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May 3, 2012

It All Comes Right … or How I Went on Tour for a Week and Stayed a Month

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Drew Grow & The Pastor’s Wives The Head and the Heart

You see, I was only supposed to be here for a week, five shows to be exact, but somewhere around Louisville (show number three), I realized if I didn’t do everything I could to stay for the whole tour, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I’d never been on tour before, (unless you count following Phish when I was 19, but that’s a whole other confession) and having already driven halfway across the country, seeing old friends, making new ones, and witnessing a couple local bands I love live out their dreams in a means that exceeded even their wildest — I was full-on hooked.

By the end of my adventure with Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives, we had driven 7,000 miles, through 30 states, played 22 shows, visited two countries and the van only broke down once. I watched proudly as the Pastors’ Wives played shows to 3,000 people and as they played shows to six, because the passion they put into the performances never waned. I watched in wonder as The Head and The Heart debuted new songs and played old songs in new ways, and as every city knew every word, even the ones they’d never been to before. I personally saw new places every day but two, and new faces every night, and was astounded to find they knew the songs and stories we know here in the Pacific Northwest. I spotted fans in collegiate Ohio wearing Bryan John Appleby t-shirts, shared a table at a tiny pizza joint in Portland, Maine with a Maldives fan, and met viewers of the Doe Bay Sessions in Athens, Georgia. There wasn’t a day I was there long after I was supposed to be back home in Seattle that I didn’t stand jaw-dropped and wish you all in the 206 could see what I was seeing.

Because I watched what’s happening here in your backyard (whether you like it or not) being embraced from coast-to-coast. I witnessed first hand, a band on the rise being gracious to their fans, great to their openers and so proud of the place they call home. They talked about Seattle like a smitten suitor, and when the bands announced they were from the Pacific Northwest, it was always one of the loudest cheers every night. Maybe there really is something in the water here; maybe we don’t realize how lucky we are to call this place home. Maybe we do and we forget it sometimes. Nothing has reminded me how lucky I am to have been born and raised, and to have settled as an adult in Seattle than to be away from it. Every night at the merch table when someone spotted my Washington State tattoo and wistfully said, “lucky…” I knew that I was in every fiber of my exhausted, elated being. I loved the road, but it is so very nice to be HOME.

November 24, 2010

Driving The 5 With Kelli Schaefer and Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives: Day Two

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Kelli Schaefer ::: photo by Dylan Priest

“This one is for anyone who ever tried to do something in the world.” –Drew Grow

After crashing on couches and air-mattresses, we load up in the van after coffee and head to Portland around 9am. That night, Kelli will open another sold out Wild flag show at Doug Fir. Spirits are high, as a result of last night’s amazing show in Seattle. Kelli and the band are working hard to establish themselves in the music world, gaining one fan at a time. During our short afternoon in Portland, Kelli spends her lone hour off with a photographer who is a big fan of her work. Her commitment to interacting with her fans means she’ll even make time for someone she’s only spoken to on the phone so he can take press photos for his portfolio. While Kelli is at the shoot, the rest of us kick it around the house she shares with the Pastors’ Wives, relaxing before what is sure to be another long night followed by a very early morning. Some of the band even had to put in a hours at their day job today, as I’m witnessing finding time for tour and steady work is a tricky balance.

We arrive early at Doug Fir to unload and get set up. Tonight is another chance to impress a room full of people who are unfamiliar with Kelli’s music. After sound check, we all hang out in the green room with Wild Flag. Everyone is giving each other little pep talks about the show tonight. This is Kelli’s second time playing at Doug Fir but this will be a whole different experience. Tonight an even bigger crowd makes its way into the room as Kelli starts to play. As I stand there, I overhear people asking the name of the band. “Kelli Schaefer friend, you can find her albums in the back”. As usual there are a few moments of audience chatter, but once again during “Better Idea” the crowd shuts up and listens.The rest of the set is all cheers and awe from the crowd. Another audience is caught off guard by Kelli’s music and a voice that commands even the chattiest crowd’s attention.

Despite the early morning departure that awaits us, we all stay for the Wild Flat set. Those girls bring the rock and their epic set is worth the lack of sleep. We stay for the Wild Flag set which is an epic rock experience. We head home high on evening, ignoring the fact at least a 10 hour drive to Sacramento will come very soon.

Read Day One

See all 38 photos from Day Two of Tour on our Flickr

Couch Surfing ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Writing in the Van ::: photo by Dylan Priest

I’ll Be Home Soon ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Sound Check ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Guitar ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Kelli Schaefer ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Pastors’ Wives ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Jeremiah and Kelli ::: photo by Dylan Priest

Kris Doty::: photo by Dylan Priest

October 21, 2008

An Interview with Noah and the Whale

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noah and the whale

Noah and the Whale ::: Photo by Josh

When Noah and the Whale made their first tour swing through the states, we had to sit down with them. For over a year they’ve been building a home following in Britain, tirelessly touring to ever larger audiences and releasing and re-releasing a single “Five Years Time,” which is just now making it to the states in a car commercial (discussed below). Following the release of their first full-length Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down in September, they immediately hit the States. We had the pleasure of catching up with them after sound check before their September 29, Chop Suey show.

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Josh (SOTS): Do you feel a bit of an odd duck in the British popular music scene?

Doug Fink (NOAH): Oh yeah.

Charlie Fink (NOAH): To be honest, you know it’s so far removed, that you don’t necessarily feel apart of it. It’s only when you watch, like when they show the rundown of the top twenty videos, and they’ve got all these polished video’s of dancing, and then you’ve got our Super-8 kind of stuff.

(Matt) Urby (NOAH): We don’t know what it’s like to be in a band like a girl-band or a boy-band you know. You just do it how you do it, and that’s what you know.

Josh: Do you guys consider yourselves a pop band? I’ve heard the term anti-folk thrown around but I don’t even know what that means.

Doug: I think it’s all pop. I think if you’re in the charts, your pop.

Charlie: It’s pop, but it’s a new kind of pop. It’s like in the same way that Daniel Johnston is pop. Or Jonathan Rickman is pop.

Urby: It depends on what setting it’s in. You say on the charts and stuff, and ah… But live I don’t think of us as a relfex as a pop band. You kind of go out there and just go for it. When I think of pop, I think of a kind of sheen…

Charlie: It does have a kind of melodies and rhythms… so definitely

Josh: But do you think there’s an evolving idea of what pop is. Versus what the Beatles were…

Urby: In Pop music you’ve always needed melodies, and stuff that people can sing along to and get stuck in people’s heads. But everyone from Neil Young has said you can’t never underestimate a melody. Whether you’re looking at stuff like Nirvana, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, going all the way back. It’s all stuff that people can sing.

Doug: I think what’s changed the most about it is the technology in some ways. And that does dramatically change the sound of what popular music is. Cause the way we records is say similar say to what the Beach Boys or Beatles even. Just the nature of the sounds that we like. Whereas if you are a pop band now, you use a certain branch of technology that gives it this sheen. And that is actually a major difference. The recording process is what has changed it the most. Now everyone can access it and make changes ad infinitum.

Abbey (SOTS): Most American’s have been introduced to you through the Saturn commercial. How did that come about?

Charlie: I think we just got a phone call, saying do you want to do this commercial. Initially we were not so sure. I don’t know. I think… since taking it it’s been a real opportunity for us.

Doug: In the U.K. we haven’t done any adverts but we have managed to put ourselves on the map. and I think one of the biggest players in that is the radio. Cause you have National Radio Club where you can broadcast out to millions of people every day. But there isn’t really an equivalent for our kind of music in the states. And I think for us, the most important part of the advert was ability to open up another market, with another audience. Expose more people and putting it out there.

Charlie: It’s interesting how you phrase that question.

Abbey: I heard the album then realized I’d heard it before. My first thought was “What are the Magnetic Fields doing a car commercial for?” That’s very strange to me.

Charlie: It’s also amazing when you come over here, being in hotel rooms, flipping on the TV, and the artists that do do commercials here. Like David Johnston, Interpol had one…

Urby: The other thing is though, we’ve been on the road for two and a bit weeks now, and the tour’s been phenomenal because people have come. And if people have come to see our live show, and get the album, which are the two things that we feel really represent us, and they got to that, by the medium of just hearing it [in the commercial], that’s great.

Charlie: Funny enough, we’ve actually met a lot of people after the gigs and stuff… there’s this French website that we did the Take Away Shows with, and a lot of people have heard of us from there. Abbey: So are you guys done with 9-5 jobs for now?

Urby: Yeah… I’m glad to say

Doug: Although to be honest now our job is like 8-2. 8 in the morning until to 2 in the morning.

Abbey: What did you guys used to do as day jobs before this?

Urby: Tried not to think about it.

Charlie: I used to drive a van, delivering blood samples and urine samples.

Urby: He was a professional piss-taker. (Everyone laughs.)

Charlie: For driving around listening to music all day it was pretty good.

Urby: He took a chance on flesh. (Everyone laughs again.)

Charlie: You’re really bleeding that one dry now aren’t you… (Doug is losing his chair he’s laughing so hard.) Urby: Sorry. —

Noah and the Whale have just announced another North American tour for December and they’re coming back to Chop Suey once again on the 16th of that month. Complete tour details are below the fold.

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