5 Questions with The 1900s

Tonight I’m catching The 1900s at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC. Their recently released album, Cold & Kind has been in heavy rotation at MoB HQ over the past two weeks. We caught up with Ed Anderson and Jeanine Mary for our continuing 5 Questions with Muzzle of Bees feature, a first with dual responses!

Enjoy their thoughts below and check back later in the week for our review of tonight’s show.

The first came to know and love the 190s after catching your opening set for Iron & Wine at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. How was it opening for them, and was that part of a longer tour or just a one off?

That was a one-off show. It was by far one of the best shows we’ve ever been part of. I run into random people even in Chicago who were there, it’s crazy. At that time it was about triple the size of any audience we had ever played for, and the entire theatre of 1,300 were dead silent while we played. There was so much going through my head while we were playing…I was thinking to myself “What if I just stopped singing right now and walked off…what would happen..can I do this?” I asked Sam about it later and he was all “ahh…you get used to it.”

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Cold and Kind? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you’ll apply towards future recording sessions?

Jeanine Mary: I’ll go straight to the lessons learned. i think we could stand to be little more loosey goosey on the next record - record it somewhere we feel comfortable, and maybe not a studio. and I’d really like to track it ourselves, and not be so precious with a million takes and hyper-criticism of everything. most of all, I’d like for us to all feel really at home with the songs before recording so we play them on record the way we do live when we really know them.

Ed Anderson: The album was recorded mostly at Clava studio in Chicago, produced by Graeme Gibson. We played most of the tracks totally live in a room onto 2 inch tape. We then overdubbed strings and vocals and extra shit on top of that. We did some additional recorded at a bunch of other places, like the studio at the Sure Mic offices, where we recorded their 1879 Steinway grand piano, and my friend Charlie’s studio, Maximum Automatic, where I did most of my vocals and some other random keyboards and guitars.

I think the songs and arrangements were so intense, that we didn’t have much room for experimentation. For our next record I want to keep it just the 7 of us, and allow for the songs to develop more in the studio, instead of demoing the shit out of them and ‘perfecting’ them beforehand. It’s all about trying to capture a real performance with emotion, instead of just going through the motions in a studio. There’s no studio trickery that can create heart & soul, at least yet.

What was the last show you went to see, as a fan? You’ll be playing CMJ in New York next weekend, anyone you hope to see while you’re there?

Jeanine Mary: I see a lot of shows, a couple a week usually. Liars & some other big rockstars recently had a big jam at the club where i work this week and it was pretty weird and hugely fun. I am a liars fan to the bone. i don’t think I’ll be cruising around CMJ seeing shows. I’m eager to play, and then i hope to visit with friends and catch some falling leaves and all that.

Ed Anderson: Rock shows are generally too loud for me. Plus, we play so many and I’m so busy making music that I rarely have time or feel like going to a club. I think the last show I saw were my friends the Strange Young Lovers, and they were awesome. I haven’t even looked at the CMJ schedule, but I’m excited to play with Drug Rug again, who we just played with in Chicago last weekend. They’re some top-notch motherfuckers.

The internet has dramatically altered the way bands can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

Jeanine Mary: I do prefer word of mouth and print to find new music, but technology helps when you’re in a band. i’m well aware of the power of myspace and email and pitchfork and all that. those things annoy the crap out of me, but they seem to make music contagious. of course, there are down sides, like enabling people to steal music or the fact that people rarely listen to full albums anymore. I’m an old lady, but i am trying to roll with the times.

Ed Anderson: I guess it’s good and bad, but more on the good side. It makes it easy for people to access your band and your music, but that also means everything else in the world is easy to find as well. It’s now so easy to get distracted that you kind of have to fight to keep people’s attention, people now eat up and spit out bands so fast, myself included. When I write music I try to create an emotional bond between the singer and the listener. If it’s all style people will eventually discard you, but if you make a personal connection hopefully people will care when your next album comes out and want to further that relationship…

That said, we’ve had some very good things come from random Myspace messages, but we’ve probably opened more doors by giving olde fashioned blow jobs.

What’s next for the 1900s? Can we expect another tour before the end of the year behind the new album?

Jeanine Mary: We are tentatively planning more touring before the end of the year. Keep your ears peeled. After that, there will indeed be a new record, as long as we can stay together without murder.

Ed Anderson: We plan to tour as much as we humanly can. We just bought a van!

Myspace: 1900s
MP3: 1900s - “When I Say Go”
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Download: eMusic
Buy: Insound

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