Q&A with Club Scout

What was the reason for the lineup change?

Ben: We formed in 2007. It was me and Javier and one of our other friends, Jonah, on drums. And we found a guy on Craigslist to play bass. But he was in law school, so eventually he had too much schoolwork and he couldn’t really practice much or play much. So it was a mutual understanding that he needs to do law school and he was recently married. He was supposed to come tonight [to the show] but he messed up the dates. So we haven’t seen him in a while. I miss him a lot.

Jeremy: [mock disgruntled] Bassists…

Ben: Yeah seriously. And then our drummer had a job and a girlfriend and he didn’t have the time [so he decided] to leave the band. A lot of tears. Bigger and better things, clearly. We’re all still friends though.

So all of you originally formed in 2007?

Ben: Yeah, we formed in the winter of 2007. Just kind of jamming in our friend’s garage because he got a drum set and he was like “Alright, let’s play some music.”

Are you all from around here originally?

Javier: We’re all in the tri-state area.

Ben: I’m from the DC suburbs, Montgomery County.

Javier: PG County.

Jeremy: Southern Maryland, Waldorf.

Joe: Baltimore.

So how did the new guys join the band?

Jeremy: I was drunk, alone, in an alley. They found me.

Ben: Dude, that’s a lie. No lying in this, until we’re famous.

Jeremy: I was playing drums in another band. It just wasn’t any fun anymore. So I said, “Hey, I always kinda wanted to play bass”. I put an ad up saying “I’m a crappy bassist. Looking to start a Weezer cover band.” Something like that.

Ben: That’s exactly what you said. He was like “I want to start a Weezer cover band.”

Jeremy: Then Ben found me online, and I guess I charmed their pants off.

So I listened to some of your tracks online and noticed that their pretty raw. Is this intentional or just lack of equipment?

Javier: A little bit of both. I think we just kind of wanted to get it down, not as fast as we could, but at least just get it down when we could. And it kind of turned out better than we expected. Not awesome, but for one mic in a room, it sounded good enough.

Joe: It seems like some of the tracks have actual tracking and stuff. But to just get some of them down, set up a couple mics and played it.

Ben: So there are 4 tracks. Two of them are very lo-fi. When we played our first show ever we were like “This is as good as were going to be. We’ve been practicing for weeks. Let’s just put mic in the middle of the room.” At that point we were just doing my vocals through a guitar amp. And that’s why [it’s got the distortion].

Although I like music like that too. It’s got kind of a nice little energy and feel. Those two are the best that we have of that bunch [from the practice]. So we just put it up on MySpace because it’s hard to get a show without something. And then we were like “let’s try something a little more high-tech.” … We didn’t mix it or master it or do anything fancy.

There is also a track from playing a show at University of Maryland radio, and they recorded it for us. And it was pretty good quality we thought.

Hopefully, one day, we’ll have super-slick productions.

Javier: Or purposefully raw.

Ben: Yeah, it was really just thrown together. Recording’s important, but I kind of just like playing in front of people. I don’t want to speak for them, but that’s what it’s all about really.

Jeremy: How old ARE those recordings?

Ben: About a year old.

Joe: We’re setting a tentative goal to get an EP recorded by the end of the summer.

So let’s talk about influences.

Joe: Morrissey.

[Everyone starts laughing, must be an inside joke I don’t know about]

Ben: We’ve just been listening to a lot of Morrissey lately. He’s got a live album with this ridiculous banter between songs. We kind of wanted to mimic his banter [between songs]. We just want to copy him I think. His banter, but not his music.

So how about musical influences?

Ben: It’s hard to say as a band, we all come from pretty different [influences]… I really love Weezer, Ozma, and Superdrag, and kind of like that mid to late 90’s, big guitars, big hooks type of sounds.

Jeremy: One band that really made me want to get off my ass and play music was 2 Skinnee J’s. They have this tremendous stage presence that I really wanted to be a part of. I got jealous seeing them out there. So they got me out there to start my first band.

Javier: I listen to mostly a lot of indie rock. There’s a lot of bands [that I like], I can’t really name them all. I’m currently listening to Of Montreal.

What are your passions outside of the band?

Jeremy: I’m the “Final Boss” of the Internet.

The “Final Boss”? What is that?

Javier: When you’re done cruising, you have to battle him to get out.

Ben: [pointing at Jeremy] This guy is full of non sequiturs apparently.

Jeremy: [nonchalantly] I try.