Interview with Billy Martin of Good Charlotte

 Pop-punk act Good Charlotte began scoring hits at the start of this decade with songs like "The Anthem" and "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous." The band is currently touring with the Bamboozle Roadshow (which passed through Pittsburgh earlier this month) and will be releasing a new album, Cardiology, this fall. Guitarist Billy Martin recently gave us a call to discuss Bamboozle, Billy’s affinity for Michael Jackson, and why the band fired its producer during the making of the new album. How have the shows been going so far on this tour? It’s been really fun for us. We’re really playing to some new crowds. We’ve been meeting a lot of the kids, and a lot of them are saying they’ve been fans of the band for 10 years and this is the first chance they’ve had to see us. Maybe they were 10 years old when our first record came out and now they’re 18 or 20 and this is the first time they’ve been old enough to go see us at a show. I don’t think we expected that, but it’s almost like a whole new generation of Good Charlotte fans who are getting to see us for the first time. Good Charlotte seems to be getting the best reviews on this tour so far, particularly for some of the older songs from The Young & the Hopeless. Why do you think those songs still resonate today? First of all, that’s cool to know we’re getting good reviews. I think a good song is a good song. There’s so many good songs from decades ago that still generate the same kind of excitement when people hear them. I also think we’ve been playing those songs for so many years and we’ve been touring for so long that when we get on stage we’re the most comfortable. We kind of have that thing figured out pretty well. We just get up there and do that thing we’ve been doing for a couple years. Luckily these sets are 30 minutes so we can just power through a set of all our singles, plus we play one new song. How do you approach a tour like this when you know you only have 30 minutes on stage? We’ve done Warped Tour so many times and Warped Tour is 30-minute sets, so we’re used to it. It’s nice because you don’t get tired. When we headline a tour we usually play an hour and a half, so you put a bunch of rock songs up front, chill out with a few ballads in the middle, and bring it back up at the end. You kinda need to take a ride to pace it out. But with this you just go hard for 30 minutes. You just try to keep the audience excited and energetic the whole time. What’s the current status of your new album? Is everything finally recorded? Yeah, the new record’s way done, the second incarnation of it. We did it twice. We did it the first time (with producer Howard Benson) and didn’t really enjoy the experience. It didn’t sound the way we expected it would. So we scrapped it and we started back over with Don Gilmore, who we love working with. We knew we could go in and do something great. We re-recorded about half the songs and wrote another batch of new ones. We finished it and it’s ten times better than the first go-round. It’s all done, mixed, mastered, ready to go, and we’re aiming for September for the release. Benji had some pretty harsh words for Howard Benson on spin.com. He said that Howard didn’t really care about the record and it was just a paycheck for him. Does the whole band share that viewpoint? Howard’s one of those guys who has produced all these great records, but his process is that he does multiple records at one time. I don’t see how you can focus on one record when you’re doing multiple records at one time. He kind of has a team of guys who he uses to produce the CD and he just pops in every once in a while to check in on it. We’ve never worked with a producer like that. Every producer we’ve worked with, like Don Gilmore and Eric Valentine, they’re hands-on. They’re in the studio everyday. If you’re there, they’re there. The producer’s a big part of the team. We were really hesitant to work with Howard because we knew that he’s not so hands-on, but he kept telling us, ‘Trust me, I’ve done tons of records. I know what I’m doing. You’re going to be happy in the end.’ So we trusted him and we weren’t happy in the end. It just didn’t feel right. It felt wrong the whole time. No hard feelings… he’s gonna keep making records and so are we, but his process is just not how we like to make records. Can you talk about a couple of the songs that stand out to you? One song that we’ve been playing every night on this tour is called “Like It’s Her Birthday.” I got to do a guitar solo in it. I’ve been pushing to do some guitar solos for years. I got to do a really cool one on that song so that was definitely a highlight for me. It’s a fairly pop song for us. It’s still rock, it’s very guitar-heavy but it’s sort of a real pop melody. By putting a big rock guitar solo in the middle of the song, it gives it a nice edge. I like that fine line between being a rock band and writing pop songs. Another track I really like is called “First Plane Home.” It’s kinda upbeat, a little electronic-y but really guitar-driven too. Joel wrote it about wanting to get back home to his daughter and his family and if he needs to be, he’ll be on the first plane home. My wife and I had a baby a little over a year ago so I surely relate to those lyrics about having those moments where you just want to be home. If they need you, you’ll be there. Definitely a really good song and a really nice sentiment. The fact that a lot of you now have families, is that reflected in your music in any way? Absolutely. There’s plenty of lyrics on this new record that are based around fatherhood and that new sense of responsibility and maturity that we’re going through. It has affected the music. It affects everything. I’m not number one in my life anymore. My family’s number one. Every decision the band makes, you have to think how is that going to reflect how I can take care of my family? I’ve had my wife and my son out on the tour for a little bit. He has these big giant earphones so it’s not too loud on stage. He sits on stage and points at me and wants to run out on stage and doesn’t understand why he can’t come out. It’s a new feeling when I look over at the side of the stage and I see my son watching like, what is dad doing? It’s like a whole new chapter in my job. I saw an illustration you did of Michael Jackson in the Thriller outfit. Were you a fan of his? Oh sure, that’s my favorite artist of all-time. The crazy thing is I drew that maybe 10 days before he died. Which was really weird. I thought, I’ve never done a really cool Michael Jackson piece and I did that Thriller thing. I made posters of it and got some prints made of it. A week and a half later when he died it seemed really eerie. So that drawing is definitely special to me. Are you working on any other art projects right now? Yeah I have a comic book that I’m working on right now. I’m not sure when I’m gonna put it out. The name of the comic book is called Vitriol: The Hunter. I’m putting this out through IDW Comics. They do comics for Transformer and Star Trek and a lot of other cool stuff. I co-wrote it with my brother-in-law and I’m gonna be doing all the illustrations. It’s a lot more work then I guessed it would be. Six issues is what we’re doing and it’s 22 pages an issue so it’s a lot of drawing. So that we can put it out on a monthly basis, they would like me to get four issues finished before putting the first one out and I’m just starting the third issue right now. As soon as I get through another couple of issues we can actually start planning a release date and promotion, but it will be coming out as soon as I can get it finished. It’s been quite a challenge but I love drawing so I’m happy to take it. Finally, are you guys having as much fun now as when you started touring? Yeah, it’s like a different fun now. Back then it was innocent, everything was new, everything was mind-blowing. I think 10 years later, the fact that we’re still doing it, it almost feels like this is step two. Those ten years were learning how to do things and learning how to co-exist as five guys who were doing the same thing with different personalities. It’s gonna be harder now that we have families and we’re gonna miss things, but as long as we’re there for each other... It’s fun because we’ve gotten to a point where it all makes sense now. You don’t have to think about everything. We’ve seen so many bands come and go that aren’t even bands anymore. We just keep thanking our fans, thanking ourselves, our family and everything that ten years later we’re still a band and we’re getting ready to put out a new record. It’s definitely great and I hope that we can keep doing it. Good Charlotte's album Cardiology is expected to be released in September. Find the band online at www.goodcharlotte.com.

Interview with Matt Ridenour of Hawthorne Heights

 Hawthorne Heights hit the mainstream in 2004 with the captivating “Ohio is for Lovers” (a song that nearly made our Favorite 30 Songs of the 2000s list.) Three years later the band tragically lost guitarist Casey Calvert, the man behind its screaming vocals, but since then the group has rebounded to record two albums, including Skeletons, which was released on Wind-up Records earlier this month. Hawthorne Heights will be playing at Mr. Small’s with Bayside this Friday, June 25. Bassist Matt Ridenour gave us a call to discuss the band’s new album, working with Howard Benson, and Matt’s pro-Justin Bieber stance. Your new album Skeletons seems to be getting pretty decent reviews. Do you believe this is the band’s best work? Yeah, we’re really happy with it. We spent the most time we’ve ever spent on a record. We went to New York City with guys from the label and basically demoed the whole album before we recorded it. It was a really good run-through. It’s the most thought-out record we’ve ever done. You’re one of a number of bands that have gone through a battle with a record label. What’s your take on record labels in general? Do you think they are necessary in the digital era? I think they are necessary in a way. For a band like us and most bands that don’t have the money to get on radio – I don’t know all the logistics, but I know there’s money behind that stuff – you have to go that way. Now if you’re a band like Nine Inch Nails eventually you can overcome that because you’re so big and your fan base is so loyal you can pretty much do whatever you want. It’s like managers and everything else. It’s one of those things you have to have. If you don’t, you won’t get opportunities that other bands will get. There’s good and bad about all of it. After Casey died you guys said there would not be another screamer in the band, but on the new album your guitarist Micah takes over that role. What led you to that decision? After Casey passed we didn’t have any screaming. If the fans wanted to scream they could do it themselves. And then Micah just decided, ‘I could probably do this.’ We told him to do whatever he felt comfortable doing. After we played so many shows, he got better and better. Not everybody can really do that kind of thing. We didn’t want to pin it on him, but he said he could do it. It was a pretty natural progression. Skeletons was produced by Howard Benson. I just talked to Good Charlotte and they were pretty much disgusted by their experience with Howard. They said he was rarely in the room and didn’t seem very committed to the project. What was your experience with him in the studio? I thought it was a good experience. He admitted, "I don’t really do guitars. I have really good people that I’ve hired to do guitars, but I do vocals." I think he did a great job with JT with the vocals. He passed along the stuff that he was weaker on to other people that were strong in those areas. We dealt with a lot of different people so we got a lot of different inputs, including our own. I thought it was actually a neat process how you can get so many people on the same project and come out with one final product. Video: Hawthorne Heights - "Nervous Breakdown" Do you have a favorite of the new songs? I like “Drive” the best. I like that it starts out electronic and I like how the chorus comes in. Micah wrote that song strictly electronic, no guitars, and then we decided one day to try putting guitars on it. We mixed the two. The process gave me a better connection with the song. We put a lot of time into that song with no pre-conceived notions, and I thought the end-product was pretty cool. In a recent interview your drummer Eron said you’re a fan of Justin Bieber. Is that something you’ll admit to? I totally admit to that. I like pop music a lot. I understand its place and I think he’s got songs. Whether he wrote them or not, some of his songs are really catchy. Will I like it in three years? Probably not. (laughs) Finally, on the upcoming tour you’ll be on the road with Bayside. What is touring with them like? Awesome. We’ve toured with them a bunch in the past. I’ve seen Bayside more than any band in my entire life. When they’re in town, if we’re home I still go see them. They’re good friends of ours and we’ve been through a lot with them. It’s gonna be really exciting. We haven’t played with them for a couple years so it will be fun to hang out with them. Hawthorne Heights, Bayside and Spontaneo perform on Friday, June 25 at Mr. Small’s in Millvale. Fine the band online at http://www.hawthorneheights.com/.

Interview with Jordin Sparks

Photos - Jive Records

In 2007, Jordin Sparks became the youngest winner of American Idol when she won the competition at age 17. Since then, she has performed for two presidents, sung the National Anthem at the Super Bowl and earned a Grammy nomination for "No Air," her duet with Chris Brown. Last year, Sparks returned with Battlefield, featuring the powerful hit single of the same name.

Sparks is now in the midst of a headlining tour that will hit the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Tuesday, June 8. We chatted with Jordin via email to discuss her dream duet partner, her upcoming Broadway debut, and what she thinks of new Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres.

Your current tour includes a number of intimate venues. What appeals to you about playing these kinds of places?
I love how intimate it is. I love touring big arenas, don't get me wrong. But in a smaller venue I can practically see each face. I’m able to make eye contact and hopefully can touch someone through my songs because we're so close.

What kind of show can fans expect when they see you here in Pittsburgh?
Well, I don't have crazy props, costumes or a million dancers. It's just me, my band and the music. I love being able to sing every night for my job! I have a blast up there so I hope you do too!

You co-wrote some of the songs on Battlefield. Is songwriting something you’d like to do more of as your career progresses?
I would love to do that. I've written poetry since I was in the first grade, and it wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized poetry could be put to music and become a song. When I got to write for the Battlefield record, it was almost therapeutic. I had gone through a few things in the two years prior and it was really nice to take those thoughts and emotions and get them out. I definitely want to hone that side of my artistry.

What was it like taking part in the "We are the World 25" recording?
The song is legendary, so when I heard Quincy (Jones) and Lionel (Richie) were going to remake it, I told my management that I would love to be a part of it. At the time it was just a rumor, so when they said they'd love to have me, I was ecstatic. Walking in that room and seeing all the different artists coming together for something bigger than us was amazing.

Who would your dream duet partner be (dead or alive) and why?
That's a really good question. I always wanted to work with Michael Jackson. His music will live forever and with technology nowadays... maybe I could. But I would love to work with Celine Dion. I don't know whether we would be singing or writing together but she is amazing.

You’re one of popular music’s most prolific tweeters. Do you feel that you’re able to genuinely connect to your fans via Twitter?
Yes, I definitely do! It gives me a way to let my fans know what I'm doing (no matter how boring, haha.) But it comes directly from me. Sometimes I'll go on a Twitter spree and reply as much as I can. Talking to my fans is so much fun even if it is in 140 characters or less. :)



How excited are you about your upcoming Broadway role and what can you tell us about the show?
Oh my goodness... I've always wanted to do Broadway but I wasn't making it my mission to happen this year! It just kind of fell into my lap. I'm playing Nina Rosario, and the first time you see her she's coming back from college. She has to tell her parents that she lost her scholarship due to not being able to study because she was working to pay for the other half.

She has this sense of anxiety because she has to tell her parents, who worked to get her there. She also feels she represented her neighborhood and feels she let everyone down. She deals with that throughout the play and falls in love along the way. But I don't want to give too much away - you'll have to come and see!

I know you continue to follow American Idol. How do you feel about Ellen DeGeneres’ performance this season? Do you think the show will be able to survive Simon’s departure?
I thought Ellen did a great job overall. I thought she started out a little unsure of herself. I mean, I would too - that's a big seat to be in! But once she got the hang of it she was great.

I think people are still going to watch the show because it's the American Dream. It's still giving unknowns the chance to become something big. I don't want to ratings to fall because I love the show but without Simon and Paula, it could be possible only 25-29 million will tune in. ;)

Jordin Sparks plays at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Tuesday, June 8 at 7 pm. Kate Voegele is the opening act. Find Jordin online at www.jordinsparks.com and follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/THEREALJORDIN.

Interview with OK Go's Tim Nordwind

Bassist Tim Nordwind (right) and his bandmates

Interview by Scott Shetler

OK Go has been one of the more underappreciated rock bands of the past several years. Their excellent last release, Oh No, was overshadowed by its equally excellent videos for “A Million Ways” and “Here it Goes Again” (the treadmill video), the latter of which won a Grammy Award.

In January, they return with the Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, a record produced by Dave Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips) that channels Prince and shows off the band’s funky side. On November 4, they kick off a mini-tour of the Midwest at Mr. Small’s in Pittsburgh.

We recently chatted with bassist Tim Nordwind on the phone about the new record, his Grammy Award (which may or may not have been stolen), and the awesomeness of ‘80s weekly countdown show Solid Gold.

Hi Tim, where are you calling from this morning?
I’m actually in South Bend, Indiana. We’re shooting a video here.

On the subject of videos, your previous videos have set the bar really high. What do you have planned in terms of videos for the new album?
We’ve got one in the can and we’ve got about four more that are in different stages of planning. We’re hoping to make a video for every song on the record this time, which is kind of a lofty goal, but that’s what we’re shooting for.

We have a good time making videos. We’ve been making videos outside of the traditional filmmaking industry for the most part, just because it’s more fun for us to have an idea and figure out how real people might make it, versus industry professionals. It’s fun to dream something up and make it guerrilla style, versus doing it the proper way.

Video: OK Go - A Million Ways




Congratulations on the new album coming out. You started working on it a couple years ago, right?
Yeah, we started writing for it about two years ago when we stopped touring. We toured for 31 straight months on our second round, so we were pretty burned out by the time we stopped. I’d say the first six to eight months, we wrote a bunch of crap because we were so burned out. We were just trying to figure out how to be human beings again.

So it took us about a year and a half to get a group of songs together that we actually liked. We spent most of last year in Fredonia, New York recording with Dave Fridmann and we mixed the record over the summer.

I listened to the new album and I’m kind of blown away by how Prince-sounding some of the songs are.
We were listening to a lot of Purple Rain in the studio. I think on the first two records we exhausted whatever kind of guitar rock demons we have inside of us. We all grew up listening to ‘80s pop radio, which was a pretty seriously eclectic bunch of music – it was Prince and Michael Jackson, but then it was Talking Heads and B-52s. So this record we went back to earlier influences like that. So, yeah, there’s a lot of Prince on this record.

Did you happen to be a fan of Solid Gold in the ‘80s?
The dance show? (laughs) Yeah, who wasn’t? They really don’t make shows like that any more, do they? ‘We’re gonna put 150 people in the room and watch them dance.’

That’s my guilty pleasure on YouTube.
Wow, I hadn’t considered that it might be on YouTube. I guess everything’s on YouTube. You’ve inspired me to go back to my Solid Gold years.

One of the new songs, “Before the Earth was Round,” feels like your Kid A moment. What’s the story behind that song?
That was one of the first songs written for this record. It was an early contender for the album. It’s got that vocoder, lonely robot sound. I suppose musically, Blonde Redhead was sort of the referential influence for that song. Lyrically, I feel like I’m not always equipped to speak to the lyrics because I didn’t write them. Damian’s the singer and wrote those lyrics. I know it’s sort of a parable about before the earth was round. The characters are the sky and love.

Do you have a favorite of the new songs?
There’s a song called “All is Not Lost” that I like a lot. I think “Skyscrapers” is really good, a slow and groovy song. It’s roughly about a character who lived his or her life not believing in anything, sort of looking up at a skyscraper and being like, Wow, someone actually dreams that and makes that, and that’s pretty insane. Sort of a song about finding something to believe in, which is kinda nice.

Stream “Skyscrapers” from OK Go’s upcoming album here:
http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/05/07/ok-go-skyscrape/

Where do you keep your Grammy?
(Laughs) I don’t even know where my Grammy is, to be honest with you. I moved about two years ago and I packed it up. My Grammy is in storage. Which is awful, I need to get it out.

I’m a little bit afraid that it’s not there anymore. It’s buried under a bunch of boxes. I think it’s probably safe. In some ways it’s probably safer than the ones that are out because I think it would be much harder to find. If someone wanted to come in and steal my Grammy, they’d have to go through an awful lot of boxes.



Are you guys in the camp that doesn’t put much stock in award shows, or was it actually really thrilling to get a Grammy?
It was really thrilling, but I don’t put stock in accomplishments, period. I feel like the minute you are satisfied with something, that’s the minute you’ve lost. I don’t want to say we don’t put a lot of stock in award shows – we don’t actively go out and say they’re bullshit or anything like that. But I don’t think we’re the type of people who sit around and celebrate that stuff for a very long time. We appreciate it on the day we get it, and then it’s time to move on to the next project.

Your band is one of the more fashionable bands in rock. How would you describe your style?
The style for the last record was like an update on turn of the century dandyism (laughs). It was fashion patterns mixed with paisley and formal suits. I think it’s ever-changing, though. The way it’s going this time is sort of colorful. We’re getting out of always needing to be in a three-piece suit. I get the sense we’re sort of headed in a slightly more futuristic and colorful direction.

Video: Tim narrates a video of OK Go recording the new album

You guys have been parodied on The Simpsons, you’ve been in films and tv shows, in video games, on billboards… are there any forms of media left for you to conquer?
Well, we’ve yet to be projected onto the moon. That would be great. We haven’t been on Saturday Night Live, which I would like to do. That’s personally my favorite show - other than Solid Gold. If I could turn back time and get on Solid Gold, that would be an obvious choice, now that you’ve got me thinking.

OK Go performs at Mr. Small’s in Pittsburgh on November 4 with local favorites Donora. Find the band online at okgo.net and follow Tim on Twitter at http://twitter.com/timothynordwind.

Interview with Girl Talk

Photo credits (top-bottom): Andrew Strasser, Strasser, Bridget Maniaci, Strasser

For the past year or so, Pittsburgh mashup artist Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) has been essentially taking a victory lap, touring the world after the success of Feed the Animals, an album constructed using more than 300 samples of pop and hip hop songs. His concerts are known for their craziness, which may include giant toilet paper cannons, dozens of fans dancing onstage, and Gillis removing most of his clothes.

On Friday he returns to Pittsburgh for his biggest local show yet, a performance at the new Amphitheatre at Station Square, along with Wiz Khalifa, Grand Buffet, and a host of other prominent local acts. We gave Gregg a call to discuss the upcoming show, laptop breaking incidents, and the MC Hammer effect.

Your show on Friday is pretty much a who’s who of Pittsburgh music. How did this lineup come together?
We had a couple of different ideas for a summer show. One of them was more of a national festival, and then that fell through. The next idea was a smaller national festival, and while I was coming up with a list of Pittsburgh bands that I would want to have involved, it kind of came to light that it might just be cool to have it be an all-Pittsburgh thing. So I sent Mike Sanders (of Opus One) a list of 20 bands that I’d be happy with, and he went through and kind of picked out his handful of favorites. Everyone we picked was able to do it, which was a cool thing.

The venue you’re playing on Friday is much larger than some you’ve played here in the past. Are you concerned about the size of the venue hurting the party atmosphere at all?
Sure, that’s always a concern, especially in Pittsburgh where a lot of people have seen me over the years in different size venues. But this summer has been almost exclusively festivals, so this will actually be one of the more intimate shows of the past two or three months.

I feel like it’s easy to start catering the set musically and visually to the festival crowd. You learn certain things each trip out, and we’ve been fine-tuning the whole process. Our set for the larger outdoor crowd is at a point that I’m very confident with. When I first started doing festivals a couple years ago I was a little paranoid about that because I was used to doing smaller club shows, but I think it’s gone really great over the years.

How much time do you get to spend in Pittsburgh these days?
This summer I’ve been doing festival shows, and those have almost all been on weekends. So I’m usually here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then flying out for the weekend festival thing. I’m still spending a lot of time here and just occasionally doing more extended tours. In the spring I did a month straight of college shows, and last fall I did a month and half around the U.S. But I’m spending at least half of my time here.

Do you get recognized on the street often?
Occasionally. I get excited when it goes down. In other parts of the country, I’m pretty anonymous. Even outside of my shows on the last tour, a lot of times we were doing a video blog, and a few of those days I’d go outside and there’d be a line for the show and I’d go interview people, and most of the time no one would have any idea who I was.

A lot of your early shows were in people’s basements. What do you remember most about those shows?
A whole different level of intensity. It’s definitely easier to perform when you have people buying tickets and they’re excited to be a part of what’s happening. Back then I played a lot of art galleries, a lot of basements, and the majority of the time I was opening for someone. Or if it was my own show, it was hard to get people to come out. Obviously with that level of intimacy it’s easy to communicate with people. But there were many of those shows where people didn’t want to be there or had already made up their mind that they weren’t going to have a good time. So those shows can be very mentally tough, especially when you do lots of them.

There was so much chaos back then, just touring around, showing up at venues where people forgot they booked your show, fights breaking out, people trying to unplug you while you’re playing, just so much insanity. I look back fondly on it but there’s definitely a lot of dark moments scattered throughout.



You’ve said that none of your samples are ironic - they’re all songs you like. Can you talk about the concept of taking songs by Hall & Oates or Rick Springfield that people might not like and putting them together into something that people want to dance to?
The bottom line is, I never want to play someone’s song. I don’t want anyone to hear a Girl Talk record or go to a show and say, ‘Oh, he played Jessie’s Girl.’ I do use it, but I don’t want people to hear it as me presenting the song. Part of the appeal is that I will manipulate the song and it’s recognizable, but ideally put in a new context, enough so that it has a new identity.

I like all the music that I sample but I’m also very fascinated by the act of recontextualization. It’s fun to hear pop songs mangled, sped up or slowed down. Even if you hate this particular song, it’s fun to hear it manipulated. A lot of these songs are classics and they’re kind of untouchable. You hear them all over the place, they’re staples in your lives, so it’s an appealing idea to take those familiar elements and beat them up a little bit.

It’s funny, now when I hear songs you’ve sampled, for instance when Since U Been Gone comes on the radio, I think, Where’s the MC Hammer part? It’s like your song has become the definitive version.
(Laughs). I take that as the ultimate compliment. I owe a lot to the people I sample, and obviously it’s recognizable to a degree, but ideally that would be the endpoint, where it does become a new entity and it becomes its own song.

You’ve gotten mostly positive feedback from the artists you’ve sampled, right? What’s the most positive reaction you’ve heard?
Yeah, I haven’t had any legal problems, and no one’s reached out and said anything on the negative side. On the positive side, I had Big Boi from OutKast saying it was cool. He rolled out to a show of mine in Atlanta and actually helped the guy who was running my visuals that night just because he ended up next to him. I met him after a show and he said he’d seen me in Las Vegas and knew my stuff. It was an honor that he would come out to this club on a Saturday night to check out what I was doing.

Outside of that, I’ve heard cool things from Sophie B. Hawkins, who went on record and said that she was a fan of my work and liked the way I worked her sample. So that was cool. And a handful of people reaching out on MySpace and things like that. No one really has a problem with it.



Have you started the next album yet?
I haven’t started putting it together. I’m always working on new material. How I’ve been working over the past few years is I sit down and try to build new material for the live show, and then just make subtle changes every few weeks, just changing a few minutes of the set, and that goes on to heavily impact what will be on the album.

In preparing for this Pittsburgh show I was looking back at my last set from when I was here, just looking to see what I played and to try to mix it up a little bit. Even looking back to November, I feel like I have a whole new set of material. Sitting down to actually edit it together is a whole other process that takes a lot of time and actually slows me down from building new material for the show.

There’s no official timeline yet. I’m really excited about all the music I’m working on, and I’m excited where the set’s at right now.

Finally, what happens if your laptop crashes? Is there an emergency laptop in the wings?
Yeah, I have two up there. Primarily I use one, it’s all live sample triggering on one computer, so the other one’s up there strictly for backup. It’s happened maybe twice over the past three years. And it’s not even necessarily a crash - the computer might be broken or something like that.

If both went down, I really wouldn’t know what to do (laughs). But I invest in some of those Panasonic Toughbooks. They’re kind of difficult to break. I would be very impressed with myself if I was able to break two in one show.

Girl Talk performs Friday, July 31 at the Amphitheatre at Station Square with Don Caballero, Wiz Khalifa, Grand Buffet, Modey Lemon, Donora, Centipede E'est, and DJ Kendall.
http://www.myspace.com/girltalk

Interview with Taylor Hanson

Hanson, 2008: Isaac, Zac, Taylor
(photo credit: Laura Thompson/CBC)

Interview by Scott Shetler

Admit it - you loved MMMBop. In fact, you still do. It's been eleven years since that flawless pop single tore up the charts, and in that time the Hanson brothers have all married and had children, while continuing to record together on their own 3CG label.

On their current Walk Around the World Tour, Hanson have invited fans to join them in a mile-long walk before each concert to raise money for poverty and AIDS research in Africa, among other causes. Their most recent effort, 2007's The Walk, is a socially conscious rock album partly inspired by a trip to that continent.

Hanson will be performing at Carnegie Library Music Hall in Homestead on Monday. Taylor Hanson, now 25 and a father of three with a fourth on the way, called in to chat with us about The Walk campaign, battling corporate record labels, and what's it like being spoofed on Family Guy and SNL.

Let me ask you about The Walk campaign. What inspired you guys to get involved with poverty and AIDS issues in Africa?
The main reason was because we took a trip to South Africa with a group of people that we respected. Some friends in our hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma, donated some medical technology to a hospital in South Africa, so we just went there to learn. When we went to Africa, it struck us how much our generation is being affected and being wiped out by AIDS. It’s unlike any other disease because you’ve got mothers and fathers of the working class dying, you’ve got grandparents raising grandchildren. What’s also unique about the challenge is the fact that there are more ways to make an impact than there’s ever been before.

So that was the initial feeling and inspiration, and it was inspiring to see there are already so many people that are providing solutions we really need. We need individuals to internalize it and say, ‘This is my problem and it’s something I can be a part of helping to heal.’

You’ve been inviting fans to walk with you before each show. What have you taken away from those experiences?
What we’ve learned, more than anything, is everybody needs encouragement and that continual reminder that they have the power to make a difference. It’s an age-old concept to say “you can do your part,” but everybody gets sort of caught up in whether they really can. What we’ve been trying to impress upon people is that these walks are walks for action. The people who are coming, it’s about empowering them to do more, and to recognize their ability to reach people. I’ve been really encouraged by how many people say, ‘I was supportive of you guys and I was into what you’re doing as a band, but being a part of the walks and being part of this outreach has kind of sealed the connection even more,’ because we’re really doing something together.

The Walk is your second release on 3CG Records. How have things been going for the band on your own label, vs. being on a major?
The music business itself has really shifted since we were signed. Most of the record business is still run by this corporate mindset, which came into play in a big way after our first record started to become really prevalent. The difference in the music business now for us is that we are navigating a new business and we are taking ownership of all of our masters. As far as our day to day work, it’s a challenge to balance all the things that we’re doing, but I wouldn’t have it any other way right now.

After record company mergers Hanson were moved to Island Def Jam. They rejected a lot of your music and you ended up leaving the label. What exactly were they looking for from you?
You’re dealing with a big corporation, a rap label that suddenly is working with a band they wouldn’t have signed from the beginning. It was the same kind of pattern that’s happened with hundreds of bands over the last several years – whatever’s happening at the moment, at the top of the charts - ‘Okay, let’s work with that producer. Okay, let’s work with this writer.’ The idea of chasing hits is really all that was going on. It was corporate people afraid to say, ‘Hey, this is what we want.’ There wasn’t a vision in that company for what the band was supposed to be doing.

When Middle of Nowhere came out you kind of got lumped in with the Spice Girls and the fabricated boy bands, even though what you do is obviously different. Do you still have to fight against the fact that when people hear the name Hanson, they might have these pre-conceived notions?
There’s always the potential that association could still be there, because at the time when we came out there was a wave of more pop music, and obviously what we did was more pop than the grunge music that was being played at the time, or right before us. So I think inherently there’s going to be an association with that time period. But as we go forward, it’s really a question of just doing what you’re doing, making great records you’re proud of. As far as people having pre-conceived notions, I think the only way to sort of dull them is to continue to make records that you feel passionate about and let the true colors of what you are come through.

That period of your life, when you were doing Oprah, Letterman, award shows, one tv show after another, with screaming girls everywhere - from an outsider's perspective it seemed like a crazy whirlwind of a time. Is that how it felt for you, being in the middle of it?
Yeah... we had incredible experiences when the first record launched. It definitely was a whirlwind of sorts. It was very surreal and having the experiences we had for the first time can definitely be kind of an out-of-body experience (laughs). That being said, at that time, we felt like that was where we wanted to be. It was kind of everything we hoped to accomplish, so it was a great privilege.

You guys lost a Grammy to Jamiroquai, which I always thought was a miscarriage of justice. Would you agree?
(Laughs) Well, I wouldn’t be one to bestow credit on our own music looking backwards, but it was an honor to be nominated. I know that may sound like a cliché but it is obviously an honor. I will tell you I know a lot of people that I respect, that said, ‘MMMBop was the song of the year - how could that not get a Grammy?’ But we’ll leave that to other people to say. It’s totally an honor to have that on your list of accomplishments, and hopefully in the future there will be others like that.

Something I’ve always been curious about – Gregg Alexander had that song with New Radicals where he threatens to kick Hanson’s ass in (“You Get What You Give”). A few years later, you ended up writing with him. How did you guys hook up, and did you give him any grief about that lyric?
Yeah in fact, we did. We worked with him because we thought there was a mesh between what he was doing and our sensibility. His name came up and he kind of reached out to us, and we were excited about it. You know, it’s kind of a funny pop culture reference. He claims he was talking about “Beck Hansen.” It definitely sounds like ”Beck and Hanson” though.

I know you guys enjoy those pop culture references – being featured on Family Guy, Saturday Night Live, and so forth. Which of the skits and spoofs of yourselves is your favorite?
First of all, you have to laugh at and with random references on shows because it really is such a big compliment. Regardless of whether you’re being made fun of, it’s a compliment to have people aware enough that it’s actually funny. One of the things that I thought was kind of absurd but really funny was a skit done years ago on MAD TV that was spoofing us as being over the hill after years and years. We were releasing a new song that was called “Ling Ling.” It was just awful, and pretty hysterical.

Finally, what’s the breakdown of newer material vs. old in your live show, and what can fans expect when they see you play in Pittsburgh?
A few things. There’s a special project that’s coming out called Take the Walk - it’s a coffee table book, and we have five new songs that we recorded for it. So in the show we’ll be premiering some brand new songs from this EP. Plus, you’ll hear a bunch of tunes from The Walk. We mix it up with songs from each album and we’ll be throwing in some cover songs that we haven’t performed in the past. I always feel like a concert is your opportunity to almost comment on your own music by showing people where your influences are, and it’s an opportunity for you to share new things with your audience. We can’t wait for the show.

Hanson will be performing at Carnegie Library Music Hall in Homestead on Monday, October 13. Find them online at www.hanson.net or www.myspace.com/hansonmusic.

NAMU - behind the scenes

NASA, Anthony Kiedis, Black Keys

(See our main New American Music Union review here.)

We participated in two press conferences held during the weekend at the New American Music Union festival. Here are some of the more interesting bits from those. Attendees included Anthony Kiedis, Gnarls Barkley, Black Keys, Spoon, NASA, and Tiny Masters of Today.

Q: Why do you think you were asked to curate the festival?
Anthony Kiedis: I guess because Dave Matthews wasn't available? I'm joking, I'm joking. I guess because we've been around a long time as a band, we've toured, and left a few tender moments behind. Stick around long enough, people ask you to do weird shit.

Q: How did you go about choosing the lineup?
Anthony Kiedis: I just spent some time meditating on music that I love, music that makes me feel alive. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it might be a little bit more dynamic and compelling to get really unheard-of people with really heard-of people. So it just started with some people I was madly in love with musically, and started filling in from there.

It was kind of hard because a lot of the music I love were elsewhere - getting married, having children, playing shows in foreign countries, out of business for the summer - so you really have to stay flexible and open to maybe learning something new.


Anthony Kiedis with Gnarls Barkley

Q: To Gnarls Barkley, any clues as to what costumes you'll be wearing today?
Danger Mouse: We don't know yet, we just show up. But we're gonna match.
Anthony Kiedis: I think they're going to be wearing the Tiny Masters of Today - the actual humans.

Q: How did you decide to add Tiny Masters of Today to the bill?
Anthony Kiedis: They excited me. I have these friends in L.A. that are age 7 to 14 called the Jack Bambis, and they write really great songs, and they broke up. So, I started seeing if there were any other bands of that nature that were actually good, and lo and behold, there's an east coast version of the Jack Bambis, and their stuff is cool.


Tiny Masters of Today

Q: This is a huge event for the city of Pittsburgh. What do you think about the event taking place in this city?
Anthony Kiedis: I like Pittsburgh, I always have. I don't think people really know about Pittsburgh. It's under that invisible cloak, as far as the consciousness of the rest of America. I always liked coming here on tour since I was playing in the '80s. We played a place called Graffiti. You've got rivers, you've got mountains, so it's a nice place. I like the fact that it's in the streets of a city. That kind of separates it from being a field or someplace in the middle of nowhere. It gives it a little character. And you've got the Andy Warhol Museum, which is a total gem of a museum that I could spend days in.
Dan Auerbach (Black Keys): We started in the Midwest, we still live in Akron. It feels nice to have a festival in the Midwest. There's always these big festivals on the shores and overseas, but this comes back sort of home. It's a nice thing.
Britt Daniel (Spoon): I like that's in a city.
Cee-Lo (Gnarls Barkley): Yeah, me too.
Britt Daniel: A lot of music festivals are way out somewhere, and you're just stuck there. But there's stuff to do around here. It's a different vibe.


Spoon

Q: To Tiny Masters of Today, what kind of venues do you usually play, and how does it feel to share the stage with these bands?
Ivan: We just got back from Lollapalooza last week, which was pretty fun, and then we played a show in New York on Wednesday. It's pretty awesome to play on the stage with all these people.
Anthony Kiedis: I thought it was amazing how beautiful the audience treated Tiny Masters. I've been to other festivals and other shows of my own where, a young band that isn't that well-known gets kind of mistreated by an audience, because often an audience comes for one of the marquee names on a bill. But all of the people there were so into what they were doing and they showed them love and appreciation. I thought that was a very cool thing.

Q: In future years, would you like to see the festival remain small, or would you like to see it reach a grander scale?
Anthony Kiedis: Not necessarily a grander scale. Lollapalooza - no disrespect, because that's a really fun festival, but we're not trying to be that. We're not trying to put any concrete parameters on what it's supposed to be, but just staying open minded, so that it's not just another festival, but somehow has its own personality and its own strange amalgamation of artists that are attracted to it and will play on it. I think it could be a little bit bigger than what it is today, because 10,000 tickets sold out kind of fast. There's room for it to be bigger, but it doesn't have to be huge.


Anthony Kiedis

Q: Anthony, yesterday you said if the opportunity presented itself you'd consider joining one of the bands on stage...
Cee-Lo (muttering under his breath about the reporter): She's hot.
Anthony Kiedis: Whoa, the mic is on! That's a President Bush moment. Um, if the opportunity presents itself, I'm so ill-prepared, but I'm tempted to accept any proposals that come my way.

Other behind the scenes tidbits to mention from the weekend:
Some guy offered me $200 for my press pass on Saturday. I told him it was worthless, in terms of getting backstage, but he did not believe me. I did not sell, as I would not have wanted to be there when he realized he just threw away a lot of money for nothing.

Pittsburgh's idiot mayor Luke Ravenstahl (below, seated) was on hand to help judge the college band competition. I felt like the paparazzi as I tried to sneak a photo of him, around the large men who were surrounding him and blocking the view of onlookers.

White Rabbits interview

With their acclaimed debut Fort Nightly and an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, White Rabbits were one of the breakout indie bands of 2007. What’s up for 2008? We checked in with pianist/singer Steve Patterson about the new album, the upcoming tour with the Walkmen, and finally moving out of that Brooklyn loft



MP3: White Rabbits - Kid On My Shoulders

I got hooked on the band after seeing you last year at Lollapalooza. What was that experience like?
That was a really early show, as I’m sure you remember. I think half of us hadn’t slept at all. A few of us had slept for a couple hours. Playing Lollapalooza at like 8 in the morning isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be. But it was a good time and it was cool to be part of the whole festival.

Tracks like “Kid On My Shoulders” and “While We Go Dancing” are pretty lively. Do you think Fort Nightly captures the energy of your live performances?
Honestly, we were pretty wet behind the ears whenever we were recording the record, and we feel like we became a fully-formed band after this recording. This happens with a lot of bands - they release their record and then like 5 months later they wish they could go back and re-record a few things or do some things differently. And I suppose I feel pretty much the same way, but I’m proud of it. I think the live shows are definitely a little bit more raucous than the record, but there’s things I love that are on the record that you just can’t do live. There are moments that capture the way it is live, but they both feel pretty separate to me.

How did you end up with two lead singers?
I used to play drums for the band, that’s how it started when we were in Columbia (Missouri). I did harmonies with Greg (Roberts). We moved to Brooklyn and things were kind of going slowly, so we decided to shake things up. Matt (Clark) moved to drums and I moved to keys and sang, so we just decided to switch things up and see if things could move a little bit faster, and it turned out to work really well.

How is the new album shaping up?
Slowly… we’ve been on the road pretty much constantly since before the record even came out. I think we started touring in April. We stopped touring this past year in November, and we were right into the holidays and so everybody’s going home and seeing family. So, we’re writing stuff now… hopefully we’re gonna play a few new things on this tour with the Walkmen, then we’ll get back and we’ll really knuckle down and write and record stuff.

Can you tell us about some of the new songs?
We’ve been playing a couple of the new ones live for a while. One’s called “Sea of Rum.” The other one doesn’t have a name yet. They’re not too much of a departure from the Fort Nightly stuff. There’s some dark elements and some calypso elements to it. I think they’re both more mature and developed.

I enjoy when people admit to liking bands that aren’t cool. You’ve cited the Everly Brothers as an influence. Can you elaborate on that?
You don’t think the Everly Brothers are cool? (laughs) I guess they’re not. Yeah, (they’re an influence) because of their harmonies. They had a lot of really cool drum stuff going on too. That’s stuff that only we notice, maybe. It’s definitely an inspiration for me and Greg.

I read that you thought you were the smallest (least-known) band ever to play Letterman.
Yeah, I stand by that (laughs). We got in on the front end of them starting to book smaller bands, so we lucked out.

Are there any interesting stories from your Letterman appearance, aside from how cold it was in the studio?
We were getting calls from our landlord five minutes before we went on, asking us where our rent payment was. That’s probably the most ironic story. It was pretty unreal. Our parents were able to fly out, so it was nice to be able to give them that.

Do the six of you still live together in a loft in Brooklyn?
No, we just moved out of that loft last month. A few of us still live together but we’re not in that loft anymore. We’re still in Brooklyn though. (See a tour of the old loft here).

It seems like that would’ve been the perfect setup for a reality show, if you’d thrown some cameras in there.
Funny that you mention that, I’ve had a couple people asking if we’d want to do one, but no, we’re not the Monkees (laughs).

www.whiterabbitsmusic.com
www.myspace.com/whiterabbits
Purchase Fort Nightly at Amazon

White Rabbits tour dates (with The Walkmen)
1.16 Pittsburgh - Diesel
1.17 Detroit – The Crofoot Ballroom
1.18 Milwaukee – Turner Hall
1.19 Madison – High Noon
1.20 Chicago - Schubas
1.21 St. Louis – Blueberry Hill
1.22 Columbus – The Basement
1.23 Philadelphia – Johnny Brenda’s
1.24 Baltimore - Ottobar

YouTube: White Rabbits - “The Plot” on The Late Show with David Letterman:


Photo credits: D. Yee

Interview with Bob Schneider

Photo credit: Alexandra Valenti

Bob Schneider is pretty much the coolest dude ever. He’s a singer/songwriter, but he's not a typical folkie – his songs are more rocking, with explicit lyrics, sharp wit, and in-your-face attitude. He’s currently in the middle of the “Songs Sung and Played on the Guitar at the Same Time With People in the Room Tour,” and he called in to talk about touring with the Dixie Chicks, the decline of the Austin music scene, and the varying degrees of giving a fuck.

You’re doing a solo acoustic tour right now. How much different is that from the full band thing?
Well, besides the obvious difference that there’s not a band… I can only play the good songs when I do solo acoustic. With the band we can play some shittier songs - because you have the band, you can kind of polish the tard, as they say, with good musicianship. The other difference is I engage the audience a little bit more in between songs, which I don’t do a lot of when I’m playing with the band. When I’m solo, I wanna feel like I’m having a conversation with the audience, so there tends to be a more intimate sort of concert setting because of that.

Can you do songs like “Ass Knocker” in that setting?
I get requests for that song all the time when I’m solo and I will play it, usually just to shut people up, but it’s not my first choice.

Which do you enjoy more, a small headlining show, or a large arena show where you’re opening for someone like the Dixie Chicks?
I like both, but I really enjoyed those arena shows. I would love to be headlining those arena shows. That would be the ideal situation. If I can’t do that, then opening up for somebody like the Dixie Chicks is great. Their audience isn’t too much different from my audience, so it was a nice match. If we were opening for someone like Ozzy Osbourne, it would be a harder sell, I think.

But it’s nice to headline too. There’s a certain energy in small clubs, there’s a certain lack of pretension. There’s a don’t-give-a-fuck attitude in a club that’s hard to generate when you’re in front of 15,000 people. You usually tend to give at least a small amount of a fuck in front of that many people. But you’re shooting for 100% don’t-give-a-fuck when you’re playing live, so it’s easier to do that in a smaller venue.

I listened to the track “Blauu” on your website, which you classified as “gangsta rock.”
(laughs). I classified it as gangsta rock?

Yes!
Well, there you go. You can say anything on your own website, as you know.

You seem to like playing around with different styles and genres. Your first band was a rap-funk group, is that correct?
No, the first band I was ever in was called the Warriors, and it was a rock band. The first band that I made enough money to quit my job and start playing music full-time was a rap-funk band, sort of a rap-rock band similar to Limp Bizkit and Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was this band where you could get laid a lot.

I saw an interview where you talked about how language shouldn’t be censored, and that’s something that comes across in your songs. They’re kind of in-your-face lyrically.
Well, when I talk I cuss a lot, so I guess when I write songs I tend to use bad language in the song. It just depends on the song and who’s narrating it. If the narrator in the song uses graphic language, then you use it. I don’t write a lot of autobiographical things, so it usually tends to be from the point of view of somebody that’s not me.

The Austin music scene has exploded in the time you’ve been there. How do you feel about being one of the leaders of that?
Actually, I feel like it’s imploded. When I got here the music scene in Austin was really quite exciting and there were a lot of bands taking a lot of chances musically. It was really neat to live here. It still had a small-town vibe to it, and you didn’t have to work a lot to get by. You could just be a creative, drug-taking musician in this town. And then when the high-tech companies came in the mid-‘90s, it drove the price of living up. I think the town lost a lot of those slacker musicians that were making this really interesting music, and I think the music scene ended up really hurting because of it.

Recently, there’s some interesting stuff going on in Austin. There happen to be a bunch of pretty decent bands that live here, but they don’t play here hardly ever. They play here once or twice a year, but they’re nationally known acts. It’s kind of bizarre how that works. A lot of the bands that actually play here aren’t so good, I don’t think. I mean there’s a lot of music here, a lot of great players, but I have this romantic idea of the early ‘90s and that whole period of time when it just felt like there were so many great, great bands that were playing in Austin at that time. But having said that, I’m completely out of the loop. I play 250 shows a year. I don’t have time to go out and see music, so there could be tons of great shit that I don’t know about.

Do you have a favorite place to play?
I play every Monday at the Saxon Pub when I’m in Austin, and it’s my favorite show. We have a hardcore group of people that have been coming for years to those shows. That’s where I try out all the new stuff that I’ve written that week. That’s where I dig in and pull out songs that I don’t ever play anywhere else, so it’s a fun show for me.

Well Bob, thanks for taking the time to chat, I really appreciate it. I’ll be checking you out when you come to Pittsburgh next week.
Alright, come up and say hi!

Find Bob Schneider online at www.bobschneidermusic.com or www.myspace.com/bobschneider.

Upcoming tour dates for Bob Schneider:
November 30 LAWRENCE, KS Bottleneck
December 1 OMAHA, NE The Waiting Room
December 2 MINNEAPOLIS, MN Varsity
December 3 MILWAUKEE, WI Shank Hall
December 4 CHICAGO, IL Schuba's
December 5 CHICAGO, IL Schuba's
December 6 ST LOUIS, MO Blueberry Hill
December 7 INDIANAPOLIS, IN Music Mill
December 8 PITTSBURGH, PA Club Cafe
December 10 PHILADELPHIA, PA World Cafe
December 11 ANNAPOLIS, MD Ram's Head
December 12 NEW YORK, NY Knitting Factory
December 13 VIENNA, VA Jammin Java
December 14 VIENNA, VA Jammin Java
December 15 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA Gravity Lounge
December 16 ASHEVILLE, NC Grey Eagle
December 17 ATLANTA, GA Smith's Olde Bar
December 18 NASHVILLE, TN Exit/In
December 19 BIRMINGHAM, AL Workplay
December 21 NEW ORLEANS, LA One Eyed Jacks
December 22 HOUSTON, TX Mucky Duck

Interview with Nicole Atkins

If you’re not yet familiar with Nicole Atkins, you will be soon. Last year Rolling Stone named her one of its Ten Artists to Watch, and she recently made her national TV debut on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote her full-length major-label debut, Neptune City, which has been earning positive reviews for its lush arrangements and her seductive vocal delivery.

Nicole called in from the road in Vermont to discuss the album, the tour, dinner invites from Letterman, and being the new DeNiro (sort of).

You’re on tour right now, opening for the Pipettes. How is that going?
It’s going good, the shows have been really great.

How are the Pipettes' fans responding to your performance?
Surprisingly well. There’s a lot of younger fans in the crowd, younger girls with polka-dot dresses on, and they seem to really like us. They’ve been buying our CDs after our set, which is good. A lot of people were saying they were surprised they liked the opening act!

Neptune City is based on life in your hometown. Can you elaborate on the story behind the songs?
I was living in Brooklyn for four or five years, and I just got to this point where I was really sick of the city. I moved back down to Charlotte for a few months just to get my head together, and I decided to move back to New Jersey for awhile, and it was basically about me coming to deal with all that, and being ok with living in my hometown again, because I always wanted to get as far as I could away from it, and I ended up really liking it.

There are conflicting emotions in some of the songs – a sense of pride in your town, but also disappointment in the changes that had taken place.
Yeah, you got it. It was hard because I didn’t know anybody that lived there anymore, but I ended up meeting some of the best friends I’ve ever had. It became easier for me to live there and write songs and commute to New York a couple days a week to practice, than it was for me to actually live in New York.

“Brooklyn’s on Fire” stands out as a song that paints a vivid picture. What was the inspiration for that song?
That was actually the first time I met my best friend Susan, who was my old roommate. We met on the fourth of July in Brooklyn at a rooftop party, and it was about that time, you know, just being young and living in Brooklyn, hanging out in New York and making the best memories of your youth in that time. It was a tribute song to her.

I understand that Rick Rubin made some last-minute changes to the record. How did he get involved?
Yeah, well he became the president of Columbia and he got my record and he really liked it but he thought that the vocals were being too squashed. So he actually ended up taking the mastering off completely, and it really made all of the arrangements and vocals really crisp, and you’re able to hear the nuances of every sound. My voice ended up sounding like it was leading the track rather than just being a part of the track, so I was really thankful. At first I was apprehensive about it because I didn’t know what he wanted to do. I thought I was gonna get my record back with all this shit all over it, and in the end he just enhanced it, he didn’t change anything.

I imagine it felt good to have someone of his stature helping out with your album.
It was pretty neat. It was weird because he would call me all time. I’d be out for drinks with my friends in New Jersey and be like, 'Hold on,' and they're like, 'Who's that?' 'Oh, Rick Rubin.' (laughs). He’s a really cool guy.

You’ve cited people like Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline as inspirations, with that kind of old fashioned sound. What is it that draws you to that kind of music?
It’s more the vocal style. Most of my musical influences are from the late ‘60s on, but they are inspirations to me because, that old country style of crooning, it feels really good for me to sing that way. And also the way I write songs, I like to start them out really low and build it until it’s like pow! at the end. And that’s something they were really good at doing with their songs as well.

I have to ask you about playing Letterman a couple weeks ago. What was that experience like?
Really fun! It was completely nerve-wracking at the beginning but then after a couple glasses of wine we went on stage and had a blast (laughs). It was one of the coolest days of my life so far. It was weird because when we actually got on stage, it was almost like I blacked out for three minutes and just got so into the song I didn’t notice how nervous I was.

It seemed like Dave was quite smitten with you.
Yeah, he asked me if I wanted to go get a steak! I thought that was pretty funny.

You and your band also did an American Express commercial. How did you get that opportunity?
It was so random. An intern at Columbia, their friend worked at the ad agency. She wanted to get an up-and-coming female singer/songwriter to do the ad and they asked me to do it. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I weighed the pros and the cons and was like, wow, I can pay off my credit card bill finally, move out of my mom’s house, and people actually get to hear my song that wouldn’t otherwise be on the radio, so I couldn’t understand any reason not to do it.

You mentioned the pros and cons - there will always be some people who see doing advertising as selling out.
Yeah, but you’ve gotta think about how the music industry is today. The only songs that make it on the radio are Britney Spears... to the few radio stations that even still exist. Musicians need to make their money somehow, and I just figured all the American Express ads that I’ve seen were really cool, and they always had cool people in them, and I figured if it was good enough for DeNiro, it was good enough for me!

The only thing that was misportrayed was we don’t really lounge around in bathrobes and offer to fly our friends out to our shows (laughs). I asked them about that too. I was like, 'We usually stay at the Econolodge.' 'Uh, that doesn’t look too good on tv.' Ok, whatever.

You’re playing here in Pittsburgh on Monday. What can people expect from your live show?
They can expect to probably dance a lot, and it’s more of a rock show than people would expect from hearing the recording. It’s pretty much a full-on rock show.

Video clip: Nicole Atkins & The Sea perform “The Way It Is” on The Late Show with David Letterman.



Nicole Atkins & The Sea perform at Diesel with the Pipettes tonight at 8 pm. Check out her website and her MySpace.