THE DRUMS

New York band The Drums this week release their new single Forever and Ever, Amen, and release their self-titled debut album on June 7th.  Earlier this year the band appeared on the shortlist for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll and anticipation for their first album has been building steadily since.  We Q&A lead singer Jonathan Pierce about musical influences, live performances and the pressure to deliver.

Describe your music in five words
Oh, it’s just pop songs.

There has been a lot of hype around your band and you haven’t yet released an album – how has this pressure to deliver affected the band?
Well, the album was done before we were getting this amount of attention, so we didn’t have the pressure to make a perfect record because we had already made an album that we loved and so we are glad to finally be able to release it. Also we do everything ourselves, from our artwork to directing our own videos and of course our music, and we have been touring constantly so you can see how we don’t even have time to be affected. It’s a very incubated process.

The album has a summer feel and also sounds quite Californian (most noticeably on Let’s Go Surfing) – have any of you lived/worked on the West Coast?
Really? I wonder if Let’s Go Surfing was not on the album if it would still feel summer-y to you? To me the album just sounds like a bunch of sad, simple love songs. None of us have ever lived on the West Coast,  I think we all love New York too much to ever leave really. Honestly, I would really miss the winter.

What are your inspirations when creating music?
Well for me, every song that I write has a photograph to go with it. And I think with The Drums we are more influenced by visuals than by other forms of music. We wanted each song to do what a great movie or great photograph does and that is to help you escape your own life for even just a few minutes. Escapism is our biggest influence. Genre is not really important to us, it really is just about The Song. Everyone forgot about The Song and you hear a lot of music these days, but not too many songs.

You’ve toured with Florence + The Machine, how was that experience?
It was pretty wild for us because we have not been a band for even a year yet and to be playing a tour of that size so early on is both exciting and terrifying. It is kinda like being shoved into the deep end of a swimming pool when you’re just learning to swim, but our vision carried us through victoriously. It was a triumph. Florence’s fans for the most part loved us and I guess it could have gone either way so we are all grateful.

You also toured the UK previously with the NME tour alongside The Maccabees, The Big Pink and Bombay Bicycle Club – what was that experience like?
Well that was more of a “rock-n-roll” type of tour and the whole thing felt really crazy. We made some good friends and it was a special time in our lives where we realized that, yes, maybe this really IS happening. People DO care and anything is possible.

Which other artists would you want to collaborate with?
We try our hardest to not do collaborations but there are some things that we could not say no to. We went to Edwyn Collins’ (Orange Juice) studio to write and record a new song for his new album. It was a like a dream as he a huge inspiration. The ultimate cool band.

Are there any tracks you would want to cover?
We have covered Do I Love You by The Ronettes. It is recorded but I doubt we will ever release it. Maybe doing a cover of a great pop song while we are on stage is something we would do, but to spend time re-doing a song that someone else has already done perfectly seems almost like a waste of time. I  would always rather hear a new song by a band that I love than have them give me a cover.

What is your all time favourite song?
I can’t be sure, but right now… it is I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton. A perfect example of a song that has the most simple basic lyrics and melody, but somehow moves mountains. Also it’s an example of why a good song does not need to be covered. The original is flawless and It will last until the end of time. Amen.


[Originally published on wonderlandmagazine.com/blog, June 2010]