June 2008
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An Interview With Clatter
AP: Like many before you, a departing band mate created the need for Clatter to adapt. Paradoxically, shrinking the size of the act increased your sound & audience. Our goal was to create such a full sound -- not just in the studio, but live as well -- that no one would miss the guitar. Where two-piece bands like the White Stripes were taking a minimalist approach, we swung to the opposite pole and went for what we call a "maximalist" take on the setup. The addition of a 12-string bass on our second album "Monarch" added even more dimension to the sonic landscape we were creating. One thing that has surprised us the most since we started down this two-piece path is that our music has been embraced by such a wide variety of music lovers. Everyone from spunk rock kids to classic rock dudes to laid-back folkies have found something that resonates with them. It could be that our eclectic influences, which include Rush, Neil Finn, Iron Maiden, and Level 42, are finding an outlet in our music in a way that appeals to a broad range of listeners. And bass players everywhere are ecstatic that their instrument is finally taking center stage. AP: Where is your home base and does that impact your touring schedule? In a relatively short period of time we have changed our booking methods several times just because the resources keep changing. When we first started booking shows we were based out of Seattle, and would send our promo packs to college radio then follow up with a phone call, asking about clubs to play in their town. We would also pour over our copy of the "Musician's Atlas" and would send materials to all the contacts listed for each town and region. Once we moved back to Missouri and hooked up with a guitarist, we took several big trips, including a couple to the west coast and several south to Texas. These were booked and promoted almost entirely through our copies of the "Musician's Atlas," which was a great resource for independent bands who needed all that info in one place. This was before the Internet was really up and running, so it was our best source for getting in touch with all the industry people in each town. For our "Blinded By Vision" tour of 2003-4, we had originally thought we would book smaller mini-tours closer to home and branch out from there, but we had such a great response to the album nationwide that we decided to change our approach. We'd made quite a few friends on Internet forums for bass players and many of them asked us to come play where they live, so we found ourselves saying, "Sure, we'll come to your town!" then we'd book shows to get there and back. This is how we ended up in such far-flung locales as Moncton, New Brunswick and Sydney, Nova Scotia, places we'd never even thought of touring before. Still, this involved many, many hours of making phone calls, leaving messages, sending e-mails, making more phone calls, and trying to coordinate dates so that we didn't have a lot of days off in between shows. This could be a logistical nightmare and it often required we put in 12- to 14-hour days trying to get everything set up, not to mention the hundreds of dollars we spent in phone calls. Once booking agents started making the change to booking by e-mail, the process became less expensive but no less time-consuming because we still had to research the clubs, write the e-mails, and keep track of which dates were available where. After the release of "Monarch" we didn't pursue shows as aggressively as we had in the past, and yet somehow opportunities kept presenting themselves. Other bands would invite us to come play with them, or we'd be invited to play at festivals, like the Earth Day Festival in Columbia, Missouri. Currently we do a lot of our networking and correspondence through MySpace, including contacting clubs, other bands, and fans in each geographic area. We'll consider any opportunity that's offered us and most of the time we'll accept if our schedule allows. It just so happens that most of these offers recently have been in the midwestern US and we haven't made overtures beyond that for now. We played a show in Wichita, Kansas (about 5 hours away) a few weeks ago that was a two-piece band night, and since we have a fan base in Wichita we thought that would be a fun one to play. Our most recent show was in nearby Columbia for an event called We have tried to return to markets where we received a good response, like Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Indiana. We've also had a lot of people ask us to come play in places we haven't been as a two-piece, like the west coast and southwest. As far as how often we try to get back to places, it really depends on logistics: what we're doing as a band, how far we'd have to travel and how many shows we'd need to book en route. AP: Why did you decide to tour internationally & how did you put that tour together? AP: How do you keep in touch with your far-flung fans? AP: What’s your typical touring schedule? AP: What’s your preferred mode of transportation? Three years ago, in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we traded in the van for a Toyota Highlander Hybrid and trailer. This reduced our emissions as well as our fuel consumption but eventually we still weren't satisfied with the impact our traveling was having on the environment, so we sold the Highlander and now we rent a pickup to pull the trailer whenever we have a show. AP: How has the economy & high gas prices impacted your touring? Even before climate concerns and high gas prices were impacting our touring schedule, we had realized that playing live in distant markets wasn't as lucrative as it had been in years past, both financially and emotionally. We had been putting in 12-14-hour days booking and promoting shows, doing publicity and marketing, updating the web site, and so on, with very little return for our effort in terms of show attendance, press coverage, radio play, etc. We discovered that we seldom had time to actually rehearse for shows, let alone write new material. After our "Blinded By Vision" tour we decided that rather than continue to try to play everywhere we were invited, we should just film a concert DVD so that fans anywhere in the world could enjoy our live show. With the release of "Monarch" in 2006 we felt more keenly the need to reduce travel from an environmental standpoint. This left us in a quandry; certainly writing and recording music fulfills the desire to share our creative vision, but nothing can replace the live experience. Performing live is our musical raison d'être, and the thought of eliminating that aspect of our musical career was pretty devastating. We have played shows sporadically since the release of "Monarch," including our first tour of Europe, but certainly our touring schedule is drastically scaled down. The increase in gas prices has only fortified our decision to stay home. In September 2007 we played a show close to home and again filmed it for release on YouTube in an effort to allow as many people as possible to experience our live show, but there's no substitute for the real thing. AP: Do you feel that bookers are more cautious in the current climate? AP: What do you think are the greatest obstacles to your career? A decade ago a band had to be signed to a major label to be heard outside their local market; today through the Internet and the myriad of social networking sites, a band could never leave home and have fans across the globe. We were stunned and thrilled when, after playing a show in the UK in March, someone came up to us and said they'd heard about us on MySpace and were excited that we were coming to their town to play. That never would have happened without the ability to post songs on MySpace or videos on YouTube. Conversely, now that anyone can post music or videos, can be daunting to cut through the volume of media available. But that's the beauty of being a musician; musicians are creative by definition and it takes creativity to find your niche, reach prospective fans, and figure out a way to get people to leave their "Guitar Hero" and come to shows. In the past our greatest challenge, as a DIY band, was balancing the hours in the day. Too much of our time was spent being music business people and not in being musicians. Now, though, after a shift in perspective, we are focusing more attention on the music and less on its promotion. Our experience has been that our new fans come not from the traditional sources, such as magazine ads or press releases, but from completely unforeseen and unpredicted places like Internet forums or YouTube videos. For example, we uploaded a video where Amy demonstrated her 12-string bass, then basically forgot about it. After a few weeks we were shocked to discover it had been viewed over 20,000 times without us having told anyone about it or promoting it at all. It was then that we realized that the beauty -- and sometimes exasperation -- of being a part of the music business is that there is no formula for success. It's time to let the viral nature of the Internet work for us so we can concentrate on creating the best music possible. It's ironic, because that used to be the role of the A&R people, to promote a band so that the musicians could focus on the music. AP: Do you think that live music is thriving or just surviving? Now it seems the pendulum has swung back the other way; when music fans can discover new talent through YouTube or other music sites from the comfort of their own home, it's harder to entice people to pay money to come to a club and take a chance on an unknown touring band. Since many shows start late and are on a weekday, and are only open to people 21 and over, the likelihood that a band can draw a large crowd is pretty slim. Even well-known, major-label bands seem to be struggling, as is evidenced by the plethora of "package tours" out on the road these days. "Baby bands" used to get their start opening for touring majors but these slots are now going to smaller labelmates. Chances are this paradigm will shift again and people will get tired of the virtual music experience and live music will see a renaissance. Indeed, there is an energy and excitement unique to a shared live music experience that music fans will begin to miss and will seek out again. Web Site: www.clatter.com |
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The husband & wife duo, Clatter began playing together 20 years ago in a college band called Run Toto Run. After the guitarist moved on, Amy Humphrey (bass guitar, vocals) & Joe Hayes (drums, percussion) re-evaluated, re-tooled & re-invented their music, creating a lush, 2-piece sound that has earned them new fans.
