Frog Eyes Interview

Andrew Ford: First of all, thank you for taking time to talk with us.
Carey Mercer: Yeah, no problem.
AF: So you've had a line-up change?
CM: Yeah, that's right, Spencer [Krug], who played on The Bloody Hand, went to Montreal. And then we got Grayson [Miniely], and now Grayson split, so now we've got Spencer back.
AF: I've heard the new album has been pushed back to early next year.
CM: Well, it's always been early next year. We're chipping away at it.
AF: So is the Swan Lake album coming out before then?
CM: Yeah, Swan Lake is done. That's getting mastered in the next couple of weeks. If everything goes as it should, it will all be out in late October.
AF: Do you have a label putting it out?
CM: Yeah, Jagjaguwar. I'm really excited to work with them.
AF: So you're touring with Sunset Rubdown?
CM: Yeah, we play our first show with them tonight [5/6, Victoria, British Columbia]. Spencer flew out from San Francisco Wednesday morning. It's pretty intense, I kinda like all that cramming. Like, it's the first show, it's such a big deal, y'know.
AF: So, did you guys meet and start playing in, like, high school or...?
CM: No, no, we are quite old. Actually, Mel, the drummer, and I were dating and we are married now but the whole idea began as kind of a side project, kind of an experiment; to see if I could learn how to play the piano while she learned how to play the drums. Then, as our relationship got more serious, the idea of touring alone really bummed me out. She played her first show after drumming for only a couple of weeks so by then, I was just like, let me just focus all my energies on this band. Right now, more than ever, she's really turning into this monster drummer, she's awesome. It's, like, one of the few good decisions that I've ever made. I kind of kissed off my other band...
AF: Blue Pine, right?
CM: Yeah, that band probably wouldn't have worked out. You know, some bands just work really well with touring and all, and, y'know, that one went pretty well but, no matter what level of success a band achieves they are still looking forward to home. But yeah, that's kinda why we started the band.
AF: So, you are an artist, too, right? Well, you do the cover art, I mean.
CM: Yeah, I went to art school for a little bit. I dropped out with my student loan and I was gonna go to Europe but I pretty much just drank. So, I wouldn't say I'm an artist. It's like, you don't call Sting an actor. But I like to paint, we were just painting these t-shirts for the tour.
AF: Yeah, you have that one online, that Creature from the Black Lagoon-looking one.
CM: Yeah, those look pretty ugly. I've been letting other people do things too much. So we are making our own shirts.
AF: So you guys have a new EP coming out, right?
CM: Yeah, that was for a Spanish label called Acuarela and they have like this series of EPs they do for artists that are, like, exclusive. Usually when an American or Canadian band works for a European label, it will have to get a release from that label but what Acuarela does is kinda different. I'm pretty happy with it. We did, like a, oh, what do you call it. I don't know, it's like eight songs and they are all interconnected.
AF: I've heard it described as an 18-minute single-song EP.
CM: Not exactly. Actually, that record was kind of, I don't wanna say an an epiphany, but I've really got into the mixing part of it. AF: So you are more into the whole studio process now?
CM: Yeah, totally, yeah. I love it, it's so intimidating. Ya'know, it can be a real bummer but lately it's been really exciting. It either ends up like cool or God this is horrible and we are paying for this, ya'know? We just worked up enough dread, for the record and maybe it will turn into the nightmare that it usually is. But yeah, I really enjoyed it.
AF: So are you previewing any new material on this tour?
CM: Yeah, almost half our set is new material. I really like to take songs on tour before we record them. Because, by the time you get home the songs, after all that preparation are just so much stronger. In some ways, it's like the tour becomes an excuse to tighten up.
AF: What about the stuff you've written for the Swan Lake album?
CM: No, no, I'm probably the most for that, and Spencer's like that too, but Dan's, like, anti-tour. Well, actually, he's coming around to the fact that, the more you tour, the less you have to worry about turning in your resume to Subway.
AF: So what inspired you guys to hook up and make an album together?
CM: Well, we toured with Dan and then the three of us went to Europe. And I just didn't think I'd had enough time with Dan's "Your Blues" songs to really arrange them, you know. I mean, it turned out alright, but it was just really difficult, to turn all these MIDI compositions into stuff that can be played by four people. It was really just kind of [a sense of] frustration, that we didn't have more time to work on them, that there was already a record that these were going to be held up to. And that sort of provided the impetus for us to try a record, so that then it wouldn't be just Dan's songs we were doing. Our songwriting gets compared, but it's really different, I think. In Dan's work there is a lot more space.
AF: Yeah, his compositions tend to be a little longer.
CM: Definitely, yeah, but Swan Lake ended up sounding completely different. It's kind of like a synthesis of that EP we just did, and "Your Blues" and lots of Spencer's beautiful, orchestral quality. I think it's really cool, I'm pretty excited about it.
AF: Yeah, I'm actually pretty excited about it too.
CM: Yeah, that's really what we're worried about.
AF: That expectations will be too high?
CM: Well, more like that the expectations will be different. But, ya'know, whatever, you don't live in a vacuum. I mean, we are lucky enough to make a record and to fly Spencer from Montreal with the recording money. We are extraordinarily fortunate to be able to approach a label based solely on your track record, have no demos, and no songs written, and for them to say okay. It's beautiful. We really felt, like, honored, to be able to do this together. It's kinda weird to talk about a record when, really, only three people have heard it. But the thing about it is, I think, the singing on it, that came about is just kind of amazing. That it almost - does exist without context. It wasn't like, let's do this so we can tour this, it was more like let's create a little world on record.
AF: So is this record, especially with Dan's stuff, as self-referential?
CM: Actually, I've found myself having fun with referring to a few of his lyrics. Well, we are in this band together, I can do that.
AF: He ever catch you and go like, ya'know, Stop that, or anything?
CM: No, I told him about it. I don't think he thought it was cool but, whatever. The premise of the record was that we each wrote four songs and we all brought them in and just kinda chipped away at it just to create, like I said, this little world.
AF: So where did the name come from?
CM: It was a ceramic, like, Korean pair of frog eyes for a teddy bear that were still in the package and we needed a new band name. This was before the big animal craze. We were on the tip of it, I guess. The big frog craze never really materialized.
AF: So what other bands do you listen to?
CM: I have, like, one band every two months and maybe six artists a year that just really get in my skull. I'm pretty vampiric, I guess, when it comes to music. I can't just sit down, I'm always like, wow, great idea! or just like, this is full of shit and there's no ideas,in either one. I really like the O's Mutantes right now. I love the way they mix stuff. I mean, they've got like the loudest, ya'know, god-awful sounding guitars. It's god-awful but it's really amazing sonically. There's this great tension between the beautiful Tropicalia arrangements that are really lush-sounding and then you have this really loud, skronking guitar in the right headphone. This Bill Fay guy, have you heard him?
AF: Nah, didn't they just re-issue some of his stuff, though?
CM: He's pretty neat, yeah, there's one, I think it's called Time of the Last Persecution and it's really like, this cynicism and this bitterness and, at the same time, this resolution and that just really struck me. And also, this complete, like, not world-weariness, but more like nausea. I like Dan's record. I like a lot of my friends music. If I go on tour with a band, usually I'll end up liking them. It's funny, I could probably end up liking anything if I toured with them every night. And, um, [Stephen] McBean, with Pink Mountaintops and Black Mountain, I like that. You know what, I'm such a chump. I name like, two bands and then a bunch of my friends stuff.
Oh, and Nina Simone.
AF: Oh, I almost forgot, how was SXSW? Was that the first time you guys played?
CM: No, it was the second time we played. Probably for most people, the whole experience was a series of hilarious highs and abysmal lows. One other thing, when we first went there, was that - you could use the term "culture shock," but more like the homogenous aspect of the culture you've sewn yourself into. I mean, you look around and see nothing but band dudes and then you're like, I'm a band dude. The last time we went, it was kinda fun. I like just, you know, getting drunk. I do like Austin, you ever been there?
AF: No, I know a guy whose friend took a short film there last year, but no.
CM: Yeah, it's just like a pretty, liberal or whatever that word means city. And, there are lots of "liberal" cities in Canada but with that there comes this inane predilection towards bureaucracy. It's like we are free, so shut your dog up. And, you know, get those ugly warehouses out of there, let's build some condos. But it wasn't like that there, there wasn't the whole bureaucracy thing, and you could just have a beer. Most Canadian cities are just dismal, like, with by-laws; I think the upper east coast of America is like that too, like in Vermont. You don't find, like, White Power, which is good but you, like, can't buy a beer if you're not from that state, which is kind of annoying for me, you know what I mean. That's what I really liked about Austin.
AF: Everybody was just kinda laid-back?
CM: Yeah, but sometimes laid-back comes with yeah, we're laid-back, but, you know, we'll shoot you or something.