We Are Scientists: “Započeli smo proces snimanja sljedećeg albuma”
Tko su We Are Scientists, odakle ideja za to ime? Predstavite se hrvatskoj publici.
Mi smo njujorški, ali i svjetski obožavan duo čiji su primarni profesionalni ciljevi pisanje savršenih pop pjesama. Istovremeno, površno se bavimo filmom, televizijom, komedijom, kartanjem i maženjem pasa. Naše je ime stvorio jedan nenamjerno zloban čovjek koji nas je zamijenio za grupu znanstvenika, vjerojatno zbog naše intelektualne superiornosti i hlača kaki boje.
Obožavamo vaše spotove, nisu normalni! Kako ih stvarate i odakle vam te lude, nevjerojatne ideje? Posebno nas zanimaju spotovi za Inaction, Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt i Nice guy.
Sami smo smislili koncepte za većinu naših spotova. Inspiracija obično nastane u zadnji čas, iz pukog očaja. Snimanje spotova varira – neke je koordinirao profesionalni režiser na planinama u Irskoj za nekoliko tisuća dolara, neke smo snimali sami u svojem dvorištu za nula dolara, a jedan je nastao zahvaljujući našem dugogodišnjem fotografu i trosatnoj sesiji na zadnjem sjedištu njegova automobila.
Ideja za Inaction izrodila se iz naše dugogodišnje želje da napravimo obradu filma „Tri muškarca i kolijevka“ u kojoj bismo mi bili muškarci (i, pretpostavljamo, beba bi bila beba). Kako nismo mogli pronaći financijska sredstva za taj projekt zaključili smo da bi trominutna poznata scena s tri muškarca i kolijevkom bila adekvatna kompenzacija.
Koncept za Nobody Move… je proizašao iz vizije koju je jedan on nas imao (ne mogu se sjetiti koji točno), a u kojoj je čovjekoliki medvjed skočio kroz staklenu pločicu u naš prostor gdje vježbamo. Bilo je doslovno toliko jednostavno. Da budem iskren, ostatak se spota stvorio sam od sebe. Cijelo smo vrijeme znali da želimo da zadnja verzija spota bude posveta kraju „Teksaškog masakra motornom pilom“, horor klasika Tobea Hoopera. To je bila nit vodilja.
Nemam pojma kako smo došli do ideje za Nice Guys spot koji smo snimili i uredili sami (vjerojatno je to očito). Možda je počelo s idejom kako bi spot u kombinaciji s krivim stihovima mogao biti zabavan? Nisam siguran. Znam samo da Chrisov sin Dash krade svu pozornost s gimnastičkim manevriranjem na svome romobilu. I bitno, zadnja scena spota također sadrži posvetu kraju klasičnoga horor filma, ovoga je puta taj film „Petak 13.“.
Čime se trenutačno bavite? Postoje li planovi za nove snimke?
Pa zapravo, upravo smo započeli proces snimanja za sljedeći album. Manje-više sve su pjesme napisane, a počeli smo se i neobavezno nalaziti u studiju našega starog prijatelja i bivšeg klavijaturista, Maxa Harta, u Brooklynu. Teško je reći kada će snimka biti kompletirana i objavljena. Želimo što više svirati nove stvari i isprobati puno čudnih ideja. Znam, znam, zvuči kao recept za katastrofu, pretjerani nered. Ipak, obećajem da ćemo biti uredni.
Možemo li očekivati neku europsku turneju uskoro? Možda da navratite do Hrvatske i popijete koje piće s nama?
Trenutačno nemamo nikakve realne planove za europsku turneju, usredotočeni smo na stvaranje novog albuma. Najbliže što ćemo doći do Hrvatske u bližoj budućnosti je, nažalost, jako daleko od nje – ovoga ćemo ljeta održati nekoliko manjih koncerata u Engleskoj. Trebam napomenuti kako Keith vrlo intenzivno razmatra opciju ljetovanja u Hrvatskoj već na ljeto jer ima prijatelja čija je obitelj iz Hrvatske. Obećali su da će mu, ako dođe, pokazati brojne zanimljivosti i dati mu lokalne savjete. Ako imate bilo kakve preporuke kamo da ide i što da radi, molim vas da mu javite.
Na vašoj smo web stranici vidjeli one nevjerojatne dupine. Odakle ljubav prema njima? Planirate li ih nabaviti za vaše nastupe uživo?
Keith je iz Miamija gdje su dupini sveprisutni. Zaboga, državna nogometna momčad se zove „Dolphins“. Oni unose i razdor među dečke jer se Chris, koji je odrastao na planinama Utaha, užasava dupina. Oni naprosto nisu jasni nekome tko je planinski orijentiran. Keith voli maltretirati Chrisa i odvesti ga na Floridu, pa ga upoznati sa svojim prijateljima dupinima – Clemom, Daveom, Velikim Daveom i Finsyjem.
Vidjeli smo da ćete u travnju imati nekoliko koncerata. Što očekujete od tih koncerata? Svirat ćete i u Las Vegasu pa nas zanima hoćete li se držati one „Što se dogodi u Vegasu, ostaje u Vegasu“?
Mi smo pobornici upravo suprotne ideje: „Sve što se dogodi u Vegasu treba biti pušteno u javnost“. Da smo sve jezive, odvratne stvari koje su se dogodile u Vegasu držali potisnute u nama, pojele bi nam savjest i poludjeli bi. Najbolje je na brzinu izreći priznanje o Vegasu, po mogućnosti katoličkom svećeniku, i skinuti sve s duše.
Koje nove bendove volite? Čini li vam se da neki određeni dio scene postaje popularniji? Što vas veseli u glazbi?
Jako su nam interesantni Wolf Alice, Alvvays, Young Ejecta i PAWS. Pretpostavljam da smo, kao uvijek, najviše očarani djecom koju veseli stvaranje buke.
Kako izgleda proces nastajanja novih pjesama? Je li danas teže stvarati novu muziku nego li je bilo prije?
Kao što sam rekao ranije, poigravamo se s načinom na koji radimo album. U prošlosti smo uobičavali napisati sve pjesme od početka do kraja, vježbati ih onda u bendovskom aranžmanu i tek onda ući u studio da bi ih sve nasnimili na traku u nizu. Sada malo više eksperimentiramo, iskušavamo nove zvukove i pristupe, u hodu. Dosad je bilo puno elektronskih bubnjeva i umetnutih i izbačenih instrumentalnih dijelova, no tko zna hoće li se do kraja procesa nastaviti u tom tonu. Kao i uvijek najbitnije nam je imati jaku melodiju i primamljivi dojam. Neke se stvari nikada ne mijenjaju.
Prepričajte nam neke anegdote s nastupa uživo. Koja je bila najzabavnija situacija koja vam se dogodila dok ste nastupali? Jeste li se ikad našli u situaciji da se zapitate “Dobro, koji je ovo vrag?”?
Prije dosta, dosta vremena, prije no što smo potpisali za diskografsku kuću, stvari su dosta redovito znale postati prilično destruktivne na pozornici. Na jednom nastupu u Brooklynu, Keith je porezao ruku na činelu i trebao je šavove svega par sati prije ukrcavanja na let za LA. Na jednom drugom nastupu, Keith je poludio od alkohola i očaja i ugrizao Chrisa za nogu, usred nastupa. Ovako retrospektivno gledano, čini se kao da je Keith tada imao neke demone u sebi koje je trebao pobijediti. Ako ništa drugo, mora platiti Chrisu za traperice koje mu je uništio grizući ga.
Kakva priča stoji iza stihova? Tko piše tekstove i što vas inspirira?
Keith piše većinu tekstova koji uglavnom proizlaze iz osobnih iskustava ili barem nekih situacija kojima je svjedočio. Često se zabavna tekstovna rješenja, čak i teme izrode spontano iz pjevušenja slogova na melodiju koju je taj čas smislio. Obožavatelj je i internih rima i svašta će napraviti da smisli i pokaže neku.
Imate li neku pjesmu koju posebno volite svirati? Zašto?
Dumb Luck je zabavna jer je gitarski dio toliko ponavljajući da ponekad hipnotizira Keitha. Za njega je najveći zadatak kod sviranja te pjesme samo pokušaj da se ne preda očaravajućoj snazi vodećega riffa. Kompenzacija je da ima priliku svirati i onaj zabavan, žestok solo.
Postoji li nešto što smo zaboravili pitati ili što biste vi voljeli dodati?
Pomognite nam da dođemo u Hrvatsku, molimo vas. Definitivno ćemo vas podsjetiti na ona pića koja ste spominjali!
Who are We Are Scientists, were does the name come from, introduce yourselves to the Croatian audience.
We’re a New York-bred but internationally beloved duo, whose primary professional pursuits involve writing the perfect pop song, but who also dabble in film, television, comedy, card-playing, and dog-petting. Our name came from one unintentionally cruel man who once mistook us for a gang of scientists, presumably due to our air of intellectual superiority and our khaki trousers.
We absolutely adore your music videos, they are insane, how do you make them and where do you get those crazy amazing ideas? We would especially like to know something more about videos for Inaction, Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt and Nice guy.
We personally come up with the concepts for most of our videos, and the inspiration for the ideas usually comes out of pure desperation, at the very last minute. The makings of the videos have varied wildly – some have been made for tens of thousands of dollars by professional directors on mountains in Ireland, some were made by us for zero dollars in our backyard, and one was made my our long-time still photographer over the course of three hours in the back seat of his car.
The idea for the Inaction video came from our long-standing desire to make a full-length remake of the film Three Men and A Baby, starring ourselves as the three men (and, presumably, a baby as the baby). Since we couldn’t get the funding for that project, we figured a three-minute send-up of the famous three-man lullaby scene from that film would have to do.
The concept for the Nobody Move… video came from a vision that one of us had (I can’t remember which of us had it), in which a humanoid bear jumped through a plate-glass window into our rehearsal space. It was as simple as that. The rest of the video wrote itself, to be honest. We knew all along that we wanted the final shot of the video to be an homage to the ending of Tobe Hooper’s classic horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so that got shoehorned in there.
I have no idea how we came up with the premise for the Nice Guys video, which we shot and edited ourselves (perhaps that’s obvious). It may have started with the idea that a video featuring incorrect lyrics, throughout, might be funny? I’m not exactly sure. I do know that Chris’ son Dash steals the show with his gymnastic maneuvers, on his scooter. Notably, this video ALSO features a final shot that acts as an homage to the ending of a classic horror film; this time it’s Friday the 13th.
What are you currently doing, any plans for future records?
We’ve actually just begun the recording process for our next album. We’ve pretty much written the entire thing, now, and we’ve started dabbling around with our old friend and ex-keyboardist Max Hart in his studio space in Brooklyn, NY. It’s hard to say exactly when the record might be competed and released; we want to play around as much as possible with the recording of this one and try a lot of weird ideas. I know, I know; it sounds like a recipe for a disasterous, overblown mess. I promise we’ll keep it tight, though.
Can we expect any European tours soon, maybe stop by in Croatia and have a few drinks with us.
We don’t currently have any real plans for a European tour, since we’re mainly focusing on making the new record. The closest that the band is getting to Croatia in the near future is, unfortunately, very far away – we’re doing a small run of shows in England, in the summer. I should point out, though, that Keith is very strongly considering taking a vacation to Croatia this summer. He has a friend whose family is from there, and she’s promised that, if he goes, they’ll all show him around and give him local tips. If you’ve got any recommendations on things to do and places to go, there, please to let him know.
We went to your web page and saw those amazing dolphins, so where does the love for dolphins come from? Do you plan on getting a few dolphins for your live shows?
Keith is from Miami, where Dolphins are ubiquitous. The national football team is called “The Dolphins,” for crying out loud. It’s a bit of a point of contention for the guys, because Chris, having grown up in the mountains of Utah, is terrified of dolphins – they simply don’t make any sense whatsoever to the mountain-born mind. Keith likes to torment Chris by bringing him down to Florida and introducing him to all of his dolphin friends – Clem, Dave, Big Dave, and Finsy.
We saw that you are playing a few shows in April, what are you expecting from those shows? We saw that you are playing a show in Las Vegas, so we were wondering if you plan on making “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” a true statement.
We’ve often committed ourselves to the opposite idea: “What happens in Vegas must be widely reported.” So many gruesome, heinous things have happened while we’ve been in Las Vegas that, if we kept them locked up inside, they’d eat away at our consciences and drive us stark raving mad. It’s best to make your confessions about Vegas as quickly as possible, preferably to a Catholic priest, and get it all off your chest.
Could you tell us some new bands that you like, do you see some particular scene getting more popular? In short, what is it you find exciting in music these days?
We’re pretty into Wolf Alice, Alvvays, Young Ejecta, and PAWS. I guess, as always, we’re just really into kids who are excited about making a lot of noise.
What’s the process of making songs? Is it harder to make new music than it was before?
As I said earlier, we’re playing around with the way we make our record, this time. In the past, we’ve always written all of the songs from start to finish and rehearsed them as a live band before we went into a studio to blast them onto tape in one string of recording sessions. This time, we’re experimenting a little more, trying out different sounds and approaches with each song, as we work. So far, there have been a lot of electronic drums and cut-and-pasted instrumental parts, but who knows if this approach is going to carry on through the rest of the recording process. As always, for us, having a strong melody and a catchy hook are of the greatest importance – some things never change,
Could you tell us some anecdotes from live shows. What was the funniest thing that has ever happen to you while performing. Was there ever a point where you thought – ‘ What the hell man?’
A very, very long time ago, before we were signed, things got fairly destructive on stage with some regularity. At one show in Brooklyn, Keith slashed his hand open on a cymbal and had to get stitches a couple of hours before boarding a flight to LA for some industry showcases. At another show, Keith went crazy on alcohol and despair and bit Chris on the leg, mid-show. In retrospect, it seems like maybe Keith had some demons that he needed to work out, back them. If nothing else, he needs to pay Chris for the jeans he ruined by biting through them.
Was the story behind lyrics? Who writes lyrics and what is your inspiration while writing lyrics.
Keith writes most of the lyrics, and they generally come out of a personal experience, or, at least, an experience he’s witnessed. A lot of times, the lyrical ideas come from singing along blindly to the syllables of the melody he’s just written until a cool string of words or even a theme appears, and he’ll usually just follow them where they lead. He’s also a big fan of internal rhyme, and will go out of his way to shove some of that, in there.
Is there any song you prefer playing the most? Why?
Dumb Luck is a fun one, because that guitar part is so repetitive that it occasionally threatens to hypnotize Keith. A large part of playing that song, for him, is just trying to focus on not succumbing to the mesmerizing powers of that lead riff, and then the payoff is that he gets to play that fun, blistering solo.
Is there anything that we have forgotten or you would like to add for the end of the interview.
Help us come to Croatia, please. We will definitely take you up on those drinks!
Prijevod/Translation: Anja Nežić & Jan Vukasović
