Crystal Stilts Interview

Here's an interview Jonathan (Music Director) and I (Promotions Director) did a while ago. Better late than never. Learn here about alumni that are now in great bands. You, too, can be famous.

Frankie Rose, drummer: I'll interview you. So do you go to NYU then? 

Jonathan: ...Gallatin 

Andy Adler, bassist: I didn't go to Gallatin, but I took a lot of classes in Gallatin. And a lot of my friends were in Gallatin. And in the big graduation I sat with Gallatin because my friends were there. And my friend Kevin who was there left graduation to get soda and fries, it was cool. 

Frankie: So who are you here to see tonight, anyone in particular? 

Jonathan: I like Crystal Stilts.

A: Overrated 

Frankie: And you? 

Kayla: Same thing. 

Kayla: So you guys are going to Europe? 

Frankie: We are, we're going back to Europe for two weeks, we're gonna do Primavera and Dot to Dot festival. 

A: It'll be cool, we're playing with Comet Gain and The Bats in London. So I'm really stoked about that. They're like my favorite band in the world so pretty psyched about that.  

J: Have you been there before? 

A: Yeah we did a few months ago, for too long, it was like 40 days. The food is so much better, they treat you really nice in Europe. 

F: The thing is it's a lot of bread and cheese, a LOT of bread and cheese, which is Andy's favorite thing, but me I got kind of sick of it and still haven't really gotten over it. 
 

J: I hear shows end earlier in Europe, is that true? 

A: In England it seems like the show's end earlier, and in France. In Austria it's kind of later. But on the whole yeah. 

K: So what is your band spinning, what do you all listen to in the van? 

A: Right now in our van we have two CD players and a tape player, none of which work and a cigarette power thing that doesn't work so we're only listening to the radio.

J: European radio? 

A: In Europe we could listen to things, in Europe we rented a van. I guess we didn't listen to as much radio as we would have liked in Europe. It would have been fun to explore more European radio. I think a lot of countries have rules about having...like in France I know they have rules about playing a certain percentage of French music. 

A: Really. Awesome. Bonjour? 

J: Comment ca va? 

A: Ca va bien, et vous? ... That's the extent of my French. 

K: I watched 30 Rock today and they spoke faux french. 

A: Which episode of 30 Rock? 

K: The one about Tracy quitting but then that guy got him to come back, what's the guy's name, the old guy with gray hair?  

A: Alec Baldwin? 

K: Yeah, obviously! He was from my same home town, I would just see him in coffee shops.  

J: What's your favorite show you've played, as Crystal Stilts? 

A: Playing with Comet Gain was pretty awesome, recently we played 3 shows with them. 

A: This is Kyle 

J: What does Kyle do? 

A: Kyle, where did you go to college? 

Kyle Forester, keyboard: I went to a college called NYU. 

A: Yeah you did. 

(inaudible)

J: I don't know who Matt Pinfield is. 

A: He did Alternative Nation, 120 Minutes. He would always overexplain bands, to prove that he knew what he talking about. “This is...this is whatever they're on Merge records, which is run by Mac from Superchunk, because I know about music.” But I like him, seems like a nice guy.  Little known fact about Matt Pinfield.  His first MTV appearance was not on 120 Minutes, it was on the first season of the Real World when Andre's band Raindance goes into some New Jersey station, and the interviewer was Matt Pinfield. That was his first appearance on MTV. Little known fact. 

(inaudible)

A: We crossed from Canada back into America really quickly and the first song we heard on the radio was The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy and it seemed very fitting.  

J: Do you have any future recordings to be released? 

A: Not yet, we're just working on writing songs. 

K: Do you have a favorite studio that you like to record in? 

A: Good question...I don't know....Toerag Studio's pretty cool, we met Joe Foster in Scotland, he has a studio there...otherwise...one that has tape. 

(inaudible)

A: We really like The Clean so that question would not piss us off. 

J: How did you...Hamish Kilgour, right, you know him? 

A: He knew a record show that Brad and I worked in, so we knew him from that. Rocks in your Head, it doesn't exist anymore. It was a really good record store. I think his studio's around there so Brad knew him from there, so we played with them when they played recently. He's a really nice sweet guy. I think Kyle played on a Mad Scene record.

J: I heard Eric Copeland went to NYU. 

K: Oh yeah, he did. 

A: I had a good peer group of NYU musicians, it was awesome, of all my friends. Axolotl, Oxford Collapse, Black Dice...and Dave Portner and all those dudes. 

J: Can I ask you what your favorite Clean song is? And, actually, including The Great Unwashed. 

A: That's hard to say, it's like picking a favorite child. I like Getting Older, that's a good song. I like Beatnik. I like the Comet Gain cover of Beatnik. Hold On To The Rail, that's a good Clean and Great Unwashed song.  

K: I was thinking of an old Slumberland thing but then I got confused with the Flying Nun stuff.

A: Slumberland's good too. 

K: (inaudible) You know that old ten inch, or twelve inch? I want to listen to that all the time. 

A: I like the albums best, I like Bust 'em Green. That's my favorite record that any of those people was ever involved in. I like the Coachwhips and Sic Alps and stuff, but Bust 'Em Green, the Henry's Dress 45 – it's an LP but it runs at 45, it's like twenty five minutes, but that's my favorite thing that any of those people did. We're super stoked about Slumberland, that's a favorite record label of mine growing up. And Mike is the greatest dude around. He's got big plans in the works. Good stuff coming up.