Interview: Crystal Antlers

Chimney sweeping wont even enter your mind when you think of California; the states sun baked roofs surely don’t need fires and if they do chimneys are near extinct. Still this is what you could find one of the states best up-and-coming bands doing, now is not the time to find them though as the much-hyped DIY act Crystal Antlers are kicking into their first European tour.

Excitement is high as for the majority of the band this is a first trip to Europe, Scotland seems to hold some significance as like so many American’s they believe they have a distant Scottish heritage. Evidence of this heritage is pretty well hidden, drummer Kevin Stuart’s shocked reaction to gulping from a can of Tennents provides evidence of this. The band arrived in Glasgow for the first time on the back of four nights in London where I am assured there was no Dick Van Dyke-esque rooftop dancing, but playing to near sold out shows every night.

The Long Beach act find tonight’s gig just as highly anticipated as the London shows with the venue having to stop selling tickets early in fear of an overflow. Appearing an unorthodox mix with appearances as varied as their part time job is rare but the band are linked together through their fussy, funk enthused punk sound. After the sound check I caught up with frontman Jonny Bell to chat about the new album, Bad Brains, Pitchfork, and ‘the dying trade’ of chimney sweeping.

This is your first European tour and for the majority of the band a first visit to Europe. Is there anywhere you are particularly excited about visiting or playing in while you’re here?

We were all really excited to come to Glasgow as some of us have Scottish heritage, at least we think. Kevin (Stuart, drummer) defiantly does. Our manager Phil and our friend Michael, who’s making a movie with us, have been to Europe hundreds of times but have never been to Glasgow.

Have you managed to see much of Glasgow?

We’ve only been here about four hours, (laughs) all we’ve really managed to see is the hotel and the rain. We went into a shopping centre; it wasn’t much different from ones in America. We generally don’t get to see much more than the venue when we are on tour; we’ll get the occasional night off but not tonight, hopefully we’ll get to see more when we come back after the album is released.

On the subject of the new album Tentacles is due out in shortly. It has been said to ‘detail the fragmentation of nature and its destruction from humankind’, is this a theme behind the record?

I think that was just something in a press release, I don’t really know where they got that from. The album has a lot of the same elements that were on our EP. It has a kind of loose feeling, but with a lot of parts that are more concise, and we have a lot of ‘noise’ sections that were worked out is specific ways to sound like noise, but they’re not. It’s a progression from the EP overall, there are more vocals and the writing process was a lot more collaborative.

Everyone seems to be struggling to nail down an accurate description of your sound. You’ve been described as various crossovers of styles, or random genres that seem to have been thrown together. How would you describe your sound and influence?

I try not to describe our sound; I’m not really going for something specific. As for our influences, all of us were in punk bands; we come from a real punk background. Damian (Edwards aka Sexual Chocolate, percussion) and Andrew (King, guitar) played with H.R. from Bad Brains so there is a lot of punk influence. We tried to expand on that. Myself, I was really into old soul music, Miami ‘60's type stuff.

I wanted to touch on the promotion the band has been receiving from Pitchfork. What is your perspective on the promotion they give to bands like yourselves, and what affect it has?

It’s pretty amazing how much affect and power they have over the music industry. It’s particularly interesting to us, as none of us had ever heard of Pitchfork when they reviewed the EP, it was up in their best new music section, we had no idea what that meant. At that point we didn’t have a label or distribution, it was all done through mail order with my house as the return mailing address, all the CDs were hand made. Then we were reviewed on Pitchfork and I had to spend pretty much the next week making CDs and shipping them out. So, yes it was good for us as it all expanded from there, but it does seem kind of unrealistic and unfair to a lot of bands. Also, a lot of the bands they champion I don’t necessarily agree with.

Finally just to clear something up, I read that three of you met while you were chimney sweeps, is this true or a complete myth?

Well, we didn’t meet as chimney sweeps but we did all work as chimney sweeps. I suppose it is a pretty rare thing to do, especially in California, it’s a dying trade in a way. I actually still work as a chimney sweep when I’m not touring.

You’ll have heard all the Mary Poppins jokes then?

(laughs) well the company we worked for was actually called Chim Chimney. So, (laughs) yes!