(Much belated) Interview with DEREK SMITH of PRETTY LIGHTS

Sorry for the wait, guys…

ALSO: for those of you who didn’t know, Derek will be back in Madison on Saturday, April 10th. Unfortunately, he will not be playing the Majestic…he will be at the Barrymore Theatre, so get your tickets before it sells out! Tickets go on sale THIS FRIDAY (Feb. 12th).

Derek was extremely nice during our interview; he answered the questions with almost too much detail (I actually had to edit the answers so they weren’t a page long!) but that’s a good thing in this situation. Hope you all like the interview!

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Majestic Music: I’m going to start off with asking you about the origin of the name Pretty Lights. I remember reading somewhere that it was from a vintage Pink Floyd poster advertising their show by saying “come see the pretty lights”, correct?

Derek: Yeah, that’s where I saw the two words together for the first time, and the way they phrased it-“come see the pretty lights”-it almost sounded like a band opening for them, and I was really into Pink Floyd at the time. I still am. And that’s what got me thinking about it, and why I stuck with it is because it really seemed to resonate in my mind, the meaning—what it meant to me. At the time I was really into making videos, and what it meant to me was sort of a name to embody the idea of little moments of beauty, or inspiration, or little experiences throughout your life, or day. For example if you’re driving, and it’s raining, and the way the light looks on your windshield…it just looks fresh. Just the idea of experiencing art or beauty in random moments…that’s what “pretty lights” means to me.

MM: Wow, that’s a much deeper meaning than what I got from online. You mentioned Pink Floyd as one of the bands that you like, can you tell me any other artists you like, or that inspire you?

D: I like every kind of music. A lot of people say, “I like every kind of music except–”…

MM: …Country?

D: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. I didn’t want to say it…but I mean, I was like that too for a long time, but I’m at the point where I feel like I can appreciate all genres of music if someone has put emotion into it, if it’s really an expression of someone’s self. Really my favorite stuff is…I’m into old soul music right now, but I love cutting edge production, things that make me think, “Woah, I wish I knew how to do that.” Bonobo is one of my favorite producers, I love everything that guy does. There’s not a lot of producers out there that really come consistently like that, but there’s a new producer that’s on the scene from Portland called Emancipator that’s really fresh. And Elliot Lip, who’s actually opening tonight with Dark Party. Those guys are like, when they put out new music I’m really excited about. Grammatik, he’s from eastern Europe, he’s probably one of my favorites.

MM: Do you like the Chemical Brothers at all?

D: Yeah, several years ago I was really into the Chemical Brothers. I really like them because of their versatility with electronic music. I feel like a lot of electronic artists make one kind of electronic music, whether it’s dub step, or house music, or down tempo. I connect with the Chemical Brothers because they’ll make trip hop, or break beats, or something weird and slow like pop electronic. I feel like having that sort of versatility keeps it’s interesting. I love dub step—but I can’t sit through 2 hours of a dub step show because it’ll just drive me crazy.

MM: Where do you get your music from, like old records or…?

D: My process varies, I use a lot of vinyl snippets and stuff like that. I’ll spend hours digging through vinyl at old record stores, or flea markets but I’ll also start tracks by writing projections or keys and then add samples later, so they get that vintage sound quality. When it does come to sampling I feel like I can find sounds or melodies or samples that I like from all kinds of different genres of music. When I go to record stores I definitely hit soul, blues, and folk first; folk is where you find the ill guitar samples and vocal phrases and stuff. My whole process is combining samples. The potential for originality in that sort of art form comes from combining these different samples from different decades and artists and genres and parts of the world that were never meant to go together, but when you can make them work together it will create something new—a new feeling, or a new sound, or whatever. The hard part in it is making seven different samples all work together perfectly like they were meant to go together, but they weren’t.

MM: How did you get started with all of this (music)?

D: I started producing electronic music in high school when I was really into hip-hop, and I wanted to make hip-hop beats. Sort of simultaneously I was exposed to the rave scene. And it was all DJs at the time, I was so confused by it like, “what are they doing? Do these guys make this music?” A friend and I started looking into it and got basic computer software and started messing with it. As we listened to more artists and found out more about it, we just kept doing it. And it was mainly to make hip-hop beats. And then I got into it more, it just kept developing and evolving, and then I felt like I finally had a style. And that’s when Pretty Lights was born.

MM: What year was that?

D: The concept started in mid 2005 and then the first record came out in October 2006. I had no idea what would come of it. I thought it was good music; I thought it was fresh and I believed in it. I’d been in a band before that where we tried to sell a CD and thought that was going to be our main form of revenue but it was so difficult to convince people to buy our CD, especially when it was underground music. I figured since people download music anyway I’d put a website up and support it. I didn’t know what was going to happen, back then, I had no idea that I’d turn into a touring, performing artist with this type of music. I never would have even imagined that this kind of music would work in this setting, you know? I think with the evolution of music and all the different genres that people are into…it’s kind of just the right time and place for this music to be successful.

MM: Did you ever think you’d become this well-known?

D: No, God no. I didn’t think a producer with this kind of music…I didn’t think it could happen. I mean, there’s been a few but it was always like, come and go. I just want to make music that’s good, that can make you feel something, an emotional resonance. That’s the quality that I feel makes certain artists have longevity, or makes their music timeless. I’m not saying that’s how Pretty Lights is, but that’s going to be my goal.

Upcoming Interview: Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights will be at the Majestic on Saturday, October 24th. I’ll be interviewing Derek (the man behind Pretty Lights) that day, so if you have any specific questions you want me to ask him, let me know by leaving a comment on this post.

Check out Pretty Lights here.

Portugal. the Man Photos

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Isabel Alvarez from the Daily Cardinal for sending me the amazing photos she took at the Portugal. the Man show! Check them out:

All of these photos © Isabel Alvarez.

How to Leave Constructive Crit. Comments 101

Just a note to all of you reading this blog…I got my first “hate mail” comment today. HURRAY! Obviously I made such an impact on “John Doe”‘s life that s/he felt compelled to leave me a rambling comment about how much I fail at life.

Wrong way to comment: You are one of the shittiest writers’ ever. You SUCK!!! Go back to school or something you ignorant piece of shit. Do the journalism world a favor and f***ing kill your self you dumb f***ing c*** licking f***er!!!!-John Doe (yes, this is an actual real comment)

Right way to comment: You should try reading over your entries before you post them. I don’t agree with your writing but here are some tips on how to improve it…etc.-Not an actual comment but ideal feedback

I am not approving Sir John Doe’s comment to be viewed in its original form because, other than being offensive, childish, cowardly, hypocritical, and just plain stupid, it has naughty words in it that will burn children’s eyes.

And if you’re reading this, John, next time try checking your grammar before you post about how “shitty” someone’s writing is.

PORTUGAL. THE MAN Interview

After the amazing show Portugal. The Man put on last night, their lead singer, John, was kind enough to sit down and answer a few questions I had for him. John’s presence on stage belied his endearing, soft-spoken personality during the interview.

MAJESTIC MUSIC: I’ve gotta ask…where did you guys come up with the name “Portugal. The Man”?

JOHN: When we sat down to talk about the band and what we wanted to do with it, Bowie & the Beatles were a big inspiration at the time; Elton John as well, so we wanted to make an alter ego, this other character, and make it sound like an individual but also have it represent a group of people as well. So we decided to take a country’s name because a country represents a group of people and is a singular voice in the world as well. And to be honest, Portugal sounded the best as a person’s name, and I know the whole thing looks weird now, but Portugal was the person’s name…and it didn’t make sense without saying “he’s the man!”, and the period is in there to emphasize that.

MM: How did the band start/meet each other?

J: Zach (bass/percussion/vocals) and I went to high school together and he was in a cover band that covered like Rage Against the Machine, Pantera, Slayer…I’d see him playing at lunch and I just thought to myself, “It’s so crazy,” these kids playing these songs, probably not very well, but at the time it just seemed like it. And I thought, if he can play those songs, why can’t we write and play our own songs?

MM: How old were you in high school when you met?

J: It was freshman year; I left that school pretty early. I’d been homeschooled before, off and on, and high school just didn’t make any sense to me. There was nothing I wanted to do, and there was nothing it was giving me. I was really shy so I wasn’t getting the social experience or anything like that…but I was fine, I had an understanding of what I wanted to do. We moved down to Portland after we started this band, Matt, Ryan, and Jason…we’re trying to keep it very Alaskan, or Portland-based [laughs].

MM: Any other bands that inspire you besides Bowie, Beatles, Elton John…?

J: Oh, Wu-Tang, totally Wu-Tang. Old Dirty Bastard’s first record; I was just listening to it the other day and just sitting there listening to that…his first record is one of the craziest albums I’ve ever heard, it’s a total concept record if you listen from start to finish, it flows together so well; everything they did with that was really cool. The Flaming Lips are kind of an obvious new band…out of any new band that’s the band that I connect with the most, visually and song wise, and as people they seem like they really love playing music and that’s what I dig more than assholes playing rock and roll.

MM: Are there any newer bands that you’re really into right now?

J: Hello Electric are friends of ours; Drug Rug obviously, we’ve been wanting to tour with them for a long time now and I’m really glad it worked out.

MM: What did you think of Madison/the Majestic?

J: It’s great, it’s so cool; last time [at Café Montmartre] was really good, too. It was really fun, and people here are really nice. The promoter is really cool, the venue is cool, the security is cool…we’ve had the best experiences in Madison. It’s always been nice.

MM: Any random trivia about the band you want to leave me with?

J: I don’t know…every time we get this question, I feel like I have to say something cool…[laughs]

Let me know what you think–there’s a comment button right below this post! Also, if anyone has ideas of what I should ask bands in upcoming interviews, tell me! I can always use more constructive crit.

Twitter!

Majestic Music now has a Twitter account! I don’t really use Twitter at all…but since everyone and their mother (and father…and pet) has one, I figured this is a good move on my part.

I’ll be updating it with upcoming interviews and shows at the Majestic. Check it out!

Sufjan Stevens

As much as I hoped that I would, I did not get to interview Sufjan Stevens while he was at the Majestic yesterday (September 29th). The show sold out, which was unfortunate for those of you who didn’t get a chance to buy tickets. People were lined up outside when I got to the Majestic at 2 pm, and according to the owners of the Majestic, some of those people were there at 9 in the morning.

Talk about being a fan.

I stuck around for about 5 minutes of the show, but it was (obviously) crowded; when I left we were nearly at capacity with 533 people in the building, not including staff.

If you’re dying for an inside look on how Sufjan was live, go to Muzzle of Bees for a review of the show here.

Check back later for the interview with Portugal. the Man!

HIATUS is OVER!

There are no excuses for the blog going…well, downhill, in the past months. Yes, I have been busy, but definitely not too busy to be interviewing the many bands and musical artists that have been coming to the Majestic.

For this, I apologize.

But believe me when I say that there will be more interviews coming your way. I don’t promise to update constantly, or have an interview with every artist or band that comes here, but there will be at the very least a once-monthly update.

If anyone who reads this wants me to do a specific interview with a musical artist or band, shoot me a message at kelsey@majesticmadison.com. Make sure you do it a few weeks/months in advance so I can set things up.

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS: (possibly) Sufjan Stevens, Portugal. the Man.

Feb. 14th Interview: Barcelona

Ah, Valentine’s Day. A day for lovers…and people who like good music. We had four, yes, four, bands at the Majestic on February 14th. The first band was Company of Thieves, second–Barcelona, who have been to the Majestic before for our 5 Indie Buzz Bands night, third was the lovely and talented Missy Higgins, and the main band was Thriving Ivory.

Unfortunately I did not interview everyone; but I did get a chance to talk to Barcelona: frontman and guitarist Chris Bristol, keyboardist and vocalist Brian Fennell, and drummer Rhett Stonelake.

The band...left to right: Chris, Brian, Rhett.

Q: So far what do you guys think of Madison as a place to play concerts?
Brian: The last time we were here we didn’t get to go out much because we have a friend that lives in Milwaukee that we stay with, but as for playing here we love it; the crowds have been great, and we’re excited for the sold-out show tonight. This venue is awesome, you guys run a great venue. Anytime that we look forward on a tour to playing in a place like this we get psyched all the way up to it and tell people all about it when we leave.

Q: So this is only the second time you guys have played here?
Chris: Yes.

Q: Second time in Madison?
B: Third time in Madison. We played at a small place in the summer, I forget the name of it but it was totally dead because college was out.
Rhett: So we got all the Spotted Cow. We love the beer here.
B: We’re on tour right now with Thriving Ivory and we are really enjoying this tour. We just recently signed in December with Universal Motown Records, and we’re really excited about that. Our record comes out in April, hopefully April 14th; fingers-crossed. It might be a week later.

Q: Where are you guys going after this?
C: Tomorrow we’re playing Minneapolis, then Green Bay, then Chicago. Then after Chicago we’re heading out to the East Coast, like Boston and New York.

Q: How long does the tour go on?
B: South by Southwest [a festival in Austin, TX, starting March 13th] is when we get off this tour, to play South by Southwest, and then we jump on another tour a couple weeks later.
C: With a band called MAE.
B: We’ll be doing that up until late may, and then we’re kind of figuring out our summer plans right now.

Q: Alright, give me some random trivia about all of you.
R: My name is Rhett and I play the drums. I love flannel. I added an “h” to spelling of my name because I wanted to be in the NHL and I thought all great hockey players came from Canada, and I thought if I could make my name sound more Canadian, therefore i’d be a better hockey player.
C: So Rhett likes flannel a lot–it’s a flannel fetish–and when we played CMJ [College Music Journal Music Marathon and Festival] there was this fashion writer/blogger person there and she said that Rhett was starting a new fashion trend called the “intellectual lumberjack”.
B: I am really, probably to my downfall, really really observational of people, of their quirks and whatnot, and this guy [Chris] is like, quirk-central.
C: I’m kind of like, borderline OCD on a lot of things. Like they noticed the other day when we were eating Taco Bell that after we were done with the meal that I folded all of the wrappers up-
B: -as much as you can-
C: -so it takes the least amount of space, and I didn’t even think about it, but these guys thought it was pretty funny.
B: He’s very efficient in his life, but sometimes that efficiency overflows where it doesn’t need to go. Like I just sit back and watch him and he takes very good care of everything. You should look in his bag, it’s the most pristine…like even the dirty clothes have a place.
R: Let’s see, I’m trying to think if there’s anything else quirky about you…
C: Well, there’s a lot.
B: Oh, every time he washes his hands, any bathroom, he washes his hands and then gives his face a good wipe. Any time.
C: It is a very rare thing that I don’t wash my face when I wash my hands.
B: He’s kind of like an animal…You guys have one for me? Am I weird?
R: Brian loves this hand lotion that you can get at the body shop.
C: The body shop lotion!
B: I like my products…for a while I liked this stuff from Bath and Body Works, but then I kind of had this epiphany that I smelled really feminine and that people must have just been really nice to me to not tell me that I smelled like a garden…
C: So his new stuff is like this hemp salve…it’s so good, it smells just super hempy.
B: I just thought of something weird about me. So, when I was little, I was really jealous of kids that were double-jointed…because it seemed like at show and tell everyone was like, “I can..stretch my blah-blah-blah,” (Unfortunately I do not have a visual of Brian bending strangely…but it was an uncaptured Kodak Moment for sure) and I was like “Mom, I’m not double-jointed, am I?” And my mom did this when she was little too, she made it so that her thumb could bend back behind her hand and she’s like, “I’m not double-jointed but I just forced myself to do it.” And I practiced enough and now I can be like, “Look, I can do this, even though I’m not double-jointed.”

Q: That’s interesting..
R: Yeah, we’re all pretty weird.
B: Chris talks in his sleep.

Q: Can you have conversations with him?
B: Whats funny is that right when he wakes up you can’t talk to him, even if it’s the middle of the day, he’ll just wake up and stare at you. We’ll say something to him and he’ll just stare at us…he’ll go like this (Another uncaptured Kodak Moment with Brian…) And you think that he hears you and that he’s just trying to process what you’re saying…
C: For those of you who aren’t here, the description involves a lot of eye-blinking.
B: It’s like he looks amazed or something…he’s like a newborn.
C: The world is a new place when you wake up…new city, new surroundings, new people, new smells…Hearing the soundcheck right now is reminding me that I’m really excited to see Missy Higgins tonight…I’m having a little giddy excited moment.
B: We’re really excited to hear her.

Q: What music do you guys listen to? I know Missy Higgins is one…
R: I think collectively we listen to a lot of like…atmospheric rock. We love bands like Sigur Rós.
B: Musical space. We like music with room to breathe…melody driven.
C: We really like Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright.
B: Rhett is a big fan of hip hop, underground hip hop. I think live hip hop is so sweet.
R: Especially live, it just brings a lot of people out. I like music that can just like connect with people, that’s what we try to do.
B: Music that doesn’t tell people what to think, that people can interpret however they want.

There you have it; Barcelona are great musicians, full of lovely little quirks, who want people to interpret their lyrics and melodies to fit their own personal experiences. I couldn’t ask for anything more in the interview because unfortunately my tape ran out and we were crunched for time, but I’m satisfied with our conversation. When they come back perhaps I’ll get a follow-up interview. Until then, I’m happy with what I’ve got and I’m glad I got to meet them. Thanks boys!

Q&A With Howie Diamond and Lucas Field of Low Vs. Diamond AND Nikolai Fraiture

So I was lucky enough to be graced with the presence of Howie Diamond, the drummer of Low Vs. Diamond. (You may have heard rumors about how the name of the band derives from Howie’s last name, but don’t believe them. Only I know the real meaning…) He was super fun to talk to and interview, and I’m really glad I got to see him again!

Q: What did you go to school for?
A: Business management. But I went to school in Boulder, so I didn’t really study. I just went skiing a lot.

Q: What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t in LVD?
A: I think I’d be traveling a lot; going around meeting people and soliciting something. Something legal.

Q:What are some bands that inspire you?
A: I’ve been listening to the Talking Heads a lot recently. David Byrne…and The Cure influences me as a drummer sometimes.

Q: Tell me some random trivia about you.
A: Wow, that’s a good question…What’s a good trivia about me? What’s my favorite…color? It was blue…three years ago. But now it’s red.

Q: What’s some advice you have for young musicians today?
A: It’s probably the hardest time to actually make a living being in a band. But if you’re doing it because you believe in the music and what you’re doing, then that’s all that’s important. And there are ways to get around not making money, as we’re learning. Just get rid of your home and car, then you have no expenses!

Q: What’s your favorite city to play so far?
A: New York is fun…Chicago is fun, and San Fransisco.

Q: So basically big cities?
A: Yeah, we went to the UK for a bit, and we played in London and a bunch of cities there and that was great; this was about 2 years ago. We’re going back there in a couple months. I’m excited to go back.

Q: So, what’s next for you guys after this? Are you are still touring with Nickel Eye?
A: Yeah, this tour goes until February 2nd, and tomorrow we go to Minneapolis. After this tour we’re going to take a couple months off and work on new songs in L.A., and then we go to the UK at the end of March.

Q: Are you guys coming out with a new album soon?
A: I don’t know about soon, but we’re going to start working on stuff.

I also got to briefly talk with Lucas Field, the singer and guitarist of LVD. I found out he went to University of Colorado in Boulder with Howie and Tad Moore (keyboardist of LVD), and majored in journalism. However, at Uni he got into music-which is why he isn’t a famous newscaster on CNN right now. An interesting tidbit of information on Luke is that he is left handed-as are Anthony Polcino, guitarist of LVD, and Jon Pancoast, bassist. Also, Luke’s father went to UW-Madison. Luke was about to go to UW and then decided to go to Uni of Boulder, which is good for him because if he didn’t, we wouldn’t have Low Vs. Diamond. But, to quote Luke, “I might be in a different band”.

When I interviewed Nikolai Fraiture, it was cutting close to the band’s leaving time, so I didn’t get to ask him all the questions I wanted. But it was still a great privilege to talk to him.

Q: How long have you been on tour? Since Oct. 15th is what I read…?
A: Actually, the first show was on Oct. 14th.

Q: I have a question about the name of the band. I know obviously it’s a play off of your name (Nikolai, Nickel Eye) but are there any other connotations with it?
A: It’s something my brother kind of came up with, has to do with the buffalo nickel, which is the cover of the album with some designer alterations.

Q: What do you think of Madison?
A: It’s cold.

Q: What do you think of the Majestic compared to other places you’ve played?
A: It was great, the crowd was really cool, it was fun.

Q: Can you go more in depth about your inspirations?
A: The lyrics are from a road trip I was on when I was 19. It’s pretty self-explanatory; I was traveling through the U.S. and kind of going to different cities and different places, whether it was on a bus, or hitchhiking, or with people we didn’t know.

Q: Who did you go with?
A: It was my girlfriend at the time, and another friend…she ended up dumping me. And I felt ill which is a lot of influence on this album: that cathartic moment in your life when you’re 19. It’s what you make it.

Q: Do you have a favorite city to play so far?
A: No. No favorite, I like everywhere. Everywhere is a different experience and you take it for what it is.

Q: How is this compared to playing in the Strokes?
A: It’s completely different; it’s a totally different experience, which is what I like about it.

Q: What are some new or obscure bands that you’ve been into lately?
A: I like Cocorosie, their album stuff doesn’t translate very well but their live stuff is very good. They do a lot of really good hip-hop covers.

I wish I could have asked him more but at that point he had to leave. Either way it was a great opportunity and I thank Nikolai for taking the time to talk to me.

Jan. 23rd-Low Vs. Diamond & Nickel Eye

Hey hey hey to all you faithful blog-readers! So, last night was the Low Vs. Diamond and Nickel Eye show, and I was lucky enough to talk to a few members of LVD and, of course, the famous front man of Nickel Eye himself, Nikolai Fraiture.

First off-reviewing the shows.  LVD didn’t fail to surprise me with how engaging they are live.  They have amazing stage presence and energy.  Frontman Lucas Field is very into the music, and connects with the audience.  All of the band members work well together while playing their music, too-you can tell they’re very comfortable working together on stage.

Here are some pictures-sorry they’re so crappy:

Lucas Field, vocals and guitar.

Howie Diamond, the drummer.

Jon Pancoast, bassist.

Anthony Polcino, guitarist.

Tad Moore, keyboardist.

Nickel Eye’s set was much shorter than I expected, which was unfortunate.  The music is much different from the Strokes’ music style-it’s more folky and mellow.  I could tell the audience was expecting the music to be different than what it was, which may have added to the slightly awkward performance by Nickel Eye.  If the crowd had been more supportive and more into the music, then maybe the band would have been more comfortable while playing.

Nikolai Fraiture, frontman of Nickel Eye.

Check back soon for the exclusive interviews with Howie Diamond and Lucas Field of Low Vs. Diamond, and Nikolai Fraiture!