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Win Tickets For Black Lips, Groove Armada, Shearwater and The Ruby Suns
Posted 03-11-10 by Jeff Kuprycz, Kara Manning

TAS Interviews: Broken Bells
Posted 03-10-10 by Alisa Ali

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The new album by Broken Bells, better known as James Mercer of the Shins and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse), is out this week. I couldn't be more thrilled about it.

I had a chance to talk with the guys recently and they were both really excited about the work that they've been doing together. Both James and Brian were invigorated by the experience and were really happy to do something different from what they'd been doing in the past.

Of course, I realized that I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about the status of their previous projects. The response, however, was pretty much what you'd expect. James says that the Shins are still going, just on hiatus. And Brian is not ruling out another Gnarls Barkley album, but it's not really top priority for him. He did hint at a new project, but wouldn't give me any details even though I asked very nicely. I guess we'll just have to wait for more news on that.

Since I spoke to James and Brian several weeks ago, before the tragic death of Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous this past Saturday, we only touched briefly on Brian and James' work with Mark on Dark Night of the Soul. After all kinds of legal hassles holding up the release of that album, all seems to have been resolved over the last couple of weeks and Dark Night of the Soul will likely come out by early summer. Sadly, the album's long overdue release now seems especially bittersweet given Mark's passing. You can find out more about the project here.

Around the time I spoke to Brian and James, their debut album had appeared mysteriously on the internet, nearly a month (or more) before its official release:

Alisa Ali: How did [the Broken Bells] album leak early?

Brian Burton: The version that leaked is not what you have though.

Alisa: Tell me the difference?

James Mercer: It's not mastered, there's parts missing on some of the songs and there's a song missing.

Brian: There's a song missing and there's a song we really didn't include that's on the leak somehow. We don't even know how it happened. It was just an earlier version. I mean, it's similar, it's just not what you have in your hands.

Alisa: It's so funny that it leaked and there are reviews of the leak.

James: I know, it's shameless, isn't it?

Brian: We don't know what the reviews are, don't tell us please!

Alisa: Do you generally not read reviews?

Brian: You hear about them and sometimes if they're really good, they get put in front of you and you'll go, okay, that's cool. But on this one, I think, it's kind of irrelevant really. We've both been doing this for a long time and I think we're kind of meant to do what's on there so if somebody likes it, great.

James: I'm proud of it. I love it.

Alisa: You did release one song from the record early, "The High Road." Why did you choose to release that early?

James: We sort of felt that it was a good combination of both of our input, and it kind of made sense, it's catchy.

Brian: Even though there's no other song that sounds exactly like it on the record, it's a good ... the same reason we led off with it on the album. Not a whole lot of thought went into it. It wasn't completely our choice.

James: Brian's very good at arranging that stuff. I think you thought about the order for quite a while.

Brian: Yeah, I just thought it was a good way to start.

Alisa: James, you're singing in falsetto a lot on the record.

Alisa: So Brian, what are you playing on the record?

Brian: I'm playing most of the instruments that have keys on them like organs, pianos and synths. And drums. A little bit of bass. And James did all of the guitars, singing and bass stuff also. We stuck to similar instruments that we felt comfortable with for the most part. We didn't have any preexisting songs to [go into the studio with]. We'd just go in each day with nothing and sit and write a song and start recording it, playing it right then and there and seeing what would happen.

Alisa: Very different from how you normally work? You were doing a nine to five type job?

James: We used Brian's studio and he has a strong work ethic (laughs).

Alisa: Do you get in trouble if you come in late?

James: Well, I can't come in late because he's my ride.

Alisa: You're carpooling?

Brian: Yeah, cause James lives in Portland so every time we worked together he'd just come [over]. I don't have a roommate so he just comes to my house [and is] my roommate for a couple of weeks and we'd drive to and from [the studio] every day. And that's how we got to know each other. We'd met, but we only really became friends from recording this album. So that's how everything came together so by the end of the album, when the lyrics came, we really knew each other pretty well and it all made its way onto the album.

Alisa: James, what is it about Brian - and vice versa - that makes it all work so well?

Brian: It's hard to ... the specifics of it would probably not be that interesting to everybody but from the beginning, the first day we went in, we'd never done anything before but within the first half hour or so we had the whole structure of a song. We just have a lot of respect for one another. And there was no real ego involved at all.

James: You have to trust the other person. I think it was a good decision also, we decided if either of us didn't like something it wouldn't go on the album.

Alisa: I really love the song "Vaporize."

Alisa: Didn't you guys work together, James and Brian, with Sparklehorse? Wasn't that the first time you worked together?

Brian: No, we started this album around May of '08 and we worked on it for almost a year and at one point during that time there were a few songs left on that Sparklehorse album that we were doing and one of them was one I'd wanted James to be on and it just took us a while to finish it. We'd been more than halfway done with the Broken Bells album we just took a break and did that one song. It sounds very different from the Broken Bells album because the music was done by Mark Linkous and myself. But that's not when [James and I] first started to work together.

Alisa: How cool you got to work with David Lynch too.

Brian: Yeah, it was cool. And Mark Linkous as well. And all the people on it. So great.

Alisa: Brian, what about your other projects? Gnarls Barkley?

Brian: Perhaps one day. Just not right now, [Broken Bells] is the active thing that I'm doing and it takes up a bunch of time and it's slowed me down a lot. I don't have plans to produce much any more in the immediate future. Or in general, I don't know. I got a lot more out of the process, writing and playing and being a part of it in this way than I did out of all of the producing stuff I've done.

Alisa: And you have plans to do another record as Broken Bells?

James: Yeah, we've already started working on that. It's fun.

Brian: It's the most enjoyable record I've ever been a part of easily, even though it's sort of sad in certain places it was really an adventure to make.

Alisa: And plans for the tour?

Broken Bells kick off their tour on Wednesday, March 10 right here in New York. More dates will be added, but here's the schedule so far:

Mar 10 -Music Hall of Williamsburg - SOLD OUT Brooklyn, New York

Mar 14 -The Troubadour - SOLD OUT Los Angeles, California

Mar 17 -SXSW Austin, Texas

Posted 03-10-10 by Alisa Ali

Tags Audio, Audio-Video, Audio, Blog

The Drums make fun pop music. It's easy to like them because their melodies are infectiously catchy. Apparently, though, the folks from Fader magazine are not fans. I learned this because The Drums have a quote from the magazine on the front page of their website that says: "We kind of hate these guys, to be honest."

But that makes me like them even more. They don't have a vast catalog though. In fact, they only have one EP out called "Summertime!," but their debut album will come out later this spring and the first single from that, "Best Friend," drops on March 28.

As for their summer-influenced EP, it has a very warm beachy vibe to it. Their first single is called "Let's Go Surfing." Ironically, none of the band members - singer Jonathan Pierce, guitarist Jacob Graham, guitarist Adam Kessler and drummer Connor Hanwick - surf. They say it's more about the feeling of surfing rather than the actual sport. And that's fine with me. I enjoy listening to that song and I don't even know how to swim.

The band, who are based in Brooklyn by way of Florida, have strangely broken out in a big way in the UK, landing as one of the top five bands on the BBC's Sound of 2010 and winning the notable Philip Hall Radar Award at the Shockwaves NME Awards in late February, an honor that's gone to British bands like The Big Pink and Glasvegas. They recently were part of the Shockwaves NME tour with British bands The Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Maccabees.

The Drums' music sounds like 60s girl groups mixed with what the Cure would sound like if they were more upbeat. The Drums have a really wholesome quality to them; it's carefree, feel-good music. Good to sing along with as you joyously dance. Speaking of which, check out Jonathan pulling some indie jitterbug moves during his performance.

As lighthearted as their Summertime EP might be, in excerpts from my interview below, the guys say that their full-length album might have more of a wintertime pall:

Alisa Ali: When is your album coming out?

Jacob Graham: Well, we don't know exactly, but early spring. It's completely finished, it's just in that stage where there's tweaking and mixing and artwork that has to be done.

Jonathan Pierce: It was completely self-produced. We wrote it, produced it, we're really thrilled with how it turned out. We're in mixing stages right now. Some here [in New York], some in L.A.

Alisa: How do you, Jake and Jon, know each other?

Jacob: We met when we were really young kids, out of summer camp actually. It was some camp in Pennsylvania because [Jon]was from upstate New York and I was from northeast Ohio and it was kind of right in the middle. We mostly tried to run away from everyone else and talk about music because we were the only ones into that sort of thing. Like Kraftwerk and [Isao] Tomita.

Alisa: Were you making Kraftwerk-like music back then?

Jacob: Trying desperately.

Alisa: What were those early songs like?

Jon: We tried to make them like Kraftwerk. I think we failed miserably but we were very interested in early synth [music], like analog synthesizers. [Jacob] was into it and I was into it. When we met we were just kids but I think it was like a one in a billion chance meeting. That was the original bond.

Alisa: But you were in bands before together?

Jacob: Yeah, John and I had a first band together called Goat Explosion. And then Jon and Adam had a band together later, so we've all kind of been in and out of bands. Jon was living in Brooklyn, moved to Florida last fall and we recorded the EP and the first half of our album which is going to come out in the spring. After we had that done, we assumed we needed to come back here to launch the whole thing. There's not really a lot going on in Florida with music. And when we got here we sort of frantically started looking for people to help us and we tricked Adam and Conner into doing it.

Adam Kessler: We practiced maybe an hour before our first show.

Jacob: It was all kind of thrown together.

Connor Hanwick: It was at a small little club, the Cake Shop.

Jacob: We almost cancelled because it was so last minute but we kind of decided, what the heck, no one will be there or pay attention. But there were and they did. It was part of New York City Popfest, so most people were there to see other bands, but we wowed them.

Alisa: You have a knack for making concise, catchy little pop songs.

Jon: I know it's always been our goal. Even in previous bands, when we may have fallen short, what really excites us is a perfectly written pop song. I'm not going to say that we've achieved that yet, but that's what we strive for. We set limits and we go by the rules that were set up in the late 50s and 60s when I think pop music was really invented. Keep it short and potent and vulnerable. And I think people are ready for that sort of thing, that "give it to me" sort of attitude.

[We live] in Williamsburg, [but] we don't really go out that much. It's hard for us to try to relate with some of the other bands and some of the other things that are going on because everything seems so experimental, like four minute introductions and then the song starts. Everything is kind of edgy and hip. We're not interested in being really exciting or strange. We have one rule: it's to just kind of be selfish. Us being selfish is making three minute pop songs and if people want to come along, that's wonderful.

Jacob: I think there's an actual void for this sort of music right now.

Alisa: I would say that the music you made is exciting!

Jacob: Thank you!

Jon: Thank you! It's not what we set out to do.

Alisa: Somebody once described your sound as what Morrissey or Robert Smith would sound like if they were on Prozac.

Jacob: We don't subscribe to drug use.

Jon: Well, the full-length we just finished is a little different. It's a little darker. A little bit more brooding. It's not all handclaps and whistles, but it still sounds like The Drums. I think the whole EP was just like a moment in Florida and we just decided to be really blatant about it, call it Summertime! and let it be what it is. The full-length is a slight departure, a little bit more serious, a little more personal.

The Drums will be playing guest DJ on my show today, Monday, March 8 at 11 am EST. Their favorite songs include everything from Orange Juice to Field Mice to The Raveonettes.

Posted 03-08-10 by Kara Manning

Tags Audio-Video, In-Studio, Blog

The moment I first heard The Joy Formidable's single "Cradle" in late 2008, I was smitten. A mere two minute and 47-second splash of turbulent, hooting, guitar-soaked effervescence, it rocked as hard as The Pixies but possessed vocals as sweetly sky-gazing as The Sundays. It was a sonic slice of heaven.

The band's 2009 self-produced, 8-song CD A Balloon Called Moaning, which The Joy Formidable don't consider their official debut, was a further revelation; an aggravated swirl of smartly-written songs like "Whirring" and "Austere," all elevated to the stratosphere by guitarist/singer Ritzy Bryan's keening, pretty vocals and ferocious way with a guitar. A U.S. version of the collection will be released in April or May via Black Bell Records.

The trio - which also includes bassist/backing vocalist Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matt Thomas - played New York for the first time in January, opening three sold-out shows for frequent tour mates Passion Pit and also headlined two sold-out shows in tiny clubs. The Joy Formidable's own gig at claustrophobic Pianos was so explosively loud that the floor literally trembled underfoot. It was also so thrillingly accomplished that the consensus of the dazed and now-completely-deafened folks standing around me (and subsequent blogosphere buzz) was that this rambunctious group from northern Wales was very special. They return to Mercury Lounge on May 1 and if you don't have a ticket, part with $10 this very minute and go.

For over a year I'd incessantly yapped about The Joy Formidable to anyone who'd bother listening to me, so I was quite ecstatic when Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt found time in their packed schedule to drop by The Alternate Side for a live session.

They revisited tracks from A Balloon Called Moaning and previewed new selections from their still-untitled debut album which drops this June (the first single, "Popinjay," is now available on iTunes and Amazon). Yes, they hit My Bloody Valentine worthy decibels and we all had to wear headphones to protect what little hearing we had left. It was glorious. Below are three songs from their remarkable live session: "Cradle," "The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade" and a brand new song, "Magnifying Glass."

Kara Manning: You open most of your shows with "The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade?"

Ritzy Bryan: It's become a difficult one to beat. We always like to swap our sets up, but inevitably we do kind of go back to that. I suppose it's a big, epic, opening song. It's quite a personal sort of song for us as a band, so it feels like a good way to introduce us.

Kara: And "The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade" will be on your debut album which you're working on now. When will it be out?

Ritzy: We haven't got an exact date for it. I suppose it's the way we work. With A Balloon Called Moaning, even though that's not our debut album, we sort of wrote that right up until the last minute. Like [the song] 'Ostrich.' And it's quite chronological as well. 'Ostrich' was the last track written, literally, and it was recorded about five days before we pressed the album. So I suppose we're going to have to seal a date at some point. But at the moment, I suppose, we'll let it come together quite naturally.

Kara: You're producing it yourself? You're not using an outside producer?

Rhydian Dafydd: We've got Neak [Young] our sound guy and we've been doing the mixes with him, but we're still very much in control.

Kara: Ritzy and Rhydian, you're from Mold in North Wales which might be my favorite town name. Mold is not moldy, I'm assuming. What is it like?

Rhydian: It's a pretty quiet place.

Ritzy: It's rural village. I'm not actually from Mold, I'm from a place called Rhosesmor, which is just outside of Mold.

Rhydian: It's a beautiful place with great countryside. There's not a hell of a lot to do. But in terms of going for walks, there's plenty of greenery.

Kara: You began in Sidecar Kisses, another band?

Ritzy: [Rhydian and I] were playing together in a band called Sidecar Kisses and that sort of fell apart and happily so, because I don't think either one of us were particularly happy with that outfit. We moved back to Wales and started writing together. It was the first time we'd written together.

Kara: There's a really vibrant Welsh music scene, like Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Los Campesinos! and Marina and the Diamonds who are hotly tipped. Growing up there, what sort of bands were you attracted to?

Rhydian: It's a bit different for us because we're North Wales and a lot of Welsh bands that got the press tended to come from mid and south Wales. There is a little bit of a scene that is kind of happening now in North Wales and it's nice to be a part of that. In terms of what we were listening to, it was all sorts of music. We had this place that we had this place we always mention called the Buckley Tivoli down the road and it wasn't much music-wise.

Ritzy: It was like the only club in like a hundred mile radius so it was like a mecca for trying to do something social! And it had a lot of great bands that toured, especially at the end of Britpop, we had [bands] like Super Furries and Blur. It was a real distraction for us, otherwise [we were] quite isolated.

Kara: Will "Cradle," which is on A Balloon Called Moaning, also be on the new record?

Rhydian: We're not totally sure to be honest. We wanted to keep a couple of tracks off Balloon. We'll just see how it goes, I suppose.

Ritzy: It felt like, since A Balloon Called Moaning was never set up as our debut album, we just kind of released it because it came on the back of another release.

Kara: It was also very DIY and you also gave it away for free through NME, correct?

Ritzy: We did, through download.

Kara The decision to give these eight fabulous tracks away for free - why?

Ritzy: I think it was because it was actually with another concept. We had the box set and the poster album. The physical format is still kind of important for us and the download side of things, I think people are just listening differently and we did genuinely want to embrace that. People like to download tracks and to get it out to as many people as possible, it was important for us, for people to be able to listen to it.

Rhydian: It's going to happen anyway and we prefer people come to us. You can't avoid it these days. You've just got to embrace it and trust that people are going to be interested. Genuine fans are always going to come back to you. They're investing in you.

Ritzy: They might download a track and then they might come and see us live and then they'll buy one of our hundred t-shirt designs. Or they may buy all of them, all at once! (laughs)

Kara: I think it's okay to say that Ritzy and Rhydian, you're a couple, yes?

Rhydian: Yes!

Kara And you endlessly tour. How hard is it as a couple to work and tour together?

Rhydian: It's actually been surprisingly easy because we've known each other for such a long time anyway.

Kara: When did you meet?

Ritzy: We were about three.

Rhydian: We've been through school and all of that together. Ritzy was a year below me. I suppose we didn't know each other extremely well [then], but we've known each other a long time. And like we were saying about the past band as well, it was a different setup because it was really me and a friend. We needed a guitarist and Ritzy was actually living in Washington D.C. at the time.

Kara: What were you doing in Washington DC?

Ritzy: I was au pairing. That was just a cover. I was actually trying to do some music and some singer-songwriter type stuff. But I had a visa that allowed me to au pair (laughs). Otherwise it would have been an illegal entry. [I was there for] almost two years.

Rhydian: So Ritzy flew back over and joined the band and it was about a year or two before The Joy Formidable. So we're well used to working together. And we're very professional as well, I like to think!

Ritzy: We don't go out to dinner very often. I have to flag that up.

Kara: You've got a huge tour coming up in the UK and you've opened for Passion Pit, White Lies, Chew Lips, Howling Bells, Editors and The Temper Trap. You're always on the road. How do the three of you keep your sanity with that itinerary?

Ritzy: The sanity is questionable, looking at Matt (all laugh). But we've got a really easy dynamic, to be honest. Considering [the three of us] have only been together for a year, it's been a really special chemistry, I think. We genuinely get along as friends, we love what we do and we've gelled together so well. I think there's a lot of good morale to this band.

Rhydian We all like being on the road so it's like a positive vibe all of the time.

Kara: Matt, when did you jump aboard?

Matt Thomas: Almost exactly a year ago.

Ritzy: Second of January.

Kara: You celebrated your anniversary!

Rhydian: We went out for a candlelit dinner.

Ritzy: No! We did celebrate it. Matt made us a giant lasagna.

Matt: Oh, yeah. I did! I made lasagna.

Ritzy: It was really good as well.

Kara: What do you use in your lasagna?

Matt: Anything I can find. Squirrels, badgers.

Kara: Mozzarella cheese over the squirrels.

Matt: Yes, it hides [them] better that way.

Kara: "Magnifying Glass" is a new song from the upcoming album. When you return to the UK, you're headed back in the studio. How close are you [to finishing the record]?

Matt: Close. Pretty close.

Ritzy: It's coming together. We've mixed about a third of it, or something like that. It's all written, it's just any final bit of tracking.

Kara You're recording it London, where you live now.

Rhydian: In our bedroom.

Ritzy: [None of our neighbors] have ever complained. There must be thick walls.

Matt: think the first guitar chord you played deafened them and now there's no problem.

Ritzy: That could be true.

Kara: The choice to move to London ... was it an easier base for you?

Ritzy: It was really logistical. I think a lot of people think that we were career-driven or something. But I think we would have stayed in Wales had it not been that our previous drummer before Matt was actually London-based.

Rhydian: It was a welcome change too. We hadn't lived in London before.

Kara: Do you think it's harder for bands now to break through now than in the 90s or even the 80s?

Rhydian: Yes and no. Obviously, the internet has opened it out to whatever and I think that some of the traditional methods are there, but I think that everyone is finding their feet. But the great thing about it is because of the internet, people are much more aware of quality now. You just have to sift through it, that's the thing.

Kara: Ritzy, what made you pick up a guitar when you were a kid?

Ritzy: All my family were all completely musically obsessed. They're total anoraks, they were collectors, we had a massive record collection. [My parent] were both musical, my dad was a bass guitarist ....

Rhydian: Oh, come on, it was the chicks Ritzy. (all laugh)

Ritzy: The chicks? For the chicks (laughs). I don't know how to reply to that.

Matt: She wanted to play flute but they wouldn't sell her one.

Ritzy: I actually smashed my flute over somebody's head.

Kara: Do you remember the first album you ever bought?

Ritzy: I honestly didn't have to buy any albums because I had a whole vinyl library in our big lounge.

Rhydian: Her dad has such a massive collection.

Ritzy: Yeah, like 5000 vinyl albums so I actually don't remember buying any music until I moved away. It's quite weird, though, I'm as passionate about music, but it was a bit over the top. He had like every Dylan bootleg of an entire year's tour even though the sets were actually quite similar. So it can almost have the alternative effect, you kind of hate music (laughs). But that wasn't the case.

Kara: Rhydian, did you grow up in a a musical family.

Rhydian: Not really, I grew up as a sporty ....

Ritzy(interrupts): As a gymnast but then he got thrown off the Welsh gymnastic squad as well so he had to find an alternate.

Rhydian: Yeah, that was the beginning of the end I think. But I got obsessed with [Jimi] Hendrix, that's what got me into playing, I think. I was about 12 or 13 and ever since then, obsessed.

Matt: My dad's always been into music. He played guitar for years, carrying on chugging his jazz funk chords.

Kara: I read that you're all Elvis Costello fanatics.

Ritzy: [Those] guys like Elvis Costello, but I'm probably the fanatic. They're really sick of him after I obsess about him so much. I just grew up listening to a lot of Elvis Costello. Lyrically he really excites me. I guess I like music that has that sort of sneer about it. But it actually has a slightly playful side to it as well which I think he manages to combine, especially in his early albums. And the fact that as an artist, he's continually changed. I think in terms of myself and this band, I think the aim would always be to continually evolve and try new things and not be scared of changing either. So I definitely respect [Costello] for that. Like "Lipstick Vogue" [the band's guest DJ pick]. The drums and the baseline on that are just unbelievable.

The Joy Formidable's single "Popinjay" will also be available as a limited edition vinyl 7-inch on April 5. In addition, they're on board the very first Truck America Festival in Big Indian, New York (April 30-May 2), joining White Rabbits, Hopewell, Mercury Rev and more.

Posted 03-01-10 by Kara Manning

Tags Audio-Video, In-Studio, Blog

The Heavy is a band that just outright refuses to be put into any one musical category. In keeping with that ideal, their latest release The House That Dirt Built incorporates an amazingly diverse mix of genres: funk, soul, rock, hip hop, punk and more.

Aside from music, singer Kelvin Swaby, guitarist Dan Taylor, bassist Spencer Page and drummer Chris Ellul also seem to have an affinity towards film as well. The opening track of their new album includes a creepy spoken warning: “ if you value your sanity, don’t go in the house." It's an audio clip from, as they put it, "a dodgy, D-list horror flick" and thought it was very appropriate. In my opinion (and theirs too) their music begs to be on the soundtrack of a Quentin Tarantino film

"We're definitely very influenced by his style of filmmaking," Dan told me. "It reminds me of the way we write tunes. Because he kind of takes everything from everywhere and smashes it all together."

Unfortunately, The Heavy haven't landed on a Tarantino soundtrack yet, but their song, "How You Like Me Now?" off of The House That Dirt Built is featured in a pretty great car commercial. Now, I don't normally endorse products, and I'm not doing that now but you have to see this. Think of this as a band endorsement instead. And watch the live version of the song the band did in The Alternate Side's studio.

Alisa Ali: You have a lot of heavyweights involved on [this album] - pun intended. Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Sneaker Pimps) produced this for you. How did he become involved?

Spencer Page: That was kind of a weird one. We thought it would be a good idea from the start and then found out that he'd been doing the Noisettes record as well so it's kind of a weird approach to him just before it and then it all happened at the same time. The Noisettes spoke to him a bit and it's through that, basically, but he'd loved what he'd heard and wanted to get involved.

Alisa: Did you learn anything from him?

Chris Ellul: Nah, he's rubbish (all laugh).

Kelvin Swaby was just fantastic. He plumbed the house, basically.

Dan Taylor: He kind of cleaned it up for us.

Spencer: There's a lot of sonic stuff, sounds.

Dan: He made it audible whereas we usually make it as inaudible as possible.

Swaby: Yeah, we try to go as rough as possible, so we still wanted the grittiness in there, and the dirt in there but it's kind of up to him to make it sonically so it works for radio.

Alisa: You have a notable sample on the album of Screaming Jay Hawkins' ["I Put A Spell On You" in the song "Sixteen"]. What made you decide to use that?

Swaby: It's not a sample, but ["Sixteen"] is completely influenced by that track. It's actually us playing everything. It kind of sounds heavier in his version.

Dan: We wrote it first and he sampled us!

Swaby: Yeah, crazy! I don't know how that works ....

Alisa: That song also has a weird carnival vibe mixed with a 60s girl group sound. Who [was] the guest vocalist on there?

Swaby: Actually it's Shingai Shoniwa of the Noisettes. She kind of came in and joined in the party. We only wanted her on one song originally and then she ended up doing three so it was great. She's a good girl. She gives good neck massages.

Alisa: I did not know that about her!

Swaby: You do now!

Alisa: Are you a fan of the Noisettes?

Dan: We had a mutual friend, somebody who was doing our sound who knew them and worked with them and he suggested it would be a great hookup and he was absolutely correct.

Alisa: I hate when 16-year olds act like forty year olds.

Swaby: So do I, that's why the song had to be written. Kids nowadays are trying to grow up far too quickly. And I think with media and celebrity magazines we try to make children grow up too fast and the song [is] anti that [trend]. I don't want to see kids in nightclubs at the age of 16. Getting drunk and being taken home by the devil. You want to see that? You want to wish that on your children?

Alisa:No, I don't! Though to be honest with you, I did try to sneak into clubs when I was 16.

Swaby: Exactly! That's what I'm saying. Now you're hanging out with devils.

Alisa: You're known for mixing genres in your music; you've got garage, hip hop, funk and soul. Are there any [genre] you wouldn't [touch]?

Swaby: Nose flutes.

Spencer: Nose flute techno.

Dan: There's probably lots of music we don't like.

Swaby: Probably Gabber techno. Then again there's probably some sounds in there that [we] might use.

Alisa: I don't know what that is.

Chris: It would make your nose bleed.

Dan: Horrid, nosebleeding techno. Horrific pace.

Spencer: It's about 200 bpm, I think. Originated in Holland.

Alisa: What inspired "Cause For Alarm"?

Daniel: It was my girlfriend's positive pregnancy test about a year ago. Now it's all good. Not such a cause for alarm now. I'm a proud daddy. Her name is Tallulah.

Alisa: How does the songwriting work or the lyric writing work for you guys in general?

Daniel: Sometimes we do it individually and give bits to each other [or] contribute and finish each other's songs. Sometimes they come all at once. Sometimes we're working in the studio, the four of us. There's no set kind of way of doing it, really.

Alisa: Everyone gets involved on writing lyrics?

Dan: Not so much lyrics.

Swaby: Not so much lyrically, but musically, everybody kind of does.

Alisa: So you and Daniel do the bulk of the lyric writing?

Daniel: [Swayby] helped me on it. I got to a late stage finishing ["Cause for Alarm"] but I knew [Swayby] had to sing it, so I presented it to him. It makes so much more sense.

Alisa: Do you notice anything about each other's lyrical writing style?

Daniel: It's always about sex (all laugh).

Swaby: It's not sex, Daniel, it's relationships.

Daniel: It always about sex.

Spencer: Sexual relationships.

Swaby: Yeah, generally.

Daniel: Mine are always a bit more sensitive ....

Swaby: (overlaps) So you can see whose written what on the album.

Daniel(continues): Whereas [Swayby] just batters the door down (all laugh).

Swaby: Usually the back door as well ... sorry (laughs).

Back in January, The Heavy played "Late Night with David Letterman" and in a first for Letterman, he was so blown away by Swaby and the gang that he asked them for an encore.

Posted 02-22-10 by Alisa Ali

Tags Audio-Video, In Studio, Live Performances, In-Studio, Blog

There has been a great deal of buzz surrounding the new album from Yeasayer called Odd Blood. The band made a lot of noise with their debut All Hour Cymbals, but Odd Blood is a bit more cohesive and focused. It's a great collection of catchy, dancey songs with amazing harmonies and cool beats.

Yeasayer came to The Alternate Side studios recently and performed four songs from Odd Blood. We talked about how the recording process differed this time around, how these songs came together, why they wrote about an old boxer in "Ambling Alp" and the 90s dance influence on the songs (including a discussion about Haddaway!):

Russ Borris: {With 'Ambling Alp,' who decided] to write a song about an old boxer?

Chris Keating: That would be me.

Russ: You just decide to write a song about an old dude?

Chris: I'm not particularly good at writing songs, so whenever I'm reading or watching a movie, I'm like, 'I need to write this song.' That's the hardest part. I was watching old documentaries about boxing and I thought, 'that would be cool, to try to write about that.'

Russ: Clearly everybody has a distinct love of harmony, it's all throughout the record, but it seems to come from different places from each of you personally. It clearly seems it's not all from Pet Sounds; there's other influences in there.

Anand Wilder: I've never even heard Pet Sounds, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Ira Wolf Tuton: Pet Shop Boys? (band laughs). I don't know, I think harmonies are something else you can take advantage of by arranging. I think the tendency is when you hear a rock band doing harmonies is you always liken it to Crosby, Stills and Nash or The Beach Boys or Yes. I think we did that a lot more on our first record than this one.

Anand: We tried to use harmonies a little more sparingly on this album.

Ira: More as a tool as opposed to shove it down your throat. As an arrangement tool to elevate certain parts.

Russ: The arranging seems to be a huge part of getting these songs together. When you're actually doing the arranging, how long is it taking you to try to get one thing done? It's not just strumming a guitar and trying to get a vocal right. There are a lot of elements coming into play here.

Anand: That's pretty much 99 percent of what we're doing when we're recording is just saying, 'Maybe we should play this keyboard part? No, let's scrap that. Maybe we should do this guitar part'

Ira (overlapping): Maybe this should be the bass line, the melody line ....

Russ: That seems like something that could be endless.

Ira: Yeah, [we have to have] self-imposed deadlines.

Anand: Luckily you have the live shows so you can keep improving upon the recorded material.

Russ: How are these songs playing live? Do you feel that they're a lot different? Still evolving?

Chris: I think some of them are still kind of evolving. Some of them are totally different. But it's still really early on touring on this album. We haven't really toured on this album in a major way yet.

Anand: Sometimes what works as a seventh song on an album doesn't work at all in a live setting. So you might have to stretch out a song or put a new, exciting beat over the song.

Russ: Definitely a dancier vibe on this album here and there. Was that a concerted effort going in?

Ira: Yeah, I mean we have to play this music for the next year, two years, so it was conscious for us. We want to enjoy playing it night after night.

Anand: When we made the first album we didn't know how much we would be touring so more down-tempo songs filled the flow of that album but this time we didn't feel like playing those types of songs live.

Chris: It felt like we needed to do something different in contrast to the last album. Something a little more electronic. up-tempo, try to mix in dancey kind of sounds with the weird other s**t we've got going on. We get accused of being very 80s but I don't think we are.

Anand: We took some inspiration from the 80s but also the 90s dance stuff that's kind of laughed at like Haddaway and The Real McCoy. These songs that you listen to know and go, oh, this gets me so pumped up - 'What is Love?' (all laugh).

Posted 02-15-10 by Russ Borris

Tags Audio-Video, Audio-Video, In Studio, In-Studio, Blog