them to Dave Friddmann of Mercury Rev, best known for his production work with MGMT and The Flaming Lips, and resulted in the band’s third album – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, its title a reference to artist  General A.J. Pleasonton. Norwind cannot speak Friddmann’s praises enough, emphasising how different his view of producing and creating music is as opposed to other producers.

“He’s known for his really three-dimensional, psychedelic sonic universes that he creates,” Tim muses. “He kind of let us into his world, and we were allowed to play around his studio – there’s lots of synths and noise machines and Kaossilator pads, things like that.”

So did Norwind have a favourite experiment when recording Blue Sky’s tripped-out, groove-based rock? “I can’t really point to a singular thing that is the sound of the record,” he comments, “but I can point to this kind of universe that you can only really make when you’re working with Dave.”

The band spent approximately six months in the studio with Friddmann, working profusely on every last detail of Blue Colour’s widescreen, technicolour sound that takes in not only influence from Friddmann himself, but early funk, Queen-like harmonies and the logical progressions from the power-pop that was so influential on the first two records. With such intricate work done on creating these multi-faceted tunes, one could easily assume that they would be incredibly difficult to perform away from the studio in a live environment. Not true, says Norwind.

“It’s really surprising to me how well everything mixes together,” he comments on the transferral of Blue Colour’s songs from disc to stage. “It’s interesting to me that as long as we’ve been playing these songs that there was never a shift of energy between the old songs and the new songs. I don’t know if it’s because the new stuff is groovier, but I’ve been really pleasantly surprised to see the songs get a really good reaction live.”

One similarity remains between Oh No and Blue Colour – we have been introduced to the record by a unique and thoroughly enjoyable music video. For Oh No, it was the infamous video for A Million Ways, where the band performed a thoroughly choreographed dance routine to the song in a backyard (“I think the cost of that video was pretty much the tape we used to record it,” Tim laughs).

This time around, the distorted groove of WTF? is the soundtrack to a bizarre, brightly coloured one-take video that prominently features stop-motion photography. It looks incredibly outlandish for an OK Go video, but Norwind insists that the video was actually “insanely cheap.”

“Every prop in it is from the dollar store, and everything you see with stripes we made with gaff tape,” he explains. “All we really needed was a room with a green screen and a couple of computers. It probably looks more expensive than it is, but in actuality we’re just using a computer plug-in and just a few really colourful things.”

With the band’s popularity a few years back circulating almost entirely around their music videos (the Here It Goes Again treadmill video remains one of the most-watched videos in YouTube history), it’s safe to say that OK Go stress importance on them, perceiving it to be a very successful medium to the music itself. Norwind is quick to agree.

“With our band, we go about making videos the same way we go about making music,” he affirms. “It’s just as much part of the definition of being in a band for us. We see them as an art, and we enjoy directing ourselves and coming up with the concepts. It’s part of what we do – it’s fun, and why wouldn’t you want to make a film? That’s more or less how we’ve always looked at it.”

Even though the live show has no treadmills, dance routines or brightly-coloured objects (save for the band’s famously clashing attire), Norwind is still very enthusiastic about the live show. “People’s heads get blown off, and that’s fun to see,” he mentions somewhat ambiguously with a laugh. He’s also quick to point out just how much the band are looking forward to returning to Australia for a series of intimate shows, as well as the Playground Weekender festival.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been in Australia, and we’re just happy to be coming back with a new record,” says Tim. “We don’t get down to Australia very often, so it’s always a real treat.” Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to the band’s excellent new album – easily the best out of their three releases – as well as their live show. No WTF? moments, we swear.

INTERVIEW: La Roux (UK), February 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Hey, kids! Remember La Roux? …anyone? …really? None of you? Bulletproof? That shit was EVERYWHERE. End of the 2000s was a great time for synth-pop. Apparently there’s going to be a second album? Yeah, right. I bet it comes out the same day as the new Avalanches album. This was towards the end of the extensive touring for that incredible debut, and something called the Bacardi Express was happening; headlined by La Roux. I think Art vs. Science were on it, too? Bluejuice? Yves Klein Blue? Cassette Kids? I think that was it. Ahh, just checked. No Bluejuice. Miami Horror were there, too. HA! Remember those guys? 

I was really happy with this feature at the time. It was one of the more high-profile chats I’d done at the time; and Elly was quite nice – if a little secretive. I wonder if Tom Ballard was on the money with his assessment of Cover My Eyes…

– DJY, April 2014

***

Poor Elly Jackson. It seems Australia can’t seem to get her at any good time. Our original scheduled interview time is delayed, and on the phone from London when we finally do come into contact, she notes that she’s a bit tired. “I’ve just woken up, in fact,” she informs.

Even before this, her first visit to Australia with the act she is the voice of, La Roux, was plagued with exhaustion and illness, resulting in late timetable swaps for their appearance at the Parklife festival and cancelled shows.

“That was sort of the beginning of my illness, unfortunately,” she says with a certain sense of worry in her voice. “I think it was just one too many flights and not enough early nights. I let it all get on top of me and then I got ill – and then, of course, there was no time to prepare myself, as we were to begin another tour straight after that one. So it was all just a build-up of things, unfortunately.”

In spite of this distressing Jackson, La Roux still put on some exceptional shows when they finally made it to the main stage. Her vocals a pitch-perfect sight to behold, the crowd adored every second of her Sydney appearance at the festival. Jackson is also very quick to note how much she enjoyed her first visit to the country, ignoring her illness.

“I loved it,” she enthuses when asked about the tour. “I had an amazing time – we were told that La Roux was doing well out there, but I didn’t have any idea to what extent. So playing to forty thousand people each night was always a surprise!”

Indeed, Australia has been good to Jackson and La Roux – even a recent example comes from two of their debut self-titled record’s major singles ( In For The Kill and Bulletproof ) taking out enviable top spots in Triple J’s annual Hottest 100.

On the topic of the station, it’s also interesting to note the interpretation of Cover My Eyes from the record in the eyes of openly gay Triple J presenter Tom Ballard. “As far as I’m concerned, this is an anthem for every gay man who’s fallen in love with a straight friend,” he wrote on the Hottest 100 page.

How does Elly herself feel about having her music interpreted like this – presumably quite different to how she originally intended it to be? She thinks for a moment, before noting: “I always like that.”

Jackson continues: “There was another instance where I was reading what people were saying on the MySpace, and there was this one boy who said that In for the Kill was the track that made him come out to his parents. He made it about doing something really courageous, in coming out. It is a song about courage, but you can take from it what you will. I mean, I know exactly what it means to me, but I think it’s really important that people get their own perspective on things like that. That’s why we make music – just when you hear something in your own take on it and you think, ‘I really like that.’”

It’s been nearly a year since the self-titled album dropped, which has seen critics divided but sales suggesting that of a pop juggernaut. Even after considerable success, however, Elly herself is still somewhat uncertain about the entire thing.

“I haven’t listened to it for months,” she confesses when asked about the record – a statement that is a little surprising, but ultimately makes sense. “I think now, that I’m playing these songs every night, I’ve grown used to them in their live environment.”

Jackson, too, remains a little iffy in regards to the finished product of the self-titled record. “We’ve gone over so many times if the bonus tracks should have been the album tracks, or if the album tracks should have been the bonus tracks, or what should have been left off entirely,” she muses. “I don’t think you can ever be truly satisfied with your own record – your first record, at least.”

By “we”, Elly refers to the man behind the instruments and production of the album – the other half of La Roux, Ben Langmaid. If you were unaware of Langmaid’s involvement in La Roux, perhaps thinking La Roux was Jackson’s moniker or alias, it’s understandable – aside from the music itself, he is practically a ghost. He refuses to be a part of photo shoots and videos, and declined to be a part of the live band when it came to putting the songs on the road.

Jackson knows, however, that the music of La Roux is far more important than its aesthetic – even with her wild hairstyle often the centre of attention.

“He’s just not interested in any of that stuff,” she says of Langmaid, with a certain degree of acceptance in her tone. “His focus is really just working on what he feels are good songs. He spends a lot of time in the studio, and I can’t really help that or hold it against him.”

In Langmaid’s absence on tour, Jackson enlisted the help of keyboardists Michael Norris and Mickey O’Brien, with electronic drummer William Bowermann (formerly of I Was A Cub Scout) completing the line-up. These aren’t session musicians, mind – they’ve quickly become some of Elly’s closest friends.

“Some of the funnest and most hilarious times of my life have been with my band,” she says with a giggle. “They are such amazing people – I missed them all so much when I was away from them on holiday. They’re like my family now. I don’t know what I’d do without them – even if La Roux all ended tomorrow, I know we’d still all see each other every second day.”

The four are making their way back to Australia in March, headlining the Bacardi Express tour alongside some of Australia’s strongest up-and-comers, including fellow Hottest 100 sensations Art VS. Science, Yves Klein Blue, Cassette Kids and Miami Horror. “We will be getting to tour with all the people that are involved, which very, very rarely happens any more, if at all,” Jackson comments enthusiastically. “It’s going to be a really nice way to see the coast of Australia!”

INTERVIEW: Alexisonfire (CAN), February 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

I miss this band. As much as I love the other projects they’re all involved in, there’s no denying how special it was when these five were together. I went to both the farewell shows at the end of 2012 and it was such an incredible experience – I will never forget this band and the impact they had on my life. This interview, however, came before all of that was out in the open. AOF were still very much a band at this stage, full-swing into touring and promotion of the Old Crows/Young Cardinals record. I spoke with George, who was lovely. It’s not crazy insightful or anything like that, but this turned out pretty well. I wonder if he knew at that point that it would all come crashing down within 12 months?

– DJY, April 2014

***

George Pettit is a man with a lot on his mind. On a crackly, occasionally indecipherable line from his native Canada, the frontman of multi-faceted post-hardcore quintet Alexisonfire speaks in a tone that’s not so much distracted as full of thoughts and ideas about what’s going on. It’s nearly the end of 2009, and Petit finds himself reflecting on a year where he not only became a husband and expectant father, but also delivered his band’s fourth and easily most divisive record yet, Old Crows/Young Cardinals.

In spite of the controversy surrounding the band’s change in style (particularly in regards to George’s vocals), he still bestows his full confidence in the record itself.

“I was always happy with it,” he comments. “We took a lot of time to make it – we usually just come off the road, spend a month writing, spend a month recording and then go back on the road. This time, we took about six months. We set up our jam space, wrote all the songs and recorded there – we even had the songs in our cars to listen to. It had a lot of room for air.”

Discussing his influences when putting the OC/YC sound together triggers an interesting tangent of its own. He lists bands such as The Hot Snakes and Rocket From the Crypt as major influences, as well as determining the style he aimed to go for.

“When I decided to make the change from screaming to singing,” Petit explains, “I knew I couldn’t croon and I couldn’t sing pretty like [guitarist] Dallas [Green]. I thought I could probably try something like Chuck Ragan or someone like that. These kind of singers – they’re not crooners, but they’ve got that edge to it, which is what I wanted to go for.”

Interestingly enough, the idea of what Pettit doesn’t like also came into play. “It’s not like I was looking at singers and thinking, ‘I wanna sing like that,’” he muses. “It was more looking at screamers and thinking, ‘I DON’T want to scream like that.’ I didn’t want to sound like that anymore.”

“You’re kind of influenced by the things you don’t like,” he continues. “I feel like most of the time when I’m listening to something I fucking hate and I can’t stand it, I want to be the opposite of what that is. There’s a lot of reactions to what we found to be absolutely detestable on the record.”

Despite this seemingly negative inspiration, George insists that the album was not an exercise in hate. Rather, the album was a challenge to push the boundaries of what Alexisonfire could sound like. As George himself puts it: “I think all of our records sound like Alexisonfire; but at the same time, I feel like none of our records sound the same.

“I wanted to shake things up as opposed to just falling in line,” he notes when outlining the band’s intentions. “We just wanted to make something that we liked and move forward. I’m still really happy with the record, even at the end of this year.”

Following OC/YC’s release, Alexis have been touring all across America. Despite labelling the process as “kinda gruelling”, George maintains getting satisfaction from doing so. “We just did the Warped Tour,” says George. “That was fun. You’re only actually playing for thirty minutes tops, and the rest of your time can just be spent hanging out.”

When talk turns to the set-lists of their recent tour, he can’t help but raise a chuckle when it’s said that, even with a new record out, the band must still have fans craving older material. As it stands, Pettit outlines, the band’s current set-list works as follows. “We’ll do at least one off the first record, then one or two off Watch Out!, then we split the rest between Crisis and the new record.” He also adds that it’s in the band’s best intention to “try to put together a set that can please everybody”.

As for the band’s upcoming appearance at Soundwave 2010, Pettit is audibly hot in anticipation for returning to Australia. “This is a really cool festival to be a part of again,” he mentions. “We’re really excited to see Isis, Emarosa, Faith No More, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Weakerthans… it’s really cool. Jane’s Addiction is another one I’m interested to see.”

No matter what your stance on Alexis’ more recent studio work, anyone who’s seen the band live will guarantee you a powerhouse performance. Don’t miss history repeating as George and the rest of the guys from Alexisonfire become the unlikely heroes of the Soundwave festival.

INTERVIEW: Motion City Soundtrack (USA), February 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

I’m always going to love Motion City Soundtrack. Sure, their last album was garbage, but they’ve always had a special place in my heart. Take me back to 2005 – if only for the excitement of listening to Commit This to Memory for the first time. What an adventure that was. This was a chat with Justin Pierre, who was lovely. I really enjoyed this chat; and I think this is one of my better-written articles from the time.

– DJY, April 2014

***

I’m calling from sunny Minnesota!” reports Justin Pierre, frontman of evergreen pop-punks Motion City Soundtrack. He can’t keep the act up: “It’s actually really cold and there’s snow everywhere”, he confesses in a lower tone.

As is revealed in our brief conversation, Justin can sway at any given time between seriously strange and strangely serious. Even so, it’s these traits that have helped his band make a connection with ironically-cheery outcasts worldwide, over the course of three well-received albums – and soon to be a fourth, with the January 2010 release of My Dinosaur Life.

The album itself has been a long time coming for MCS. Not only is it their first album on a major label, Columbia Records, it’s also the first new material they have released in nearly four years. The band certainly has not been slacking off, though. A legitimate injury sidelined the band during a crucial recording period.

”[Drummer] Tony [Thaxton] broke his arm, and we ended up having to push the whole thing back about half a year,” explains Pierre. “We wouldn’t be the same band without him, so we had to learn to work around his broken arm.”

Of course, the dedication the band has to each other is admirable, but just how did they ‘work around’ the situation? “Normally, what you do is record the drums first,” Justin says. “In this instance, we just used either programmed, crappy fake drums or the demo recordings that Tony recorded before he broke his arm. It was kind of awful listening to what we thought were pretty good songs with these really bad drums!” Thankfully, Thaxton recovered in time to finish the recordings and “bring the songs to life”, as Pierre puts it.

At the helm for My Dinosaur Life was blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus, whom had previously worked on the band’s 2005 sophomore, Commit This to Memory. At first, the band were uncertain about getting into contact with him, given his busy schedule on tour with a reunited blink. Strangely enough, thanks to Thaxton’s injury, the time-frame changed and Hoppus was available to work with the band. Pierre was desperate to work with one producer after collaborating with several on 2007’s Even If It Kills Me left him in the cold.

“We actually went in and worked on a song with this one guy which we enjoyed, but he wasn’t interested in working on the whole album”, says Pierre. He goes on to detail the issues that arose with Even If It Kills Me, and its multiple producers. “We’d gotten so used to working with Adam [Schlesinger, of Fountains of Wayne/Tinted Windows fame] and Eli [Janney], and then Ric [Ocasek, of The Cars] came on halfway through… we had to start over again and work out their new method,” he elaborates.

Ultimately, Hoppus became the logical choice. “We all thought about it and it just made a whole lot of sense for us,” Justin states after returning to topic. “The one thing we wanted to do with this record is that we didn’t want to over-think or worry about anything. With Mark, we knew exactly how he worked – it was really easy to get right back into it. All we really wanted was to do our thing, and Mark was a champion of the band – his whole thing was, ‘I like the band, so let the band be the band.’ The whole thing was really fun and easy.”

Pierre’s enthusiasm for the new material is infectious – particularly when he gets into detail on tracks like Pulp Fiction and Disappear. The former came about as a creation entirely by bassist Matt Taylor, an electronica instrumental with layers of keyboards and synthesisers.

“He sent it to me because he knows I like that kind of stuff,” says Pierre, “but I don’t think he ever intended it to be a Motion City Soundtrack song. I wrote some lyrics for it, and recorded them and sent it back to him; and then we played it to the rest of the band and they all loved the idea. That song is the most different from anything we’ve done, because it’s rooted in electronic music, and we sort of turned it into a rock song… I’m not even sure how to describe it.”

Justin talks up the latter for the emotion it conveys. “I feel like Disappear is one of my favourites just because it’s straight-up mean and angry,” he notes. “It’s a very violent-sounding song, and I like that because there was nothing like that on our last record.”

He speaks on behalf of the band when he says how excited they are to finally have My Dinosaur Life raring to go, in addition to playing the songs live. Despite a couple of bad memories from their last tour here (“I had to make a lot of calls home, which ended up being really expensive!”), Pierre is very happy to be a part of the 2010 Soundwave lineup.

There’s also no question to whom he’s most looking forward to seeing – when asked, he quickly lists his top four of “Sunny Day Real Estate, Sunny Day Real Estate, Sunny Day Real Estate and Sunny Day Real Estate!”

Jokes aside, he also mentions Faith No More (“I never got to see them, and Angel Dust is one of my favourite albums of all time”) and The Weakerthans (“Mister John K. Samson is one of my favourite lyricists”). For a guy who cuts to the core about how crap things can get, he seems pretty upbeat for now – a good note to end on and a great attitude leading up to what could be the band’s most popular release yet.

INTERVIEW: Every Time I Die (USA), January 2010

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

“This ain’t my first rodeo!” Actually, this was – I’ve interviewed members of Every Time I Die four times, and this was the first of those. I’m pretty sure it was Keith Buckley who answered the questions. This was for the Boys of Summer tour – remember when that was a thing? Another emailer; this was pretty sweet as I was just getting into these guys. I finally got to see them live in 2013; and their headliner ended up being one of the best shows of the year. Now, on with the show.

– DJY, April 2014

***

Welcome back to Australia! Have you been looking forward to coming back?
We absolutely have, especially because where I live there’s about four feet of snow on the ground. Now I’m out here sitting pool-side. When I go home, I’m gonna be the cats pyjamas! But we also love being here because the shows are amazing. Everyone is super nice to us. Sometimes aggressively nice. That’s sometimes a bad thing, but it’s rare.

Looking back on 2009, what were some of your favourite moments?
I got married, which was pretty monumental. It was a good year for us. We’ve been touring a lot on the newest record and did our first legit headliner for Epitaph. The reception was better than we could have hoped for.

My little brother has fond memories of Keith getting nailed by bottles at Sydney’s 2009 Soundwave. Did this kind of stuff happen at every stop?
I tried to encourage it as much as possible. We want to make the people watching us feel like they’re a part of the show. Since the stage was so big and we really weren’t close to them, I wanted them to come to us. It kept me on my toes too. I’m a lot faster than anything thinks.

You must be upset that Trap Them are no longer on the bill?
I am indeed. I’m an enormous fan of that band.

What do you think of the other acts you are playing with on the Boys of Summer tour?
I think they’re all really cool. They have a lot of support from the kids coming out so it adds a great element. They’re familiar to people. The guys are super nice too.

Many bands speak of how gruelling touring schedules can be. Has that ever been a difficulty in the ETID camp?
No man, it’s just a part of the job. You know what you’re getting into when you sign up. Well, at least you did years ago. If people complain, it’s because they put their music on the internet and got signed before even playing a real show. Either it took them by surprise or they’re just spoiled and didn’t realise that the instruments they bought with daddy’s money didn’t come with a ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card and they’d have to suffer for their art.

What have recent set-lists consisted of? Is there even a slight chance of playing at least one Burial Plot track?
There is ZERO chance of a BPBW song. Haha. It’s a good mix, about four songs from each record.

Can you tell us any more about what’s happening with The Damned Things?
I just did some demo/pre-production right before leaving for Australia. Things are coming out splendidly. A lot of solos; a lot of huge choruses. My dad heard a song and said it sounded like Foreigner. That’s a real good thing.