Vice: I just want to let you guys know how much I enjoyed the new album. When I heard the single, “RIP,” streaming online, I was blown away. Was this a particular song where after you rehearsed it for the first time you were like, “Wow, we really have something here?”
Elliot Frazier [singer/guitarist]: It just sounded way different when we recorded it then the demo, and we were like, “Well, this is cool.” It went in a very unexpected direction with the Heavy Metal-type guitar.
Alex Gehring [singer/bassist]: It started off as a really crappy garage band demo of mine. I didn’t really know how to record anything, so I played my bass acoustically and then layered it with a million vocals and sent it to Elliot just on a whim thinking “Eh, maybe he’ll think this is kinda cool,” and I guess he liked it and wanted to turn it into a song. Now it’s a lot different as far as the guitar goes.
I noticed that “RIP” was the only song, aside from “Brightest Star,” that made use of the tambourine. Do you feel that the tambourine is an underrated instrument?
Elliot: Oh yeah. We had tambourines on most songs on the last album. But live, we don’t really have anyone to play the tambourine, so we’re trying to go for a sound that we can create live on this album where we can use the tambourine successfully. Some songs had to have a tambourine.
Who’s the tambourine player of the band?
Elliot: That’s me. It’s harder to play than it looks [laughs].
I bet it is. Like all instruments, it seems like something you have to fine tune overtime to really perfect. [Not said with a hint of sarcasm at all!—Totally lying].
Elliot: The egg shaker is really hard, too.
I bet.
Elliot: [Laughs] You really have to get your whole body into it.
Exactly. It’s a very physical instrument to play. But did it take a while before you found the singing chemistry that you found with Alex? Were there a lot of people who auditioned/tried out that failed?
Elliot: It wasn’t really auditioning; people were in the band and then they would just quit, and Alex didn’t quit.
Alex: Hooray!
Elliot: [Laughs] And then we went on tour and she still didn’t quit. I told everyone when they joined the band that they could quit when they wanted. But after Alex joined, I definitely felt that the band was serious now. And then Daniel [Coburn, RDS’s drummer] came in—I went to High School with him—and we used to play in bands back in the day. It just felt good because we had played music together in the past. Everyone else who was in the band was just a waste of my time for the past two years. It was really frustrating.
Why were people leaving the band?
Elliot: Most of the time they had other bands they were in simultaneously. With Alex, she had never really been in a serious band before.
Alex: It was right out of high school that I joined. I had been in bands in school before, but never ones that played shows or went on tour.
Elliot: I was trying to find people that were like Alex, who weren’t that experienced, and who weren’t jaded or bitter or lazy.
Yeah, that makes sense. Jaded musicians are no fun to work with. How about noise rock? What was the appeal of playing it?
Elliot: You don’t have to be very skilled to play it. You can kind of get away with not having to know how to play the guitar and not really knowing how to sing very well.
Alex: We can put a lot of reverbs on our vocals to help mask them. We’re not very talented singers.
I’ll have to disagree with that, but in the past you’ve also mentioned that you’re not talented songwriters, either. Is this how you really feel?
Elliot: Yeah, I mean, I feel like a songwriter is someone who sits down and really thinks about a song—like the structure/how to arrange it to make it appeal to people—like my Uncle. He does these songwriting workshops and he’s always trying to get me to go. If I played my songs with an acoustic guitar it really wouldn’t make any sense.
Right.
Elliot: It’s just music that’s fun for us to play. We’re not necessarily worrying about if songs need to have a hook, or if it’s going to be on the radio.
So you’re geared more towards the musical aspect than the lyrical side?
Elliot: Yeah. It’s just an excuse to play shows, for me. I love playing, I love going on tour, and that’s really the most important part.
On your last LP, Colour Trip, critics said that you failed to come up with a new kind of music…
Elliot: Guilty as charged!
…and that you were channeling your influences instead of having an original sound. Can you foresee critics saying the same thing about Mauve?
Elliot: I don’t know. I stopped reading all that stuff a while ago. I’m hoping I can use my mental power to just ignore what they think.
I think not giving a fuck is the best mentality to have.
Elliot: It’s like we should start saying that stuff to other bands: “Oh! The new Ty Segal album! He failed to make himself sound exactly like The Rolling Stones.” [Laughs]
I can imagine that reading anything negative about your band is annoying. Is it equally as annoying as being asked about The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine as influences? Does it make you want to kill the people who ask that question?
Elliot: We’re just tired of hearing the word ‘’Shoegaze.” I mean, we’re not gazing at our shoes, and we’re not playing all these delayed guitars. I think that’s the only term that they always consistently think of calling us.
It’s just critics clumping you into a category that’s fairly trendy.
Elliot: We meet a lot of bands who are considered “Shoegaze” bands; it’s such a stupid word and latched onto bands who play mellow, dreamy music. We just tend to be more aggressive; we have more of an angry sound than a laid-back one.
Are there other bands, aside from the ones that you’re constantly compared to, that you would like to be compared to more often, or is that a thing, too? Would you just not rather be compared to anyone?
Alex: I feel like it’s almost inevitable; everyone is constantly compared to some bands. But it would be nice if people were to take us as an original, unique sound.
Elliot: For me, the best thing would be for people to just say, “Yeah, I want to go watch and see this show because it sounds cool.” It’s all about what’s happening right now. I’m sure we sound like some bands from the past, but you can’t go see those bands, and we never could go see those bands. We just want to do it right now. Maybe we’ll sound like what a new Black Flag would equal. That band was definitely a huge influence, too.
From: https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-interviewed-ringo-deathstarr/
