{"id":3764,"date":"2019-02-15T22:58:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T03:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2019-02-15T22:58:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T03:58:36","slug":"interview-houndmouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/02\/15\/interview-houndmouth\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Houndmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emma Kopelowicz<\/em><\/p>\n

Houndmouth is nearing the halfway point in their tour and will be playing at the Paradise Rock Club on February 20th. WTBU DJ Emma Kopelowicz chatted over the phone with the band\u2019s drummer, Shane Cody, about their latest album Golden Age, experimenting with new sounds, and the magic of Linn Drum Machines.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emma Kopelowicz: How and why was Houndmouth started?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shane Cody: I think out of boredom maybe \u2026 no [laughter]. I was living in New York. I had taken an internship at a sound design recording studio, and I was there for like a year. Then they downsized, so basically I didn\u2019t get a job. I moved back home and there was nothing really going on (other than sadness), but Matt [Myers] Facebook messaged me and said \u2026 \u201cI like the music that you\u2019re making by yourself.\u201d I was doing this little bluegrass thing called Riff Raff Revival. I didn\u2019t really know him though, but we went to high school together [<\/span>Editor\u2019s note: They were in high school at the same time but did not go to the same high school<\/span><\/i>]. We just started playing together. We were both playing guitar. I played drums basically since I was 12, so I was kinda tired of playing drums in bands, but I was like well we can\u2019t find another drummer so I guess I\u2019ll go back to playing drums. And then we got Zach to come in. He and Matt were like best friends and they had played in cover bands and stuff before together\u2026 And then we got Katie to come in. It kinda just happened like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: The past couple of albums have had a distinct folk-rock sound, and listening to Golden Age is not quite the same. What inspired the shift in direction to more of an \u201880s-synth kind of beat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: We had always recorded everything live when we would do an album. And then we would just go back and overdub vocals or a guitar solo or something. We would make an album in a week. This one Katie left, so we didn\u2019t want to do it live as just a three-piece because it\u2019s not the most fun thing to do. We also signed with Warner Brothers, which was like a crazy experience, so we kind of had resources to do what we wanted. We never really had that before. We wanted to just kinda see what kinda sounds we could make and push ourselves and not do the same kinda routine. We got to work with Shawn Everett, who\u2019s insanely awesome and insane as a person. He was just kinda like, \u201cWe can do anything we want,\u201d so we kinda did. But the songs are the same at their core. They just sound different.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: Were there any particular influences or were you listening to certain things at the time that were kind of inspiring? Or did you just let the studio inspire you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: Yeah we kinda just let it take us. We found an old Linn Drum Machine, which was a like super popular drum machine in the \u201880s and that was the first thing we found. The studio we were at was basically like a museum of old instruments and so it just was kinda just like a playground. We latched onto the Linn Drum Machine\u2026 We just played a lot like children. There was no like, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna make this weird album,\u201d going into it. We just had fun and experimented. Not everyone gets the chance to make an album for like almost a year. We\u2019re three dudes from Southern Indiana and we get to go out to Los Angeles? To me at least, it was a dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: As I was scrolling through some reviews, I\u2019ve noticed that Golden Age has been receiving a lot of backlash from fans who miss the band\u2019s old sound, but from the band\u2019s Instagram it kind of seems like you\u2019re all taking this criticism pretty well and making light of the situation. Was that how it originally started?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: We always knew everyone was gonna be like, \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d But like I said, the songs are the same. The structure, the songwriting, the stories are the same, they just sound different. That\u2019s kinda the point of putting stuff out there. Then it\u2019s not really yours anymore to talk about. It\u2019s up to everyone else to perceive. I actually just saw one on Twitter the other day like \u201cAt first I hated this album, but now it\u2019s become one of my favorite albums.\u201d I responded back with the Jack Nicholson gif where he\u2019s nodding really creepily.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: The Shining<\/i> one right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: Yeah, yeah that\u2019s it. But yeah it was definitely kind of rough at first. I just eventually stopped looking at Twitter but was so cool to hear it grow on people. We were spoiled, we know every intricate thing in the songs, because you know, we made it. Every little sound was thought of so it was really special to us. When people were like, \u201cOh, this is a laptop,\u201d we were like, \u201cOh my God, no, it\u2019s all real instruments.\u201d But, you know, it\u2019s not up to us anymore and I got over it. I kinda stopped caring because when we play them live it\u2019s so different. When we play it live we play it in the style of our older stuff. I think they translate well live. It\u2019s fun, but it\u2019s kind of a pain in the ass for me at least. After we finished it we were like, \u201cOh s**t, how are we gonna play this live now?\u201d We had to really practice these songs a lot, but it was fun and challenging. And that keeps you going.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: I know that you were crediting a lot of this new sound on your access to more resources in the studio and just having fun playing around with the instruments at your disposal, but do you believe that the reinvention of Houndmouth\u2019s sound was more something that was inevitable or was it more an organic change of pace that you didn\u2019t really think about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: I think it was definitely just kinda, \u201cLet\u2019s try this.\u201d The way we\u2019re playing now is definitely more the way we used to. It all starts just three of us sitting around: guitar, bass, and drums. I think it was more of like an experiment to try. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re stuck in that way now.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: Does the band have a particular approach to writing music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: It\u2019s nice because we all write, so basically when we meet to go to meet to practice someone will just like bring a song or an idea they have to the table, which is great. A lot of times it\u2019s just like I have a verse and a chorus but I don\u2019t really have a bridge and so we can combine a lot of them, which is super helpful. Matt definitely writes the most, but then we all kind of produce it together and tweak it. It\u2019s like homework, but fun homework I want to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: If there is anything you could tell your listeners about this album what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: Don\u2019t freak out. It\u2019s an experiment and it\u2019s fun. We got to have a ball making it and hopefully it grows on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EK: Do you predict Houndmouth going into a more experimental direction in the future or do you think you guys are going to find your way back to your roots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SC: I think it would probably be a combo of both. I don\u2019t know. But who knows? If I were to guess, I would probably say a combination.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emma Kopelowicz Houndmouth is nearing the halfway point in their tour and will be playing at the Paradise Rock Club on February 20th. WTBU DJ Emma Kopelowicz chatted over the phone with the band\u2019s drummer, Shane Cody, about their latest album Golden Age, experimenting with new sounds, and the magic of Linn Drum Machines. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[676,117],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}