INTERVIEW: 

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY - NO FACES NEEDED by Max Schaefer from www.lostatsea.net

Obviously, there has been a lot of music created by the people who have been alive over the last few years. Perhaps too much. What with the availability of Pro Tools and the like, people, at even this very moment, are most likely locked up in their bedroom, toiling away at reaching their ideal, as to what makes for a perfect record. It has gone far enough so that it has probably made you wonder if you yourself could easily put out a piece of music, that you yourself could make a contribution. But on the other side of this blade, it has probably also made you wonder what in the world could you possibly create that hasn't already been stoned to death? How could anything you do possibly be of any significance? Or does it even matter?

A number of weeks ago, I spoke briefly with Chris Hrasky from Explosions in the Sky about their music, as well as some of these issues, questions and worries, which one may often face.

LAS: So how do you feel about the way in which the recent tour has been unfolding?

Chris: Its been going really amazing. We've been really surprised. The shows have been a lot bigger than we expected. This was kind of our first full headlining tour and we weren't exactly sure what to expect, but it's been pretty great and really surprising. Things are going pretty well for us at the moment.

LAS: What is the touring life like, what with the travelling, playing various shows, meeting various people, other bands and what not?

Chris: We just sort of get in this mind set that we're, you know, on tour for a while and this is what we'll be doing, going from town to town. I don't know how to describe it, but its nice meeting new people and seeing old friends, who live across the country and playing with some bands we like and love. We're definitely a band that enjoys touring. We get to meet people that the music's meant something to and its nice getting to talk to those people. We just feel very grateful.

LAS: A question that sort of ties in with your new album, specifically the title The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, is how do you believe a person might go about living through their lives in such a way that they don't get swept up by the current and perhaps lose sight of themselves as a person with possibilities?

Chris: For the four of us, its kind of always been doing this band. It's kind of done it for us and, you know, just sort of following our daydreams. Whether or not that works out or not, it sort of has for us at the moment. I just think, if you have some sort of ambition or dream or ideal, something to do your best to pursue it, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Whoever you come across, whomever you meet, just try and be a nice person and be a good person. For us that's how we try to live our lives and we appreciate some of the nice things and the good things that have happened to us. Try and keep those in the forefront and, you know, I just think that has an affect on how we view the world, I suppose.

LAS: Is there something special about artistic expression? Since I know of many people who hold it as kind of that which keeps them going or it at least plays a significant role in their lives.

Chris: If you have a way to express your thoughts or your feelings, I think that's so important. Whether its writing or music or painting, or whatever, whatever anyone does to express themselves. I think that's just so important, regardless of whether or not they have an audience for it or not. Something that's kind of your contribution to the world. I just think art, performing art or making art or whatever, it just helps someone feel that they're actually there, that there actually creating something. Whether or not anyone sees it or not. Obviously its nice if people do, but I think just the process of creating something, coming up with an idea, seeing it through is really important. For me anyways, I know for the other guys, it's a really important part of our lives and a way to sort of focus our lives to some extent. I think its important for people to have a way to express themselves because if they don't it can be easy to just sort of feel lost and alone.

LAS: On your second album, the song "Have You Passed Through This Night" has that spoken word sample, with the person sort of contemplating their life and the lives of others. I'm just wondering, do you believe that people have to go through a dark phase, or that there's some truth to salvation through suffering?

Chris: The sample is from "The Thin Red Line," which is this movie from a few years ago that we all love. I think its just sort of about the way we look at it, where you see these horrible dark things going on in the world but you can also recognize that there is this beauty and there is this glory to life and Why can't the two come to terms with each other? There is all this beauty in the world, Why can't it always be this way? Its just something everybody sort of thinks about. Like something horrible happens to you, and you ask Why is this happening to me? why does it have to be this way? Were all just human beings, why cant things work out the way, I think everyone in there hearts feels it should work out? I think that's what it is, its this song about this question that at some point everyone deals with. No matter what it is, a war or someone's mom dying in a car accident. Just sort of why is this darkness happening to me or to the world and how can we break through it to something beautiful that we know exists, but isn't always present.

LAS: How do you believe the future for people might end up, do you believe in what you might call ‘happy endings' or rather that there is never any satisfaction in life?

Chris: I guess we sort of believe in happy endings, and always hope for happy endings. I guess in life there is never a fully happy ending, because a human beings life is so complicated and so full of pain and everything. I guess if all we can really look at is our own lives and I would say that I hope there's happy endings. I realize that me as a human being on this planet, that I pretty much have a better off life than the majority people on this planet, that's for sure. If you asked someone living in the desert in Afghanistan if there were happy endings, I don't know what that someone would say. But I like to believe that I suppose. But I don't know.

LAS: Okay, getting back to your last album, I was wondering how the recording process and the writing of the material went for your new album?

Chris: It was a little easier for us this time I think, because we were a little less nervous. We felt that over the last few years we sort of figured out what it is were doing. And also the guy we recorded it with, we just really, really worked well with him and hit it off really well with him. It was very easy to sort of talk to him about how we wanted things to be or how we wanted the sound. We wouldn't have to say much. He would kind of know what we meant or he would even be like, Well I have an idea for this and he'd do something or he'd mix it in a certain way. Nine times out of ten it was, Oh that's perfect and Oh, we love that and we'd never even thought of it in that way. So it was definitely a very different feeling.

But we are always kind of intimidated by recording, because when you're a band on an indie label you don't have unlimited resources to sort of spend a month in a studio. So your always watching the clock and saying okay we got to get this right. It can be kind of frustrating and its such a much more sterile environment than playing live where you can let go and if one of fluffs something it doesn't really matter. Whereas recording everything has to be played just right or you at least want it to be. But the recording on this record was a lot easier for us.

LAS: Before you actually write the music do you know already what it is you wish to convey?

Chris: The writing process is kind of nebulous in a way. There's no formula to how we come up with a song. Its always kind of a little bit scary when we start writing this stuff because its not like, Well we can do it like we used to do it and we'll start with this and start with this. We just start with blank slate and everyone kind of shrugs their shoulders and gets frustrated for days on end or weeks on end until we start scratching away and something that makes sense to us starts happening.

We kind of have general themes that we look towards, to like Okay we have an idea for this song, lets try and make this song sound like this or correspond to this little storyline we've created in our head. Most of the time its a pretty long and rather frustrating process for us, but occasionally songs come about really quickly without much thought at all. But generally it doesn't work that way. It's pretty arduous, I suppose.

LAS: Do you believe in experimenting with your music, changing your sound or is it just about doing what you do well?

Chris: Its weird we never even think about those things, like we never go into writing with a conscious decision to like well lets depart from what we did previously and try something new. I don't think that ever occurs to us. Its just sort of what comes out and makes sense to us then that's it. With this album we didn't have any interest or thought really about, okay we want to make this drastically different from the last record. I think it kind of ended up turning out with a different kind of feeling than the last record to some extent. But as for the need of conscious decision to do that, you know, it's never been really a part of it. The environment we were in at that point or what context at that point just sort of determined how the songs turned out. We sort of try not to put too much premeditated thought into it because whenever we do try something like that it never works, it always ends up not feeling right to us.

LAS: On your first album is How strange, Innocence, I heard it was probably going to be made available once again?

Chris: Yeah, a friend of ours in Austin pressed some vinyl copies that we have with us on this tour and then sometime next year were going to re-release it with new artwork and re-mastered and all that kind of thing. Which is weird because it was something we hesitated to do for a long time. Not because we don't like the songs from that record. But they seem very distant to us, not in a cold way, it just seems like that time in our lives is done and those songs are kind of in the past. We don't play those songs live anymore although we might start playing a couple of them that we kind of talked about being interested in playing again. I don't know, enough people have expressed interest that they really wanted to hear this album. We've finally gotten over any embarrassment we've had about it and just thought, you know, this is what we sounded like at this time, this is who we were, this is an honest expression of what we were doing at this time. We just wanted to make it available again and people seem to like it. Some parts of some of the songs make us all cringe. But I think we still remember the feelings we had when working on these songs. We all feel very past those songs, at the same time, we all have a warm place in our hearts for those songs. That's why we kind of wanted to re-release it in some manner.

LAS: What kind of relationship do all of you in the band have with one another?

Chris: It's pretty good, we're all pretty much best friends. If we didn't essentially love each other like brothers we wouldn't do the band anymore. We're all very good friends, its pretty amazing to be in that position because I don't know if its always like that with bands. If our friendship is affected in any way than in our eyes the band is over. We're all close and see each other pretty much all the time. If we're not on tour together were hanging out playing scrabble or basketball or seeing movies. Tight-nit group I guess, which is nice.

LAS: Don't you all have a tattoo of some sort somewhere along your arm or wrist?

Chris: Yeah, the angel of the cover of the last record. Yeah, on one of the band members birthday so we all got that tattooed on our wrist, almost like blood brothers sort of thing. It was kind of silly but at the same time I think it solidified this bond we have. Like I said we're very close and I love all those guys and hopefully, I guess, the tattoos are kind of a symbol of that. It was kind of right before our previous album came out, it was like, Well here we go guys, we're going to try our best at this and dedicate ourselves to this as much as we can and wish for the best. Also, its kind of this reminder, you know, when I'm seventy years old I'll have this symbol on my arm, like this was an important part of my life that effected me pretty strongly and I wont ever forget it.

LAS: I was always wondering, the title from your second album, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever, does it have any sort of special meaning?

Chris: We heard about this documentary film that was called Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die and then we found out that that film didn't exist or we had gotten the title wrong and that title always stuck with us. In terms of what that kind of meant to us, again tying in to everything we try to do is sort of the idea of the way human life is at one time totally miserable and horrible and at other times beautiful and wonderful and joyous. It kind of ties in with that and how we try to approach the music with a dark and ominous kind of feeling but also a very triumphant sort of feeling. That title, without having a specific meaning to us, it sort of clicked and I think that's how we work in general, whatever sort of feels right. Which is kind of the same with the new album The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, you know, it is sometimes, but sometimes it isn't.

LAS: Is there anything in the future that you're looking specifically forward to?

Chris: Yeah, this next year, a lot more touring. We're going back to Europe in January for about two or three months. Then I guess, tour the US and Canada again. We were in Japan a couple of months ago and I guess we'll be going back there. I think this next year were just very much looking forward to touring, being able to see the world, because its something we really love to do and just feel incredibly lucky about. But at the same time when your on tour you also look forward to going home and seeing your friends and seeing your dogs and cats and just getting back to your normal life. But I would say mostly were just definitely very excited about what's happening for us right now and hopefully it will continue. Yeah, always wish for the best I guess.