Braden Lawrence - The Districts (22/07/2015)
The 59th Sound recently had the chance to chat to Braden Lawrence from The Districts on the cusp of their debut tour to Australia as part of the Splendour In The Grass 2015 line up. When asked if a first trip down under excites the drummer, there’s no trepidation in response.
“Oh God, yeah! I’ve always wanted to come to Australia. When we found out this was happening, we were so excited. It’s gonna be fun as shit. I can’t wait.”
Braden happily muses on how The Districts’ rise from high school friendship band to global recognition has helped him avoid the money-making day job so many young musicians must undertake while waiting for their careers to take off.
“I mean through high school I had a couple of not so great jobs, but pretty much we signed… we were gonna go to college, but we signed I think the summer before college, and just started touring a bunch. Plus we got advance money, so, like, I haven’t had to work since high school! It’s kind if been, like, my dream job, honestly; just making music. We got really lucky that we got the opportunity to sign before we spent all that money on college. We just hope it keeps going.”
A flurry And A Spoil is The Districts latest full-length effort since 2012’s debut Telephone, the cover of which appropriately mirrors the title with a rotten grapefruit atop a healthy flower stem.
“For some reason (front man) Rob was thinking of Doris Day’s A Bushel And A Peck, and he, like, liked that rhythm, thought it was a catchy (one), and then, like, a lot of the themes of the album… are just dealing with losing, I dunno, losing things and things changing; not being things they were originally. Kind of things growing and spoiling. Reoccurring things that keep happening to us as a band. I mean because we’ve all been friends, well (guitarist) Pat just joined – we lost a member – yeah, we went through high school together, so the album title’s fitting. It makes sense, I guess.”
With The Districts two other releases a disyllabic and self-titled affair respectively, it’s curious to see whether the nomenclature of albums is a swift or protracted affair within the band.
“We were gonna name (self-titled) something, but the label were like ‘Just keep it simple’, because it’s a starter or introduction thing, so it made the EP simple. The artwork and everything is just as hard for us, because we like to be very hands on with everything, and like, we haven’t had the best of luck with other people doing… well actually the, we like to do a lot of it ourselves, but the cover picture is one our good friend Joanna and we just collaged it with the stem. That stuff, we’re like not, I mean… we’re more musicians than (visual) artists, so we’re still getting better at getting a consistent look. We know what we want, but it’s… we’re still trying to hone in on it, and make our band more of a complete package, if that makes sense?”
With their hearts set on an iconographic presence in music, Braden wilfully brings up another band who reached that peak from where The Districts draw inspiration.
“For the album cover we tried to keep it pretty simple, because a lot of our favourite album covers are, like, simple, and you kinda just recognize the album. Like, I dunno… like Joy Division’s art work, that’s just like a staple thing. We’re trying to keep it minimal for this one. Who knows where our art will go.”
When a band has been making music together through their formative years, it’s often the case that a pattern or habit recording is yet to properly surface. Countless bands with meteoric rises in their youth have released debut follow-up’s that differ drastically in approach and sound. Although sonically The Districts have stayed a recognizably idiosyncratic path, it’s worth querying their approach behind the scenes as each new release is constructed.
“It’s been different. The first album we did was with our friend Taylor Rice in Pennsylvania, and that was like a… he would have studio space. He pretty much just mic’d things and we would just go in and record stuff. It was pretty much all us, and we would help him mix it. It took a really long time to make it. Whereas this album was, like, done in nine days with (producer) John Congleton in. He mixed it, like, he would mix it in a studio in Dallas and then send us mixes. We would give notes and stuff, so it was a completely different concept. It was really good to, uh… it was a really good learning experience for us in the long run. We learned a lot in the long run.”
Talking about various bands and artists the guys have been lucky enough to see while undertaking a recent mammoth world tour, including a heap of festival spots, Braden concludes with an anecdote about the downside of recognition; a thing from which he should relish The Distrcits’ current freedom, as it doubtlessly won’t last for long.
“Oh man, we went to see Tame Impala with the guys from Temples and like, every ten seconds someone would come up and try and take pictures with them, which is super cool, but y’know, it’s like ‘I’m just trying to watch a band’, you know? (laughs).”
Mon Jul 27 - Northcote Social Club Melbourne VIC
Tue Jul 28 - Newtown Social Club Sydney NSW
Todd Gingell
“Oh God, yeah! I’ve always wanted to come to Australia. When we found out this was happening, we were so excited. It’s gonna be fun as shit. I can’t wait.”
Braden happily muses on how The Districts’ rise from high school friendship band to global recognition has helped him avoid the money-making day job so many young musicians must undertake while waiting for their careers to take off.
“I mean through high school I had a couple of not so great jobs, but pretty much we signed… we were gonna go to college, but we signed I think the summer before college, and just started touring a bunch. Plus we got advance money, so, like, I haven’t had to work since high school! It’s kind if been, like, my dream job, honestly; just making music. We got really lucky that we got the opportunity to sign before we spent all that money on college. We just hope it keeps going.”
A flurry And A Spoil is The Districts latest full-length effort since 2012’s debut Telephone, the cover of which appropriately mirrors the title with a rotten grapefruit atop a healthy flower stem.
“For some reason (front man) Rob was thinking of Doris Day’s A Bushel And A Peck, and he, like, liked that rhythm, thought it was a catchy (one), and then, like, a lot of the themes of the album… are just dealing with losing, I dunno, losing things and things changing; not being things they were originally. Kind of things growing and spoiling. Reoccurring things that keep happening to us as a band. I mean because we’ve all been friends, well (guitarist) Pat just joined – we lost a member – yeah, we went through high school together, so the album title’s fitting. It makes sense, I guess.”
With The Districts two other releases a disyllabic and self-titled affair respectively, it’s curious to see whether the nomenclature of albums is a swift or protracted affair within the band.
“We were gonna name (self-titled) something, but the label were like ‘Just keep it simple’, because it’s a starter or introduction thing, so it made the EP simple. The artwork and everything is just as hard for us, because we like to be very hands on with everything, and like, we haven’t had the best of luck with other people doing… well actually the, we like to do a lot of it ourselves, but the cover picture is one our good friend Joanna and we just collaged it with the stem. That stuff, we’re like not, I mean… we’re more musicians than (visual) artists, so we’re still getting better at getting a consistent look. We know what we want, but it’s… we’re still trying to hone in on it, and make our band more of a complete package, if that makes sense?”
With their hearts set on an iconographic presence in music, Braden wilfully brings up another band who reached that peak from where The Districts draw inspiration.
“For the album cover we tried to keep it pretty simple, because a lot of our favourite album covers are, like, simple, and you kinda just recognize the album. Like, I dunno… like Joy Division’s art work, that’s just like a staple thing. We’re trying to keep it minimal for this one. Who knows where our art will go.”
When a band has been making music together through their formative years, it’s often the case that a pattern or habit recording is yet to properly surface. Countless bands with meteoric rises in their youth have released debut follow-up’s that differ drastically in approach and sound. Although sonically The Districts have stayed a recognizably idiosyncratic path, it’s worth querying their approach behind the scenes as each new release is constructed.
“It’s been different. The first album we did was with our friend Taylor Rice in Pennsylvania, and that was like a… he would have studio space. He pretty much just mic’d things and we would just go in and record stuff. It was pretty much all us, and we would help him mix it. It took a really long time to make it. Whereas this album was, like, done in nine days with (producer) John Congleton in. He mixed it, like, he would mix it in a studio in Dallas and then send us mixes. We would give notes and stuff, so it was a completely different concept. It was really good to, uh… it was a really good learning experience for us in the long run. We learned a lot in the long run.”
Talking about various bands and artists the guys have been lucky enough to see while undertaking a recent mammoth world tour, including a heap of festival spots, Braden concludes with an anecdote about the downside of recognition; a thing from which he should relish The Distrcits’ current freedom, as it doubtlessly won’t last for long.
“Oh man, we went to see Tame Impala with the guys from Temples and like, every ten seconds someone would come up and try and take pictures with them, which is super cool, but y’know, it’s like ‘I’m just trying to watch a band’, you know? (laughs).”
Mon Jul 27 - Northcote Social Club Melbourne VIC
Tue Jul 28 - Newtown Social Club Sydney NSW
Todd Gingell