What do you find most beneficial about playing to a live audience?

I think our live act needs a lot of work, honestly. I don’t see it as an engaging experience for neither the band nor the audience. A few dudes playing inconsequential melodies over a .wav file is in no way a performance. So, we have been meaning to get some live drums in there, and start tailoring our songs to fit a bit better with a live band. There needs to be a connection between the audience and band, and at this point I don’t see that happening. However, the good news – summertime is a bad time for us, as Scotty and Seth disappear into the woods to guide rafts and the remaining dudes are left struggling with everyday life – but as soon as the summer is over I certainly think there is going to be a major overhaul in our process, now that we’ve have the prospect of potential slapped on our sammy. I would say that sometime in the future we could be a fucking electro-jam rock powerhouse with suspension cables and spinning drum sets and all that good stuff. Not really, but the plans for operation “rock their faces off” are certainly being drawn up. I want to be able to bust a 707 hand clap nine times, and look you in the eye nine times.

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Your lineup has changed from four to two since your 2000 album, Akasha. How has this affected your sound?

Laura: it feels like so long ago………..obviously the percussive element of our music was deeply effected when heath left the band (5 years ago), we had already begun to experiment with programming drums……but this change forced us to take that to the next level. Brad is an incredibly talented guy (with some interesting toys), and although our attempts may have not always turned out as we expected them to…………i think our music is so much warmer now………….and i wouldn’t change a thing. shane was still in the band when we recorded this last record, so any further changes were our natural progression. however, brad and i have been rather productive as a duo……….and i cannot wait to share what we have brewing.

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Why did you release “The Secrets” online? How much did Wilco play an influence in that decision?

“The Secrets” was released for free and legal and distributable download online because I had weighed 1.) the financial aspects of duplicating the music, then packaging it as I had envisioned, then mailing it out to only potentially interested parties, and then waiting for some response – against 2.) a free release which could take advantage of the explosion of digital music demand and instantaneous access. iPods, podcasts, MP3 blogs, and world wide access via the Internet all have collided to make this a very receptive environment for my songs. Wilco’s story is much different from my story: They already had a contract with a big label who didn’t know what to do with their record – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco persevered with a boutique label. The film “I’m Trying to Break Your Heart” was illuminating in a way that every rock documentary is from “Some Kind of Monster” to “The Ramones – End of the Century” to “Gimme Shelter”.You get a glimpse into the mysterious workings of the thing called a band – in a “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” way.

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How do you manage to combine a young, childish feel while still creating enjoyable music?

That’s just my personality popping out in the music, I work with children and senior citizens on a daily basis and that sensibility tends to take over the brain whether you want it to or not. Most of the melodies and some of the lyrics are inspired by just absorbing the strangeness that is happening in the room, and if you tweak your thoughts enough you can tap into what others find amusing as well. Children also tend to be a good test group for some of our tamer tunes, as children’s reactions and critiques tend to be pretty instanteous. While some of the friendlier senior citizens inspire tracks with gravy and wisdom. Hopefully, the melodies and lyrics will tap into the recessive memories of everyone and inspire some festive toe tapping / thumb-twiddling.

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An Idea Of a Horse is sometimes staggeringly hard, and sometimes flowing and ambient-like. How did you manage to combine your influences to make something with such variety?

Too much coffee! That’s the secret behind all of the madness! Seriously though, I think it was half really concerted effort and half complete hair-brained chance and experimentation. Both Shannon and I draw inspiration and influence from more sources than we could even name, many of them in the realm of literature and various visual media, and we simply tried to create an amalgamate from all of the noise floating around in our informational spheres that accurately reflected where we were at those specific moments in which we created the songs. Does that even make any sense? It sounds a little hippie-tastic to me… It’s really hard to describe the sonic stew that “…Horse” came out of.

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What were your reactions upon discovering that Broom was in the top 200 CMJ? Were you at all surprised?

Well, the promotion company thought it would chart…but we were still surprised. I think we’re still surprised when someone REALLY likes us. There are lot of things to like in the world…in general. So that, alone, tends to help us out. I mean, you can like anything you want.

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Do you have a favorite track on Newborn?

Each song does something different for me. There’s something about “Warm Blooded” that I can’t quite describe. When I finished that song, it seemed to live and breathe on its own. Something bigger than the individual words and sounds I put in. It is also one of the strongest songs live.

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