Digital Leather Interview: SXSW 2010

Arizona native Shawn Foree has been releasing albums under the name Digital Leather since 2004. This past year, he's relocated to Omaha, found a whole new lineup and released a new album called 'Warm Brother.' He recently spoke to Spinner about Digital Leather's origins, their plans for SXSW and their penchant for getting into trouble.

Describe your sound your own words.

A wall of noise with heavy synthesizers.

How'd you come up with the name Digital Leather?

When I started recording, it was super lo-fi stuff using super crappy instruments, and the recording just sounded really rough. When you're recording on tape with cheap keyboards, you get some really horrible sounds. I thought Digital Leather would complement that sound. I got stuck with it. I wanted to change my name at some point, but I'm just keeping it.

How did the band form?

I started the band actually. I'm from Arizona, but I've lived here in Omaha for like eight months. I started doing it in Arizona, basically recording stuff in my bedroom and putting records out on little tiny labels. I've had various lineups over the past couple of years, but I have a pretty solid one now. I live in Nebraska 'cause they all live here, so I moved here!

How'd you find these guys?

I toured through here a couple of times and I really liked 'em, then one of my friends here in Omaha who knew I wanted to get out of Arizona -- I was kind of tired of it -- said "move here," so I did. It was that simple. It was either New York or Omaha, you know, the two big places [laughs].

Who are your influences?

Right now I'm on an Echo and the Bunnymen kick. The Fall, I like early Fall a lot. As for newer bands, there's a punk band that's kind of well-known in a certain community called the Spits. I really like them as far as bands that are current, but mostly I'm on this Fall kick. I'm really obsessed with it right now and I think it's leaking over into my recordings.

What do you do to survive a festival like SXSW?

This will be [the band's] first SXSW. I've played a few times, but this one is gonna be crazy. Luckily we have lots of friends there, we wisely booked a hotel a few months ago so we're just gonna be playing a lot of shows. I know a lot of bands go down there and play five shows a day, but two is good enough for us. I don't really wanna burn ourselves out; SXSW is kind of a tour. I have a fear it's going to be completely insane. It seems like the more people we get around, the less inhibited we become about anything, so, hopefully we do survive SXSW.

Is there anyone you're into checking out this year?

We're playing a lot of shows at Beerland so I'll probably just be hanging out there a lot. Most of the bands I'm into seeing are playing there, little punk-rock label bands.

Do you have any vices?

We don't really get into too much trouble. We cause a lot of trouble but there's gotta be some level of respect for the place you go -- you don't wanna destroy everything. That's why I like this band so much, because we all kind of have the same distorted worldview. We're sort of hipster terrorists.

Do you have any musical guilty pleasures?

I did have a Meat Loaf kick for like three days a while back, but I got over that. My friends thought I was crazy. I think I was crazy that week. I think Meat Loaf is good stuff, but I felt guilty listening to it. It's so dramatic!

Who was your first celebrity crush?

I would probably say Prince.

What's the craziest thing you've ever seen or experienced on the road?

Oh God. I don't know how appropriate this is -- it's kind of gross -- but one time we were playing at a gay bar in Lafayette, Ind., and the guitar player's amp crapped out on us. We had this room full of people watching us, and somehow a dildo ended up on the stage. To kill time while we were setting up a new amp, our guitar player, um, used the dildo on himself in front of the audience, which caused great cries of fear and terror. I'm not gonna get any more graphic than that.

Are you guys allowed back in Lafayette?

Yeah, actually they love us there. We got free drinks all night!