BCR: You know how there is this crisis of the record industry cause they aren’t selling as many records, and you guys are primarily known as a live band, do you care that you wont sell as many records and will have to play more?
Taylor Rice: No.
Ryan Hahn:That would never even bother me.
Kelcey Ayer: I think we are well prepped for the situation, just growing up in this whole thing. I mean we spent and are spending our youths in this environment where you can get anything you want off the Internet. We live in the Internet, we know everything about it. So we pretty much knew what we were getting into when we are trying to make it as a band. You have to tour your ass off all the time and then that is what is going to get you known. We love doing it so it’s kind of a win-win. For new bands the opportunities out there are limitless. There are so many things you can do now, and it just sucks for record labels that have been around for a while now and used to thrive off of CD sales now have to figure out another way of doing everything. We’re in the position where we’re fine.
Andy Hamm: I don’t really see that as an issue. I feel like the record labels have been saying that for like [laughing] ten years now. I think that it’s an opportunity because then you have to… you do have to go out there and tour and do what a band is supposed to do in my opinion, which was a big part, the live show. I know that when I would go see bands that it was a real huge part of why I got into some of my favourites; it was seeing them live.
BCR: What are some of your favourite bands, which have influenced you guys?
Ryan Hahn:I know modern bands we can all agree on are Animal Collective or Broken Social Scene or Spoon , which is a band I haven’t seen live yet. We were just listening to the new Beach House record. It’s kind of like, since we’re in the van all the time, whoever is driving gets to control the music.
Andy Hamm: It’s pretty great, while we’re in the van everyone will have their iPod and we’ll get like, one person will be like Mamas and Papas and the next person will have Tears For Fears on and, [laughing] you know, it literally is super-eclectic as far as what influences us. We’ve never been that type of band where we all only listen to 60s psychedelic.
BCR: Do you guys have a favourite song off of your record that you like playing or listening to?
Matt Frazier: It’s a tough question. I think personally I’m excited about all our songs but the best three songs on the record are the newest ones that we just added to the record a couple months ago: Wide Eyes, Shape Shifter, and Sticky Thread. It’s just that when we added those to the record it kind of felt like it brought new life to the record and they really have been well received live. It’s been refreshing and exciting.
Ryan Hahn:And then you are always partial to the newest material just because you played every song sooo many times, so when you get a new one it’s just feels exciting. Like when we first played Shape Shifter, I hadn’t felt that kind of nerves…
Taylor Rice: That nervousness…
Ryan Hahn:… Yeah, you’re out there and it feels like everything is foreign. It was really cool.
Matt Frazier: It was also exciting because we wrote most of the record over a year ago and these three new songs came in just this year and I feel that these songs are pretty different from the rest of the record but it still has a common thread. I can see an evolution and I’m just curious as to where we’re going to go with the next record. And it’s exciting cause it feels like we are constantly evolving and trying to better ourselves.
BCR: As a drummer technique I noticed that you use more rimshots than actual hihat, but in the same way. How come?
Matt Frazier: It’s not a conscious kind of thing. Kelcey [who is also a drummer and does additional percussion on songs like Airplanes] and I spend a lot of time coming up with the rhythms together and obviously most of the times are interwoven with each other. It feels it just adds different movement, an even more natural sound…
Ryan Hahn:… more percussive…
Matt Frazier: … Yeah, it just adds this extra percussive layer to our sound.
BCR: Because when I was listening to the record you can hear the democracy because of the composition. It’s very composite; no one is playing just a power chord, everyone doing some sort of riff. They all just form together as this body of sound, which is very nice.
Taylor Rice: I think that’s probably just subconsciously because they integrate so much together on the drums, it gives the drums a little more space to breathe in and it allows for more of a whole to mix up different ways rather than taking up the sound.
Ryan Hahn:Yeah, right. I mean we’re not the drummers but I like songs like Camera Talk where other bands can do that beat and it would be way more straightforward but when you see it live you realize that actually there is this interplay, that the snare is hitting at the same time as the tom, and the up hit is on the hihat… I really find it interesting that even our most basic rhythms are actually very complex. Especially when you see them live, so, for me it’s exciting.
BCR: I saw some of your live footage where you actually got some of the audience to join in and drum along with you on certain things.
Matt Frazier: It’s been this almost tradition of ours that every tour we go on, I mean we’ve been lucky enough to tour with some really awesome bands, particularly some really talented people. And there is this camaraderie, and a lot of the times the drummers from the other bands, or whoever wants to come up on stage, and add any percussive element to the louder part of the song. It’s happened pretty frequently.
[The group erupts into laughter as they talk on top of one another about how sometimes this doesn’t always go well…]
Kelcey Ayer: Sometimes it’s amazing, sometimes it’s…uhm… [and he just grins]
Andy Hamm: I mean it’s really just for the sake of having fun. Yeah, we played the whole set, and we’re super meticulous and we usually have this part where we end up playing. And if its one of those nights where everyone is feeling good and having fun and we’re with friends and we say ‘you’re more than welcome to come up and bang on some stuff with us’, but with that comes [laughs] some much added noise. You know, people run up and get on cowbells… but they are not drummers is the bottom line. Maybe they’re super wasted and so we’ve had shows where it was complete mayhem…
Taylor Rice: But other times we toured with bands like White Rabbits .You know that band? White Rabbits are just getting known here but they’ll be a very prominent band. They are awesome; they have two drummers that are amazing. They came up and it was one of the most amazing ones ever, I mean as I was saying it’s just a crapshoot.
BCR: The involvement of the audience, the fact that you guys do the harmonies, it’s all like about the community. Like the video on Youtube of when your van got stuck in Vermont , [They all laugh] and then you guys did an impromptu show as a thank you. Then your Cards & Quarters video with the percussion on the door, it gives this sense of you as a band and you as music of a communal feeling.
Matt Frazier: Yeah, we definitely see ourselves as this welcoming unit.
BCR: So what do you think of your music? As in what are you trying to do with your music? Have you thought about it?
Kelcey Ayer: It’s simple, really. I mean all of us are lovers of music and we tweak out on all types of music. We just want to be in a band and make music that we would all like and listen to. We would just love to make records that we’re really proud of and make songs that we can really get into.
Ryan Hahn:And to do this as long as possible.
Andy Hamm: With this record there wasn’t any real underlying agenda. It was literally about the songs themselves and when we were writing we went in with that sort of mind set. There was no side agenda. There was no huge bigger meaning behind other than lets make this song the best song that it can be whether that’s lyrically or instrumentally. That was always the goal and past that the rest will follow.
BCR: Does it bother you that you get associated often with like Fleet Foxes or Animal Collective?
Taylor Rice: It doesn’t bother me… You need a reference point as a listener or as a journalist. You can’t just say: ‘There is this new band,’ ‘Oh, what do they sound like?’ ‘They’re awesome!’ ‘Ok…’. You just need more than that, so, it’s really flattering, those bands are great, and we’re fans of those bands, and it’s fine. It’s just when if anyone were to imply that maybe that ‘Oh, this sounds A LOT like this’ or ‘TOO MUCH’ or ‘it sounds like a rip-off’, then that is where we get to the point where we fell like… mmm… I don’t know, I mean you are allowed to do what you want, but to us it doesn’t…
Andy Hamm: … it’s like if it’s an educated criticism then we’re all into it. We are critics ourselves to some point. It’s just a little bit of a let down when you catch wind or your friend will tell you that it’s a direct rip-off, which is the farthest thing that you want for people to think. ‘Cause that is just not how we went about writing the songs or we think we are as a band. But so far I think journalists have been really fair and that has been really infrequent. So I think, so far, we have been lucky in that sense.
BCR: Do you guys use any particular equipment like drums, guitars, or pedals in a techy type of way?
Andy Hamm: We’ve never been a super techy band. We’re all just literally dipping our toes in the water as far as that comes. Because before it was like ‘What can I afford?’ which is what most musicians were. We’ve never been like ‘equipment before everything else’. It’s always been like ‘Shit, I need a new pedal, I need to save up for the next two weeks and it’ll be whatever I can afford at the end of the two weeks’. I think we’re now finally coming around on playing with different pedals. I know that Ryan has been dipping into it more, and I have been dipping into it more and Taylor has mentioned it. We love so many different sounds; we love nerding out on different stuff like that, but if you would ask me right now, I would just say that, honestly, I’m still learning about exactly what I like. I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer like ‘This is the one to use!’ [he says laughing]
Taylor Rice: It’s a new territory; we’re not like gear-heads or anything.
Ryan Hahn:Like up to a few weeks ago I literally think that I used to just plug straight into my amp, like there was never a thought…
Matt Frazier: … it’s pretty simple… pretty basic.
BCR: Yeah, on the record it doesn’t seem like there are any types of delays or phasers, it just seems like various amounts of overdrive.
Ryan Hahn:Yeah, well, we only recently started delving into the use of synthesizers. Not in an overt way, but like there a few songs now that we use synths.
Andy Hamm: It’s tasteful. There actually is a good amount, if you pick apart each song, there are a good amount of effects going on and different things and a few loops and a little bit of synthesizer and stuff like that. But it’s never been about that. It’s more like; we’ll write a line on the piano or on the acoustic guitar and then when we practice it as a live band we’ll be like: ‘Oh, that’d be cool if it had a little slap back on it’ or something like that.
Ryan Hahn:He was saying, I think, depending on how we evolve, we could probably incorporate more of that stuff next time around. So, who knows.
BCR: On the record there is also a violin player and I saw on some of your videos, again, on Youtube you had a violinist with you. Now that you are going to do this European headlining tour do you think you are going to bring a violinist with you for your shows?
Ryan Hahn:Probably not.
Matt Frazier: Yeah, it was this friend of ours, this girl Amanda, she lives in Orange [County] where we all originally lived together. She’s this really good friend of ours and she happened to play, and we started jamming with her and she played actually most of the parts on the record. She would play around live locally when she could but we got busier and she was also kind of working full time, so she just got to busy to jam with us. We haven’t played with a violinist in months so… maybe some day.
Ryan Hahn:It would be nice to have a string section or even a brass section so we’ll see. One day.
BCR: You didn’t think, because you’re such a big live band, about hiring local musicians?
Ryan Hahn:Yeah, at some point that would be cool.
Andy Hamm: On the last tour we went on there was an all-round musician that played in one of the other groups and they would jump up. It was always about ‘Oh hey, I heard so-and-so is good at playing trumpet. We should see if they want to come to the show and play on cool songs’. I don’t think we would be able to afford to bring musicians with us. I think we are comfortable with the band as is and it’s always an added bonus if we meet some new friends that play and want to jump on and add some parts.
BCR: You’re going to come back and tour Europe in the New Year, are you looking forward to that?
Matt Frazier: We come back like the 12th of January in France doing some promo, and then we’re playing here. We’re all really excited ‘cause its places we’ve never been. It’s just exciting; it’s a whole new experience for us. We don’t know what to expect.
Taylor Rice: Yeah, this Europe thing…
Taylor Rice: …The Europe thing, we didn’t even know this until kind of recently, that we were headlining the Europe tour, and that to us sooo weird. I feel a little anxious about it.
Matt Frazier: In the States we’re not really at that point and we just did a tour, and we recently we just opened for another band, and so to be headlining Europe it seems….
Andy Hamm: …Sounds weird.
Matt Frazier: Yeah, we’re just getting used to that.
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