"Emerging from the idealistic side of punk rock and inspired by the last 30 years of alternative music, The Static Age have evolved their own sound -- one that infuses melody, atmosphere, and a pulsating back beat to bring forth an unmistakable urgency and honesty in their songs." You can read the rest of their bio
here.1)I understand that you guys formed in Vermont, specifically in
Burlington. Burlington is known as a creative city, with the
University of Vermont at its core. What kind of influence does the
Vermont location have specifically on your music and your following?
I think what makes Vermont unique is the balance between the isolation of the forest and a close proximity to the major cities of the Northeast. The founding members of the band all grew up in the woods, more or less, but we were only a few hours drive from New York, Boston, Providence, Montreal, and so on. Given that, we were isolated enough to develop our own ideas, and I pull a lot of influence as a songwriter out of the environment in which I formed a sense of self, but we were connected enough to maintain some sort of idea of the bigger cultural picture. I think that odd balance helped develop the band's sound and identity.
2)Your new album Blank Screens has a distinct yet cohesive feel. The
guitar and bass sounds are recognizable from track to track, but each
song still has its own identity. I noticed that you have used some
string arrangements on songs like “Amphibian” on your last album
and “Cherry Red” on your new album. How else do you keep your sound
fresh?
I don't think I've ever thought of it as "keeping a sound fresh." For me, writing a song and arranging a song are two different creative processes. Writing a song is much more visceral, whereas arranging a song is, by nature, more intellectual. You get to make more choices when you're arranging a song, and I often get carried away -- for both better and worse -- in that process. So, I think that's where I get to choose what the song sounds like, and I just like experimenting and playing with different ideas within that context. That's how the albums end up as varied as they are.
3)Blank Screens has a very mature and precise rock theme throughout. How
has the band’s music evolved from the beginning in 2002?
I'm not sure, to be honest. It's hard to dissect yourself in hindsight with any decent level of accuracy. I think the band's original demos -- which became the self-released The Cost of Living -- were written so early on that we were actively seeking a sound because we didn't have our own identity yet. We tried a few things that worked for us, and a few that didn't. That changed slightly with Neon Nights Electric Lives as we figured ourselves out as a band, and I figured myself out as a songwriter. On that record, we took what worked from the first record and reworked it into something completely different. Blank Screens is just a natural step in that chain. I think of it as one big creative process -- it evolves as we do, so it's ever changing. And, for the record, if I ever catch myself thinking "shit, this new record sounds just like the last one," I'm quitting.
4)I also notice that you like to add texture to your songs. Songs
like “Lights in the Attic” off your new album rely on looped
synthesizer phrases that gradually build as new instrumentation is
added. On your last album, guitar licks seem to be layered in a very
effective way. Talk a little about your creative process, focusing on
how these songs form in the studio?
It's really a pretty mixed bag as to how it all comes together. "Lights in the Attic" began as an experiment with a simple phrase I'd been playing. I looped it, set up another keyboard patch, and then I just started singing. Almost all of the lyrics and melodies to that song were written and recorded within about 15 minutes in my home studio. A bunch of the stuff on the record is the first take. I then went back and built in the rest of the song. That ended up including the sounds of me playing objects on my desk with pens -- I then recorded and looped that series of sounds (which is that percussive series during the second half of the song).
Each song is different though. Some songs start with a few simple guitar chords and a vocal melody, others start with a simple keyboard loop. I also find that I often start with a bass line. There's really no reason behind it. If it works, it works. And if I ever force an idea into a song that isn't naturally working, it's awful. I do a lot of demoing at home with a drum machine, a couple keyboards -- a Yamaha DX-7 and a Korg DW8000 -- my guitar, bass, and a Roland JC-120 amp. That's where the ideas really start developing. I have demoed versions of songs like "Blank Screens" and "Skyscrapers" that are pretty entertaining to listen to against their fully-recorded counterparts. Once the demos are set, I bring them to the band and everyone adds their own ideas as we work it out together from there.
5)Your music also has a fair amount of computerized effects, noticeably
on songs like “Airplanes.” How do you find a middle ground between the
musical technology available in the studio and the natural acoustic
sound of live instruments and vocals?
Well, Airplanes is a unique example because the electronic elements came from Jade Puget of AFI. He took our song "Vertigo" and remixed it into "Airplanes," adding quite a bit of electronica along the way. As for that balance though, I think it comes naturally to the band because even though we're all becoming more and more interested in what we can do with sampling, loops, and the like, we're still a punk band at heart. I don't think we can shake that part of ourselves (nor would we want to). So, I think the balance comes naturally to us, and will continue to do so as we experiment more and more with electronic elements.
6)Lyrically speaking, where does the inspiration come for your songs?
This is always a hard one to answer, as the lyric writing process is incredibly visceral for me. Over the past few years, I've learned how to identify when I should sit down and write. I go through manic periods where I'll write constantly for a matter of a few days or a week, and then the tap just shuts off for up to a month or two at a time. While I'm having a creative spurt, I've written entire records worth of stuff. And I rarely know exactly what I'm writing about when I write. I know how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking about, but I don't actively decide on words. That said, I always know what each line is about before the ink dries -- it sounds strange, but it's true. I think it comes from being something of an external thinker. It's why I've always been a writer -- often I think best with a pen and paper. And when I try to sit down and actively engage in each line of a song, it generally ends up sounding awkward, forced, and awful.
7)What are your plans in the near future as far as touring and recording
go?
Well, we're currently entering our last 10 days of a 6 week US tour that we've been on since the end of February. After this, we plan to head back home to our practice space/studio outside of New York City and work on all the songs I've been writing over the past few months. I'm imagining a bunch of full-band demos will come out of that, and we'll see where those take us. In the meantime, the lovely folks over at Leave Home Booking are planning something for us starting in late June and running through July. So, we'll take a couple months off to write and record, and then we're back out on the road. After that, it's anyone's guess.
