Desensitized by Perceptions: An Interview with White Denim

December 12, 2008 5:59 PM
by Marcos Colón

The short phrase that Filter Magazine lives by, 'Good Music Will Prevail,' really is true. No matter how bad the production value of a majority of music is, the good stuff always surfaces. We here at CoolJunkie like to stay away from the AM/FM stations that are fueled by payola, so instead, we opt to settle for the never ending searches on the web for good, sound tunes that seem more organic than processed. That's where we found out about White Denim, a three-piece rock outfit hailing from Austin, Texas, who's sound carries more balls than the kiddie pool at Chuckie Cheese. Touring Europe at the moment, Miami can only hope that these guys make a stop and share some of what they got.

CoolJunkie recently got a chance to catch up with bassist and vocalist Steve Terebecki and chatted about their recent debut release Exposion, what the scene's like in Austin at the moment and how being perceived as an 'emo' would totally suck.

CoolJunkie: I know you guys are currently touring Europe. How are they diggin' your sound?

Steve Terebecki: Based on the moshing and crowd surfing I think they really hate it. The crowd seems to be doing everything they can to keep themselves occupied during our set...it's a lot different from the US where they stand there with their arms crossed and really focus on what we're doing.

CJ: On 'Exposion', you guys bring back that sound that makes rock exciting and fun again. Did you guys have anything planned in mind going into the studio
or did you just go with whatever felt at the time?

Steve Terebecki: Our approach is to just make sounds that we like and since we are equipped with drums, guitars and basses it sorta’ comes naturally. We're all big fans of many types of rock throughout history and we all bring a different element of rock into the group.

CJ: How did the name White Denim come about? I know you changed it after the Parque Touch quartet turned into a trio?

Steve Terebecki: Well, with the departure of Bishop Massive we were faced with the daunting task of naming a group. We decided ultimately to take the easy way out and name our band one of the first crappy names we came up with. James muttered ‘Totally Revolution’ just a split second before I said ‘White Denim,’ but because he had more syllables I finished before him and we checked the rulebook and I officially said the first crappy band name. So unfortunately, we are stuck with the name White Denim now.

CJ: What's the music scene like in Austin, outside of SXSW?

Steve Terebecki: I could write a pretty long essay on this topic. I think the music scene in Austin appears to be really strong. There are a ton of bands, a ton of places to play, it's really easy to meet people with your interests, but there is this odd underlying sense of apathy when SXSW isn't happening. I don't get a good feeling about many local shows. Of course, traveling shows are different, but the local bands seem to really struggle for audiences and the really good local groups tend to fall through the cracks, in my opinion.

CJ: Your sound seems to have this sort of Jimi Hendrix 60's wail-of-a-vibe. Great stuff that should be, but isn't around as much. What are some of your musical influences?

Steve Terebecki: Each of us bring a ton of our own really. James loves Jimi and Stevie, Josh loves Billy and Jackie and I love Mikey and Chris. We all love XTC and Dukes of Stratosphear and Andy Partridge's whole idea behind that group.

CJ: If you could critique anything about some of the music that's being released today, what would it be?

Steve Terebecki: Another essay question for sure! I think a lot of the sounds that some of these groups are getting today are really boring. No one really wants to hear a glossed over version of something. I think a lot of these groups just go to a producer and put it in his hands when really they should be turning the knobs and seeing what sounds good to them. Of course, one problem is that a lot of what sounds good to them are these crystal clear, balanced, HiFi recordings. There’s an art to recording and mixing and some of these boring sounds that we're hearing could really be spiced up if they didn't have to have some sort of radio standard. A great song will always be a great song no matter how great or terribly it is recorded, but people aren't even glossing over great songs either. There are tons of bands out and they might have a good song or maybe even two, but put their record on and there's a big difference in song quality. And the industry supports this method of only really having two good songs to sell a record.

CJ: Have you guys had your 'holy shit' moment yet?

Steve Terebecki: There have been a lot of "holy shit" moments. The most recent one for me was a crazed dancer in Manchester that got on stage and was flailing himself around and quite possibly hurt himself pretty bad...and it was during an instrumental song? Maybe I'm easily "holy shitted.”

CJ: What kind of band would you not like to be perceived as?

Steve Terebecki: I'm not sure. An emo band would suck! Metal would be cool, adult contemporary is ok, punk is all right by me. I'd hate to think people thought we were dickheads or dudes that beat their girlfriends. We've been perceived as a lot of things, I think we are sort of desensitized. Between someone saying we sound like the Stray Cats and someone saying we sound like the Beatles, I don't know how much I can trust anyone's perceptions.

CJ: If there's any movie out there that you could compare your sound to, what would it be?

Steve Terebecki: We have a bunch of different styles from song to song, so I'd have to go with Slacker or Run Lola Run, or maybe Magnolia.

CJ: What's in store for you guys in 2009?

Steve Terebecki: We're going to continue to record songs and possibly put together records out of those songs. That's about it really.

Click here to hear more from White Denim.