Crocodiles' 'Sleep Forever' Better Suited for the Stage

Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell, founders of the neo-psychedelic San Diego skuzz-pop duo Crocodiles, spent the early part of this summer rehearsing a brand-new backing band -- one they'll unveil later this month, when they hit the road in support of 'Sleep Forever,' their forthcoming sophomore album.

"We have a keyboard player and a drummer now, so it will be five instead of four," Rowell tells Spinner. "It definitely takes work. It takes a lot of time to get everybody playing the songs correctly, and also getting a feel for how we perform live. At the moment, we have a new drummer and we're just going to have to put a lot of time into teaching the songs and stuff."

As Rowell sees it, breaking in the new band is worth the effort. Last year, when Crocodiles were supporting their debut, 'Summer of Hate,' they couldn't quite recreate the songs live. Welchez and Rowell had recorded those early tunes by themselves, layering synths and guitars over canned beats. In adapting them for the stage, they sometimes played up the songs' noisier aspects, letting droning fuzz and heavy beats overwhelm the sweet '60s-pop melodies.

'Sleep Forever,' by contrast, features live drums and keyboards -- elements Rowell says will make for a more faithful studio-to-club translation.

"['Summer of Hate'] had a little bit more of a drum-machine feel, a little more compact, and when you saw it with a live band, with live instruments, it was pretty abrasive," Rowell says. "Now, the live set, the songs we're playing, they sound a little more cohesive. They're more like the record, because the record was recorded really organically."

The same may apply to future albums, as Rowell says he and Welchez, despite being the only official Crocodiles, are more than willing to collaborate with outside musicians.

"We're open to whatever," he says. "It really is kind of day-by-day. We just kind of write stuff constantly and we had our keyboard player, Robin [Eisenberg], play on a bunch of the [new] studio stuff because she's just great -- she's better than we are. She's got the same kind of head as us. So, adding more people, we're more than happy to have people come in and play -- whatever fits the songs."