TUNED UP Special: The Wind and the Sea interview

By Ryan G

Credit - The Wind and the Sea facebook page

Credit – The Wind and the Sea facebook page

This is one of the more fun interviews IATU has taken part in thus far. The Wind and the Sea is an extremely talented band that’s been flying under the radar for a while – but hopefully the tide will begin to turn this year. IATU will be covering them as they open for Anderson Cale and Fashion Week in Columbus Friday, January 31st. I sat down with Adam, Phil and David from the band and talked alcohol, music philosophy, and a shocking disappointing live band below:

Ryan: What drink would go well with listening to The Wind and the Sea?

*Laughter*

Phil: I would say, probably a Bulleit Bourbon .

Adam: Or a gin and tonic.Phil: Or Black labels if you’re on a budget. But, I think the general drink of The Wind and the Sea would be a neat Bulleit.

Ryan: If you had to describe the sound of The Wind and The Sea to a 5 year old, what would you say?

Phil: I’ve tried this before, actually. I have experience with this. I played it for my little cousin and it scared her actually. She didn’t like it.

*everyone laughs*

Phil: I don’t know man, generally what we describe it as is um, ambient rock music, that’s pretty rude and post punk stuff, and a lot of gnarly dark side of 80s music. But, with the rhythm section being extremely extremely important. I think the drum and bass is very sort of bombastic. It’s grooving, like it’s our hope that it makes you bob your head.

Adam: Except for a five year old it would be floating and bouncing.

Phil: Floaty and bouncy! Floaty and bouncy. The floaty will take care of the ambience and atmosphere and the bouncy will take care of the groove.

*laughter*

Phil: It’s like uh, Caroline. That gothy, children’s cartoon? Or like Beetlejuice! Maybe like Beetlejuice a little bit. Beetlejuice mixed with James Bond.

Adam: I’d like to see that.

Ryan: Sounds enjoyable!

Phil: It’s kind of creepy, but hopefully a little sexy.

Ryan: Well I like creepy, so there you go.

Phil: Yeah! So do we!

Ryan: I mean one of my favorite albums of 2012 was kind of a creepy album. Shrines by Purity Ring?

Adam: I have not heard of that.

Phil proceeds to blast “Crawlersout” from said album through the band’s sound system.

Ryan: Well we’ve already discussed the ideal drink. No boundaries, completely open ended – what would be the ideal environment for a listener to take in your sound? Whether you’re playing live, or hearing the recording, or maybe both?

Phil: Well I would definitely think live, somewhere! I mean the atmosphere…

Ryan: Describe the atmosphere, that’s what I was getting at.

Phil: I don’t have any stipulations other than it should probably be dark. Uh, sometimes I watch videos of bands performing at festivals, in the daytime where it does not work. And I think we’re one of those bands where darkness if preferable. I think it’s kind of moody music.

Ryan: Just from the couple of times I’ve seen you I think I would agree. I enjoyed your second set a lot more than the first time.

Phil: Me too.

Ryan: I also felt like crap that night, so…

Phil: Oh, I remember you were sick! I hope you feel OK next Friday, be ready to take it in.

Ryan: I think so! I’ll load up on Airborne or what not! Don’t want to start a trend!

Phil: Maybe that would be the ideal environment…it has to be dark and you have to be sick…

Ryan: You’re feeling kind of moody anyway…so…you’re physical well being matches the mood- I’m kidding!

Phil: We’d prefer for our audience members to be physically ill!

David: The best part of playing live is having an audience that’s very active.

Phil: I think the ideal environment would be a basement that can fit… 5000 people.

Ryan: There you go.

Phil: On a side-note, I was watching the Matrix a few weeks ago. I want our concerts to be like that big scene when they go back to Zion, you know, like having that big party, down in the caves! And there’s this groovin-ass music. This is like the day before they’re getting invaded and they’re like “F*ck, we gotta go all out and have a good time! This may the last day we have together!”

Ryan: What is the worst show you ever attended, and why? This should be an entertaining question.

Adam: Our set at Carabar?

*Laughter*

Ryan: Not that you played, one that you attended.

Phil: You know, I don’t really know how to answer that question. I think generally memorable experiences are good concerts. And if they’re bad, I don’t really commit them to memory so much.

Adam: Christmas concert that I went to, in a church, with my parents for my mom’s birthday.

Ryan: Was it bad in a cheesy sort of way?

Adam: It wasn’t bad in a cheesy sort of way, it was good…I mean the musicians were good but it’s a Christmas concert and I don’t like to do that sort of thing, so…it was a forced attendance….that’s why it was bad for me.

Phil: I’ll take on a big gun. Not the worst show I’ve ever seen, but the most disappointing show I’ve ever seen is U2. And it felt so manufactured…

Ryan: U2?! Wow.

Phil: Yeah. You know people talk about them like its this heavenly experience. And at the time I was a fan of certain things that they’d done. And then I watched them – I stopped listening to them after I watched them. It just felt like bullshit to me. That was a concert I was very disappointed by. Obvsiouly it wasn’t bad musically speaking; it was perfect. But it didn’t feel good at all.

Ryan: Nosebleed seats?

Phil: no, I was actually in the pit inside the stage. But it was not at all what I wanted it to be and what I expected it to be.

Ryan: I can actually relate to that a little bit with Muse.

Phil: Muse actually opened up for them at that show. And that is defeintely a band that I think is manufactured beyond belief.

Ryan: And I’ll say this – I finally saw them last spring at the Schottenstein Center. I enjoyed the show very much, but the audience sucked.

Phil: I find that at a lot of shows, that the audience makes it really hard to enjoy.

Ryan: And…I know this is kind of cliche but I like “Supermassive Black Hole” and “Map of the Problematique” off of Black Holes… and those were the 2nd and 3rd songs that they played and the audience around me was just completely dead, and didn’t react at all until they played their freaking alternative radio hits…”Uprising” and whatnot.

Phil: Well man, I think that’s the problem. You know I once met a guy who said he saw U2 play and there were seven people at this bar…at a basement show where there was seven other people, and he said it was amazing.

Ryan: Seven other people.

Phil: Seven other people were in the audience, watching U2 play at a bar.

Ryan: Wow.

Phil: And that’s the thing man! Bigger shows have a propensity to make you feel that sort of manufactured bullshit. It’s hard to connect when you have so many people from so many different walks of life. Some of the people may love the band. Some people like the alternative radio hits. I think (I like) the concerts that Ive been to where you can pick up a sense of unity within the band itself that you witness watching but also in he audience, in the people. I think when those two things don’t happen it tends to be unenjoyable. I think it goes back to what David was saying about playing at The Basement or at Carabar. Obviously not the best venues in the world but its a place we like to play, because when you play there people are there to listen to the music, to have a good time… and it’s not “ra ra ra ra,” chatty…generally I think there’s that sense of unity. That’s whats important.

Ryan: We’ve walked through this a little bit before, but, it seems appropriate. It’s January, the weather sucks. Weather sucking aside – new year, kind of cliche, but where do you want to take The Wind and the Sea this year?

Phil: Um, that’s a really good question. We’ve been having a really difficult time with filling the drummer’s shoes.

Ryan: Did you lose your drummer?

Phil: No, no…Uh yeah he’s not playing with us anymore but it was something we all decided on, him included. He was just really busy playing with someone else. It was a situation where he wasn’t necessarily emotionally invested in the other, but it was his livelihood. It was really difficult for us. All of us work day jobs and in a sense we view that as a really positive thing because, 5 o’clock, we come in here. And with him we couldn’t necessarily do that. And now, we have a guy playing with us that I’ve known maybe half my life. He was actually the person who started me writing music and playing guitar. He’s a phenomenal dude and a really nice guy and he’s from the same school of thought that all of us have – that its really about the entire entity as a whole rather than the parts, musically speaking and it doesnt matter if he has the ‘coolest drum groove ever’ if it doesn’t work. Like if it doesn’t feel good. There’s no quarterback in The Wind and the Sea so to speak it’s all…I hope (one). It’s about putting your desire to be a badass guitar shredder aside and being like “oh, this is what the song’s supposed to sound like.” We have to facilitate this vibe. So anyway, what I’m saying is we have a guy that we’re working with that we love and he’s a very good guy… I don’t know if I can limit it to this year or not but I think the goal at the end of the day is to make music that we want to make and play it in front of people. When the mood strikes we’ll go and play and when opportunities arise we’ll take ’em. I think what we need to do in concrete terms, is try to get on some good bills. Hopefully this person will know that person. We’re talking to mewithoutYou’s management about playing a show at Rumba next week.

Ryan: Oh I’ll be there!

Phil: That’s a short term goal.

Ryan: That’s like two weeks [away].

Phil: We’re up for consideration for that, which is exciting. That’s a short term goal: I want to open up for mewithoutYou in a few weeks. We just wanna make good shit. I think we should probably take bigger steps to share that with people. We aren’t the best at doing that. We don’t always go out and pimp ourselves in a way that a lot of people think are necessary. I speak for all of us – we need to enjoy what we’re doing and just keep writing songs.

Ryan: Do you hope to release anything this year?

Phil: yeah, we’re in a position where we could actually release something right now if we wanted to.

Ryan: What do you have recorded? Is it demos or is it fully mixed or…?

Phil: We refer to them as demos and they’re significantly better than what most people would consider demos.

Ryan: So you could probably release them as is if you wanted to.

Phil: We gave them to Bummers and they were laughing – actually they’re really good friends of ours and we gave these to them and they were laughing their asses off. They’re like “THESE are your DEMOS?” They thought it was absurd that we were calling these things demos and that we hadn’t put them out yet.

Ryan: I think it’s absurd you haven’t put out music yet either! I mean…

Phil: Well it’s kinda fun, man! But so do we! So do we!

Ryan: So what would it take to put the stuff out now?

Phil: The only stipulation, really, is personal satisfaction. We have very high standards. When I think of putting out a record or an EP – I don’t think about it in terms of like ‘how does this stack up to the Columbus music scene?’ I think of it as ‘could I put this on my record shelf with my favorite records? Does this possess the emotional qualities of the records that I love?’ And I think that’s very important you know? I think a lot of bands will get – they’ll put something out, and really at the end of the day maybe they’ll benefit from it short term but I’m much more interested in making something we can be proud of forever. I mean I think about it in terms of a record like Interpol’s Turn On the Bright Lights. That is a record I feel like is very important to me and is very important to David. And I think ‘what is that feeling?’ That’s not the best recorded record in the world – the sound quality is pretty low actually. What’s that intangible feeling that records you love give you? What does Amnesiac by Radiohead give you? How do you make something do that? I think the thing, the key to that is just to do it for yourself, in your own time-frame. The people that have heard this stuff are really into it and think we’re foolish not putting it out and we will, but you know, there’s no need to bust our nut too early. I think being patient, and spending time on something, to a certain extent, is good. I believe it’s very good, because when we put something out it’s because we’re proud of it and [we’ll be able to say] ‘we want people to have this.’ Like, these recordings represent who we are. I mean we’re not in a hurry but it won’t be forever. I’m sure we’ll have one or two things releases this year.

Ryan: Just from your point of view what do you see happening in the music community today that is the most encouraging? Or any music business trend in general, really. What stands out to you?

Phil: There’s something I’m very much looking forward to. In my mind there’s this cycle that consists of dark side, thought provoking stuff that turns into shit that’s completely lacking substance and then I think it goes back. I think right now we’re in the period where most things coming out are total shit. It’s like it was in the 80s when there was all this bubblegum bullshit stuff and then Nirvana comes, slaps everyone and says everything that existed before is completely different now! That’s something that excites me, and I think that sometime soon that sort of thing is going to happen again. There’s too much stuff right now that producers of music and consumers of music are putting out and absorbing and that at the end of the are not putting out anything artistic, or doing anything in terms of message. One of the big things that bothers me with people our age, and the music and the message that the music is pushing is that “things are f*cked up, you’re powerless to do anything about it, so what you should do is escape and have a good time with your friends and..

Adam: …Get f*cked up. Music coming out right now perpetuates this idea that the only thing you can do is nothing. Just kind of exist and enjoy that existence as much as you can.

Phil: Yeah! I mean you were on the internet last night and someone posted “I don’t really think I should do this but whatever, it’s just life.” It’s funny but it’s also really f*cked up and sad because ‘it’s just life’… that’s the only thing you have. Something people need to f*cking get is that we have power, as living, thoughtful creatures to make decisions, and your main decision is whether or not to escape and turn your brain off as much as possible. And if you do that’s understandable, but at the end of the day is that really the kind of world you want to exist in? Where people tune out? We believe that you act according to how you think the world should be and that hopefully your actions will bring about the change that will make that reality…I think that’s something that needs to get back out. I think people need to realize that they have it.

David: In all music, it’s always been pop music, pop music, pop music! …To go back to your question – I think it’s encouraging that, you know, for ever – there’s always been lame pop music where you don’t have to think about it, it’s easy! And there are bands that like to make art. You have a band like Radiohead…and I’m not even a big Radiohead fan. I like their business model – I don’t like their music. I think it’s more meaningful – I think it’s encouraging that there’s a band big enough to say ‘well, we’re sick of the label, we’re sick of contracts, we’re sick of people breathing down our necks and putting pressure on us to do this in this  much time and here’s our budget – instead saying ‘here’s the record, pay whatever the f*ck you want for it, we’re happy with it. That’s never been able to be done, except with really really really tiny record labels. So despite the Gotye’s or whoever’s popular – that fact that those bands still exist – that’s encouraging!

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