We Are Scientists Bassist Chris Cain Talks To Stereoboard Following End Of European Tour (Interview)
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Written by Rachel Preece
We Are Scientists are perhaps more renowned for their witty, abstract sense of humour than their music, but despite this, they've still managed to pump out many a catchy indie tune over the last five years. It's hard to dislike someone who understands (and indeed embraces) how ridiculously hipster it is to be in a New York indie band and it's this light-heartedness that's seen them through. They've recently brought out a new album – Barbara – with Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, and Stereoboard were lucky enough to catch up with bassist Chris Cain at the end of their European Barbarians tour to chat about how the band's developed since their first big hit Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt, back in 2006.
You're just finished touring with your new album Barbara, how would you say your sound has developed since your debut album With Love & Squalor back in 2005?
We've gotten consistently better. There've never been any conscious decisions to change our sound or approach to songwriting, so the progression from album to album has amounted to our evolving taste and improving abilities as writers. You could probably describe the general movement of our stuff as a shift away from "dance rock" toward a less specific pop sound. Although insofar as the songwriting has steadily gotten better and better at doing exactly what we want it to do, you could also say that our sound has become more specifically "We Are Scientists."
You have toured the UK a lot, do you get to see much of the places you visit or is your schedule always very hectic?
We're a pretty hard-touring band, but we do take occasional days off, and we tend to spend those taking in the city where we're stranded. In the last month we've had time to wander around in Berlin, Essen, London, & Oxford, and over the last couple of years we've done some similar one- or two-day rambling in at least a dozen other cities.
I know you're fans of Bowie's Berlin era, what do you think of Berlin nowadays?
Berlin's fantastic, one of our favorite stops. We tend to spend most of our time watching music or drinking beer in or near Kreuzberg, which I realize is the very obvious, clichéd place for a bunch of hipster rock musicians to be found hanging out... still, we're powerless against its pull!
You stated in an interview that New York influenced the way you operated as a band (you worked a lot harder to get where you are), do you think that your style would be different had you not been based in NYC?
I think it probably would, yes. The bands that were making a splash in New York around the time we moved there definitely had a big effect on the sound of our first record – Les Savy Fav, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I think to some degree the evolution of our sound over the last three records has been us gradually escaping those influences and finding a sound that's really ours. Although of course we've continued to live in New York during this time, so I'm sure new influences have quietly crept in to fill the vacuum.
Andy Burrows is on your latest album, did he help to write the songs too? Is there anyone else out there you'd like to collaborate with?
Andy wasn't involved in the first stage of the songwriting, but his drumming definitely played a big part in shaping the songs as they moved toward completion. He's got such a catchy, athletic sound – it definitely pervades the tunes.
MTV commissioned you to write your own comedy series, Steve Wants His Money, how did that come about? Are there plans for series two?
It's a fairly long, uninteresting story, but the brief outline is: In 2007, we did a series of non-musical comedy performances at English universities; they took the form of lectures espousing a self-help philosophy called "Brain Thrust Mastery." Virgin, our label at the time, really liked them and decided to team up with a production company to shoot a TV show based on the lectures. We shot that in January of '08.
As the show got edited together, Virgin decided they didn't want to release the show on the internet for promotional purposes, as was the original plan; instead they began shopping it around to TV channels, hoping to sell it to somebody. They overestimated its quality, though – nobody bought it – and eventually they gave up. That show remains in a vault. For the next year or so, the production company that made "BTM" with us tried to drum up interest at networks in some other W.A.S.-related show. In the summer of 2009, MTV green-lighted the "Steve Wants His Money" idea and gave us a very tiny sum of money and two months to make them seven shorts, which is what we did. "SWH$" wraps itself up pretty cleanly at the end of episode seven, so we probably won't make another series in that universe; but do want to make more TV comedy, and are pitching people on some of our ideas, a few of which are really goddamn stellar, I have to say.
You're famous for your on stage banter, do you think too many bands take themselves too seriously these days?
I don't think there's anything wrong with moody, severe bands. It definitely suits some of them well. As an Interpol fan, I'm glad they don't make funny music videos, for example. The humor that pervades the W.A.S. universe is just a big part of who Keith and I are, and it's not something we've ever felt like we needed to stifle. If we made gloomy, moody music, we probably would try to limit the degree to which our private personalities were allowed to come through in the public personality of the band. As is, though, it's always felt like a fairly comfortable – if not overly coherent – coexistence.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
Berlin's fantastic, one of our favorite stops. We tend to spend most of our time watching music or drinking beer in or near Kreuzberg, which I realize is the very obvious, clichéd place for a bunch of hipster rock musicians to be found hanging out... still, we're powerless against its pull!
