interview

Milo Greene on “Milo Greene”

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Published Aug 15, in Entertainment

When it comes to new music, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the laziest connoisseur I know. Most of the time I absorb it through osmosis thanks to the radio or, more frequently, my musically inclined friends. I find their tastes to be nearly impeccable—that is, I’ve never really disliked anything they have exposed me to—so when my friend Kamie invited me to a concert with a band I’d never heard of before, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
And I’m glad I did, because I’ve been playing the CD on repeat since the concert in Atlanta on July 21. Milo Greene’s self-titled first album blends haunting vocal harmonies with an almost otherworldly style to turn melancholy and raw emotion into some truly beautiful music. The band, made up of five people, came together through college friendships and music scene acquaintances and they have been playing live together since March of last year. In case you were wondering, Milo Greene is not the name of any member of the band; he’s actually the fictional booking agent contrived by band members Andrew Heringer and Robbie Arnett to help them book gigs early in their prior, independent careers. I took the chance to borrow Milo Greene for an interview before they became too famous to talk to me, and Arnett was gracious enough to take a break from the tour to call me from Denver, Co.

BH: How long have you been writing music?
RA: Probably since 2006, so about five or six years. I think I’ve always been interested in creating some kind of art. Growing up we would always go to the movies and the theater, and there was always music around in my family. We were avid music lovers. I was always kind of inspired by it, and when I got to college there were some guys in my dorm who played music. I started singing and taught myself to play guitar, so that’s where I got started.
BH: What were you studying at the time?
RA: Music and theatre.
BH: Oh, so then this was right in line with your passions.
RA: Yeah; I didn’t switch from being an economics major or anything like that.
BH: You guys definitely have a really unique sound. How would you describe your band’s style of music?
RA: I think at the core it’s pop music, but we’ve definitely tried to decorate it with stuff that’s influenced us and inspired us—dreamier and ethereal sounds. I’ve always been interested in scoring and movies. We’d talked about working with filmmakers and scoring, but we formed a band. Since there are four vocalists we’re centered around vocalists…it’s all kind of placed in more dreamy tones and stuff. We try to make it as unconventional as possible.
BH: There’s a really definitive tone to the album, too. What can you tell me about that?
RA: We recorded all of the music all over the west coast primarily in winter and autumn months, so I’d say the tone was inspired by a somber, nostalgic atmosphere.
BH: I noticed during the concert that you guys switch instruments around a lot. How did you all come to be so versatile?
RA: I think initially we were just trying to figure out what each song needed. We made the record without playing the record, and when we had to play it we had to figure out how to recreate it. We all primarily play guitar, but we switched around to kind of fill up the songs. I learned how to play piano a bit for certain songs and Marlana takes up the bass for certain songs…We learn as we go. Andrew’s pretty classically trained and an all-around great musician, so he can pick it up pretty quick. Since I wasn’t classically trained it takes me a little more time, but if we need the sound then we’re all about figuring it out.
BH: What is your creative process like? It sounds like you fly by the seat of your pants a lot.
RA: It happens in all sorts of different ways. Since the four of us are the song writers we’ve all brought songs to the table. It’s a big collaborative union. The initial start of the whole thing was that song “Autumn Tree.” I’d sent Andrew the lyrics and he wrote a melody for the lyrics I sent him, but sometimes we’ll all be sitting in a room and I’ll start playing the piano and start singing some words, and Marlana will jump in and then Andrew will jump in and we’ll try to figure it out. There are all kinds of ways to do it; there’s not one set formula.
BH: You guys were on Letterman recently. How was that?
RA: It was very exciting. I think we were all really nervous. We came from DC the night before and came to Lettermen at three a.m. We were all kind of zombies. It was really cool. He keeps his studio at, like, 40 degrees, so it was freezing. But we’d all grown up with that program, and our parents were excited. It was an all-around wonderful experience for us, and we can’t be more thankful to be on that program.
BH: What did it mean for you as a band, as far as exposure goes?
RA: It’s hard to say. I think it’s a nice accolade to add to our career, that experience and exposure about being on television, but we just went up there and did the best Milo Greene performance that we could and hope people will respond to it. But yeah, it’s hard to say how much that helps in the big picture.
BH: What has been your favorite part of the tour so far?
RA: The television experience was wonderful, but we played Lollapalooza as our first festival, and that was really cool. It was cool to be part of the evacuation—they evacuated for the first time because there was a crazy storm coming in. But really traveling to different cities, and people meeting people have all been an amazing experience, kind of a dream come true. Milo Greene is a recent project, but some of us have been working for this for the better part of a decade.
BH: Let’s talk about “Moddison” for a minute.
RA: We thought about doing a project that would score films. We had a month before we started our tour, so we ended up writing a screen play for a short film that would encompass our entire record. I had a friend of mine come up to silver lake, a place where we’d recorded a lot of the music, and we recorded a film that went along with the record.
BH: The music videos for “Silent Way,” “Perfectly Aligned,” and “1957” are now out. What’s coming next?
RA: I think “Don’t Give Up on Me” is coming next. I think we’ll be releasing a few [videos] over the next month or so. I guess the biggest hint would be that the videos correspond to the track numbers on the record, so people can figure it out that way.

Arnett said that “Moddison” should be released in its entirety sometime this winter, so those who want to piece together the story as it goes will want to get a jump on it now. The music videos for “1957,” “Silent Way” and “Perfectly Aligned” can be found on the band’s Web site. The curious and enthused can buy the album at http://store.warnermusic.com/milo-greene.

A conversation with The Constellations

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Published Oct 19, in Entertainment, Interviews

There are a lot of different terms you could use to describe Atlanta troubadors The Constellations. Soul ,rock, psycadellic, hip-hop, and plenty of others. But no matter which term you end up going with, it’s not going to fully or accurately describe the seven-piece band. They blend genres together expertly, taking influence from anything and everything.
I sat down with keyboardist Jamie Gordon for a few minutes at DeLuna Fest this past weekend to discuss the band’s upcoming performance, touring, new songs in the works. You know, shop talk.
Gordon is a high-energy guy. It’s apparent not only on stage, where he jumps back and forth across the stage and slams into the keyboard with reckless abandon, but also in casual conversation. He’s excited about absolutely everything: about playing later in the day, about the band’s upcoming record, and especially about Atlanta.
The band’s 2010 debut, Southern Gothic, is defined mostly by the city of Atlanta. The band wrote and recorded the record in the city, and it shows.
And so I ask him about the city: his favorite neighborhoods (“Little Five Points”), hang out spots (“Star Bar”), and things to do around town (“Party”). He tells me those experiences, prowling the town late at night for something exciting to do, always find their way into the group’s work.
And so I wonder, with such a specific location in mind, is there a chance that the band is going to alienate people from other areas?
“No. Every city has their own sleezy dive bars, their own crazy things to get into. We love Atlanta, and we write a lot about our city, but like I said, everyone has those places. It’s universal and specific at the same time,” Gordon tells me.
And it makes sense. After all, it’s not like Atlanta is the only city that loves them. Milwaulkee, for instance, has a surprisingly huge fanbase for the band.
“There’s a radio station up there. They were the first radio station to pick us up. They have a huge audience there. So, we went up there the first time and the program director had us up there. The first show sold out. Up until then, we had never been out of Atlanta. It was unbelievable. So, yeah, Milwaukee is definitely a favorite.”
But it doesn’t seem like any place can top Atlanta for Gordon and the rest of the band. They played Music Midtown this past month, and Gordon describes the experience with as much awe as he can muster.
“It was awesome to be home and perform. Especially at that capacity, that was definitely our biggest show in Atlanta. There’s always a different vide when we’re playing at home in Atlanta. People connect more. That’s where we started. It’s always good to play there and we don’t get to go very often,” Gordon says.
Atlanta is definitely a special place. Hopefully you’ll see them at home sometime soon.

Hear Mutemath’s ‘Odd Soul’

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Published Oct 19, in Entertainment, Interviews

Photo by Mark C. Austin

We (Eric Brown, Liz Bibb and myself) met up with MUTEMATH’s founders, lead singer Paul Meany and drummer Darren King, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Pensacola, Florida.  We chatted about the rebuilding of their native New Orleans, festival lineups, Brian Eno, and their recollections of playing with Kiss at Voodoo Experience 2009. The conversation eventually shifted to the record making process.
Jonathan Popham: I know that you lost a member last year. How has the writing process changed since then?
Paul Meany: We are recording, aren’t we? Should we sit down?
Darren King: Let’s sit down.
JP: [Laughter] I have to keep my recorder ready! I never know when you could say something provocative.
PM: You’re good. You’re going to go far away in this business, boy.
DK: Well, we played a show in Indonesia and when we got back we were all tired and worn out. We got into a fight with [former guitarist] Greg [Hill], and he said, “You know what? I’m done”. He had reached the point of no return.
JP: So was there bad blood before that or did it all come from Indonesia?
DK: Greg had stressed us out for the career of the band, but I thought things had been getting better up until that point.
PM: Armistice [2009] was the peak of tensions.
DK: That was the darkest time, in Oxford, Mississipi, when we were making that record.
PM: It was kind of a miracle we finished a record that we were proud of, and held the band together. But, it there was this impending sense of,  ”Gosh, when is going to come apart?”
JP: Being in Oxford, Mississipi with an impending sense of doom is perfect atmosphere for Southern Gothic.
PM: [Laughter] Southern Gothic?
DK: We almost turned into a goth band.
JP: Really?
DK: Oh yeah. [Death Metal Voice] Cookie Monster!
Liz Bibb: So you guys just dropped a new record?
JP: Yeah, already at 24 on the Billboard Chart in around a week.
Paul and Darren glanced at my computer with and nodded cordially. Eric and Liz excused themselves to go speak with Constellations.
PM: What do you know?
DK: So yeah, Greg left and we turned around and had a big meeting. Paul and Roy both said, “Well you know we are expecting children”. That was the next bit of news. There was just one day where all this news happened at once. And we decided to make the new record (Odd Soul, 2011) in a much healthier way than the previous one. We decided we weren’t going to have any money pressure. Or if there was any pressure, it was going to be not enough money instead of spending money by the hour in the studio with some producer we have never worked with before who suddenly has all this power over us.  So, we kind of shut the door on everyone and the three of us made a record— that we loved. It is my favorite recording we have done so far.
JP: Would you say that on Odd Soul, you are in your truest form?
DK: Well, at one point on the second record the producer broke down and said,” You guys should just be producing yourselves.”
JP: Have you ever thought about just going unsigned? Just having your own label and saying, “Let’s do it”?
DK: No. Certainly not. That’s never been the goal. The goal is to have some weird balance between being on a label but still having control over that record.
JP: It’s about freedom?
DK: Yeah. There are certain things that you can do yourself and then there are things that other people can do. The one thing that no one else can do for you is write your songs.  We decided that. As far as selling it? We need help. We can’t do all that ourselves.
JP: So you guys just came down today. You are headlining the last day. What was that like whenever Linkin Park dropped out as headliner? You arrive and they tell you, ”Well congratulations, you are headlining”.
DK: [Surprised] Is that what happened?
PM: It’s kind of bitter sweet, isn’t it? We are the default headliner. It’s all right. We’ll take it.
DK: You are the one that told me this.
PM: [Laughter]
DK: This is news to me.
JP: Well, I am a journalist.
DK: Well, I just assumed that we walked in the headliner. I was like, “Yeah, of course”.
PM: [Laughter]
DK: I’m kidding, of course. That’s how all the great backup quarterbacks become great. Drew Brees was once a backup quarter back. This our chance. This is it. This is our game.
DK and PM: [Unison] This is what we trained for. [Laughter]
PM: Har-mo-ny!
JP:[Laughter]You really seem to be in a good place with this record, because your last record, Armistice, peaked at 18. That was for it’s entire run. You are already at 24 [with Odd Soul], so would you say have gone back to your base?
DK: I hope so. VH1 made us the “You Outta Know” artist for this upcoming month and I am curious to know if that had much of an affect on it.
PM: I wouldn’t even look at that. I just know how it felt when we finished both records. The only way we will be able to continue making records is if we do it how we want to. Armistice, we were just going to implode.
DK: There is a difference between being spent, like, “Phew, we completed a record” and “I need a week to just—rest”, then feeling depressed and kind of angry at music. Armistice, we were beyond tired at the end of that record.
JP: It takes a perfect storm of variables to make something so awful. Was it really just Greg?
DK: Oh no, not at all! Least him! He doesn’t deserve the credit for Armistice being terrible.
PM: To be perfectly honest, I don’t think we could have made Odd Soul unless we made Armistice because I’m not sure we trusted ourselves enough through the record making process. There was so much indecision on the band’s part with every song idea we had. We were a little drunk with ambition, and everyone had this little ideas. We figured we could just keep working until everyone was happy with everything. There was an ideal that we were chasing that became frustrating. It became, we don’t need just one producer, we need two producers just to break this tie. There was a disgusting democracy going on that was choking the life out of the process of making music. We began to resent it. Doing away with all the cooks in the kitchen for Odd Soul was very therapeutic for us. We realized that only opinion we were interested in when we started an idea was the guys  we are going to be spending the next two years on the road with. If we can’t come to an agreement, then that’s a problem. I think we learned how to listen to eachother more, argue less, and play music more.
We chatted about the perfect weather and the festival for a minute before getting back to music.
JP: This really is a great place for you to be. This, being the third day, there are going to be a lot of people leaving. But, being the third day, being the headliner, if they are there, they are there for you.
DK: You notice that there is a theme going, Jonathan. You are optimistic. You just pulled up our chart and said “I know you haven’t peaked as much as Armistice, but that’s in the first week” and now you are telling me, “I know people are going to be leaving during your set, but those are the people you don’t want there anyways”
DK and PM: [Laughter]
DK: I do appreciate optimism. I’m the same way.
The conversation drifted to further elaboration of the same topics, In closing, Paul left me with a message.
PM: I feel like this record sounds most like “us”. It feels like every record you are just digging a little deeper to find out just who you are.

Coaching Spotlight: Bobby Lamb

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Published Oct 11, in Breaking, Sports, Video

Player Spotlight: Ashani Samuels

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Published Oct 11, in Breaking, Uncategorized, Video

Q&A: The Front Bottoms

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Published Sep 21, in Entertainment, Interviews

The Front Bottoms are one of the most interesting new bands I’ve come across in a long time. The New Jersey duo, composed of singer/guitarist Brian Sella and Matt Uychich recently released their self-titled debut album, an absolutely mind-blowing blend of pop, rock, and old fashioned punk spirit. They’ve only got a drum set and an accoustic guitar, and yet they manage to craft songs that are catchy, fun, and surprisingly emotional. It’s no wonder that I love ‘em so much. And so, being such a huge fan, I sat down with them after their show at the 567 a few weeks back. Read on to hear a bit more about their songwriting, influences, and crazy tour stories.

Eric: So just tell me a little bit about about the band.
Matt Uychich: Sure, We’re the Front Bottoms, two friends, Brian and Matt, we play music that we like to play, like dancey, indie music.
Eric:  How’d you guys get started?
Brian:  I’d always kinda jammed with Matt and his brother, and were kinda like ‘Let’s do this a little more official’ so we thought of a name and then we started playing shows and just as soon as we would think of music we would record it, give it out, play more shows, and we’ve been doing that for about four years.
Eric:  Nice!  And you’re debut album just dropped this week right?
Brian: This week yeah, the sixth.
Eric: What was recording that like?
Matt: It was fun, it was a little different and it kinda dragged on.  We recorded it in our friend’s warehouse space.  It actually was like Christmas time and there was a big break taken between him, and there was flooding issues where the studio is.
Brian:  A lot of shit got destroyed
Matt:  So it took a while, but it all came out good
Eric: Some of the songs were on some EPs earlier right?
Brian:  Yeah, there were six songs on an EP called Slow Dance to Soft Rock that we had released kind of unprofessionally.  And so this is called The Frontbottoms, but it’s really Slow Dance to Soft Rock and Grip and Tie.  Two separate things that came together to form the LP
Matt: Grip and Tie is what we recorded during that break spot, and then when it finished we were talking to Bar None, and then we signed with Bar None, and then we were like “let’s put these two together, and it will be something cool”
Eric: So what are some of your biggest influences just about sound or songwriters in general?
Brian:  I think that our friends and the kids that we hang around with are kind of our biggest influences right now personally. Matt always says that. That’s about it. I mean musically we could say I like folk music, and I like dance music.  I like hip hop a lot too, and I like Top 40 dance music.  A little bit of everything, you know?
Matt:  Without the people we were involved with, our songs wouldn’t be what they are.
Eric:  So are there specific stories that go along with the people?
Matt: Well he writes all the words, but there’s instances where someone will tell us a cool story about their friend, or a distant friend, or even them, or something that happens to us, and that’s what the song is.  And then when I make the drums, it’s like I express my mood in the songs.
Brian:  Yeah, we’re driven by our emotions, for sure!
Eric: So what goes into writing the lyrics, because I know some of them seem sort of stream-of-consciousness, non-sequitur…
Brian:  More like parts put together?  Definitely, we feel the same way.  I might have twenty parts for a song, and they might not be about the same thing but the style and the mood and the theme of the song are all the same thing, so that’s kind of how it goes.  Piecing things together.  There’s some songs that are a complete thought from start to finish.  There’s not many, but there’s a few of them.
Eric:  What would you say is an example of one of those songs?
Brian:  I would say Father, Swimming Pool, and then a lot of old stuff.  That’s the way I would write a lot of old stuff.  Less verse chorus verse chorus, and more like a thought into a song.
Eric:  So how’s this tour been treating you?
Brian:  It’s been pretty good, rock ‘n roll.  We’ve done a lot of DIY tours for the past couple years, and this one’s good.
Matt: We’ve played a lot of new places that we’ve never been to,  so no familiar places when you roll into the area.
Brian: It’s like, where are you going to sleep tonight?
Matt:  It’s also the first time we’ve had our friend Drew play with us live, to fill in our sound, and he’s been great.
Eric: What’s he play?
Matt: Keys and Bass, and he’s really helping out.
Brian:  He really knows what he’s doing musically, so he definitely pulls it together.
Eric: Is this your biggest tour so far?
Brian: No, we did some DIY tours down in Florida, I think like twice, two times in the past.
Eric: What’s the big difference between this and a DIY tour?
Matt: To be honest, this is definitely a DIY tour.
Brian: Yeah, finding places to sleep is still an issue that happens every night.
Matt: The only difference was that it wasn’t just me booking it. We had three people helping me.
Eric: Do you find that gives you more time to be creative if you’re not having to deal with booking everything?
Matt: I think, definitely. I mean, I sometimes go back and forth because when I’m the most stressed and the most busy and trying to work 40 hours a week and do all this shit, I write the best material.
Eric: If you guys could go touring with any bands, who would you like to go out with?
Brian: I think I would like to go out on tour with someone I’ve never heard of.  Or a band that is completely not our style because you have to really learn to perform.
Eric: Any interesting stories from the tour?
Matt: The cops busted some of the first shows. We were about to play, getting our shit together, and nine cops raided the house.
Brian: Just random debauchery, you know.

Q&A: Cartoonist Julia Wertz

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Published Apr 13, in Entertainment, Features, Interviews, Interviews

The first page from Drinking at the Movies. Click to embiggen.

Julia Wertz is one of the most interesting cartoonists working in the industry today. Her latest book, Drinking at the Movies, is an alternatingly hillarious and poignant retelling of Wertz’s move from San Fransisco to Brookyln. Please, go read it.

Eric Brown: What projects have you been working on since Drinking at the Movies?

Julia Wertz: My main project is the follow-up to DATM, which is about the years I spent trying/failing to get sober before finally doing it. It’s not a typical drinking/rehab/sobriety book because that’s not how things unfolded for me, and hopefully that’s what will save it from being like every other alcoholism memoir out there. Most of those books tend to end right after or within a few months of the person getting out of rehab. Mine is going to go further and address relapsing and depression, which has been my struggle with this issue.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’m also very loosely working on a kids book about an orphaned newsboy in the late 1800s. And I’m doing some shorter, more lighthearted stories about my childhood. I’m probably working on kids stuff in order to balance out the headiness of the other story.

EB: What attracted you to comics as an art form?

JW: I’ve always been attracted to the visual, especially children’s book illustrations, which are a lot like comics, aesthetically. And I’ve been an avid reader since I could first read, so it was only natural to combine the two for me. I loved comics like the Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield and Tin Tin as a kid, but I had no idea how far the medium stretched until I was in my early 20s when I discovered Will Eisner and Julie Doucet at the library.

EB: What inspired you to write the early Fart Party comics? Maybe this is the same question as the last one.

JW: Or a continuation of that question. I started drawing silly comics about my daily life after I read those graphic novels and I never pursued anything but comics after that. I did a whole book about moving to San Francisco in a stranger, stiffer style over the summer before suddenly throwing it all aside and settling on (an early version) of my current style. I still have that whole other book and I might redraw it, but for now it’s just sitting there.
But anyways, I took the first Fart Party comics, which I drew maybe four or five months after I started making comics, and put them online just to show my friends. Much to my surprise, they took off quickly and people really liked them. Before I knew what was happening, I had a pretty hearty following and shortly after, Atomic Books approached me about publishing a collection. Everything happened very fast for me. I’m still haven’t quite processed it all seven years later.

EB: As someone who writes about her own life, how do you decide which moments are “print worthy”?

JW: That’s very, very tricky. I throw away A LOT of comics. I’ve probably tossed about two books worth of pages of comics simply because, upon looking back, they were totally pointless, self-indulgent nonsense that would only appeal to me. Granted there are many, many pages that I have published that I now consider of that same ilk, but I try not to waste time regretting those pages.

However, sometimes I’m completely wrong about what I think is unworthy of publishing. Sometimes I’ll put a comic online that I really think is too inside jokey and/or pointless, and people will really respond positively to it. I think what they’re responding to in those comics is that personal touch that I previously thought wouldn’t appeal to anyone but me. Such as the last three panels in the comic “memory lane” where my brother and I are just being goofy about nicknames. That’s a page I made without any editing of what happened in real life, and I thought it would be boring but people really liked it. I guess a lack of editing can sometimes be what’s most appealing.

EB: How do people normally react to your depictions of them once the books are printed?

JW: I’ve yet to see someone be disappointed by the way they come across, but I’m sure that’s happened and they just didn’t tell me. My ex-boyfriend in the first book would sometimes complain that I made him look like an asshole, but it was tongue-in-cheek and so were his complaints (I hope!). The only person who has outright objected was my dad, but that’s only because he doesn’t like my work and has been vocal about it, but that’s more his issue with me rather than how he’s depicted in the comic. My mom loves being in it because she’s hilarious and has no modesty in regards to pointing that out.

EB: Your comics sort of straddle the line between comedy and some pretty personal and emotional moments. How do you maintain that balance?
JW: That’s just how I am, in real life as well as the comics. I seek comfort in humor and the only way I get through tough issues is to find something in it to joke about. That doesn’t mean ALL I do is joke in an effort to deflect the seriousness of the issue; it’s very annoying and insincere when people use jokes as a shield. I don’t use humor as a barrier between me and the problem, but more as a means to alleviate the struggle just a little bit.

EB: Tell me about Pizza Island. How it got started, what you do together, etc.

JW: Pizza Island is basically just a studio of 6 cartoonists, working on separate projects. We all work on our individual projects and we don’t collaborate on these, but we do present as a group while doing readings, online projects for our collective blog and conventions. It started in early 2010 when four of us just needed to stop working alone in our respective apartments since it was making us all crazy. We found a really cheap but nice studio in the outskirts of Greenpoint and settled in. We added a few more friends in late 2010 when they moved to New York and we found it was really fun to bill ourselves as a group even though we work individually.

EB: Are you working in comics full time at this point?

JW: I’m in flux at the moment. I was working on comics full time for about three years but early this year, I was dropped by my publisher at the time (Random House) and so now I’m searching for a new publisher. Unfortunately, what happened was that big publishers thought comics were the new big thing, so they signed contracts with a bunch of cartoonists, so a lot of us were able to make a small but efficient living off comics for awhile. But as the books started coming out, big publishers realized that comics just don’t sell up to their standards, so they dropped a lot of us. Which is better, I think, since comics publishers are more adept at handling comics, not big, traditional book publishers. Which isn’t to say I’m opposed to working with them, but there’s a big learning curve.

EB: It’s sort of become a Hollywood trend to adapt comics into movies lately. How long until we see a $150 million Fart Party adaptation by Zach Snyder, complete with gratuitous slow-motion action scenes? I ask because I would pay to see that movie.

JW: Oh god, never I hope! If that’s the direction it would go. I’m very reluctant to even consider TV or movies right now, despite some initial interest in my first books. Because it’s my life story and it hasn’t nearly finished, I don’t have an interest in seeing it pigeonholed in 90 minutes just yet. My first and foremost interest, concern and drive is comics/writing. The project (for TV/movies) would have to be pretty specific and I would have to have a lot of control, which is something I just don’t have time for. However, I probably wouldn’t object if someone wanted to make a sh*tty 90-minute comedy from my first book and give me a sh*tload of money. I’m distanced enough from that material to not really care, but everything else is off the table at the moment.

An interview with Andy Hull

Manchester Orchestra frontman talks touring, new record

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Published Feb 3, in Entertainment

Andy Hull posing for his solo project, Right Away Great Captain!

Over the past four years, Andy Hull has established a record as one of the most talented and emotionally honest emerging musicians.
As the frontman for Atlanta-based rock act Manchester Orchestra, his band’s brand of intricate, stripped-down and highly charged rock leads to a multitude of critical acclaim and an impassioned, firmly established fanbase.
Thanks to Macon’s music news and review site TheBlueIndian.com, Manchester Orchestra’s lead singer Andy Hull performed in Macon at the 567 along with fellow indie-troubadour Kevin Devine on Dec. 3.
Hull and Devine have toured together previously and even collaborated together, releasing a record under the name Bad Books.
Their set was noticeably intimate, featuring songs from Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine’s solo material, Bad Books, Hull’s side project Right Away Great Captain and various covers.
After the show, I spent a few minutes with Hull discussing playing in Macon, the band’s early shows and what to expect with their latest record. A transcript follows, edited for clarity (and to cut out a few words the paper won’t let me print).
Eric Brown: I know Macon’s a lot smaller than many of the places you’ve played in the past few years, so what was behind your decision to come here, and how did you feel about playing the 567?
Andy Hull: I mean, Macon’s not too much smaller than other places we’ve played in before. It was a great show with great energy. I loved it. But we came here because Sean [Pritchard, booking agent for TheBlueIndian.com] is here. We know him, and when Kevin [Devine] and I came up with the idea to come do the solo tour, out of the five venues we could have played we decided to do this one.
EB: It was really fantastic.
AH: Thank you. Thank you.
EB: I actually saw you guys, I guess five years ago with Anathallo at Swayze’s in Marrietta.

AH: Oh, Jesus Christ!With, like, Colour Revolt, and that other band—I forget their name… [A long section of us trying to remember the band’s name follows. We couldn’t do it, though Hull remembered that it was “super emo” and “Something Tomorrow”.]
EB: Well, since then, you’ve had a very different sound — it’s a lot more raw, a lot more aggressive.

AH: Yeah, I mean, I think back then we were pretty raw and aggressive, but we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. Those were the first shows we’d ever done, man. Colour Revolt and Anathallo broke our band, no doubt.
EB: Yeah, those were some fantastic shows. But as your sound’s been maturing, what kind of direction are you moving in now?
AH: Uh, it’s like some really raw, classic rock s***. Kind of like Neil Young, Built to Spill, Pavement, Pixies. Kind of a mix of all that. So that’s on the new record. It’s done now, actually, and it’s coming out in a couple of months and it’s definitely different than anything we’ve ever done before. A lot more singing and screaming, I would say. A bunch of harmonies and s***. Yeah. The other thing [“Mean Everything to Nothing”] was more like a temper tantrum; this is more like a thought.
EB: I can’t wait to hear it. So, are you going on a big tour to support that?
AH: No,we’re just gonna stay at home. But yes, we’re going on a big tour. I mean, I hope it’s big. Maybe a small tour if it doesn’t sell so well. That’s what we do, you know? Make record and tour.
EB: What’s been your favorite part of touring so far?
AH: Nothing, man. I hate f***ing touring. I don’t like touring at all. It’s not fun. I mean, if there’s a good part about it, it’s time with friends and time with the realization that what you do doesn’t have to do with you, so for me, I kind of see God when we play, because I don’t feel like anything I’ve done has been—I’m blessed, is all. That’s it. I’m f****ing blessed to have people that give a f*** what I’m talking about.
Manchester  Orchestra fans can expect to see their latest record “Simply Math” in stores next year. It was produced by Dan Hannon at both the band’s own Atlanta-based Favorite Gentlemen Studios and Nashville’s Blackbird Studios.