Yo, listen up. Stop whatever it is that you’re doing (reading this article, doodling pictures of dicks, g-chatting with that girl in the next cubicle which is pathetic if you think about it), go to the Epoch’s myspace page and listen to Opposite Sides. It’s good right? The catchy falsetto hooks over the big crooked beat make you want to put it on a romantic mix-tape as well as shake your ass to it at the club. Yeah, that’s it baby, get that music all in your earhole. Now that you’ve creeped out cubicle-girl by dancing around silently mouthing the words, read this interview with singer Hays who was nice enough to answer questions on email in the middle of the night after rocking the entire east coast with the Mobius Band this week. They’re playing tonight, Friday December 14th at the Rock and Roll Hotel so you should get familiar if you want to talk shit to them correctly.

BYT: What is your DC connection? I see you guys down here all the time. Also, where can I get a good taco after 4am?

Epochs: My brother Ryan and I grew up in Arlington and went to high school in DC. We played in a bunch of hilarious bands at places like Kaffa House and The Bayou. We all lead pretty transient lifestyles. I’m living in Virginia at the moment. The rest of the guys are up in New York. That’s probably one of the only places to get a taco after 4 am except for the blinding labyrinth that is the Harris Teeter frozen food section. Oh wait you said ‘good’ taco.

BYT: How do you manage practices with the band members in such far-flung place? Over the phone? Webconferencing?

E: Wow. You’re a real ideas man. Some sort of satellite feed would be great. Just show up to Kinkos with a guitar and sampler. Although that would definitely catapult our operation into the upper echelon of geekdom. We currently do it the only way we know how: very infrequently.

BYT: How’d the recording go? Your stuff seems to walk in between pop songwriting and straight-up bootyshaking dance music…is there a focus for the album on one or the other?

E:Hmmm. That’s a good question. I think the songs we’re recording now go further in both directions. Definitely more electronic. We’re really excited.

BYT: You use any nifty new toys on the recording you hadn’t gotten to play with before? Like a vocoder or talk box or something?

E:Well it’s not new but I’ve been using a tape machine.

BYT: According to the website of the contest you won to play at CMJ with Datarock this fall, you got 10k and a night in at “a famous New York hotel.” What was that about, and what kind of room service bill did you rack up on famous pancakes?

E:Ha! The week leading up to that night was so wild. We played a ton of shows in a few days which was pretty draining. You have to pace yourself which I did not so by the time I got to the hotel me and my friend just kept it low key.

BYT: How is touring with the Mobius Band? Any shows been really been super lame or totally rocking? (I’m 14 for the purposes of this interview, OK?)

E:Mobius Band are fantastic live. It’s been awesome traveling with such great guys for our first tour. I’ve learned a lot about being a band from them. We had a show in Tampa where some local guy couldn’t figure out if he wanted to heckle us or take one of us home with him. He was pretty aggressive and the whole thing got really dark.

BYT: Creepy! Did he get tossed out? You have to throw down and whup his ass? If our readers are going to the show at the rock and roll hotel, what should they heckle you with?

E:They might have thrown him out if weren’t so damn entertaining. I think he invented several new forms of dance in that half hour. I think some people on this earth are made to be professional hecklers. After the show he definitely gave off the ‘pleasure workin’ with you’ vibe. If you want to heckle us you should do your homework: I still sleep in my parents bed, Ryan eats dog biscuits, K likes jazz, and Kotchy is 30.

BYT: Ew, I don’t believe it…30! That’s gross. Does it seem to you like DC is developing a signature sound, with bands like Le Loup and These United States and others? Or is it more like an east coast thing? If I called it electremo or technemo, would that be really insulting?

E:No not insulting. We’ve gotten weirder descriptions. Personally I don’t think there are any stylistic scenes anymore, only social ones. It seems that most bands take their musical cues from the internet and not local live shows except for maybe punk and metal music. Ryan and I are strong believers in the collective unconscious. Pretty much everyone in this country is exposed to the same music, film, TV, etc as everyone else so we generally arrive at the same artistic destinations. We are also a very nostalgic generation so we often connect over things that remind us of when we were kids.

BYT: That’s awesome. I can totally see that in the way that bands all want a certain keyboard sound especially, that 80s analog keyboard thing. Which bands would you say form part of your nongeographic community?

E:I think musical community for us wouldn’t be about style. Any band who just writes music that doesn’t rely solely on the resurgence of retro genres is alright in my book. I think those are the bands that have the hardest time being understood because most audiences don’t have the time to dive in and appreciate what they do.

Well not if we have anything to say about it!

OK, everyone back to work. These spreadsheets aren’t going to fill themselves in!

http://www.rockandrollhoteldc.com/
Fri, Dec 14
Mobius Band
Middle Distance Runner
The Epochs
Ravens and Chimes

Doors | 830pm
Show | 9pm
$10/$12

Want more?
Win tickets (hurry)
Mobius Band Interview
Middle Distance Runner listening party
Ravens and Chimes Listening Party

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