This is fine.
Grouplove are a band that grabbed our attention last year with their debut EP featuring ATH top 50 song “Colours”. Since that time, the band has been busy with a UK tour and the prep work getting ready to release their debut LP later this year. In their hectic schedule, lead singer Christian Zucconi answered some of our questions about his band and their upcoming appearance at SXSW. Follow the jump for Christian’s answers.
Before the band release their record on Trouble in Mind Records, they’ll be hitting up Austin for what we hope is a show that comes as advertised: loud, fun rock n’ roll. We chatted up with the band before they head our way, so check out what they’ve got to say.
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.
Long have we supported the guy sin Colourmusic, and as they get ready to release their new record, My _______ is Pink, we were excited to get a minute of their time before they head down to Austin for SXSW. Here’s some solid answers from the gentlemanly Colin.
Make no mistake about it, The Great Nostalgic are easily one of our favorite up and coming local bands. What with an appearance on our album’s of the year list in 2009, labeled as Austin album of the year, and major exposure here, it’s easy to see we dig their music. In our quest to let the world know more about TGN, we recently sat down with leading man and primary songwriter Abram Shook to discuss the current state of his band. You’ll be happy to hear that they are still going strong and getting ready to release their sophomore LP on the world. Follow the jump for more.
Keeping up with some of our previews for the upcoming crazy SXSW festival, today we’ll focus on up and coming band Secret Cities. We fell in love with these guys last year when they released their debut LP Pink Graffiti and have been following them ever since. Lucky for us, band member Charlie Gokey was kind enough to answer some questions about his band and their upcoming sophomore effort. Follow the jump for his responses.
Here’s another one of our great SXSW interviews with Violens, who’ve already had a good year with the release of Amoral. Get to know the band below.
Continuing on with our coverage of established SXSW bands and their current state affairs today, we take a look at Australian outfit An Horse. We sent over some of our SXSW oriented questions to Kate Cooper who represents ½ of the band. Follow the jump for her sweet responses.
As we get closer to SXSW, we hope to have more great interviews for you all. Here is one from our favorite act of late, The Fresh & Onlys. We were lucky enough to grab a hold of bassist Shayde before the band heads our way. Read on ya’ll.
ATH: So you’re headed to Austin for SXSW, and we know you’ve been here before. So what’s the first thing you guys have to do, aside from the business side of things, once you pull into town?
Shayde: Finding a place to sleep or camp out is always a challenge during SXSW. We’ll probably going door to door looking for some Texas hospitality.
ATH: What do you guys think of SXSW? For you as a band, is it just like a great big party? Are there bands you’re excited to see, or friends from the road? Or is it all business…promoting the band?
Shayde: It always feels like a family reunion. All the bands and people that you get to know from doing music are all there so you end up partying more than usual. There’s never been a feeling of doing “business” for us there. It’s just pure fun.
ATH: There are literally thousands of bands coming to town for SXSW. What’s the one thing you want to tell our readers that will make your band stand out above the rest?
Shayde: I’ve never been a good salesman. But you know where it’s at.
ATH: You released the excellent Play It Strange last year, and you always seem to be working on releasing some sort of new material. Is there anything coming down the wire in 2011 from Fresh and Onlys?
Shayde: We have a 5 song EP coming out on Sacred Bones called “Secret Walls”. We plan to record the next record between now and June. It’s gonna be a monster.
ATH: Along those same lines, due to the high volume of output from the band, how do you guys continue to stay motivated to write new material? Is there one principal songwriter, or is it more of a collective effort?
Shayde: The songs varie in origin. Tim and I are always challenging each other and that keeps it interesting. It’s always exciting to see what Wymond and Kyle bring to the table when we show them new songs. That’s really where the magic happens. We’re far from being dried up as far as songs go. We keep getting closer and closer to what we do. That’s what inspires us most. I love it.
ATH: What are your favorite songs to play live? Are there songs you would absolutely never play live? Why or why not?
Shayde: Waterfall is always great to play live. People are familiar with it and it feels like such a thick song when we play it. I can really feel that one penetrating the crowd. I feel that way about Invisible Forces or Peacock and Wing as well. There are several songs that we’ve never been able to get a grip on. It’s okay though. There are plenty more lying around and many more to come. It’s never good to force a song live. Too many bands do that and it’s painful to watch.
ATH: If your band were an animal, what animal would you be? Don’t be a kitten, please don’t be a kitten.
Shayde: I love kittens but we are definitely not a kitten. Platypus. Definitely.
Thanks to Shayde for taking out the time to answer our questions, and to the fabulous Nick Dierl for helping make this work.
ATH: You’ve got a new album coming out, Actor-Caster. How will this album compare with the work/sound of Con Law? Did you try any new tricks this time around?
Grant: This album is a little more cohesive than Con Law. The songs hang together a little better. I thought that the diversity of that record was one of its strong points, but we wanted to make this new record more of a unit than a collection of different influences. Not too many new tricks. I think we’ve gotten better and more confident at producing our demos. The demos we came in with for Actor-Caster were very close to what ended up on the record. A lot of the actual tracks from the demos made it onto the final record, so I think that reflects the fact that we’re getting closer to honing in on exactly what we want at an earlier stage in the writing process. As a result of that, I can hear that the performances are stronger and more confident, the vocals are stronger and better performances. We didn’t really worry about whether or not we could even make a record, which was something that we struggled with on the first one.
ATH: As a band that hails from New Orleans, how does the city’s music history influence your music, or do you tend to work against that history, choosing to create your own sound entirely?
Grant: It’s not a direct influence nor is it an anti-influence that we actively try to work against. That is not to say that we don’t appreciate traditional New Orleans music. Very much the opposite, Ted and I have spent a lot of our time in New Orleans going to see bands and musicians play traditional New Orleans music, especially in our high school years. Specifically The Meters, Art Neville, Irma Thomas, Rebirth Brass Band. We are huge fans of the city and the kind of music that New Orleans is famous for, we just don’t try to play it.
ATH: At this point in your career, where are you guys hoping to go, either musically, or popularity wise, etc.? Let it be known, we’re thinking you should be huge.
Grant: Thank you. We also think that we should be huge. I just read online that LCD Soundsystem instantly sold out their final show at Madison Square Garden. We will feel like justice has been done when we can instantly sell out the Louisiana Superdome instantly, which holds about 80,000. We would also like to be the first band to play a concert from the top of Mount Everest which we would broadcast over the web for all to see. We are currently talking to some folks at WFMU in New York about sponsoring that concert for us.
ATH: What are you looking forward to about your trip to Austin for SXSW? Are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing? Sites or restaurants you have to hit up?
Grant: We’re playing a Force Field party on Wednesday 3/16 that I heard Lower Dens will be on also, we are admirers of their stuff so I hope that rumor is true. The Park The Van showcase at Mi Casa Cantina on 3/18 is going to be insane. We’re playing with Floating Action, The Spinto Band, Giant Cloud, Brass Bed and Empress Hotel. And that place is not a big venue so I know it’s going to be packed and it’s going to be so fun.
We really love Austin, we were there in August recording the Trust EP and we just fell in love with it. I can’t wait to get back. I will go straight back to Maria’s Taco Xpress on S. Lamar, Home Slice Pizza on S. Congress, we love Club De Ville and I can’t wait to go hang out there again. I’m getting really excited thinking about it!
ATH: You guys are a band who has this huge sound on record. In the live setting, do you think that you’re album transfers the way you want it to? Are there things you wish you had on hand to boost the sound, or things you wish you could leave out?
Grant: We have been tinkering with the formula of our live show for a couple of years now and I feel like we finally got something that I think is translating the songs really well to the live setting. At this point we’re playing the songs very faithfully to the recorded versions. We added a fifth member to the lineup so that we can fit in more of the parts and we’ve also added a couple of trumpets for all the shows we’ve done this year so far and we intend to keep that going for the foreseeable future. It might get hard for all the SXSW events we are playing, but we are trying really hard to set that up the horns for SXSW right now. Our old drummer Tess has started her own band called Au Ras Au Ras and we replaced her with our friend Juston Stens who has a style of drumming that is much closer to the records that we’ve made. Including horns, we’ve had seven and eight people onstage at a time for all of these shows, so I feel like we’re getting to where we are finally able to really put a really full huge sound together for the live shows, which is fun.
ATH: You’re in Austin, you meet a random guy on the street, and you’re trying to convince him to make it out to your show. What do you say? How do you pull it off?
Grant: “Do you want to continue to live in the darkness of not having seen this Generationals show? Come with us into the back yard of Sidebar, we will change your fucking life right now.”
Thanks ATH! You guys are radical.
ATH: No, thank you, Grant.
Generationals will be playing at Mi Casa Cantina on 3/18 @ 1 AM
