the breakups

(January 2010)

Interview by Amber Henson

Although I’m sure it was just a joke, it was really nice to be invited to join a band I was currently interviewing.  The breakups are currently looking for a new keyboardist, and while we were sitting in their practice room in West LA we were discussing that it might be nice to have a woman in the position, to harmonize and balance out the testosterone of Jake Gideon, Phil Shrut, Nik Ahlstam, and Tim Lee.  It was a flattering offer, given that I had not demonstrated any skills beyond the ability to hold a pen.

Skills, though, are something the band has in spades.  Although Gideon is the only original member of the five year old band and they only have one official EP out, Gideon has chosen some excellent new band members and has “at least four albums' worth of songs.”  For fans of the band, who have had to rely on only one EP that was released in February 2008, I asked what’s been happening since then?  Well, between members leaving the band and Gideon being “swamped with work,” the band’s been just attempting to put itself back together (“We take the slow and steady route,” Shrut pointed out).

The plan now that the band is close to re-populated? “Finish an album,” Gideon says, “I hope.  Sometime this year.” Ahlstam mentioned that they had previously vowed February, but that that’s not happening now, although they may put a single out around then.  Lee added that they would only be putting out a full album, not another EP. “Yeah, no more of that,” Gideon added.  When asked why, he explained that “It’s impossible to drive anywhere in this town in 20 minutes, which is how long most EPs are.  I want to be able to put out an album that will last the whole drive.”

Sadly true for traffic heavy Los Angeles, but like almost all LA bands, no one is from here.  Lee is from Walnut Creek, Ahlstam from New Jersey, Gideon from Michigan, and Phil Shrut?  He’s from Philadelphia. How ironic, I pointed out.  Gideon laughed at Shrut’s unamused face, and said he was irony proof.  Ahlstam stated that he himself was not a fan of irony.  Shrut cut through all this to say that he’d been in LA six years now.  Gideon went on to tell a peculiar story about accidentally winding up in Berkley, which is nearby Lee’s hometown.

There were lots of peculiar stories told and quips given by my four interviewees, my favorite of which might be something Ahlstam mentioned in a discussion about Coachella: “I hate when people describe shows as a religious experience.”  This fit perfectly with what I’ve gathered about this band, that is, music is fun, but not something anyone needs to go over the deep end about.

Music is also math, as was pointed out by Gideon when I asked the group about their day jobs.  This was in relation to Lee’s admission that he is a high school math teacher.  Shrut is in the music industry, working for a major performing rights organization, Gideon a recording engineer, and Ahlstam is in graphic design.  “But if I didn’t do that, I would be a dolphin trainer,” Ahlstam informed us.  “Dolphins do have bigger brains then us,” I added.  I was, however, called out on the source of my fact, which they correctly guessed was learned while watching Conan O’Brien’s interview of Jeff Bridges.

That conveniently led me to a question I had on my list about how they all felt about the whole NBC/Conan mess.  “I’m pissed,” Gideon started.  “Poor Conan,” Shrut lamented.  I was then informed that the breakups were officially on Team Conan.  Now I really felt like these were my people.

I decided I was comfortable enough to relay something slightly personal, that is, that I always get goosebumps when listening to the track “Winding Down” from their EP.  Gideon, who wrote the song, explained that he wrote it after seeing the Wilco film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,when he felt very inspired.  “It pissed me off to see how great a group they were but just couldn’t keep it together.”  This in turn inspired a group conversation about the drama that can happen in bands, and before we knew it we were topics away from my original request for knowing more about “Winding Down.”

And so when I received an email later that night from Gideon, who said that he realized on his way home that he didn’t really answer the question fully and wanted to tell me more, I was quite impressed.  Gideon is clearly a man who cares very much for his music.  He explained:

“The music came very quickly right when I got home from seeing the film.  It was a simpler style of writing for me at that point.  It was acoustic-driven and slightly country and although the "Winding down" line came quite early on, the rest of the lyrics took a really long time to finally come together in my head.  I actually asked my friend Steven [Wilson], who's in a great band called Plasticsoul, to help out with the lyrics and even though I didn't end up using what he wrote, it somehow helped me look at the subject matter of the song from a different perspective and the lyrics came pretty easily at that point.  I wanted to keep them somewhat vague, but feelings of loss and insecurity and loneliness and paranoia and nostalgia and disappointment were all things I wanted to convey in that song.  And even though a lot of our songs probably sound more upbeat than that one, all of those emotions tend to come up a lot in breakups songs.  They just might be better masked behind louder guitars and more snappy hooks.”

But getting back to the band as a whole, I wanted to know what everyone’s '90s influences were.  Ahlstam seemed a bit tongue tied at first before stating that this wasn’t going to be easy for him, as his list was quite extensive.  Eventually we got some big names out of him, like Green Day, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Oasis (“but not Nirvana,” he pointed out).  Shrut deferred, and so Gideon added Elliot Smith and Michael Penn.  Lee laughed and said he used to listen to a lot of classic rock, but eventually decided on Radiohead as an early influence.  Finally, after looking through some albums, Shrut decided on Spacehog, The Wallflowers, and The Cardigans.

And how about songs that they are currently obsessed with?  Shrut had an answer ready for this one: “‘Chasing Pirates’ by Norah Jones.”  Before answering Gideon asked that I clarify that it didn’t have to be a current song.  The answer was yes.  “Then it’s ‘My First, My Last, My Everything’ by Barry White.”  Ahlstam’s was “Lisztomania” by Phoenix. Gideon added another, “I Am the Cosmos” by Chris Bell, which Ahlstam countered by speaking of his current love of Maxine Nightingale.  Lee finally added Grizzly Bear’s “Knife.”  “Ohh, yours is so current!” bemoaned Gideon.

Somewhere between the ‘90s and today, these four guys decided they wanted to be in a band.  I asked when that was for each of them.  Gideon began, “I got my hands on a guitar when I was pretty young and I knew that I needed to touch one again.”  Lee was next: “My older brother had a band in high school.  It was called Cheese and I thought it was the coolest thing.” “My favorite high school band name,” Gideon recalled “was Jesus’ Penis.”  Shrut said that he didn’t think there was a certain time, which Alhstam concurred with.  We then discussed that since Shrut had decided to be a drummer, he couldn’t go that far musically without a band.  “Yeah, there’s not much you can do on your own,” Gideon added.  I pointed out that he could sit behind the drum kit and sing away.  Shrut smiled “Yeah, that’s not really something that I’m looking into.  That’s just not my deal.”

This is why I think that this new incarnation of the band will go far, because these guys aren’t in it for the glory, they’re here because they enjoy playing and each other’s company.  Hanging out in their practice room was a ton of fun, and if I didn’t have so many darn questions to ask them, I’m sure we would have discussed Conan and new bands all night.  These four guys are very genuine, and I’ve always found that having a sense of humor greatly improves ones chances to make it in the forever-too-serious industry.