Photo by Raeanne Haro
Ned Russin of TITLE FIGHT interviews Jimmy Stadt of POLAR BEAR CLUB:
How was recording your new record? How was it different from any other recording you’ve done? How was Brian McTernan?
It was really interesting and amazing- we spent so much time in pre-production, moreso than ever before. We just talked about the songs and made them the best they could be with Brian’s voice in the mix. He was great to work with. He understands group dynamic a lot and knows that you need to at least be excited and enthusiastic about what you’re working on, that way you get everyone else motivated to perform their best.
How has everything been with the new drummer? Are you ready to have a full time line up again after having a few fill ins? Oh, and what are those old dudes, Tracker and Emmett, up to nowadays?
The new drummer is awesome. He’s such a nice guy and awesome, energetic drummer. It’s going to be great to be a unit again. It’s been too long since we’ve hit that swing. Both ex-PBCers are just working/ settling down. Tracker still lives in Rochester and Emmett moved out to Cali to start a new job.
What is Goose’s favorite past time?
Bathing in things that aren’t bathwater: i.e. sour cream and soda.
How was your last European run with MAN OVERBOARD? Word on the street is that you have a pretty big Euro run coming up in the next few months, what can you tell us about that?
We are supporting RISE AGAINST in November and are really looking forward to it. We’ve spent a lot of time in the UK and in mainland Europe just headlining and playing festivals, we are really looking forward to playing some new venues and playing to kids who have no idea who we are.
So you guys are about to release your third full length. A lot of bands don’t make it that far without their music becoming repetitive and/or boring. What have you guys done to keep your music (as well as life on the road) fresh and interesting? You have obviously successfully done this with your first single, “Screams in Caves.”
Thank you! I think something that helps POLAR BEAR CLUB is we all have vastly different influences and high standards. We just want our music to excite us and that notion is always changing. I miss you Ned! I love the new Title Fight record so much!
Photo by Tiffany Seay
Jimmy Stadt of POLAR BEAR CLUB interviews Ned Russin of TITLE FIGHT:
“Where am I?” is one of my favorites off your new record. I think it’s because our bands are from similarly “little big” towns. I always felt a little like a blank slate or a neutral party coming from a city that through the eyes of the world didn’t have an identity, but wasn’t small enough to identify with terms like “podunk” or “hick town.” How does where your from shape the way you look at the world through the windows in the van?
I think our town kind of helped us learn what to expect from a town. We come from a small town with relatively nothing to do so when we play places like Nitro, West Virginia we are able to make our own fun by shooting glass coke bottles with a bb gun. Also, I think it makes us feel pretty fortunate. We see a lot of people in our town get stuck in a rut of just working day in and day out and never really being able to get out of Wilkes-Barre. Being able to go all over the country and even the world is a crazy opportunity and we definitely don’t take it for granted.
Shed is not only a great record, but a great sounding record. Like your style, it harkens back to “pre-Pro Tools” era recordings. What can you attribute this to and what records were you guys talking about in the studio that helped shaped the sound?
We tried to do the record all analog but didn’t have the money, so the approach from the beginning was to try and make the record like we were tracking to tape. We all played together and tracked live and I think that made the biggest difference. Being able to be in the same room as everyone and catch their cues instead of punching in 100 different times really gives it a different feel and that’s what we wanted to capture. We wanted our record to sound like us playing live.
We love listening to stand up comedy records in the PBC van as well as podcasts. I’ve been fascinated by stand ups my whole life and love hearing their war stores about shitty clubs they’ve played and living out of a bag, stuff we can relate to on tour. What do you guys spin in the van that isn’t music and why? And if you only listen to music in the van, what records have been dominating as of late?
When Shane drives he listens to some weird podcast about aliens and spooky stories. We try and tell ghost stories and play games a lot, but that doesn’t last too long. I tried to download some books on tape (books on mp3?) but never got around to it. I listen to live sets from bands some times. Does that count?
Interviewers have asked me before “What have you learned from other bands you’ve toured with?” and I always talk about touring with the GASLIGHT ANTHEM and learning through them that you can smile on stage, which I was never doing out of some weird sense of nervousness. What’s something you’ve learned from other bands in your steadily increasing tour history?
We got do some dates with H2O in Japan and that was a really experience. They have been around for a long time and have really seen a lot of different aspects of the music world. I think the most important thing I learned was just watching H2O seeing that they are older and just still having fun. The music we play isn’t about playing the tightest or having the best light show, it’s about having fun. Seeing those guys just get up there every night and have a blast was great to see.
Writing on the road is something PBC has always talked about but never once did. I’ve watched bands who do it and it’s inspiring. Does TF manage to sit down all together on tour and hash out some riffs or are you like us and only writing together at home?
We have never been able to pull it off. The way we write is all being in a room together and just hashing out ideas for hours, so being able to write in a van without really playing together or at a sound check for five minutes doesn’t help us too much. We have written some riffs that we have later brought to practice on tour but have never been able to write a full on song on the road.
Photo by Tiffany Seay
