“Western Nebraska is really beautiful, you can drive through it and there is like nothing as far as you can see.”
“Western Nebraska is really beautiful, you can drive through it and there is like nothing as far as you can see.”
Incendiary interview Eagle*Seagull at the Paradiso, Amsterdam part two…
IN: I would like to talk about My Space now.
E: A bit tongue and cheek.
IN: Yeah, but amazingly effective for independent or even popular bands/music.
E: It is a really good tool, and that’s it. I think it was our drummer that was like we should go on My Space and I didn’t even know what it was.
C: Yeah, I didn’t either.
E: The reaction was amazing. Now if I hear of a band, I go to My Space, look them up and hear them immediately. It is a really good tool.
IN: I have here a couple of quotes from My Space message board. The first one is from Austin, he’s 20 from Bookings South Dakota, and he writes, “You dudes are so bad ass, everyone on my Lacrosse team listens to you during workouts. Keep Shredding.”
(LAUGHS)
C: We totally shred right!?! Thank you Austin!
IN: David, 21 years old from Huston Texas writes, “You are the only band I’ve ever found via My Space, thanks to your label telling me about you. I actually bought your album and your music makes me smile.”
C: Ohhhhh swwweeet.
E: Touching.
IN: Your label is Paper Garden, you are their number one and only.
E: After we recorded it we were shopping it around and Brian just came in and said, hey, I am going to set up a label and I’ll pay for your CDs to be pressed and we were like ok, sure. We hadn’t sent out a single demo yet. In retrospect it would have been nice to send out demos, just to have seen what could have come. First time label, so getting distribution was a bitch, and finally getting distribution in Europe. We get reviews and stuff like that, but all of the albums we’ve sold have basically come from live shows. Some Internet sales, but a lot of people download. Everyone downloads, but as long as they check out show and buy CDs it’s okay.
IN: I download a lot of music, but I go to a lot of shows, not all of them as press, but my boyfriend and I usually always buy CDs or tee-shirt.
E: It’s a good thing to have it available. Hear of a band and then immediately hear their music.
IN: Just have to figure out a way to watermark all transfers and have Nike pay for it. Mac Donald’s should pay me to listen to music damn it!
(Laughs and nodding heads)
IN: I’m into games, do you guys play games? When I was in NYC, I relearned how to play poker.
E: I hate card games.
C: I do too. (Laughs)
E: Everyone else in the band is really into them.
C: They play poker every Monday night for the past six years. It is ridiculous.
E: On the US tour everyone got into playing this game called Golden Tee it is this frat boy obsessed pretend golf. You roll the ball and try to hit the thing.
IN: Like shuffle board?
E: Sort of, but golf. It is really expensive, like 3 bucks a game. You know. On tour all we did was sit in bars and play Golden Tee, pool and darts, stuff like that.
C: And you and me just sat there and did nothing. (Giggles)
E: Tour was really fun, but we had no money. I went through all my money in the first four days. We’d get into a town at 2 and not play until 10, so…
C: You should have brought more money!
E: I started out with like 150 bucks and then I begged my grandpa for more money and so he sent me some.
IN: So you didn’t have to hit the streets playing for money. You could do that here if you guys are strapped for cash. (Giggle)
E: Yeah, we could! Maybe we’ll try that. It’s too hot though!
IN: What else is Nebraska famous for?
E: The Rubin Sandwich.
C: I don’t know if that is true.
E: It is true! It was on google. We’re proud of it.
IN: Nebraska, home of the Rubin!
E: National Championship football.
IN: Oh yeah, The Corn Huskers!
E: The state has been under a dark cloud, we haven’t won since 1997 so everyone is just moping. Oh and of course… Beef.
IN: I brought you this postcard. (I hand over postcard of slab of raw meat)
E: You have a Nebraska postcard?
IN: No, it’s just beef.
E: Oh, what a nice cut! Thank you! It looks really delicious.
IN: Mathew Sweet was from Lincoln right?
E: We are actually buddies with his niece. He still makes albums that are like only released in Japan. I think that basically all he does.
IN: and 311?
E: Yeah, they are from Omaha.
IN: Omaha styleeeee.
C: Yeah!
E: You know Mannheim Steamroller? Well, they are also from Omaha. We had our album mastered at his (Chip Davis) studio. There were all these gold and platinum records and plaques on the wall from Mannheim. And there’s even this local band in Lincoln called Mannheim Creamslinger, they do a dirty parody of it.
IN: Why Nebraska? Why all this music? Why such rich soil?
C: Because there’s nothing else to do.
E: That’s true. There are also like 25,000 kids at university too. Good venues. Beer.
IN: I’ve never been to Nebraska.
E: You’d love it.
IN: I probably would.
C: If you get further west it is pretty much desert.
E: It was 105 yesterday. Western Nebraska is really beautiful, you can drive through it and there is like nothing as far as you can see.
C: It’s creepy.
E: The sky is monstrous huge and then like on our states national quarter, if you’ve ever seen it, the chimney rocks, something like that in the middle of nowhere, nothing then all of a sudden this crazy rock formation…
Words and Pictures: Zoe E. Gottehrer
part one of this interview can be found by clicking here…