I’ve known Yarn Owl‘s Ted Powers (drums) and Timothy Meinig (bass) since, well, probably 2005. Javier Suarez (vocals and guitar) I met in the years after my 2006 departure. In fact, the only band member I have yet to met is Tyler Armour. So yes, I’ve been following Yarn Owl, virtually, since the beginning. With their first full-length now available, and a planned west-coast visit this coming weekend (see them at Columbia City Theater in Seattle on March 26 and again at Sunset Tavern on the 31st), I sat down with long-time favorite Yarn Owl. The man: Javier. The setting: Facebook messages. Here we go…

Fense: Montana & Caballo is your new record and while it has some similarity to your previous work, it’s also distinctly refreshing and new. How would you define your sound?

Javier: Gosh… I would define our sound as… guitar pop with jangly folk tendencies? I had to think about that for like 10 minutes though.

Fense: The album was self-released, right? Do you have interest in joining a label in the future or would you prefer to put out your music yourself?

Javier: It was self released – except for the cassette, we’re doing that with Leftist Nautical Antiques. Label support is awesome if you are lucky/good enough to get it – we’ve always aspired to get as much help as possible when it comes to getting music into people’s ears, so yeah we would be interested given that it’s a decent, fair deal for us if the opportunity arose.

Fense: Any possibility of vinyl in the near future?

Javier: We toyed with the idea on this album but it just didn’t make sense on paper. We think of ourselves more as a cassette band anyway!

Fense: Now that the band is done with school, what’s in store for the future? And will you be remaining in Pullman or do you plan to relocate to the big city?

Javier: We’re just focusing right now on the next handful of shows we have coming up and a possible KEXP in studio performance. Tim and I have definite plans of moving to Seattle in the next few months but Tyler and Ted are still figuring that out. Tyler is currently in Australia for the spring making wine. I just joined the band Craft Spells on guitar and we’ll be touring the states in April with Beach Fossills, so that is really exciting.

Fense: That’s great! I’ll definitely check out Craft Spells. How did you devise the name Yarn Owl? Is there any significance behind the moniker?

Javier: This is a link to what we refer to as ‘yarn art’… like paintings stitched on to canvas. I had a collection of pieces I had found through out thrift stores a few years ago when the band was starting – a whole wall of yarn art (which was later given to Goodwill by my roomate’s mom – still really upset about that). My favorite piece was the owl – Yarn Owl.

Fense: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Javier: For me the Beatles have always been a huge presence, growing up with a super-fan dad, I am also somewhat of a super fan – having gone to Paul McCartney’s music school for a year in Liverpool when I was 19. As a band, we tend to point to The Helio Sequence, post-rock, pop and whatever is playing on our college station, KZUU.

Fense: How have you seen the music landscape change via social media and mobile phones over the past few years? What do you see being the next big thing?

Javier: Good question. I think when we started about 3 years ago we were kind of leaving the Myspace era, where that was the place people flocked to to find music and I think now its absolutely more blog-centric with places like Pitchfork kind of being kind of like a central hub in a way. I am kind of scroogy when it comes to new technology so I shy away from things like twitter and cell phones with internet on them. But I do think that music culture has shifted to that place where personal, instant connection with bands is what keeps people interested and engaged, whereas I feel like music magazines used to be that place… as for the future of all this, probably just faster, higher technical quality, more content in general, more connected…. all in all one would think they’re good things but I think the value that society places on music as art is diminishing more and more somehow – something to do with disposability – I think we’re just kind of voracious consumers of the stuff and the future looks like it’s facilitating that collective habit. The good thing is that there is always a subcultural reaction to that sort of thing (like vinyl becoming a bigger deal).

Fense: And the slight resurgence (at least in the underground) of the cassette tape, I’m sure. So I left Pullman at the tail end of summer 2006 and from what I’ve heard, the music scene has changed significantly. Tell me a little about the catalyst for this change.

Javier: Oh totally has A LOT to do with Larson Hicks. He started putting on shows in maybe like 2007 or so with bands that were ‘relevant’ through Stereopathic Music, his promotion venture. Since then I’ve seen more initiative from people putting on house shows and venues like the Bell Tower in Pullman bringing bands in on their own (STRFCKR in June?). I think the fact that there are two college towns 7 miles apart is actually starting to kind of show and I am totally pleased with that. The two college stations, KUOI and KZUU have also been a big support with their promotions. I think its a very infectious kind of thing that just kind of snowballed, shows started happening, so bands started forming and playing, so more shows happened, then a venue actually opened, etc. etc. Kind of cool.

Fense: Oh man, that makes me want to go back to Pullman! You mentioned KZUU. Being a former DJ at the station myself, I have to ask – are any of you still involved with KZUU? If so, when and where can we tune in to your show(s)?

Javier: Tim and I stopped doing our shows in December when we finished school – we all had shows at one point but yeah… sadly, no more. Tim can be heard announcing the weather breaks on North West Public Radio across Washington though!

Fense: That’s about it. I just have to say that I really enjoy Montana Y Caballo, and have quite enjoyed the material you have released in the past year or two. I wish you guys the best and truly hope to catch you at a show in the very near future. Play Bellingham, and I’ll be there!

You know her. You love her. And if you’re anything like me, you probably act like a tween at Justin Bieber concert when you hear she has a new project coming. Or that she might be hitting a city near you alongside her partner in life/art Matt Brown in their world renowned duo Trespassers William. Yes, this is Anna-Lynne Williams. And she is awesome.

I have been ever so fortunate enough lately to have had Anna contribute to my charity based book/compilation album, both of which she is involved in (Children of Mercy…Facebook it!). I am, and will always be, eternally grateful to have her involved with my little project. She’s let me name drop her more than the other Arquettes might mention big brother David (even if she doesn’t know about it), in order to gain a bit of recognition. And, yes, I am doing it right now!

Anna-Lynne and I also recently shared a birthday on the 8th of last month. So, as a sort of birthday present to her, and myself, I thought I would ask her a few questions and wax philosophy on her musical creation process. And watermelon vs. shrimp.

I sat down with (my laptop and drew up a questionnaire for her to answer) Anna-Lynne to discuss her new label and band, SXSW, a Lotte Kestner cover album, and the future of Trespassers William.

Download: “Compasses” by Lotte Kestner

Ladies and Gentlemen….the First Lady of Indie Music! Let’s begin….

RT: You seem to be the busiest woman in indie music these days. Can you tell us a little bit about the multitude of projects, beyond your obvious staple with Trespassers William, you have been working on lately?

ALW: Ha, I thought I’d slacked off a bit this last year, I’ve had chronic headaches so I haven’t done as much recording as I was doing in the past. I guess I’d started a few things rolling in the last few years and they’re all coming to fruition right now and I have my hands full. My new duo Ormonde has an album coming out. We recorded and mixed that during 2009 and we’ve paired up with Hometapes so that’ll be out in a few months time. I’ve written a follow up to the Lotte Kestner solo album but I haven’t started recording it yet. I have a covers album that I’ve been working on for a few years that I’m just finishing up. That’ll probably be the first album of mine that’ll be released this year. Considering it’s a covers album I’ve probably put too much time into it. I’ve been crafting it a lot more carefully than I’ve done with my own songs in the past. And I’ve been playing in Josh Morrison’s band around Seattle. I also want to put out a synthy dance album…

RT: How did you manage to hook up with the genius Robert Gomez? Was it fate? Or just that you appeared on his album Pine Sticks and Phosphorus?

ALW: Robert and I met in Denton in ’08 when I flew out to sing on John Grant’s record. We were in the studio and Robert came by and laid down the guitar solo for “Chicken Bones”. My duet with John was actually cut from the record, but I met some really great musicians while I was there. I ran into Robert at a bar a few nights later and I remember he was going around with a video camera asking everyone if they were a shrimp or a watermelon. I think I said that I liked watermelon more, but I was more of a shrimp. We stayed in touch after I returned to Seattle because I interviewed him for an on-line magazine. We traded CDs and got into each others’ music and when he suggested that we go to this remote desert town and make a record I got really excited.
I actually haven’t sung on any of his solo work (except for an upcoming one) There are two great female singers on Pine Sticks though, Sarah Jaffe and Manya Repnikova.

(For the sake of journalistic integrity, I do feel the need to admit that I was absolutely wrong as Anna-Lynne has proven in such a king away. I apologize to Sarah Jaffe and Manya Repnikova. You are ladies are awesome too. Note to self: think before writing.)

RT: Tells us a bit about your label you have started, Saint-Loup Records. Where does the name come from? What can we expect to hear in 2011?

ALW: I decided this last fall to start a record label. I’d been wanting to release my friend Sergius Gregory’s albums for ages, so I got a business license and drew up my own version of a record contract. I’ve always been interested in the promotional and financial side of the industry. His album will be out this spring, it’s sort of a best-of of his early works, and then maybe we’ll release his new stuff. And I might end up putting out the Lotte Kestner covers album on Saint-Loup too. Not sure if that’s a good idea yet. But I do really want to get it out quickly.

Saint-Loup is a character from Remembrance of Things Past. And I like the word loop.

RT: So, with Saint-Loup kicking into gear, and Ormonde becoming a staple in your life, will there be some focus taken off Trespassers William? Lotte Kestner?

ALW: I think there’s time for all of it. I had sort of set aside last year to work on Trespassers but then I wasn’t well, and I didn’t feel like the album we were working on felt new. So instead we ended up doing some traveling and performing. We performed at a conference in Belgium. We played the Texas festivals. We started a little house show tradition in Seattle. I think I’ll know when it’s the right time to return to the Trespassers album, when we have the right songs. Trespassers also collaborated on a track with the Icelandic band Leaves, that’s coming out really soon. I love it. Arnar is great.

I’m definitely going to put some extra time into Ormonde this year though. Robert just moved out to Seattle and we’re figuring out how we want to go about our live show. I’ve left the year open to see where Ormonde takes me. And on off days I’ll get started recording the new Lotte Kestner songs.

RT: And which of these beautiful personalities of yours will be lucky enough to hear from at SXSW this year?

ALW: Ormonde is going to SX. Robert and I played one of Hometapes’ parties last year and we can’t wait to go back and do it again this year. We’re playing their official showcase too. The rest of the time I’ll be bumming around watching stuff.

RT: What inspires you to continue making music after all these years?

ALW: Oh, here come the hard questions. : ) There is definitely an ebb and flow when I am writing songs by myself. If things are going smoothly in my life and the weather is good I end up in the park playing badminton and don’t write anything for awhile. But then something difficult will happen, or I’ll get snowed in, or find myself left alone in the house for awhile and I’ll start writing again.

So it’s really a response to my mood and how much time I have to myself.

And often I’ll see a complex movie and have some thoughts to work out and I end up recording something. Or see a great in-store performance. Other people’s tenderness often makes me want to work on music.

RT: I would never want to ask “which of your projects is your favorite”, but I might ask which is the most personal to your own life (without being too invasive, of course)?

ALW: The Lotte Kestner stuff feels the most personal, because I do it alone and I’m mixing the songs myself and playing the instruments in my little way. Trespassers feels the most like an actual part of me, since I’ve been doing it for so long and going at those songs so many ways over the years. But I wouldn’t call Trespassers the most personal. The most INTEGRAL, maybe.

And Ormonde has been the most refreshing thing for me in a while… you write completely differently when you’re working with another songwriter. Robert and I really helped each other out with lyrics and themes, and that really got a new palette going on. And I get to listen to him sing.

RT: One last question: Would you be offended if I officially stated here on FensePost that you are indeed, The First Lady of Independent Music?

ALW: Ha, that’s not offensive. Nor is it true. : )

For more information on all these wonderful projects Anna-Lynne Williams has going on, check out the official Saint-Loups Records Blog. Or find Anna-Lynn Williams on Facebook!

And for exclusive Trespassers William news, visit their WEBSITE.

“Compasses” is from the 2008 album China Mountain, Anna-Lynne’s debut solo effort under the name Lotte Kestner. The track has also been re-released on the Children Of Mercy compilation album available now The Beechfields Record Label.

The paths of Erich Michener (the man behind Fishboy) and myself (Andrew Fenstermaker) crossed in October of 2007 at a little dive somewhere on the south end of Manhattan. It was the annual College Music Journal festival and HHBTM was having an event. They crossed again sometime later in Seattle, a visit that, oddly enough, included a troll, fish sticks and Gassworks Park. That is, unless I’m joining two trips together, which is entirely possible; there was that show at Comet Tavern which may or may not have been at the same time. I digress.

In 2008, Fishboy released Albatross, which they proclaimed a “Rock Opera.” The album came in at #2 then overtook Lekman a year later in my Retrospective Best Of list. The band is now prepared to drop Classic Creeps, which also comes with an interesting theme. Rather than delve into the inner workings of the album and the band, I figured I’d chat with the man behind Fishboy himself: Eric Michener of Denton, TX. We begin…

…but first, here is the opening track off Classic Creeps:

Download: “Aaron The Afterthought Astronaut” by Fishboy

Fense: What’s the general concept around Classic Creeps?

EM: The general concept of the record is that each song is a self-contained story about a different fictional character and within the lyrics there is a connection linking that character to the character featured in the next track. So person/song number one is connected to person/song number two is connected to person/song three..etc. Over the course of the record a larger narrative forms out of the smaller stories. It’s a pattern that’s been done several times in books and movies but I personally haven’t heard an album that does it (although I’m sure there are plenty out there for me to discover).

Fense: Why aren’t there any songs about an Andy?

EM: Ah yeah, I forgot to mention all the songs are titled after the characters whose names begin with the letter A and they are also in alphabetical order. So I already had an Andre and an Andy is just short for Andrew which seemed too close. Plus there wasn’t time to introduce a new character in between Andre and Archibald. Maybe you can make it on a b-side.

Fense: Sweet! As far as you can tell, will all your future albums follow a story from beginning to end?

EM: I don’t think so, but I like the format for sure. I consider all my songs to take place in the same fictional universe similar to a comic book world that I am just slowly expanding on with every song. It’s definitely easier for me to write story songs when I address certain points that I want to hit before I start coming up with melody and lyrics but there is always room for more abstract lyrics that don’t always tell stories.

Fense: Will you continue the alphabet and write an album with songs that begin with B next?

EM: I do plan to continue this series of character albums but I probably won’t do B next and I might not stick to one letter per album.

Fense: What inspires you to write music?

EM: I really love the challenge of the pop song. It’s like a puzzle to me. Writing any sort of pop music comes with a huge amount of restrictions; there are only X amount of tricks you can use melodically and they have been used several times over, but trying to come up with creative arrangements and lyrics is so fun especially when I add more restrictions to myself.

Fense: How would you describe your sound?

(Note: For more great comics, visit Fishboy on Blogspot. Check out this comic on Fishboy’s site as well.)

Fense: Who are your top 3 influences?

EM: Like the comic says, I love the British Invasion and all the bands involved but more in a songwriting sense than a production sense. I’m always afraid of name dropping these huge amazing bands as my influences only to let someone down when we haven’t captured the perfect sonic feel of the 60′s with our recordings.

My older brother and his songwriting under the name Cavedweller has also made a huge impact on my own song writing. (Here’s one of his albums on bandcamp.)

Fense: What are your top 5 favorite albums (at this moment or all-time, doesn’t matter)?

EM: This is almost like a go to list of all time favorites:
• Beatles’ Abby Road (if I could include the whole catalog I would)
• Beck’s Odelay
• Belle and Sebastian’s Tigermilk
• The Kinks’ Arthur (if I could could include everything that came before Arthur by the Kinks I would)
• Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

This is the stuff that never gets old to me.

Within the past five years I’ve really gotten into new and old albums by: BOAT, The Thermals, Apples in Stereo, Tullycraft, Jonathan Richman and a few more, all of which have shaped how I currently make music.

Fense: Will you ever join the stories in your albums with a comic — a so-called graphic-music novel?

EM: I made a short 11 page comic (one for each song) for Albatross that saw a couple of physical copies initially and it has been reprinted on the sleeve of the new vinyl reissue out on Fishstick Records. The Classic Creeps insert will have the same set up. I haven’t ventured into long form graphic novel format yet but I can see myself doing it eventually once I’m confident enough with my art and have a story to tell that fits the format. Oh also, you can read those two comics at classiccreeps.com and farewellalbatross.com!

Fense: What inspires you to write comics and does that play a factor in the music you create?

EM: My daily comics which I started about a year ago serve a lot of purpose for me. Here are some bullet points as to why I draw them:
• I am slowly learning how to draw by practice (look at the archives and you will see some rough early stuff).
• It gives me a daily mind boost of creativity and tiny sense of accomplishment.
• It helps me stay updated with friends and fans with what’s happening with the band, even if its very little.
• It has taken the place of any sort of Tweets or Facebook updates I might be dropping into the void of the internet otherwise.
• I might someday be able to collect them all in some sort of physical or digital format and either be proud of myself or disgusted with the old ugly comics.
• I am not a songwriter that writes personal introspective songs about my life and the drama I’ve gone through. I’ve never identified with bands like that but appreciate the fact that they can preserve memories within their (usually boring) songs. This is my way of preserving fun memories I probably would have forgotten otherwise. I think its a good match: Songs about fake people, comics about my life.
• Also, my wife thinks they are cute and I like seeing her smile.

The music of Portland based band Y La Bamba is that of beautiful, intoxicating contrasts. Both parts calming and alarming, meditative and flippant, their songs weave the delicate web of a line between the joy and sorrow of being alive. I was fortunate enough to see them play in Pullman (alongside Buffalo Death Beam and Horse Feathers) this past week and could not have asked for a cozier winter night. Though the entire evening was satiating, the familial nature of Y La Bamba’s performance is really what struck me; how through the tone and composition of their songs we as an audience were asked not only to receive but also to give.

After their set I managed a few minutes with frontwoman Luz Mendoza. As we sat talking on the front steps of the converted church venue I was mercilessly reminded of just how intricately composed of opposites humanity seems to be. We’re a little bit of everything all at once.

Creative Process

Like many artists, Luz both does and doesn’t need structure. “Initially there’s an overwhelming desire to just get it all out,” she says, “but eventually you always need structure, you always need perspective. We’re playing music because we need it to keep ourselves in check.” When asked about working with Portland’s art and media collective Tender Loving Empire, Luz responds enthusiastically with “I love those guys so much! It’s been a very fruitful and growing experience.”

Having started in Ashland, Oregon the band experienced a new beginning in Portland, where everything came together naturally. “It’s like being exposed to your kindred. These are the people you need to create with.” That’s obvious; the seven piece band’s togetherness in spirit and song is so enveloping it leaves you in a bit of a delicious daze.

Singing in Spanish

As a learned speaker and writer of the Spanish language I no doubt felt it necessary to ask Luz about the artistic and emotive quality differences between singing in English and doing so in Spanish. What does it mean for her to sing in that other-worldly, fiercely rhythmic language? With a coy smile and a hint of apprehension in her voice Luz tells me “Spanish is a different vulnerability, it’s such another crazy monster”. Indeed something dissimilar seems to come over her as she sings us foreign stories of haunts and hopes.

The Story of Song

The blessing of the band entire is their ability to play music of a deeply personal nature that is still holistically and captivatingly communal. Though the stories told through their songs are rooted in their experiences, their lives, we can still find ourselves in them. “Music is your home, philosophy, sanctuary.” Luz says, “A way of remembering we’re not just flesh and bone, we have a voice; we have a heart.”

Indeed the gift of Y La Bamba’s music is that it does help us remember such a truth.

Above photo by Adam Ward of Stereopathic Music.

Download: “November” by Y La Bamba

For those who do not know me personally, and I’m sure there are many of you out there, I [Ron Trembath] have been contributing to FensePost for over a year and a half now. What might be the real surprise is that I am also a member of the United States Air Force. I usually tend to leave the bill paying job apart from my contributions here, but I recently found the two worlds intertwined when I came upon the chance to have a sit down with singer/songwriter Jenny Boyle, in what I must refer to as an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, where I have called home since January of this year. Risking any plight by joining the two worlds for this interview was absolutely worth it considering all the wonderful things Boyle and her band have done to entertain me and my fellow comrades throughout the “undisclosed” world.

Jenny Boyle hails from the northern sections of Virginia, but now calls Baltimore her home (Fells Point to rep specifically!). On the east coast, Jenny lives the life of an OR Nurse by day and a rocking, bar hopping songstress peddling around sweet and harmonic, R&B driven pop music by night. But, for what is now her 8th trip overseas, when she comes across the pond – she is a Star! Jenny, and her band of extremely talented and hand selected jazz/rock musicians. Whether she is playing her heart out in Fells Point, Maryland, or performing for hundreds at a time overseas, her voice echoes with talent and her passion to entertain is without a doubt, inspiring to say the least.

Boyle has been around the globe so many times, Bono would have to bow to her continuous efforts. From military hospitals in Germany, to windblown war fronts most only see through the eyes of a cable news cameraman. When asked about her most memorable stop in the last six years of spontaneous touring, humbly she stated:

[Boyle] “Obviously, having the opportunity to perform in places such as Germany or Spain, which was absolutely beautiful, are wonderful from a tourists point of view. But, the shows in Afghanistan have to be the highlight of [the tours]. They really seemed to enjoy the shows. They don’t have too many options around those parts beyond Xbox and the gym, so they deserved a change of pace.”

One of Jenny’s most personal tracks, “World of Dust” is a harrowing descriptor of what she saw in her time in the midst of the modern day battlefields. But the majority of her original work is more uplifting and pop oriented. Her 2006 debut album, Life in Mosaic, was well received by critics and audiences alike. On Tap magazine could not have been more spot on when they praised Boyle as having, a sultry voice and soulful riffs. The Jenny Boyle Band will be releasing a new album in the in the near future. “The new album is going to be a bit more R&B and rock oriented. A bit less pop than the first record. But, not completely withdrawn though,” Boyle mentions.

As a songwriter, there are certain inspirations that are obvious within her songs. Love is a common theme. The corresponding loss that sometimes follows it is there as well. “It’s easy to write a song with no real meaning or emotion that is appealing. But, it can be extremely challenging to make something entertaining, yet personal. I like that,” Jenny pronounced with an excitement in her eyes one can hope she never loses.

Although her songs are inspiring in themselves, it is her live performances that are by far the most captivating aspect of her life as a musician. Especially during her shows for the troops. Touring as an independent act has had its challenges, but in the end, Jenny will, in the sweetest stereotypical fashion, admit that it is absolutely worth it, and that the troops without a doubt deserve a good time.
[Boyle] “Our goal is to try and bring a bit of American life back to the troops. That’s why we throw in a few covers that are sure to garner mass appeal. I like to play my own songs, but we might throw in a song like “Santeria” from Sublime, to maybe remind the folks of a good time spent on the beach somewhere in their life. We’ve learned that an audience that is primarily made up of service members will love to hear the songs they already know and love.”

Whether playing her own brand of pop, or covering the classics, audiences around the world have been left in awe by the talent that Jenny and her boys have unleashed upon them. Performing as Jenny & The Drivers or simply, The Jenny Boyle Band, our heroine has performed with the likes of Los Lobos and Drowning Pool. As well as teaming up with the always popular group of Cheerleaders from any professional sports team you could name, and a plethora of touring comedians.

If you had asked Jenny Boyle in 2004 if she could have seen herself performing in front of so many troops, or to anyone by 2010, the inevitable response would be no. After a college degree studying voice, and a short stint trying to make it as a musician, Jenny called it quits to help nurse her mother for six months after a terrible car wreck nearly claimed her own, and her family’s life. She called it quits, and shifted her career over to becoming a nurse. But, not before Jenny’s father had the brilliant idea in telling her to apply to the Armed Forces Entertainment to play for the troops. Eventually she would receive the call. And, well, the rest is history.

[Boyle] “It’s important to me that the people I play with are on the same page as me when it comes to these tours. We know it that there is a cause behind what we are doing. I don’t want someone coming along who is only in it for the traveling. It’s about so much more than just seeing the world. It’s about using our music to boost their morale, and provide some sort of hope for the troops.”
According to Jenny, the future will definitely consist of another tour, after she finishes her current tour of course.

[Boyle] “I love it. I want to continue doing it as long as I can, whenever I get that call from the Pentagon. I’m off.”

The inspiration and tremendous good times that Jenny Boyle has brought to tens of thousands of troops throughout the world is something few will ever do, or even have the guts to do, in their lifetime. It is great to see an artist that is as humble and dedicated to service as this lady. As a service member, I am extremely in awe of the passion she has shown in doing something as crazy as jumping on a C130 aircraft to sing a few songs for us. It is definitely an honor.

Be sure to head over to Jenny’s WEBSITE for updates, and how to pick up a copy of Life in Mosaic.

Download: “Move On” by Jenny Boyle

Take a little travel across the country from the evergreen-clad, rainy Northwest to the Southeastern United States. You may have seen these guys atop our Top 50 Albums of 2009, or caught one of the many features or reviews we’ve passed their way over the past year and a half. Today FensePost phoned up Venice Is Sinking for a rare interview; rare for us. We were pretty excited about it as, after all, we don’t do many of these. But questions were easy to conjure up for last year’s favorite.

Fense: Along with AZAR being my #1 album of 2009, one of my favorite videos was that for “OKAY”. I thought the concept was brilliant. Was this an idea concocted by director Jason Miller and assistant director Ethan Payne, or did you have an idea about what you wanted to create for the song? Does this follow the path you’ve traveled on other Venice is Sinking videos, like “Ryan’s Song”?

Thanks for that #1 album, Andy! It really meant a lot to us. We worked so hard on that album, and it was nice to see it validated. As for the “Okay” video, I’m not sure who came up with the concept, but I’m pretty sure it was Jason, with input from us and Ethan. Wait…let me backtrack. The first step in our video-making process is to see what Yo La Tengo did a decade ago and then rip it off. I’m kidding here, but I realized after we made both videos we did for AZAR were somewhat similar (mostly in theme or tone) to some past YLT works. The “Ryan’s Song” video bears a slight resemblance to Hal Hartley’s “From A Motel 6″ video, and “Okay” is in the same wheelhouse as Yo La Tengo’s rock school, Mr. Show-created “Sugarcube” video (which might be my favorite video of all time, truth be told). But, seriously, we weren’t really ripping them off. We do that with our music. Haha!

Anyway, we had another concept for the “Okay” video, one that was going to be a lot dreamier and perhaps a little more dour. We were gonna take on of those Flip HD cameras and float it around the greater Athens, GA area on balloons, something that one of Jason’s pals had done over Central Park. We spent a day roasting in the sun working on this video, trying to get this camera to float with a bazillion balloons, even getting it very, very stuck on the top of the State Botanical Gardens. And we ended up with maybe 15 seconds of footage. It was a crushing blow, and Jason and Ethan were really excited about it and worked really hard on it. When the idea came to do a montage about montages we didn’t want to get too Wet Hot American Summer with it, so we hit upon the idea that we would have some sort of “life coach” following us around. Jason (Miller) showed us a picture of Jason (Martin), and we were floored. He was perfect. And he was waaaaay into it. When he showed up in costume at the gun range we knew we were onto something special. I really wish you could hear the audio of what he was saying because it was hard not to crack up the entire time. His favorite phrase was “Accelerate your dreams,” and I have no idea why it’s so hilarious to me, but it is. He spent half the shoot touching James in a…special manner and making comments that could mildly be called homoerotic. Not much of this ended up in the video, though you do get to see them silhouetted by a sunset, sharing a pelvic thrust together. That was a fun but challenging shoot for us, given that we were in those infernal (literally) sauna suits in 90 degree weather for much of it. I sweated out ten pounds, which all told wasn’t a bad thing. And the Ryan’s Song video was no slouch, either. Karolyn was in a box–taped up–for, like, two hours or something!

The “Ryan’s Song” video concept? Actually, I can’t remember who came up with that one. I’m going to go ahead and say it was me.

Fense: I have to say, Jason Martin was outstanding as the band coach. So now you have a new album out on One Percent Press. Any plans to create videos for any songs on Sand & Lines?

That’s a tricky proposition because the songs were recorded live onstage at the Georgia Theatre. Doing a video for something that has a bit of a “live feel” seems rather odd because almost immediately any video idea you might have goes to recreating the creation of the album. And because the Georgia Theatre burned down, we also have to worry about veering into bathos and sentimentality. I’d love to do something that references the Theatre and Athens, but I wouldn’t want it to be mawkish. I guess time will tell. Also, making videos means having money, and, in case you haven’t heard, it DOESN’T grow on trees. I know, right?

Maybe we should go the animated route? I have a great idea for a video about the star-crossed love between a vacuum cleaner and a chicken.

Fense: Now that’s something I would definitely watch, especially now that I am the proud owner of a vacuum cleaner and not one, but four chickens.

The recording process for Sand & Lines was a bit different. Tell me a bit more about how the album was put together and what makes it different from prior Venice is Sinking releases.

We’re definitely a studio band. I don’t think that we’re a crappy live band or anything like that, but we certainly aren’t renowned for barn-burning, bat-eating live shows. We spend a lot of time working out our live show and balancing between making it congruent with our album sound and having it be a compelling dynamic experience. I think we’re pretty good at that, but I’m sure it’s not for everybody because overall we’re fairly slow and dreamy and whatnot. So we’ve always worked pretty hard in the studio to make our music grow out of that environment. We are layering and overdubbing addicts. No track can be put to bed without first being embellished by a pan-African drum run through an octave pedal. Sand & Lines was completely different than this. It focused on us, as performers, in a live setting. We recorded with only two mics onstage at the Georgia Theatre. We recorded it totally analog (although it should be noted that we have recorded all of our albums on tape!), using only 1/4″ mixdown tape. Two track! Basically, when a take was done, it was done, besides some mastering at the end. It was Georgia Theatre owner Wilmot Greene’s idea, based loosely on the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Session stuff, but ours is a lot louder and more rocking than theirs…dare I say more dynamic? Take that, Cowboy Junkies! Beef!

But, yeah, the process was this strange mixture of live and studio, and you were really out there, really vulnerable, in this kind of setup. If one person really goofs, you had to rewind and start over. If someone was too loud, You had to move their amp and their instrument away from the mic. We mixed things by moving people around onstage. It was stressful, and we had to practice at the Theatre for a few months to get our chops up for it. It was very nearly the opposite of the AZAR recording process, wherein one musician went in isolated to work on stuff. This is the sound of Venice is Sinking as a unit playing together (with help from pals, of course).

Fense: Was the ideation and inspiration processes behind these songs different than that on your last two records?

I don’t want to call these songs orphans or suggest that they weren’t good, but a number of them had been lurking around for a few years. I’d like to think that we’ve made cohesive, thematically consistent albums thus far, and some of the songs–like “Sidelights” and “Lucky Lad”–had been in our live shows for years, but never really felt at home on either Sorry About the Flowers or AZAR. Same goes for the cover versions of “Jolene” and “Tugboat”. Other songs were very new, and we had to scramble to get them up to snuff for the recording process. Remember that we were just finishing AZAR. All of a sudden, we had to have a whole new record…and fast. It was fish or cut bait time for a lot of these, which had only existed as tiny puffs of ideas beforehand. Daniel, Karolyn, and I worked pretty hard to get the, and then the whole band arranged a lot of these on the Georgia Theatre stage in the rehearsals leading up to the record. It was perhaps the most collaborative and democratic record we’ve done, and that aspect of it really invested everybody in the record, I think. With the first album, Daniel brought in songs, we learned them, and then added our on individual spins on them where we could. With AZAR, things got a lot more collaborative, and Sand & Lines is even more so. AZAR had pretty specific song themes, like transportation and moving and human events played out against geography (I think…haha). Sand & Lines picks up a lot of these, for sure, and continues along these lines. I guess it’s just what we like writing about. There are songs on there about failures of urban planning and Augusta, Georgia, though I won’t tell you which ones!

Fense: On top of dire economic woes, Athens seemed to have a rough year in 2009 which I am sure affected each of you personally. Was it an immediate collective response to decide to donate all funds acquired from Sand & Lines to the Georgia Theater after the fire or was it more a gradual decision to do something to benefit your hometown?

We started raising money to put out Sand & Lines the week before the Theatre burned down, so we had to reconfigure the project and make it about raising money for the Theatre. It was something someone proposed to everybody else, and everyone said “yes” pretty quickly. Honestly, we probably won’t make enough money off this record to affect much change, but we felt like the Theatre had given us this record, so we needed to give back to its rebuilding. Athens had a terrible 2009, what with Randy Bewley, Jerry Fuchs, Jon Guthrie, and Vic Chesnutt dying, not to mention the tragic Zinkhan murders and the fire at the Georgia Theatre…just awful. It felt like a series of gut punches. Even if you didn’t know these people personally (I really only knew Randy), you knew someone who knew them very well, and we take our music scene in Athens very seriously. Music is the central beating cultural heart of this town, and the Georgia Theatre was right in the middle of it.

Fense: I’ll attest to Sand & Lines being a great album. That proceeds go toward rebuilding Georgia Theater merely solidifies the fact that the album should be added to any listener’s collection. Being all the way on the other side of the country, I’m curious to hear if there’s been much movement in the rebuilding of the theater?

You know, I’d have to refer you to Wil Greene on this one, but I know that there are some great plans drawn up and rebuilding should start by next year. And thanks for saying the album’s great! Glad you like it.

Fense: I’m always interested to hear what musicians do outside of their respective bands. The typical answers seem to lean toward teaching and working at record stores. What do you do outside of Venice is Sinking?

Honestly, it’s fun for me to update Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr, but it can be a bit of a challenge, keeping track of everything. And just when you think you’re really “with it,” along comes some new thing that you’ve gotta create a login for and a new password and add your bio information, etc. etc. etc. Sure, we’ve got a greater connection with out with our fans, but sometimes I feel like I’m preaching to a 1000 person choir and just annoying other potential fans with my constant haranguing. Christopher Weingarten said, in a recent speech, that bands now have to be digital hustlers these days, and that’s just so, so true. I feel like I’m a guy in a stereotypical Middle Eastern bazaar yelling about how great my product is while tons of other equally loud vendors are selling the same thing around me.

Fense: So I have to ask — what’s next on the horizon for Venice Is Sinking?

We’re jamming a lot, writing new songs, working to get back up to snuff on the Sand & Lines stuff (we had to tour behind AZAR, so we lost all of our “chops”), playing Black-Eyed Peas songs. You know, the usual. I really, really, really hope we can get on an album a year schedule. We’ve got a lot of ideas right now, and we’ve gotta sit down and make them happen. We really wanted to try to make a reggaeton-inspired album, without all of the homophobia stuff. That hasn’t gone as planned.

Fense: We’ll that would certainly be an interesting concept if it does come to fruition. Well, that’s all I got. Thanks for sitting down and taking the time to “chat” with the ‘Post.

For more things Venice Is Sinking, head over to One Percent Press or check out more coverage right here at FensePost.

Not too long ago, Grant (aka. The Gumshoe of The Gumshoe Grove) and I pieced together some questions for Darlings, one of our mutual favorite bands from 2009. Some were a little odd, some funny, some flat out dumb. They were kind enough to provide us with some answers, no matter how ridiculous the question(s). Here is the result, unedited and unfiltered. Enjoy…

Before we kick things off, here’s a song to listen to as you read. It’s off their debut LP, Yeah I Know, out now on Famous Class Records. Check it:

Darlings: Teenage Girl [mp3]

GG: First off, is “Eviction Party” based on real events? Things get pretty specific and it’s a song I think has resonated with people so I’m curious as to how the lyrics came about.

JOE TIRABASSI (BASS) – I got evicted from this apartment I was living in on 1st Ave. in the East Village. The place had gone to shit, and we knew we weren’t getting our security deposit back, so we decided to throw a big party. It got out of hand, to say the least. It really brought out the dark side of everyone. Girls pissing in closets, dudes ripping light fixtures out of the ceiling, a BBQ used as a plaything…seemingly mild-mannered people doing a 180 and releasing their inner wild child.

PETER RYNSKY (GUITAR/VOX) – Yes, these things actually happened. There are no lyrical exaggerations in the song. Somebody actually threw a bottle at my face. Brian drunkenly crowd surfed at a house party and it might’ve been the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Just picturing it in my head still makes me laugh.

MATT SOLOMON (DRUMS) – The lyrics were inspired by a specific event, but i think the more general idea of the song is to express a sort of youthful recklessness—you know, getting drunk with your friends and not thinking too hard about the consequences (or the security deposit). In a lot of ways i think that goes along with the vibe of the album as a whole.

GG: The packaging for “Yeah I Know” is elaborate. Could you tell me a little bit about what went into it and where the ideas for its contents came from? (Very innovative.)

JOE – My roommate and I designed the packaging. It’s all old family photos, so it’s our parents when they were our age. Our parents were all a lot cooler than us.

MAURA LYNCH (GUITAR/KEYS/VOX) – Most Famous Class releases come with comic book/zine inserts. We dug through our parents’ old photos and found things that we thought went along well with the music. It was really fun process coming in with tons of photos and editing them down to 10.

FP: ‘Yeah I Know’ was my summer album. The video for “Teenage Girl” in particular defined how a summer pop song should both sound and be represented on film. Do you find your music associating better with a specific season, and if so, what are your plans for the “off season”?

JOE – I really dislike the heat, but I can see why people enjoy it. I guess it’s summer music, because most people love the summer and need a pop record to go along with it.

PETER – If it had come out in spring it would probably feel like a spring album. I tend to associate music with whatever climate is happening outside the first time I hear the music.

MATT – It’s definitely a fun record, and that’s sorta what we were going for. Summer in new york is a really fantastic time to be alive and playing music with your friends.

GG: How does one go about establishing such a following in NY city when so many bands are trying to do the same? How did you guys “break out” of the herd as it were? Would you say you’ve done it or that you’re still trying?

JOE – I don’t think we’ve “broken out.” We’re still begging our friends to drive us to shows.

MAURA – For us it’s just been a matter of playing shows every week or so and trying to get better and better. We were lucky enough to have that L Magazine thing last spring and I think that brought us to a whole new group of people.

MATT – There are a million bands in Brooklyn doing making good music. We’ve been lucky enough–and i do think that some of it is simply luck–to get some attention. But our approach hasn’t changed. Cool hair will always sell records.

PETER – As long as the whole band continues working full-time day jobs I’d say we’re still trying to “break out.”

FP: The whole garage pop scene seems to have blown up this year. Has this altered the way you create music, and has it affected your fan-base?

JOE – We have a fanbase?

PETER – No, there was a lot of excellent garage pop music predating 2009 that had a big influence on us and will continue to do so. I don’t think people really associate us with the lo-fi garage pop scene that got so much attention this year.

MATT – The songs on the record were all written and recorded before Wavves broke out, so what exactly are you implying??? But no, honestly, it hasn’t changed anything, except maybe how we’re written about online.

GG: Do you guys wear giant overcoats when you play or is that a record-cover thing only?

MAURA – The cover of our album isn’t us—it’s actually Peter’s stepdad’s band from Moscow in the 70s. And I think it’s safe to say we prefer t-shirts.

FP: Any plans to tour the West Coast?

MAURA – We would love to at some point. Peter is from California and we have friends in Los Angeles we’ve been wanting to see.

GG: Darlings … can you tell me where the moniker came from?

PETER – I think Matt proposed it. I’m not sure why it stuck.

MATT – It’s just a throwaway name. Easy enough to remember, i guess.

I recently sat down with Levi Fuller, a Seattle singer/songwriter, to talk about his recently released album Colossal, as well as several other somewhat related topics (ranging from cephalopods to the digitalization of music).

Levi, who originally hails from Boston, has been a fixture in the Seattle music scene for several years now. He is often described as “the DIY mayor of Seattle,” and is both a distributor of music (as the editor of the Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly, a quarterly compilation of mostly local artists, and a DJ on Hollow Earth Radio) and an artist.

I asked Levi about his inspiration to create a cohesive music community out of a very fragmented scene. After relocating to Seattle with his then-girlfriend (now wife), Levi

“…saw all this great stuff happening and knew a lot of people who play music because they love to play music. But they didn’t necessarily make much of an effort to get it out into the world… I thought it would be fun to start another form of community around Ball of Wax. We all have similar approaches about doing it yourself and promoting local music…. It seems like Seattle is a little more conducive to this sort of thing.”

We talked about the effects of technology on the music industry, as Levi mentioned that “the existence of myspace.com was instrumental to the early years for Ball of Wax, in terms of making connections.” I asked Levi for his opinion on where the album as an art form was headed. He replied:

“I think there are people whose job it should be to make music and tour. For me, I like having a job and not having to rely on music for my income, because then I would be very poor. That works for me, but I certainly wouldn’t want to tell Elvis Costello to get a day job…. There is an argument to be made that people should be paid for the work they produce. At the same time you’ve got touring and t-shirts; so are albums just going to become another promotional tool that nobody pays for? I don’t know. And maybe that will make albums more interesting. Maybe people will make them more cheaply because they’re not the main product… I just heard that Mos Def released his most recent album as a t-shirt, with the album art in the front, the track list in the back, and a download code attached… I’ve tended to go the other way and make records, but really making records is another form of making t-shirts because it’s a big cool object that geeks get really excited about.”

Levi also wears several other hats within the Seattle music community. He has two solo projects, one under his own name and another under the moniker Passenger Pigeon. Levi also plays bass in bands The Luna Moth and Pufferfish. I asked him if it was challenging transitioning between solo work and more ancillary roles.

“I think it’s really fun – I have three perfect scenarios going. For my own stuff, if I’m playing with other people obviously I don’t tell them what to do, but I at least have the last say. In Luna Moth, it’s always been totally democratic. Our writing is mostly improv-based and we hone from there – the three of us consider ourselves equal partners. In Pufferfish, Jonah [Baker] is the singer/songwriter and we think of him as the boss. So I show up and do my hired gun thing – I get to play somebody else’s songs and have a fun time. It would be exhausting being the boss or the leader in every situation. And I also have a jug band where I guess I’m the leader, but it’s more like anarchy.”

Levi’s recent release, Colossal, is a reflective album that (in this writer’s opinion) discusses the challenges in expressing oneself, as personified by both humans and animals. Although Levi often writes songs in the voices of animals (his last album, This Murder Is a Peaceful Gathering, was all about crows), some of his strongest songs on Colossal are written from the perspective of humans. The second track, “Mall of America”, is about spending time with an unfamiliar uncle after a family member’s funeral. It speaks to how a particular situation (in this case, waiting for flights at the Mall of America) can sometimes bring two people together that otherwise might never have been able to relate to one another. One of Levi’s most perceptive lines states, Once in a while I treat my family like people/Once in a while I act like a man/I finally see my family as people/I hope they can see me as a man.

While the second track discusses breakthroughs in communication that happen almost accidentally, the third describes an attempt (which perhaps ends as a failure) to communicate in everyday life: I just don’t know how to talk/To members of my species anymore/Every day the mailman comes/I stare at him blankly…/Sometimes when I’m lonely/(Lonelier than usual),/I mail myself a package/Just so he can bring it to my door. Although this character’s inability to communicate is crippling, we all have occasional struggles with “members of our species,” a problem that Levi captures quite well.

While those two songs deal with communication between humans, there are several other strong songs written from the perspective of animals. “Colossal”, the opening track, is a song written in the voice of a colossal squid (the largest invertebrate species with a maximum size of 46 feet). Levi commented:

“I think animals are really interesting in a lot of ways because they’re so different from us… Having a theme makes it a little easier to write songs because at least you know where to start. The first song I wrote on this album was ‘Colossal’. A friend of mine has an informal group called the Cephalopod Appreciation Society – very nonscientific and artsy and kind of goofy but really fun. She invited me to one of their meetings. I had been reading about colossals, so I wrote a song to play at the meeting.”

Whether the medium is an invertebrate or a vertebrate, Levi writes and sings about their troubles with insightfulness and sincerity. Both Pufferfish and Levi Fuller are hosting an album release party at Conor Byrne in Ballard on Saturday, November 21st at 9 p.m.

Levi Fuller: Colossal [mp3]

Levi Fuller: The Mall Of America [mp3]