Part 2

What is your sense of ownership like as part of the collective songwriting process? What is the balance between the lyrics, melodies and harmonies, and the groove in terms of your sound?

Unless we are all 100% happy with a song, including all of its parts, then we don’t play it. Luckily, this rarely happens because when one person is unhappy with a part or a song the opinion is usually unanimously shared.

In terms of writing ownership, again it’s all collectively shared. Everyone contributes to the song in equal ways, regardless of it was a spontaneous creation or building off a pre-written bass or guitar line. I’m the only vocalist so not only does that rule out harmonies it also rules out anyone else writing lyrics. I mean I’d be open to it, or at least I’d like to think I would be, but Gio & Ryan don’t want to so that’s a non-issue.

At times when I’m stuck for how vocals should go I’ll ask Gio & Ryan if they hear anything and am always willing to try it if they do. One of the many things I love about this band is that no one is precious, like “this is my part and don’t tell me what to do”. We all have nothing but respect for each other and are always open to exploring each other’s ideas and going with what sounds best.

What tend to be the best songs in your opinion – those where you had a lot in common as a band or those where you had more differences? What happens when another musician takes you outside of your comfort zone?

I feel like the most boring person alive here. I wish I could tell you about all of the significant clashes we’ve had creatively, heated arguments, shit thrown around the room in a rage, friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends, Highlander-style battles because there can be only one, but I’d be full of lies.

Maybe because we’re a trio there’s just not that issue of “too many cooks”. And also because there’s no “ownership” of ideas we’re all down to experiment. We’re always looking for ways to push ourselves and play the most interesting part we can come up with, so being pushed to think about approaching a song or part of the song differently is kind of in our DNComfort zone schmomfort zone.

Well, until one of us recommends that we embark on a free form jazz meets calypso meets pan pipe journey. I see that turning ugly regrettable pretty quickly.

What are your thoughts on the need for compromise vs standing by one's convictions? How did you resolve potential disagreements?

A friend once told me “it’s not art when you compromise” so all three of us being happy and on board with what we’re playing is the only way we play it.

I mean, I could rule as a benevolent dictator and I’m not going to say I haven’t been that person in the past. But I will be the first to tell you that on no level would being like that now lead to the songs sounding as good as they could. And constraining or dictating what Gio and Ryan do feels criminal.

Like any band we have had our misunderstandings and miscommunications but we’ve always managed to talk it out.

Do any of the band's members also have solo projects? If so, how do these feeds into the band's creative process?

I used to play solo but I very rarely do so any more. For me it was great in that I could play the soft, acoustic songs that don’t work in a band setting but I really enjoyed playing. Sometimes, albeit rarely, after playing a song solo song I could start to hear how it would work as a band song.

Or, in the case of “We’re Not Twins,” playing it solo confirmed that it needed to be brought to the band.



In a live situation, decisions between band members often work without words. From your experience and the performances of your current tour, what does this process feel like and how does it work?

A lot of eye contact and a lot of strategic nodding to signal changes or breaks.

There’s one song in our set, ‘Tomato’, that is the newest and we aren’t always 100% in sync with when to end it - largely because we never officially decided when to end it and kind of like mystery of how it will end each time we play it. So with that it’s just trying to listen to each other to see if we can read where we’re all at.



Another song of ours, ‘Double Hackner’, has a pretty intense drum part with a short build-up that cues a major change. So if for any reason the build-up happens slightly early Gio and I can make immediate adjustments because we know what’s coming.



How has the interaction within the group changed over the years? How do you keep things surprising, playful and inspiring?

As we get on in years life gets busier and busier and sometimes making the time to practice and create together is more difficult than not.

I think we’ve evolved to just appreciate our time together when it can be had, not resent each other’s commitments that cause time lapses, and have as much fun as possible doing what we love.

Have you worked with outside contributors - from sessions musicians via producers to other songwriters? How did this change, improve or challenge the established dynamic and how do you look back on that?

We haven’t in any sort of official capacity. When we were recording our album with our friends Rachel and Sam, they would have great ideas about amp sounds or effects – Rachel even help me with a vocal melody – and that was really fun and inspiring because you want to know that the people recording you are excited about and engaged with what you’re doing.

But in terms of letting a producer dictate how our songs were structured or sounded … I dunno how into that I’d be, to be honest. I think that’s where my ego could potentially rear its ugly head.

That said, having never been in that position, it could be a great learning experience.

Most bands eventually break up. What makes you stay together? What are essentials for a successful band?

I think that ultimately it comes down to egos, temperament, and purpose. Like, are people making the band / the music about themselves? Or is the band about the music? About the camaraderie? In our case, we just really like creating together and hanging out so, again, not to be a nauseating Pollyanna or anything but it really is just about “us” and the music.

Also, while who wouldn’t want to make a living playing music, none of us have any grandiose notions that we’ll never have to have day jobs. It’s not that we don’t have ambitions to play and create the best music we can, and to expand our reach as far as possible, we just don’t have external markers of what success means to us.

It’s really liberating because it’s never like “well, we didn’t sell X amount of our album” or “we don’t have X number of online followers so we’ve failed”.