Music festivals can provide some weird environments for bands to hang out, but none of them topped Austin's Sound on Sound Festival. Held on the usual grounds of a Renaissance Faire, the fest's inaugural weekend combined several different musical genres along with centuries-old garb and dressing rooms inside of a fake castle.
As all four members of FIDLAR crammed around a table in the festival's backstage press tent to avoid the rain, Myspace chatted up the band about everything from their signature sound to playing on dragon-themed stages.
You guys started off playing parties around Los Angeles, and now here we are at what's probably your first show at a Renaissance Faire-themed music festival. What's the transition from basements to dragon keeps been like?
Elvis Kuehn: It's been pretty cool to just keep things going on the road and have more people come out. We have fans that are really loyal.
Brandon Schwartzel: When we started the band, we always wanted to play Renaissance Faires, so we've hit one of our goals. It's kind of the reason we got together
Zac Carper: Oh, we do the whole Renaissance Faire circuit. That's actually where the real money is. Everyone says the money's in festivals, but they just throw gold and sacks of jewels at you to play the Renaissance circuit.
Max Kuehn: They really give the extra effort at Renaissance Faires. There's commitment to the roles.
How big of a difference is it to go on tour (both on the Renaissance circuit and off of it) with bands that you're friends with, like the Frights and SWMRS?
Zac Carper: It's so much better to go on tour with our friends. We've done a pretty good job of taking people we're friends with on the road, but we've been in the situation where we don't know the people who are taking us on the road, and that sucks sometimes. Most of the time, we leave them alone and they leave us alone to do our own thing, but with the Frights and SWMRS, it's just a big ol' family.
Elvis Kuehn: It makes it more fun and more comfortable when you know the people you're touring with and you know they're not psychos.
Eran Ryan
As a relatively young band, how much do you already hear your sound influencing newer bands?
Zac Carper: It's funny because we were buying our own recording console at one point, and when we went to go see it the guy who we bought it from was like "Hey, let me ask you guys, how did you record your record? Was that on tape?" We told him we used Pro Tools and he was like "I fuckin' knew it!" He has a studio, and I guess all these bands would come to his studio and say they wanted their record to sound like FIDLAR, and he'd just tell them "Oh, they just got drunk and recorded to tape." We were like "Nah, dude, that's not what happened. That was meticulously done." It's pretty funny hearing that kids are being told this story that we just got fucked up and made a record when it's actually hi-fi as fuck.
Every FIDLAR show has so much energy, how do you keep that party-like atmosphere going every time you get on stage?
Max Kuehn: I think it's just the songs kind of lend themselves to being fun to play and high energy. You can't really play those songs without having fun and being excited.
Elvis Kuehn: We started off playing parties, so I think we wanted to capture that energy wherever we played. That's how it started, so it's always just been high-energy craziness no matter what size room or festival or club it is.
Brandon Schwartzel: When we toured with the Hives, they were like "You guys need to turn down the energy because you're going to get old, and you're not going to be able to do it." The Hives play with a ton of energy and an epic live show, but they were saying that it was getting harder to do because they were getting older. We've set the bar pretty high for ourselves I guess.
Zac Carper: They said those bands that just stand there are the ones who figured it out. But for us, it's like every single time we play the song about Max called "Max Can't Surf," I just think how I can't believe we got away with playing this song that's just ripping on him and I can't believe that kids actually like it. It's so weird to me.
What else would you want to do as a band in the future?
*The Midgetmen begin performing songs from This is Spinal Tap on the stage next to the tent.*
Zac Carper: Is this that Spinal Tap cover band? They're playing "Big Bottom" right now.
Elvis Kuehn: I'd say we definitely want to score the next Spinal Tap movie and continue on the Renaissance Faire circuit.
Zac Carper: But seriously, scoring a movie or a TV show? That would be awesome. That's a different kind of creative. That's not sitting down and writing a song. That's setting moods and piecing everything together. That sounds real fun.
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