Beach Fossils Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 10th 2010 1:00PM by Kelly Rose
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Listening to the Brooklyn based band Beach Fossils conjures up memories of simpler times. The band has a lo-fi, fuzzy sound punctuated with simple beats and thoughtful lyrics. They're fairly new on the scene but glancing at their tour schedule, which includes SXSW, it's clear they're catching on. Spinner recently caught up with Dustin Payseur, who brought the Beach Fossils together.

Describe your sound in your own words.

That's a difficult question. I don't know what it is. I don't really think about it too much. When we're working on songs with instruments we kind of let whatever wants to come out, come out. Different kinds of music -- kind of psychedelic, freestyle, electronic music. It just comes out in a nice way. We're not really going for a specific sound.

How did your band form?

I was recording by myself. I knew Chris through friends so I asked him to play guitar. He really liked the music so he was into it. I put something on our website about needing a bass player and John Pena emailed me that he was interested. It's really good -- we have a really tight core, we hang out and we're best friends. It all worked out really well.

What are your musical influences?

Um. I take it from all over. I like Don Cherry. I like Parson Sound a lot. I've recently been listening to a lot of Bach music done with a harpsichord. I'm influenced by whatever I'm listening to at the time and sometimes what I'm reading influences me more than what I'm listening to. I'm reading some Vladimir Mayakovsky right now and a lot of poetry.

I come from a line of musicians. My grandfather is a Cuban percussionist. My mother and father had musical projects together when I was growing up. They have a studio now. My mom is working on her album. There were always instruments around the house. I would pick them up. No one ever told I should do it or I had to do it but I would pick them up and play. I realized it was what I really loved. It's probably in the DNA.

How did you come up with your band name?

Whenever I'm reading I make a list of words I like. Usually they're words that aren't as clear as Beach Fossils, but when you're choosing a band name it needs to be something that people can remember. It's kind of unfortunate because at the same time there was a lo-fi beach theme going on so we ended up getting lumped in with that. Now that's phased out some maybe people will stop associating us with that genre.

Beatles or Stones?

Both. Couldn't pick. They're completely different bands.

What's your biggest vice?

Procrastination.

What's in your festival survival kit?

A lot of cassette tapes to play while we're on the road. We have a massive box of tape and we just blindly put them in while we're driving. We don't really bring too much. We bring a 4 track so if we think of songs we can just record them.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I don't really have one but John definitely does. He always putting in '90s music. He's always blasting '90s R&B tapes and stuff like Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. I can't stand it but he knows all the words. He loves it.

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

One night we were playing a house show in Philadelphia and it went on a couple minutes later than they wanted it to go, so the owner of the house pulled out a baseball bat and told us all to get out. We had to grab our gear and leave. I guessed he was stressed out.

What's up next?

The album comes out in April. We're planning on a full U.S. tour. And after that hopefully we'll go to Europe. I hope we can tour forever. I'm happy just being on the road.

Kelly Rose is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.