Austinist Interviews: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

So when you came together it was more about playing this music that you’d brought.

[Group] Yeah.

Given your recent success, what’s more cumbersome: the pressure to live up to the hype, or the pressure to stay true to yourself and your music?

[Alec] I don’t think there’s any pressure to live up to the hype – I think hype is fabricated.  The idea is to do the same thing that you’ve always been doing.  I mean, you try to progress in certain ways and often that’s just natural.  For example, we started recording this album when we weren’t too long into the process of playing together.  So if we hadn’t gotten better, then you’d know something was going wrong … in that sense, the songs are going to be – if not as good, then hopefully better.  And I think we’ve all gradually adjusted to the idea of this being our “project.”

And how long have you guys been around now?

-A couple of years. 

Have you guys been writing songs now that you’re on the road?

[Alec] We’ve been trying to.  For this band, there are probably enough songs for the next two or three albums. 

Nice! Have you been trying much of it on the road?

-We’ve been playing some songs now that might be on the next album, but it really depends on how that [album] shapes out.  Certainly, if not on that one, then the next one after. 

What are you guys listening to on the road?

[Alec] A lot of everything.  On the way over here? Yesterday we were listening to that Atlantic Records R&B 1947-1974 Box Set. 

That’ll last you a long time.

[Alec] Well, I have. [Laughs] Everyone else has been in the back watching DVDs. [Said in an accusatory voice]

-We’ve been watching The Sopranos – we started from the beginning,

How many seasons are you into it now?

-We’re in the middle of the third season.

[Alec] Whatever you guys wanna do … I’m trying to lay some good shit on you. [Laughs]

I think you guys should have plenty of time.  Here’s a somewhat confrontational question: 

“What is your explanation for the mass exodus toward the door each night after your set ends, before The National can even take the stage?  I’ve not seen it myself but have heard plenty of reports so far and fully expect it to happen again tonight in Austin.  Why do you suppose all these people are coming to see you and not even giving The National a chance?”

-I’ve heard that a few times, actually.  Ignorance?  The answer is, it’s not ours to speculate on ...  We have a tremendous respect for The National, and that’s something that’s up to the audience.

[Alec] I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what ‘hype’ really is - It has a lot to do with Internet stuff, and -

Well, that’s how you discover new music nowadays.  You look at other friends’ music blogs and -

[Alec] I guess hype is just people talking about you, only the Internet has caught on to where you -

I think it was always was there, but you’d only have this circle of friends – at school, at work, or what have you – that you’d be able to share your music tastes with.  Back then, apart from what MTV or the radio stations decided you should listen to, you really only had maybe 20-30 people whom you could share this stuff with.  But now, -

[Alec] Is that hype?  So if I walked into a bar and started telling people, “Hey, you should listen to this band, they’re really awesome!” … am I hyping them?

Yeah, in a small sense … but if you’re a huge media entity or a radio station and you can reach an audience of thousands or millions, you’re doing the same thing … only on a massive scale.  Perhaps that’s what most of us are usually referring to by ‘hype’.

[Sean] Exactly, that’s right. I feel like we were in a period when a lot of people were talking about us, and that’s when tickets starting selling out.  So they bought them up fast.  I feel like if we weren’t touring with The National, they would still sell out these shows – but because people are curious, they’re buying up tickets faster now.  I think it’s weird that people do that – I don’t understand why they leave.

Well, people want to see what all that talk is about.  Like I’m sure you’ve seen the video of that guy dancing on the steps at one of your shows –

-[Laughs] Yeah.

Yeah, which is more or less what I look like at a show, also. [Laughs] But moving on:

“If it was roughly 1985 and you could play a show with any heavy metal group, who would it be?”

-[Laughs] That’s a good question, I love that.  Sean, maybe you could answer this?

[Sean] If it was ‘86, I’d say Guns N’ Roses.  Could it be an early Guns N’ Roses?  Well, they were LA Guns before they were Guns N’ Roses.

Is that story true about you guys finding your name inscribed on that wall in Brooklyn?

-Oh, that story’s true.

What was the background behind that graffiti? 

-We don’t know what the sign was there for, what its context was.

Surely by now, someone’s come forward to say ‘Oh, this was by me, I put it up there because of this or the other’.  I mean, it’s a pretty flashy statement.

-I kind of always thought it was a local church group that put it up there.  It seems sort of gospel-ly.

So you guys just happened upon it, and decided ‘this is it!”

-Yah – I think that’s the only name we really considered.

If you were a dinosaur, what kind of car would you eat and why?

[Laughs]

Our readers – we love them.

-I’d eat a hummer.

-I dunno, if you were on a light diet – I think I’d eat a Prius.

-I dunno if I’d eat a car if I were a dinosaur.  Well, I guess I’d eat a Hummer to get to the good bits inside.  Oh the people!

Well, they’d deserve it anyways.

-Yeah, and those would be the good bits – NFL players and such. [Laughs]

CYHSY is often compared to early Talking Heads/David Byrne. How do you take this comparison?

[Alec] I dunno, that’s fine with me.  As far as comparisons are concerned, nobody has anything to do with that in the end, really.  They’re good.

Well, you guys clearly listened to a wide variety of music growing up, and that has to be a large part of your music now. 

[Alec] Well – and I’ve had to answer this question again and again – the thing is, I know all of the Talking Heads albums, and I know enough about the Talking Heads to know that we don’t sound at all like the Talking Heads.

But do you think the fact that perhaps the fact that you know so much about the Talking Heads means that, in some way, it’s manifested in your music?

[Alec] Well, I know a lot of things about a lot of people – Brian Eno, Bob Dylan, David Bowie… but it doesn’t necessarily crawl in….all of the time.  Ok, it does to a certain extent.

So who’d you count among your influences?

[Alec] Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin. Woody Guthrie.  It goes all over the place. 

You’ve signed with Wichita Records for your UK distribution … as the CYHSY buzz grows does that make it harder or easier to avoid signing with a major U.S label?  

[Alec] We recently made a decision not to sign with a major label, because we were doing very fine on our own.  I was concerned with how major labels are doing things these days – the romance isn’t quite there anymore.  I think they push towards overexposure – it’s the hype machine from before. 

You have to understand, for them it’s long since been about the music – it’s about what they see on the balance sheets.

-It seems to me that you lose control, and you end up doing stuff that you don’t want to do. We were offered a distribution deal, so we can do everything else on our own, and not have to worry about people asking us to make, like, a video. 

To retain creative control, then, is paramount?

[Alec] Yeah, definitely.

What are some of the pitfalls of DIY distribution?

[Lee] At first it was the obvious stuff – a lot of manual labor.

Well, I’ll tell ya – I’ve ordered stuff from small bands around the country, and it takes them ages to send anything out.  Because they’re traveling, they’re playing shows, or they’re just trashed…

[Laughs] Well, we’ve sort of already done all the hard work.  We were slowly, as it was growing, setting it up ourselves.  Now we’re at the point where everything’s taking care of.  Since we’d already done all that work, it was sort like, “why not keep on doing it this way?”

So what’s the plan for next year after you’re done with the tour?

[Alec] I’d like to get started on another album in January.

That’s pretty quick!

[Alec] Well, the songs are all ready, more or less … [thinks for a second about this]

[nervous laughter all around]

[Alec] Well, we released this first album in June, but we were working on it for a year before that.  So I think a lot of us would like to [start the second album].

Do you think, then, that by the time it came out you were a little sick of it, having worked on it for so long?

-No, not at that point. 

[Alec] [Laughs] I was a bit sick of it.

So: bagels or breakfast tacos?

[Majority replies] Breakfast tacos!

[Alec] Bagels!

[Most of initial majority admit they’ve never actually tried a breakfast taco]

Well, you’ll never get a good bagel in Austin, nor will you ever find a decent breakfast taco in New York.

[CYH] Is that like an egg and cheese sandwich? Like a breakfast taco?

[Sighs]  We’ll take you out next time. Last question – and this is a fill-in-the-blank:

“America would be better off if we would all just _____”

[Silence]

[Alec] Do more sit-ups.

*Photos by Justin "Juice" Cox