Did you folks really meet on Facebook? Do tell.
Allison Brice: Hewson and I first virtually bumped into each other back in the MySpace days. I'm pretty sure that we were switched on to each other's music via Greg Hughes from Still Corners. Greg and I were fellow south Londoners at the time. Sadly, Hewson and I didn't keep in touch after MySpace folded, but in early 2015 found ourselves reunited via our mutual friend Phil Sutton from Pale Lights. On a silly Facebook thread he started about frozen food of all things…
Hewson Chen: The interwebs brought Matt and I together too. I looked him up to hear what he sounded like and one of the first hits on YouTube was a cat car chase video: Holy Fuck's "Red Lights". I pretty much knew we would work great from there. I have cats in common with Matt, and TV dinners in common with Allison.
AB: I'm severely allergic to cats and have never been able to set foot in either Hewson or Matt's apartments!
You all have played or currently play in other bands (New Lines, The Silver Abduction). How do you find the time, and is this on top of regular day jobs?
AB: It's a challenge. We all have day jobs and are raising - or soon to be raising - young children. I think that when free time is in short supply, you just have to grab what you can get - focus, and get down to work.
Matthew Schulz: You have to choose between sleep and art. I still choose art.
HC: Time is a tough factor for sure, but the technology helps - like you can sketch in broad strokes with plug-ins before actually hooking up the Farfisa, or what have you...
How does songwriting usually happen? Are all three of you actively involved in writing your tunes?
AB: Yes, we all are. We ping ideas back and forth and constantly share audio via Dropbox. The tunes start with one of us passing around a fragment, adding parts here or there in my home studio in Miami or Hewson and Matt's in Brooklyn. I moved to Miami a few years ago after a decade in London. It's an easy 'commute' up to NYC to join the rest of the band - Hewson & Matt plus Rene, Sohrab and David from our live group - for shows.
MS: Hewson and I often record random drums at the crack of dawn and then he returns with a pile of tracks he made from them. Then we beat them into submission. It's so backwards to me but works well with our geography and time restraints.
HC: Yeah sometimes the song will start with Allison singing a random melody with no words. Sometimes we'll start with a drum track that Matt belted out after me being like, "What's up with the purdie shuffle?" Other times I'll have some little filigree banging around that needs a story, or something to give it direction and Allison will say, "This one is about the Heaven's Gate cult." Those last two examples ended up being the same song.
What informs your songwriting? You include some rather fantastical themes in your storytelling. It is all fascinating, and not your standard fare.
AB: Songwriting is a mysterious process. I'll begin with a melody, and work with that until the vowels and consonants start falling into place. Eventually, some skeletal words will emerge - and I'll begin to get an idea of who is communicating and what they want to say. Every song has its character, its setting, and its story. The common denominator among the characters seems to be their marginality and their need to be heard. Often their stories are distressing and difficult to voice, but no performance is compelling without genuine emotion driving it.
HC: She's very earnest. You can joke around like, "How about a song about the rise of modern epidemiology?" and voila, Dr. Snow and the Broad Street Pump. She used to work in a bookstore, that's got to figure in somehow.
How would you self-describe your music if someone asked what you’re about?
HC: An Italian friend once exclaimed "old time music!" after hearing some tracks. I chose to take it as a compliment.
AB: I once read on a guitar forum that we'd sound right at home soundtracking "The Love Witch 2" - that works for me.
From: https://whenthesunhitsblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/interview-lake-ruth.html
