Tag: United States

INTERVIEW: Panic! At the Disco (USA), September 2011

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

You know what? I interviewed a teen crush from one of my favourite bands ever. If had a freak accident the day after submitting this article that meant I could never do a feature article again for whatever reason, I would be 100% okay with that. And yeah, I mean what I said – maybe it was purely contextual, but I will always love P!ATD unconditionally. This was a thrill for me – I remember I had to use my sister’s office at uni in order to do the interview; and then dash out to the ABC Illawarra studios to record an interview with Tom Tilley from Hack on triple j. Yeah, he was interviewing me! Felt pretty damn important that day, I’ll tell you what. In-demand DJY! HA.

– DJY, October 2014

***

A lot has changed for Las Vegas pop chameleons Panic! At The Disco since the last time they visited Australia – so much so, that vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Brendon Urie can scarcely remember how long it has been since they visited. “Oh man,” he says as he begins to rack his brain, “It’s got to have been at least four years – or close to four years or something like that. Too long, anyways!” In that time, the band has gone under a complete transformation – they’ve reinstated the exclamation mark (infuriating Last.FM scrobblers worldwide); lost two of their members in founding guitarist Ryan Ross & bassist Jon Walker and bounced back into the spotlight this year with their third studio album, Vices and Virtues. It’s quite a bit to take in – although Urie, speaking to FasterLouder from Los Angeles, seems to have handled the whole ordeal like a true professional.

“After the split,” he muses, “for the last to years we’ve been touring with Dallon [Weekes, bass] and Ian [Crawford, guitar]. We wanted to make sure that we had people that we genuinely got along with, and not just people that we’d hire for our live shows. We wanted to make it feel more like a band – and, more and more every day, it kind of does. They’re just such talented dudes, and we get along so well. It’s kind of all worked out – we’re really fortunate, that’s for sure.”

Although Weekes and Crawford have settled into the live fold of P!ATD, it’s worth mentioning that Vices and Virtues was recorded entirely by just Urie and drummer Spencer Smith, Urie’s childhood best friend and another founding member of the group back in 2004. Urie maintains that creating the album just as a two-piece was simply something that the pair had to do – a “reclamation” of the band after the schism created with Ross and Walker’s departure (both of whom went on to form the jangle-pop band The Young Veins). It was certainly a challenge for the band, particularly for Urie, when it came to writing the album’s lyrics; something he had never attempted prior to the departure of main writer Ross.

“It was something that I knew I had to pick up responsibility for,” says Brendon. “I spent basically all of my spare time writing lyrics, and figuring out different ways to convey a message. Musically, though, Spencer and I have been writing together for seven years. The only difference this time around was the necessity of having more ideas for songs. You couldn’t just come in with a thirty-second idea – you had to come in with a two-minute idea. There wasn’t four people to work through these ideas with anymore, it was just the two of us. We had to just show a little more initiative and find out exactly what it was that we wanted out of this record.”

In accordance with their previous releases, P!ATD took yet another dynamic shift in sound from the album prior. Vices and Virtues makes a return to some of the more electronic leanings of their 2005 debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, yet have not completely abandoned the more restrained mature pop that was found on 2008’s Pretty. Odd. In a way, Vices can be seen as bridging the proverbial gap between the two records – and it’s very much intentional on behalf of the group itself. Urie points out that there are songs – or, at least, ideas for songs – that stem from songwriting sessions for both Fever and Pretty. When queried as to the idea or song that has been around for the longest, he interestingly points towards the album’s opening track and lead single, The Ballad of Mona Lisa.

“One of us had written down this 45-second idea, maybe eight months after the first record came out,” recalls Urie. “A lot of what came from those sessions is really different to the way that we write now – but, in a way, that’s what made the record what it was. The mix of the old and newer stuff on there really reflected where we were at the time, and where we wanted to go with it.”

Urie, Smith, Crawford and Weekes will all be in Australia this week to headline the Counter-Revolution festivals across the nation – and Urie in particular is hugely enthusiastic about bringing the new P!ATD to Australia for the first time. “We were so bummed when the festival got cancelled,” he says, alluding to the original Soundwave Revolution. “But now we’ve been given this second chance, we’re all so excited to be coming back to Australia and playing for all of you guys.” He also gives a message to fans to expect a bit of classic rock to be thrown into the set. “Lately, on tour we’ve been covering Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas,” he notes. “It’s such a fun song to play, and it’s a great one for everyone to sing along to.” Lay your weary heads to rest, Panic! fans, and don’t you cry no more – they’re back, and hopefully better than ever for all attending the Counter-Revolution.

INTERVIEW: Lissie (USA), May 2011

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Was I the only Australian that got into Lissie? I swear everyone else jumped ship not long after her Oz tour from 2011. I still think she’s lovely – her album from last year was good fun, and it featured one of my favourite songs of the year. She was very sweet to interview, as well – giggly, charming, enthusiastic. Bit like Ben Kweller, really!

– DJY, October 2014

***

It’s probably hyperbole to say something like “Lissie has taken the world by storm.” With that in mind, it’s no secret by now that the clouds have certainly been gathering – following a slew of singles, tours with Lenny Kravitz and Ellie Goulding and a top 5 album in Norway of all places, the young singer born Elisabeth Maurus has certainly got a name for herself out there. This month sees the big-voiced Californian make her first-ever trip to Australia as the main support act for Megan Washington, an idea that has been coming together ever since the two first met in Paris late last year.

At the time of the interview, Lissie claims she has “literally just pulled into the driveway” of her home in Ojai (say it “oh-hi”), in California’s Ventura County. “It’s really nice to be home! I was gone since, like, early March. I did some shows and stuff like that, which was awesome, but it’s really nice to just sit down at home and have a deep breath.”

Maurus is unpretentious, sweet and engaged with everything that is going on around her – and it’s these traits that translate into the stunning songs of her debut album, Catching a Tiger. Released in June of last year, the album has garnered a strong critical reception and comparisons to everyone from Linda Rondstadt to Stevie Nicks. It’s a diverse, intelligently-crafted record that allows Lissie to stand out from a myriad of other girls with guitars. It is also an album that has been a long time coming.

“Going into making this record was really weird,” she confesses. “I started out working with some different people [in 2008] and not liking the direction it was going in, all the while thinking I was recording my first album. I had a bunch of old songs, and some songs from when that was going on. When it came to Catching a Tiger, the songs that ended up on the record were ones that I’d written for a year up to the actual recording, so they were all fairly new.”

Along with penning tracks on her own, Catching a Tiger also saw Lissie in sessions of productive co-writing with a handful of other songwriters, including former Furniture frontman Jim Irvin and his production partner Julian Emery. As she discusses her craft in depth, it becomes clearer just how much work has gone into creating the album. “Loosen the Knot was a hard one to write,” says Maurus when considering which of the songs proved the most difficult. “I knew when I was making it that my heart wasn’t too into it, because I was co-writing and I thought it was sounding a little too Avril Lavigne.” She lets out a hearty laugh when mentioning the Sk8er Boi songstress before explaining that “The ones that came the easiest were ones like Bully, Everywhere I Go, Oh Mississippi, When I’m Alone… songs like that were fairly immediate. These lyrics came very genuinely and sort of sporadically. It’s different when you’re co-writing, and it’s different when you write songs alone.”

The topic of co-writing is brought up again, and Lissie is happy to discuss it in further elaboration. It’s often quite contentious with many singer-songwriters, who feel as though they may grow more vulnerable when exposing their quite personal lyrics and music to someone else. This was, initially, a perspective shared by Lissie herself. “When I started I was worried about that,” she confesses, “This is a really private thing, and I didn’t think I wanted to do it. With Jim and Julian, who did a few songs on the album with me, I just really liked talking to them. It’s like I could talk to them about everything in my life, and when you earn that trust, you feel really safe with them. So I’ve been lucky with some of my co-writes – even though I hardly know them, I just have this instinct that it’s a safe zone that I can open up in. I think I’ve made a point of only really pursuing writing with people that I immediately connect with.”

In addition, Lissie believes that working with musicians of different heritage and style to hers is beneficial in expanding her musical palette. Describing her vocals as having “relative pitch” as opposed to perfect pitch and confessing to “honestly knowing nothing about music theory,” the humble Maurus is excited by the prospect of growing as a musician. “I come from a folk background, and I can only really play so many chords on guitar,” she says. “It’s very easy for me to rely on C to F to G when I sit down and write. So when someone else comes in the room and plays an A7 diminished chord – and I don’t know how to play that! It opens up a new possibility with melodies and stuff.”

INTERVIEW: Amanda Palmer (USA), February 2011

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Another double-up – which is a surprising rarity in the history of my interviews. She was quite nice the last time; very gentle and could tell that I was a fan, even if I was a little over-excited and ham-fisted in my interviewing. This time around, I pretty much let Palmer take the driver’s seat, only occasionally guiding the conversation. I think that’s what you’ve got to do with someone like her. It’s not much of a structured interview process – she’ll take the ball and run like hell with it. I kind of love her for it.

– DJY, October 2014

***

She might have been the one to pen and sing the lyric “You don’t want to hear about my good day” all those years ago, but when you’ve had a good a day as Amanda Palmer has, you’d be mad not to want to hear about it. “Okay! So…” begins Palmer with a deep breath. “Why was my day so awesome? Well, first of all, I played an incredible fucking show in Newcastle last night. It was out-of-control fantastic, one of those sublime electric gigs where we turned that bar into some kind of crazed palace. Then, we slept in the venue because it turns out they had a bunch of Futons in the office – we were going to stay with fans, but then we figured we should just crash there.”

“We woke up, and this place – the Great Northern – it had this amazing ballroom on the second floor, which could probably fit like a thousand people. The boyfriend of one of my opening acts texted me in the morning and said “We have to do a video in that ballroom before you leave.” My train was leaving in half an hour, but I was like “Holy fuck, you’re right!” So we put off the train for two hours, he ran over and we made this spontaneous music video for In My Mind from my Australian record [ Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under ]!” Surely this day couldn’t get any better? Oh, it does: “When I got to Sydney, I was on hold to do a chat with The Doctor at Triple J. I listened to his interview with Nick Cave, and he asked about my cover of The Ship Song …and Nick Cave said it was beautiful!”

You can’t blame Palmer for being in heavens-high spirits after that kind of day, now, can you? It’s all part and parcel for whenever AFP (the F is for Fucking, naturally) visits our fair country, and it’s the way it has been since she first started touring here as a part of The Dresden Dolls. “Everytime I come to Australia, awesome things happen,” she says with a laugh. “That’s why I keep coming back!” It’s probably the reason why Palmer’s latest album – a collection of mostly-original material recorded entirely within Australia and New Zealand – doesn’t really come as too great a surprise. It’s a long lasting, passionate and very much mutual love affair.

“I’m a very spontaneous, very messy person,” confesses Palmer, “and I have made an art of improvising my way through life. That seems to be something that Australians really appreciate. There’s just something about Australia and Amanda Palmer that resonates really perfectly in this embrace of the improvisational, do-it-yourself way of life.”

As nice and as smooth-running as things can be for Amanda, it doesn’t quite always go to plan. Just a few weeks ago, Palmer played at the Sydney Opera House for the third time in three years in what was described as an “Australia Day Spectacular.” It was Palmer’s biggest Opera House show to date, starring her friends The Jane Austen Argument, Michelangelo and The Black Sea Gentlemen, Meow Meow and Palmer’s husband, author Neil Gaiman. From various reports, as well as a few unhappy reviews amidst the blogosphere, the show was a bit of a shambles. Palmer is asked to clarify exactly what happened.

“We were going to have a rehearsal the day of our show,” she begins. “It turned into this messy soundcheck with a lot of problems, so we were really under-rehearsed. Then the setlist was written at the last minute, and during the show I accidentally skipped ahead five songs. I realised it two songs in and then had to backtrack and figure out how I was going to get everyone on and off-stage when I needed them for the songs. It turned into a classic disorganised rockshow, and naturally I’m telling everyone about it as it’s happening. Shows like that happen to me all the time…but they don’t happen at the fucking Sydney Opera House!”

“I’ve been talking with so many of the fans since it happened,” she continues. “And even more importantly, I’ve been talking to people who weren’t fans who were there – who got dragged by a friend, or their kids, or because of work. Nobody hated the show, which is a relief, but it still scares the shit out of me. I wonder: why am I capable of getting away with this? I guess maybe people found it refreshing that, in a venue like that, something got completely improvised right in front of them. When you know you’re getting something completely fucked-up and special, that’s where the blanket of forgiveness falls hard.”

This craziness continues to be adored by a swelling cult fanbase upon each and every visit, and one day it may well get to the point where AFP simply doesn’t leave. Not that we’d be complaining, of course – it’d be bloody un-Australian to not make her feel at home, wouldn’t it?

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: 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: 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.

INTERVIEW: Amanda Palmer (USA), February 2009

Posted on by David James Young in Interviews

Whether you love her or hate her, Amanda Palmer is a fantastic interviewee. Trust me, I’ve done it twice. We’re not like this (wraps index and middle finger together) but I’ve been a very interested and involved fan since around 2004. I remember seeing Girl Anachronism on rage; then rushing to my diary and writing The Dresden Dolls‘ name on every page so that I wouldn’t forget it.

Of course that kind of fire has died out – I don’t think I care about anything the way I cared about things in 2004. Still, I have all of her albums (both solo and with the Dolls) and I’ve always found her to be a unique and interesting figure in modern music. There’s certainly never a dull moment with her, regardless of whether you agree with her or not.

I remember being REALLY excited about this interview – at the time, I probably thought this was the best interview I had ever done. Apart from maybe the Adam Green one. You never forget your first. Looking back on it, I think I handled it pretty well. I’d change a few things now, but I was all of 18. I was just stoked to be talking to someone that wasn’t in my immediate family.

– DJY, April 2014

***

Amanda Palmer is tired. Exhausted, even. You can hardly blame her, given her excessive touring schedule and the almost shocking contrast of minimal break-time in-between them. What’s worse is the fact that, even in her free time, she is scheduled to speak to journalists about stuff she’s spoken about a million times before.

Even still, amidst the exhaustion there is quite obviously an introspective, chatty and friskily intelligent woman. She’s best known as the leading lady of the Dresden Dolls, but as of recent times a solo artist in her own regard. Last year saw her release, at long last, her debut solo album Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, produced by the one and only Ben Folds.

After in-depth tours of both the States and Europe, it’s time to bring WKAP to Australia, along with the Danger Ensemble, her performance troupe. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to celebrate. AFP (Amanda Fucking Palmer) will be visiting out fair shores to coincide with the annual Mardi Gras festival in Sydney.

“I’m a sucker for a good party,” Palmer confesses with a giggle. “I deliberately planned to be in Sydney for the Mardi Gras. I narrowly missed it in Sydney back in 2000; I wound up at the Adelaide Fringe instead and I never forgave myself. It’s a perfect time to be in the city with everybody getting their freak on and going nuts!”

Fear not, non-Sydney fans. Melbourne, a city Palmer herself has oft-described as beautiful, will also be getting its own distinctive visit. This one is going to be even more of a special, exclusive event – she is planning a slumber party.

“I’m taking a little vacation in Melbourne before my shows in Sydney and I wanted to do a really low-key show. So I came up with the idea of doing a free show by making people submit their dreams to be considered for admittance. We’re only letting in twenty people plus one guest each, and it should be REALLY fun.” Amanda also tells of a very special surprise for each of the lucky guest winners, but insisted it to be kept mum (Melburnians, get to it if you wish to find out!).

Despite not having visited our shores since very late 2007, fans here in Australia and the rest of the world have been able to keep in touch with Palmer via her intricately detailed and very interactive blog. Updated regularly, fans worldwide have read on as she discusses the finer points of her own life and the world around her. When questioned on the blog’s importance in regards to connection with the fans, Amanda is, in turn, lightening quick in praising it.

“I’ve grown really attached to it – I kind of rely on it,” she responds timidly. “It’s so amazing that I can have these really direct hits and connections with individual people that I just can’t have when I’m playing a show to 2500 of them. I can do it in the quiet of my own living room with a cup of tea and really sit down and listen to what people are saying and feeling and thinking… I’m a total ‘people junkie’ that way; I really, really like it.”

At the time of our interview, Amanda’s latest blog entry was entitled “On Abortion, Rape, Art and Humour.” It’s all about her latest single from WKAP – Oasis, the ironically upbeat number about a girl who got drunk, got raped and had an abortion. Next to every radio and music video station in the U.K. is refusing to play the song. Whilst one could theorise that Palmer knew the song’s lyrics would elicit some kind of outrage, she insists that she truly wasn’t expecting something of this level.

“I definitely assumed that conservative people wouldn’t like it, but I was really shocked to find out that they wouldn’t play the song,” she states, before adding, “especially things like NME and Kerrang!, who really pride themselves on being ‘edgy.'” Despite her very open frustrations, AFP is quick to look at the positives of her situation. “It brings up some really interesting points, at least,” she continues. “I was happy to write that blog and get people talking about the topic – I think it’s important.”

Amanda Palmer’s body of work is daring, funny, melancholy, theatrical and purposeful – but, most importantly, it is completely open to interpretation. “If someone was to take anything away from it,” begins Palmer, in reference to her music, “I would hope that they would just be inspired to follow their own desires and impulses; maybe be a little radically honest with themselves or with their situation.

“I’m starting to feel lately that it’s really important not to have a ‘message,’” she continues with a slight laugh. “Because I think people need to come up with their own. The minute you have a specific message that you’re preaching, then you close off possibilities for other people. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, because the Oasis thing was a good example. That song doesn’t really have a message, but it doesn’t really have to – sometimes it’s enough to say, ‘I got this idea and I sat down and I did it, and here it is.’ And the undercurrent in that is that so can you, y’know?”