Exclusive Interview: The Morning Benders
- Author: Min-Q Kim
- Posted on: Friday June 25, 2010 at 2:00 PM
- Filed under: music, the morning benders, chris chu, interview, big echo, rough trade, excuses, promises, exclusive
photo by brooke sheridan
They're one of the fastest growing bands around: originally from Berkeley, CA, now based in New York, The Morning Benders have spent the last year signing a record deal with Rough Trade Records, making waves at SXSW, and touring -- first headlining, then with Broken Bells. Their critically acclaimed new album, Big Echo, is a grand undertaking -- a tidal wave of sound, sunny at times, dark others, with stunning orchestral arrangements, layered under Chris Chu's lucious vocals, all through the filter of an acid-trip Beach Boys haze. Chris Chu has grown since the crisp pop gems of the band's 2008 debut, talking through tin cans -- but while his maturation has taken him beyond adjectives like 'light' or 'jangly,' he remains loyal to melody and the simple musical elements that have made up his vocabulary. A well-placed "woah-oh" here, a "la da da da" there, along with thoughtful lyrics and carefully meandering melodies, cut through the fuzz and give these songs definition, like looking at a city skyline through a rolling fog. Chu is obviously gifted -- these songs are good -- and he is just the type of kid you want handling this kind of responsibility. He has done all his own social networking and fan outreach until now, foregoing encores to, instead, greet fans and pose for pictures immediately after shows.
Below, a video for "Excuses" off Big Echo, recorded at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, with a little help from their friends. Then, an interview with lead singer Chris Chu, who reflects on touring, connecting with Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear over Myspace, and having his brother Jon join the band.
JT.com: So, you’re makin it. I mean, you just played the Fillmore with Broken Bells. Not small potatoes.
CC: Trying to make it. I wouldn't say I'm a made man quite yet. I’m just never satisfied. Just trying to get somewhere else, all the time -- get to the next place. It’s a double-edged sword. I wish that I could just be happy, but then that’s just not the way I’m built. I’ve constantly gotta be moving on to the next thing.
JT.com: I feel like it’s that way with most successful bands...
CC: Most successful people. I mean, that’s what people who are driven, I guess, have that. But I am trying to appreciate everything, because it is really amazing.
JT.com: You seemed really happy when you sold out Williamsburg Music Hall (in Brooklyn) – was that a big moment for you?
CC: Yeah, that was pretty amazing. Doing our own tour is what is the most meaningful to me. We’ve done a lot of support tours – and it’s all good and fun, but the main difference is that we got to do our own tour and got a great response to that. After that, when we did the Broken Bells tour, you could tell that a lot of those people had already heard us. And that’s never happened, really, for us, after support tours. I mean, we'd play and there were always people in the crowd who were singing, and knew all the songs and all that. So there’s just like a more… higher visibility or something for this album. It’s cool.
JT.com: Yea, just the other day, I heard you playing at a restaurant while I was eating dinner… I guess the bartender was a fan.
CC: Yeah, I was actually at a café the other day and they started playing us. Some tea place in the Lower East Side, starting playing us. It was weird.
JT.com: Did you feel haute?
CC: I didn’t say anything, no. I usually do and try to get some free sh*t, but this time I didn’t.
JT.com: So let’s go back to your first record [Talking Through Tin Cans]. You wrote and recorded it yourself, when you were just a teenager. And at the Music Hall show, you only brought back one song – and it was, for lack of a better term, Big Echo-fied. Have you outgrown Tin Cans?
CC: No. I don’t feel like I’ve outgrown it. It just feels like… as long as I can remember, even when we were making Tin Cans, I knew that we were just going to try something else after that. And I still feel that way now, after this album’s done, we’re just going to do something completely different. So it’s more like, you just immerse yourself in a new direction, and you put it all into that, so I dunno, those songs just work in their own way now. It’s hard to imagine old songs next to them. But that might change. That was the first tour we did with that album, so it was all very fresh.
JT.com: So are you writing and recording new things?
CC: Yea. Trying not to record too much, cause I don’t like to have too many demos, you know? Cause then you get attached to those ideas… But I have written a lot. A couple albums worth probably. Ready. In the backburner.
JT.com: So how’d you hook up with Chris Taylor [of Grizzly Bear]?
CC: Well, back in the day, I wrote him an email, maybe on our second or third tour. And just told him how much I liked his stuff. And he ended up writing me back, which I was surprised… I actually think I Myspaced him. When Myspace was actually still… not run by pornstars.
JT.com: Ha - yeah, like I can't imagine writing Grizzly Bear now and getting a response...
CC: Yea, well that was a long time ago, and it was before their album too, so… But yeah, so he wrote back and we were just in contact for a while over that, and he heard some of the demos of the new stuff and he was really supportive... So we reached out to him in the mixing phase, which was something we weren’t really planning to do -- we just kind of assumed he’d be busy – and we weren’t sure about having another person come in. But then I felt like we needed another set of ears, cause I’d just been wearing all these hats, running around doing stuff. So I didn’t have clarity on it anymore. And that’s when we reached out to him again, and he happened to be free. And then he got really stoked. Cause that was after we had recorded some of the roughs of the Big Echo stuff, and he was saying how it was exactly what he was hoping we’d do, and it was more realized… Cause before then he’d just heard early demos.
JT.com: I’ve heard you say that you don’t like touring. Like you don’t think it’s natural.
CC: Well, I just always say that I have these two sides to me where I always wanna be doing something else… Like the grass is always greener, you know? When I’m in the studio I get antsy and I just wanna go tour all the time, and when I’m on touring I just wanna go work on new music.
JT.com: Never happy.
CC: Never happy. Actually, I’m always happy. Never satisfied.
JT.com: Do you like touring?
CC: Yeah, I do. It’s just… What we’re doing right now is pretty intense. We’re touring 10 months straight… It’s the gnarliest we’ve ever done.
JT.com: I actually talked to Julian [the band's drummer] and he said, “We don’t even have a place to live.”
CC: Yeah, we don’t. Me and my brother lucked out, cause our dad has an apartment here, and he’s out of town a lot. But then Julian and Tim just bum around. It’s what they’d be doing anyway. [laughs]
JT.com: Is it nice having your brother around? [Editor’s note: Chris’ brother, Jon, joined the band recently]
CC: Yeah, it’s amazing. He’s the best. He’s just super helpful, super on it. He just gets it. It’s in the genes.
JT.com: I feel like he’d be really appreciative of being in the band.
CC: Well, he’s just really psyched. The rest of us have done this for a little while, but it’s the first time for him, so it’s nice to have that new energy. It helps for everyone else to have that around.
JT.com: You’ve always worked hard to stay close to your fans. Coming up, I know you did your own Myspacing, Facebooking…
CC: Still do.
JT.com: You do?
CC: Yeah! I mean, it’s getting to the point, with touring, sometimes I don’t have time every now and then. But so far, I’m still doing it.
JT.com: It makes sense, because it separates you from bands that people just listen to, but don’t have that personal connection. Say someone snaps a photo, and posts it, and writes “My pic with the Morning Benders!” you've got a fan for life. Plus, their friends see it and go Google "Morning Benders." And it spreads…
CC: Yeah, we go right out and talk to the people. Actually, on our last tour, we decided we don’t want to do encores. Cause we just wanna bring it hard. And we got kinda sick of the whole encore mentality, cause it’s kinda cheesy – you go out, and everyone knows you’re coming back. So we decided we weren’t gonna do that. But then people kept standing and waiting there, clapping, and it was really awkward. So what I ended up doing was, I’d finish the show and I’d just walk off the front of the stage, like into the audience. And then they’d know we weren’t going back on. And all of a sudden we’re hangin out and meeting people. It’s a good move.
JT.com: Yeah, I watched you sign autographs in the audience after your show, and thought, 'Kid's crazy…" Might be difficult, once you’re playing, I dunno… Summerstage, for example.
CC: [laughs] Yeah, I want to find about about that. I may end up in the photo pit.
JT.com: Tell me about tour plans.
CC: So we’re going to Europe for a month, then we come back and go straight into the Black Keys tour. The Two Central Park Summerstage shows. Then we have a few other things, headlining Webster Hall here, L.A. Henry Fonda, San Francisco Fillmore. But that’s all in October. And Austin for ACL.
JT.com: It's crazy you're playing Austin City Limits.
CC: Sick, right?
JT.com: I’ve always said I will never resent a band that makes it, cause it’s such a tough life, and really hard to do. And it seems bands now have to really buckle down, and take it pretty seriously… Really look at this like a job and stay on it.
CC: Yea, that’s good though. It’s sort of a new trend for kids in general: To be healthier and more conscious. It’s pretty essential when you’re in a band.
Bonus Video: Take a peek at the new video for "Promises" off of Big Echo.
Visit The Morning Benders on the web, or on myspace.
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