the dumbing of america

The Boxer Rebellion Interviews: Part Two

Our second interview with The Boxer Rebellion in one week (check the first here) shouldn’t surprise anyone that follows us faithfully. From the release of Exits to the present, this has been one of our favorite bands. When Union was released and promptly topped the iTunes charts in the US and UK, we felt vindicated. With the announcement that they will be appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight, we feel triumph. The newest album, The Cold Still merits the attention and should become a name you’ll be seeing on most of the cool kids’ top tens at the end of this year. Guitarist Todd Howe has always had to time for TDOA and this time we spoke to him about the Letterman appearance, the new album and the upward trajectory of the band.

TDOA: How did the Letterman thing happen?

TH: It was our press guy in New York. The Letterman people were fans of our music and obviously wanted to support it, which is a big deal, right? There’s not many independent bands that get that sort of opportunity.

TDOA: And as a result, you’ve bumped up the release of the album.

TH: We went back to iTunes to see if we could release it a week early and they said, yeah that’s cool. We’ve got a good relationship with those guys because of everything that happened with Union. They’re really respectful of us and vice-versa. For an independent band to have a relationship like that with iTunes, it’s pretty cool.

TDOA: How did the original relationship with iTunes happen?

TH: It started with Damon Marzano, who’s been a fan since he owned a record store in Connecticut and got our very first promo back in 2003. He ended up becoming the head of Rock and Alternative at iTunes and he sought us out towards the end of recording Union and said that he wanted to do something with us. We just jumped on it and we had the success that we had and it’s been very lucrative. iTunes have been a key part of our success all along the way, since the release of Union. We never thought we’d have the success that we did with that record and we certainly couldn’t have had it without them.

TDOA: Having the record go to number one in the U.S. and U.K. had to be a heady experience.

TH: Yeah, it was a weird experience. Seeing it creep up the charts. We couldn’t believe it was doing as well as it was. Then started people writing about it and it started a domino effect. We ended up selling 10,000 records in a week and that sort of paved the way for us to remain independent.

TDOA: And you’ve remained independent! I wondered if you might sign to a label prior to the release of The Cold Still. In hindsight, it was a brilliant decision because you could never have bumped the release of the album up to coincide with the Letterman appearance on such short notice.

TH: Yeah, probably not. I don’t think we entertained the possibility for this release. We had a lot of success with Union and we knew what we wanted to do this time.

TDOA: Is it necessary to sign with a label anymore? Not just for you, but hasn’t your success on iTunes shown that there’s no longer a need for any band to sign to a label?

TH: I dont know. It’s more a case of waiting to see if the right thing comes across at the right time for people. It’s not right for us right now. We feel like we know what we want to do and we have the right people to do it, working around us.

TDOA: I want to talk about the new album now. Can you talk about how this album is different for you than the previous albums?

TH: I think first of all we don’t want to repeat ourselves. Union is so unique because of the situation that we were going through at the time. It was such a success, but we wanted to push ourselves to be better. We’re our biggest critics. Certain things happened along the way as people, which were quite tough to deal with around the end of 2009 and start of 2010 which I think paved the way for the feel of this record. It’s a darker and more introspective record. We didn’t want to do another record that was about escaping. We wanted it to be more direct and, I think sincere as well.

TDOA: Do you collaboratively work on the lyrics together? As a musician how do you personally let the tone of the lyrics effect how you write your guitar parts?

TH: The whole album was very collaborative. It all stemmed from us all being around each other rather than ideas that were brought in. They were ideas that evolved when we were in a room together. Subject matter is where we start. When we’re playing music, I’ll have a phrase like in the song “Caught By The Light”. Nathan then picks up on it and writes lyrics. On that song, we did discuss subject matter and all that sort of stuff including a death in the immediate family around us. From music to lyrics it was a lot more open. We all had a hand in the final product.

TDOA: I don’t want to pry into things you don’t want to talk about, but was the death that you’ve referenced a business relationship or a familial relationship?

TH: It was family related on Adam’s side and it’s not something I really want to discuss. I had some personal things going on, which I also don’t want to discuss. It all just added to the mood of introspection.

TDOA: The first time I heard The Boxer Rebellion, I thought of you as having a sound that was much like U2 (and not in a negative way!); massive, spacious music that should be played in stadiums. The new album is, as you said, very introspective. It’s also a much quieter record. As you recorded the album, did you ever have any fears of alienating your audience?

TH: No, I don’t think so. I think ultimately, this record more than any of them, I really don’t worry, because I’m so proud of it and how we wrote and recorded it. It felt so organic. I suppose people may be expecting Union. When Union came out, they were expecting Exits. And those are two very different records as well. This is us at a different time period. This isn’t a statement of a direction where going to go in. Record four won’t be The Cold Still.

TDOA: The use of keyboards is very prominent on this record. When you were writing these songs, were these parts added early on in the process or were they added on afterwards?

TH: “No Harm” came about because I was a bit sick of playing guitar and we had the keyboard there, so I came up with it. “Caught By The Light”: I’m playing guitar and Nathan is playing keyboards. There’s a lot of sharing of roles on this record.

TDOA: The songwriting process is an interesting concept to me, when I interview bands. For most of them, the formula tends to remain the same throughout their careers, but for this record, it sounds like you guys approached it differently.

TH: I don’t think there’s any one, fixed approach. It was all very rehearsal room based. The lyrics always come second and the melody always comes first.

TDOA: You referenced that No Harm changed quite a bit from it’s original inception to the final recording, can you talk about that a bit?

TH: It just wasn’t there when we walked into the recording studio. We’d played it live a couple of times, but we ended up completely re-engineering the song sonically and it just shocked us. It was the first indication of how working with a producer like Ethan (Johns) was a really good thing.

TDOA: Some bands look for producers who are there purely to press the record button and merely observe the process. Other bands let producers get involved in everything from the sound of the record, to arranging the songs, to helping to write. What role did Ethan play on this record?

TH: As far as composition goes, we didn’t deviate too much. The main difference is that we recorded the songs live. For example pn “No Harm”, we had a drum loop that Piers had recorded. I played guitar over that, while Nathan played piano. We were feeding off each other and Ethan is very good at capturing that.

TDOA: What’s the next step for you guys after Letterman?

TH: We’ll go back and start finalizing everything with tour dates and the album release. I will say that I think we will have a slightly different approach live because of the nature of this record. Whether that is lighting or how we present ourselves on-stage, I’m not sure yet.

TDOA: Because you’re not on a major, you’re left to do a lot of your own promotion. You’ve embraced social media to connect with your fans. Is that something you enjoy or is it something that you tend to leave for your management?

TH: We all do it, all four of us and our management. We all have our strengths. We’re one of those bands that recognizes that you get out, what you put into it. So we push pretty hard on all fronts.

TDOA: Lastly, can you talk about the album cover and what it means to you.

TH: First of all, the title of the album comes from a lyric in the last song on the record, “Doubt”. The leaf on the front of the cover was a concept produced by Jonas Valtysson. I’d done the Union cover and didn’t want to do it again. Jonas came up with a number of ideas and this one was very simple. It’s about a leaf that’s burning brightly and throughout the book, the leaf shrivels up and dies.

Purchase the new record via iTunes

The Boxer Rebellion Interviews: Part One

In March of 2009, we brought you an interview with The Boxer Rebellion, who’d just released their second album, Union. It was the beginning of a fondness for the band, that has grown over the next two years. We were fortunate enough to receive a copy of their newest record, “The Cold Still” and were amazed to find that it surpassed the excellence of their previous two records. Far more introspective and shimmering with its’ quiet beauty, this is the Joshua Tree of the new millenium.

Lead singer Nathan Nicholson from Tennessee, Australian guitarist Todd Howe and the English pair of drummer Piers Hewitt and bass guitarist Adam Harrison have travelled a long road as they prepare to release their third album. You may have missed their debut ‘Exits’ in 2005 as their record label went bust two weeks after its release. Unsigned, they self-financed the follow up ‘Union’ paying for it with support slots with the likes of Editors, Lenny Kravitz and Gary Numan. The completely ‘independent’ release came out in 2009 with no label backing, no radio play and no press coverage; it started off being solely available on iTunes where it went to number one on the alternative charts in the U.S. and U.K.. The ‘independent’ band found favour with the might of Apple and its stand out track ‘Evacuate’ was made iTunes Single of the Week and the US editor named it the Best Alternative Album of 2009. The cat was out the bag, Q called the album ‘Arena-sized rock music, redolent of Bends-era Radiohead and full of shimmering grace’ and Clash marvelled at the ‘Songs clearly designed to reduce stadia to rubble’. Things have since gone from strength to strength.

In its’ original inception, this site was intended to bring you small bands that flew under the radar. Our hope was that by highlighting these bands, we would bring them the fame and fortune that they so richly deserved. With the release of the new album, our intention was to feature a new interview with The Boxer Rebellion. However, with the announcement of their appearance on Late Night with David Letterman on Wednesday, February 2nd, we’ve decided to alter our plans. The Boxer Rebellion are no longer a band who are “under the radar”. To celebrate, we have decided to dedicate the week to them by featuring two interviews and a splendid contest (details of the contest are below).

For the first interview in our series, drummer and ardent Southend United fan Piers Hewitt spoke to our newest writer Seb.

TDOA: How does an American, Australian and two Englishmen get together to form a band?

PH: We never see it as a weird combination but other people obviously do, given we get asked this a lot! Todd and Nathan, (Australian and American respectively) came over here at the same time, for different reasons – Todd just to work and Nathan to do a study abroad programme through Florida State University – and they met up through the 12 Bar Club musician’s board. Their song writing developed enough that they wanted to put a band together, and the first place they considered advertising was at London Music School, a college of contemporary music study. Fortunately, Adam and myself were studying there and took up the opportunity. It was quite en easy process and we gelled pretty much straight away.

TDOA: Is it true you were originally called Slippermen? What is the meaning behind your eventual settling with Boxer Rebellion?

PH: Despite gelling quickly, that doesn’t mean we didn’t spend a phase of our existence writing generally bad music. That phase did actually involve us being called Slippermen, a name that no-one in this camp is particularly proud of. The changing of the name pretty much came about due to us actually writing music that we were actually genuinely pleased with – plus we were aware how crap a name Slippermen was. There was no deep meaning behind the name, we just liked the sound of it.

TDOA: Glastonbury 2003 is considered to be your ‘breakthrough’ moment – how was that?

PH: I remember it feeling like a genuine realisation that we could actually step up from London circuit boys to actually making it as a touring band on all sorts of stages. We had the handy combination of actually being on top of our game, and it raining for the only time in the weekend during our set, thus making the new bands tent absolutely rammed. It was a special gig. We’ve played much bigger stages since, but that felt like the beginning of a new phase for us so, yes, that will stick long in the memory.
Fans love going to festivals – is it the same for a band? Or is there more pressure in that it might be the first time someone has heard you?
It really depends on the festival. The whole set up and go mentality suits us more in terms of cutting out sitting around in a venue for half a day, which is basically half our job. It’s also a great and rare opportunity to hang out with friends and other bands. You never see other bands unless you’re actually on tour with them, so festivals are great for that. As for playing, you have to be thicker skinned as naturally crowds know less about you and are harder to impress, but to be honest, that’s one of the best things about being in a band.

TDOA: Things were progressing and you had a series of gigs lined up with the Killers (Hot Fuss era) Then Nathan’s appendix burst ? Do you view that as a missed opportunity or part of the process to get where you are today?

PH: The whole Killers thing was part of a few things we had to pull as a result of Nathan’s illness. We had a whole tour with The Raveonettes and Razorlight that hit the buffers too. To be honest, it did hinder us at the time as we had a lot of momentum which we lost and never really regained on the first album campaign, but it did form a large part of what makes us so resolute today. Heaps of bands would have given up way before we got heavily into recording our second album, so I think the sound of that second album, and it’s meaning was contributed to heavily by the band hands we had been dealt before.

TDOA: Then your label, Poptones went bust?

PH: The Poptones/Mercury thing imploded yes. It was hard to accept at the time but we have since learnt that the wrong label/wrong time thing happens a lot. I wouldn’t have wanted to put a second record out through them in retrospect, and we are still here and in a better position than ever, so it’s all worked out fine and it really isn’t something we dwell on much now.

TDOA: Despite all this what made you guys carry on?

PH: A few things really. A small element of it was proving to lots of people that we were always good enough. Not just the label, but even friends and family. We were always proud of our first record, which at the time should have done a lot better, which is why we never went and changed our name. We always received great press, so there was never any hint of being label-less because we were bad at what we were doing. Our friendships came first, and when we realised we were all up for the challenge, it was the tunes that got us where we are now.

TDOA: What gigs and tours did you do in the meantime?

PH: Anything that came our way that didn’t put us out of pocket basically. Writing the album was always a priority, but luckily we had a great loyal fanbase in the UK that never really went away, and their loyalty deserved being rewarded. They were as important to us keeping going as we were at times. Our London shows were invaluable for us at the time in that respect.

Being truly independent, how did you go about putting together and financing the self-released Union?
We secured funding for recording through a company in Japan called Kyodo Tokyo, without signing our rights off to anyone. No living expenses or anything – we all relied on part-time jobs and family for support – but with confidence in the material and the opportunity to record the lot of it, rather than a few demos here and a few demos there meant we really took our time and recorded as went along until we almost had too much material.
Must have been a big vindication that ITunes made Evacuate single of the week? Then the album did really well in the charts?
Being a relatively forgotten act at the time in the UK (which can happen very easily it seems), it was difficult to secure a release for the record outside this country. I’m not sure it entered any of our minds to release it purely digitally, but when iTunes approached us and suggested putting it out themselves, it really was a no brainer. I personally just thought it would be nice for our fans to have it available. When they made it single of the week all over the week, it really surprised me. With no radio, no press and no label, we suddenly did 560,000 downloads of the single and sold 10,000 records worldwide in the first week – 3000 more than Mercury even made of Exits when it came out. That right there tells you how influential iTunes as a retailer is.
Things have only got better you even recently ended up starring in the Drew Barrymore film ‘Going the Distance’ ?
It came about pretty easily really. We took on new management 2 years ago, and when Union came out we knew we had to service some other areas other than the UK so we managed to self-fund a short trip to the US. In LA we met some contacts that our new management had at New Line Cinema, and they put us forward to the director of the film, Nannette Bernstein, who then saw us 3 days later in New York and we went from there really. She liked us, we liked the script. It was simple.
What’s this about you playing a gig at a French football game?
We received an invitation to play on the pitch before Lille v Marseille, a French Ligue 1 match. We were right in the middle of the pitch, under 4 massive umbrella type things (which, it has to be said, were needed), playing in some lovely red Lille shirts with our names on the back, which were presented to us on arrival – well, you’ve got to really haven’t you? Given we went on 45 minutes before kick off, inevitably, the away section was close to full. I would like to think it’ll be the only time we get booed on stage by anyone (Now I know how Nickleback feel). Anyway, it was all good, went down really well, and I unexpectedly fulfilled a possible boyhood dream of walking off a top flight pitch with my name and number on the back of my shirt, whilst being filmed and plastered all over the big screen. The main objective there, I think you’ll agree, was to not fall over on the wet pitch in my converse, which I successfully achieved. We then watched an excellent game (though Marseille won 3-1) from the President’s enclosure with complimentary blankets over our knees like some kind of football bourgeoisie. Possibly against my principles, but in our defence, it wasn’t half cold. It was our funniest/strangest/most fun/biggest/wettest/most bizarre/shortest/coldest/excellent gig we’ve ever done.
What’s next for TBR?
New album ‘The Cold Still’, which is all done and dusted, will be released in the UK and Europe on February 7th. Expect a more extensive UK tour in the new year.

You can pre-order The Cold Still via iTunes here. If you pre-order you get the exclusive song, “You”.

We are also offering our readers the opportunity to win a copy of the new cd, autographed by the entire band. To enter, follow us on Twitter and “tweet” the following: “I just entered to win an autographed copy of The Cold Still by @boxerrebellion via @DumbingAmerica. RT to enter.”. Two winners will be selected on Friday. Good luck!

See the band live!

MAR 3 Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh, United Kingdom
MAR 4 Cockpit (14+) Leeds, United Kingdom
MAR 5 Roadmender Northampton, United Kingdom
MAR 6 The Ruby Lounge Manchester, United Kingdom
MAR 8 The Fleece Bristol, United Kingdom
MAR 9 HMV Institute Birmingham, United Kingdom
MAR 10 Heaven London, United Kingdom
MAR 17 SXSW 2011 Austin, TX
MAR 23 Melkweg Amsterdam, Netherlands
MAR 25 Nouveau Casino Paris, France