20 Questions with… High Places

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We love them and so should you. New York’s High Places have worked their way into our hearts, first with their collection of early work and now with their full length, selt-titled, debut album, which was out on a few weeks ago. If you missed it, our own Tom Whyman reviewed the album here. So, before you read that, we’ve had a chance to quiz them on their answers to our World Famous 20 Questions…

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
Rob: Ocean dreamy Escapism
Mary: Cool friend session

2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
Rob: RUN DMC- Raising Hell, purchased at Sam Goody on Roosevelt Blvd in Northeast Philadelphia.
Mary: Dogs of Peace- Family Christian Stores in Kalamazoo, Michigan

3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Rob: Hmmm as a non-drinker, I’d have to say maybe just don’t get drunk?
Mary: I’ve got this recipe for something called Hangover Helper. I used to make it a lot. It’s basically a big pile of breakfast: potatoes, tofu, onion, tomato, spinach, etc. etc.

4. What’s on your rider?
Rob: In Europe we have dark chocolate, so every country we go to we get a crazy rad sample of local chocolate. Our rider is honestly the nerdiest vegan rider.
Mary: Soymilk

5. How do you get ready for a live show?
Rob: Curled up in a fetal position, but I’m getting better lately.
Mary: PSP (pre-show poop)

6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Rob: Vision’s the First… I seem to bop around the most during that song.
Mary: Granola

7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Rob: Coffee. I really wish I could just avoid it but I really like the ritual of it in a way. Proof that I have a problem.
Mary: Buying underwear

8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
Rob: Goat. Any dude who can eat a tin can is somebody you shouldn’t mess with. I do wish that they could just talk it out over tea though.
Mary: Stoats seem capable of cool surprise sneak attacks.

9. Who’s your favourite new band at the moment? Tell us a bit about them.
Rob: Silk Flowers. I have only seen their first show as a two piece and it was like watching Silver Apples play chess. So orderly, so sparse, but so powerful. They now have Peter from Soiled Mattress and the Springs, which I just won’t be able to picture until I actually get to see it.
Mary: Mick Barr’s new black metal band Krallice. I like anything Mick does.

10. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Rob: Don Knotts
Mary: Ramona Quimby

11. Dead or alive, what 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
Rob: Grateful Dead, Void, DeeLight, Culture Club, Cypress Hill, The Orb. That’s six, but that’s who must play. Sorry.
Mary: Mary J. Blige, Jesus & Mary Chain, Mary Timony, Peter, Paul & Mary, Seven Mary Three

12. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
Rob: 7 Seconds-The Crew
Mary: Joni Mitchell-Blue

13. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
Rob: Caravaning up to a show in Arcata CA with Soft Circle and Lucky Dragons, and trying to make it to Shelter Cove for sunset, and not making it but stopping on the dirt road switchback and being surrounded by Coyotes all going crazy.
Mary: Sitting on a rocky ledge on a lilac-scented island in Finland facing the Baltic Sea and Estonia

14. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Rob: Meeting Mary
Mary: Meeting Robbie B.

15. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
Rob: Run for it! Yes, but I still got nabbed.
Mary: Adopt a cat. Yes, two!

16. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
Rob: Eyes
Mary: Wisdom teeth

17. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
Rob: Crazy From the Heat (David Lee Roth’s autobiography) and the Grateful Dead live ’74 film.
Mary: Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen, Sweet Movie by Dusan Makavejev

18. What three things could you not live without?
Rob: Cosmonaut, Granola, Mary
Mary: Oxygen, food, sleep

19. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
Rob: I don’t have any tattoos.
Mary: I don’t have any tattoos.

20. And finally, we’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
Rob:
7 Seconds- Regress No Way
The Untouchables- Nic Fit
Deep Wound- Lou’s Anxiety Song
Redd Cross- High School
Lifetime-Starsixtynine
Mary:
Scientist-Vulcan
Lucky Dragons-Wander Birds
Judee Sill-The Phoenix
Abe Vigoda-Cranes
Sister Nancy-Pegion Rock