Running our mouths off
Kirby and Wes were interviewed by Lidia Vila and Toronto Indie this past week.
What's behind the EP name You, Me and the Light?
Kirby: It is about relationships. A relationship can never just be two people, be it the outside world, personal history, or even something like language there is always a third factor, that drives and filters any sort of relationship. It is the other element that does not show itself but is necessary to human connection.
You almost forget its there. In the musical sense, it is kind of like the White Stripes, in the way that, you have Jack and Meg and then the music that they channel through them and turning into something bigger than themselves. Or you have rhythm and melody and the third unknown is how those come together to create something capable of making you forget the first two, you just hear the song, you don't necessarily hear rhythm and melody interacting. It's something capable of being incredibly simple or incredibly complex but it's that factor that ultimately animates and defines a situation. So I guess lyrically there is an attempt to sort of pull the light out of things and out into the open.
What is the biggest obstacle between moving away from local favorite and achieving that little bit more?
Kirby: I think we need to move beyond that point of playing as a rock band; we need to question what we are doing, learn to allow things to drop out, use non traditional harmonics... I mean we know how to pound away on your average 4/4 rock song. I just think that getting beyond that is mastering the form's subtleties and subverting or embracing its clichés. I was reading an interview with Nels Cline (wilco) the other night and he was bemoaning the fact that most kids never really go beyond a learning a major fifth and then just strum power chords and I am definitely guilty of that. I love two chord songs. I love simplicity. So it's important I guess to also fight that tendency and work harder to make things sound new and fresh. Not that that means forgetting simplicity. It just means finding new ways to say simple things, maybe? That's what I'd like to accomplish musically. But in terms of getting bigger, in terms of just getting bigger. Well, I think we need to continue to deliver the party. Songs that people can dance to. Trying to create a buzz in a room, that the audience can feed off of, and that we can in turn feed off. Until people are dancing on the tables and making out with people they shouldn't be. That's a tough thing to learn, but that's how it works, and I guess as we have gotten more confident and continue to work at it, that will in turn be passed on to the crowd, who will hopefully drag more of their friends out into the cold to come see us play.
Wes: I think are next project is going to be drastically different from You, Me and The Light. We were happy to get it out and play it around, but it is very simple. It documents a certain point in our band, but the new tunes are a lot more adventurous and creative.
What are you trying to say with your music?
Kirby: Ultimately I get kind of annoyed with my own expectations to being saying something new, as no one starts with something new to say, but I believe we need to understand the internal gravity of each member of our band to eventually find something new to say. We all have different and very individual influences. We are growing together, learning, sharing, playing and hopefully this will be the catalyst for something organic, a singular Darcys voice, which hopefully has something valuable to say to people. But it is hard to face up to that. We go into each show wanting to get a party started for the person that has come out to see us, which brings everything back to the basics. I mean end up worrying more about remembering how to play the song then what transcendent message I am getting across.
What are these Influences?
Wes: I am a huge Glenn Kotche fan, I love Steely Dan and I think anything Keith Carlock gets his hands on is gold. Big Matt Good fan. That said, We all share the standards Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Talking Heads and others.
Kirby: I hate Steely Dan. But I guess that's part of the tension that drives us. Wes and Jason, will have to learn to accept that I don't hear much of anything in their precious 'Dan. (laughing). But I guess I'll have to learn accept that they don't hear anything in Neko, Smog, or Bonnie Prince Billy. It's in that tension though, that I think we'll get some place. Hopefully someday we will sound like Smog being backed up by Steely Dan. Or something, like that, the tension between the two sounds will find its own space.
Lyrically, I am a big Jeff Tweedy fan (Wilco). Tweedy, along with David Berman (Silver Jews) and Gord Downie, all seem to me to have found a perfect balance between the obscuring tendencies of someone like Michael Stipe and the story telling tendencies of the folk (and musical) tradition. Tweedy is able to cut the story up into little bits and then those bits are expanded and stretched with the freedom of someone like Stipe or David Byrne or Dan Bejar, in the sense that the audience will find a narrative out of words that fit rhythmically or structurally but not necessarily thematically. That's why I think Tweedy comes across so well to me, in the sense that the space that he is able to leave through his more poetic tendencies allows me to attach my own stuff to the basic stories of love and loss that he tells.
What have you learned about being in a band that you didn't know before?
Wes: The most rudimentary stuff is some of the hardest. Finding a voice, a place to play and other basic things can be a real pain. This is usually the stuff that causes fights internally. Once we get back to Halifax, we need to make sure this is worked out. The music itself rarely seems to be the issue. I think it is important to keep making ourselves happy and not let the few critics we have get in our way. I mean our audience is too small to support more than one or two critics, but we can't let them get to us.
Who is the next big thing to watch for?
Kirby: The Bicycles or Shotgun and Jaybird.
Wes: And our friends The Weather Underground are worth searching out.
What is next for The Darcys?
Kirby: We want to make the jump from playing to our friends and small fan base, and to start having strangers at our shows, even if we have to pick them up one at a time.
Wes: We are also gearing up for a fall tour that will bring us from Halifax, to Toronto and back. Maybe that will get out name out a little more and sell a few discs to pay for the trip. Check our blog out for dates www.itsthedarcys.blogspot.com
What's behind the EP name You, Me and the Light?
Kirby: It is about relationships. A relationship can never just be two people, be it the outside world, personal history, or even something like language there is always a third factor, that drives and filters any sort of relationship. It is the other element that does not show itself but is necessary to human connection.
You almost forget its there. In the musical sense, it is kind of like the White Stripes, in the way that, you have Jack and Meg and then the music that they channel through them and turning into something bigger than themselves. Or you have rhythm and melody and the third unknown is how those come together to create something capable of making you forget the first two, you just hear the song, you don't necessarily hear rhythm and melody interacting. It's something capable of being incredibly simple or incredibly complex but it's that factor that ultimately animates and defines a situation. So I guess lyrically there is an attempt to sort of pull the light out of things and out into the open.
What is the biggest obstacle between moving away from local favorite and achieving that little bit more?
Kirby: I think we need to move beyond that point of playing as a rock band; we need to question what we are doing, learn to allow things to drop out, use non traditional harmonics... I mean we know how to pound away on your average 4/4 rock song. I just think that getting beyond that is mastering the form's subtleties and subverting or embracing its clichés. I was reading an interview with Nels Cline (wilco) the other night and he was bemoaning the fact that most kids never really go beyond a learning a major fifth and then just strum power chords and I am definitely guilty of that. I love two chord songs. I love simplicity. So it's important I guess to also fight that tendency and work harder to make things sound new and fresh. Not that that means forgetting simplicity. It just means finding new ways to say simple things, maybe? That's what I'd like to accomplish musically. But in terms of getting bigger, in terms of just getting bigger. Well, I think we need to continue to deliver the party. Songs that people can dance to. Trying to create a buzz in a room, that the audience can feed off of, and that we can in turn feed off. Until people are dancing on the tables and making out with people they shouldn't be. That's a tough thing to learn, but that's how it works, and I guess as we have gotten more confident and continue to work at it, that will in turn be passed on to the crowd, who will hopefully drag more of their friends out into the cold to come see us play.
Wes: I think are next project is going to be drastically different from You, Me and The Light. We were happy to get it out and play it around, but it is very simple. It documents a certain point in our band, but the new tunes are a lot more adventurous and creative.
What are you trying to say with your music?
Kirby: Ultimately I get kind of annoyed with my own expectations to being saying something new, as no one starts with something new to say, but I believe we need to understand the internal gravity of each member of our band to eventually find something new to say. We all have different and very individual influences. We are growing together, learning, sharing, playing and hopefully this will be the catalyst for something organic, a singular Darcys voice, which hopefully has something valuable to say to people. But it is hard to face up to that. We go into each show wanting to get a party started for the person that has come out to see us, which brings everything back to the basics. I mean end up worrying more about remembering how to play the song then what transcendent message I am getting across.
What are these Influences?
Wes: I am a huge Glenn Kotche fan, I love Steely Dan and I think anything Keith Carlock gets his hands on is gold. Big Matt Good fan. That said, We all share the standards Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Talking Heads and others.
Kirby: I hate Steely Dan. But I guess that's part of the tension that drives us. Wes and Jason, will have to learn to accept that I don't hear much of anything in their precious 'Dan. (laughing). But I guess I'll have to learn accept that they don't hear anything in Neko, Smog, or Bonnie Prince Billy. It's in that tension though, that I think we'll get some place. Hopefully someday we will sound like Smog being backed up by Steely Dan. Or something, like that, the tension between the two sounds will find its own space.
Lyrically, I am a big Jeff Tweedy fan (Wilco). Tweedy, along with David Berman (Silver Jews) and Gord Downie, all seem to me to have found a perfect balance between the obscuring tendencies of someone like Michael Stipe and the story telling tendencies of the folk (and musical) tradition. Tweedy is able to cut the story up into little bits and then those bits are expanded and stretched with the freedom of someone like Stipe or David Byrne or Dan Bejar, in the sense that the audience will find a narrative out of words that fit rhythmically or structurally but not necessarily thematically. That's why I think Tweedy comes across so well to me, in the sense that the space that he is able to leave through his more poetic tendencies allows me to attach my own stuff to the basic stories of love and loss that he tells.
What have you learned about being in a band that you didn't know before?
Wes: The most rudimentary stuff is some of the hardest. Finding a voice, a place to play and other basic things can be a real pain. This is usually the stuff that causes fights internally. Once we get back to Halifax, we need to make sure this is worked out. The music itself rarely seems to be the issue. I think it is important to keep making ourselves happy and not let the few critics we have get in our way. I mean our audience is too small to support more than one or two critics, but we can't let them get to us.
Who is the next big thing to watch for?
Kirby: The Bicycles or Shotgun and Jaybird.
Wes: And our friends The Weather Underground are worth searching out.
What is next for The Darcys?
Kirby: We want to make the jump from playing to our friends and small fan base, and to start having strangers at our shows, even if we have to pick them up one at a time.
Wes: We are also gearing up for a fall tour that will bring us from Halifax, to Toronto and back. Maybe that will get out name out a little more and sell a few discs to pay for the trip. Check our blog out for dates www.itsthedarcys.blogspot.com
posted by The Darcys at 10:42 AM
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