Back on these pages are We Are Scientists. After winning over legions of rock kids worldwide with their debut album, With Love and Squalor, they have returned with album No. 2, Brain Thrust Mastery. Not content with repeating the dance rock formula, the band have introduced more synth rhythms and harmony into the mix.
When we last saw the gang at the 2007 Siren Festival, they were three. Now, they are two loveable lugs, Keith Murray and Chris Cain, with drummer Michael Tapper leaving the band. The duo will have a some rotating musicians on their North American summer 2008 tour, which begins July 1st in Los Angeles.
This is first time I've interviewed somebody twice, and who better to welcome back to this space then the handsome face and boyish charm of Mr. Murray. We talked about the new album, the balance of being in a rock band while keeping a sense of humor and meeting Bono.
I'm looking at your tour schedule this year so far, and your passport must be filled by now.
I am pretty proud and would like to tell the world now, if I may, that I am one page away from the maximum amount of inserts you can have.
That's sweet, then what do you have to do?
I think they'll have to put it in the Smithsonian.
Or you can keep it and sell it on ebay.
Well, I don't think there's a market for used passports and my user rating is pretty bad.
In the past two years, you've been all over the world promoting the first album, did you have to go on any crazy German talk shows or Japanese game shows?
Sadly, we have never been on a Japanese game show. I would give anything to be on one of those Japanese game shows where man fights beasts. I think our manager has been deflecting those requests.
We have been on a wacky German talk show. It was an MTV show hosted by a former German playboy model. The weird thing about doing these talk shows is that we have no frame of reference on how popular they are in their culture. There were times where we would do a show, and I'd thought it was some low-rent Dutch public access talk show, and it would turn out to be Holland's No. 1 show.
Before you made this new album, did you take time off to just be you and not be in We Are Scientists?
Noooooottt realllllllly. We stopped touring in December of last year. The first album, especially in Europe, was such a slow build that we just kept on touring and touring. In total, we were probably on tour for a full two years. We were wary about taking some time off. I think we just wanted to dive right into it because we had been playing the same songs for so long.
I will say that I did take a vacation recently, which was probably the first time I've done so since we started taking We Are Scientists seriously.
Great, how was Orlando?
It was amazing! EPCOT has the best Italian food.
Did you outline what you wanted to change or experiment with on the new album?
The last album was all up-tempo, dancey songs, which is fine and they are awesome to play live. You then look at other up-tempo dance rock bands come and go, so we were just interested in mixing it up some more. We consciously wanted to do more mid-tempo tracks. Also, just that live, we wanted it to be interesting to us to play the new songs.
The first album was made to be played live and it was written when we didn't have a record deal. So this one, obviously, we knew it would be on a record.
Since you guys are a known band now, was it tempting to hire a superstar producer or have one of your new rock star friends be guests on the album?
We wanted Dane Cook badly. We did a few demos with Dane Cook, but he had a very narrow window of time to record it and he went off to do movies with Jessica Simpson. Ultimately, it didn't work out.
I don't know how record collaborations ever work. Getting people together in one place at one time is nearly impossible.
When this album came out in the U.K. and we were doing press and TV shows, we had a bunch of our friends fill in on drums. Just working out the schedules of who can play and who was available was the most harrowing experience in my professional life. We would book a gig and we'd be about 70% sure that somebody would actually show up.
I think next time, we'll see if we can record over a stretch of time and not just knock it out in one short period of time.
Just get a drum machine or one of those robot monkey drummers, you know they are reliable.
We are pricing robot monkey drummers, but since the White Stripes have cornered the market on robot monkey drummers, it's tough and a bit pricey ... Don’t print that, I’m joking.
Okay.
I’m joking, you can print that.
Awesome ... Lyrically, is the album about where you are now, as suppose to where you were?
In general, it's less specifically about me. It's me reflecting on other people. Overall, there is a clear two-year gap between these two records.
My favorite track on the album is "Impatient". It's the song you wouldn't have found on the first album. It's has a big, expansive quality that's really cool. Did you have those big soundscapes in mind when you conceived it?
In general, we wanted to use the studio space to the full advantage, where as last time, all the songs were written and performed live by the time we recorded it. Essentially, the writing for this record was done in our practice space with ProTools. We wanted to get as close as possible to a finished version, but we didn't want to limit ourselves to three guys on three instruments.
Ultimately, we have to have a fourth musician on stage because there's so much going on. We didn't set out to make that song big and epic, but we knew that we didn't want to be defined as "We Are Scientists are a guitar, bass and drums and that's it." We just needed some room to find out what we are capable of.
Something like "Chick Lit" is a very glammy, 80s synth rock type of song. Was there a leap of faith in going that route, like you felt you were taking it to far?
There is a sensibility that comes in when you know you are taking it too far and you're just throwing in the kitchen sink just to do so. Guitar-based pop rock music can get very boring very fast, so our inclination is to air on the side of [laughs] ... almost making you question if that's the best idea to make it an interesting song.
I will say that the 80s aspect of that song, we were pretty comfortable with it from the outset. In the folds of my brain, this is what 80s music sounds like.
We know you and Chris are comedy hooligans. Did try to keep the comedy aspect of the band away from the album?
It does blow my mind when people ask why are our albums aren't funny. Essentially, comedy records are awful. There's a place for "wit" in music, but never jokes.
Is it important for you to have the image of the band as a sort of an unofficial comedy troupe, whether it is your videos, your website and the live shows?
I would say that it's important for us to be that way -- in that it's our general natural inclination anyway. If we started to take things very seriously, that would show that we are trying to fabricate some rock persona. In general, the humor is us trying to not be boring. Our biggest concern is that hearing somebody talking about being in a band can be tedious and boring. So, we are trying not to be boring and self-aggrandizing.
You met Bono recently at one of the Mencap charity shows at Union Chapel in London, did you have to kiss his ring and bow to him?
Yes, we did have to kiss his ring. But, to bow before him would require a vision of a man lying down before him. You might even have to dig a hole in order to get lower than him.
Oh, I see. You are saying Bono is a short man, well then. You should have asked him to fetch you a drink.
Ummmmmmmm
I would have said, "Do something useful for a change and get me a beer."
Do something useful [laugh] .... riiiiiight. [laughs] We did have to ask if we could see him and then wait for the invitation to come in. Then we had be introduced to him and he was very nice. There was a preamble to meet him. I guess everybody has to go through that because I can image there a lot of people trying to break in to meet him.
Brain Thrust Mastery is out now. Check their myspace page for updated tour dates.
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