WE ARE SCIENTISTS

Indie rockers We Are Scientists return next week with their third studio album, Barbara - the first under their new self label, Masterswan Recordings.  Drafting in Andy Burrows from Razorlight to take drum duties, the band sound even fresher than before.  With a new single Rules Don’t Stop out today, we caught up with Keith Murray from the band to find out a few things about the new album.

Describe your music in five wordsAimed at the pleasure-centers.

If you really are scientists… can you explain ‘special relativity’?I’m not really a scientist, neither by practice or qualification. That’s just a band name. The Killers, I presume, have never killed anyone, although perhaps they’ve killed animals or plants. So, bad example, potentially.

You’ve drafted in Andy Burrows from Razorlight for the new album – how was he to work with?He was like a dream, a dream in which you’re eating the tastiest cake imaginable, and have a limitless quantity at your avail, but are immune from any possible detrimental effect of unrestrained cake consumption (i.e., gastrointestinal distress, caloric overload, etc.), so you just eat it and eat it and never experience diminishing returns in enjoyment. That’s what working with Andy is like: a great cake dream. I would recommend that anyone who’s looking for a world-class drummer with excellent taste and a charming disposition stay the hell away from Andy, because he is mine!

What are the inspirations behind new album, Barbara?I would say that the main inspiration was a delicious cocktail that came to my attention while I was summering in Athens, GA, which is one part Bulleitt Bourbon to one part Blenheim’s Spicy Ginger Ale (that’s the cocktail, not Athens, GA).  Squeeze a crescent of lemon in there, and you’ve got golden-hued, liquid inspiration, the ice tinkling about in the glass suggesting a samba beat here, a swing beat there, and, after four glasses, a double-kick metal beat, right there in your mind.

How many people do you know called Barbara and do you have a favourite Barbara?I know one person named Barbara - that’s Barbara Zeltman - and, as such, she is my favorite.

Lead track from the album is Rules Don’t Stop – are you rule breakers?  When did you last break a rule?We are not rule breakers in any way.  If we’ve learned anything from Wesley Snipes (and believe me, we have), it’s that rule-breakers will get their just desserts.  We’ve also learned to “always bet on black,” which has made Chris [Cain, We Are Scientists' bass player] and I unbelievably wealthy at craps games and checkers tournaments.

What are your views on illegal downloading and free music websites?My feeling is that free downloading should be perfectly legal IF the downloader is also willing to buy overpriced pastries at a semi-annual bake sale held by the “big four” record companies.  So, for example, if someone downloads Coldplay’s  “Nodding Off Again,” EP or whatever, they should be expected, come April, to pay $20 for a couple of brownies at a stand erected outside of EMI’s offices.  It’s not only fair, it’s delicious!

In you’re years of gigging, where has been your most memorable performance?Oh, definitely the one where I . . . um, where Chris . . . er.  There was this time when we, uh, um. . . Geez, let me see…

What has been your least favourite performance?I know that everybody loved it, and he won an Oscar for the role, but I really hated F. Murray Abraham’s performance in Amadeus.

What are your plans for summer 2010?Tour, tour, festival, tour, pint of Bulleitt and Blenheim’s, tour, pitcher of margaritas, tour, strawberry daiquiri, tour, festival, tour.  And that’s just June 17!

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