MUSIC INTERVIEW: CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH

Ground-Breaking Independent Band Is Anything But ‘Hysterical’ on Long-Awaited Third Album

By: Team Buzzine

November 25, 2011

Way back through the mists of time…in 2005, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was one of the first bands to break via the emerging medium of online music blogs. Their self-released debut album went on to sell more than 125,000 copies in the US, and was both a global hit and a landmark in the Internet promotion of independent music. After a couple years apart, the band recently reassembled to record, release, and tour their latest album, Hysterical, which gave Buzzine’s Stefan Goldby the chance to sit down with Alec Ounsworth and Sean Greenhalgh at Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival in Los Angeles, California, and talk about an ever-changing musical world that they played a vital part in blazing the trail for…

Stefan Goldby: Over the past couple of years, you have all been working apart on solo albums, producing music for other bands… Can you tell us about the first moments when CYHSY re-assembled?

Alec Ounsworth: I was just coming up on the end of two records and a tour, and I don’t know – it just seemed like the right time to reassemble the band: Fortunately, everybody else was with me.

Sean Greenhalgh: Yeah, I think people were sort of finishing up with other projects that they had been working on: It just seemed like a good reentry point.

StefanG: How dramatic of a change was the recording process this time around, as a result of going off and doing different musical things away from each other?

AO: The change was not as dramatic as I’d have imagined, coming back after a little bit of time. Everything just fell into place immediately. That’s one of the things that I think makes this project strong and makes it work. At the very beginning, from the first practice, it worked, and it was not so much different from how it used to be, as far as I know.

SeanG: One of the changes that I noticed was working with John Congleton, who produced the record, and we recorded the basic tracks in a huge room in New Jersey, and it’s just a different feel. We were all able to be in the same room together with our little stations, and that was big in contributing to the live feel of the record, I think. And that was different.

StefanG: Was that something that came from John, or was that something you guys wanted to do?

SeanG: I think it was a combination of John knowing that the room existed, and also Alec had in mind a larger sound for the recordings too.

AO: That was actually maybe more John’s idea, but if it works, I’ll accept credit for it. [Laughs] It was not very much different than our first record. That was a live performance as well, for the most part: It was the entire band playing at once. Some things were kept and some weren’t – that’s how it goes – but the second record was a little bit different than that. We just built it as we went along [laughs] and made up the story as we went along.

StefanG: Is there a particular moment from the recordings this time around that stands out most in your mind?

SeanG: The last song on the album is “Adam’s Plane,” and it’s actually the last song that we recorded, and it felt like, for whatever reason on that one… I think we got it in two takes, or maybe just one take… and that’s what’s on the album. It just felt like we were playing so well together as a band, it was a nice way to end that session, and it turned out to be a nice conclusion to the record as well.

StefanG: Thinking about the album as a whole, what do you like best about this record, compared to two that preceded it?

AO: This new record seems cohesive. It seems that we weren’t quite there before, I don’t think. On our first record, maybe there were glimpses, and I think this sounds like a band playing together, which is something that was bound to happen and does from time to time when we’re on the road, and it’s more consistent now. Everybody seems to have a similar direction.

StefanG: The current single for “Maniac” – the video is pretty fantastic. We can be excited about things, right? We’re allowed to be?

SeanG: Yes. [Laughs]

StefanG: Okay, good. It’s pretty fantastic. Where did the concept come from?

AO: We contacted somebody whose films we appreciated for the video, and we caught him at the right time, and he was available and willing and able. And we let him run with it for the most part. As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t want to dictate the vision of any particular song. That’s the song itself. It’s more what this guy has to say about it. [Laughs]

StefanG: And how do you feel about what he had to say about it in the end?

AO: It’s his interpretation. I’d feel the same way if anybody made a video. There have been people who have made videos for us, and maybe I’m not the one to ask. I’m not really a music video person, per se, but I think that whatever it is, is an individual’s interpretation. Mine is going to be different than Sean’s; Sean’s is going to be different than Tyler [Sargent]’s, etcetera, etcetera. So I’m appreciative of the fact that anybody is willing to make one. That’s the way I feel, I guess. [Laughs]

StefanG: On a little less of a subjective level, there’s going to be a lot more than music videos presenting the music from this album visually: How did the Barn Sessions come about?

AO: Obviously it’s gonna come off a little bit differently on the record than it does in a live performance… we wanted to try to capture the live performance, granted at a pretty early stage in the process of developing that live performance, and to make sure that people knew where it was coming from, put a face on it. And I think the team that helped us with that did a great job.

SeanG: It’s a really cool document of what was happening at that time, and I’m sure a year from now we’ll be playing those songs a lot differently or at different tempos, and it’s just a way to document what was happening at the time. It was a long day, but it was fun.

StefanG: This new record is released independently. Can you talk a little bit about how that’s impacted, for you guys as artists, what’s gone into a release this time around – has anything changed artistically because of that?

AO: We released this and the first couple of records independently in the States and in Canada, so that much has not changed. We’ve had to switch a bit with representation elsewhere. It’s essentially been similar to how we’ve done it in the past. That’s something that, in a way, fell into the independent structure of this band… because we had the pieces in place to actually execute that. And it was also something that seemed, because we had these pieces, that it was absolutely right from the beginning. So there’s a big story surrounding it, but the fact of the matter is there was really no other way to go: It was staring you in the face, the idea of being independent, and it continues to do so. We just happen to have the elements that make it work. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but…

StefanG: So the first album was, I imagine, a bit of a headlong rush – everything built up and went by very quickly, so you got caught up in good stuff. You’ve dealt with the difficult second album, went away, done different things and came back… What do you think is the biggest difference between the band today, in 2011, compared to how it was heading into the first record?

AO: [Laughs] It’s funny – the idea of there being a big difference. It’s an odd concept to wrap my head around because it feels very much like it did when we started at the beginning, in a good way… in such a way that we can take chances, and it’s kind of like damn the consequences, more or less. That’s the way I feel right now, and it feels like we’re starting fresh, more or less.

SeanG: I think that a lot of the way we were perceived on the first record was that we were just coming at it fresh, and we’ve had the time now to develop more as a band. We’re more mature, we read each other a lot better when we’re writing and when we’re on stage… so there’s some of that innocence that’s kept, but largely, we’re more mature. We just know what we’re doing a lot better on stage and in the studio.

StefanG: If things haven’t changed too much within the band, certainly the music world in general around the band has changed dramatically over the past five years: From your perspective as an artist, and what are the good developments and what are the things that you hope will get reigned in?

AO: [Laughs] That’s a tough one. As far as the changes that are happening right now in the music world, I’m not too directly involved in how people process music. I’m still a dinosaur as far as that’s concerned. To me, as far as the way people take music in, I think it’s good by virtue of the fact that everybody can use computers and use the Internet etc. to access certain bands that they might not have heard of. That’s the common argument. I’m not thinking too clearly. I don’t really want to get too far into this because I might say something and regret it. [Laughs] Sean, you might have more…

SeanG: I might say something that I might regret also! [Laughs] I think one of the things that is great about it, is more people hear your stuff. We were in a bar the other night watching a Phillies game, and somebody started talking to Alec and found out about him being in Clap Your Hands, and they just mentioned Spotify. It’s just like a new almost commercial radio seemingly, to reach people, and that’s great. That’s a great thing for more people to hear our music. It seems to be that model still hasn’t played out where artists and labels get paid in the way that they should. That’s maybe impolitic, but…

AO: … I think the end result might in fact be a lot of bands that were once established, and frankly should be established, are going to start to disappear. I have conversations with friends of mine who have had pretty significant careers and people actually care about them, but are considering other options.

StefanG: Wow. [Pause] On a brighter note, one thing that hasn’t changed over the past five years is that you guys live and die by the strength of your live show: What elements would come together for a perfect night on stage?

AO: For the perfect night, a willing crowd. I’ve found that a perfect night on stage, after so many shows, what dictates to me… and I never would have said this in the beginning, I would have said that absolutely it’s a matter of us executing well and with passion. But after so many shows, the communication with the crowd has become much more important. It’s hard to put your finger on why a show works. We can execute well now – that’s fine – and we can do a good job on stage, but if there’s not that give and take with the audience, there seems to be something missing. And that’s the only thing that to me, provides a certain magic to a show.

SeanG: I would just add the crowd and the sound on stage is really important, and there seem to be some nights where everybody’s focused and it clicks, and the crowd senses it and we just feed off of each other, and it’s a feedback loop.

StefanG: I bogged you down fairly negatively a minute ago, so I’d like to end on more of an up mode because it’s more fun that way. What has been the single shiniest rock-star moment in the history of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah so far?

AO: [Laughs] We’re a working band. Not to burst anybody’s bubble or anything, but there’s it’s not too rock-star. We bounce from one place to another and need to do what’s necessary to get there, changing flats in the middle of Nebraska or something. I guess finally the satisfaction and the surprise that I get going to Berlin, Tokyo, Dublin, wherever, and finding that there are people there waiting for us. That sounds a bit sappy perhaps, but beyond that, I don’t know if I really care about the rest of it. I’m probably missing a bunch of things because all the bells and whistles that surround certain aspects of what we do are important to other people, but I just can’t think of them right now because I guess I only think of them when they happen.

SeanG: I think it’s encountering fans after so many years: On this most recent tour, people driving two or three hours. And realizing that, in some small way, you’ve affected people’s lives and that they really care about the music and the band, and that you’ve either entertained them or you’ve helped them in some way. That’s the coolest thing for me.

StefanG: For a working band winning the world over one person at a time, you’re here at a festival with bands from all around the world, and though part of the fun of festivals is some of the crowd is there specifically to see you,  some are independents who can be won over: What do you hope somebody walks away from seeing you guys play for the first time is thinking?

AO: People ask that question, but the idea of hoping that somebody walks away thinking something is just beyond me. That’s absolutely up to them. It’s like the music video thing, and this is why, I guess, everybody talks about how social music is now. But if you think about it, it’s always been. It’s not up to me to put into people’s heads how they accept or appreciate the music that we’re doing. It’s not up to me to put into people’s heads what a live show is like. I can watch an absolute meltdown of a live show and come away thinking that, and other people can see something totally different. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s up to them.

SeanG: I would like to convince people to go to that store and buy the record. [Laughs] “That’s a damn good band!” and get the t-shirt…

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s latest self-released album, ‘Hysterical,’ is out now.