INTERVIEW: The Hush Sound

Ahead of their co-headline with Hockey this Friday at U Street Music Hall, the lovely voice and piano behind The Hush Sound’s lush indie-pop, Greta Salpeter, took some time to answer our questions about their hiatus, new tour, and their new album.

[9:30] Was it difficult getting back into the Hush Sound groove after the hiatus?

[Greta] Not at all. There’s a very natural brother / sister relationship that comes back into play immediately when we all enter a room together. it just felt like we had all been away at college and were coming home for a holiday. 

[9:30] What are you most looking forward to about touring and writing together again?

[Greta] Being able to enjoy the experience with a clear head. When we were experiencing our greatest success as an act happened to be a time when the four of us were each mentally / emotionally / physically drained and we were all dealing with some personal issues which kept us from enjoying the touring, writing, and recording. It’s great that our fans are still packing these clubs and that we can actually have fun playing our songs. 

[9:30] How does the new record compare to So Sudden, Like Vines, and Goodbye Blues? Has your sound changed at all?

[Greta] The new songs released on our “45” 7 inch vinyl are the most natural presentation of our band in my mind. We arranged the songs in a fun and spontaneous way, recorded them live all in the room together, and didn’t over think it or polish them until there was nothing left, as I feel we had done in the past. 

[9:30] Do you think your solo work has influenced the new album in any way?

[Greta] Absolutely. 

[9:30] How do you choose album artwork?

[Greta] Generally, one of our extremely talented significant others will pitch us artwork before we even ask. We feel lucky to keep our partnerships all in the family. We work on records, graphic design, videos, web design, etc. pretty much exclusively with friends. 

[9:30] What are your favorite songs to play live?

[Greta] Mine on this  tour is “Stranger” . Also “Echo” is great because the crowd reacts very strongly to it. 

[9:30] I think I speak for every THS fan when I say that I’m really excited to hear your new stuff. If you had a message to your fans who are super pumped that y’all are back together, what would it be?

[Greta] WE ARE JUST AS EXCITED AS YOU ARE!! Come to a show and let’s all jump up and down together. 

[9:30] And finally, if you could change places with any other artist for a day, dead OR alive, who would it be?

[Greta] Oh god, there are so many. 

I would love to dance like Martha Graham, ponder like Alan Watts, play piano like Billy Preston, write like Joan Didion, sing like Bobby Gentry, write songs like John Lennon. Depending on the day, it would be any of those people. 

Performing live at U Street Music Hall THIS Friday.

-Kelsey Butterworth

TOUR BUS TOP FIVE: The Postelles

We talk and walk with The Postelles to pick their brains about what they can’t live without while on tour.

Who caught them at U Street Music Hall with Arkells and Ambassadors? Favorite moments from the show?

INTERVIEW: Ori Kaplan

[9:30] So for those people who have never experienced a live Balkan Beat Box show, how would you describe a performance?

[Ori] A lively, energetic, eclectic wild party. The message in the lyrics is kinda social and they kinda add to the party feeling. Your feet start going and your brain follows.

[9:30] Because your performances are so high-energy and crazy, I’m sure you’ve had some interesting moments with fans. Is there a particular moment that stands out with you?

[Ori] We were at a festival in France and we were on this huge stage and there were 10,000 people and our lead singer fell of the stage into the crowd and lost consciousness. We tried to wake him up and the ambulance came. He broke a rib.

[9:30] Oh my god

[Ori] So that was kind of crazy. There were 10,000 people and no one understood what was happening. It was the first time we had these monitors on stage and he stood on it and kind of slipped backwards.

[9:30] Wow, so you’re in Tel Aviv right now, correct?

[Ori] Yes.

[9:30] Are you based out of Tel Aviv when you’re not on tour?

[Ori] Some of us are in New York and I’m in Vienna. Im just in Tel Aviv for a couple of months.

[9:30] Oh, wow. Is it hard to leave your family and friends with traveling from country to country all the time?

[Ori] Yes, you know, we try to manage it, we try to keep the tour concise and spend lots of tie with family when we are at home.

[9:30] So you you guys have a favorite city you like to play in?

[Ori] Oh yeah. We love paris, we love New York, Berlin, and we were in Tokyo recently.

[9:30] I know you guys have played at the 9:30 club before, is there anything you like to do when you get to DC?

[Ori] We love 9:30, it’s one of the best clubs in the world I think. It’s one of those clubs that feels like tradition. It’s a staple. We’re just always happy to be there. It’s an amazing club.

[9:30] Thank you.

[Ori] Hopefully the chili won’t be too spicy.

[9:30] I’ll try and tell them!

-Sara Sopher

Jonathan Richman responds to Washington Post Going Out Guide’s interview questions in written verse. We just adore him.

Who is coming out for his show tonight?

INTERVIEW & PREVIEW: Penguin Prison’s Chris Glover

Penguin Prison is not your average pop act. Comprised of Chris Glover, PP was formed in 2009, after Glover decided to change up his genre style — which is really nothing new for him. He’s done everything, from singing in the gospel choir in school alongside greats like Alicia Keys, to thrashing around New York City in a punk band, to starting a fake boy band in college. Glover has tried it all out and has found his electro-pop niche with Penguin Prison. He recently spoke with us about his musical past, and the future of Penguin Prison.  

[9:30] Tell me how you came up with the name Penguin Prison.

[CG] It’s kind of a funny image to think of, penguins in a prison. I don’t really know how I came up with it, but people seem to remember it and like it. (laughs)

[9:30] That’s a good strategy, just put something with wild imagery out there so people won’t forget.

[CG] Yeah.

[9:30] Was that one of the first names you came up with when you decided to start this project?

[CG] I had actually been trying to think of a name for a long time. I was writing all these ideas down and one day I just decided to…point down at the list, and that’s what I pointed to.

[9:30] Did you have any other projects before Penguin Prison? Because I read that you’ve been making music for a really long time, so was there something else before Penguin Prison was solidified?

[CG] Yeah, I’ve been making music my whole life. I went to a professional performing arts school in New York City, where I was in the gospel choir alongside Alicia Keys and all these people that are on Broadway. We would perform all over New York. Then, I was in a punk band in high school and we performed in all these clubs all over New York like CBGB and places like that. And [when] I went to Bard, I was in a fake boy band there called The Smartest People at Bard. We were making fun of Backstreet Boys and ‘NSYNC basically.

[9:30] Good stuff!

[CG] (laughs) Yeah. And then I graduated and started making music under my own name. I sent a demo to Q-Tip and he met with me and he wanted to sign me. That led to me getting signed to Interscope Records, and I made an album under my own name. I was making different music at that time, and [later on] I was hanging out with friends of mine and being inspired and influenced [by their music]. That naturally kind of changed the music that I was making into what it is now — Penguin Prison.

[9:30] Would you now call it pop, or electro-pop?

[CG] Yeah, I mean it’s pop music that’s intended for people to dance to. I was inspired by the whole ‘new disco’ thing in New York. That’s kind of where my head was at when I started Penguin Prison.

[9:30] I really like your vocals and I was wondering who some of your favorite singers are?

[CG] In terms of singing, Michael Jackson and James Brown. I mean, I’m influenced by a lot of singers, but I’m definitely into a soulful, kind of fun approach…screaming like James Brown and Prince. They can sing high, low, and they have a sense of humor about their vocals. I like to do grunts and just make weird noises with my voice.

[9:30] Not to make you go all the way back to the album (released last October), but what’s your process for sitting down and making a whole album as Penguin Prison?

[CG] I sleep with a tape recorder next to my bed and I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and sing stuff into it and fall back asleep, and then the next day wake up and listen to it and try to turn that into a song. Like with “Don’t Fuck With My Money.”

[9:30] Yeah! I love that song.

[CG] Thanks. That lyric and that melody popped into my head and I just put it down and then didn’t really know what to do with it for a while. I was asking all my friends ‘What do you think about this idea?’ and they thought it was crazy. I was just so confused about what to do with it and then I decided to just make it a song.

[9:30] So does that work most of the time? Is that a good percent of how you write your stuff, you just let it sort of come to you naturally like that?

[CG] Well, no, I mean there’s lots of different ways to do things. And sometimes I do listen to things [from my recorder] later and they’re not good — they’re just bad (laughs). Sometimes they’re good, and sometimes you don’t get any ideas. You have to sit down and tell yourself to come up with an idea. There’s just many different ways to write things, but that’s the best way, obviously, to just have something come to you out of nowhere — it’s kind of like you didn’t have to do anything (laughs).

[9:30] Recently you’ve done a lot of remixes and you’ve gotten involved with Remix Artist Collective. How did that come about?

[CG] RAC, I’ve actually known him for a couple of years. He actually remixed one of my songs and it’s kind of one of the more popular remixes he did. A lot of people heard about me through that remix actually. We’ve been talking about working more on stuff together and he said that he was making his first album of original songs where he’s going to be working with a lot of different singers, and he asked me to be one of them. 

[9:30] So do you have a new album that you’re going to work on after touring?

[CG] Yeah, I’m going to be working on a new album for Penguin Prison, and I’m excited about that, but we have been doing a lot of touring over the past year. Touring is really fun and I really like playing live; it’s completely different from recording. Live performance is definitely one of the most important things when being in a band.

[9:30] Tell me about the tour with Neon Trees. How did you get in touch with them? Did they just ask you if you wanted to get involved, or did you know them beforehand?

[CG] I’ve never met them, I don’t know them. They just asked if we wanted to go on tour with them. And it seems like it’s going to be a cool tour.

[9:30] So, I take it that you’re really lively onstage and you like to move around, so I was wondering if you have an inspiration for how you do your live show, or if you just go out there an let the music take you over?

[CG] I like to get the audience involved. I like to go into the audience. I like to try to make people feel comfortable, like making them dance, because sometimes people are a little shy and feel a little embarrassed about dancing. Sometimes…I don’t have to do that at all with the audience and it’s crazy and they’re into it.

[9:30] Has there ever been a show where you’ve gone ‘I can’t believe that just happened’?

CG: Well sometimes people try to go onstage. We played in Minneapolis recently and I think there was someone who was probably a little too drunk. He was trying to hit our drums and yelling crazy stuff, so he got kicked out.

[9:30] So do you have any traditions before a live show?

[CG] I have something that I should do, but I don’t do it. Just like vocal warm-ups and jumping jacks, or pushups to warm up my body. I haven’t been doing that, but I should. 

-Yohana Desta

Purchase Penguin Prison’s self-titled album here.

See Penguin Prison live at 9:30 Club opening up for Neon Trees on Wednesday, July 11th. Tickets are on sale now.

INTERVIEW: Dengue Fever

Unique doesn’t even begin to describe the brilliant genre-blending music created by Dengue Fever. We talked to bassist Senon Williams (before their show at the club with Omar Souleyman on Wednesday) about the band’s genesis, influences, and their latest album, Cannibal Courtship. 

(9:30) Tell us a little bit about the band’s formation and how you all came together. 

(SW) Yeah, about 10 years ago we had this crazy idea to get a Cambodian singer to start a band based off the 60’s psychedelic Cambodian rock. This was the time when shoegaze rock was the big thing, you know, just kind of unpronounced bands, we wanted to get into something a little bit more crazy and fun so we went down to Long Beach to search out for a singer and we found Chhom Nimol whom at the time, we didn’t know, was a big star back home in Cambodia and she had just moved to LA. She didn’t speak a word of English, she must have just thought we were these crazy guys. So we just started playing together and our first album was an album of cover tunes from the 60’s. They had a big explosion of psychedelic rock there [in Cambodia] when the Vietnam War was happening. After our first album we just started writing original material, like original ideas just kind of kept on growing in our brain and here we are today.

(9:30) Your sound is extremely unique. You talked about the kind of psychedelic and Cambodian rock infusions, but how would you describe your music to someone who maybe has never listened before?

(SW) Well, I think live and studio are completely different with us. In the studio, we just kind of grab whatever influences we have and kind of put them together from kind of spaced out, trippy jams to just rocking, crazy garage sort of, whatever rhythms, African rhythms, you know, we throw together. And then live we tend to be more upbeat, just party and have fun and kind of wild and let Nimol shine because her vocals are so strong. She’s like this really reserved, amazing woman but yet she is belting out these incredibly intense vocals.

(9:30) Speaking of your live set, lots of the performances I’ve seen of you guys, like you said, are extremely high energy. Do you all have a pre-show ritual on tour?

(SW)Nimol’s a Buddhist so she always lights incense and sets up a little altar before the show. She always lights incense so I feel like I’m covered. But she always has a little plan; whenever she doesn’t it always seems to be a bad show. So we definitely gotta find a place for her to have a little altar before shows. And we always pour a little drink off stage before shows, share a toast, forget about that long drive and have fun.

(9:30) How do you think your music has grown after being together over 10 years? Like you said, you started doing cover albums and then went on to write and perform your own music.

(SW) We just draw influence from wherever. People always are thinking we’re a Cambodian band but Nimol’s the only person Cambodian in the band, so her vocal style has to do a lot with the sound, but musically we’re all over the place. I think over the years we’ve learned that we don’t need to follow any blueprint. We just draw influence from wherever, you know, from Afrobeat to punk rock and put them in our songs. I mean, that’s kind of what we do, let Nimol do the Cambodian thing because we’re not, you know.

(9:30) Cannibal Courtship is your latest record. What did you draw from inspiration wise for the record and is there any sort of significance behind the name?

(SW)Cannibal Courtship means a bunch of things so it depends. We like the poetry of those two words together. It can mean two cultures living off each other, it can mean a destructive relationship, or it can just talk about a very strong woman who’s willed in her own right, you know, to do whatever she feels she pleases. I kind of like all the different meanings. It could be visual as well as vocal so I kind of like that about the title. I think what we’ve been to this latest album is difference from our album before. We really stripped it down, we really wanted a more basic sound [on the last album] so most the time it’s just one guitar, bass, keyboard. Very minimal record musically and [something] kind of a close-up for more orchestration and more layers and sounds and melodies. So I think that was kind of our vision before hand, to make it more orchestral, and more heart, and more melody and just bigger sound .

(9:30) It’s an extremely fun record and we’re very excited to hear the songs live. Do all have plans to hit the studio again after you finish this tour?

(SW) Yeah, for writing more. I think we’re at the end of our big touring cycle so after this tour we’re gonna go back home and start writing music together again.

(9:30) Do you all typically write on tour? Are there certain things on the road and in your travels that you draw inspiration from?

(SW) I like making little movies and taking lots of pictures. I think next tour I’m just gonna bring my camera and just do all kinds of photos and stuff. I’m more into like kind of just worrying about a good show and kind of just doing stuff on my own. Whenever we try writing on the road we bring all this stuff with us to record and then we never do. I think writing is best at home. I got a studio where we all work so I think for us writing at home is what we do.

(9:30) And you’re currently on tour. We have you with Omar Souleyman. How did you all join forces and how did that sort of happen?

(SW) We just put out some names of who we wanted to tour with. Our booking agent looked around and saw that he was touring at the time that we wanted to tour. It kind of just went from there; it kind of kicked off from there. I kind of like playing with bands that are from all over the place and Omar Souleyman is like hierarchy and crazy music. I believe that some bands, I’ve heard like band members talk about how: “oh, I don’t want to play with some band that’s so good or something.” I’m like, that doesn’t make sense because the better bands you play with the better the night is, the better the memory, the better the time, the more insane everything’s going to be. When there’s a debt on the bill, it’s like it doesn’t make you look better, you just have people going home going like: “that wasn’t so fun.”

(9:30) Who are some of the other artists that you are currently listening to or that you’re excited about?

(SW) That’s always a hard question. Most of my album collection is always like crazy, old, weird records and things like that. But something new: Amadou and Mariam is awesome. I’ve been listening to them lately.

(9:30) We have them coming to the club in July!

(SW) Oh, that’s perfect, yeah. It’s like, it’s so beautiful and it’s kind of fun the production that they’re bringing. It’s a mix of African music but with modern production so it’s pretty cool… Eleni Mandell is really good, she’s awesome. She’s great, she sang backing vocals on our last records… She just came out with a solo record and her songwriting is amazing. I’ve been listening to her lately.

Alt-rockers The Dandy Warhols are on tour promoting their eighth studio album “This Machine,” a mix of their power pop sound combined with mature, darker vibes. We caught up with lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor and talked to him about everything, from the album, to the Portland scene, to pot.  

(9:30) Talk to me a little bit about the title of the album.

(CTT) It’s been a sticker on my guitar for about 10 years that said ‘This machine.’ Woody Guthrie [had] ‘This machine kills fascists’ on his guitar, and then Donovan had ‘This machine kills’, and so for a [music] video years and years and years ago, I put a sticker on my guitar that said ‘This machine.’ Then I just left it there. It just seemed like a strangely poignant pair of words to apply.

(9:30) It definitely has an epic feel to it.

(CTT) We decided that the more you think about it, it just really is — my head, our collective heads, our studio, the place we come from, the world that we travel and play music in — I mean, what really isn’t a fucking machine? I get asked that a lot, but the concept is just so massive that I can’t really talk about it without feeling like a goofball because it’s such a big, heavy concept…talking about it starts to sound very ‘Spinal Tap.’ 

(9:30) So does the heavy title tie in with the sound? Would you consider the album darker?

(CTT) I didn’t really think so while we were making it, but the first time we played rough mixes for our friends, we had a big dinner at the Odditorium (our studio) — we probably played half the record and the drummer for the Warlocks was the first one to say ‘Dude, this is a really dark record.’ And I was kind of surprised by that…and that was before I started mentioning that David J from Bauhaus wrote only one song on the record. But still, you mention that to somebody and immediately they start to hear the entire record differently.

(9:30) Bauhaus is definitely some darker stuff.

(CTT) Yeah. I guess it’s just a lack of sarcasm. I mean there’s usually something that I’m just being naughty about. Like, “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth” was about a woman that I was in a relationship with for almost four years. I came home from our first tour and she was fully hooked on heroin, and just being really mean and snotty. So that song is me being mean and snotty back. I guess the way I deal with those kind of feelings has kind of changed.

(9:30) This album was more of a collaboration and you weren’t writing all the material, so how did that come about?

(CTT) I’ve never been a very prolific songwriter and a few records back, I just started having songwriters who I thought were fantastic start helping. On this one I got Miles Zuniga from Fastball on a couple, and then I got David J. Then Fathead (drummer Brent DeBoer), who’s getting really, really good at songwriting, he and I did a couple and then he and Zia (McCabe, keyboardist) did one. 

(9:30) Do you have any favorite lyrics off of this one?

(CTT) Yeah, my favorite lyric I’ve ever written (from the track “Well They’re Gone”): ‘You said your weak and frail heart/so many times had belonged/To someone that wasn’t strong/Yeah, well they’re gone.’ It’s a fucking heavy one. It’s hopeful as hell. 

(9:30) Whose idea was it to do a cover of “16 Tons”?

(CTT) I was just driving [and] the lyric ‘I was born one morning when the sun didn’t shine,’ was just in my head and it was just breathtaking. And so when I Googled the rest of the lyrics to it, I found that they’re just all varying degrees of amazing. Once I saw what this piece of work was, I thought ‘I have to sing this. We have to do this. This is something I’ll never be able to do myself.’ “

(9:30) The Portland scene is obviously a really important part of who you guys are as artists. Talk to me about the scene now and how it’s changed from what it was when you grew up.

(CTT) Growing up in Portland, it was a city of less than half a million people and now it’s right around two and a half million people and that happened in a little over 10 year period of time. It’s pretty much people with tattoos and piercings and maybe a couple years of college. They just want to hang out, ride a bicycle, work on their art, their filmmaking, and play in three or four different bands, and just lead a slacker lifestyle.

(9:30) Does it inspire you?

(CTT) I never know what inspires me. I just really like Portland because it’s like the city that I dreamt of finding when I was 14-years-old. I dreamt that London would be like this. I think I find it more comforting than inspiring. 

(9:30) Do you guys have any traditions before a live show?

(CTT) [The others] do a shot of tequila.

(9:30) That seems to be a tried and true formula for most rock bands.

(CTT) Yeah. When I was in Europe I guess I would smoke some pot maybe an hour before we played, but you can’t carry pot around on a tour bus in America. There’s too many sicko shitbags in uniform with dogs. Our bus has been boarded a couple times already and we’ve only done six shows. So I’m weed-less. Fortunately, it doesn’t have any effect on me. I don’t give a shit. [When the] music is there it’s up to you. You’ve got to get your sound right, and you’ve got to conjure the demon every time.

- Yohana Desta

Cory and Erin of Minus The Bear answer our four artist questions and a few the fan questions you all submitted today on Twitter & Facebook. Thanks to the band for sitting down with us, and thanks to you all for your killer questions. Enjoy!

Tickets are still available for tonights show!