You may have caught the video to ‘The Rat’ by the Walkmen on MTV2 where it has had heavy rotation. It's the sort of song that worms it’s way into your brain and refuses to budge. They followed up this success with their second album ‘Bows and Arrows’, released to much critical acclaim. ‘Bows and Arrows’ has been compared to everything from early U2 or Radiohead to the Pogues. What is for sure is they have created an atmospheric collection of songs as far removed from their New York counterparts as can be.
After a short tour earlier this year, The Walkmen are about to return to England for another tour including Glastonbury and later in the year Reading and Leeds. Whisperinandhollerin were lucky enough to talk to bass player Peter Bauer on the phone from New York. He's laid back and intelligent, and gave us the opportunity to see how he feels about the attention they’re receiving in this country and what we can expect when the Walkmen tour this time round. We began by asking him if he was looking forward to returning to England.
Peter:"Very much so, we haven’t done Glastonbury before."
That was my next question, have you done the festival circuit at all?
Peter:"No, not really. We have probably played outside about 3 times. We just played Brazil which was the first festival we’d ever done. That was interesting, that was a lot of fun but very different."
The Walkmen won’t strike you as the sort of band to accompany sitting in a field in a fluffy jesters hat eating tofu in a tray. We’re intrigued as to how The Walkmen will come across in the middle of the day in a field, far from their natural environment.
How do you think the Walkmen festival experience will differ from seeing the Walkmen in a club?
Peter: "It’s hard to say. Every time we’ve played outside we’ve always had a great time which I hadn’t expected from us but I think we’re loud enough to carry pretty well. I think the volume helps in that situation."
I read that as a band you don’t like long tours. Is that still the case?
Peter: "Pretty much, we’re getting more used to it, we’re getting into it more."
Is it life on the road you don’t like?
Peter: "It’s the life style, we enjoy the shows but there’s twenty three other hours to the day. It’s a lot of driving and waiting around."
Let’s talk about the new album. You have your own studio in Harlem but you recorded the album in Memphis...
Peter: "‘Yeah, some of it in Memphis, in fact we were planning to do most of it there but there was a power outage in Memphis so the city lost power for a week because of a storm. So we ended up going to Missississippi for a bit of it and then mixed it back in New York, initially in Holbeck and then back at our studio, recording a couple of the songs there which made us realise we really liked working in our own studio. So we’ll probably do that for our third record."
What was the thinking behind going to Memphis to record in the first place?
Peter: "There’s this guy Stuart Sikes who engineered the record’ (and had previously worked with The White Stripes) ‘and he engineers out of this studio in Memphis and we figured it would be better to work where he’s comfortable. So we went down there. We wanted to get out of the city and see what our band sounded like in another city because we did the whole of our first record out of our own studio."
Personally I think that the new album is a lot more coherent and works better as a whole than the debut album. Was that a conscious move? Do you even agree with that?
Peter: "I think so, the idea the first was the first one was more of a recording project, we hadn’t really played live, so we were experimenting and it was pretty sprawling. I think by the time we were done with the first one we had organised it in a way that was purposely like that. We cut a lot of the rock songs out of it and left a lot of weird shit on there."
It is pretty far out but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Peter: "I really like the way the first one is organised and it would have been nice to have more experimentation on this new one than we have. I think they both work."
So you hadn’t actually played live when you recorded the first album?
Peter: "For most of it, yeah. It was not so much a band playing, we’d just play little things and we’d overdub a lot and write the songs as we went and record them the next night. So this (the second record) is more a document of the live sound."
It must have been quite weird to not have played live and have a record out and then go out on tour?
Peter: "By the time we went out on tour we had played a lot more in New York. But it was very difficult for a while, we were really bad because we were so nervous, we were really trying to stay away from anything we had done before so it took us a while to feel comfortable. We’ve got a lot better though."
The new album is getting great reviews over here in England, people are loving it…
Peter: "Yeah, we’re very surprised, it’s fantastic."
I think deservedly so. I know you weren’t in Jonathan Fire Eater (previous band of guitarist Paul Maroon, drummer Matt Barrick and keyboardist Walter Martin, the band were much hyped but rarely heard), but this time it’s a more organic success built over a couple of albums as compared to being hyped up early on before they’d really done much. Is it better this way do you think?
Peter: "I think so. I think it’s a lot better actually, obviously success is good. It’s a lot of fun doing it yourself, you fell like you’ve earned it a lot more. With the last record for the first pressing we printed the cover ourselves. "
I suppose if the press get hold of a band and say they’re the next big thing before they’ve really gone anywhere it can kill them off?
Peter:"I think it does, it makes it very difficult for them, a lot of the younger bands especially making their second record must be pretty Hellish.’ I’ve just been in bands for so long before this band, I’ve been in bands most of my life, so I can’t imagine what it would be like. The stuff that we did at the start was so terrible so I can’t imagine what it would be like."
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A lot of the reviews, and I guess it’s partly because it is the British press, are comparing you to a lot of British indie bands from the late eighties and early nineties, bands like early U2, Radiohead and The Smiths but I’m hearing a lot of stuff in there like the Velvet Underground and The Pogues. Are they the bands that shaped the way the Walkmen are?
Peter: "The Velvet Underground and The Pogues are two of our favourites. The press have to relate everything to something, but I think we definitely owe something to The Pogues."
‘Hang on Siobhan’ off the new album has very much that sort of vibe to it...
Peter:"‘Yeah, definitely that one and the third one ‘No Christmas while I’m Talking’, it doesn’t sound like them I don’t think, but although it’s not very specific but it has that kind of rumbling thing."
Although we’re talking influences I don’t think you can pigeonhole The Walkmen easily.You’ve got a sound unlike anyone specifically but rather you can hear bits and pieces while you've still brought something new to the table.
Peter: "I sure hope so. People say certain things but I think we did. We’re not re-inventing the wheel here but …"
It’s still quite fresh though compared to a lot of bands out there that are just rehashing clichés, just content to do stuff that you’ve seen before. It’s nice when a band like the Walkmen come along and does something a bit different.
Peter: "Well, thank you. I hope so. That’s what we are trying to do. I think we’re figuring out how we like to play together and make it so the songs are better. Hopefully we are succeeding in that."
At the moment there are a lot of successful bands coming out of New York, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture, the whole DFA thing. Do you feel part of a New York scene or is it just a coincidence that these bands are all coming form the same city?
Peter: 2It’s a bit of both, in a way it was sort of like a scene but no-one’s that close. In 2000 or whatever, when we started and those bands started, we played the same places and we were acquaintances. We were all looking to see what other bands were doing to make sure we weren’t doing the same things. It’s not what I’d imagine a scene would be. It’s great though, I wish them all the success in the world. It’s fun to see people that are basically kids doing well. I was watching MTV the other day, in two minutes you see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and then Modest Mouse who have just gone huge in America. On the other hand I think we’re just doing what we’re doing and would be doing it regardless of where we lived."
I was reading an interview with (guitarist) Paul Maroon and he came up with a great quote; "The most important thing if you want to be in a band is to acquire interesting equipment so that you don’t sound like other bands. Don’t spend too much time on how you dress." Which is great. Is that The Walkmen philosophy?
Peter: "I don’t know if it’s a philosophy, I’ve never really spent that much time on how I dress. I think we all dress just as we did when we were kids, I don’t think it’s something we’ve ever thought about. As regards our equipment, I think it’s really important to find a guitar you really like. Paul’s guitar is really one of a kind, if that broke we’d probably be ….."
It’s intrinsic to your sound is what you’re saying?
Peter: "Yeah we’d be in real trouble."
Did it take a long time to develop?
Peter: "I think forever as it’s really difficult to find stuff that really works for you. Maybe it’s the way that we tend to write songs. By someone having a small, little something, like a different sounding tone, a bit of a drum beat or something and we’ll take it off from there. That’s where the sound is very important to get off the first step."
Do you all write in the studio or do you each bring something in?
Peter: "It’s usually Paul who will bring in the bare bones and the band will work on it and Ham (Hamilton Leithauser, vocals) will write the singing. It’s a pain because it takes a lot because you have to have the band sounding as it will sound before we can get anywhere. It’s a bit of a backwards way of doing it I guess."
So what’s planned for after the UK tour?
Peter: "We’re off to do the Lollapalooza. Similar to Glastonbury but it tours round everywhere for about a month and a half. It’s with Morrissey, Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse and a lot of other bands. There are 36 bands and I think it will be a lot of fun, we’re looking forward to it. Then after that we’re going to play Reading and Leeds too."
All that is left is too fill Peter in on the differences between Glastonbury and Reading crowds and - as all good Englishmen should - talk about the weather. It seems The Walkmen are in for a busy Summer, bringing their unique sound to the masses and no doubt picking up many fans on the way. The Walkmen then, in their own words, are no longer rubbish.
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