Wooden Birds interview, ipickmynose presents @ Rickshaw Stop, win tickets (!!!)
show poster by Random Found Objects
A reminder that ipickmynose presents the the Wooden Birds (myspace) show at the Rickshaw Stop this Sunday at 8pm. As you may have learned from my post about the band, they’re the new band of Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set. It also has member of Ola Podrida and Lymbyc Systym in it. If the two shows of theirs that I saw at SxSW are indication, this will be a really good one. They have a new album, Magnolia which is out now.
The Wooden Birds – False Alarm (mp3)
Here’s the info you need to know for the show:
5/31 the Wooden Birds, the Old-Fashioned Way, Goh Nakamura @ Rickshaw Stop, 8pm, $10 (advance)/$12 (door), a/a
Buy tickets for the show. I have three pairs of tickets to give away. To enter to win a pair of tickets to this show, email contest [at] ipickmynose [dot] com by 11:59am Friday May 29 with “Wooden Birds” in the subject line. The winner will be chosen at random from all that email in. I’ll email the winners Friday afternoon. Get those emails in now! It’s easy!
Wooden Birds at SxSW
I recently had a chance to interview Andrew Kenny of the band by email while they were in tour in Europe. We talked about past San Francisco shows, Magnolia being Kenny’s ‘best effort to date’, and who really is the nicest guy in indie rock.
Adrian Bischoff of ipickmynose: How’s the tour going? Between Europe, East Coast and SxSW, you’ve got a handful of shows under your belt as the Wooden Birds. Do you have any favorites so far?
Andrew Kenny of the Wooden Birds: Our first shows were at SXSW so this is a good time to be a Wooden Bird. Every show, I can feel the band getting better and more confident. The Mercury in New York, and Union Hall in Brooklyn were both stand outs. I really liked Leipzig, Germany although most everyone in our crew thought Zagreb, Croatia was our best show in Europe. Madrid was a lot of fun too. I think we’ll wait until after the US tour to pick our favorites though. Lawrence, KS, I’m talking to YOU. Bring it on.
AB: It’s been a few years since you last played San Francisco, a packed and sweaty show at the Bottom of the Hill during AmAnSet’s last tour. What are you looking forward to about playing San Francisco again? Do you have any favorite stories from past San Francisco shows?
AK: San Francisco was my favorite show on our very first tour back in the mid-90’s. In the years that followed, SF never disappointed. Those sweaty nights at the Bottom Of The Hill are still great memories and I’d be lying if I didn’t have my hopes up for a good show this time around. But this is a new project that not very many people know about. I’ll say this… we’re all excited to play. I know we’ll bring out the best show we can for San Francisco and keep our fingers crossed.
AB: What were up to in the intervening years between the end of AmAnSet and the beginning of the Wooden Birds?
AK: That’s a good question. I was more than a little depressed when the AmAnSet stopped touring. I came home to Brooklyn and I don’t think I touched my guitar for a few months. The Analog Set is / was one of my favorite bands and it was sad to know that I couldn’t play those songs any longer.
In the summer of 2006 I started playing bass in a band called Ola Podrida. I’ve known songwriter David Wingo for years and it was an honor to play with him. More importantly, it was a reminder how much I loved making music. The following summer, Kevin Drew asked me to join the Broken Social Scene for the Spirit If tour that ran through the end of the year. When that tour ended, I was recharged and ready to start making the Wooden Birds my top musical priority. I had been putting songs aside for a few years and it was finally time to stop blogging about it and start doing it.
AB: AmAnSet underwent line up changes and did acoustic-oriented songs (I’m thinking of “The Postman”, for instance). Why call this project a new name? Are the Wooden Birds more of the “Andrew Kenny” sound?
AK: I wanted the Wooden Birds to have SOME kind of “sound” and as the percussion and vocals took over the demos, I picked songs that would shine in that environment. If anything, I mainly didn’t want this to be a post-AmAnSet singer songwriter project. So I wouldn’t say that it’s an “Andrew Kenny” sound, exactly. I will say that I think it is a happy marriage of songs and musical arrangement and I’m really proud of the combination.
Looking back, I think “Aaron and Maria” was probably the most obvious Wooden Birds song, with “The Postman” second or third. “Born On The Cusp” was the first demo I made by pounding out the beat on my guitar top so that’s always seemed like a WB’s song also.
AB: The first a lot of people heard of the Wooden Birds was the announcement that not only were you in a new band but that the record was finished and Barsuk would release it. Did you mean to have everything set like that before any publicity began or did it just work out like that?
AK: Streets couldn’t wait!!! Right? Haha…
No.. it just worked out like that. The priority was always the album. I knew that if I worked hard enough on Magnolia, that I could find a good group of people to help me present it live. I think the Barsuk SXSW showcase this past March was our first real chance to play for our new record label! I won’t say I was nervous, exactly. But the show went off well and I breathed a sigh of relief (and so did Barsuk probably!!)
AB: Speaking of sneak attacks, the new American Analog Set singles/ rarities compilation seemed to sneak up on me. When did you guys decide to put that out and what motivated the release? Is it a coincidence that it’s coming out so close to Magnolia’s release?
AK: You know.. it just happened like that. We had talked about putting those songs together for a long time. The ‘Everything Ends’ ep is one my my favorite things the AmAnSet ever did and we sold those 12″s out on tour in 2005. I, for one, always wanted to make those songs available because I’m so proud of them. Since we had just made the AmAnSet Emperor Jones catalog available electronically, it was an obvious time to make the second singles / unreleased compilation a reality.
AB: Barsuk’s promotional material calls Magnolia your ‘best effort to date‘. How do you feel about that statement? Do you step back and compare your records?
AK: There are two things that keep me from being really uncomfortable with that statement. For one, I wrote it. And more importantly, I believe that it’s true. I worked on ‘Magnolia’ like I’ve never worked on an album before. The songs themselves. The lyrics. The sound of the individual instruments and the project as a whole. The performances on the recording. When it was time to work, I worked. When it was time to step away, I stepped away. With as much love and respect as I have for the American Analog Set back catalog, I told myself that I wouldn’t stop until I was THAT proud of the album. It was a long time coming. And yes I think it’s the best thought out 38 minutes I’ve put on tape.
That being said.. I have my favorites in the AmAnSet catalog and there are moments there that I’ll never recreate or surpass. But life is all about creating new moments, yeah?
AB: The music industry may not have changed much since Set Free but it’s certainly changed quite a bit since the early days of American Analog Set. Have the changes impacted you? Are you doing anything differently this time around?
AK: When I look back on days when we mixed our albums on home stereo speakers and QA’d the final mix on a cassette in our cars, or booked our own tours and toured without a cell phone for crying out loud… in the days before bands had websites or mp3s and a pitchfork was something in my garage I never used. I honestly laugh. We were fucking hillbillies.
The question is this: what seems so proper and necessary right now that we’ll laugh about in 15 years?
AB: I read at some point that you were in a PhD program in biochemistry. I’m fascinated by this. Where does that stand now? Do you think you’ll make a career of that at any point?
AK: I left my program at Columbia in 2003 to make music with the AmAnSet. I’ll definitely return to science someday. Of everything I’ve ever tried in this life, it is without a doubt the thing I’m best at. It’s something I think about every day.
AB: There seems to be a dispute about who the ‘nicest guy in indie rock’ title should go to with you or John Vanderslice as lead candidates. Who do you think is the nicest guy in indie rock?
AK: Hahaha.. that’s funny. I’d like to think I’m a pretty nice guy. It’s important to be fair to people. I’ve met JV though and I have to say, he lives up to the legend. If you’re asking me this question, it means I must be doing something right.
AB: Thanks for your time.
Andrew Kenny of Wooden Birds, by Adrian Bischoff
