interview: Annuals

Annuals are a very solid indie rock band from North Carolina. They are currently touring to support their latest EP, Sweet Sister. I caught up with the band before their SF gig last Friday (review forthcoming) and asked them about their progression to the hi-fi sound which emanates from their latest release. read on below!

Tell us about the evolution of the band and the current lineup.
Adam: This has been the band the whole time [Anna Spence: keys; Kenny Florence: guitar; Adam Baker: vox, guitar; Mike Robinson: bass; Zack Oden: percussion, guitar; Nick Radford: drums]. Josh Pope played bass for a couple of months
Kenny: We had another drummer originally named George Goodwin. This was long before we got serious. These guys right here, this has been the band from the beginning.
What about Sunfold?
Adam: Sunfold has been around for longer…
Kenny: It used to be called Sedona and we had to change it because of copyright issues. And it consists of most of us…
Mike: In a way, we’re kind of like the band that never broke up. People in this band, some of us have been playing music together for a decade now. So this reaches back to the end of middle school. Just think about high school kids messing around. But this band, right here, as a touring unit started in like 2005.

You guys have been on tours around the world. What is it like playing in front of foreign crowds? Do you like it more or less?
Mike: It’s fun. You get to be alien and exotic for a while.
Kenny: It can be really awesome and rewarding but also kind of awkward and kind of…well awkward is a good word
With the language barrier?
Kenny: Not really, ‘cause everyone speaks English…it’s always a privilege we have as an American band. But no just because different places have slightly different tastes and everyone listens to music and receives things kind of differently. The way the crowd interacts to live music is different in other places…nuance differences.
Anna: It varies by city or state. We remember Denmark was incredible…incredible. And then you go to other places, and they have their arms crossed.
Kenny: I think it depends on the general perception of the country. The general perception the people have of Americans…people go off on that.

As a band that saw its early breakthrough through the blogosphere, do you find that you have been more influenced by the internet or by your personal backgrounds?
Anna: I think we were the last generation that remembers growing up without the internet. The things that influenced us when we were younger, and probably music making when we first started was not the internet. It was like, our experiences.
What about now?
Anna: Now, probably the internet.
In unison: the internet!
Nick: that’s how we got discovered…the internet
Kenny: so far as having an influence on our music I don’t think it does…well maybe a little bit
Like, how do you guys dig for old music
Kenny: I guess it’s a source for being able to have any music you want at your fingertips at any time
Anna: well, friends too, they recommend things

Which albums do you guys own that people would be surprised you listen to?
Kenny: I dunno who would be surprised
Die hard Annuals fans.
Kenny: I am a huge Alan Holdsworth fan…most people don’t like him, so maybe that’s surprising.
Adam: There’s so many but they’re all too embarrassing.
Zack: You like Gaga
Adam: Chris Brown, I guess… Ne-Yo and…
Mike: Brad Paisley
Adam: Brad Paisley. He’s very good but very bad. Owl City. Carolina Chocolate Drop.
Mike: When I was in middle school I listened to Insane Clown Posse…don’t write that down! If you do I’ll be really upset.
Insane Clown Posse?!
Mike: When I was like, 13!
Do you still own the album, is the question
Mike: no! well, I’ve got a huge CD collection so I have no idea. As far as surprising things goes that I currently listen to, I would say Brad Paisley. I like him.
Nick: Dave Matthews Band. But that’s because they have the sickest drummer that I’ve ever seen.
Zack: Bone Thugs n Harmony

What’s more crucial for developing new sounds? Jamming on stage or studio time?
Kenny, Adam, Mike: studio, probably
Nick: I think personally, jamming together brings out more ideas
Adam: They both bring so many different and good things to the table but it’s studio that counts the most
Kenny: I feel like jamming on stage is more honing. We jam a little bit on stage but most of the time it’s, like, set already

How meticulous are you guys in studio? Do you write on tour?
Adam: It’s all in studio. There’s a lot of time when we make different versions of things and twisting something inside out. Discovering how some sounds go and splicing things and stuff.
Are you guys production tech savvy?
Kenny: Adam is pretty savvy
Adam: Me and Mike went to school for it in Ohio

Do you guys have any music-related ambitions other than being in the band? You guys have your own record label right?
Adam: Yeah we’re all involved but Mike’s kind of the head of it. It’s called Terpsikhore
Ok, so the label and production stuff. Anything else?
Kenny: I teach music. At a private music education facility called Cary in North Carolina
What do you teach?
Kenny: Mostly guitar. Some…a little, tiny bit of piano to beginners. And composition.

The new EP is very lush and tropical. What caused you guys to go off track from your previous, experimental sound?
Adam: I thought it was more experimental, for us. I don’t think of it in terms of wowing anyone else. More of wowing what we did before. Doing something different. It’s exotic for us.
Kenny: I think that the main thing is that a lot people think that experimental has to do with the production and recording style but I think that the new music is quite experimental in terms of arrangement and actual composition
Mike: From the first full length album to the second full length there is a pretty big transition there that a lot of people took part of, not just the production quality. It’s Adam’s preference and pur preference that our sound is good-sounding. Our whole first album was recorded with two kinds of mikes. It has a very dim, like, homemade vibe that people really got into that is a really popular trend in music now period. That lo-fi sound. Our first album came out like that sort of on accident. The second album is much brighter and you can hear everything in a much wider range and that kind of threw people off. I think with this EP, it’s like the first step towards collapsing those two approaches. We’re still going hi-fi but it’s still layered and a little bit out of control.
It’s very pretty.
Adam: Thank you. That’s a compliment in so many ways. Like that you’re saying that it’s pretty production-wise.
Mike: Not a lot of bands seem to be striving for really good sounds. We’re not going in any direction that the general trend of indie music is going in. Whether that will serve us or go against us remains to be seen. We believe that what you record is your imprint and that’s what will be around forever so it’s better to try to make it big in sound.

There’s a track on the new album, "Turncloaking", that reminds me of Radiohead a little bit…early, guitar Radiohead…was that intentional?
Adam: no, but that’s great!
Mike: And I would agree with you
Thom Yorke has come to be revered as almost a g-d like figure in music. Do you think anyone else in the music community, big or small, deserves a similar status?
Nick: Michael McDonald…he was the lead singer of the Doobie Brothers. Definitely a g-d to me
Anna: probably the guys from our favourite bands
Kenny: This is just me, because it’s the musician I’ve been obsessing over recently, but I think that Joanna Newsom is gonna have that kind of status at some point
Anna: David Byrne has g-d status
Mike: Brian Eno too. I dunno if we’re only talking about front men here, but still
Kenny: Rob Thomas…no! I’m joking! Don’t write that down. I DO NOT LIKE ROB THOMAS. Do you see my face?!

Are there any Annuals songs that you don’t like to play anymore?
Anna: We have different opinions on that. I don’t like to play “Confessor”. I’m just bored of playing it.
Zack: For me it’s “Fair”. I love the song on record so much…it’s one of my favourites but live, it never clicked for me, personally
Mike: It changes for me…I’ll like a song recorded and I won’t like it live or vice versa.
Nick: As far as songs we’ve been playing forever…”Brother” and “Hot Night Hounds”. They’re just the two songs we play every night
Do you all agree that you like playing new songs better than old songs?
Collectively: yeah
Kenny: I think that’s the same for every band, really.
Nick: There’s probably a few old ones that I wish we still played. “River Run” was one…”Father” we used to play all of the time. There’s a bunch of really heavy drum bass songs that we just don’t play anymore…
Kenny: Like “Around Your Neck”
You’ve been quiet, Adam
Adam: I was deliberating about the question.
Did you come up with anything?
Adam: “Chase You Off”, definitely
Anna: I knew it!
Anything you wish you played more?
Adam: “River Run” would be awesome to play again. “Wake”. I really wanna play “Wake” again. But all of these songs we know play occasionally, just not on this tour so much, or the one before it. I’m thinking about a lot of the songs we don’t play anymore and a lot of the time, it’s not a terrible thing that we don’t play them
There aren’t any songs that you guys have never played, are there?
Adam: There’s a couple
Zack: “The Tape”
Adam: “Mother, Mama”
Is there a reason?
Adam: We never got around to it
Mike: They weren’t as requested
Nick: Did we ever play “Talking” live?
Kenny: No. Nor have we played “The Giving Tree” live
Adam: Turncloaking. We haven’t rehearsed that one yet
Kenny: I love all of our songs but I really don’t like playing “Brother” anymore. It’s just boring for me. Not the song itself, just playing it live.

Do you guys have any associations with certain music? Songs which draw up specific memories or times?

Kenny: almost every song you listen to can conjure up a memory of some sort
Any songs that are extra special to you guys personally?
Adam: Can we say the song and not the situation? What’s that one called…I don’t do song titles, I do track numbers. The last song on Radiohead’s Kid A
Kenny: “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Anna: Madeleine Peyroux “Careless Love”
Kenny: American Football. I don’t have very many albums or groups that bring me back to any specific point in time but American Football’s self titled album just is the most nostalgic thing.
Adam: I kind of want to change mine now. Like, whew. Every time I put that on these days, there has to be at least one tear.
Mike: I think a good one is The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. That complete whole album.
What does that remind you of?
Mike: Playing with the Flaming Lips.
Did you guys tour with them?
Nick: a couple of festivals and local things
Mike: We played three shows in direct support for them...

What would you say sets you guys apart from other bands these days?
Nick: Our fashion sense
Kenny: I think, what Mike was talking about earlier, like the whole striving toward a high fi sound type of thing
Adam: We’ve always tried to record everything as well as we can
Kenny: I don’t think it’s too terribly a weird thing but it’s just not the trend now. We’ve always liked high fidelity
Anna: We’re just the shit.
Mike: There are some things that used to set us apart that don’t anymore because they’ve caught on. I would say…not that we’re one of the first bands to play with two drum kits or anything like that, but just in terms of the kind of music that we play. I mean, our front man is a drummer…that was his first instrument and our guitar player plays drums. So we’ve always had two thirds of our band on stage start doing a drum circle together. In the middle of some of our songs there will be very heavy percussion sections.
Tribal?
Adam: *laughs* Yes. We definitely need more hippie fans

Annuals - Turncloaking [mp3]