Brightest Young Things

All photos: Mike Danko

Having just experienced my first Typefighter show the week before, I found myself quickly becoming their number one fan (they sound kind of like Thao, but with a male lead-ed). My obsessive/internet savvy nature led me to their Facebook page where I found a contact for the band. I flexed some major BYT intern muscle and quickly set up a date with the fine Typefighter folks this past Friday at Iota to talk about some songs from their EP and other important things before their Thursday show @ DC9. Here’s what transpired:

Typefighter is: Ryan McLaughlin (vocals/guitar) Erik Anderson (guitar) John Crum (guitar) Mary Voutsas (keyboard/vocals), Will Waikart (drummer)

In lieu of proper introduction, lets sample some (endearingly quirky, folky) tunes first:

Ocean floor was the first song that Ryan and Erik worked on together. Beginning as a humble Autoharp song about loss and unrequited love, it became an epic full band arrangement with lush textures, dynamics, and an explosive ending. John's rhythmic acoustic line and Mary's bell-like Rhodes-part provide great counterpart to the layers of electric guitar and Autoharp. After its first performance, the song became an immediate crowd favorite and has remained so in Typefighter's short life-span.

All the Air exhibits a certain warmth that has become characteristic to Typefighter songs. There is a certain nostalgia which has been noted on more than a few occasions. It's folk, it's indie, it's country, it's Americana. Whatever one calls it, one can not deny how that slide sounds oh so sweet.

Worth the Weight was the first song where the band really came together as a cohesive group. The song gave us a chance to experiment with new instruments and textures. We threw our all into it. A listener will hear subtle layers upon layers of guitar, bass, organ, piano, banjo, and more guitar, all glossed with pretty three and four part harmonies. After finishing the song, we felt like we had earned to right to be called a band.

BYT: My intel tells me that you guys formed on the basis of an autoharp purchase from the mid-west – can you please expand on this?
Ryan: I was on tour with another band that I played with and we were just outside Chicago at this place called Peoria, Illinois. There was this pizza place that was connected, literally, to this antique store. There was this old 80 year-old man that worked there and I asked him if he had any weird instruments and he said “Yeah, I’ve got this autoharp over here”. So I bought it, tuned it up and played it kind of as a joke and it just worked.

BYT: At your last show, you guys performed “I Wrote This Song for You” as a closer from the front of the stage on the floor. Nice touch – is this a staple Typefighter maneuver?
Ryan: Yeah, we try to if it won’t get weird. Like when we played in Chicago, I had to stand on this chair and there was this like dance party going on next door and we couldn’t hear a thing. No one could hear us at all.

BYT: There is mention of nimbus clouds in a song of yours. Why nimbus clouds? What’s wrong with “cirrus” or “stratus” clouds?
Ryan: Well, nimbus clouds are rain clouds and that is a song about rain. All of our songs are pretty much about girls.
Erik: Rain is a metaphor for his relationships because his relationships are like water.
Ryan: So I guess my relationships have been like water. Well, some of them; not all of them.

BYT: Who are some of your influences?
Ryan: We like all sorts of things. There isn’t like any one band. Everybody comes from very different musical backgrounds.
John: I think that, somehow, all of our interests and stuff kind of bleed in together.
Ryan: But yeah, we like some pretty ridiculous shit. We all really like Taylor Swift.
John: Phoenix and Taylor Swift.

BYT: What about Creed?
Ryan: Wait, what? Did you say Creed? Definitely not.

BYT: So Typefighter can go on record for not liking Creed, right?
Erik: Right
John: I like Tom Waits and the Pixies.
Ryan: Pretty much anything from Billy Holiday to…

Mary: To Pelican!

BYT: I have given the EP a few run-throughs and think it’s great. How did the title “I Want to See You Game, Boys, I Want to See You Brave” come about?
Ryan: We actually recorded at this one studio twice. We spent a week recording there and we weren’t happy with the finished product so I guess we actually went into the studio tired with these songs. We were really overwhelmed. So on the last night of recording, we were probably ready to kill each other…
John: We stayed up all night!
Ryan: We left the studio and were just looking for a place to go and I always really liked Roosevelt Island so we showed up there like at four in the morning. We saw the sun rise and kind of all got together on this rock and it was just comforting…we knew everything would be alright. There was this wooden plaque that had a Teddy Roosevelt quote which is where we got the album title from.

BYT: How was the summer tour? Any strange/memorable stories that you’d like to share with us?
Ryan: Where do we begin with that? We went through a ton of shit.
Mary: We stayed at this amazing mansion on our night off in Savannah, Georgia with this woman. She had this big…
Ryan: John Crum kicked her in the head!
Mary and Ryan: True story…
Mary: Anyways, it was her husband’s place and she had this lake behind her house. It was this phosphorescent water and it was great so we all went skinny dipping. It was so hot and beautiful!

BYT: Did you see any fireflies?
Ryan: What about Twilight? Mary likes Twilight.
Mary: Haha, I DO NOT like Twilight.

Want more:
Typefighter is on myspace, facebook and playing live @ DC9 tomorrow night (Thursday) for a bargain 8 dollars. GO.