Kids Aflame, the debut album released last summer, is filled with both quiet moments of dreamy, sublime melodies and loud peaks of energetic rock. Todd spoke to me a couple weeks ago from a van full of Harlem Shakes en route to D.C. to continue their tour that eventually brought them to Austin.
How did this solo project come about?
I was doing Arms actually before I started playing with Harlem Shakes. I moved to New York in 2004, and I had kind of been creatively strained – I hadn’t written songs in over a year. So as soon as I came to New York I started calling it Arms. It’s mostly been home-recorded things and all of it kind of got compiled into the record I put together this summer.
What influenced the writing of this album?
It’s really the music I listened to. There’s always the personal element that finds its way into the album. But the music that got me writing again was something that was really close to me, that pulled me up out of a lot of the personal tough times. Music that kind of sounds like that to me is Low, shoegazer, Neil Young, people who sound really lonely. I started having all these ideas, these stories with these kind of angry people, so a fantasy element found its way in. Very little, if any of the stories on the record are anything that actually happened to me. It started becoming fiction at the end, which I kind of liked.
What defining moments influenced your musical career?
Definitely moving to New York. And playing in Harlem Shakes. I think both of those were really big things. Finding the nerve to start writing again and discovering that there was this other thing inside of me that I hadn’t really been accessing. It started to just turn into something by the time I started playing guitar with Harlem Shakes, and from there it was a whole other thing, being part of a unit. I started writing more for myself as I was writing with them.
How’s the writing process for a solo project compared to that in a band?
When I’m working by myself I kind of map out everything, start to finish. I really want it to be every bit my own imaginary world. I have all these ideas and I like trying to get them all myself. That would be the self-centered characteristic of it. In terms of the band, it’s a totally different thing. We’re this really democratic unit where we all hunker down around these very loose structures that our singer brings in. And we as a group knead it and pull it and push it around and throw things at it until it becomes a product of five people. Both processes are fantastically frustrating and fantastically rewarding.
I think it’s interesting that artists seem to have different identities when they’re in different musical projects. Would you say that’s the case? What part of yourself do you associate with all the projects you’re involved in?
That’s a really good question. A friend of mine actually just pointed that out to me and told me that I was a different person performing with one band than with the other. I definitely have thought it myself, but to have it pointed out verified that. With Arms, I really like performing solo – I like to talk to the audience, give them a little show, be a lot more self-deprecating and low-key. And then with Harlem Shakes, I just really like to rock out and jump around and put on a show of a different character.
What are you listening to these days?
We just listened to the new Grizzly Bear record for like the 15th time as a band. Which is just like the best thing ever, we love it. It kind of makes us like jealous and happy and angry.
Are you guys going to see them at SXSW?
I mean if we can get in, it just seems like it’d be impossible. But if we can, then god yes. Um, what else do I like? I just downloaded the new Prodigy album, which is pretty fantastic. I really like dance music and techno and it’s kind of surprisingly really fucking great. (laughing) I listened to that at 9 AM this morning. (the rest of the Shakes start yelling suggestions now) And, Donald Byrd, this trumpet player, he’s got this album called The New Perspective that we like to listen to. It’s a pretty amazing album. I annoyed everybody with They Might Be Giants earlier today. That’s one of my favorite bands of all time, but nobody else shares that with me in the band. They’re booing right now.
What are you looking forward to at SXSW aside from playing your shows?
Well, I have my day job – I’m a copy writer for a record label called Ghostly International, which is an electronic music label and they have a couple of showcases with some really great artists I want to see. We’re also playing with a bunch of great bands – I’ve never seen Chairlift, I’ve never seen Titus Andronicus, I’m really excited to see them. I don’t know; we’ve just never been to SXSW. We were supposed to go for several years in a row now, and then like literally last minute, some crazy shit happened and we couldn’t go. And finally, we actually are going and playing, so the whole thing’s exciting. Every person in a band I’ve talked to says it’s like summer camp for rock bands. I just want to walk into the streets and see people from bands that I know and don’t know and point to people and be like, Hey you’re here too! Holy shit!
Arms will be kicking off the I Guess I'm Floating Day Party today at 2:00 at Scholz Garden. Catch Todd also in the many shows Harlem Shakes are playing throughout the week.
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