TLOBF Interview // The Morning Benders

11 August 2010, 21:54

Seemingly on a never-ending tour in support of their rather excellent sophomore album Big Echo, The Morning Benders recently completed their first stint around the UK. Whilst the band were in Scotland, we sent our pal Halina Rifai from the awesome Glasgow PodcART site/podcast to chat to the Benders’ lead singer and chief song-writer Chris Chu.

How are you finding Scotland? Have you got to see much of it?
I Just walked round for about an hour (laughs) that was my first experience of being in Scotland ever!

Are you going to get much of a chance to see it?
Not much unfortunately, that’s what happens on tour – you don’t get much of a chance to see it. But, you get a sense of it through meeting some people.

It has been quite an incredible couple of years for you to say the least! After your debut album was released in 2008 you’ve had the chance to tour with some epic artists such as Grizzly Bear. Chris (Taylor) has now worked with you on the current album Big Echo. How did that come about?
I had been in touch with him for a little bit before then and I had written to him about their album Yellow House and told him that I really liked it – particularly the production which he was involved with obviously. I got along well with him from the get go and when we were on tour a couple of times in New York he came out and I got to hang out with him and talk about music. We kept in touch from that and then he heard some early demos of some of the songs online.

We recorded the album by ourselves in San Francisco and when it came time to mix the album I especially felt like I needed to get someone that wasn’t in my head because I had been doing a lot of it and wearing a lot of hats such as engineering and production. So I wanted to bring someone in that had a new found sense of the songs.

Was there a particular song or influence that inspired you to get into music?
Well, for me it was strange as I got really into music when I was about 15, but I didn’t start writing music ’till I went to college when I was 18. The music I got really excited about was things like The Beach Boys Pet Sounds and The Beatles The White Album. I used to listen to those religiously. I think what started me writing music was because I moved and I was in a new place and thinking about new things. Then I got so excited about music over the last few years which is what my life is about – especially looking for new music and playing new things.

You have now played an abundance of shows. Has there been a particular show that’s really stood out for you?
Yeah, there have been a few. I think most recently I remember we did a show at the end of our first tour on Big Echo which ended in April. We did a show in the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York. It was a sold out show with all our fans which felt good because we had been supporting bands for a while, so it’s a different feeling when you have people there for you. I remember them all singing along and that was really special. There are a couple of other ones, we played in Sweden and that was the first time I had been there. We played in Gothenburg and that was a really incredible show. Going to a place the other side of the world and people knowing the songs and singing along is just surreal.

Word got back to us that SXSW was huge for The Morning Benders. How did you find it?
It was fun, it was hectic as you are on the go all of the time and we had a bunch of shows each day.

I think there is a misconception of SXSW, people that haven’t been hear it on the radio and read about it but don’t realise exactly how big it actually is.
Yeah, it’s so massive and so dense, there are all these people piled into this little area, but this (year) was definitely the best experience we’ve had there. I think because there was more visibility with the album coming out a few days before and people knew we were playing. A big problem with SXSW is that you just don’t know when things are happening because there is so much and you have to choose. The fact that people knew about our shows and were coming was good. It was great that fans were coming too and not just industry.

The album has now been released on both sides of the pond on Rough Trade. Rough Trade as we know has a phenomenal history. How did that relationship come about and are were you big fans previously?
They were one of the labels that had gotten the record, I’m not sure how it happened. When we finished the record we still didn’t have a label. I knew about Rough Trade as a kid and when I was growing up listening to The Smiths. I just thought it was incredible that Rough Trade would be interested in working with us. The reason we ended up signing with them was because from the moment they heard the record they wrote to us saying how excited they were and how much they loved it. That was refreshing because with record labels there is a lot of this cat and mouse, going back and forward and just for them to be so forthcoming was great. We just want to work with people that are excited.

L-R: Timothy Or, Jonathan Chu, Chris Chu, Julian Hamon

‘Excuses’ has done incredibly well and was released as a free download. What was the decision behind that?
Well, you kind of have to these days (laughs). I have found a lot of the music I love through free stuff on the internet and it’s an idea I support. I like to think that people support the artists like that. The decision to release ‘Excuses’ was that I didn’t want to take anything out of context from the album. You kind of have to with an MP3 and at least we started with the first track. So when you get the album you can just continue on which means you are not taking it out of context.

When songwriting, do you lay the main foundations and go back to the band or is it a collaborative effort?
I write all the songs at home, the melodies and the lyrics and then the arrangements to varying degrees are completed either at that part of the process or later down the line. Sometimes I write a song and know exactly what I want the arrangement to be like or other times it’s a lot more bare bones and I take it to the studio and we end up figuring out in the practice space playing it.

Are you writing all the time or do you consciously take breaks?
I don’t constantly write, I write in little bursts. I generally won’t write at all on the road as that’s not where my focus is. I do feel like I get inspired in those times though and then when I get a chance later it all kind of comes streaming out of me.

What bands are you listening to on heavy rotation at the moment?
Let’s see, I am listening to the new Gorillaz album a lot, I have been listening to some Harry Nilsson, the new Radio Dept. album, I always listened to their other stuff, but I almost think their new album (Clinging To A Scheme) is their best.

What does the rest of 2010 hold for The Morning Benders?
Well we are pretty much on tour for the entire year! When we get home from the UK we go straight into a tour with The Black Keys which is very exciting.

If you could tour with a band who would it be?
Well a band that are alive would be Radiohead (laughs) and then one that’s dead would be The Beatles!