Crystal Stilts Interview

Brad: Yeah we moved to Christiania (laughs)…Ah, anyway. We started practicing a year to 6 months later just screwing around and recorded a single didn’t really play live and didn’t really do that it was just the two of us for the first few years and then we realized we sort of needed a band to play and do it. After the EP got put out by a friend of ours we started playing more. I knew Andy from the record store he worked at, Mr. Kyle here, we were friends with Frankie, I also met Kyle also through the record store.
JB: Kyle how did you find it when you first started playing with us? What did you think?
Kyle: Well its funny, because in these interviews I’ve never got to talk about the drum machine period. Like, for a long time Crystal Stilts was Brad on vocals, Johnny on bass and then JB sitting down with a bass drum and then a drum machine and then playing a bass drum the same time as he’d play guitar. It was a pretty wild sound. The first couple of shows I played with Crystal Stilts…
JB: What did you think about the Lit show? He wasn’t playing with us yet and he saw the Lit show.
Kyle: I saw a show at a bar in New York called Lit and I talking to them about this (their music), you know it was funny because my first impressions were they were an experimental noise band because it was so chaotic at that time. It was like…
JB: The reverb?
Kyle: Yeah, the fact that there were songs going on was difficult to tell at that time. But anyway, the first couple of shows I played with Crystal Stilts…
Brad: I was sitting on a box
Kyle: Yeah Brad was sitting on a box which he was kicking. Right? Weren’t you kicking it?
Brad: (laughs) I don’t think so
JB: He was holding the bass drum
Kyle: Oh yeah that’s what it was.
Brad: The bass drum kept sliding out from JB (laughs) it wouldn’t stop,  so I was sat down doing the show like that. We didn’t actually have a name for it (the song title), we called it the bass drum slide song for a while
Kyle: Anyway. The first time I played with Crystal Stilts I was operating the drum machine and playing organ. At least one show I played bass organ, like I had to play the bass parts on an organ. But about a year or two after that was after Frankie and Andy became the rhythm section and everything got a lot more
Brad: Organized
Kyle: Clearer.
Brad: Organic
Andy: Yeah you could sing through two pedals
Frankie: What was the other?
Brad: Delay pedal
Frankie: Really?
Brad: It was a crazy delay pedal
Frankie: Where is it?
Brad: In THE green box. It was a crazy massive delay the shows must have sounded manic.

How did you land on the band name?

Brad: Well basically we saw there were all these Crystal bands
JB: Yeah we jumped on the hype wave.
Brad: Yeah we didn’t know about these bands. It was kind of in a dream of mine but I just thought the concept of a Crystal Stilts was kind of funny. And I thought it represented what we were doing at that time pretty well - it was kinda chaotic.

How was it playing London?

Brad: Two of the three shows in London were really, really great. The other show was good but it was a little weird cos it was 200 people I think over 100 people were guestlisted press people. So there was definitely a stiff journalist vibe as appose to people jumping around having fun that wanted to see the band. Not that they didn’t necessarily want to see the band.
JB: There was a lot of people supping on their glasses. (laughs)
Brad: But yeah it was a bit more awkward
Frankie: We made a joke and there was just silence (laughs)
Brad: But the other shows were really, really good.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Brad: I’m not listening to anything I don’t have an iPod
JB: What did we listen to today in the car?
Kyle: We listened to The Who
Brad: But that was your doing…
Frankie: We listened to Half Wind, 13th Floor Elevators yesterday.
Kyle: We listened the other night to this singer/songwriter named Bob Dylan. (laughs) You should check him out.

How do you think the internet affects what you are doing as a band?

Brad: I don’t think it affects what we are doing as a band in the slightest. I mean I think the internet is obviously helpful in terms of, like, there’s this sort of weird thing where you get this internet hype and people think there’s a backlash as if blogs are making you money somehow or like your big because you get talked about on a blog.
JB: Or some random kid somewhere in his room is writing responsible for the backlash.
Brad: But in terms of the question I don’t think it affects what we do as a band at all.

Do you read any magazines?

Brad: I mean I can’t imagine paying for a magazine I read magazines that might be around but not any specific ones. Frankie reads magazines.
Frankie: I like Glamour, Vogue you know Teen Vogue. (laughs)
Brad: I used to read magazines, you know, Mojo, Uncut….
JB: ArtRocker
Brad:…ArtRocker
Kyle: I used to read Mad Music Magazine when I would hang out at the record store where I met Brad and JB, I would often sit there and read
JB: Didn’t you read Mojo’s from like 3 years ago?
Frankie: What did Sarah Palin say to this? Sarah Palin, she answered the same question. "Oh, you know whatever’s in front of me, everything" (laughs)
Kyle: Me and Andy, the bass player, we both read the New Yorker. But you shouldn’t print that. (laughs) I don’t want to ruin our reputation.

What are you planning next after the European tour?

Brad: Directly after the European tour, sleeping.
Kyle: You see Brad has a girlfriend.
Frankie: Then we’ll go on tour for another ten days. Down to SXSW. We’re touring for ten days and then were going to rest and relaxation for a while.
Brad: We’re going to write a few more songs and we’d like to record over the summer hopefully another record.
Frankie: We’re going to the tropics on vacation, right? With all the money we’ve made.