LR: Hey Britt how’s it going? Britt: Good. LR: Where are you at the moment?
Britt: I’m at my studio here in Austin, Texas working on songs.
LR: Cool. So what made you decide to take on this project?
Britt: I was invited to do it and I thought that it would be fun.
LR: Were you already aware of Brian Reitzell and his soundtrack work?
Britt: Yeah. I had seen Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. We also met a couple of years ago and he contacted me when he was in Austin and we went out to dinner, just talked about doing something someday. When this one started getting developed he asked if I wanted to come down and work on scoring it with him. I didn’t really know how to do that at the time but I thought that it would be fun.
LR: When you were working on the movie how did you decide which Spoon would be right for a particular song?
Britt: Brian picked the Spoon songs and decided where those would go. The thing I worked on him with was the scoring of the instrumental music. And I wrote the new Spoon song for the movie, but I wasn’t quite sure initially where that was going to go.
LR: In the bio it says that there are "fuller vocal versions", I had no idea that certain Spoon tracks were longer or had different versions out there. Britt: I think what they mean is “The Way We Get By” is in the movie instrumentally and he’s referring to the fact that these are versions without the vocals.
LR: Ahhh, that makes sense. So when you’re doing the arranging of the instrumental tracks with Brian what was the best part of that?
Britt: Just figuring out that I could do it. I remember when I went to Los Angeles there was some feeling that I didn’t know what I was doing or how it was going to be done. And when we started working it just kind of came naturally and I don’t know if that’s because of Brian or what. And it also was kind of freeing to be able to work on music that wasn’t going to be pop song. It was like…here’s a scene and what kind of mood do you want to bring to this scene? It was such a different experience.
LR: That must have been nice.
Britt: It was, it was a new experience. Pop music is a fairly unrestricted type of format where I can do anything or make any sound and release it as a Spoon record. It was just a little bit more distancing for me, it wasn’t just a reflection of me, it was something I was doing to compliment the movie. With that sort of direction in mind it made it very clear where we should go with that.
LR: So while you’re watching this movie did you get to a point where you started to think about watching other movies in a different way because of this experience?
Britt: It definitely made me look at this movie in a different way because I just saw it for the first time with everything in it last week and it doesn’t seem like a normal movie. When I watch movies, I don’t know if everybody is like this, but I can get really emotionally attached and just kind of lose myself in it. I know my ex-girlfriend couldn’t sit through a whole movie and would get kind of antsy. While I was watching this movie I couldn’t do that because it’s like I know how that happened and I remember seeing this scene a hundred times while we were working on it.
LR: So if you would have gone back and seen this movie for the first time, including you being a part of the soundtrack, would you have thought of this movie in a different way?
Britt: Oh yeah totally. It’s a really good movie and I know that because I really enjoyed when I first saw it before we started to work on it. I’m sure I would have been drawn in just like most movies I like.
LR: Are there any ideas for music or projects that this movie kind of opened the door up to? Would you want to do more scoring like this?
Britt: To me I really just want to do rock and roll. It was a fun thing to do and if something else comes up like this and I want to do it then I’d love to do it, but rock and roll is the main thing for me.
LR: Right. You guys are working on a Spoon album right now, how’s that going?
Britt: Yes. It’s going good. It’s taking a long time, but it usually takes a long time. We don’t know what label it’s going to come out on but I think this record is going to be a good one.
LR: What are your thoughts with your next label? Is there something you have in mind for Spoon or do you want to approach promoting it differently?
Britt: Well, I don’t really have anything new or new ideas for that. It’s just that we don’t actually owe anyone a record. It could still come out on Merge, which would be cool with me, but we haven’t worked on that aspect of the music. We’ll figure all that out later.
-Scott McDonald
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Everyone has their favorite Sea and Cake album from the nineties, I would offer 1995's The Biz as their essential record, or perhaps a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the band. The Biz is highly accessible yet highlights all of their trademarks. The album begins with the jazzy and upbeat pop of "The Biz" showcasing the amazing minor chord variations of Archer Prewitt against John McIntyre's clever drumming and the soulful, bluesy delivery of vocalist/guitarist Sam Prekop. The poppier and straight forward numbers like "Leeora", "The Assassin" and "The Transaction" reveal Prekop's strongest moments on the mic. And the angular jazz of "Escort" further demonstrates the band's experimental capabilities and outstanding musicanship with Prewitt knocking out mathematical guitar riffs. The Sea and Cake were the brainiest band that I had ever gotten into at this point. Freeform jazz-pop never sounded so professional and indie.
Washington D.C.'s amazing pop band Unrest lit a fire under the indie-rock scene in America with 1992’s Imperial f.f.r.r. (short for “Full Frequency Range Recording”). Unrest originally started as more of an artsy-hardcore band in the late nineties until new bassist, and ex-Velocity Girl member, Bridget Cross joined the band in 1991. The band became more "pop"and sharpened their tools, this album shows the band making more catchy and precisely strummed bangers a la Sea Monsters. Unfortunately after releasing the Perfect Teeth album for 4AD, they broke up in 1994. Singer/guitarist Mark Robinson is still playing and known as the founder of Teenbeat Records (home to his other projects: Air Miami, Grenadine, and Flin Flon).
What makes this album so great, and easily their most well-balanced effort, is how aggressive and crafty their arrangements had become since 1993’s BlonderTongueAudioBaton, which was already a nice departure from typical dream-pop. The usage of synths, moogs, and loops added more flavor to the mix instead of relying solely on mastermind Damon Tutunjian’s epic guitar sweep, although that sound beautifully creeps into almost every song.
Tutunjian has always been known for his alternate tunings and MBV-inspired guitar sound. But this round of recordings was the band's best work. The Swirlies had quite a few problems after their debut for Taang! with the departure of Seana Carmody and drummer Ben Drucker. The help of Rich Costey’s production and addition of new singer/guitarist Christina Files and drummer Anthony DeLuca allowed the group to rebound with a banger. The album starts off in typical Swirlies fashion with the on-off-on distortion of guitars on tracks like the metal-inspired “San Cristobal De Las Casas”, the edgy pop of “Sounds of Sebring”, and the opening lo-fi meets wall-of-sound brilliance called “In Her Many New Found Freedom”; these songs cemented the band’s status a groundbreaking band. Classic.
Links:
The Swirlies at Myspace
Fansite on Myspace
LR: Are you surprised that Citrus is doing so well and getting all the recognition it has? It seems like for years any American band with a “shoegaze” sound or feel weren’t being taken seriously at all.
Yuki: We are pleasantly surprised that people have been very supportive of this album. We put a lot of work and care into and it’s great to see it treated well. We like to push the limits sonically, especially live so it’s nice to see there is an audience for that.
LR: What are the differences since the release of Citrus compared to your first album? Are you guys starting to see more options for touring and promoting your record?
Yuki: I think that slowly we are becoming more attractive to people. We may even be proving some of those people who thought we were too weird to go anywhere…dare I say, wrong?? It’s nice to be taken seriously!
LR: Who does all the principal songwriting? Do you start songs with sound ideas or vocal melodies?
Yuki: James and I write songs together and separately. Our approach really varies…A song is written the way it needs to written, but usually we have all the musical elements in place before we approach the lyrical end.
LR: When you went into the studio to record Citrus did you have a particular focus or idea that you wanted to come across on this record that may have not been present on your self-titled album?
Yuki: The first album was recorded more as a demo for ourselves than as an album. We always felt that it didn’t flow as well as we would have liked, but with Citrus we were able to approach it as a cohesive album. I think that our songwriting has matured over the last 2 years and we had more time and money this time to flesh out the songs texturally.
LR: This question is for Yuki: Is it difficult writing vocals for your songs when you sing in Japanese? It seems like the timing would be an issue and maybe you’d have to rethink a melody? How do you manage that?
Yuki: I don’t find it difficult since I never force something that is not meant to be. Songs end up being written in Japanese because it begs for it and I know it will be a perfect match. Generally, timing is not an issue linguistically speaking because Japanese is very syllabic and rhythmic.
LR: The album artwork, and even the press kit, are visually stunning. Do you put together the visuals after you’re created the music to make it fit or are there other artistic influences coming out?
Yuki: Yeah, the visuals came after the album was done. Our friend Sean McCabe is responsible for all of our visual work. He is fantastic and our tastes are very much in sync. Both of us love old album art ranging from Motown records to glam. Also, old movie and show posters seem to inspire Sean’s work.
LR: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences? Anything recent that you’re into? What else drives you to play music?
Yuki: James and Haji are influenced by the stuff they were into in high school. They’ve had many bands….They had a band right before James and I started Asobi Seksu, called Theta Wave State that sounded just like Polvo. I’ve always loved Motown and girl groups, classical music, and hip-hop. What drives me to make music is lack of any other sort of direction or goal in life!
LR: Is it difficult to tour and come back hoping that you’ll still have a day job? Who has the most interesting career in the band?
Yuki: I used to worry about that, but now not so much. I would say that Mitch, our drummer has the most interesting career. He programs laser light shows at the planetarium. He’s got all of us beat.
LR: What’s the most memorable tour moment you’ve had so far? Who’s the prankster in the band?
Yuki: I know that everyone in the band is tired of talking about it by now, but “most memorable” would have to be being handcuffed at gunpoint in Louisana during our last tour. We were accused of having a gun in our vehicle. Everyone is usually too cranky on the road to play any pranks…We are quite crotchety! Plus, who is in the mood for pranks after you’ve been held at gunpoint by a bunch of hick cops?!
LR: So how did the band originally come about?
Jay: Basically Phillip and I started playing together after OnLibrary!
broke up. They were touring with Interpol and it was kind of
unexpected. I’ve always been friends with them so we just started to
work on some songs.
LR: That’s funny you say that because I think that most people at that time were gravitating towards bands like OnLibrary!
because they were touring with Interpol. I also think that same crowd
has kept an ear out for what was going to happen next.
Jay: It
was weird because they had been playing together for like five or six
years I and have been friends with those guys. Phillip and I started
playing music together just to get the project off the ground, even
though we weren’t sure where it was going to go. We just had instant
chemistry from the first time we played together. We did “World’s Away”
and wrote all the music and arrangements and eventually made like six
songs. We kind of knew what we wanted to do from the whole experience
with OnLibrary!.
We got Claudia to start singing with us but we also kind of knew that
it might not be a permanent deal because we’re all kind of at that age,
like late twenties, and life events tend to come into the picture. We
always knew we’d be making a record with a bunch of people on it, but
we got really lucky with this band. We also had always talked about
getting Brad as a drummer. We basically started by writing songs and
recording without being completely sure who exactly would be in the
final lineup to play live. The first priority was to sort of get our
vision down and let it materialize before playing out in New York. Then
we put the myspace page together. “World’s Away” really seemed to get
some response and people were downloading it like crazy. And all these
blogs were emailing us, and that’s how we found out about blogs. We’re
like “where are all these people coming from?”
LR: Right, blogs really opened the door even wider for people to get exposed to good music. The music industry is changing so much because of them. You don’t even need a label anymore because a single blog will promote you based on the fact that they like you for what you’re doing.
Jay: Yeah that’s great. And because people used to listen to radio to get new music and now you just go to the blogs. And the banality of major radio is so bad anyway.
LR: The radio stations are more interested in forcing the music on you like you need to like it, where blogs and the internet offer an option that you can get into right away or ignore.
Jay: Yeah I have this long-standing joke I tell people about listening to radio in New York. If you dropped into New York from out of nowhere you’d think Alice in Chains is the most popular band in the city because they’re playing it all the time. It’s ridiculous.
LR: Hah! Yeah that’s exactly how it is over here with The White Stripes and The Ramones with popular radio. It’s like “I get it, you want me to like The White Stripes and The Ramones.”
Jay: Yeah Gorilla Vs. Bear were good to us too and seemed to really like it. We also went up to a studio in Cambridge to do the recordings for the album, some with Amanda on vocals and some with Claudia. Claudia sings most of the songs, Phillip sings one of them, and Amanda does a few. Amanda is our vocalist when we do live shows.
LR: How have the live shows been going?
Jay: The aesthetic is working well. Like we said earlier the whole thing with how life happens to people, with marriage and commitments, you don’t know if the same people in the recordings will be able to tour or travel so it makes it kind of hard. But in a real, random sort of way it worked out perfectly. And I think live it’s really great and the vocals sound really good.
LR: I wanted to ask about a few songs like “World’s Away” and “To No One”. They’re really atmospheric but there’s still that mix of organic instruments on top of the dreaminess. Is that something that was the idea in the beginning or did it just happen as a result of rehearsing?
Jay: A lot of the records that inspired us when we were writing are like David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Neutral Milk Hotel…they all have that kind of strumming, earthy quality while having a lot of good layers to it.
LR: Right, like achieving a big sound without using tons of effects to the point across.
Jay: Yeah definitely, right off the bat we wanted to be as intimate as possible. There were all these influences that came out from everyone during the recording sessions. When we had started there was more of an emotional and visceral kind of thing going. We didn’t want to get too caught up in the atmospherics because the intimacy can get lost. Like the acoustic guitar on “World’s away” it was like we wanted to Keep the vocals and acoustic guitars sounding like these big floaty clouds so it goes right to the heart. That’s the one thing we say when we are approaching is that we make sure the feeling is up front. The song should have an emotional pull to it.
LR: Are you guys planning on touring…the album comes out at the end of October?
Jay: Yeah we’re definitely planning on touring in 2007 and doing SXSW. We not exactly on the plan because it’s late in the year. Something could pop up in November but it’s doubtful because of the time in the year. And the album comes out on October 31st and I’m thinking yeah Halloween already. I was pretty excited about that.
LR: I bet there were a lot of bands trying to hit that release date.
Jay: But yeah I’m glad you like those songs and got that vibe from “World’s Away” and “To No One”.
LR: Yeah it’s like the mood is already there and you guys know exactly what to do from there. I think most people get that and are looking for something that is like you said “intimate” but also striking. The feeling and quality come first. So how’s the label situation?
Jay: With This Generation Tapes they are this up-and-coming label and they were really, really into the record. They’re also kind of at the level where we were; totally hands-on with everything. Like you were saying with the influence of blogs, it’s a weird time with the music industry and labels. You can make the music and go record something and have it out there from day one. We had some peripheral contacts with labels but really just wanted to avoid the bureaucratic stuff, it might have been like, “yeah we love the record”, but then not have gotten released until late 2007 or early 2008. Aesthetically, they also release a lot of good atmospheric, pretty guitar music. They respond to a lot of textural stuff we like and still listen to indie rock.
LR: Yeah there’s a label out here called Dangerbird and they too are totally hands on, passionate, and just promote the hell out of their bands like Silversun Pickups and Darker My Love. You can tell they really like what they’re bringing on to their label. Yeah the music industry is changing; going back to its roots of signing acts they’re really like instead of offering huge million dollar deals and dropping the artist the next year. Maybe you’ll be able to make some more money this way? It’s definitely the right avenue.
Jay: Yeah it’s cool I mean I can’t imagine not being a part of process every step of the way or having some guy telling us how we have to do songs differently and write a certain way.
LR: So what can you tell us about the new album?
Jay: It’s called Trouble Everywhere and comes out on Halloween, October 31st on This Generation Tapes. They’re based out of Santa Monica.
-Scott McDonald
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