1. Seems like you’ve been having a busy summer so far! Can you tell us about your experience performing at the Spring for Sound festival?
Oliver Kennan(OK): Spring for Sound was great. I have performed there twice before as a solo artist so I was really glad to get to bring the band this time and really have a party. Mimi Ramos, Kristen Panzer, Graham Stone and everyone who put that festival on always do such an amazing job and I’m very grateful that they keep inviting me back. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun local music festival next summer.
2. I noticed you’ve had some late, late night performances at venues in the city. How are those shows different?
OK: We do seem to get the late sets fairly frequently. I think our performance at Sleep No More takes the cake though, I believe our set started at 2:45 am. We had a great time, I was surprised that people stuck around that late but the crowd was good!
3. Congratulations on the “No Fun” new video and EP! How was the recording process/filming process.
OK: Thank you! We recorded the EP about a year ago and it was very interesting and fun for us. Everyone in the band was really just starting to get to know each other so it was definitely a process of feeling each other out and figuring out the dynamic of the group. We record most of our tracks with my friend Graham Stone at Stone Studio in Lakeville, CT. He’s an amazing engineer/dude and his studio works really well for us. It’s in a beautiful spot and really helps to get everyone in a good head-space for being creative. We’re almost finished with our next batch of songs. There are six of them and we’re going to release them as singles. We’ll be releasing one every month through the end of 2015. The “No Fun” video was a really fun shoot. Every time we shoot a video I’m reminded of how awkward I am in front of the camera. Luckily, we had the lovely Syrie Moskowitz to make us all look cool.
4. Love the black and white videos from Rockwood Music Hall: how would you describe your group? Can you compare yourself to any current artists? Who do you draw inspiration from?
OK: Describing your own music is always tough. I usually say “Indie” because it’s so vague that it could mean just about anything. If you twisted my arm I might call it “Indie Rock & Soul”. We definitely have a funky/bluesy element in there that keeps us from being a real Indie rock band and there’s a bit of folk and jazz in there also. The mixture of all those different vibes is what really excites me. I’m not really sure we’re extremely similar to any bands I know, but like all artists we get inspiration from our peers and idols. In no particular order; Delicate Steve, Arcade Fire, Mac Demarco, The Wood Brothers, Rubblebucket, St. Vincent, LCD Soundsystem, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra are all artists that I listen to and get inspired by.
5. “No Fun” has been described as “psychedelic.” It is definitely”trippy” with cool color/effects, but the story is woven in and their is a really solid beat that keeps the song moving along. How would you describe the video? What is the message you are trying to relay? Where was it shot?
OK: The goal was to make a video that was really visually stimulating. The song doesn’t have a strict linear story going on in the lyrics, so we felt like we had some room to explore with the direction of the video. John Fitzgerald and Sandy White from The Xplorers Club did an amazing job with not only shooting the video, but also taking it into that very psychedelic realm. We were very lucky to be able to shoot the video in Baby’s All Right and also in a private nightclub called Mom’s Basement.
6. Can you give us a little background on the group- members?, how the group formed?, favorite venues?, favorite track on the EP? Do you all have other jobs, students etc?
OK: I met our drummer Dave Tedeschi first when we were working on an EP for another band called Outfielder. When I decided to start my own project, he was the first person I called. The rest of the band really all snowballed from there. I met our bassist Bennett Miller and our keyboard player/horn arranger David Luther through Tedeschi, and when we decided to bring a horn section on this past spring, it just so happened that Luther was also a saxophone player and knew a bunch of horn players. We’ll be playing at The Bowery Electric for our third time this Friday and we always have a really great time there. There’s something about that room that is really great. The sound is good and it’s small enough to feel intimate, but big enough that you can move around. We hope to keep getting invited back. I think my favorite song on the EP is “In the Basement”. It is a very literal account of an early childhood memory that I have. It’s about the moment that I worked up the courage to walk around in the house in the middle of the night to find out if there really were monsters in the dark or the basement. I was probably about 4 or 5 at the time. I’m the only member of the band who isn’t in another band at the moment. Everyone else plays in jazz bands, wedding bands, reggae bands, blues bands, and everything in between.
7. What are you most excited for from the EP and what should fans look out for?
OK: It has just been really exciting for me to put my own music out. I’ve been playing for a long time now, but this was the first time I’ve ever released something that was really my own. We are actually about to start releasing a series of new singles. We’ll be coming out with a new song every month through the end of 2015!
8. Can you give us your craziest fan experience?
OK: Hmmm, at our last show at The Bowery Electric a bunch of people who I hadn’t seen in a very long time all showed up while we were playing. Some were from college and some I hadn’t seen in over ten years. I guess it’s not very crazy, but it was very surreal to see all of those faces. It was a little hard not to get distracted, but it was really nice.
“No Fun” music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAu_LUPEzPc
