White Rabbits Interview
Interview with Matthew Clark and Jamie Levinson of White Rabbits
Words by Brendan Monteiro / photo by Marcus Maschwitz
The new year always gets me excited, it’s a chance to make and break resolutions and lets face the fact that it’s what resolutions are all about, I have already broken three. One that I won’t break however is my endless pursuit to find new bands, and one such band in my bag of “good finds” is White Rabbits. The six pieced stepped into my radar towards the end of last year and the signal has just been growing stronger and stronger. If at this point your wondering “who are White Rabbits” then shame on you and give yourself a well placed sharp fist to the kidneys, you deserve it! White Rabbits are one of those very rare breeds of bands that combine just about everything, I honestly would not be suprised if one of them knows how to play the kitchen sink. Each member is well trained in his and all other members instruments and the result of this is a mind bending mash up of funked out progressive art rock that needs to be heard to be fully admired, yes merely reading this will not suffice, buy the album or head out to one of their upcoming shows and you can find out for yourself. In the meantime read on, it might give you a glimpse of what your in for.
First off it’s great to meet you guys and get some of your time, I find myself watching more hardcore shows but I managed to see your set in Hoxton and you blew me away.
Matthew: It’s funny you say that because some of the guys in the band actually come from a hardcore background. I would say four out of the six.
Jamie: Yeah, almost the entire band.
I never would of guessed that. It’s Frightening is your second album and it’s just about to be released here in the UK even though it’s been available state side on Amazon for some time now, how come the long delay to release it here?
Matthew: We were just looking for somebody to put it out over here and you have to go through all the business stuff and make sure that people are actually going to listen to it. I think on the first album we actually rushed getting out of here.
Jamie: We actually took too long on the first album, we kind of missed the boat because it came out in the states but didn’t come out over here for almost over a year and it kind of almost outlived it’s life. This time we hooked up with Mute Records and that is the time table that we established for the release.
The album has been sitting with me for a while and I was rather surprised with the fact that it is only going to be released in January.
Jamie: You see to us it’s completely normal, it could be another year before it gets released, only kidding.
How was the writing process for the album and did you have any struggles with the dreaded “second album” that some bands experience?
Jamie: Were kind of an insular group, we tour and are in a lot of the same circles and I think that there was tension to make a second record but we really just spent a lot of time in our practice space, between touring, just writing music. We tried not to let that influence it and just tried to keep it natural.
Matthew: I think that we have been on tour for so long that we were just really excited to have the opportunity to write again, which is what we love. We all had a lot of ideas and things that we wanted to change and that didn’t really come into the picture at all because we already kind of knew where we wanted to go and yeah we recorded it.
Percussion Gun is the first single off the new album, the video that accompanies it is outstanding, can you take us through the pre-production and the idea or concept of the video?
Matthew: Well we were looking for locations, our friend Andrew directed it and had a lot to do with the building of the set. We kind of found out that it was going to be way more expensive for us to shoot the video in New York which is where we live and so we decided to shoot on location in Columbia, Missouri. Missouri is kind of in the centre of the country and it’s also where we all met as a band and it also worked out way cheaper to rent out a warehouse there and then we basically hired on friends to work on it. I think everybody in the band would agree that
Jamie: Yeah!
Matthew: It was one of the top five moments of the year.
Jamie: And the rap party was epic and dangerous, somebody could of got hurt with the giant ring of lights and alcohol.
Matthew: The ring of lights was secured for the video and then after we were done the alcohol came out.
Jamie: It was destroyed.
Matthew: It was decided that it could no longer be tethered to the ceiling and it needed to be free in the warehouse and so we broke it free and then everybody was taking rides on this spinning contraption.
I think I might of spotted that scene on the “making of” video where there is a scene of it just spinning out of control.
Matthew: Yeah it was being manually moved and it could only go to certain point before the electric cords would bring it to a stop and then it would have to go the other way.
Jamie: For the logistics of pulling it off it was pretty amazing how everybody managed to work around the limitations of the structure itself. It wasn’t on a track, that is what you can’t tell on the video, it’s being pushed by people. It was done by 5 of our very hard working friends running a marathon all day long.
I got the feeling that the band takes a real pride and tries to achieve a level of excellence in anything and everything you produce as a band, whether it be music or video’s. Is that something that you have and will always strive for?
Jamie: Um with the first record we made a video for The Plot that was just collected footage from us being on tour and we just hadn’t really found a way to make images that we were comfortable with yet. Being a new band too we didn’t have an idea yet of what it is we wanted to convey visually. Since we have been touring for a while now and we have two records out now, that is definitely something that we strive for, to put imagery to it that enhances or adds a new element to the music itself.
Your sound seems very percussion oriented and that really comes out in your live shows, is it something that comes out naturally?
Matthew: I think everybody in the band is just really into rhythm and music that is more percussive heavy as appose to just strumming guitar kind of stuff. So everybody is looking for this rhythm and everybody’s favourite musicians and songs always have a rhythm and that’s what makes those songs great. So I think what we try to do in a lot of our songs when we are writing is try to find that rhythm that makes the song great. You know when you listen to the radio and your like “oh that song has this rhythm”, like Billie Jean is great because it has that rhythm and Michael Jackson, beside whatever you think about Michael Jackson, he has undeniable rhythm. I think somewhat subconsciously that is the driving force between all of because when we write we write as a group and everybody plays drums and a whole bunch of different instruments and so you get these different takes and styles for different instruments.
Jamie: Ironically when we are in the studio or writing, we don’t really write with the idea that we have to find a way to make big drums on this song so it is pretty organic that it comes out that way. Really the record doesn’t really give away that there are a lot of drums on it, I think it’s kind of a little more refined but live it’s always been there.
What genre would you feel that White Rabbits would fit comfortably?
Matthew: I would just say rock, it’s just the easiest.
Jamie: There is really nothing wrong with rock n roll
Nothing wrong at all, what would be your aspirations for the band after this album?
Mathew: Hopefully record another one.
Jamie: Yeah, just keep making music. I think we are really lucky to have found a way to make music and have it be our jobs and you could ask anyone in the band that this is exactly what we want to do. I think for the future it would be to maintain what we have built upon and play music for a living and write music, I don’t think any of us know how to do anything else. We have no value outside of making music.
Matthew: I could try think of another talent but I know I have no other talent beside music.
And what would be your greatest fear other than the band breaking up of course?
Matthew: Ha well the answer to that is always death.
Okay, no deaths and no band break ups.
Matthew: Well then the humorous answer would be to not have coffee in the morning.
Jamie: I don’t think that would be funny.
Matthew: It’s terribly important to us in order to get through the day.
Jamie: I could try and come up with something bett… nah I think it would be coffee hey.
Matthew: It’s the nectar of the God’s. I really think there are some bands that you can tell that if they were to break up maybe one person would do something but I really feel just from knowing my band mates so well that everyone in this band would go on. For some reason we decided that we wanted to make music together and I think that everyone would go on and play some sort of music.
Moving on from the coffee now. New York and London have been said to be fairly similar in ways and you guys have spent a great deal of time in London recently, is it becoming more like home to you now?
Jamie: Well now yes because it’s the fifth or sixth time we have come over but before it was a very foreign experience because you didn’t know where to go, eating was the hardest part. The decision when looking at a pub or some take away place and never being sure if you were going to survive. At this point though it does feel very much like New York, the same kind of pace.
Matthew: I feel a lot more comfortable this time around, we’re starting to remember where certain things are and we’re slowly getting a foothold on this place, but that first trip I had no clue.
Jamie: Now you feel like you can venture out and explore a little more but the first time you feel “if I make the wrong turn I am going to fall off the side of the earth”.
Mathew: I was like “what, my money is worth less, what do I do with all these coins?”
Going back to your sound now, I feel that it doesn’t have a New York feel and comes off a lot more organic than some bands do, I also get the feeling that you all must of had some sort of musical training, true or false?
Jamie: Some of us have but majority of the band has not had professional training.
Matthew: We’re from Missouri so I think that might have a little to do with it.
Jamie: A lot of the times in the States people think we’re an English band and people come up after the show and are like “are you guys from England”. I wonder why it would even matter and then I answer them “no…I’m actually from this state”
Matthew: “dammit, I went to school with you”
(everyone burst out laughing)
Matthew: “Jerry I used to serve you coffee”
(and more laughing)
You guys switch instruments during live shows, is there any instrument that you can’t play that you wish you could?
Jamie: You know I learned guitar briefly but I wish I could do more, I can play piano but you cant really be out on the road and just pick up a piano and it’s a lot easier to have a guitar. I’m getting to that point where it would be nice during our down time to sit down and start writing more music.
Matthew: I think besides Jamie everybody in the band pretty much plays everything. I have learned every instrument I have wanted to learn already.
Jamie: What about a Kazoo.
Matthew: I’ve got two.
What in the world is a Kazoo?
Matthew: It’s like a tube thing, uh.
Jamie: It’s like a tube that you blow into to make a sound.
Matthew: And it has a hole in the top with a piece of wax paper on top and it makes this (attempts to replicate the sound) whooop whooop whooop sound. It’s more like a kids toy.
Jamie: Really?
Matthew: That’s why I have two of them.
With weird instruments in mind, have you ever been compared to Mutemath and does being compared to other bands annoy you or does it have the opposite affect?
Jamie: No, I don’t really take offense at all from being compared to anything because music is a very subjective experience. Listeners take away what they want from music and we cannot be in control of what they we sound like or what the music means to them.
Any reference makes perfect sense, it might not be who we choose to be defined with, as long as it resonates with someone then that is what I think the whole point is.
Matthew: I think Perry mentioned the Mutemath thing.
Jamie: Oh yeah, but that was one his bands.
Lastly how would you feel about another band using the White Rabbits name, there have been so many lawsuits in the past but how would you feel if you came across another band using your name?
Jamie: I think there is plenty of space in this world to have bands with the same name, it’s up to the bands to do what they want.
Matthew: I think it’s up to the listener to be intelligent enough to separate the two.
NOTE: White Rabbits – It’s Frightening album is out on Monday 25 January 2010. Be sure to make one of their live shows in London.
February 24th, 2010
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