Silversun Pickups will reach Australian shores for the second time this September as they embark on their tour with Birds of Tokyo. Press Record’s Alicia Bolton caught up with bassist Nikki Monninger of the L.A quartet to have a chat about their latest album Swoon, video games and being discovered at the CMJ Music Marathon.
Hey Nikki, thanks for doing this interview today…
How are you?
I’m great thanks, how are you?
Good, it’s just nice to be home. I’m settling in trying to figure out how my coffee machine works again ha ha.
Oh really, hah. So you’re just at home at the moment, not touring?
Yeah we just got home a couple of days ago, we just finished half of our US tour and now we have a ten day break and then we’re going back for another three weeks. Then we’ll be touring more of the West Coast.
That sounds exciting. It must be nice to have a break. Where did the name Silversun Pickups come from?
Our singer Brian and I were roommates and the local liquor store down the street was called Silversun Liquor so we named our band after that.
You’re touring Australia in September with Birds of Tokyo. Are you excited to come back here?
Yeah we had such a great time with Snow Patrol in Australia and we’ve been hoping to come back. We actually didn’t think we’d be able to tour there again. It was so nice when we were asked to do this tour. Yes we’re excited to come back.
How would you compare the indie rock music scene in Australia to America?
It’s hard to compare because we were only there for a couple of weeks but it was cool to play shows on our own in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It was nice to play in smaller places and to be able to headline. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that this tour but we’re still really looking forward to it and it’s nice that it’s finally coming to fruition now.
Yeah it’s very exciting. When was the last time you were here?
It was with Snow Patrol in September of 2007, so three years ago.
Wow, that’s a while hey!
I know! We’ve been hoping for the opportunity to come back again so it’s great that everything worked out. We’re coming in September and that’s about the time we came last time and it was beautiful weather.
Yeah I’m sure you’ll enjoy some nice weather during that time. Is it true that Silversun Pickups were discovered at the CMJ Music marathon? I heard you didn’t have any songs or even a band name at the time. What made you decide to enter that?
Yeah we’d only been practicing for a few weeks but I really wanted us to get into CMJ. I wanted to go to New York and I thought it would solidify us as a band if we had a show, something to work for. I just tape-recorded our practice. We had songs but they were very loosely based and didn’t quite have lyrics at that point. I think we had the songs ‘Kissing Families’ and ‘Lazy Eye’ at that point, I can’t remember the others but there were maybe three or four. I took some polaroids of the band and laminated them ha ha. I almost feel like the person at CMJ just let us in because he felt sorry for us ha ha. Looking back it’s funny, I still have a laminated copy of the picture we sent them. That was our first show. We were in Brooklyn in September of 2000, so ten years ago, and we saw the owner of Spaceland in Silverlake out on the street there. We knew him from just going to lots of shows there (Spaceland) and we told him we’d started a new band. He told us that when we get back we’d have to come play there, so a couple of weeks later we did. So that’s where it all started and I thought it was very important for us to have a show to look forward to in order to pull together our songs. At that point we only had maybe four or five songs and that was enough for us to play a show and get the ball rolling.
Sounds great. So Silversun Pickups second full length ‘Swoon’ was released last year. Can you tell us a bit about that album?
We had been touring with ‘Carnavas’ (debut album) for about two years and when we got home at the end of 2007 we took a month off. In February we started rehearsing and trying to write songs again and we went to the studio in July and recorded all the way up until the next February and I think it came out in April. So all together it took just over a year from start to finish and we worked on it just about everyday. We’re really proud of it. We didn’t want to put it out before we thought it was ready. It took a little longer than we thought it would take, but we were lucky that our record company (Dangerbirds) weren’t pressuring us. They (Dangerbirds) knew that we would work and take pride in everything we did so they just let us go until we said we were done.
What does the title ‘Swoon’ refer to?
In one of the first couple of days at practice Brian just wrote it up on our dry erase board. In fact it’s still there because we left it on there too long so we can’t actually get it off. He (Brian) asked us how we felt about it and I liked that it could be interpreted in different ways and it could have a darker undertone. We like one-word album titles and it just seemed to work. It was built on from there and had been there from one of the first days so we just kept it.
What’s the meaning behind panic switch? Is it a stab at the music biz?
It’s hard for me to make real comments on the lyrics because Brian writes the lyrics but it’s just about a dark time for him, a nervous breakdown. It’s not a stab at the music biz but if you want to interpret it that way then…that’s what I like about our lyrics, they can be interpreted in different ways and they don’t have to have a straight meaning.
Yeah for sure. Your EP is quite different to the two full length albums. I think there’s a lot more energy and liveliness in the new stuff as compared to the melodic ‘All the Go In-betweens”. Was this just a reflection of the growth between the albums or did you purposely aim for a different sound?
With Swoon we wanted to have more highs and more lows. We were able to build up to a crescendo. We started quietly and we like the idea of building and that’s something that we were consciously trying to do.
I noticed there was a bit of cello in your EP, but not in the full lengths. What made you decide to go that way?
It’s kind of controversial because yeah in ‘Pikul’ we did have cello and some acoustics more so than in ‘Carnavas’. We wanted to wipe out that aspect but in ‘Swoon’ we brought it back with a 16 piece orchestra on some of the songs. I feel like we were able to progress and bring back the natural instruments. We’re so happy that we were able to do that and have a more cinematic approach with the classical instruments.
Who are some of your favourite musicians and how have they affected your musical style?
Well when we were starting the band I would say Eric Judy (Modest Mouse bassist). I love it when bass players are able to create melody within the song without being overpowering. It kind of takes on a life of its own and I’ve always loved his bass style. Also John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin and even Tiran Porter from the Doobie Brothers, he’s got great melody.
Who creates your album cover art? It’s quite a distinct style and looks great.
For both ‘Swoon’ and ‘Carnavas’ we worked with an artist Darren Waterston. He lives in the Bay area now and we had seen some of his work before in a zine. They had his artwork on the cover of the zine and we’d had trouble thinking of album artwork and who we’d use and then his artwork just came to our attention so we spoke to him. He’s such a sweet person and we also enjoyed his progression from the artwork on ‘Carnavas’ to the artwork on ‘Swoon’ because I feel like he made a leap with his art and we’d made a different kind of leap, but we were moving forward together. We love his spirit and just enjoy working with him. For Pikul we actually used our friend Mel Kadel from Silverlake.
Yeah well it all looks amazing. Anyway just before we go, what’s it like to have your songs featured on a couple of video games? Have you played along to your own songs on guitar hero ha ha?
Ha ha it’s so much harder to play on Guitar Hero! It’s funny how people have interpreted the colours into our songs. It’s so much harder for us to play in colours and think in that videogame mindset. I’ve tried it and I think it’s fun. I’m actually better at the drums and I haven’t tried to sing to it yet. I think it’s great that we were able to do that. I have younger brothers and I grew up with video games too, but yeah its hard to translate music into colours.
Ha ha yeah. Okay well thanks for your time Nikki…
Thank you, bye!
