What have you been up to since the new record (Yonder is the Clock/Team Love Records) dropped in April? Have you just been on the road?
Yeah pretty much. We've be touring like crazy, keeping busy, which is awesome. We’ve been all over the US. Right now we're on the West Coast, heading down to San Francisco. We have two nights there, then LA and San Diego, then to the Midwest. The shows have been really awesome.
Are you going anywhere you've never been before?
Yeah there are a couple places. Last night we played in Eugene, Ore. We've never played there before. It was a really good show. There wasn't much of a turnout but the kids were so awesome and everybody was getting down and dancing. It was in this old dancehall. It was a cool venue and a really great crowd. It never really matters how many people are there, it's just how the people are.
Do you write a lot of new music when you're on the road or are you just focused on getting from town to town?
Somebody's always playing guitar and practicing, Farley's always playing fiddle in the Winnebago while we're going. Sometimes songs get written on the road. Yesterday we worked out a new song. We're always trying out new songs because everyone writes songs.
What did you do differently when you were recording Yonder is the Clock, compared to your other records?
I think it sounds a lot different. The vibe is a lot different, but as far as how we went about recording it, that was the same. We recorded it in the Chicken Coop again. Basically it was the same, though. A lot of the stuff was recorded live. As far as the music goes, I think we're just getting better. We don't really want to be pegged into anything, so we're constantly trying different shit. I think it's always evolving. Plus we're still learning our instruments. A lot of us have only played the instruments we're playing in the band for a year or two, but the band's been around three years. Everyone's always developing, so everything's always changing.
I was wondering how your creative process works, because there are so much experimental noises and things going on in the background. Is that because whatever happens happens, and it just works?
Yeah, a lot of times that is how it is. I'll be like, "Hey I have a song," then everyone starts adding to it and they keep playing it and try to understand it. People track different parts. It's not like "you do this"...we just kind of let it happen...that's how we learn about our band and music, because we're constantly playing together. We don't have any friends except for us, nobody's getting married or anything like that [laughs], you know what I mean. Sometimes if a song is really delicate and we really want the words to stand out—well, we always want the words to stand out because we admire writing—sometimes you have to be more subtle. It's just learning...we just want to make the best music possible.
You guys started out busking, right?
Yeah. Basically we'd show each other songs when we were together, and then we decided let's make a band. We started playing mostly on the street because we needed to make money to eat. We wanted to give everything we had to our music. It wasn’t like let's go work wherever and practice on Wednesday night. Instead we just played on the street to scrape together some bread. We played in the farmer's markets, in the subway…it all depended on the day of the week. On the weekend, people from the city would go up to Rhinebeck—this little town upstate. People would go there to spend money; we'd go up there and busk on the street.
Through busking we got a lot of shows. Kids from colleges would see us on the street and ask us to come play their party. People who had coffee shops would ask us to play. We got playing some restaurant gigs and it kept going from there. Then we decided to go on the road. We’d just call up venues like crazy to get the show. If we didn't have a show in town we'd just busk.
One time we were in California and we played at this really cool farm and it was one of the best shows I can remember—no lights, there was no promoter or anything. It was just so much fun. We had so many crazy adventures because everyone's on the street. We came to understand that if you don't give it up when you play, people don't care. They don't have to listen to you. I think when you come see us, we give it up to the crowd because you all are working hard and we want you to have fun, we want you to laugh and cry. Some bands, you look at them and they're too cool for school, and we're like, f**k that. We still busk. A month ago we went out on the street and busked. It keeps you honest. It's just fun. We love doing it.
