First off, what was the experience like making Something for Everybody? I know you & The Friends put out a few EPs before this, so was it kind of a natural progression?
We’ve waited for as long as we could remember. Since the beginning, we’ve always wanted to make a full-length album, and I think it’s exciting to be able to create a cohesive body of work top to bottom. It also takes a great deal of time, energy and money, and for the last couple of years, we’ve been really dedicated to being on the road spreading our live performance. We had to sort of intentionally build some time into our schedule to be off the road last year in order to be able to have time to make this record. Being able to focus on it so fully and make a production, which is again, top to bottom and so impressive is something that we’ve always wanted to do.
Yeah, I can see that. You brought in a few collaborators for the making of the full-length, including Jacob Jeffries and Celisse. How did you go about bringing them into the fold? Did you just reach out to them yourself; did they reach out to you, or did it happen in a different way?
When we were making it, I knew that it made sense for two voices, and I was looking for kind of a clean, gorgeous tone for the second voice. Celisse was the first pick for me, I’ve been inspired by her since my earliest New York days when she was already on the Broadway scene and she’s just a legend. She was hanging out with Joni Mitchell and Elton John a few weeks ago at the Joni Jam and I’ve always been so inspired and motivated by her. I was really hoping that she would be open to it, and she was, and I thought that she was just a brilliant edition for that song [“We Made It”]. When it came to “Cool Doug, at Night”, I knew that I needed a male voice to get that hi-end, ’70s, Bee Gees, super falsetto sort of thing.
It wouldn’t have made much sense if it was just my voice for this flat-out disco thing we were going for, and Jacob was just a clear choice. When I asked him, he said “Yes” and I was so excited and I had actually finished writing the song at that point for Jacob. It was definitely a learning experience and a great honor to be in the booth while both of those singers were singing something that I had written for them and not for myself, if that makes sense. Being able to direct them from the board was just so cool.
I can imagine. Leading up to the album’s release, there were a few music videos that were released with one of them being for “Thieves”, which has scenes of kids stealing candy from a store with you and your band dressed up like cops. Who had the vision for the video and how did the filming for it come about? Was it done in New York City at a local store?
As soon as I started writing this song, this music video was kind of in my head with the idea of petty theft and kids holding up a candy store. This is a song that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to do something with kids. This is also by far and large the hugest undertaking we’ve ever taken in terms of a music video. It was my most significant undertaking as the producer, director and writer for this treatment and working with kids is a whole ball of wax. There’s so much more than you would expect that goes into play with that, but they were just absolutely wonderful.
It was a really, really special treat for us to be able to work with them and I think this song makes more sense with the music video attached to it. Myself and my co-director Emilia Aghamirzai were thinking about where we were going to shoot this, and we had this idea of something that was all-time, no time and you can’t really tell where it is. We ended up shooting at a local park in New York City for all the chase scenes, but we were thinking of a place like Economy Candy, which is a really iconic family-owned candy store that’s been a staple in the Lower East Side. We were really hoping to find something like that, so we hit them up directly saying, “Hey, how would you feel if we came in and did this?” and we were really flattered and surprised when they said they would have us. We ended up kind of shooting it exactly how I was dreaming it up in my head as I was imagining the music video taking place in Economy Candy, so to be able to shoot there was a real privilege.
It’s cool that it came out that way. I liked watching the video, I really enjoyed it.
Thanks.
No problem. You have these back-to-back shows coming up in Boston at Roadrunner, so when you’re in a situation where you’re spending time in a city for more than one evening and more than one day, do you make an itinerary to check out some places when you have free time? Are there any places when you go to Boston that you’re definitely going to see before soundcheck and everything?
Oh, definitely. Especially when we have two-day stays. We have friends in Boston, so we try to do what we can to visit them. This is a huge sauna culture band; we love a sauna and a cold plunge. One of the greatest spas I’ve ever been to is just outside of Boston, so I look forward to returning there. We have some family in the city as well, so Boston, not unlike New York, is a place where we spend a lot of time catching up with friends and family while taking care of ourselves.
Debbie Tjong Yan Ping and [Santiago] “C-bass” [Chiriboga] both went to Berklee [College of Music] in Boston, so they go plenty of recommendations for good food and things in the area. We just love Boston, it’s so exciting to go there and it always feels like coming home.
It’s a great city. With this new album out, how has it been when it comes to conveying it on stage?
We’re going to be playing the album top to bottom. Not in order, but we are going to be playing all 13 songs. These are all songs that were written in the last year, and therefore they feel very fresh and very new in our bodies, in our spirits and in our talents. Again, it’s a good problem to have due to being on the road as long as we were that we couldn’t sit still and make a new record. We’ve been playing songs that were written 10 years ago for the last six and seven years, and it doesn’t get stale, but you have work to find new ways to keep it fresh for yourself as a band.
The audience loves them, and we never want to take them away from the audience, but to be able to perform songs that were written in the last year is not only fresh and exciting for us, it’s new for the audience who maybe hasn’t heard the entire record from top to bottom. It’s also natural for our bodies, it can be difficult to jump up and down to perform songs that were written 10 years ago, but it feels really good to be putting on stage these songs that are so fresh and so new. We’re so proud of them and they just feel so good in our bodies, so it’s been a joy. It’s by far and large the most sustainable and healthiest show we’ve ever put on. It just feels new and exciting and we’re exactly where we want to be with it.
From: https://medium.com/culture-beat/sammy-rae-the-friends-bring-something-for-everybody-to-roadrunner-2b657317a89f
