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White Rabbits Interview
It’s late in the year but White Rabbits new album, It’s Frightening will easily make a lot of top ten lists for 2009, it’s that good. The band is made up of six multi-instrumentalists and together they have developed a unique groove driven sound where syncopation has been developed into a fine art. They are on their way to Australia for a short tour in late December/early January and we here at modmove.com were lucky enough to get a few questions answered by band member Matt Clark.
First question, the band name, read too much Lewis Carroll in your youths?
“No, not at all. Still have never read it. It worked at the time we needed a name.”
The band originated in Missouri, what impact did the move to New York have on the sound of the band?
“It was really crucial to our development as a band. We switched things up after the move because we realized that what we were doing before wasn't going to cut it anymore. And that was a turning point for us. New York is definitely a city that is always moving forward and living in an environment like that only fosters new ideas, whether it be from a place of admiration or competitiveness. Which is the description of a ‘scene’ I suppose. We just knew we had to at least try to do better.”
Congratulations on the new work It’s Frightening; it’s a fantastic album, how many songs were you working on before you selected the final ten?
“We didn't have much time to get the whole thing done or write when we were on the road. We had a couple of songs but for the most part we wrote the album as a whole from beginning to end. Which was something that we had wanted to do anyway. It was a challenge because you would have an idea of how a song might fit into these songs, but you only have the idea of what could be there. Which puts you into a position were you can come from a different perspective than writing one song and just moving on to the next.”
Any that might show up as b-sides?
“We did record one song that was not on the album called Foxhunting. It was actually one of the only songs that we had before we started writing for It's Frightening and we weren't going to record it at all since we didn't like the original version. Luckily we had a day left in the studio and some ideas.”
As a producer, how much input did Britt Daniel have on it?
“As much as any other producer. He was great to work with and was a good person to have listen to your ideas and support them when they are good and when they are bad. That's why we approached him to do it. To mix things up. We just thought "Hey what would one of our albums sound like with Britt producing?" which we couldn't put a finger on it, and that's why we asked. Because it would be different than what we did on the first album.”
Being known as such a great live act, is there ever a limitation placed on tracks selected for the albums with the thought that you have to reproduce them live?
“We worry about the songs first and then performance. But that drive to put on a interesting show forces us to always try to improve on what we are doing and not just settle for a version of a song that doesn't move us or the people. So if something isn't working we change it.”
The band’s sound is extremely tasteful and the instrumentation is sparse in just the right way and it has the effect of letting the music breath. In the compositional stage of song writing does the band have a set process with this in mind or does it come out in the studio?
“On It's Frightening we demoed everything while we were writing. So we could get our ideas out quickly and edit ourselves through playback and if only a couple of people could make it out to practice we could still work on their ideas. On the first album we spent a lot of time trying to figure out parts of songs in the studio, and we knew we didn't want to do that this time around.”
I’ve always thought it was cool when just the band is listed as the song’s composers and not individual band members, how collaborative is the process?
“The songs are written as a group with no one person assigned to a specific instrument while writing or even recording. Everybody gets an equal share and everyone has a personal stake in the songs and in the band. It is sometimes unbearably collaborative.”
Being known for doing unique covers live, what are the criteria for selecting those songs?
“We try to make sure we can bring a new element to the song in some way. The hardest thing is recognizing what songs make good covers and which ones should never be covered.”
I’ve read that the band has listed The Specials as an influence, back in the day, I loved going to ska parties, it was kind of the last unifying type of music amongst my friends who then all went on to dig completely different types of music. As a band have you been able to tap into that kind of unity with your live sets?
“No. But that's okay. I loved those types of shows and miss the communal spirit. But if somehow our band could do that with a large cross section of different people from different cultures...then I'm game. I really don't think our music is ‘epic’ enough to unify any group of people larger than ourselves.”
Thanks Matt but I have to disagree with you on that last statement, I do think your music is epic enough.
White Rabbits Australian Tour
Lorne 30/12/09 Falls Festival
Marion Bay 31/12/09 Falls Festival
Sydney 05/01/10 Oxford Arts Factory
Melbourne 06/01/10 Corner Hotel
Perth 06/01/10 Sunset Sounds Festival
More Info: whiterabbitsmusic.com
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