Harper Blynn Interview: SXSW 2010

Paste Magazine named Harper Blynn their #1 new discovery of the 2009 CMJ Festival, gushing that "the harmonies recall Simon and Garfunkel, and the melodies would make Elvis Costello proud."

The band started as main songwriters' Pete Harper and J. Blynn's duo "Pete and J." Together, they spent three years building a following in their homebase of New York City. As their songwriting grew more ambitious, they filled out the band to its current four-piece lineup and changed their moniker in time to release their debut album, 'Loneliest Generation.' The group is currently on the road promoting this highly accomplished and energetic album and will be making a stop at this year's SXSW festival.

We caught up with them the morning after a triumphant, sold-out show in Pete's original hometown of Chicago:

Describe your sound in your own words.

Pete: There was a girl at the show last night, the way she described the music was that it sounds like Fleet Foxes, but with pop songs, or like MGMT, but with big three-part harmonies. Which I really like, but it's hard to make comparisons with modern music. There isn't a lot of modern stuff with big harmonies that also feels uplifting. We love harmonies in music. Obviously, with Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and others, there is a big psych folk harmony movement, but it's not, generally speaking, uplifting music. It's not really pop music, and our music is definitely pop music. We're kind of hook-mongers.

How did your band form? When did you change from Pete and J to Harper Blynn?

J: Pete and I met in college, we didn't really have a band, so we were writing music, just the two of us, and we did some shows with a drummer, but a lot of shows with just the two of us, as Pete and J. We started to write more and more upbeat stuff, that needed to be played by a band. It just got to the point where we were always playing with the band. This lineup has been together about a year now, and touring around as a four-piece band called Pete and J doesn't make sense. At a certain point, it confuses people. The music led us there, ultimately.

Who are your musical influences?

J: At the heart of it is a lot of the classic songwriters. A lot of our songs are folk songs in disguise. They start as little strummy things on guitar, and we make an effort to take it somewhere else. When we met in college, we were writing a lot more low-key kind of stuff. Then we sort of went deep together on Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, even Stevie Wonder, things like that. We were trying to figure out the songwriter thing, especially lyrics and storytelling. We even got into a lot of bluegrass and older folk stuff. We've kind of come back through time since then. You've got to have a good song, it's gotta make sense, you've got to be saying something.

Pete: We listen to so much music, there's influences on songwriting and also influences on a sonic side. More than anything, the hardest thing nowadays is to find that balance. Some of my favorite records, like that Phoenix record, from a lyrical standpoint, there's really nothing there, admittedly, that's not what they're trying to do. I love the way that record feels, so we hope to combine some of those songwriting ideas, that sort of Paul Simon / Bob Dylan thing, with something that sounds more modern. We're not trying to be retro.

What's your biggest vice?

J: I have a big sweet tooth, cookies, chocolate, things like that..

Pete: I guess that falls under the category of gluttony, right?

Do you go to a lot of music festivals? What's In your festival survival kit?

Pete: I don't really like big crowds of people, J's different, he can deal with a lot of people.

J: I used to go to HORDE, all kinds of places like that. We go to the Prospect Park shows a lot, we saw David Byrne there. I really like those.

Pete: Bring water! The best advice in my mind is not to try to bite off more than you can chew. Everyone's running around like crazy all day, but really, if you see one great band a day, that's going to be more rewarding than everything else. Pick your battles, bring your water, and whenever you're in a restaurant, use the bathroom.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

J: Mine was Zooey Deschanel. That was a few years ago. It was either Zooey or the girl from Gilmore Girls, Alexis Bleidel, which is funny because now we know her, and she's really sweet. Turns out she's friends with one of my roommates, one night we had a big party, she ended up sitting with some people on my bed. It was kind of a cool moment..

Pete: ...it was one of those things where it's cool but, ultimately, not very eventful. She was just very sweet. I gotta say Natalie Portman, which is probably quite an unoriginal answer. I don't know, man, I come from a long line of little Jews, well, half from a long line of little Jews, I guess that won out this time.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

J: Obviously, the Beyonce record, 'I am... Sasha Fierce.' I just bought that for the tour. I've been listening to that back in New York, it's so fucking good.

Pete: We're working up a version of 'Halo' that we may have to drop on the world. It's a really good record.

Beatles or Stones?

J: I gotta go with The Beatles, even though I've been listening to 'Exile on Main Street' a lot lately, it's so good. Especially considering where we come from songwriting-wise, there's just a creativity with the Beatles that's a part of what we're striving for.

Pete: Yeah, I gotta pick The Beatles too, we're huge fans of both. I love the Rolling Stones, there's an essential part of the performance that the Stones have given since the day they were born that's a pretty deep part of what we do. Ultimately, though, the songwriting comes first, and there are literally too many good Beatles songs.

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

Pete: We were touring in England, we played a small town. This older guy, like 70 years old, named Trigger, he got really smashed, bought all of our records. We were walking back to our B&B, a mile down the road, and we see this lump on the ground. I assumed it was some garbage. It turns out it's Trigger, lying on his back, with our records next to him, and he's taken off his shoes and socks. He's so hammered he can't get up. We wake him up. He says, "I fell down, I couldn't get up, I took my boots off for better traction!'"


Matthew Wilkening is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.