We Are Scientists – Huffy

By starrymag | October 7, 2021

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) I’d say that it’s all the best parts of pop music (big hooks, danceable beats, beautiful performers) mixed with the best parts of punk (gonzo energy, nasty guitar tones, good boots and high-kicks).

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Oh, man. I don’t even know where to start. The Beatles, Weezer, Cyndi Lauper, Pavement, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, Curtis Mayfield, The Velvet Underground, White Zombie, Kool And The Gang, Selena Gomez.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Handshake Agreement.” What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) Well, the song itself is about online opinion-spouting and about how much it generally rankles me, and about how much I’d like to go online myself and unleash a rant against social media bigmouths so withering and incisive that they’d all apologize and stop tweeting and writing their Substacks and would shut down their Patreon accounts or whatever, and then the Internet could just be all pictures of cats and videos of people hurting themselves, which is as it should be.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) Well, it kind of substantiates the fantasy that I’m sure most artists have of being able to confront their critics in real-time. Part of what makes social media such a shitstorm is that anyone can dump their crummy opinion out there with impunity — it’s delicious to imagine shutting down blowhards, like Beef Harmoney, face-to-face. On the other hand, we acknowledge that we’re not above reproach, ourselves — Keith Murray is a real piece of crap, in the video (if not in real life).

 

Q) What is your song writing process?  Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) My process usually involves messing around with music and lyrics, simultaneously. As I’m trying out melodies, I’m usually throwing out random words or even nonsense syllables and then kind of using them as Rorschach blots, seeing what concepts they evoke or whatever. It’s all pretty free-associative and never very planned out, ahead of time.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) Our production involvement has been an evolving process. When we worked with Ariel Rechtshaid on our first three records, we left all of the production up to him. The results were great because dude is a genius, but recording was often fairly boring for us – we’d essentially be there to deliver our performances and that would be it. These days, though, we produce our albums ourselves. The demos we make are always extremely in-depth and involved, these days, so it makes sense for us to just see that through, on our own, and self-produce the final products.

 

Q) “Handshake Agreement” is featured on your upcoming album HUFFY. What are some themes you will explore on the album?

 

A) The album covers it all, really: love, hate, philosophy, blossoming romance, soured relationships, rotten opinions, beer, margaritas, tiki cocktails, red wine, white wine, rosé, sparkling wine – all the important parts of human existence.

 

Q) In what ways did you approach creating HUFFY similarly or differently from albums of the past?

 

A) Well, this was the first record we’d produced entirely on our own, so we really wanted to up our game. We wrote a zillion songs for this thing, and recorded way more than we usually do for a record, and we really pushed ourselves with the arrangements and production.  It would have been embarrassing if we’d made this record ourselves and it weren’t our best ever album. But, fortunately, we have nothing to worry about, on that count.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

 

A) I mean, our favorite *shows* are usually in the UK — we’ve got a great fan base there and they usually infuse the venues with electric energy. Our favorite places to perform, though, are Spain (great beaches), Paris (awesome wine and cheese), San Francisco (killer burritos), Italy (crazy pasta) and Bali (duh).

 

Q) With concerts returning, what have you missed most about being on stage?

 

A) I mainly miss the vibe of being at a great party, which is generally what we try to evoke at our shows. I haven’t been to a great party in two years, so we’ll have to bring that party HARD when we get back on the road.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) I’ve been listening to the new Wolf Alice a bunch. I’m partial to their early, more raucous stuff, but they’re masters of creating vibes on their albums and this latest one doesn’t skimp on the vibe-delivery. It’s super blissed out and Ellie’s voice has somehow only gotten better and better and Joff’s guitar atmospherics are more expansive and badass. They’re just kind of a band that I *want* to win, so I’m always psyched when they knock it out of the park.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A)We’ve always been pretty active at creating a pretty singular worldview with our media — our website was nominated against a bunch of corporate media sites at the NME awards in the mid-aughts (if I recall correctly, they ended up giving it NME.com, which smacks dangerously of prideful myopia).  Anyway, social media is a pretty good way of spewing our weirdo schtick directly to our fans, whereas we used to have to do through mediating corporations like MTV, or Rolling Stone, or the award-winning NME.com.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) You are a smart person with impeccable taste!

 

 

 

 

All Questions Answered By Keith Murray