SXSW Interview: She Sir

So we here at ATH are continuing on with our coverage of SXSW with a bit of a focus on a couple of our favorite local bands.  Today we’ll take a quick look at up and comers in the Austin scene She Sir.  Leading man and founding member Russell Karloff was nice enough to answer a few of our prying questions via email about his band.  Follow the jump for his answers.

ATH: So you guys recently released your LP “Ev’ry Thing In Paris” earlier this year to mostly positive reviews.  Do you feel like the album was a success?  Would you maybe go back and change anything?  I know it included some old songs and some new songs.

Russell: I do feel the record was a success, although it almost didn’t happen.  When Happy Prince approached us about wanting to put out our next record, we were thrilled, but having just released our “Yens” 7″ of new material, work was nowhere near finished for our next record. In light of this, we realized that the real opportunity in working with a partner like Happy Prince was the capability to introduce She Sir to a wider market: to get the music out there and get people interested in what’s next from this American shoegaze band. We found that packaging our first record, “Who Can’ Say Yes” -which originally was a domestically focused release- along with the newer songs from the 7″ has produced a very positive response!

ATH: In the same vain, the LP was a mixture of a few old songs, new songs, and some songs from your EP “Yens” released earlier in the year.  Do you for-see the band recording and writing a huge album as a whole next time?  Do you guys currently have anything in the works?

Russell: Our next release is planned to be a full-length and writing for the record is currently in full swing. This will be a great collection of brand new She Sir songs and ideas that we are getting very excited about. Personally, I’ve found great joy in writing for the longplay format: in the freedom it grants and the excruciating continuity it demands of its writer. The next She Sir record will explore one or two underlying motifs and, from song to song, reveal and contrast them gradually. The record will released by Happy Prince in Asia and Europe, but we are still looking for a North American label that will be a good fit for us to support the release domestically! We anticipate an early 2012 release.

ATH: I’ve always wanted to ask about your popularity in Japan.  You’ve got a Japanese label, some obvious Asian influences in your album art work and some moderate popularity over there.  Care to share the story behind that or to what do you attribute the success in that market?

 

Russell: Just a bunch of things that fell into place for us: right place, right time kind of thing. Actually several Japanese labels and distributors showed interest in She Sir after our first record was released…we thought that was cool, but we kind of forgot about all that in the intervening years. It wasn’t until our 7″ came out that we recalled the Japanese scene. There is a big market for this type of music over there. Apparently, She Sir and our Austin peers Ringo Deathstarr are both in some big, authoritative Japanese disc guide published over there for “must have” shoegaze titles. And it’s actually a huge coincidence that the album artwork was Asian influenced as it was designed before we signed with Happy Prince!

ATH: Having now lived in Austin for awhile, what do you feel like the current music scene is like here?  Have any bands you feel like we really need to be paying attention to?  I feel like it’s really on the up and up right now.

Russell: Being a part of the Austin music scene for over 5 years, I personally feel like the scene is cyclical. Some years, there are bands that just get huge, play big events and really engage the scene. That’s great to see happen because fans just come out of the woodwork and it really shows Austin for what it is: a town with a population of music fanatics. Other years it seems like almost no bands capture the towns attention. Generally, Austin leans toward garage-y sounds…whether it’s garage punk, garage psych, or garage dreampop. You need to check out these Austin bands: Boy Friend (Sleep∞Over), Boys Life and Ringo Deathstarr!

ATH: So you live in Austin and are obviously quite familiar with the SXSW craziness.  What advice can you offer to an upstart band to survive the week?

Russell: I would advise an upstart that SXSW is a marathon and not a sprint. Don’t lose it the first night or it could make for a very long four days. Invest in comfortable footwear. And start adding Red Bull to all drinks toward the end of the festival. This town fills up to the brim with other peoples’ bands, but it also fills up with the best music fans in the world…there are great opportunities if you look for them.

 

ATH: Have any bands you’re excited to see during the week?

Russell: I’m sure I’ll leave out some really great bands, but the first bands that come to mind are Low, Memoryhouse, Beach Fossils, No Joy, and Yoko Ono, of course.

Thanks again Russell for the time!  Word on the street is they may also be playing our SXSW showcase Thursday night…