|
|
This is the ad-laden mirror site for
poppyseed.fateback.com (for times when Fateback is playing up)
Inspirations
- Part 2/4
KO.OP Radio 91.7 Interview transcript -
28th April, 2001. ...continued....
[PART 1]
-
Bad Andy: Alright, good guys! We'll let you catch your breath for a couple of seconds, before we jump back into the questions.. so ah...
Spencer Gibb: Yeah, the allergies are just killing me
Andy: Yeah, it's gotta be rough to sing with all that.
Spencer: It's hard. Today's really hard -- But we'll get through it.
Andy: Right, so that was a taste for what we are going to have
tonight at La Zona Rosa. I was wondering if you could also tell us just
a little bit about this new CD that's coming out. What kind of material
is going to be on it?
Spencer: Well, it's a little different in a lot of ways from the old CD
really. Because you know, a good couple of years have passed. It's a
little more representative of what our live show is now. Which is even
more ambient. It's probably more of a keyboard driven record, than we
would have made before. It's definitely a mellow intimate record. I
think for the most part.. it's just more intimate. A little more
melancholy. We wanted to make the kind of record that you'd want to
listen to from start to finish. That takes you somewhere -- as opposed
to a collection of singles -- Which tends to be the current trend.
Stewart Cochran: Plus the fact... Unlike the previous record, we're doing this
one entirely on our own. We're doing this in our own studio. Which we've
just completed building. We're doing all the production ourselves. I
imagine we'll be doing all the mixing ourselves. 'Cause we learned a lot
of things from E.P.
Spencer: Which actually was never intended to be a record. That's the strangest thing is, it really did start out as an e.p. that was only 5 tunes on it, and it was just a promo, that was sent out to labels, and whatever else, and then people wanted to start buying them, because we didn't have a record. We started selling it, and we threw some other tunes on it that we had recorded ourselves. So it has always been accidental. We haven't had actually really ever put out a record -- you know, made it for that purpose.
Andy: That's interesting, especially since, you know we were talking before we went on today, about how you guys started playing in Austin, and how you built up the audience that you did, and some of the fans that we talked about earlier.. that some of the recognition that you're getting from all over the states, and from other countries... I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how that all came about.
Stewart: We started playing together locally, when the band was first coming together, and then it was right after Steamboat closed down, may it rest in peace, that Chet over at The Speakeasy, and through the help of Matt McCormack also, gave us a residency at Speakeasy, so we were playing there every Monday. We were then approached by...
Spencer: I think we started on Sunday actually
Stewart: Did we? That's right, we were on the Matt McCormack presents night
Spencer: Yeah, yeah.
Stewart: ... and we were approached by a now defunct company called Clubcast Live, and they were a local company who would come into various clubs... they'd put microphones in, and they would have servers, and high speed internet connection right in the clubs so that they were able to stream the shows as they happened. We had gathered a bunch of email addresses, and sending out "hey, you know you can tune into this site, and listen to us live", and that really kind of took off for us. We started getting emails from....
Spencer: From lots of other countries.
Stewart: From all over the world. People saying you know.. "we really look forward to these Monday night shows. We all, you know, sit around the computer, and you know, listen to them". And it's just amazing to have people from Australia, and Italy, and Canada Germany, who were all "getting together", and listening to these shows every week. And then Clubcast would archive the shows, so you could go back..
Spencer: Yeah
Stewart: .. and listen to them later.
Spencer: Like what we were talking about earlier.. The greatest thing about it was, you know, having a couple of hundred people in the club, and knowing there'd be a couple of hundred listening online. We got to the point where we were talking to them during the show, as well as talking to audience. It was ..ahh... it felt like it was kind of revolutionary.. It felt like it was something that no one else was really doing. Um.. and I think it could have really been something. It's terrible that Clubcast folded. I mean they had their reasons, and I still think it's a great idea, it's just no one was able to... "cause there are other companies have tried doing it, apparently no one's really been able to figure out how to turn it into money. Advertiser's aren't really that crazy about getting involved. They really wanted major labels to get involved, so that they could, have live shows broadcast on the internet, and you know, have people subscribe and pay for it -- so if you wanted to see a one-off show you could have audio and video.. and the labels never went for it. They were always like "no, no, no".. 'cause that of course would be using the internet for something. So... Um.. But yeah, that pretty much turned into... It allowed us to definitely become who we were. I don't think we were... I always thought we were a good band, but I think that, that allowed us to be better.
Stewart: It also gave us a glimpse that there was an audience beyond Austin, I think umm...
Spencer: Yeah!
Stewart: ...So many bands in town concentrate on just building up a local following rather than trying to build, you know, a broader audience at once.. and that's great if you can become popular in Austin, but, you know there is a bigger world out there. You can quote me on that.
Spencer: Yeah. But I also think that, that was actually part of it too, is I think there were a lot of people... It's strange how people find music. I still believe that people enjoy music the most when they find it on their own. You know, when it's a grass roots thing. They don't want it shoved down their throats. If a friend of them tells them about something, you know, or they see a flyer.. and I think there is a lot of people that tuned into Clubcast live knowing it was from Austin, thinking it was going to be something else. What was great about Clubcast, was that they didn't pigeon hole their bands. They didn't go "right this is Austin, so we're going to present this blues/rock thing to the world, or we're going to present a country thing.. They had a broad cross-section of music, and people were able to sit there, and explore different clubs, without the presumptions of the club. A lot of people were shocked that we were playing The Speakeasy when we first started, 'cause at the time it was still very much a swing club. They weren't having a lot of rock'n'roll. That mold slowly got broken, but people who are listening to an internet show from Australia, they don't know what The Speakeasy is. They don't know the difference between The Speakeasy and Antone's, or you know, umm.. Dan McKluskys. It doesn't matter to them. They just want to hear cool stuff. I think that was another reason we got lucky.. or we did well.. I don't know.
*
Andy: Okay. I was wondering if you ah.. you handed us this, ah.... Your last cd, EP, earlier was there something else you wanted us to play off of this?
Stewart: Well here. Let's play this instead.
Spencer: Okay, well will that thing actually fit in the..
Stewart: Yeah, sure it will! Yeah, these are great these little.. you can't actually see them of course, 'cause we're on the radio.. but these are little discs that..
Spencer: If you think really hard... close your eyes...
Stewart: ...picked up down at ProTape. They're about the size of a business card (looks like this), that actually plays in regular..
Spencer: Was that a plug for ProTape?
Stewart: What's that?
Spencer: Was that a plug for ProTape?
Stewart: Was that a plug, "Please, show at ProTape", no I.. that's not a plug
Spencer: Can you do that on..
Stewart: I don't think you can do that on community radio
Spencer: No.
Stewart: Okay, we bought this at a local professional audio ahh.. (laughs) wholesaler. (walking away from mic).. But you can actually play these on a regular..
Spencer: Unless you have a slot.. you can't put them in a slot loading player. They're really small and they're like a ..
Stewart: But this is the last song we cut at the old studio
Spencer: Which was my bedroom
Stewart: (laughs) Which was Spencer's bedroom basically..
Spencer: Yeah, it really was too.
Stewart: ... and this is, indicative of the fact that we...
Spencer: This was about 8 months ago..
Stewart: Cut this.. we completely cut this ourselves, and completely mixed it ourselves.
Spencer: Yeah
Stewart: And then had Jim Wilson over at .. had Jim Wilson master it for us.
Spencer: Yes Mastering!. is the thing we're looking for.
Stewart: Yes! Mastering. That's not really a plug though, is it?
Spencer: That's not a plug, 'cause he's a guy.
Stewart: Yeah.
Spencer: he's not a, you know.. well he's a business... but we're a business too. So you could say that we're plugging ourselves.
Stewart: Yeah, we are a business... 'cause we're certainly not a pleasure.
Spencer: Right!.. No, no, it's not.. Well you're in a business to actually make money too. (Andy laughs) To actually be a business. Well I guess not..
Andy: Well not the way things are going now. it doesn't work like that.
Spencer: No, no it doesn't really.
Andy: So what's the name of the song again?
Stewart: This is a song called ahh.. World Stood Still... And.. This may not even be released. This may be the only time you'll ever get to hear it. This, and the live shows.
Spencer: Yeah.
Stewart: 'Cause this is not going to be on the live CD.
*
World Stood Still (radio Edit version)
*
Continued....
[PART 1]
-
-
[ARTICLES
INDEX]
[site map]
