why not: the next generation of diy
Interview and portrait by Sydney Hise
The first question I have for you guys: How are you guys feeling? I know you stopped touring at the end of July, how did that go?
Isaac: It was really good. It was our best tour so far. Hanging out with Heart to Gold every day was super fun.
Josh: It was a blast, it was great. I’m tired though, I’m really tired.
Henry: Feels a little weird to drive to Madison, like a week after we got home.
And you guys played 7th Street (Minneapolis) Monday night, is that right?
J: (nods) And we have a show tomorrow night, too.
Do you guys prefer your hometown shows, like you played Monday night and the one you play tomorrow, or do you prefer the larger scale tours? Or, does it not really matter to you?
H: I mean, it’s kind of subjective. When we play in Minneapolis, plenty of people will come for us, and they know the words and stuff. Hopefully, there will be a point where we can go on a large tour and that also happens. So, I love playing in Minneapolis for that reason, but also, being able to travel and meet a ton of cool people who come up to you after the set and are like, “That was awesome! I’m gonna listen to you now!” is cool.
I: It’s two very different show experiences, and I like them both. I mean, there’s nothing that beats a hometown show.
H: I think they’re two very different experiences for us.
Your sound varies track-to-track on your newest release, do you think it’s important for artists to experiment with their sound, or do you think “genre” is an important thing for bands?
J: I think one of the most important things that you can do as a band is experiment with your sound and make it so that your audience doesn’t know what to expect with every record. If you make the same thing for like five albums and you decide to go experimental for the sixth, it will weird people out and it won’t be received that well, maybe. There’ll be people that are like “that’s super cool, that’s experimental,” but your fanbase is going to be pretty shocked, and I think to keep on experimenting and do that throughout your career so that people expect you to experiment, I think that’s a really good thing to do.
H: It’s a matter of thinking about it. From the second you sit down to be like, “I’m going to write a song”, you just can’t be thinking “it needs to be within these boundaries!” If you’re just flowing off of yourself, regardless, it’s going to sound like you, because it’s you.
You guys have made quite an impression on the Minnesota DIY scene. Can you talk a little bit about the DIY scene in the Twin Cities?
I: It’s great, it’s super big. It’s very supportive, I would say. It’s been good to us. It’s not without its flaws, just like anything else.
H: It’s very much about bringing people up. There aren’t many situations where somebody would come to a show, they see the band they want to see, and they just dip. It’s something that I’ve seen happen a lot, but not necessarily in the Twin Cities, which is really cool.
I: There’s also just a lot of good music, a lot of really good bands and friendly competition. It’s pretty inspiring.
How did you get your start in the scene? Do you just kind of thrust yourself into it?
J: You really do. You just make sure you’re ready for a set, and you play it, and you just keep playing.
I: I would say Josh’s brother [Caleb of The Happy Children and Normal Parents]...We played a lot of shows with him early on and that definitely gave us a boost. It’s crazy how Hippo Campus fans will just go through and “Oh, Happy Children. Oh, Why Not. Oh, Normal Parents.” Being associated with that and doing stuff with that definitely helped us out, too.
J: It was mostly just playing a lot of shows and getting our name out there.
I: We released a song pretty quickly after we started.
J: We had a song before our first show,we had two songs before our first show.
Why is it important for young people to support DIY bands and venues?
J: I mean, you’re the future. You’re in this scene, you’re in this community, you want to support everyone around you, including yourself. You are the future of the scene as a young person.
I: Also, you are the audience. A 40-year-old dude going to a show at a brewery or at First Ave. [in Minneapolis], that’s gonna be there for them, you know? Whereas, a lot of house shows and DIY venues, that’s catered to this scene and to young people. If you want to see that happen, you have to create that demand because no one else is going to create that demand. We already have like, little to no all-ages venues, so. We’re lucky that a lot of people do support [the scene].
H: That’s why most of the shows we play are at houses.
What does the DIY scene mean to each of you individually? Has it impacted each of you outside of your band, or has it collectively impacted you all?
J: I’ve met a lot of people and a lot of friends through the scene. As you play shows and as you go to shows, you just meet more and more people, and eventually you just have this huge friend group that’s these people that go to shows together and support art with each other. That’s really special to me, the community aspect.
H: I mean, just the community in general changes your life. It makes you realize just how much opportunity there is in such a small space in comparison to everything else. And the ability to connect with people and share what you do - just bringing people up, and it’s really powerful. I feel like I haven’t seen an arts community as tightly knit as the one in the Twin Cities, which kinda blows my mind.
What other music scenes are you guys fans of?
J: The hardcore music scene, everybody at a show, doing spin-kicks and throwing people. Watching live videos of hardcore shows is so cool, people just throwing themselves into the crowd. It’s not even crowd-surfing, people just like, flop down, people just consensually hurting each other; I think that scene is pretty interesting.
I: I mean we all listen to everything music-wise. There’s a cool rap scene in the Twin Cities.
H: A really exclusive scene but a really cool one is the session/jazz musicians in the Twin Cities. There’s a lot of really talented musicians. The thing is, they’re all sessioned people, or they play exclusively bars that will pay them, so it’s not something where the people are being talked about as much. It’s really cool.
Will you guys each share three of your favorite Minnesota based bands?
H: I’m gonna say Miloe, they just released one of my favorite songs of the year. This isn’t necessarily a band, more of like a hood/umbrella, just everything Caleb works on is incredible. My girlfriend’s in a band called Sapphire, they’re really good. They just released a new EP, I produced it.
I: I’m gonna have to say the same, and Heart to Gold.
J: Cloud Cult is up there as one of my favorite Minnesota bands, they’ve meant so much to me and my family my whole life; I grew up listening to their music. Everytime I hear their stuff, it’s so cool what they do. It’s really different from a lot of stuff, it’s really unique music, and a lot of people don’t notice it. The Happy Children is one of the most important bands to this music scene.
H: Yeah, they kind of made it uprise. They made the whole community come together.
J: And honestly, Hippo Campus. They have some great hustle; they’re amazing musicians, some of the best I know. And their music’s just amazing.
H: Good people.
I: If we’re not talking DIY, my favorite Minnesota artist is Atmosphere.
I: I mean, we could just keep going.
H: I could just keep going on.
I mean, talk as much as you want! Go crazy.
H: DoomTree…
I: Low...
J: I’d just like to emphasize, if you haven’t listened to DoomTree and you like any sort of rap/hip-hop, listen to DoomTree. They’re all so talented, and they’re probably my first favorite-favorite band. I love them so much.
Who should we look out for as an up & coming Minnesota band?
H, I: Definitely Miloe.
J: Heart to Gold, they’re one of the tightest live bands.
I: Gully Boys are definitely doing big things.
J: Mister Wes.
H: Early Eyes are about to blow up.
J: They’re such a good live band, they’re super tight live.
H: They’re all wonderful people too.
Do you find it hard as younger musicians to gain respect from older generations of musicians?
H: I think it’s not hard to gain respect from the older generations of musicians, it’s really hard to get the respect of older generations of marketing and business.
J: As Henry said, with big corporate things it’s hard, but once they see you…I don’t care, really. I would rather have the respect of the youth. And then get that to a big enough point where the respect of older people comes naturally. I’m not super concerned about that.
What’s the craziest fan experience you’ve had?
J: No tattoos yet, unfortunately. If you want to get a tattoo and you want to get one of us and you’ve been thinking about it, do it if you want. I’m not telling you to, but if you wanna do it, that’d be cool.
I: One dude drove from—he goes to college in Wyoming—he drove to Minnesota...No, he flew back for a show, that was the craziest.
Anything exciting coming up?
H: A single Mid-October, hopefully accompanied by a video.
I: Some more tours this year.
J: Working on a new album with Caleb...We’re headlining the Varsity theater August 30th. Free for UofM students, $5 for everyone else. So cheap, for $5.
Anything else you want to say?
J: Stay cool, we love you.
I: Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
J: The almond is the pretzel of the nut.