Savoir Adore Interview: SXSW 2010

When Paul Hammer and Deidre Muro met at New York University, they never expected that their musical experiment would turn into a full-time gig. Now as Savoir Adore, the two have been playing all over the East Coast and Midwest and just recently finished up a residency at New York's Cake Shop. Spinner recently spoke to the band as they prepare to get back on the road for another tour and their second trip to SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Paul Hammer: It is experimental pop music. We'll keep it at that.

How did the band form?

Deidre Muro: We first met at NYU when we were students and we were both doing individual songwriting and singing stuff. Then out of the blue, we challenged each other to make a concept album in one weekend up at Paul's studio at his house in Upstate [New York]. We made it, shared it with our friends and that was kind of it. But then a lot people kept encouraging us to keep going and take it to the next step. We did, and here we are.

Where did the band name come from?

PH: Honestly, the band name [was] created very quickly.
DM: And it existed before we made our first recording.
PH: One time we were Upstate recording a cover and that was actually the first time we ever recorded. It was before we were writing together, though. We were just goofing around the studio and we ended up recording this ambient piece where Deidre was singing in French and we wanted to put the track online. My only knowledge of putting music online [at the time] was MySpace. So we're like, "We have to make a MySpace, and we need a band name." So Deidre had been singing in French, we were talking about how beautiful the French language is and how it sounds when it's sung, and it came out in 10 seconds. I don't know who said it first, but "Oh, a really beautiful idea in French is, 'Savoir Adore' -- 'to know love.'" It sort of informed our music later.
DM: Yeah, when actually made a recording, we were like, "Oh, we'll just use our pseudo band name."

Who are your musical influences?

DM: Everything we were ever raised on. Paul and I were raised on a lot of music. We both came from musical families so from young ages we were exposed to lots of music.
PH: Lots of classical music, lots of jazz and eventually lots of classic rock.
DM: We grew up in the '90s so lots of '90s rock. I love it. And then there's all the little stuff. I'm into country.
PH: I'm into Ryan Adams, Red House Painters, that kind of stuff.
DM: And I love oldies. I love standards, old jazz torch singers, gypsy music and the blues.
PH: I don't think the music would be what it was if it wasn't for the fact that we have such different interests and influences. It somehow comes out the way it does. There's really little or no attention to those influences when we're writing.
DM: But it's always there. Our main musical influences are probably the recording studio because that's where we do most of our writing and what comes out, comes out.

What's your biggest vice?

PH: For me, it's eating horrible food -- lots and lots of meat. Mine is definitely food. I eat a lot of fatty, rich foods. But we're a pretty clean band; we don't do any drugs. Coffee is a vice for me, too. I drink too much coffee.
DM: I drink a lot of coffee, too.
PH: Our vice really is food because after every show we always all go get some so sort of junk food. We're not very rock 'n' roll.
DM: We're very intentionally balanced. We don't do this for a party lifestyle. We do this because we like making music.

What's in your SXSW survival kit?

PH: Don't eat too much barbecue.
DM: Probably take it easy. We want to go out every night so we're probably not going to destroy ourselves. Basically, it's all about balancing and being able to take everything in, because I know if overdo it on the first night, which I totally could, I'd be done for the rest of the week like I killed myself.

Is there anything you bring with that you on the road that you can't live without?

DM: We usually bring one air mattress. And showers. Lots of showers.
PH: It's good to bring snacks because otherwise you end up getting really unhealthy snacks at gas stations like cheddar and sour cream chips and beef jerky.

Who were your first celebrity crushes?

DM: Mine was David Bowie, but the catch is it's David Bowie from the movie 'Labyrinth,' not David Bowie-career-long-'Ziggy-Stardust,' no. 'Labyrinth' when he's a glam androgynous singing villain with feathered teased hair. That was it -- David Bowie. I was a strange child. Michael J. Fox from 'Back of the Future' ties with David Bowie. My brother loved 'Back to the Future' and all those movies. I was like, "I love Michael J. Fox."
PH: Mine was probably Joni Mitchell, 1969. Because when I was negative 25 at Woodstock, I just had a big crush on her.

But your first crush?

PH: I might have been gay till I was 15 because I loved MC Hammer. I vividly remember it was the 1992 Grammys and my dad woke me up because he's like, "MC Hammer's on." I got my Hammer pants on, ran downstairs to the green room, watched TV and did my little Hammer dance. Do you know how that made me in school? 'Hi, my name is Hammer?' But celebrity crush? April from 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' I don't know actress' name from the first one. She had crazy curly hair -- she was such a babe. I just loved that.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

DM: Paul loves Taylor Swift. I love musicals: I love Broadway musicals, I love Disney musicals, I love old-time musicals. I don't have a top favorite because I love so many. I can sing you entire scores of musicals. Pop music, we love pop music. I love Britney Spears, not as a person, but I love her tracks. She works with the most awesome producers. Kenny Loggins and yacht rock are other guilty pleasures. We were traveling around Pittsburgh blasting Kenny Loggins' 'This Is It' on repeat for about an hour.

The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

DM: Beatles because my dad was a Beatles person and because I haven't really listened too much to the Stones. I love them, too, but I'm innately more of a Beatles person.
PH: I used to be really hardcore, "Oh, Beatles are so much better than Stones." And I like the Beatles more than the Stones, but it's like comparing apples to oranges because part of what makes the Stones so special is the attitude, you know? Whereas, the songwriting and the songs themselves are important to me -- that's why I like the Beatles.
DM: It's just different, but I love that part of the Stones, too.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

PH: We went to a rest stop in North Carolina, and we still don't know if it's true or if it exists. It was 4AM and we're 26 hours into the trip from Austin.
DM: We get to this huge rest area, but it was in the style of the old-timey Western town like "The General Store." Then we go in and there's an old man at the counter and a cafeteria section with little old ladies standing behind it. Paul orders a sausage and a biscuit, and I'm walking around and this weird little cowboy man figure goes up at me. It's life-sized, and I screamed so loud. Then the little man behind the counter is like, "hehehe," like he has a string he can pull. I kept thinking, "You people are so twisted." So we get back into the car and we couldn't decide if we were all hallucinating.