Austinist Interview: The Lovely Feathers
The Lovely Feathers are an adorable, sometimes frenetic, sometimes saintly band from Montreal, and as you might have noticed, they will be at Emo's tonight, with Man Man and Evangelicals, supporting their album, Hind Hind Legs. We recently got a chance to chat with Daniel Suss, the classically-trained pianist and multilingual jetsetter who just so happens to play keyboards, and got the skinny on the Feathers' growth in the last year, the Unicorns question, and (you'll never guess) what's playing in the van this summer. (Hint: it's not the Unicorns.)
This isn't your first U.S. tour, is it?
Besides a few odd shows in NYC, we had a fairly large tour last fall with Metrics, a Toronto-based band, and we covered quite a few cities then. We were really lucky to get that tour. Oh, we were in Austin on that tour, and we were also in Austin for SXSW this year.
Did you get a chance to enjoy Austin at all while you were here for SXSW, or see any bands you wanted to see while you were here?
It was mostly in and out - we had border problems, too. We missed our flight because the guy didn't trust the paper that said we weren't getting paid for the show, but luckily we got another flight and we made it there for our show, and we thought people seemed into us, seemed to think it was a good show.
I hadn't heard of you guys when SXSW was going on, but look, it's only been a few short months and now you're playing Black Cat in D.C., TT the Bear in Boston - really big, well-known venues here in the States.
Well, we're not headlining, it's actually Spinto Band's tour, so that relieves some pressure.
Lovely Feathers are sort of exploding right now. I saw you in Spin the other day, actually. A lot happens quickly for bands these days, or does it not seem that way to the people who actually have to work and write music and get it out there?
Well, as far as exploding goes, I hope to find out on the tour. It's hard to tell when I'm hanging out at home.
Sure, but things like MySpace and Pitchfork bands can become the hot new thing without ever leaving their house. Do you think good old-fashioned web word-of-mouth has helped you guys?
Oh, definitely. I'd thank the web just for the spread of the songs -- I think it's a definite plus. In fact one of the shows we sort of randomly got in New York a couple months ago was set up by a guy who downloaded all our music illegally (of course) off the internet and really liked it, so he invited us to come play at his club. So the internet factor has definitely been a help to us. Of course we've been lucky enough to also have some attention from more traditional media formats like magazines and newspapers.
Let's shift gears. Tons of bands over the years have included siblings, here's your chance to explain what it's really like to have your kid brother on drums behind you.
Oh it's fine. (Pause) He's the only one who's sort of in a different age group than the rest of us, our personalities don't clash. And I guess that I don't really criticize him too much, I let everyone else do that.
Hah, ok fair enough.
Yeah, it works well.
You're a classically trained piano player, right?
Yeah, it was sort one of those young kid on a piano forced to practice an hour a day kind of things.
Does your training help with the music writing process with your bandmates, or is it difficult to break away from sheet music and practicing alone?
Oh it works well, I'd say. We all have our own influences, but I'd say our music is more a representation of all our personalities than anything else. I'm the only one who actually reads music, but the way we write songs doesn't depend on that at all. We just play things, look at each other and decide if it sounds good or not and move on. It's pretty organic that way, it's been great.
What about the comparisons to the Unicorns? Is that annoying, or does that seem right to you?
I guess it's not really up to me to say what we sound like, but is it annoying? Uh ... I guess I don't really care? I mean, if people want to compare us, it doesn't bother me. I can't really say that the Unicorns have been a major influence on us in any way, but I can see where people are coming from when they compare certain traits.
It's interesting to hear whether or not people consciously notice their influences, or if it just sort of happens. The Unicorns comparison with Lovely Feathers is so prevelant, I guess it's easy to assume that it's on purpose. I read a review of My Best Friend Daniel (Love Your Diary Records, 2004) and the whole first paragraph is about the Unicorns, which is what prompted the question, by the way.
Wow. I don't know, maybe a bandmate of mine would feel differently, but it doesn't bother me too much. I can sort of see it - we're both from Montreal, indie, melodic, but I do think it's a little stretched. And there's definitely not a conscious effort to sound like them.
So, what does influence you?
Gershwin. I'm not sure about everyone else, though.
A Lovely Feathers bio will brief the reader by explaining that you were playing shows in Montreal, you got signed to Equator, then Jimmy Shaw (Metric) recorded your album. It seems like a lot must have happened in there somewhere, or did all that really happen so quickly between My Best Friend Daniel and Hind Hind Legs?
Well, it's been two years since My Best Friend Daniel, so in a way everything has been happening since then. Though I was in Singapore for the later half of 2004, my bandmates continued playing and writing songs, setting up odd shows around Montreal and promoting them themselves. Then we had a big show in January of 2005, and were approaced by the label and started talking about signing. We worked on Hind Hind Legs over the summer of 2005. And actually, our manager (who also owns Equator records) was also Metrics manager, so we got the Metrics tour through him. Next thing we knew Jimmy Shaw agreed to record our album and we went on tour with them in the fall.
Let me make sure I understand this: you were overseas, you came back, played one show, and got signed?
Ha. Well, I guess the label guys had seen some shows of ours from the previous fall, but yeah. And it was a big show. We attracted about 300 people at this big hall all by ourselves, and so that was kind of the last straw that attracted the label to us, I suppose.
Well here's to a great tour and all that jazz. One last thing: what CD can you not leave home without this summer?
Oh, I'm going to bring my teach yourself Korean book and my Yoga stuff, but we always have music playing. They're not my CDs but they're around! Last time we had a lot of Spoon, Fiery Furnaces, Go! Team as well as Johnny Cash and the Beatles. Oh, and jazz classics. We mix it up!
[Lovely Feathers MySpace]
[Lovely Feathers Official Site]
Buy tickets for their show on Tuesday, June 20th at Emo's.
* Photos from MySpace
