Sometimes, there’s a moment of beautiful synchronicity at work, when a person needing to write a story is contacted by a band looking for some press on a new project. And it just so happens that said group’s playing a type of music that completely syncs with you. At moments like that, you make some quick calls, line up an interview and start typing, gratitude tapped out with every keystroke.
Aquitaine’s a local group consisting of Will Hildebrandt on vocals and guitar; Dave Collett on guitar and vocals; Gerald Good on bass and vocals; and Chris Luckett on drums. Their first work released as a unit is the EP, American Pulverizer: Part 1, a self-released album that’s getting the CD release treatment at the Firebird, this Friday night, June 29.
In talking to Collett, our conversation veered between the group’s appealing sound—a blend of British influences from the mid-’80s to today—along with the sometimes amusing history they’ve enjoyed together. While all bands think they’ve got a decent story about how they came to be named, Aquitaine’s actually got one of note. We’ll let things roll as rolled...
Look/Listen: And the basics of what’s being released are...?
Collett: It’s an EP with five songs, but with a second version of the song “Alone.” There’s a word in there that’s not allowed on-air by the FCC, and we made a simple edit so that if anyone on KDHX wanted to play it, there’d be no problem for them. These songs are already on Facebook and Reverbnation, but the sound quality’s a little better on the disc. Though it’s arguable as to how much that matters anymore.
That seems a constant conversation right now. How each band wants to present their music.
It’s something that we scratched our heads about, too. Obviously, most people listen through electronic means today. Even if they have the physical CD, they’re burning the mp3s to their computer. I know that I’ve become a Spotify guy. I actually pay the monthly subscription service because it works so well. I use it on my phone and it plays really strong; I can use it when jogging, or plug it into a jack in my car. I don’t really use CDs as much, anymore, but you need at least a limited quality of these physical things, for sharing and for handing to people. Having the original source of it, you know? So we’re doing this limited run and see if there’s a need for more. The intention was to record these songs, release them and then start recording again. Then we’ll do a part two of this, which we could collapse into one LP. Vinyl’s hip again, so there could be a final American Pulverizer with all 11, 12 songs on it.
It’s an interesting time for bands and that discussion.
These days, as an independent, or local band, it’s gotta be about cranking out music and building from there. Not thinking of it as much in the context of an album, or releasing a track at a time. It’s whatever fits, and keep pushing forward.
Let’s talk about the music. Are there some bands that are consistent through all your record collections?
Yeah, I’d say if there’s a common thread that goes through it, there’s probably a Britpop, or shoegaze element. Everybody’s coming at from their own, different place, but it’s intersecting there. We have the early Manchester sound of Joy Division and New Order. Then the modern versions of those sounds and everything inbetween. There seems to be a collective meeting place. Our drummer enjoys harder sounds. I like to say that my earliest memories of music are of listening to my mom’s Beatles albums, so everything’s always derived from that. Will, who writes most of the songs and sings almost all of them, enjoys Blur, Oasis, Editors, Inspiral Carpets and he’s slightly younger than the rest of us. The sound does go through a ringer, but there are a lot of different sounds as inspiration.
To double back a second, since the music is available to hear right now, is there anything different about a CD release than there used to be?
Yeah, it is funny. It’s weird to write “CD release party.” I’ve had the thought, though, that we’re in our 18th month of getting together and writing songs. The EP took about a year to get to where we wanted it to be. The release show is kind of celebrating that accomplishment, which was this year in the making. I often feel awkward inviting family, friend, co-workers to shows. Those around who’ve showed some limited interest. Do they really like us, or are they going because they’re a friend or brother? This time, it’s almost like a wedding. You want to show off. You want to celebrate. It’s not another show on a Tuesday night. It’s the one you want people out for and it’s great that we have a place to do it, like the Firebird. They were very accommodating. We’ll also be spinning records after the bands perform, so it’ll be a chill, conversational environment afterwards. I love loud, live music, but if you’re not used to that, you can get blasted out after three hours of it. So that’s what we’ll be doing this week.
It’s a really 101 type of question, but you have an interesting story about the way the name came about, you say? What was the magic of it?
From my perspective, it’s one of the most fascinating parts of this. I’ve been in bands before and have named them. I’m a father and have named a child. These days, with the web, you try to stake a claim and an identity on the web. It’s so much easier to get original music onto iTunes or the web, so that when we started getting serious, in February or March of last year, we tried a democratic process. We had everyone write down five, or 10, ideas and then we’d pass them around and people would vote three off. So we cut about 40 ideas and we wound up with "Torpedo Stadium," which is the name of a soccer stadium in Russia. But none of us were into the name that much. In reading, we noticed the supermoon phenomenon happening. That orbital positioning of the moon was happening in various places of the world in 2011. So it’s kinda cosmic and we went with that. We’d only seen a few minor references and when we went to stake our name to it on Facebook, we noticed 10, 11 bands around the world using the name. There was a ska/world with it, then a cover band from Alton. That was starting to get a bit close. And we were all finding the name through the same reasons. So we thought we’d stick with the name, but add two letters and go with Supermaroon, that’d be a sweet way to keep it. We played a show as that, the REM tribute for KDHX. And then everyone’s bringing up the Maroon 5 thing. My advice to any aspiring band is to go to Wikipedia and hit “random story” again and again. It’s a great way to brainstorm. This name, Aquitaine, came up. And we thought we could get by with it! Now, my wife hates it. But I’m done naming this band. I’m ready for just music.
To go back to an earlier point. I like the idea of changing a term for KDHX, or any radio, play. I hit a few FCC violations over the years. And when there’s a cool song, you want to play it, but don’t want to jockey the song as it’s playing, to avoid the FCC issue. Was there any stick in your band about that, or was everyone cool with the decision to eliminate one word?
The guys understood it. They’re easygoing. Being in a few bands over the years, the people who have egos and are perfectionists may have issues, but we’re reasonable and open to logic. This one little tweak’s made people curious. “Why’s there a radio edit? The song’s the same length.” It’s just obscuring one word, at one point. Will wrote that song in his early 20s, and isn’t even sure he would’ve written that today.
The shoegaze sound seems to be getting a new hearing these days. Is it young, 20-somethings listening for the first time, or people who’ve always been attuned to it?
I’m now in my late 30s, and this stuff’s stuck with me over the years. I’m more selective than I used to be in what I want to hear and play. I have wondered if this was going to be relevant, or if we’d missed the open window by 10 years. But I think if you do a good job of a style, if there’s good writing and production, that people will recognize it as good music. Hopefully, it’ll also transcend tastes a little bit. Hopefully, our new batch will be even a bit better. And we’ll keep cranking out good stuff.
I’m seeing from the back cover that Jason McEntire was involved in this. His (Sawhorse) studio is so hot right now.
He puts you at ease. There are so many options in recording today. It’s at the point that you can sit down in front of your computer and pretty much do this. And we did do some of that, added enhancements at home. When you’re in a studio, the clock is ticking, the meter’s running, but he’s so relaxing and has such a way about him that you never feel under the gun. He enjoys producing rock bands with guitars, bass and drums and that shines through. We worked with him for the core of the tunes, the guitars, the spacey-sounding things. And they sound great. My friend Greg Thompson in New York—who’s worked with PJ Harvey and They Might Be Giants and all kinds of other people—did all the mixing and mastering. And that upped our game quite a bit. Not that Jason couldn’t do that, but Greg really got into what we were trying to do and took it to a new level.
Tickets for the release party for American Pulverizer Part 1 are $8. The Firebird is located at 2706 Olive, and the show starts at 9 p.m.; False Moves and Wax Wine open. For more info, check out Aquitane's Reverbnation page, or visit them on Facebook.
