Stephen Patterson (White Rabbits) : Interview

They’ve toured with the likes of Spoon, The Walkmen and the Kaiser Chiefs.  Now, Brooklyn based band, the White Rabbits’ are heading to Australia for their first visit to our mighty fine country.  Hitting the festival circuit (Falls Festival, Southbound Brusselton) with a sideshow in both Sydney and Melbourne, the White Rabbits are ready to blow us all away.  And blow us away they will.

White Rabbits are a six-piece band with two drummers and have been consistently wow-ing audiences all across the US , whilst also managing a couple of performances on The Late Show with David Letterman. Along with their TV exposure, their notoriety for rhythmic indie/rock tunes have opened many doors for the band and, with the recent release of their second album, It’s Frightening, it’s frighteningly clear that their first trip down under certainly wont be their last.

WATCH OUT FOR | MUSIC’s Brad Wing-Quay sat down with nice guy Stephen Patterson (vocals/piano) from the band to discuss ‘It’s Frightening’ and their impending Australian visit.

Well firstly, congrats on the latest album, it’s really great!

Oh thanks so much, man.

It’s your second album, the first being ‘Fort Nightly’ released in 07, what have you guys been up to since then?

Ah, since ‘Fort Nightly’?  We toured for about two years straight and then we’ve spent about half a year working on this record.  I don’t know if that time actually adds up to be correct but that’s how I recall it (laughs).

How does your latest album ‘It’s Frightening’ differ musically from your first album?

Um…I think it differs… let me see here (pause)  I think we all lost interest in adopting the sort of calypso, tropicana sort of vibe and in such a direct fashion and wanted to, um, maybe incorporate those elements in a more, um, I don’t know, less direct way?  I think, we weren’t as interested in reflecting the lineup of having six, you know six members, two drummers and all of that and every song doing more of what the song dictated and letting it all happen naturally while still writing collectively, you know what I mean?

So how does the collab process work for you guys? I mean, as you just said, you’re a six-piece band, you’ve got two drummers, I know that you like to do swap roles and instruments occasionally, how does that process happen for you?

It varies from song to song.  Sometimes it’ll just be your typical acoustic guitar and vocal demo and then the arrangement is fleshed out as a band.  Other times it’ll just be the six of us just getting drunk in a room and playing for a few hours and then we leave with a song.  I don’t know, but either way, it’s ended up going through all six members, all of our filters so that’s where the collaborative thing comes through.

One of the first things I noticed from your album is the prominent rhythm section, which I’m sure having two drummers definitely helps.  The drums in ‘Percussion Gun’ and even going away from the drums with ‘They Done Wrong, We Done Wrong’, with the driving acoustic starting from the start, it seems to set the songs up from the beginning.  Is this something you purposely look for when you are writing?  Is that something that often comes up first?

Yeah absolutely.  It’s usually the element that gets us so excited to pursue a song, you know?  A song normally stems from a rhythmic idea that we’re all interested in, and then we build from there.  I don’t think any of us would be excited enough or have the persistence in pursuing a song that was just really the typical strummy, you know guitar thing…a blob of a song.  I don’t know if we would know how to turn it into a song from there, at this point.

Yeah well I guess that’s what sets your music apart from a lot of what’s out there.  The fact that you do have that catchy, sort of, as I said in ‘Percussion Gun’ that from the get go it catches the attention, which is really cool.

Cool, thankyou.

You called on your friend and fellow musician, Britt Daniel, from Spoon to produce.  How important was it to have somebody that was a musician first and producer second to work on the album with you?

Oh it was crucial.  He was really sympathetic to how difficult and emotionally draining the writing process is.  Not that producers aren’t, producers first aren’t, I would say.  But I dunno, I would say he was particularly sensitive to the whole thing, especially to that whole process.  He encouraged us to use a lot of elements from the demos that we had made from the songs in the final recordings, on ‘Percussion Gun’ the drums are from the demo we sent to him.

I think there was a certain lack of ego there, that perhaps might be missing in your stereotypical record producer who must do everything, you know under his or her guidance, and that was nice.  He was just in there with us, just kind of like, I think he probably did a lot of the things that he wanted to do all the time with his own records…do you know what I’m saying?  I shouldn’t be speaking for him, but it felt that way.

Yeah definitely, I guess, you yourself being a musician, it’s always just nice to get in there and have a play around.  I mean, you can answer this for me, but the studio environment would have been a whole lot more relaxed and you can bounce of each other.

Yeah, I mean it was extremely relaxed.  We were able to do it within a month and with minimal arguments.  Full of boring stories but it was a blast (laughs).

You mentioned ‘Percussion Gun’ was one of the demos, I believe it was one of the first demos you sent, Britt.  Was that because you felt that song portrayed the direction you guys wanted to take the album?

Ahh, it wasn’t the first one we sent a few before then but that was one that…um, let me think here.  I think we knew, I don’t know if we thought that that was generally the direction that we wanted the album to take, I think it’s really indicative of the vibe of the entire record.

I think it’s an exciting three and a half minutes of music and a great introduction to the record but I don’t know if that’s necessarily the direction of the whole album.  But ah, yeah we sent him a few before then, he was particularly excited about ‘They Done Wrong, We Don’t Wrong’ and ‘Company I Keep’ as well, you know.

Okay, yeah so he was pretty into all the demos you were sending before actually getting into the studio together to start recording.

Yeah yeah, no it was great you know.  He encouraged us to use all those things from the demo that turned out so well.

That’s great.  So you guys are from, well moved to Brooklyn in 2005, is that right?

Yeah, we’ve been there for about 5 years now.  Coming up 5 years.

Since making the move, are there any particular moments that feel like big steps forward? Ones that have helped you get to the level of success you’re having now?

Ummmmm, ah that’s a good question.  It’s hard for me…we, we exist in our own bubble, you know what I mean (laughs) so it’s really hard to see the forest from the trees.  I don’t know, we were pretty wet behind the ears and after we performed on the The Late Show with David Letterman I think like we all thought that was a really thrilling experience and being asked to go back there again, we seemed to be a touch stoked.

We toured with this band ‘The Pogues’ who we’re all huge fans of and we opened up for them at the Filmore in San Francisco. I think that was like a mark of success for us in our own minds, (laughs) even if people didn’t like the show, it was still a thrill just to open up for them.  Ah, yeah.  I dunno, it goes by in a blur man, it’s hard to remember a particular moment of like ‘we made it’ or something like that.

Yeah, well it’s the rock and roll lifestyle, I guess.

Haha! Yeah, no not really.  Not really.

You’re coming to Australia very soon for your tour.  Now, I was actually just watching your performance on Letterman and it looks like you have a really fun, energetic, upbeat time when you are performing.  What can we expect to see from your shows when you get here?

Ah, what can you expect?  (Long pause)  I dunno man.  You’ll probably see that.  You’ll probably see that, I don’t know!  You’re gonna see us performing with songs (laughs) I don’t know.  It depends on how much whiskey we’ve drank before each show I guess but um, yeah it should be particularly good in Australia.

Yeah, you’re playing Falls Festival while you’re here, how do you find playing festivals compared to headlining gigs at a more intimate venue?

Um, I think I personally always kind of prefer having the indoor, night time, smoky venue kind of setting.  You can hear the noise rattling off the walls, which is a better environment for rock and roll.  Festivals, I think, are best from a fans perspective.  You get to see all these bands every single day for a less amount of money but um, it depends, I guess, they can be kind of hectic for us sometimes because we have a lot of guys and they just throw you all on stage and you just gotta go.  But sometimes it makes for like, kind of a frantic sort of thing, which can work in our favour.

So have you had a look at the lineup for Falls to see you who you’re playing with?

Um, I’ve heard a few things, you should remind me.  I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Well, there’s Grizzly Bear, another band from Brooklyn, are you familiar with them?

Yeah yeah yeah!  Oh they’re great.  I love their track ‘While You Wait For The Others’, it’s a great tune.

Yeah?  So you’ll definitely try and catch some of their shows if you can?

Yeah, we played with them at Bonnaroo this year and I caught their set.  They’re fantastic, I really like their drummer, a lot, in particular.

Alright, well thanks so much for taking the time to have a chat and we’re all looking forward to seeing your show, I know I’ll definitely be there.  Good luck with it all!

Yeah come over and say hi!

Yeah for sure, look forward to it.

Alright thanks Brad.

The White Rabbits are coming to celebrate the New Year in Australia and you can celebrate with them on the following dates (tickets available via venues):

29^th December – Rhythm & Vines Festival – Gisborne, NZ

30^th December – Falls Festival – Lorne, Victoria, AU

31^st December – Falls Festival – Marion Bay, Tasmania, AU

5^th January – Oxford Arts Factory – Sydney, AU

6^th January – Corner Hotel – Melbourne, AU

10^th January – Southbound Brusselton – Western Australia, AU

White Rabbits – “It’s Frightening”
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