Interview- Or, The Whale
Last Thursday I had the privilege of meeting up with all six members of San Francisco band Or, The Whale before their show at Amnesia. Sitting in the weird bunker beneath the bar floor, we had a nice talk about their approach to creating music, the new album, and the benefits and drawbacks of being an unsigned band. Afterward I stuck around to watch them play to a stiflingly packed, but extremely enthusiastic audience.
Deli: How long have you guys been playing in SF for?
OTW: We’ve been together for about a year and half.
Deli: Your new album came out in May, is this the first?
OTW: Light Poles and Pines is our first full length. We put out a 7” last spring.
Deli:Have you self-released both?
OTW: Yeah, we do it all ourselves, and we’re pretty happy with that. Its not that we’re opposed to being on a label, but we are pretty happy with the success we’ve had without one. There are six people who share the work, so we can get quite a bit done.
Deli: How do you go about writing songs? Is that a group effort as well?
OTW: Typically one or two people will bring an idea or song to the table that’s near completion, and then we all collaborate on it to produce the finished song. There’s really not one person who guides the process.
Deli: Tonight’s show is the first of many this summer. Have you toured nationwide before?
OTW: We did a 2 week tour last summer, and another long weekend back east as well, but this is our first nationwide tour. I think we have 28 dates. Like with the other stuff, there are 6 people sharing the work, so we were able to book the tour ourselves.
Deli: What are your impressions of the SF scene right now?
OTW: We like it. When you look around and listen to the different bands that are popular here right now, there’s such a range. For a city that’s not too huge, it’s really impressive to see the amount of music that is produced here. We’ve noticed that a lot of the bands right now are pretty experimental, which is cool, but sometimes it’s a little too much for our tastes. We play a very straightforward type of music, and every time we move away from that it just doesn’t work. The only thing we did differently in the studio was to add additional instrumentation that we can’t do live because we don’t have any more hands. So, in that way we might differ from a lot of what’s going on right now, but we really do like the music scene here.
Deli: What music have you guys been listening to lately?
OTW: A lot of Portland bands. We’ve all been into Blitzen Trapper for a while. They’re like this weird mix of Super Furry Animals, Grandaddy, Animal Collective and straight up classic rock. Their last album really moves all over the place, but they’re awesome.
...
After touring extensively this summer Or, The Whale will be returning to San Francisco on August 25. That night they will be playing at the Great American Music Hall with some unannounced special guests.
Hope you enjoy, and look out for Or, The Whale in The Deli SF’s band of the month poll for July 2007!
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