08/27 Oxford Collapse Show @ Mohawk
Austin Town Hall recently sat down with Matt Pace of Oxford Collapse before their Wednesday night show at Mohawk. Matt tells us about the band’s unique name, the state of music in NYC and what the band eats on the road. Full interview and pictures from the show after the jump
ATH: How did this band get together? Were you in other bands before, etc.?
Matt Pace: This is essentially the first “real band” for everyone involved. I was living in London when I was in college and my roommate and I decided that we really wanted to play some music, but we didn’t really have any resources living overseas. When we got back to New York, we found Dan, who had actually never played drums before seriously. He had just kind of stolen bits and pieces of this drum set from his high school. Also, our original bass player learned how to play bass kind of like a guitar. We were all approaching it from the “wrong way” I guess. The guy I roomed with in London then ended up moving to Sweden so Dan and I decided to do something more than making noise and make music someone would actually want to listen to. We eventually found Adam, who had been in other bands in New York, and we started trying the serious route.
ATH: You mentioned living in London. Where does the name Oxford Collapse come from?
MP: We lived in this building off Oxford street which is sort of in central London and we were college students studying marxism and socialism, and all those sorts of things. When you’re an idealistic college student, you see Oxford street, Tottenham, and Cort Road as this center of crass commercialism like Times Square or something like that. We always thought what more would you want to see than the collapse of Oxford Street. For the first couple of months, we were a sort of a pseudo-political act but we realized none of us had the heart to keep it going in that direction. So we’ve regretted it ever since.
ATH: How has being on Sub Pop been different than Kanine Records? Has it helped you make a name for yourself, etc.?
MP: Kanine records was a very small label only run by two people. In fact our record was the first full length album that they had put out by a band on that label. It was a lot of growing, baby steps, being a guinea pig and learning how to put out records. When we were done with our two record deal with Kanine, we wanted to keep doing this thing so we made a list of labels to get in touch with. Sub Pop wasn’t even on this list because we didn’t even think that was attainable. Then they got in touch with us out of the blue totally unsolicited and wanted to know the deal with our music and our label. Down the road, when we put out our third record Remember the Night Parties, a vast majority of people had never heard of us at that point. People thought that was our first record, when it was actually our third and it created a lot of buzz. That’s all due to Sub Pop’s visibility and being a trusted brand. On top of the fact that the people who work there are really cool and easy to get along with. They treat everyone very well.
ATH: I hear We Are Scientists are huge in the UK, what was it like touring with “rock stars” or such a big name? What has it done for your career?
MP: They are HUGE in the UK. The places we were playing with them were between 2500 and 3000 capacity, sold out, and that was a small tour for them in the UK. For us, it was hands down the biggest thing we had done. They bring their own lights and their own PA to every show so they had this huge Mack truck to carry all that equipment to every show. It was a total first class operation. We were tagging behind them in our little mini-van, driving ourselves everywhere. We’ve toured with them over here and they play venues about the size of Mohawk or about the size of places we would play. Their fan base here is a little more open to hearing new things, but over there they are a more commercial or a “radio band”. Fans in the UK were there to see just them and weren’t really interested in an opening act. We would only play for 30-45 minutes and our goal for every night was to win the crowd over. I think we did a pretty good job of it. We did sell a lot of merch after shows and added a lot of myspace friends in the process. We are going back over there on our own UK tour so we’ll see how that goes. It did get our name out there.
ATH: You guys are from New York. What’s music like in NYC these days?
MP: There’s a lot of music in NYC nowadays, maybe even almost too much music. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a band, especially in Brooklyn. I would almost say that the days of the Brooklyn “scene” are over and even a farce. Just like every city they have some great bands and some really bad bands. That said, I wonder what it would be like if we came up in another smaller city with more a sense of community among the bands.
ATH: What’s the best band that nobody’s heard of coming out of New York?
MP: Their are actually a bunch. This guy named Daniel Dimaggio has a band called Home Blitz that are great. They’re sort of crude, low-fi pop but done with this kind of record collector, geek perspective. He’s got great taste and is really good.
ATH: Your new album feels a bit different from the others, like a bit more focused. Not that the others weren’t, but can you explain the change, or the lack of some of the atmospheric noise on the new album?
MP: I think the longer you play with the same people, the more comfortable you get and you learn how to work together and challenge yourself. You don’t rest on your laurels and you do interesting things to be creative. Even though we recorded way more songs than we used on the album, the idea this time was to come up with a cohesive record with a beginning, a middle and an end. I know we tried to do that on the last one too, but in selecting what songs to use for the record we were able to come up with a much more cohesive album that’s more satisfying to listen to from beginning to end. We are very pro album but the idea of creating a great album is a dying art form. It wasn’t about picking the most awesome songs. It was about picking the songs that best compliment each other for a full length album.
ATH: For someone who hasnt heard the record, what does it sound like?
MP: It sounds like exuberance, heart break, and jumping into a swimming pool filled with those colored balls at Chuckie Cheese at the same time.
ATH: Why do you play music?
MP: The same reason why people choose to write books, or make movies, or be an accountant, or be a lawyer. Right now, it’s what I want to do. It’s my creative outlet. It’s the way that I found to be the most gratifying, in terms of being creative. I love the process of writing songs, recording them, seeing how they come together and hopefully being satisfied with the end product. I love playing our own music for people. I think it found me, rather than I decided on it.
ATH: You’ve been to Austin several times in the last few months. How have we treated you and are there any places you always visit when you are here?
MP: Every time we come back to Austin, we love it more and more. I’m going to be moving here at least temporarily for the next year starting in October still doing band related things in New York. We played the Mohawk in June and it was great. We actually played our very first show at SXSW in 2004 on this very stage (inside Mohawk stage) to absolutely no one. As far as places to go…Hut’s hamburgers is always a place that we like to go as often as possible.
ATH: Late night munchies on the road… tacos or burgers or neither?
MP: I’d say all or A and B. We love to eat and try regional things whenever we can. That’s why we like going to Hut’s and that Mexican place El Chilito. I’m probably a burger guy before tacos and burritos. Earlier in the tour, we actually tried this sausage in Louisiana called Boudain sausage that they make in the area with rice, green onions and pork. It was phenomenal stuff. So we will go out of our way to try something local.
ATH: What’s the worst thing about being on the road?
MP: Sometimes it’s tough if you have several bummer shows in a row, and you’re not coming home for a while. That can be kind of rough. Usually you’ve got to have a positive mental image about these things and realize you’re getting to tour the country playing music. For us, that outweighs any negative thing about the road.
ATH: What’s next for the band?
MP: Well we are creatively spent right now, so don’t expect a new album anytime soon. I know we’ll be releasing a very limited edition version of Bits on vinyl sometime maybe in October. Then we’ve got that UK tour after that. When the tour’s over, I guess we’ll sort of see what happens.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d like to get my ears around something that sounds like a ball pit at Chuckie Cheese. Jump on in and have a listen to the Louisiana sausage lovin’ band Oxford Collapse. Many Thanks to Matt and Sub Pop for the interview.