[mp3/interview] Writer (NxNE Recap)

We covered San Diego’s Writer as part of our NxNE previews and enjoyed their 7” single, Miss Mermaid, so much that we sought them out at the festival for an informal interview the day after they opened for Dum Dum Girls and Cults at Lee’s Palace. Andy and James Ralph, the brothers that comprise the duo, put on a solid show consisting of stripped down lo-fi pop songs that are heavy on the drums and catchy with the guitar riffs.

Before coming to NxNE, the brothers Ralph had been touring the country with Cults and Guards, so they have been able to hit up numerous crowds with their San Diego-fied rock. The city has a ton of great music coming out of it these days, all deserving of investing some time in. It’s definitely one of best music scenes in the U.S. today, consisting of Tape Deck Mountain and Crocodiles as well – other bands that we saw or spoke with at the Toronto festival and will post recaps on in the near future.

Matt and I met up with Andy and James at Rivoli before their 1 a.m. set and inside away from the gorgeous Toronto weather we were fortunate enough to have all weekend. They’re both great guys and we greatly appreciate them stepping inside to talk with us for a bit over some beers. In hindsight, we definitely should’ve conducted the interview outside instead of a dark club. The interview with Andy and James was conversational, so instead of posting the entire thing word for word I included excerpts of the moments that highlight the band, their music, their tour, and future plans.

What are you guys looking forward to the most on the tour? Where are you guys moving on to from here?

Andy: We’ve played all of the major cities up through the northeast with Cults and Guards. We play Montreal tomorrow and that’s actually the last show for about three or four weeks. And then we meet back up with Cults and do the whole West Cost out to Chicago and back.

Oh man, Chicago’s a great town.

Andy: Yeah, we’re really looking forward to that one. I’ve never been to Washington, D.C., so that was a cool show to play. We played at…

9:30 Club?

Andy: Noo…it’s called…I guess I don’t remember the name of it [Laughs].

James: I know, man. We’re playing so many shows…pretty much every night. It’s amazing. And there’s been great crowds everywhere we go.

Andy: We’re pretty lucky to be on tour with Cults because they’re really doing well right now and their songs are awesome, and they’re all becoming a lot better. Their crowds get there early and watch us play. And they like us!

Very nice. So, we’ve heard the single, but are you guys working on anything else right now?

Andy: Well, we actually have a record that’s done.

EP?

Andy: No, full-length! And we play most of the songs live. Right now we’re just figuring out what to do with it. It’s not out, it’s unreleased. We’re holding it.

Jamie: [Laughs] Yeah, in a good way! We’re holding it…actually, I don’t even know if we’re holding it.

Andy: [Laughs] I don’t know what we’re doing!

[Laughs] Kind of like a wait and see situation?

Jamie: We’re just playing shows and playing to a lot of people.

Andy: And we’re meeting labels and shit. It’s kind of interesting to hear everyone’s different feedback on all of these songs that they’ve never heard before.

How did you guys link up Cults? Did their manager reach out to you guys?

Andy: Our booking agent, Cory Stier played a tour with them. We were out in Austin last year at South by Southwest and we all met and then their booking agent listened to our tracks and they were kind of digging our tracks.

Jamie: Yeah, we got to hang out with them out there and go to a show. A couple weeks after South By, they just emailed us.

What’s the scene like out in San Diego?

Andy: Lately when we’ve been playing in San Diego, we’ve been playing with a lot of bands that have been playing through. And that’s what all of our buddies are doing right now. We used to do shows where it’s four bands, a bunch of friends playing together. I don’t know if we all got sick of doing that or what.

James: It’s like once every two months we’ll play like that. Like Travis’s [Travis Trevisan of Tape Deck Mountain] record release, we’ll play that.

Andy: You don’t want to play too much in your hometown. You just want to hang out with people. I want to hang out with my friends, I don’t really want to play.

And if you guys do play then it’s kind of like a house party with all of your friends?

Andy: Yeah, actually I’d rather just play out of town.

What’s the best band that we haven’t heard from out of San Diego?

Andy: What’s the best band you haven’t heard from…Chairs Missing.

Chairs Missing?

James: Yeah. They have a stand up drummer. They’re a four-piece.

Andy: They’re pretty bad-ass.

So, you guys have been playing together for a while. It just came together naturally?

James: Yeah, actually it’s been more recently. Definitely more recently. This record kind of came out of us just sitting in a room, tired of what we were doing…

“…Here’s a sound we can both agree on.”

James: Exactly. Both of us have played with at least two other people. We have a three-piece, or a four-piece. But none of these songs are incorporated with that. So this is kind of the newest ideal we got going on. It seems to be the better of what we’ve been doing but it’s been good. Hanging out. Spend a lot of time in a single room together just writing.

You guys just go back and forth with each other like brothers usually do?

James: Yeah, but it turns more into us telling each other kind of how to play each other’s instruments.

So, it’s for the better of the band.

James: Yeah. When you play with one other person, that’s the only person who’s going to challenge you. But it tends to work out for us really well though.

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Thanks a ton to Andy and James for talking the time out of their day to talk with Matt and I. We greatly appreciate it and we encourage everyone to check out their Miss Mermaid and free Barefoot Art singles that are both available on their Bandcamp page. And fingers crossed, we’ll be hearing that full-length album in the near future. From what we heard at Lee’s Palace, those songs need to get out there. Oh, and thank you for the tip on Chairs Missing. We’ll definitely be looking into them.

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Writer // Head To Toe [mp3] from Barefoot Art [Single]