Elk City Interview: SXSW 2010

Ray Ketchem and Renee LoBue sat down with Spinner and discussed the June 1st release of their new album, 'House of Tongues,' and their March 19th SXSW performance. They've been performing together in different bands since 1990 and there is understandably an amazing chemistry between them. Each knows what they do best, but they still rely on one another--if just to finish each other's stories.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Renee: I'll let Ray take this one
.
Ray: I think the sound changes from album to album. For this particular record, our new one called 'House of Tongues,' there's a lot of '70s rock influences happening. Everything is always tied together by Renee's songwriting and her voice. So if you've heard Elk City in the past, you'll always recognize that sound. I try to build the sound of the band around her voice since it changes from album to album. Every songwriter has a unique way that they twist words around and Renee has a very unique way with phrasing. Even if you had a different singer sing a song Renee wrote, you'd still recognize the phrasing and the lyrics, you could identify that song. I know I certainly could.

How did your band form?

Ray: Oh, god. We've been playing in bands together for as long as I can remember. We were in a band previous to this called Melting Hopefuls. Elk City formed in 1999 and our first album came out in 2000. We've been at this a long time.
What are your musical influences?

Renee: Many, as everyone's are. I'm really heavily influenced by bands but also by solo artists. And by Dusty Springfield, Patti Smith, and great bands like Big Star, of course David Bowie. Gosh, it's really endless; I could keep you on the phone forever.

Ray: I can add to that list. One of my favorite bands of all time is Love. I often think about that band when we're recording; if something even vaguely sounds like Love, I get excited. I'm always striving to make it sound as much like Love as possible.

How did you come up with your band name?

Renee: Ray's originally from West Virginia and it is a very, very small-- I don't even know if you can call it a town. He was driving past Elk City, driving home, and I think the entire town has like ten houses in it. He called me up and said, "What do you think about the name, 'Elk City?'" and I said, "I think it rolls off the tongue."

Ray: We were toying with new names. We had been in Melting Hopefuls for seven years together and that band had fallen apart and Renee and I decided to stick together. We played one show under the name Kangaroo, which was named after a Big Star song. But we kept having to explain it every time we said it. People kept reacting to the name like, "Oh, are you guys an Australian band?" We decided it wasn't working and that we needed to come up with something else.

What's your biggest vice?

Renee: Oh gosh. I know what Ray's is.

Ray: You do? What's mine?

Renee: Audio gear. Ray is Mister Keep with Convention, Audiophile of the moment, of this second.

Ray: I'm a bit obsessive about gear and such, yeah.

Renee: I would say I have a few vices. Whenever we're working on a record, songwriting becomes a vice. I become very obsessive about it. Then I become obsessive about how many I can write or how quickly I can write or how many I can write that can actually be good. Usually, I write about ten and one or two of the ten are good. If I have to write enough songs for an album, I have to write a lot of songs. It becomes very, very intense and that becomes a vice where I can't put the pen down. I just know these aren't all going to be good. Even though you're a song writer, they're not always good-- trust me. You think this is it. This is so great. I cannot wait. You are going to be blown away. Then you get in the studio and your band is like, "Eh." So for me, I have to write a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of songs because my batting average is one or two songs in ten.

Ray: That's a little harsh. I would say you bat about 400.

Renee: It's very cyclical, though-- it comes and it goes. But once I get in the zone, it's like my hand is in the potato chip bag-- I'm in and I'm going to be there for a while.

Have you been to SXSW before?

Ray: No, we haven't. We're very excited.

Renee: We've traveled extensively in Europe and we've toured, so...

Ray: We've done this stuff so much, but never SXSW.

Is there something you can't travel without, something you'll need for SXSW?

Renee: I'm a dork. This is embarrassing, I should not even reveal this. I don't know what the food's going to be like there-I'm sure it's great-but there are a lot of thing I don't eat, so I'm Fed-Exing myself some food.

Ray: Are you serious? That's so interestingly bizarre that I'm even surprised.

Renee: I'm Fed-Exing myself apples and lemons-overnighting it to the hotel-because I just need certain things and I eat a certain way. Believe me, I really want smothered tacos, but...

Ray: You don't think they have apples and lemons in Austin?

Renee: I don't.

Ray: [Laughs]

Renee: I know they have apples and lemons in Austin, I just want the cornucopia to be waiting in my hotel room when I get there. I make homemade protein bars-so guess what else is getting Fed-Exed? I'm on it.

Ray: I would go nuts if I didn't have something to entertain myself with. The more trips we take, the more I bring laptops and phones and headphones. It's like I'm terrified there's going to be a moment of silence. I think that's true of a lot of people now with iPhones and iPods. At all times I feel like, "Let me make sure I have my iPod totally charged or my iPhone ready to go with tons of music." Being around computers all the time I think we're all used to being flooded with information and stimuli. So now when I travel, I find that I get paranoid about not having a stimulus. What if I have to sit on the plane and...read a dumb magazine?

Renee: What if I have to read a book?

Ray: Exactly, I need to have a book, but I also need to have my headphones on.

Renee: Hey, at least you're not Fed-Exing fruit and protein bars around the country.

Beatles or Stones?

Renee: Oh, you're killing me.

Ray: Ugh, how can we choose?

Renee: C'mon, man.

Okay, Beatles, Stones or Bowie?

Ray: Bowie.

Renee: Really?

Ray: That made it easier for me.

Renee: I'm gonna make an executive decision here. I'm appalled by this question, but I'm gonna say Beatles.

Ray: Oh my god, I'm shocked! I thought you were gonna say Stones!

Renee: I have homemade Rolling Stones wallpaper that I'm looking at right now, but I'll tell you why I choose the Beatles: Whenever I'm in the car and a Beatles song comes on the radio, I just know that everything's gonna be alright. You just know. It's happened millions of times--you're not feeling okay, but a Beatles song comes on. If you're out somewhere (not in the car), in a restaurant, in a store and a Beatles song comes on, don't forget that-- it's a sign. Everything's going to be okay. It's a holy moment and I have to go with the almighty. That's why the crescendo for my answer is The Beatles, even though I bow at the feet of Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

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

Renee: How long do you have?

Ray: Nothing is springing to mind right now.

Renee: I have many answers but I really can't divulge most of them. Well, when we were in Melting Hopefuls together, we did a show in [City Removed at Band's Request] and a guy, as we were packing up the van, came out wanting to talk and hang out with us. We just really wanted to get on the road. We were packing up the van, sort of trying to give him the "Nice to talk to you, we're gonna go now" vibe. We got in the van and as we're driving away, he's hanging onto the van, saying, "I'm gonna rip this van apart with my bare hands!"

Ray: Oh yeah, he didn't want us to leave-- he was like a toddler who wasn't done talking with us. We were like, "Okay, guy. We're taking off now. It was great meeting you." And he's going, "Hey, where ya going?" We literally had to drive away as he jumped up on the back bumper.

So, do you go to [A Certain City] anymore?

Ray: I don't know. Have we been back since?

Renee: There's more to the story! We're driving away, after the guy let go of the van-- and I'm not kidding you-- we pull into a 7-Eleven parking lot to get some supplies, we get out of the van and there's a girl on the phone, crying, saying, "Mom, I've been kidnapped." Not kidding you. Needless to say, I have not been back. Now, I don't want to offend anyone in [A Certain City]-- I'm sure they're lovely people-- they just hang onto vans and get kidnapped.


Chris Dignes is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.