The Darcy’s, the Toronto rock quartet, recently released their new album, AJA and are starting their first U.S. tour. I caught up with guitarist/vocalist Jason Couse, the day before they headed to their first stop in California.

So how’s the touring circuit been?

Couse: It’s good. We haven’t really done this much year. We had one night off in Montreal, we then drove all the way through there and back, which was a nice taste for what was to come in the next two weeks. We’re just getting started for the season, and it’s going to be action adventure for sure.

Do you guys have a favorite song to play during shows?

Couse: Recently, we’ve been playing Home at Last off of AJA. It seems to be a good mood setter for the set.  Also, for us it helps us all connect to each other and feel warmed up and ready to cook for the rest of the time. That’s kind of the top track right now. 

Is Steely Dan one of your band’s main inspirations?

Couse: Yeah, in an indirect way. It’s kind of the music that we all grew up with our father’s playing in the car and they were like, “Listen to this! You will learn to love this one day.” The interesting thing about Steely Dan is there is a very lustrous shine to it that people find it hard to break through. It’s kind of mischievous sometimes. Learning it as kids, we kind of took it for granted.  It hasn’t necessarily influenced all the music we have made but it comes down to their attention to detail, and their constant reinvention we respect in a big way. 

What was your decision to release your album for free?

Couse: There are a lot of bands that are trying to put up music right now. Us, as a relatively young and new band, it’s really important that we try to maximize our exposure and grow as much as we can in our own way.  We try to have as many people as we can hear us, rather than make a couple dollars off a record. This way, we will be exposed to more people which is important to us because we didn’t work on AJA thinking about how much money we can make. Rather, it was us pouring ourselves into a creative project and trying to realize it was fully possible. After working that hard, you want people to hear it. You want it to be accessible to them. That’s what it’s made for, made for sharing. 

The tough thing about that is there’s a lot of resources going into a rock band including touring, traveling. You need a van with lots of equipment, time off work, etc. It’s gets tricky at a certain point, but it’s all with a greater purpose in mind. 

How does the crowd differ come Canada to the US?

Couse: We have yet to play a show in the US. Our first show will be in San Diego at the Casbah. Most of us have never been there at all, so we have four days to drive down from Ontario to San Diego. 

So is your name inspired by Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice?

Couse: Yes and no. We kind of stumbled into the name.  There was a point when we were all in English Literature class together and we were reading that book at the same time. Alot of the work that we were reading for that time period was kind of dry, but when we ended up reading that book, we found him as an interesting character. That’s something that kind of fell into place and all of a sudden, we had a different artistic idea and different lineup and aesthetic. It has been with us a long time.

How is his character present in your music?

Couse: I guess you could say it in that way. In general, his demeanor and aesthetic is aloof and cryptic.  He was well-dressed, chose his words cautiously, but yet quite the cutting guy.  He’s a cool dude. He knows that he has something to offer and the way he carries him self through that, although he comes across as arrogant, he is still modest in a way. I think all those are interesting qualities. We are similar in that we don’t want to give too much away. 

I love your music video, Don’t Bleed Me.  How did you guys come up with that?

Couse: Mike, the guy who directed it, had an apocalyptic scenario in the works for a while. He had been sitting on this idea and originally wanted to do it for a different song of ours. It was more fitting for Don’t Bleed Me and kind of through the process of us scouting locations and brainstorming different ideas to include in the video, there was a lot of discussion. Sometimes you have a video in mind when producing a song but there seems to be a massive gulf between what you write and when you work on the idea.

What’s the future for you guys?

Couse: Well AJA is fairly fresh, considering it just came out a couple weeks ago. We are going to be preparing for tour for a while, and also keeping busy with using our spare time for writing another album that’s coming along. We got a ton of ideas.

Pretty Good Dance Moves are about to release their new full length album, Limo, on February 7, which is divided between 8 different magical Movements.  Luckily, they have residency in New York City’s venue, Pianos, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to check them out.

Are you excited for the touring circuit?

PGDM: We are excited to get on the road and out of NYC for a minute. You know the best part about leaving is coming back. I’ve been locked in the studio all winter working a few different projects so it will be fun getting out with some PGDM tracks again.

What’s your favorite thing about being on tour?

PGDM: Meeting new people and playing every night. Good combo.

Can you talk about the 8 individual Movements in the album? 

PGDM: The record was originally supposed to be 1 track with no breaks but we decided we should give the option to skip around.

Did you ever have the urge to title the songs differently? 

PGDM: TNo, not at all actually. If we break the record up into “tracks” we can’t title them because then it would be defeat the purpose of what we are going for. We didn’t want to release singles but a full record to be listened to from cover to cover.

What are the main differences between Limo and PGDM EP? 

PGDM: The EP was just a handful of tracks we  picked from about a dozen that we recorded one winter.  The tracks all had there own thing and it was more synth popped. Limo has it’s own vibe. Originally, it was going to be an instrumental record (till Sabina blew us away). We didn’t go in trying to make songs, but just surrounded ourselves with Moogs, a prophet, Wurlitzer, bass guitar, drum set, sequencer, Juno etc… And whatever we had after weeks of tracking is what we would go with. Just experimented.

I love the playful theme of your video “Dancing Demons.” Do you have any ideas for upcoming videos?

PGDM: A 32 minute long music video directed by Antoine Wagner that’s shot here (in NYC) and in Paris. It’s the first video we didn’t do completely ourselves. It’s in the editing phase now, and it looks good.

What are the perks of being an electronic based band? 

PGDM: Hmmm, probably the best stuff we have ever recorded we have never released because it’s too “out.” We are saving it for a different project I guess. This band is great because it’s a collaborative project and we get to work with different people. My favorite artist/record is probably Edan’s “Primitive Plus.” We would love to step in that world next. That would be sick. Growing and getting better.

I have to ask, what would you say is your favorite dance move? 

PDGM: Copter.

Dallas Green aka City and Colour came through Terminal 5 in New York on his latest tour. This was the first City and Colour tour since the Alexisonfire breakup announcement, and also probably the biggest City and Colour US tour yet. Last time I spoke to Dallas Green was on Warped Tour 2009 when Alexisonfire was still going strong and they were touring in support of what would become their last record, Old Crows/Young Cardinals. Since then, City and Colour has blown up in America and they’ve played a variety of big shows including the big FYF Fest MWTX show at SXSW and Coachella. It was evident that night at Terminal 5 that City and Colour has come a long way since the acoustic tunes that Dallas Green used to put out and play on the side from his original post-hardcore band.

When I first saw you play as City and Colour, you were supporting Tegan and Sara at the Music Box sometime around 2008. What’s changed for City and Colour in America since then?

Something that would be completely different would be that we have a band. I’ve also put out another record. Quit another band, got older, got a little grey hair, haha but that’s ok.

Do you have any plans or desire to do something more with Tegan and Sara in the future? Maybe a record?

I desire to be with them every day of my life because they are two of the best people I’ve ever met. But, I can’t.

The set you played at Coachella this year was much different than what I originally saw at the Music Box. The new album is much more full sounding than Bring Me Your Love was. What brought on the change?

There were definitely songs that I heard as a full band. When I demoed them, I demoed them without instruments and I listened to it and thought, “Yeah, I like that.” I didn’t want to make a record folk because that’s what people thought it should be. That’s not what I do. I write songs that I want to hear and make me happy first and hopefully people can listen to them and enjoy them as well.

Tell me about the decision to end Alexisonfire and do City and Colour full time.

It was not my decision to end Alexisonfire. I quit Alexisonfire and subsequently, they decided to break up because another member had an opportunity to do something else and the other guys just decided not to continue. Well I spent 10 years doing that and 5 of those years I was doing this at the same time. It just got to be too much for me. My heart was leaning more towards writing and touring on these songs, rather than it was trying to find new ways to be in a genre of music that I didn’t want to be in. I was struggling to find ideas for new songs and I wasn’t enjoying the touring because I knew I had this and wanted to try to fully put everything I had into this. So many things were happening with City and Colour without me putting all of my efforts. I thought, if I don’t do this now, then ill resent everything that I’ve done looking back on it now. Now I can appreciate the 10 years of being in that band.

Are you going to miss playing loud and energetic shows?

Occasionally, yeah. There are some pretty loud moments in the City and Colour show. Right now, this is where I need to be. Especially, with my voice; I feel like this is how I should be singing. When I was screaming at the top of my lungs of for an hour and a half it just didn’t feel that’s what I should be doing. I was always worried and it was always a struggle. Whereas now when I go out, I can just enjoy it.

The breakup announcement on the Alexisonfire website mentioned the possibility of a round of 10th anniversary farewell shows. Any possibility of an epic Gallows/City and Colour/Alexisonfire tour bill?

I would 100% be a part of it, and no I don’t see it happening.

Do you prefer the frontman role or the supporting role you had previously?

Well, if you notice, I don’t stand in the middle I stand out to the side. I have no desire in the middle and be a frontman. I know the band is my thing, but I don’t ever see it in that way. Some musicians love being in the middle and having that limelight. We actually tried it on this tour in Detroit. I stood in the middle and we were going to change everything around. Next night, we were like “That was pretty good, right?” Then I was like, “I’m going to go back to the right,” and everyone was like, “Yeah, get back to the right, it’s way cooler. I think of guys like Ryan Adams or Ray LaMontagne where they always stand out to the side too. I know it’s mainly my songs, but I have this band of my friends and I have been standing on stage right for 10 years.

From what I’ve been told, Canadian artists can get money from the government to tour and make music videos. Do you think this plays a big role in helping out smaller bands? How has it helped you throughout your career?

It helped Alexisonfire because one of the main things is called VideoFact that apply to make a video. We made a video in 2002 and it got played on so MuchMusic,(Canada’s MTV) and it got on this fan-voted show and reached number one. This was back when that genre of music was not even remotely popular. The fact that we were able to do that on this mainstream television show where we got to make this video of these screaming kids running around, was amazing. That was a huge development for us and our fan base in Canada. It allowed for so many kids across Canada to see what we were doing. We made tons and tons of videos now and it was helped payed for by the government. They also helped us tour. Alexis was huge touring band and toured everywhere. That’s why on alot of Canadian records that come out, you will see a note that says “Funded by the Canadian Government.” It’s a lot easier for us to do that because our population is 33 million which is the size of California. It’s great to able to come from a society where they help the arts. It is probably most of the reason why I can sit here in this interview with you.

Why do you think America has never created some sort of program like this?

American has so many people to take care. In Canada, there’s only 30 million of us in a giant country. That’s why Canadians are so nice, because there’s not enough of us to get on each other’s nerves hah.

What’s in the future for City and Colour? New album? More touring?

I’m going to go tour Canada in the Winter. The cold weather and snow don’t bother me because I’ve grown up there. It can get tough because shows get canceled and things like that just happen.

Paper Diamond is the multi-talented artist who runs a label, design firm, and clothing store (Elm and Oak).  This Colorado based DJ is mostly well known for his energetic beats, high synths, and rich vocals.  I caught up with him before be played at New York City’s Webster Hall.

Tell me about Elm and Oak.

PD: The start of it means Exclusive Limited Merchandise and One of A Kinds. My friend started it in Virginia back in the day and it was his art company and design firm.  As a musician I was always repping the clothes and everything.  I’m a designer as well, and do a lot of typography and set of type design.  We decided instead of starting a new company, we would make Elm and Oak the hub for everything. Now, Elm and Oak is a design firm, a record label, a clothing store, and we have a boutique on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado. We design clothing, manage bands, make videos, and do photography.

To me, all those things are interconnected.  If you play guitar, you might as well play bass and drums. If you take pictures, you do editing and video.  For us, Elm and Oak is a community of people supporting each other to be able to live as artists and support themselves. 

I love the symbol representing Elm and Oak…

PD: Yeah, it’s the two axes. We are cutting down the tree with the axes and it represents the rise of being hard working, sharp, and on point. Not only is it a company, but people treat it like a family. People even have Elm and Oak tattoos. It’s our crew. 

How do you scout out the artists on the label?

PD: A lot of the artists are close friends of mine. The band Two Fresh is on my label and the band Charub is one I’m working hard on. The people I put on are the people I’m passionate about and the people I believe in.  Its been really cool to help these artists develop their careers.

I know you are on Pretty Lights Music label as well. Do you ever find it hard keeping them (Elm and Oak/PLM) divided?

PD: It’s not hard because it’s two musical families and groups. I support PLM as much as I support those on Elm and Oak. Everyone on PLM are Derek’s friends. He cares about the music and it all makes sense, but at the same time there are people around me that I want to have.  He has his friends in his circle, and I have my friends in my circle. We all just cross pollinate. It’s great for everyone.

What’s the electronic scene like in Colorado compared to LA and New York?

PD: It’s crazy in Colorado just as much as NYC and LA.  In CO, thousands of people are coming out to see acts and it rivals the other music scenes. As far as the electronic scene goes, Denver is a mecca for electronic music. The mainstream press is just starting to catch on and many monumental things are coming along with it. There are many musicians that want to express themselves from CO and if you have real talent, you are able to establish yourself.

What are your thoughts behind free music? I downloaded your album for free!

PD: Moving forward with technology and embracing it is how people stick with the times if you are going to continue being a musician.  I embrace it and encourage people on my label to put out free music because I know how my friends and I get music.  It’s about spreading happiness, expressing myself artistically, and making myself happy through doing shows.  I don’t care if people get it for free, or if they steal it, or if they pay for it. 

Speaking of technology, I noticed you play on an iPad during your shows…

PD: I can control on my computer wirelessly from an iPad from a layout I designed and it makes it so I can get more involved. When people are getting hyped up, I can get hyped up and I don’t have to stand hunched over the tables. I’m able to control the different parts of my show from the drums, to the bass to the synths, and it’s all multi-tracks so I can mix different parts of different songs.  I never know where I’m going to go with it, so it makes it fun for me every night.

I know where it’s going to start, but I follow the crowd and see what’s going to happen. I have every song I ever made in my files so I can go wherever I want.  If I think a crowd is feeling more dubstep, I can play another one of my songs, then move into some hip-hop tempo stuff or moombahton, or electro-house.  I’m able to play a wide array of tracks with different people because I have so much music and I’m inspired by all things. 

Sometimes I’ll write a song and that hasn’t been released yet and test it out on the crowd.  If it doesn’t work with the crowd, I’ll go back and literally change it before the record is out. My new record I’m working on is Paragon, and I’m about 6 out of 8 tracks done. I’ve been able to play alot of these tracks and go back and work on them after a show, so the record is almost road tested.

What are you listening to these days?

PD: Little Dragon, I would love to work with her someday. I’ve also been listening to a lot of electronic music like Feed Me, Porter Robinson, Zed, and Cherub.  I listen to records all the time too.  I’m a record collector so I still go digging for music and keep it open. I love all kinds of music.

Did you ever sample from any of the records you have?

PD: I didn’t much on the newest record (Levitate).  The one I’m currently working on is mostly synth work. I spend so many years doing the Alex B thing, which was kind of hip-hop sample based stuff.  For me, I’m just trying to keep it open, and not get locked in certain things.

Anything we should know about your future plans?

PD: I have a new album, new singles, and new videos in the works.  There are some new releases from Cherub and Two Fresh. The clothing line constantly has new clothes that are coming out and our store is open 7 days a week.  Music, art, and traveling is what I do all the time. I’m just going to keep grinding and making new music and making new art. Keepin’ it fresh. 

Well said Paper Diamond, well said.

Chuckie, the internationally known DJ hailing from Holland, is blowin’ up the speakers with his new track, “Who is ready to jump,” and is quickly carving a wide avenue in the city of the electronic industry.  Chuckie’s self-made label, event company, iPhone App, and musical movement, Dirty Dutch Music is now a staple within the industry.

Want to talk about Dirty Dutch music?

Chuckie: I wanted to do my own club tour with like 300 gigs a year and I kind of got bored by the way the promotors set up things. I wanted to decide how I set my own entertainment and how the DJ’s play and the line up. So I started to do this DD party, then I did a tour with like 50 dates in total. I basically did it and it succeeded.  Infact, it got sold out three years in a row.

Now Dirty Dutch has propelled into a new genre with a Dutch-esque flare…

Chuckie: It was successful because it had a different feel in the compared to whatever was happening within the whole dance industry at that moment. It got started in the right direction. So before you knew it there was a whole movement that started globally. That’s the best thing you could have. Then people started seeing it as a new musical genre. That’s unbelievable.

Dirty Dutch even has it’s own iPhone App called Blackout…

Chuckie: Everywhere I have a theme for the DD parties and this year I’ve decided to take it more Blackout, all black everything, inspired by Jay-Z’s wise words. Also, in the wintertime, if you throw a party, it’s hard to find clothes in white. I know, when I wear all black I feel a little bit more dark, mysterious, and sharp.  It’s going to be really awesome.  Also, the line up is kind of different than we normally do. There is a different international line-up and we will have artists like Knife Party and more.  Every year I have set my game up as far as the party and I have to keep the people interested. It’s hard to keep people interested so I always try to find something different or at least try different angle.

The new track, “Who’s Ready to Jump?” is an ode to all those wild U.S. electo-lovers.  What are your thoughts when a new song releases?

Chuckie: I made that record and sampled my own voice from EDC Las Vegas. I wanted to do something with that phrase because every time a beat drops, if you are playing in a U.S. festival, they always jump like crazy.  I wanted to do a record made for that kind of crowd.  It’s really a special record to me.  As for working on remixes, I have one from Dillon Francis, Skrillex, and 12^th Planet who are already playing, so that’s really good to see. They kind of accepted it. That’s really good for me because I saw alot of people were talking about it on the blogs.  The moment it came out, I got so much love from the blogs and everybody was supporting it so I was really happy about that.

I noticed you always wear hats, do you have a favorite or lucky hat?

Chuckie: No, I don’t have a favorite hat because I keep on losing my hats all the time so every time I get a chance to buy a new hat, I buy a new hat. Right now it’s all about the snapbacks! It’s the hip-hop in me.  I used to be a hip-hop DJ in Holland. At certain point, I converted from a Hip-Hop DJ to a House crowd.  People in the hip-hop scene were not as accepting and my managers suggested I take my cap off when I play at a house party.  But that makes me, me. Finally, they accepted me with my hat. I think it would be weird if I DJ’ed without a hat. 

I was reading your touring schedule and basically you are performing every night. How do you do it?

Chuckie: I like DJing alot so the more better. The time when I’m behind the decks, even when I’m tired, it’s just adrenaline and this is what really keeps me alive and going. I could be tired right before a set but the moment I get on, adrenaline takes over and it’s pure energy. That’s how I do it. Also, you have to know when to take your rest and no where my limits are so I don’t go too crazy.

I’ve seen you play and your opening act is quite the theatrical spectacle.  Did you come up with that?

Chuckie: You always do your research and a little homework. You try to find something that makes a big entrance. It’s always a preparation and something you give extra thought, especially if it’s a big show. When I prepare something, there’s like a 1000 kids filming on YouTube, so it better be good.  Every year when I do the DD event as well, I’ve got 30,000 people in front of me and I do the intro and half the room is filming it and I know that it’s going to end up on YouTube. 

What are the craziest shows you’ve been to?

Chuckie: It’s all so different but I like the festivals. I enjoyed this and last year’s EDC. Last year, it was in LA and 100,000 people were in front of me. I literally just came off a flight and it was my birthday so it was a special day for me. Also, this year in Vegas, 30 minutes before I started, there was nobody in that area I had to play at. Then 5 minutes before I got on, it just filled up over the place and I had a really good crowd. Generally I like to play the stage. It’s so diverse everywhere I go. 

What do you think is next for electronic music?

Chuckie: It’s evolving so fast. I think right now, the direction is going off course. Alot of people get introduced to dance music in a different way. Some people discover it by the internet, some by a record Pit Bull did, or a record Usher did. Every one has their own experience with discovering electronic music. At the end of the day, 5 years from now, there will be many of people exposed to our music. Then, if you are really interested in music, you are going to look for more underground unknown stuff.  All music genres goes through this process and then goes back to the original form.  People are going to try and discover something new about the music, so it will continue to become strong and stronger. Normally what happens is, when the music crosses over to pop and people get tired of it, people don’t want to deal with the commercial house anymore.  In general, we have a strong background as far as electronic underground music goes, so it’s here to stay.

The rest of this year (as well as in 2012) Chuckie has residency at NYC’s Lavo. Check him out!

I Love You Digitalism…I mean, Dude

If you haven’t already listened to Digitalism’s new album, I Love You, Dude, you immediately need to do so.  Several remixes of their songs have already been made, and the album has received high appraisals within the blogosphere.  Their single “Forrest Gump” featuring Julian Casablancas has already been added to my Favorites playlist.  It’s one of the many great tunes on their album. 

In terms of music, what’s a good and a bad thing about coming from Germany?

For us and our music, it was good growing up in Germany.  We’ve always been surrounded by techno and electronic music since we were born. There is a long tradition for electronic music, it’s a very technical country and well-known for its engineering and precision.  Just look at Kraftwerk: They started many things but never really saw themselves as musicians, more as “audio engineers.” That is probably the downside: People are too cold or uptight sometimes, or over think things instead of going crazy.

Just curious, in your new album title, I Love You, Dude, were you influenced by the title of the film, I Love You Man? Where did the name of the album stem from?

We came up with the title while we were on a forced break from the album process end of last year in Australia. Lots of people use that phrase there, and it got stuck in our heads.  Just out of a mood we decided to use that as the album title instead of something like “Digital Universe” or “The Return …”, any of that epic stuff. “I Love You, Dude” was meant completely void of any context, and we knew that people would have huge question marks on their faces. We like doing daft things, and we also like to surprise people and not maintain any clichés about us. Looking back now that the album is finished, the title even kind of makes sense because this record is much friendlier than the first one and it’s more about relationships and friendships. The title hasn’t got anything to do with the film though.

What do you think the biggest changes in the electronic industry have been since you have first started? 

The biggest change is the explosion of electronic music in the U.S.  Nearly everything’s electronic now, even Hip-Hop, and DJs and producers like David Guetta are massive.  Artists are lining up to work with them. Look at Skrillex, who is now working with a metal band. It’s great to see that our type of music is now generally accepted “as music” by the people. You would have never heard any electronic music in the charts a few years ago.  Dance labels that have been closed down are re-opening, and there’s more and more electronic festivals and parties popping up everywhere.  It’s all become more “mainstream,” which of course can be a sell-out thing too.

It seems most of your tracks have a heavy indie rock influence to them, do you ever find both yourselves gravitating more towards rock or more towards electronic influences?

We always try to keep the balance in our music and on our albums. Originally, we come from a techno, dance and electronic background, but over the years we really got into indie and punk. You know, we started the band because as DJs we were bored from the records everyone bought and played back then. We wanted to do something different; thus, started making our own edits and shifting our sound spectrum more towards an alternative side, so we included lots of guitar stuff in our DJ-sets.  Since then, we’re hooked up. This mix also means that we can add more song structure and have more choice in terms of the direction of our music.  Whenever we get too excited about one side of the spectrum, there’s a contra-reaction that drags us back towards the other one. For instance, we just finished a remix for our friends from Who Made Who that’s totally epic 90’s dance, as opposed to our album, which is really song-heavy.

When remixing a song, what are some of the elements in a song that you look for? (i.e. pitch, BPM, etc)

Usually we look for the pitch, the rest doesn’t really matter. We’ve changed the BPM of original track loads in our remixes. BPM has to be our choice so we can fit everything around our idea. It has to make sense though of course and should not sound funny. When we do a remix we only take very little of the original and then build a new Digitalism song or track around it.  The approach is kind of the same as when we make an own new song.

What’s your favorite remix you have done?

At the moment, it is probably the one we’ve done for our own single “Circles.” We love them all, it’s just because it’s new. Legendary was the one we’ve done for Depeche Mode’s “Never Let me Down Again,” because we changed it into a heavy, distorted thing from a ballad… And they loved it!

How do you choose what songs have lyrics and what one’s don’t? With the songs without lyrics, do you ever question whether they should have them?

Once we start questioning, we know that it’s time to add a vocal melody and lyrics. It’s always gut-decisions. Some songs are complete because they might have a prominent element that would replace a vocal layer, but then others just scream for something to complete them. It’s hard to say really.

Do either of you have a favorite song in I Love You, Dude?

That’s a rotation.

If you guys could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

We don’t know, our favorites change daily. We don’t have the one idol or something.

Don’t miss out on Digitalism when they come New York City Friday, December 2^nd to Webster Hall!

? of the Kraak and Smaak trio performed at NYC’s DROM and I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the members, Mark Kneppers.  I was very excited to see their set and especially hear my all-time favorite number, Squeeze Me.  When I heard that track drop, I was dancing like no one was watching. When you are crazily dancing amid bliss, that’s how you know the DJ has done a great job.

Tell me about the origins of your name…

Mark: It’s always difficult explaining when you are not from Holland, but it’s a twisted proverb. It means literally, “crunchy and tasty” but the proverb means “crunchy NOR tasty.” If something tastes really bad and has no taste, in Dutch you say, “This food doesn’t taste nor crunchy nor tasty.” That’s the proverb we twisted said, “crunchy and tasty.”

How did you get the idea for the flip-book themed video for Squeeze Me?

Mark: We had history with the video directors because they did the video clips for Keep Me Home and Money in the Bag.  We are lucky because it fit well.  We gave them the tune, they started thinking, came up with several ideas, and at some point we decided, this is the one.

How do you find your vocalists?

Mark: Sometimes we know the vocalists because when we are performing and traveling, we meet people.  We look for a voice that moves and touches us. That is always what we are looking for.  For instance, Lee Fields has such a voice that’s real, and that’s what we like. Sometimes the vocalists perform live at our shows.  Hopefully next time we will be performing live in the states, especially in New York.

Do you still sample as much as you use to?

Mark: We started as sample based.  Boogie Nights is full of samples. The record company said to us, “Guys for the next records, try not to use a lot of samples.”  Generally, when you use several samples, you lose money. That’s why the last album has almost no samples.  We tried to produce it all ourselves. We would love to use samples because it’s a very nice way to work and it’s very refreshing. We got stuck before finishing our second album because we didn’t know what to do because we were preoccupied with using no samples.  Then we thought “Whatever,” we will just produce with samples. We produced with samples and had no boundaries without thinking of the consequences.  From that, we created a whole new album, Plastic People, from picking out the stuff that was less sample based.

Any songs you would like to remix?

Mark: We always say Radiohead would be great to remix.  Also, we would love to remix Gil Scott Heron.

You have been to a handful of music festivals including Ultra Music Festival, SXSW, and Coachella.  What’s been your favorite?

Mark: Coachella was a very good gig.  Two years ago, we did Detroit Music Festival which was a really good one as well.  Also, we did RainDance in San Francisco deep in the woods which was very special.  Bonnaroo was a crazy gig too.

Check out their new album, Electric Hustle.  I guarantee it will be worth your time.

If there’s one band you should be listening to it should be the most talked about Montreal band of 2011 right? Right! And this ain’t an overstatement people. Throw in some energized indie-pop, a splash of playful synths, mix in some damn-catchy melodies and coat with electrifying live performances and you got yourself, Honheehonhee.

A complete hell of a good time.

From this hot Montral indie,electro-pop five-piece, come  “A. Is For Animal” the anticipated first single from their forthcoming debut album, entitled Shouts (which will be released on-line, November 22^nd). An absolute favorite of mine, “A. Is For Animal” comes with its very own killer video.  Fresh off their performance at Halifax Pop Explosion, be sure not to miss Honheehonhee live on their Fall “Shouts” Tour.

So, give the readers a little background on yourselves, and we’ll go from there.

Honheehonhee, and our debut album “Shouts” (out November 22nd online), is Greg Halpin, Stefan F.-Gow, Matt Raudsepp, Erin Halpin, and Marc Danson. We are a five member rock band from Montreal, QC, Canada.

Tell us a little about the history behind the band.

We’re all little boy best friends plus a sister. The only thing preventing us from being any closer is our inability to communicate via telepathy. We’ve been playing music together forever, as far back as elementary school. Greg used to play drums, we all used to play acoustics at one point, Erin played bassoon once upon a time, I’m still trying to push for everyone wearing tap shoes on
stage. All these various iterations of bands came and went, but it was always the same people. Last year we realized we had never recorded an album, so we changed our name, wrote totally new and different songs, and made it happen. Honheehonhee was born.

For those who have not heard of Honheehonhee, what would you tell them? What are your inspirations?

Honheehonhee is a nearly-nude frisbee game in the snow. The only reason we are in a band is because it’s fun for us. We are inspired by people and things that are exciting and honest. If an audience member ever stripped down and threw around a frisbee during our show, we’d love them for life.

What is one thing die-hard Honheehonhee fans do not know about you?

We email Yao Ming every day with requests for him to drop everything and become our manager. Similarly, Muggsy Bogues only gets a single text message from us per year.

Your debut record, “Shouts” is set to be released on November 22nd,What can people expect?

People can expect the record to sound much like our live show: jangly, jumpy, jaguar-like, jittery, jammy, jesty…etc (pretty much any ”j” adjective you can think of. Weird huh?)

Is there a story behind the title?

There isn’t any actual story behind the title. It was a word that we actually kind of stumbled upon during numerous, late-hour, round-table discussions of the album. The album has a lot of these kind of animalistic, kind of beligerent sounding background vocals parts that can be characterized simply as cries or shouts. We didn’t like the word ”Cries” because we didn’t want ourselves to come across like a bunch of whiny babies so we settled on “Shouts”.

If you had to sell the album on one track which one would it be, and could you tell us a little about that track?

Probably “A. Is For Animal”, not just because our parents like it but because it seems to be the track that resonates best with a room (parentless) full of people. There are a bunch of  hooky musical parts that can get stuck in your head as well as a few falsetto bits dispersed throughout the song that make it a little different sounding than other tracks on the album. Even though it feels like we’re describing a Bee Gees record, we’d like to assure everyone that IT DOESN’T SOUND ANYTHING LIKE THE BEE GEES.

What has the release meant to you on a personal level?

The release truly means everything to us. We’ve been carrying this record in our bloated uterus for about a year now and, having nurtured it for all this time, we’re finally ready to deliver this sucker! We couldn’t be more proud with the way it turned out and would especially like to thank our engineer/co-producer Greg Smith for his invaluable contribution to the record.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Probably this question since you referred to it as a career.

What can fans expect in the near future? (What is your tour looking like?)

A sweaty mess.  We’re playing 10 more dates across Canada over the next few weeks.  At each one of these shows people can expect to see us sweat more than we ever have. Incidentally the volume of sweat that comes out of us tends to be directly related to the amount of fun we’re having.

Where do you see yourself and the band in ten years from now?

President of the universe.  Or maybe driving a fleet of solar powered city buses called Sunheesunhee (if they exist).

You can give them a shout at: honheehonhee@gmail.com Or follow them on Twitter: @honheehonhee

www.honheehonhee.com

Tour Dates:

Oct. 21, 2011: Halifax Pop Explosion/Osheaga Presents @ The Seahorse (Halifax)

Oct. 24, 2011: Baba’s Lounge, w/ Mindwaves + Colour Code (Charlottetown)

Oct. 25, 2011: CEGEP Champlain St. Lawrence (Quebec City)

Oct. 27, 2011: Casa del Popolo, w/ Reversing Falls + Topanga (Montreal)

Oct. 29, 2011: Rancho Relaxo, w/ Papermaps + The Love Machine (Toronto)

Oct. 31, 2011: Mansion House, Indoorshoes.ca Halloween party (St. Catharines)

Nov. 5, 2011: The Apollo, w/ Jean-Paul De Roover (Thunder Bay)

Nov. 8, 2011: Lo Pub, w/ Haunter + Enjoy Your Pumas (Winnipeg)

Nov. 10, 2011: Wayne-Stock (Calgary)

Nov. 14, 2011: Wunderbar, w/ Service Fair (Edmonton)

Nov. 15, 2011: O’Hanlons (Regina)

Nov. 18, 2011: Club Lambi ALBUM LAUNCH, w/ Sunfields (Montreal)

Nov. 22, 2011: Rivoli, w/ Modernboys Moderngirls + The Elwins (Toronto)

In preparation and anticipation of the upcoming DeLuna Fest in Pensacola, Florida, I got Felix Rodriguez of The Sounds on the phone last Thursday, and we both took time off of work to have a little chat.

Ready to embark on the first chunk of their billionth American tour, the interview began with a rather bumbling and perhaps overexcited (I really like The Sounds) “Hey dude! So…where are you?”

Felix: I’m in LA doing some writing.

(Oh well, that’s good because I’m sitting in my office in Midtown Manhattan, furiously typing transcribing every word on a centuries-old MacBook while I avoid questions from visitors and answering the company phone – both of which I am contractually obligated to do. So I know what he means.)

Cool, cool! I’m from LA (lie – I’m from a half hour East of Los Angeles, raised in a town famous for its state prison and being Ryan from The OC’s hometown).

I then proceed to ask him if he is working on new material for the band and if he is responsible for producing the bulk of new material, receiving answers in the affirmative to both queries, although he graciously acknowledges the collaboration with other band members in the songwriting process.

Are you living in LA now?

Felix: No. I live in Sweden.

(I know they’re from Sweden, I did look into their Wikipedia page in preparation for this interview, after all. It’s just that, well, people move. But apparently not ever from Sweden.)

Since my focus is mainly on the Pensacola extravaganza, I look into his preference of music festivals versus touring with a regular line up. I’ve always thought festivals seems like a major pain the in the ass to play, but Rodriguez is a sweet, Swedish boy who seems pretty cool with everything life throws him.

Felix: We are used to playing big festivals. We play many in Europe and it’s awesome because you gain so many fans. There are always people there who would never before see you play.
Touche, Felix.

That’s so true, it’s like, lots of people who show up are probably there by accident or unprompted curiosity and then they leave fans.

Felix: Exactly.

Good point, me.

Is there anyone scheduled for De Luna that you’re really excited to play with or to see?

Felix: (Under obvious pressure from interviewer who clearly wants him to say…) Matt & Kim. It’s always fun to run into old friends at festivals, to have friends along.

I thought so. I’m pretty sure I struck a nerve when I delved into their past, asking questions about touring with No Doubt. In a typically male dominated industry, as most industries are, the music world doesn’t spend a lot of time focusing on female success, unless you’re Beyonce. This tour enlisted No Doubt, The Sounds, Paramore and Katy Perry, an undeniable nod to the power of women in a setting normally owned by men.

Felix: That wasn’t for the ladies. I mean, Marja’s a girl, but all the rest of us are guys. We were a combination of three different acts, all with a very powerful female singer. Why is that weird?”

(Oh…well…um…good) That’s good then! (Although methinks you doth protest too much, Felix old boy…)

Sweden is noted for having a huge death metal scene, and more recently a huge influence on folk music what with The Tallest Man on Earth and First Aid Kit. Has this affected your music at all?

Felix: We’ve always been doing our own thing. I haven’t been really inspired by Swedish music like that. When I was a kid like, 8 years old I was listening to just random people from Sweden, but I’m pretty bad at listening to new music.

People must compare you to Blondie all the time. Are there other bands that come up often?

Felix: Blondie’s a good band too!

I know, they’re awesome, I would just think it gets a little old.

Felix: Everyone, every band, wants to be original, you want to be your own band. But that’s how it is sometimes in the beginning, with the comparisons. Everyone is trying to find your own sound.
I just overheard someone talking about us and The Naked and the Famous – I was like, who? And then I looked them up, They’re good too.

There it is. Felix Rodriguez doesn’t exactly have a lot of time or energy to devote to new music, but that is no reason to ignore his. In fact, if anything, it’ll keep The Sounds sounding like The Sounds we know and love. Eventually I feel as though I’ve neglected my job enough to warrant a stern crack down, and I’ve pulled Felix away from his creative process for a guilty length of time, so I bid him farewell.

Jeff Rosenstock is a regular guy.  That’s the best part about him, and the part that makes him so relatable to the people who listen to his band, Bomb the Music Industry!.  As I caught up with him outside Sneaky Dee’s on Saturday, where the band was to play later that night, he was decked out in jean shorts and a band t-shirt, nonchalantly munching down a street hot dog.  Most importantly, he’s extremely nice; he gave me a longer interview than I’ve done with anyone else thus far, and though I had already paid for my ticket, told me he’d put me on the guestlist for the show – and I didn’t even ask.  Just by looking at him, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this is the man who’s been pushing punk music forward for the past few years.

Giving a new meaning to the term DIY, Rosenstock has released all of Bomb the Music Industry’s six full-lengths, one EP, and two split EPs for free, legally, through his self-run, entirely donation-based record label, Quote Unquote Records.  To date, the label has now put out fifty-one albums since its inception in 2005, including stuff by Laura Stevenson and the Cans, The Wild, O Pioneers!!, and a whole bunch of other fantastic, unique bands.  And he just started a physical record label with Dave Garwacke of online punk ‘zine If You Make It.

They also do a lot of unorthodox things in regards to their live show.  When they started out, it was mostly Jeff playing by himself, with an iPod filling in the other instruments, and fans were encouraged to bring their own instruments to the show and come on-stage to play with him, a practice that they still, though rarely, uphold – at the Toronto show, a fan was invited to come onstage to play “Stuff That I Like”, after much heckling throughout the set. While they’ve since graduated to a full band do full band tours, Rosenstock still occasionally finds time to go on tour by himself, with the old iPod as support. Furthermore, the BtMI! guys will gladly burn their albums for any fans who bring empty CDs with them, even though they’ve started selling them physically, as well as spray-paint t-shirts for anyone who brings them a blank shirt, even though they’ve started selling shirts of their own.

Of course, all this would mean nothing if the music was bad.  Luckily, BtMI! is an extremely unique band, creating cacophonous, frenzied, occasionally beautiful, and most importantly, intelligent punk music that examines the existential frustrations of life that any twenty-something has or soon will experience with a whiplash combination of depth and dry, often self-deprecating wit.

As Rosenstock is one of my musical heroes, this interview has been the crux of my career as a journalist thus far, and I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it!

Let’s talk about the tour you’re currently on first.  Who are you touring with, where have you been, and where are you going?

We’re touring with The Sidekicks from Ohio.  This is our fourth day of the tour.  We’ve done a little bit of Canada before, but this is our first time here in like three years.  And we were in New Hampshire the day before we came to Canada, because…it’s in between New York and Canada [laughs].

Is this your first Canadian stop?

This is our third day.  So we were in Ottawa yesterday and Montreal the first day.

And where are you going afterwards?

London [Ontario], and then Michigan.

On the Bomb the Music Industry! Tumblr, you posted that the tour was going to be a fundraiser of sorts for 1-800-SUICIDE, an emergency suicide helpline.  What’s going on with that?

Well, I don’t have a phone; I think they might be meeting up with us when we get back over to America, because I don’t know if 1-800-SUICIDE is something over here.

Yeah, we’ve got Kids Help Phone here.

Yeah, so I guess it wouldn’t really make sense in Canada.  I don’t know, I really like the charity.  We had thought about, instead of releasing a single or song or whatever before the record came out…instead of releasing it through some bullshit music blog that’s just an aggregate of fucking press releases, we thought “well, we’re going to make people go to a website to hear a song, why not make them go to something that’s good.”  Something that’s helpful.  From that, Reese [Butler, founder of 1-800-SUICIDE] had the idea that we’d make this the 1-800-SUICIDE tour, and get those people to come out.  But that hasn’t happened yet; I’m not exactly sure when that’s going to happen.

Your newest record, Vacation, has a lot of extended instrumentation; strings, wind instruments, that sort of the thing.  With that being said, what’s the band setup like for this tour?

We still have the same five of us who can barely play the guitars and basses and drums that we’re equipped with, not to mention all the bells and whistles, which we also cannot play very well [laughs].

Is this your first Canadian headlining tour?  Because the last time you guys were here, in 2008, you were opening for Mustard Plug.

The first time we were here, we did a headlining Canadian tour, which was 2007, right when Get Warmer came out.  That was mostly houses and weird spaces, and stuff like that.  So it wasn’t like “it’s the headlining tour!”  I don’t really think this is either, it’s just kind of like…we’re on tour by ourselves!  But we’re on tour with The Sidekicks, I guess this is a headlining tour.  Weird.  I guess that’s what we’re doing! [Laughs]

Let’s talk about Vacation a little bit.  What were your intentions going into recording the album, in regards to where you wanted to go with your sound and the lyrics?

When I started writing it…or I guess I can’t say when I started writing it, but I just started writing one or two things that didn’t have such huge fucking bummer lyrics.  I wanted to try and have a record that isn’t completely a bummer record, because I feel like all the records – maybe not Get Warmer – but most of them are just like really intense bum-outs.  And it’s not like it’s all “waaah waah waaah”, but when you talk about the stuff that’s frustrating you over and over again, at least for me, I didn’t want to feel like the kind of person who’s only talking about that stuff forever.  I mean, there’s a fair share of songs on Vacation that are kind of…well, not complain-y, but…yeah, I guess I really just didn’t want it to be complain-y.  I wanted it to be like “this is bad, and this is good, and that’s fine.  Everything’s going to be fine.”  I just didn’t want to whine about shit.  So that ended up making it a more positive record, because I started writing stuff that was like “this is cool!” and then I was writing other stuff that was like “mmm, I dunno”.  I didn’t want to fall back into the old traps; I didn’t want to become a caricature of the last bunch of Bomb the Music Industry! records, so it made sense for us to have a record that sounded a little bit different, and lyrically was a bit different.  I like it; I think it’s our best one!  But I think anybody who puts out any piece of art a month ago is going to hopefully think it’s their best one.  They’re not going to be like “well, this one sucks!”  Maybe next time [laughs].

It’s funny, because I saw NOFX a little while ago and they were like “we’re going to play a song from our newest album Coaster!  We know it’s not that great, but it’s better than some of our other stuff right!?”

[Laughs] Yeah, I mean, NOFX is NOFX; there’s no equivalent to how they do things.  They pull off shit that nobody else can pull off [laughs].

On this record, you branch out a little bit, using a lot of never-before-used instruments; you’ve taken on the role of something of an arranger.  You’ve also grown away from ska – was that a conscious effort?  Did you say to yourself “I’m going to write some music that isn’t ska”?

Well for the first thing, there’ve always been really intricate arrangements.  It was even over-arranged, and it was what I liked doing.  But on this one, I tried to give the parts a little bit more room to breathe, so you could actually hear the stuff, instead of just a complete wall of 8-bit strings, horns, keyboards, organs, pianos, guitars – everything all at once.  I’ve done that a bunch on a bunch of records, and I just wanted to do something different.  I think with the ska stuff, especially after [their 2010 EP] Adults!!!, which was a really genuine…I don’t want to say “attempt”, but we were genuinely aiming to recapture a lot of the spirit of the music that we were listening to when we were growing up, because I think the general tone of the record is a lot about childhood and shit like that, and also about the idea that the older you get, you’re supposed to be fucking bored of everything.  So that was a conscious decision to do that.  But then I couldn’t really think of any interesting ways to approach making ska music, and a lot of the ska music I like now is not the stuff that I’m particularly good at doing.  I’m not good at making Toots and the Maytals or Jimmy Cliff kind of shit; I don’t have that kind of voice, and it’s not Jamaica in the 70s, and we don’t have those kinds of amps, and I’m just not good at writing those songs; I’m kind of good at writing – or I’m comfortable with writing – busy stuff.  So it was just a matter of I didn’t want to put stuff on there that I wasn’t 100 percent behind.  I just really was not feeling that when writing this record.  At the point that I realized it was like that, I was like “okay, I’m purposely not gonna fall into the trap and just put a ska part here because people who listen to our band are expecting that”.  I didn’t do that when I was worried about it particularly being not well received.  It was just like “Well fuck it, if people aren’t going to like this record, than they would have not liked the record three records from now”.  So it wasn’t like a “we hate ska” thing or anything; it’s just not really where our heads are at, right now.

I noticed on the liner notes to Vacation, it actually says “Bomb the Music Industry! is:” and has a list of five guys.  Does this mean you’ve reached a point where Bomb the Music Industry! is more of a band now, as opposed to the collective it used to be?

The thing is, when we were here three years ago with Mustard Plug, it was the same five people; I don’t think our drummer made it.

Nah, he didn’t; I really wanted to play at that show!

Ah, you should have done it!

I tried!

Oh, did you not have a drum set?

Yeah, there was no kit!  The Mustard Plug guy wouldn’t let you use his kit.

Fuckin’ Nate [Cohn, drummer of Mustard Plug][laughs]!  But yeah, this five has been in the band for the past three years; since I moved back to New York it’s been basically these five people.  Laura [Stevenson, current frontwoman of Laura Stevenson and the Cans], Neil [Callaghan], Christine [Mackie], and Sean [McCabe] used to float a lot, but now Neil lives in Georgia, Christine’s working all the time, Sean’s working all the time, and Laura is obviously really going full steam with her thing, so it’s kind of just these five people in the band.  I like the collective thing, but there comes a point where you have like eighty fucking songs; it’s hard to keep up.  Even when Laura, Neil, Christine or Sean jumps on-stage with us, they really can’t play anything off the new record because they don’t know anything!  It’s like, Neil knows a song because he played on one song, and Sean knows like, the mandolin part only for the song [laughs].  So on this record it sort of felt more like it was us five working together.  And on Adults!!! it said “Bomb the Music Industry is:” with those eight people, on Quote Unquote; we had Christine, Laura and Neil on there too, because it really did feel like the eight of us working together on that.

When you started up Bomb the Music Industry!, after your previous band The Arrogant Sons of Bitches broke up, what was the point where you decided not to go to a record label, and do your own thing, releasing all of your material for free?

I think that point was immediate.  That was the first thing that happened; I think that happened before even the idea of calling it something.  I wasn’t even sure – it was just going to be like “Jeff Rosenstock puts a song on the internet” for the first couple of songs that came out.  And then I wanted to start a hardcore band called Bomb the Music Industry! and I was like “well, I like that name, it’s pretty appropriate for this thing I’m doing.”  So it was really just right off the bat – I wanted to be a band that, if someone wants to hear the songs, they can hear the songs and they don’t have to be worried about downloading them illegally on like Kazaa or…what else was around?  Limewire was around, Acquisition was around, but you’d get viruses and shit, and I just didn’t want that to fuckin’ be a thing!  Everybody’s record is free on the internet anyway, and I just wanted people to get the right version of it, instead of some fucking virus-laden, cracked-out, shitty bitrate version of it.  Which is funny because now the leaked versions are better than the ones I put up on Quote Unquote, apparently.

Really?  I waited until release date so I wouldn’t know.

There was a leak website that I used to be part of the community of called What.cd – well, not part of the community; I used to get stuff from there – and my internet connection isn’t that great, and it’s really hard to torrent stuff there, so after a certain amount of time I got kicked off.  And then Vacation leaked there [laughs].  And then I wrote them and I was like “Hey! So I got kicked off your site for not sharing enough music, but like…all the shit I’ve just been working on for months is up there now before it comes out, so I think I should be allowed back on your site,” and they were like “Well, you should leak your own records here, man”.  I fucking do leak my own records, when it’s fucking time appropriate!  So, I don’t know, it’s weird how that comes full circle.

When you started BtMI!, it was just you releasing some of your own songs for free; in just six years, it’s now grown to a full band, you’re touring constantly, and at least in the more underground scene, you’re sort of known as the punk band now.  Did you ever expect it to explode like it has?

[Laughs] It’s weird.  I didn’t expect anybody to ever listen to anything.  At the same time, we work really hard and we want people to listen to it – I just can’t believe anybody did!  I can’t believe we’re able to go on tour, and we’re able to bring our friends The Sidekicks out, who we think are a fantastic band – it’s cool that we can do that, and have a little bit of success doing it!  That’s always a neat thing; we took Laura Stevenson and the Cans out really early on, we took Cheap Girls out a little while ago…It’s really fun for us to be able to take our friends out who we think are fantastic, and for us to be able to get them heard.  It’s cool that anybody comes to see us, and it’s neat that we can have them hear these other bands we think are good because of that.

As someone who used to do everything yourself, including programming drums and stuff, when you guys are songwriting now, how much of a collaborative effort is it? 

Every record, there is an Album Minus Band [their 2005 debut] version; of Get Warmer, Scrambles, Vacation, and Adults!!!.  On Adults!!! there was a little bit less because we did it so quick and I was like “I know what the vocals are guys, you don’t need me to do that to be able to play these songs”.  For Vacation there’s definitely a no-band version that exists, where the arrangements are pretty much the same – it’s me playing all this stuff and programming drums.  I think that when we bring it to everybody little stuff changes, and there’s stuff on the band-free version of Vacation that I didn’t like, and I knew I didn’t like it while I was doing it.  I was just like “I’m gonna put this here now because I know something has to go here, but I want to change it.”  Especially “Everybody That Loves You” and “Felt Just Like Vacation” – the back half of those songs are completely different than they were on the demo, just because the demo ones were like “well, here’s some other bullshit”, and I just didn’t think it was very interesting.  And that took talks with everybody to get it to be good.

I think that worked out, because the ending of “Everybody That Loves You” is awesome – one of my favourite songs on the album.

Thanks, man! [Laughs]

Is there any chance of those no-band versions seeing the light of day?

Not really.  I mean, never say never, but I don’t know.  I put out some of the demos for Get Warmer beforehand and it was always just the “oh, the demos were better, the demos are so much better!” and I just hate that shit so much.  So I don’t bother putting out the demos anymore.  I don’t know; maybe if I’m strapped for cash and people are buying CDs again, we’ll put out the deluxe edition, with the Pavement style 48-page booklet inside and really nice printing for 25 bucks.  But for now, that shit’s just going to be kept to us.

Now you actually re-recorded one of the songs, “Everybody That You Love”.

Yeah, we just re-recorded it because the 7” was recorded a little while ago on different mics and different amps, and we wanted to have a sense of continuity to it.  It wasn’t like “We really evolved so much by playing this song live for a year!”  We actually literally changed nothing [laughs].  We took out the drum hits at the beginning because we were like “well, we should make it different somehow, so you know how it’s different”.  [the interview pauses for a second as an ambulance drives by with horns blaring] Oh, I gotta go, that’s my ride [laughs].

[Laughs]  Alright, so you just started an actual, physical record label, Really Records, along with Dave Garwacke from If You Make It [a DIY punk website].  Can you talk about that a bit? So far you’ve only released Vacation; can you tell us anything about any future releases?

We have people who we’re talking to, but we can’t confirm anything.  I can’t tell anyone else about it because it’s not all recorded and shit like that – we’re just trying to work stuff out.  But yeah, there are a bunch of bands that we think are really, really, really good and we really want other people to hear.  I’m lucky enough that people pay attention to what Bomb the Music Industry! does and Quote Unquote, and Dave’s lucky enough to have people who pay attention to If You Make It, so we figured “let’s combine forces and start a real thing and build something nice that can be a little community for all of our little weirdo pop bands that we’re both into”.

Are there any plans to re-release any Quote Unquote stuff physically on Really Records?

No; I think Adults!!! is eventually going to be on Really Records, but that’s it.  We definitely went into it with the intention of putting out new records; we don’t want to re-release records.  We want to put them out right, where people know about them.  We’re begrudgingly traversing the gauntlet of press people and all of that stuff.  We lucked out – the people we used for press and radio on Vacation were so super nice and they don’t act like publicists at all, they’re just regular cool folks.  The people who have been dealing with us are like “You guys have a great PR guy, he’s the nicest guy in the world!”, which is cool.  We just want to care about the records we put out, and we want other people to care about them too – that’s the main crux of the record label.

So what does this mean for Quote Unquote?  Are you going to be releasing the records simultaneously on that and Really Records, or will they be completely different records on each label?

If you’re on Really Records, you don’t have to do stuff on Quote Unquote; that wouldn’t be fair to Dave because he puts out records for free too, so I think if they’re my buddies who have already put out records on Quote Unquote, we’ll do it there, if it’s his buddies he’ll put it out on If You Make It, and if no one wants to put it anywhere, they don’t have to.  If they want to put on their Bandcamp, they can.  I’m still running Quote Unquote Records, so I’m still going to try to put out bands that I like on it, but that’s going to be as separate from Really as it can.

This is a purely selfish question: has there been any talk about any new [Quote Unquote Records bands] Cold Electrics or Roar releases?

Both of them are working on something!  I’ve heard a little bit of the Cold Electrics stuff, and it’s awesome.  I don’t know what Roar is doing; I think his drummer just moved, which is a bummer, but it’s just Owen [Evans] who does all the stuff on the records, pretty much.  Owen and a couple of buddies.  But I imagine it’s going to amazing! That’s the best thing on Quote Unquote, that Roar EP.  That’s my favourite thing.  I like everything on Quote Unquote, but that Roar thing blew me away.

After six years, you now have a physical record label, and (gasp!) have started selling t-shirts.  Is there a reason that you’re recently shifting into these somewhat more conventional ideas of what bands do?  Have you always wanted to do this stuff, but have never been able to?

I never wanted to [laughs].  Straight up, it’s just a matter of us being like “if we want to tour as much as people want us to tour, we have to do this.”  The original intention was just like “alright, be in a band, fuckin’ don’t sell anything, and do whatever we want”, but it’s pretty exciting and we’re pretty fortunate to have people who want us to be out there, so we just tried to figure out a way to make it work.  We’re all in our late 20s; we’re not coming home to our parent’s houses or not paying rent.  If we’re going to be on tour, we need to figure out how we’re going to pay rent, so that’s kind of why the t-shirts and stuff came in.  In terms of the record label, I just want to put out my friends’ records because I think my friends put out incredible music, and I want to try to help other people here.

How did your other project Kudrow start, and is there any talk of new material?

Yeah, in like three years we’ll have another song [laughs].  Mike [Campbell] and Dave [Garwacke] are both on tour now [with Laura Stevenson and the Cans].  We’re all doing our thing.  At the time, we weren’t doing anything and I had a practice space where I was recording Scrambles.  I was still paying money for it – not much, like 30 bucks a month to go in when nobody else had the room.  I’m friends with Dave and Mike, and they used to live together, then stopped living together, and I didn’t like that I couldn’t hang out with both of them at the same time , so I was like “let’s start a band, where it’s just the three of us!”  I had written a few songs, and Mike came up with some stuff, and that was it!  Kudrow actually started with me playing drums, Mike playing bass, Laura Stevenson playing lead guitar, and Matt Keegan [current member of BtMI!] singing and playing guitar, and then after one practice we were like “Yeah….cool….that’s that” [laughs].

Just a few more questions to finish up here; what future plans are there for BtMI! after this tour?

I think we’re gonna tour the South in November.  I’m doing some iPod stuff in Brazil and Australia, which is pretty fucking awesome.

Cool!  Is that the first time you’re going down there?

Yeah!  It was just somebody being like “I want you to play here” and I’d be like “alright, give me a plane ticket”, and they were like “okay!”  And it was like, really, that’s all I had to do?  So that’s pretty exciting.  But yeah, we really like this record a lot, so we’re going to try and get some people to hear it, and hopefully some people will like it; I think that’s just our plan right now.

What’s the one question that you wish a journalist would ask you that you’ve never been asked before?

Uh…. “Can I give you fifty bucks?” and the answer would be yes [laughs].

Is there anything else you want to say before we’re done?

Nah; just thanks for talking to me, and thanks anybody who’s reading this for reading it, and for caring that five fucking idiots are doing anything.  I’m amazed that I’m in another country right now eating hot dogs, drinking beer and hanging out with my buddies, because I was sad and in my old bedroom in my parents’ house, and it’s cool that that got me here.

Bomb the Music Industry! are on tour now – check to see if they’re coming to your town at www.bombthemusicindustry.com.  You can download all of Bomb the Music Industry!’s releases, as well as a whole bunch of other awesome stuff, at www.quoteunquoterecords.com.  You can also check out Jeff and Dave’s new physical release record label at www.reallyrecords.com.  Do it!