Introduction
Today we bring you our interview with Keith Murray! The singer and guitarist of the amazing We Are Scientists. The main focus of the interview is on their 9th studio album “Qualifying Miles” with a few other questions thrown in! Check the interview and the bands songs out below!
Interview
First question has to be… If you were actually scientists, you could create a potion. What would this potion do?
I mean, let’s be honest — you don’t have to be a scientist to create a potion. I create potions all the time, and what they do is mainly to make me wobbly and talkative and to be very effusive in my praise or condemnation of certain movies.
I create potions that cause me to have a very fun time performing music, but sometimes I drink too much of these potions and then I flub a bunch of notes while I’m overdoing it on a guitar solo. I create potions that make me want to dance, and I create potions that cause me to fall asleep and wake up with a brutal headache.
I enjoy taking a deep dive into the artists that I interview back catalogue. I would love you to break down your song “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”… What inspired it, what is it about etc?
It’s pretty much about the experience of going out every night of my life in New York City between, say, 2002 and 2004. It was an excellent time, and much fun was had, but it was also beneficial as a people-watching exercise.
I observed a lot of people making a lot of very entertaining bad decisions at 3:30am on a Wednesday night on the Lower East Side.
Now moving to more recent times and with good reason! Your new album Qualifying Miles is being released on the 18th of July. How does this album differ from the albums you have released so far?
I think this one is a little more of a “rock” record than our last records, many of which were more focused on being danceable and crazed. This one is a bit more reflective, a little sadder, a little funnier, a little more adventurous. I guess it differs in that its quality is highest amongst our amassed catalogue.
The new album is your ninth! What do you think is the secret to your long-term success and more importantly what keeps you together as a band?
I think we’re mainly still together as a band because we’re still friends who look for any excuse to hang out with one another. At least being in a band together gives us something constructive and rewarding to do with our time. Otherwise, we’d just be hanging out together every night drinking beers and NOT making music, which would be dumb.
I have noticed that Qualifying Miles has a longing look back to times gone by. I would love to know though, If you could return to any of your gigs again and relive it. Which gig are you choosing and why?
In maybe 2008 or 2009 we did a European tour with REM. If, by the terms of this wish-fulfillment question, I’m not allowed to relive that whole tour, I would probably choose to go back and play the final show in Madrid, Spain.
At the end of REM’s set, they invited us up on stage to play three or four songs with them. I think my mind was just so blown by the experience that I barely even registered that it was happening. I’d like to go back and actually try to enjoy the moment.
You have always done really well with the UK music scene, despite being American. Why do you think this is?
It’s mainly just because the sort of music that constituted Top 40 pop in the UK when we released our first record coincided pretty closely with what we were doing.
Bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture — those bands were getting major radio play and video spins on MTV in the UK, whereas in the US, they were more of a hipster concern rather than nationally celebrated hitmakers. So, we just went where the gold rush was happening.
You have a dance-like vibe to your music, I want to know though if you could cover a dance hit what song are you picking, and how are you putting your own spin on it?
We did a pretty good cover of “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base for the BBC maybe fifteen or so ago. I’d love to say that we changed it up because my vocal register is lower than hers, but sadly that’s not true. I sang it comfortably in the same exact key.
What is your own personal lyric writing process?
I tend to like writing more free-associative lyrics, rather than trying to necessarily establish a theme or a story for a song beforehand and then write towards that.
It’s more interesting to me to sing lyrics until I start to notice an idea that they’re suggesting, which may be something bubbling around in my subconscious and then figuring out ways to make those become a lyrically rich song.
Touching on another of your albums briefly, “Rules Don’t Stop” from your 2010 album “Barbara” has to be one of my favourite songs by you guys! I’d like to know if you could create your own rule that everyone in the world would have to follow. What would it be and why?
I think it should be a rule that if someone’s driving around your neighborhood with one of those super loud de-mufflered motorcycles, you’re allowed to throw a milkshake on them with no consequences.
This upcoming release is the first time you have released an album on a single album worldwide since your debut. What made you come to this decision?
It’s always sort of been annoying to us to release an album piecemeal, in different territories. It just kind of makes the whole thing a little more convoluted, having to communicate different plans amongst the different record labels.
We’ve really enjoyed working with Groenland in the past; they’ve had our European releases for the last two records before this one. It just made sense to invite them to take over the worldwide release.
The first single from the album “Please Don’t Say It” is a catchy monster! Seriously, it’s stuck in my head… I’d love to know what the reception has been like for the single and is it what you expected?
We never know what to expect when we release a single. I’ve stopped even trying to guess, these days. I think we’re just too close to the music to really know what a third-party might think about it.
I have to ask… what on earth does Keith Carne need to do to be classed as a full member of the band? At this point he has been around longer than a decade haha?
He needs to pay me the $10 he owes me and then we can begin talking further business.
A song I immediately connected with was “The Same Mistake”, I think it’s the vocal styling and tone. I’d love to know though, if you could give a band advice of how to make it in this industry what would it be? So they don’t make the same mistakes as you.
I would say that you should not cut your own hair. I’ve been doing it for a decade or so, now, and I can’t help but notice that Brandon Flowers, who clearly has his hair professionally barbered on a regular basis, makes more money than I do.
If you were trapped in a room with each other for a month, (With food, don’t want any cannibalism happening…) what would you do to pass the time?
We’d probably just talk about all of the movies we were missing over the month that we were imprisoned. Ideally, this situation would be transpiring in January, when Hollywood released its most wretched dreck, so we wouldn’t actually be missing much.
If you had to name one band that you don’t think I will have heard of before. But you think I would love who that would be? And what makes them so good?
Sean McVerry is a damned genius from New York City who hasn’t yet made his inevitable worldwide impact. The dude has it all: an incredible voice, impeccable musicianship, top-grade song-writing, and hair so floppy it would make Hugh Grant blush with envy,
Would you be able to explain the imagery used for the cover of Qualifying Miles?
We wanted a cover that suggested the blurriness of standard memory. Ordinarily, a photo will help jog a memory, to clarify elements that may have eroded in one’s mind over time.
Our cover feels like an accurate representation of my memory — you get the gist of the scene, but some of the most important details are fuzzy. A lot of the album is about forgetfulness, about clinging to nostalgia that may ultimately be unfounded.
A couple of blur-faced dudes seemed like a good visual representation of that idea.
You met while at college, what about your fellow bandmate did you first notice about each other?
I met Chris at a Dawson Creek viewing party that he was hosting, so I guess the first thing I noticed about him was that he was the kind of guy that people seemed to like enough to bear watching Dawson’s Creek with him.
Finally, where can people catch one of your live shows this year ?
We’ve got a bunch of shows on the east coast and Midwest of the U.S. in September and then some UK and European shows happening later in the year. There will probably be some west coast US shows early next year, and of course we are always happy to accept any show offers in Bangkok, Thailand.
Fox Reviews Rock 
Leave a reply to Fox Reviews Rock Cancel reply