TLOBF Interview // Sleigh Bells

Hailing from Brooklyn but not really identifying themselves as a Brooklyn band, Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller’s ferocious blend of hardcore beats and pop harmonies have produced one of the most infectious noise pop records of 2010. I caught up with the duo a few weeks back to talk about Treats, the whirlwind that has been the last two years and what they are planning for the years ahead.

Hey guys, how are you doing? What have you been up to since you were last here?

Derek Miller: We’ve been touring mostly, pretty exhaustively actually.

Alexis Krauss: We had a couple of weeks off and then we headed out on tour with LCD Soundsystem.

DM: That was just amazing, excellent in fact – LCD are just such a great band.

AK: We were talking earlier about how it’s pretty bad luck for us tonight that we’re up against them and Hot Chip at The Roundhouse.

How do crowds in the States compare to crowds over here?

DM: Well, I know we talked a bit about tough London crowds earlier and how often people don’t really go that crazy but actually the first time we came over and played Macbeth it was just amazing. Then I guess when we came back in August and it was more label people, and industry types who I’m told really enjoyed the shows.

AK: The Old Blue last was great as well. I’ve found that in America all the shows we least expect to have fun at are actually the best. I think the kids in smaller towns are more likely to go for it when bands come around, where as kids in the city are kind of used to it, they’re so privileged to have great bands to chose from every night.

DM: It’s different as well when you’re supporting a major band; it’s nerve wracking as if you have more to prove.

You guys first started things off in Brooklyn didn’t you? There is a pretty massive scene out there; do you get much chance to check it out?

DM: Well to be honest, we’ve been gone since March, I have no idea what’s going on there right now. We’ve played London more than we’ve played Brooklyn. I think we played maybe three shows out there before we recorded our album and left on tour. We never really had chance to be part of that scene. We just lived there.

AK: And to be honest, when we get home the last thing we are going to want to do is go to a show. Other than being a location and our meeting place, we’ve never really identified ourselves as a Brooklyn band. Certainly it’s a major centre of art, music and culture – everybody knows it, but we’re not part of it in that sense.

DM: It is that way for a lot smaller artists, I think it would be easier if we were a band in the more traditional sense because of the way the local club scene runs over there. It’s normally run by people chipping in and sharing the cost of a PA systems etc, but it’s always a vocal PA system, which doesn’t work for us.

So how did everything get started over there? How did you guys meet?

DM: We met at the restaurant I was working at. I was aggressively looking for a singer to work with. I had just moved from Florida to New York…

AK: And he was waiting on me and mum, it wasn’t that weird or anything but my mum asked him why he had moved, and he said he was looking for a single and my mum was like “oh my daughters a singer”…

…in that mildly embarrassing way parents do?

AK: yeah, “cool, thanks mum!”

DM: yeah, “why don’t you start a band with the waiter at this Brazilian restaurant”…great!?

AK: But we ended up exchanging emails and it turned out we only lived a couple of blocks away from one another, so we got together and he played me some demos.

DM: ‘Infinity Guitars’ was the first thing we did. I had rough ideas down and we took it from there. That was back in July ’08.

AK: Then I went back to teaching in September.

DM: So we really only started in July ’09, then we did our first shows in September ’09.

Everything seems to have taken off fairly quickly then?

AK: Yeah it has been really quick.

DM: When I think about what we’ve achieved over the past 13/14 months it’s not that I’m impressed but it’s just like ‘God! Especially when I think back to that first show, it was awful – we only had like 5/6 songs. From then until now we’ve been working very hard and we’ve got a lot done.

Is it true at the time you guys formed you were both kind of secretly craving the scene the other one was in – Alexis yours being the glossy pop of Rubyblue and Derek yours being hardcore and Poison The Well?

AK: That was kind of completely coincidental really. Our backgrounds ended up making a lot more sense than we would have initially expected.

So how did the album come together in terms of writing?

DM: Well I actually had a lot of the stuff done before I met Alexis so it was only the newest songs like ‘Riot Rhythm’ that we kind of wrote together. It was kind of co-incidental that our different back grounds both came through in the record.

So will next time around be more of a collaboration do you think?

DM: I’m sure it will be. I mean I’m itching to get in the studio and I always know what I want but then it turns out best when plans deviate.

A lot of bands’ sounds develop and evolve as they play live, has your changed during shows?

DM & AK: Well actually for us it is kind of the opposite, because of all our backing tracks our set already, not played live.

Do you think you’ll get another person in for live shows?

DM & AK: Not right now, but maybe for the next record.

So what kind of vision did you have for Sleigh Bells?

DM: Loud, rhythmic and memorable. We definitely knew what we wanted.

AK: Even the first time we got together it was very purposeful, we didn’t know exactly what we were doing but there was a lot of discovery involved, it wasn’t just like “oh lets make some music man!”

DM: Yeah, we had vision but happy accidents happened along the way.

AK: I think the fact that he knew he wanted a female vocalist also set a tone. Having this melodic pop sensibilities going against a lot of heavy guitars and bold rhythm.

What artists would you guys say, in terms of inspiration, have helped you kind of achieve the vision you had for the band?

DM: The stuff we agree on would be Motown and older pop or soul. Motown has influenced us in terms of just really strong rhythms. To me Motown means there is this toughness but also a vulnerability as well – it was just this beautiful smashing of polar opposites. Although it may not be as obnoxiously done in Motown as with us but the principals are the same.

AK: My fathers a musician so I grew up listening to all different types of music. I think it’s that kind of lack of restriction that has influenced the way I approach music more than anything else. I think we frequently surprise ourselves with the influences we end up channelling.

I love the kind of gritty noise pop offered up in Treats, it kind of grabbed me in the same way Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Date With The Night’ did…with everything turned up to 11, are they someone that you would count as an influence

DM: Yeah, definitely, they are a fantastic but I mean any female vocalist from the last ten years is going to be compared to Karen O in the same way that any guitarist is going to be compared to Jack White.

AK: Or Nick Zinner. Karen O is definitely someone I admire although I wouldn’t say I look directly to her. I think the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s have a similar kind of thing they want from a live experience.

You definitely have more kind of saccharine numbers like ‘Rill Rill’ – is this something that comes from your side of things Alexis?

DM: A big part of what we wanted was to never feel artistically restricted. We don’t think of ourselves as having a set aesthetic yet.

AK: We like the element of surprise and diversity.

DM: So ‘Rill Rill’, which is really sweet and pleasant, it is kind of our stance against limitations.

AK: During a live set there are certain people who are really attracted to the heaviness of our songs like ‘Crown On The Ground’, then there are people who are more into hip hop and dance numbers, and then the kids who like the straight up pop of ‘Rill Rill.’ It is interesting to see that kind of diversity and it’s definitely something we are proud of.

Most of the press have generally responded positively that way… although I have read a review that spent the whole time comparing you to MIA? Being signed to her label, is that something you guys have to put up with a lot?

DM: Not a lot actually.

AK: I think we only get it because we’re associated with her and sometimes people assume that her role has been greater than it actually was, in terms of the creative process.

DM: I’m kind of happy to be compared to her. I mean it’s lazy but she is an incredible MC and a great vocalist. She kind of approaches pop music from a slightly odd perspective in the same way we do.

How did her help come about anyways?

DM: A friend of hers played her our demos. She liked them, wrote us an email and came to New York and was like “I want to help you guys out.”

AK: It was very spontaneous.

So what have you guys got planned for next year?

AK: Recovery.

DM: Yeah we’ll finish up touring and we will probably start recording around 1 September 2011 for a record release kind of early 2012.

AK: We’re going to take some more time on this one.

DM: Other than that we’ll be touring Australia, Japan, the States and Europe.

AK: There are a lot of places we still haven’t played, and we want to get around to everywhere the record is out.