Last Wednesday, psov posted a review of Vs. Wilderness--the delightful new LP from Idaho's very own Finn Riggins (featuring keyboardist/vocalist Eric Gilbert, drummer Cameron Bouiss, and guitarist/vocalist Lisa Simpson). They are currently promoting the record on an extensive tour of the States (including a stop in Austin for the SXSW Festival).
Amid their journey down the Californian coast to play a show at the Soda Bar in San Diego tonight, Eric took a moment to answer a few questions for us regarding the new album, the music scene in Boise, and life on the road.
Vs. Wilderness is such an invigorating and gratifying listen. Unfortunately, I had to stumble upon it rather than it being delivered to my doorstep. How can we get the word out on the streets about Finn Riggins?
Thanks! Certainly can use all the help we can get. I'd say this is a good start. Appreciate you taking the time. Glad you stumbled upon us. I see [ZapTown is] in Indianapolis. We're playing at Vollrath Tavern on May 5th toward the end of this tour. Hopefully, by then Indy will know we're coming.
It’s evident in the sound of the album that the band was having a blast during the recording sessions. Describe the process of translating the written material to studio tracks?
It's true, we had a blast. We really enjoy the music we play and I'm glad it shows. Most of this record was written and refined during a very busy touring schedule in 2008 and in the spring of 2009, and really is a pretty honest snapshot of our live sound and where the band was at that time. We tracked Vs Wilderness, mostly, live over a three day stretch in between shows last May at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City, ID. It's a big open room and we were able to get good isolation for the drums and really play these songs like we were used to ripping them at shows. We honed some of the arrangements down for the recordings, but made most of those adjustments on the fly. We did do a decent amount of layering some parts over the top in the mixing process at AudioLab to help capture the energy of our live show. We had our hands in all aspects of the recording process, and although it was a whirlwind three weeks, we most definitely had a blast recording this album.
There is a lovely stop-animation video that was shot for the infectious track, “Wake (Keep This Town Alive)”. What does this song mean to you?
This song was the first song we wrote upon moving to Boise in January [of] 2009 and [it] was during the bottom of this current recession. There were all these questions hovering about how much harder things were gonna get. This song, to me, is about doing what you love regardless of how poor you may be in the midst of it all. It's about being rewarded with the joys of community and the common causes that bind us together through hard times. It's about valuing the little things in life. It's about local underground music and art and the spiritual backbone it provides to small and big towns all over. It's about dancing with your friends.
Built To Spill is the only other band that I can think of from Idaho. What was it like growing up and playing music in what is, historically, such a musically-devoid scene?
Idaho has never really felt musically-devoid to me. We all met going to school in Moscow, ID, up in the panhandle (northern Idaho), and it was and still is a very vibrant college town with free-form college radio and all kinds of touring and local musicians playing in town several days a week. Granted, a lot of our friends from the scene, when we were there, have moved to Portland, OR and elsewhere to further pursue music careers. But, there definitely wasn't a lack of creative music being made around us. Idaho does lack much representation in the music industry though, and that can be problematic trying to work in to the national scene. A lot of musicians tend to move to bigger markets because of it, but we've been able to cover some ground in the industry thanks to our relentless touring schedule and playing those larger markets on a regular basis. We're also thankful to have stumbled upon an amazing relationship with Tender Loving Empire--our Portland, OR based label--as they've helped us be fairly well-tied into the vibrant Portland scene and we often get mistaken for a Portland band. Rightfully so, though, as we definitely feel like we're part of that scene as well, despite not storing our household goods there.
With so many performances under your belt, you’ve played with a plethora of up-and-coming bands. Tell us about some of those bands and the experiences you’ve had while sharing the stage with them.
Wow. Where to start? Definitely one of the biggest rewards with playing so many shows all over the country the last several years has been playing with and seeing so many other great bands in different scenes and following them as they develop as well. We get asked about our influences all the time, and although there might not be any direct aural similarities, we all certainly feel that we're mostly influenced by our peers at this point in our history--on many levels. We love touring with other bands when we get that chance, seeing them night after night and comparing notes along the way. More the merrier tends to hold true in most cases. Some of our favorites: Tartufi, Low Red Land, Jared Mees & The Grown Children, Orem The Sink, The Globes, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Woven, Hosannas, Sister Suvi, Tune-Yards, Nat Baldwin, We Vs The Shark, Man/Miracle, The Dont's, World's Greatest Ghosts, Le Fleur, Built To Spill, Mike Watt & The Missingmen, Disco Doom, Wildlife Refugees, Ponchos, Appomattox, Yeah Great Fine, Talkdemonic, And And And, The Mutineers, Hello Shark, Love That Dress, Council of Lions, Rooftops, Test Audiences, Asher In The Rye, America Owns The Moon, and many many many more.
You have this small cabin up in the mountains. I’m sure it’s beautiful up there—a pleasant escape from the weariness on the road. What does the band do when they’re not playing or recording music? Any avid hobbies or pasttimes?
We've technically moved out of the small cabin in the mountains and down in to the "big city" of Boise. It was nice coming home to the solitude of the small mountain town, but it's been nice coming home to a more vibrant music and art scene now. I like to play basketball when I get the chance. When we were up in the mountains, I enjoyed hiking and fishing when I got some free time. Cam's an avid skier and definitely does that as much as he can. On the road, we travel with a bocce ball set and try [to] play whenever possible. Frisbee too. Lisa's the crafty one of the bunch and does a lot of sewing.
Finn Riggins seems like fun-loving people. I’m sure you get around to making conversation with some of the fans that attend the performances. What was the most supportive thing someone said to you after a show? Any good tour stories?
Definitely get a lot of time to hang with friends and [make] new friends at shows--certainly one of the joys of this endeavor. Really fun to meet like-minded folks all over this country and hear their take on their community and music, and always interesting to watch and hear how they react to what we're doing. People say a lot of kind things to us... most supportive thing though? A lot of them are too embarrassing to say. Someone that saw us recently emailed us afterward and said that we'd renewed his faith in modern music and that he was going to start DJing at his community radio station again because of it. Little nuggets like that never fail to inspire us forward. Lots of good tour stories, unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to share the juicy ones. We played in a yurt once. Coziest dance party ever. It was amazing. We're playing a party on a boat next Tuesday in Austin, we're really excited about that one.
Indie rock concert-goers will always have their stereotypes and presumptions. What was the most indeliberately insulting thing said to you after a show?
"Idaho's that state right above Kentucky, right?" Nah, not easily insulted in general. Even if someone makes an association with a band that I don't like that much, I'm usually excited they found a way to connect to our music. And, I just think it's hilarious that so many people don't know that Idaho is in the [northwest]; that it has lots of mountains, and that it's a beautiful place to live.
You’re currently on a massive U.S. tour this spring; almost seventy dates, if I counted correctly. What are your plans after things finish up in late-May? Might you be ready to head to the studio to lay down some new material?
The plan is to spend the summer and fall writing and working on a new album, while remaining open to regional opportunities and any support tours that might be offered to us. We're really excited to get to work on new material--lots of ideas being thrown around. We'll have a new practice space in Boise when we get back and all kinds of inspiration built up over the course of this three month tour. There's been talk of trying to whip up something new while on this tour with the acoustic instruments we brought with us... maybe have it ready to play by our May 5th Indianapolis show? We'll see...
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