Chatting Up The Eastern Sea

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Originally uploaded by Free Press Summer Fest

So, how does it feel to travel from Austin to a festival in Houston?

Zach: I don't think there is a feeling, because we're all from Houston.

Andy: We're all staying at our parents’ houses.

Matt: (Laughs) The only reason we're on this bill is because somebody thinks we're from Houston.

Zach: We have much better shows in Houston than we do in Austin.

What has the band been up to?

Matt: It's been a slow summer. We haven't been doing much. We've been trying to finish up the second EP.

Are these songs that you guys have been playing or haven’t yet?

Matt: We've been playing it.

Zach: We’ve basically been playing the same songs for almost a year.

Matt: I spent the summer writing a whole new full length record.

Is that usually how the writing process goes?

Matt: Usually.

Andy: He writes the song, song and we write the arrangement.

Matt: It's a slow writing process..

Zach: And it takes a while because we're not afraid to stop and scratch it off.

Matt: There's been times when we’ve been writing a song and scrapped it.

The band then goes into a too-many-answers-to-type discussion about how they often play songs differently every time.

Does this translate to the live setting? Do you guys maybe play one song one way in front of one crowd and differently in front of another crowd and gauge the reaction?

Matt: Absolutely.

How does that balance come on stage? How do you guys just change up the arrangement but still manage to keep things tight?

Matt: It’s finding the right people. We share a lot of the same musical influences.

Thomas: [There were times when] matt would go extreme in one area, and I would go in the other and then Zach would just meet in the middle.

Matt: It's something good to give somebody a new way of listening to something they like.

What can we expect today?

Andy: Thomas is back.

Matt: Today, we're going to do short quick, really fast ‘cause we only have a 20-minute set. We're mashing our songs together. … Wham, bam thank you ma’am.

Andy: (Nods.) wham bam thank you ma'am.