Nerds are everywhere. No longer willing to be relegated to comic book stores and role playing game conventions, they (okay, we) are leaping out of our mom’s basements into the formerly exclusive, macho world of indie rock. Say Hi (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom) frontman and songwriter Eric Elbogen probably isn’t a nerd, but his songs have tended to be about subjects dear to our hearts—his last record was entirely about Vampires, for instance. Whether you have a not-so-secret desire to read a Buffy: The Blonde Night Returns graphic novel or not, his poppy Weezerish home-recordings managed to turn the alienation of his characters (and by extension, the kind of teenager who would be obsessed with those kinds of fantasies) into moving stories. On his latest record he’s managed to draw the media’s attention by changing both his name and his focus; writing more about real people and nuanced situations rather than aiming for the cleverest space-pun. Is dropping both the teenaged suffix and the geeky obsessions too much growing up to do in one swoop? Either way, the bopping keyboard-heavy songs haven’t suffered at all…if anything they’ve gotten catchier. We spoke to Eric on the phone about the scourge of the internet, the power of hecklers, and finally leaving adolescence behind from his home in Seattle.

BYT: We’re talking in January, but this interview will run when you come to DC in March…what do you think you’ll be feeling in the future about the tour you’re about to embark on…are you looking forward to it?
Eric Elbogen: This band has been touring so much and I get so distracted with work when I’m not on tour that I don’t really think about it, but I am looking forward to it, yeah.

BYT: What can people expect from your live show, since you’re really a one-man band…anything different on this latest tour?
EE: It will be, it’s always different for each tour.

BYT: Different instrumentation, or new members, or…
EE: A little of both. The set this time around is a little heavy on the sampler. There’s a bunch of synth stuff that will be going on, and live drums and live guitars.

BYT: When you released the latest record (The Wishes and the Glitch) you made the decision to release it right away online. What was behind that?
EE: Well it was just the response to the times. In the past you would send a record out to writers and radio stations many months before it was available in stores and now most of the time unfortunately those writers, or some of those writers will put it right up on the internet. I guess I was just frustrated with the idea of my record being online in its entirety for four months before it was in stores. People who get their records from file sharing will get it that way no matter what, but I do have faith that there are a lot of people who support the bands that they like by paying for their records and so I wanted to reward those people and make it available for them as soon as everyone else has it.

BYT: I feel like some of the people who download leaked records would buy them if they were able to do so right away, so to me you’re giving those in-between people a shot at it.
EE: Cool. Well it’s worked just as I wanted it to. People responded really well to the idea.

BYT: You have control over those choices because you run your own label. You also get to have control over things like album covers, which I’ve noticed have a very discernable theme and distinctive style. Was that planned all along for this band, a certain design strategy?
EE: I’ve always been a fan of very minimalist artwork. So the first record ended up being right along the lines of what I’d been envisioning in my head before I started working on it. It just made sense to keep going. I like the way they look together on the merch table, you know?

BYT: You’ve said before that you “bruise easily” when it comes to criticism, even the idiotic kind one finds online. Does that mean you search for your name popping up or reviews on blogs a lot?
EE: I’ve become less and less interested in fishing them out. But from a business standpoint I do need to know what’s going on. I’ve become a lot better at accepting the fact that not everybody is going to like my records and not being as bummed when someone writes a bad review.

BYT: It’s so easy for people to be negative online since they don’t risk as much as with a positive opinion which they would have to defend. Is online culture ever going to be worthy of being taken seriously?
EE: Well. I think that the “blog revolution” has been a great thing. People are finding out about music in ways they weren’t able to before. Everyone has a right to their opinion. The problem is how much stock people put in things they read on the internet. There could be someone who gets their kicks out of slamming every record they review but if it’s on the internet readers will take it as if that person is the utmost authority. So it’s important for people to realize if they’re reading something on a blog by someone who doesn’t like a record they should at least listen to it, give it a chance themselves before casting it aside.

BYT: One of my favorite songs of yours is Let’s Talk About Spaceships (”Let’s talk about spaceships, or anything except you and me, ok?”). For a nerd like myself that pretty much accurately describes every conversation I have with girls even when it’s going really well. Since there are fewer lyrics about Android Girls and vampires, and more “Real Talk” as we say around these parts, is the new album a reaction against that impulse?
EE: That was sort of the plan. I wanted to change things up as much as I could for this record. This is the first album that’s actually based on my personal experiences while the others were pure fiction.

BYT: You’ve said that your name was inspired by a Midwestern Dairy Queen, which makes perfect sense to me, even if it’s deliberately absurd.
EE: No that’s 100% accurate, that’s the meaning behind the name. Unfortunately that name was not received the way I had intended, which is one of the reasons I ended up shortening it. That I was tired of getting up on stage and having people yell out “your mom” jokes. That wasn’t the intention, but that’s besides the point I guess. People are definitely vocal about how they feel about me shortening the name, one way or the other. I think they’ll be alright with it in the long run.

BYT: Personally I love it, though you’ve opened yourself up to new endings being appended like “Say Hi To Your Interview” or horrors of that nature. Well thanks, I appreciate your time, and I’ll see you… in the future!

Want more:
Befriend them: http://www.myspace.com/sayhitoyourmom
buy some records
and see the show tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Cat

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