Faced with overwhelming expectations so early on, THE DRUMS began 2010 burdened with promise. Six months, a debut album and several gruelling tours later, is the weight of pressure proving too much for these sensitive souls?
Arriving at an East London studio for their Clash shoot, The Drums are noticeably tired. Sure, they turn on for the camera, and evoke a collective ebullience, but these boys are running on fumes.
It started late last year, when the ‘Summertime!’ EP reached these shores on the always-dependable Moshi Moshi Records, then proceeded to infiltrate every discernible stereo and dancefloor in the nation. ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ spearheaded the blitz, its exuberant bassline and whistling refrain piercing the British winter ennui with the expectance that something sunny this way comes.
Come January, The Drums were Number One in Clash’s Ones To Watch for 2010, sentiments shared by all quarters of the media, including the BBC. Interest piqued. Balls rolled.
The Drums were formed by Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham, childhood friends who met at a Christian summer camp and bonded over their love of electronic music. By the end of 2008, drummer Connor Hanwick and guitarist Adam Kessler were recruited, and the four began their assault on New York from their base in Brooklyn – without even knowing how to play their instruments.
Their impassioned, driving post-punk music, inspired by their beloved Eighties heroes from the UK such as Orange Juice and The Smiths, is offset by Pierce’s despondent lyrics, creating a perfectly dissonant type of subversive pop music. Their look, an effortless mix of Fifties cool and Eighties middle America, launched a thousand style blogs to burn their collective drainpipes, casting a shadow over the band’s musical virtues and intentions.
In the wake of the release of their eponymous debut album this June, The Drums have been rendered homeless – effectively happily incarcerated on tour, kept for months away from New York in a temporary London base, from which they’ve relentlessly gigged the world.
Clash met the band as the summer’s festival season was peaking, and their schedule was taking its toll. It was time to check up on the hotly-tipped quartet to see how they survived the hype and if they can endure the trappings of success…
How has life changed for you since Clash’s Ones To Watch prediction back in January?
Connor: Life kinda changes every day right now. Things are moving so fast for us that the context around our band right now is changing every day, and we’re re-evaluating how we go about things every day.
Jacob: We put our record out, and that’s been the main thing for us all along; we couldn’t wait to get that out. It is hard to tell what a band is all about off of just one EP. Certainly, the ‘Summertime!’ EP is very thematic, and it kind of has its novelties, but I think the album represents what The Drums really are and I think that people really understand it now. For so long in interviews we were just trying to explain ourselves and explain that we weren’t just hanging out at the beach all day and that was really more of a concept or an idea that didn’t have much to do with us.
You were surrounded by hype over here from when you first emerged. Did you have any control over that attention?
Connor: Hype is a really funny thing. It’s really silly. It’s such a fleeting thing, you know? It doesn’t have much to do with what we’re doing. We have such a specific concept for what we’re doing, and just the fact that we’re so busy, it sort of prevents us from really being fully aware of what’s actually going on. We can’t really be objective to it.
Jonathan: This band started with the idea of just doing what we wanted to do for ourselves, and we didn’t have any interest in what other people thought or how other people would feel about what we were doing. We’ve just got to be conscious of not being conscious of what people are thinking or what people are saying and just try to stay as incubated as possible, and just forget how to be cool, forget the trends and the fads.
What advice would you give to that next band that’s got to come and live through that hype?
Adam: Keep your heads down, for sure, and don’t lose sight of your vision. I think it’s really easy if things start coming your way – opportunities, this and that – for your original ideas to just get watered down completely. It’s so easy. So hopefully whatever band it is, is lucky enough to have as strong a bond as us four do, and as strong a vision and a love for integrity to get through it.
The upbeat nature of The Drums’ music is countered by the melancholy lyrics that you write. Do you not write optimistic songs because you can’t or because you don’t want to?
Jonathan: Well, I think I can’t and I don’t want to, and I think I don’t want to because I can’t. It would be very strange for me to write a song that was purely happy. I don’t understand how anyone can relate to a song like that – I’ve certainly never been able to. I think if I set out to write a happy song and actually pulled it off, it would be the most insincere thing that I could write, you know? I’ve always naturally been drawn to the more melancholy and sad part – like, the bands that I listen to, the songs that I love, the movies that I love, the photos that I love all have this eternal sadness woven throughout them in some way, shape or form. I can’t relate to people who don’t have a single question or a single concern or a single problem; I just feel like they’re not alive or something, they have no soul.
You all admitted that your musical knowledge upon forming was very basic and were still learning your instruments. As you become more proficient, do you notice a discernible difference in the songs?
Jacob: In some ways, I suppose, but in other ways not really. I can’t speak for the other guys, but for me personally I couldn’t play the guitar when we started this band and I still technically can’t. I can’t play a single chord, I can’t play a song that isn’t The Drums’ songs – I think that I’ve got better at playing The Drums’ songs, but on the guitar I don’t think I ever do anything terribly impressive. But to me, the idea of musicianship has never been important. I could care less if you’re doing a good job… As long as you’re doing the best job you can, I think that’s almost good enough. If you really care about musicianship and technical skills, go see an orchestra play or something. The point of a band is to have character and personality and I think both of those attributes come from imperfection.
Jonathan, you were brought up in a strict religious house and were not allowed to listen to music. Is this where your back-to-basics ethos comes from, as essentially you’re starting from the beginning?
Jonathan: Yeah, I wasn’t able to listen to bands that I wanted to listen to. I mean, I did what every teenage boy does and did it anyways, but I’d have to be a little bit clever about how I did it. I think my first introduction to that whole world of music, what started the whole thing, was this band out of Orange County, California, called Joy Electric. Their first album, ‘Melody’, really changed my life. To this day I reference that album and I think it’s a masterpiece in its own right. It’s eighteen songs and they’re all short and sweet and beautiful and melancholy and sad. The guy who wrote the songs paid great attention to melody, and made the most beautiful classic sad pop melodies. I’d recommend that to anyone. So, of course, I was thirteen or fourteen and I just became absolutely obsessed – I’d never heard anything like it – so anything that this guy said in any interviews that I read I would just take it as gospel.
In one interview he was talking about The Smiths and called them the greatest band in the world, so of course I ran out and bought their ‘Greatest Hits’. From then on I really fell in love with music. Naturally I found Orange Juice pretty soon after that, and then you find The Wake, and it just goes deeper and deeper. So that’s kind of how all of that started, and the whole time I had to keep it under wraps at home. While most boys were hiding Playboy under their mattress I was hiding vinyl.
It’s been a very busy summer for you. Are you enjoying the nomadic lifestyle?
Jonathan: Um…it’s…I dunno. It’s great, but it’s very very very busy, and everyone that we come in contact with us that works with us, we hear the same thing from all of them: they’ve never worked with a band that works this hard! (Laughs) To us, all we know is what we’re doing – we don’t compare ourselves to other bands because we don’t know what other bands are doing – we don’t know how hard anyone is really working, but when we hear the same thing from every rep in every different territory, then we start thinking like, ‘Are we working too hard? Is this too crazy? Is someone pulling the wool over our eyes and telling us this is normal?’ (Laughs) So yeah, it’s been a pretty intense year, but we’re just so grateful.
Is there anything you’d like to achieve before the year’s end?
Jonathan: I’ve been thinking a lot about the second album – I think I’m ready to write some songs. So I think in the next couple of weeks I’ll probably try and start some of that.
Can we expect to hear any changes on The Drums’ second album?
Connor: No, we don’t want to do a whole lot of change. What’s exciting us is songs, not stylistic stuff. Stylistically and sonically and production-wise, the album will sound pretty similar to this one, just with new songs. If something new comes along and we think it feels good we’ll go with it. We’re not gonna shun anything new just because it’s new, but at the same time we’re firm believers in if it’s not broke don’t fix it.
Do you think there may be a glimpse of happiness in the new songs?
Jonathan: Not yet, but never say never!
Words by Simon Harper
Photos by Jake
Watch videos of The Drums following their performance at Clash’s 50th issue birthday party HERE, and backstage at the Glastonbury festival 2010 HERE.
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Clash Magazine Issue 53
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