Audio Alchemy: An Interview with We Are Scientists

June 2, 2008 6:38 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

Three years ago a trio of dapperly dressed young men from New York created some big noise with their sound and their look. Their style has caught on to bands coming from the same area such as White Rabbits and Vampire Weekend, guys who also seem to prefer the business casual look. Since then the trio has become a duo, followed up the success of their first album, With Love and Squalor, with a strong effort in Brain Thrust Mastery, and have upgraded their transportation status in the UK to ‘Tour Bus.’

Simply referred to as We Are Scientists, the quirky duo comprised of lead singer and guitarist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain met at Pomona College in California and decided to kick-start a band just to play some live shows. After getting the attention of record labels and recording their debut album, With Love and Squalor, We Are Scientists won the hearts of the masses in the UK and conquered their niche audience in the U.S. As they finish up their tour in Europe this summer, the boys are keeping their things packed as they head into their good ol’ tour van in the states for yet another run.

CoolJunkie caught up with witty and comical singer/guitarist Keith Murray to chat about the new album, their response in the UK and their efforts to outshine Anthony Robbins.

CoolJunkie: What's going on Keith?

Keith Murray: Not…too…much…

CJ: Not too much?

KM: (laughs)

CJ: How’s 2008 treating you guys so far?

KM: It’s been good, it’s been good. We’ve spent the bulk of it up until now in England, which I cannot complain about. Right now we’re back in New York City, so you know what? Five star. If the way you rate a year was determined by a five star system, where five was the best, then yea, we’re at a five.

CJ: I see you guys are back on the road soon.

KM: Yea. We’re going back to the UK on Saturday or Sunday. The second single from our record comes out there next Monday, so we’re just going out there to do some promotional stuff.

CJ: What’s the routine like for you guys on the road?

KM: Um…we’ll it’s sort of different. Over in Europe our shows are a lot bigger, so we sort of do the big tour bus with the whole production and all. Over here it is more of the van scene, which we haven’t done in a while and I’m looking forward to it. We haven’t done a US tour in quite some time.

CJ: You guys have any favorite places to play over there?

KM: Glasgow is always good because people are really, really rowdy there and there’s always a party afterward. But, every morning after a show you’re basically in extreme physical and at times psychological pain. But there’s always a good party in Glasgow.

CJ: Now going into this album, Brain Thrust Mastery, what was the mindset like compared to how you entered the studio for With Love and Squalor?

KM: For the last album, all the songs were written before we were signed or before we were really a band by any measure. We were just playing periodic small shows around New York. So we wrote those songs because we were just thinking about making a record, by the time they were all written we had interest from labels so we made a record out of them. Whereas with this album we new we were going to be making another record when we had zero songs written for the record. I think this time we actually tried to think about writing a record as opposed to just writing one song and finishing that one and then be like, “You know, maybe I’ll write another different song.” This time I think we were going for a little more variety and we tried to think about how to deliver songs that people would be hearing for the first time on a record rather than our past experiences where people would hear our songs for the first time live because we were essentially just a live band.

CJ: Now Brain Thrust Mastery, very interesting title. How did that come about?

KM: We were doing a lecture tour in the UK at universities. We were doing sort of a fake lecture, a self-help lecture. We were touring with a band called Kaiser Chiefs, and we were playing arenas. So, during the day we were off because they were setting up their huge set-up for the stage, so around lunch time most of the days we would go to the local universities and just sort of give this comedy self-help lecture. It was all really vague or terrible advice.

CJ: Now what kind of advice was this?

KM: Sort of a…you know, how to improve your romantic, psychological, financial well-being. Essentially sort of like an Anthony Robbins style lecture. So, we tried to invoke that grandiose, life altering sentiment that Anthony Robbins delivers.

CJ: Sounds like a side project to me man.

KM: (laughs) It will be very lucrative. We just figured the title had to be something stupidly meaningless, but also very grand sounding, like Anthony Robbins’ Personal Power sort of thing. We were sort of thinking how bands sometimes title their albums really, really stupid grandiose things. So we thought we would do the same.

CJ: I read somewhere that when you guys were working on this album, you wanted to end product to be something difficult to define, but easy to absorb. How do you think you did on that?

KM: (laughs) I think we nailed it. We absolutely nailed.

CJ: You’re following seems to be huge in the UK, bigger than it is in the states. Why do you think that is?

KM: You know the last album in general did a lot better commercially there. I think part of the reason is that their listening tastes over there are pretty different on a national level than they have in the United States. In general they listen to the sort of thing that is niche indie rock over here. But you know, obviously these days given that Death Cab for Cutie are number one on the charts and Spoon is doing well too, we’re starting to infiltrate greater American culture. In the UK, bands like us get on national radio, whereas here there’s not too much that sounds like us.

CJ: So what’s a song that’s been stuck in your head recently?

KM: Oooh… I had something really, really awful stuck in my head. It was driving me crazy!...Now I’m not going to be able to remember it….Oh God! It may have been a TV theme song. I know I was singing the Cheers TV theme song a while ago. I was walking around in Vienna singing the Cheers TV theme song.

CJ: If you could pick any film to summarize what your sound is like, what would that film be?

KM: Have you ever seen Deep Blue Sea? About the genetically engineered smart sharks, on an off-shore research facility?

CJ: Of course!

KM: I would say Smart Sharks the movie, a.k.a. Deep Blue Sea.

CJ: Now I’m going to give you a couple of words and I want you to shoot me a definition. Any definition. Could be one word or a thousand.

KM: Sounds good.

CJ: Indie.

KM: Oh jeez. (laughs) It’s going to be that sort of definitional interview. Uh, indie…I was gonna go with the really awful Indiana Jones joke. I would say pop music.

CJ: How about hipster?

KM: I would say…literate, but still stupid. (laughs)

CJ: How about rock, as in the music genre, not the object?

KM: Sounds like Nickelback.

CJ: New York.

KM: Gateway to heaven.

CJ: Miami.

KM: Heaven itself. Because JetBlue has $69 flights to Miami from New York.

CJ: You’re from Miami aren’t you?

KM: Yes, I am from Miami. Until about seventh or eight grade I lived in Miami and then moved into a suburb between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

CJ: So when are you guys going to be paying us a visit again?

KM: Well I know that we’re not going to be down there this summer because our schedule is pretty full of European summer festivals, but I know that we’re trying to do a fuller U.S. tour in September or October, and I’d like to think that Miami would be a part of that.

CJ: Any final words for your fans on CoolJunkie?

KM: Ah yes… rest in peace little ones.

Click here to hear more from We Are Scientists.