INTERVIEW: The Districts
WTBU DJ David Taylor chatted with the Districts’ lead singer, Rob Grote, about touring, writing music, and his musical influences growing up. The Philly-based band is on the road with Hippo Campus this fall.
David Taylor: Where are you right now?
Rob Grote: We’re on tour right now opening for a band called Hippo Campus. And yeah, we’ve just been recording a lot. We’re working on a record and stuff. We’re taking a break from that for right now while to do this [tour]. We’re just going to DC on our day off right now and then playing there tomorrow.
DT: Very cool. So what’s the new record going to be like?
RG: Um, I don’t know–a little too early for me to say. We have a lot in the works, and I feel like we have to narrow stuff down. We’ve got a lot of songs we’re working on. A little early to give you an answer on that one. But I’m liking it a lot. I think we all are.
DT: So what’s it like touring with Hippo Campus?
RG: It’s been pretty good, yeah. They’ve been super hospitable having us and it’s a good time. Good shows.
DT: So I know you guys toured with Dr. Dog a couple years back. Do you feel like you learned a lot, or connected with them, being from a similar area in Philadelphia?
RG: Yeah, for sure. They were doing a lot of cool stuff when we were young, like when we were in high school. That was definitely one of the bands–out of numerous bands–coming out of Philly at that time. We definitely looked up to what they were doing. Being on tour with them was super awesome, and very flattering. And a good time, yeah.
DT: So where’s your favorite place to perform?
RG: Well we’ve toured a good amount of places. Hard to pick. I really loved San Francisco, and I really love the Northwest like Vancouver; Portland, Oregon; New Orleans; and some of the cooler ones we’ve done in Europe like Paris, Berlin–shows like that.
DT: Ok, I have to ask since I’m from there, why do you like San Francisco?
RG: Um I don’t know, I guess part of what I liked about it, maybe, is that it’s part of a dying breed of what’s going on there. Like tech companies and stuff are moving in, and it’s changing, but it has changed already. It’s changed a lot. But what you more traditionally associate with San Francisco is that it’s a pretty forward-thinking town. Nice colors [laughs]. And all the buildings.
DT: I agree! So anyway, I read in an interview a while back that you guys hold yourselves to a higher standard now (at least with the most recent album), so do you feel like that’s given a bit of added pressure to make things better. Has it taken away from the fun? Has it become more professional?
RG: No, I think we’re just–I know what you mean by that–it’s just like diving deeper into the creativity out of it. Well, it’s less of a pressure thing and more like an explorative thing. It keeps us having an open mind, and we want to make sure it makes you feel something powerful.
DT: Have you found any new influences, or new bands, where you go “Oh, I really want to do something like that,” or have you just stuck to the same steady path?
RG: Yeah, we all listen to a lot of music all the time. I listen to a lot of different old music–kind of like digging through the interwebs or whatever and just finding songs that were lost and stuff like that. And then newer things, too, like electronic stuff. We all like Caraboo and Blond Redheads’ newest album. And heavier stuff too, you know? Really stuff all over the board. We like to listen to a lot of Spanish music, Brazilian music. I’ll listen to a pretty wide range of stuff, and it’s fun to listen to stuff that’s different. It makes you think about music differently, too.
DT: So you guys produced some of Popular Manipulations, right? So what was it like to produce your own stuff?
RG: Well, we had kind of done that stuff before. That’s how we started out. So it’s all pretty comfortable, and it was just fun. We all do this with a lot of music, so we were all confident enough. But it’s always fun to work with someone else, to use another ear, too. Even the stuff that we produce ourselves, we’ll work with a really close friend named Keith Abrams who has amazing ideas as well. He makes us sound awesome.
DT: How do you think your music has changed over the years? You can definitely hear a difference from album to album.
RG: I feel like it definitely has changed, but a lot of it is just the sounds are just a different way of doing things. I guess the trick is being in a pretty flexible realm, you know? At the end of the day, our goal is just to write stuff that will move people. I feel like we’ve more just changed the color palette of how we’re doing that, but the root of it is always the same thing. I think we’ll always just color things slightly differently every time.
DT: Do you have a favorite song that you’ve written?
RG: That one’s hard, because it’s always something that I’m working on or something like that, you know what I mean? I feel like our favorite stuff right now is the stuff we’re working on right now. And then from there, we move on to the next thing. So definitely the best stuff we’ve ever done is the upcoming album [laughs].
DT: Alright, fair answer [laughs]. Is there a song you wish you could have written?
RG: Probably like most Leonard Cohen songs. I’d say the song “Chelsea Hotel no. 2”, or “Bird on the Wire,” or “Suzanne”–any of them, any Leonard song. “Last Year’s Man.” Yeah, those ones.
DT: So what’s your favorite song to play live?
RG: I really liked playing “Night Time Girl” recently, which we’ve put out somewhat recently. That one’s really fun. It’s upbeat and just a good time. I always like playing “Long Distance.” That’s always fun, too. Yeah, everything’s usually fun [laughs]. But those are my favorites. What’s that? Two I named?
DT: Yeah, that’s a good answer. I’ll take that.
RG: Cool, I’m bad. I’m really bad at favorites.
DT: So have you ever thought about playing cover songs? I know some bands purposely avoid it, but have you thought about it?
RG: Yeah, well we used to cover “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” by the Ramones, and we also used to cover “That’s Life” by Frank Sinatra sometimes. And a little while ago we recorded a cover and put it out. It’s on YouTube or something. It’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division. Yeah, we don’t really play them live that much, but that could be because of the venues we play. There’s curfews and stuff a lot. Like usually we can only play for so long, so we cram what we can in there, you know? And then move on. But I feel like if we had the position where we could play slightly longer, then we would definitely work a lot more of that in, because it’s fun.
DT: So if you could make your music the soundtrack to a movie, show, or whatever, what would it be?
RG: I’d say definitely a movie. A movie that is something kind of dreamy. Something kind of romantic [laughs], but I don’t know what movie that would be.
DT: Ok, like an “Eternal Sunshine in the Spotless Mind” type thing?
RG: Maybe, but something a little bit grimier, like if that movie could combine with like “Pulp Fiction” I don’t know what that would be.
DT: Yeah, that would be a funky movie. What was your first favorite band? Sorry for another favorites question.
RG: I don’t know why, but probably Social Distortion. Well no I do know why. It’s because my sister really liked a lot of punk bands and showed me that stuff.
DT: Oh that’s a cool one!
RG: I think my sixth grade AIM name was like SocialD1995, so I’d have to say that. [laughs]
DT: So kinda going off that, what was the first CD you ever bought?
RG: That came before that. Something probably like LFO or something. A boy group.
DT: So I know you guys stay active with social media (and real life), so can you tell me a little about your social projects, like your Texas benefits for social rights project.
RG: Yeah, we’ve just kinda strived to stay involved the most we can. We all have pretty passionate opinions about what’s going on in the world, so we did a benefit show for that, regarding families impacted by stuff going on at the border and family separation. So we’ve done a lot of stuff with Pat, our guitar player, who’s really heavily involved with that. There’s an organization called Beyond the Bars, and they teach music to juveniles who are affected by mass incarceration. We both teach music inside juvenile detention centers, and they have external programs for kids who have gotten out or people with family members who are incarcerated. Those are things we have done and we try to stay involved with other stuff, too. We’re always looking for opportunities to help out. We’re not so good right now since we’re on the road, but we want to get back at it.
DT: As you said, you guys put something on over the summer as a charity thing, so do you think that helps you build a relationship with your fans? Being able to go out and throw events.
RG: Yeah, for sure. I mean we definitely try to start conversations, too. We’re always open to learning more about what’s going on in the world and trying to remind people to see stuff that they should be talking about. Because everyone’s trying to figure out how to help these causes, so I think that’s a nice communal thing between us and our fans, and it helps us engage with them, trying to figure out what we can be doing.