The Strange Boys Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 12th 2010 1:05PM by Tim K Harlow
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Austin's current "buzz band," The Strange Boys are a group of twenty-something lo- fi, garage rockers that started playing together during their high school days in Dallas. The Strange Boys sound draws upon Brian-Jones era Rolling Stones, 'Highway 61' era Bob Dylan and a host of other early rock, rhythm and blues influences, all while keeping things modern and relevant .

Lead singer Ryan Sambol sings in a Dylan-esque nasal tone, but with more of a punk edge, and most of the songs are short confessionals on modern life that rarely exceed three minutes.

Since moving to Austin the band has toured the world and released a highly acclaimed 16 track primer on blues-soaked, lo-fi, 60's garage rock with, 'The Strange Boys and Girls Club,' released in 2009 on In the Red Records. They have shared the stage with Texas legend Roky Erickson, became a fixture at the SXSW music festival and shared the bill with Daniel Johnston and label mates The Black Lips.

The full band currently includes Ryan and older brother Phillip along with Greg Enlow, Jenna Thornhill and Michael La Franchi. Their latest release,'Be Brave' is getting considerable airplay. Spinner recently spoke with Phillip Sambol from Boulder, Colo. about their music and SXSW.

How did the band start?

Matt (Matt Hammer) and Ryan were already doing it but when I came back from college that's when we changed our name to The Strange Boys.

Where did you get the name?

Ryan just came up with itWhy did you move to Austin?

The main reason we moved to Austin was that we were spending more than half of our time there. It just didn't make any sense to be in Dallas anymore.

What kind of other music are listening to currently?

We have been in the van a lot lately so I haven't been listening to a lot of music. We listen to Chain and the Gang a lot.

What were some of your influences?

If you listen to our music you're going to hear some things but we just listen to what everyone else is listening to, it's not like we are listening to some secret guys that no one else knows about.

How are songs developed?

Mostly Ryan will write a song and he will bring it to me or Greg, then Mike and Jenna will pick it up. It's more about what's happening at the time that influences the music, more than any music we are listening to.

Could you tell me a little bit about the new record, 'Be Brave?' Is there any particular sound you were going after?

No, we pretty much just recorded the songs we had at the time. We recorded it after we got back from Europe. It took about two weeks and we just recorded the songs that we had. It was recorded at a studio called The Distillery, in Costa Mesa, California. Its run by this guy named Mike McHugh and he is really good. We had a great time doing the record.

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