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Archived: Shmat's Features
The Shmat has decided to discontinue the Features section for Shmat Records. That is to say, there will be no NEW interviews or features. If you are a band that was featured here earlier, rest assured that your feature will be archived here for eternity (or somewhere near that).
Like Shmat's Reviews, any future Interviews and Features will appear on the Palebear site.
Please note that the Shmat and his Peoples take no responsibility for typos, inaccuracies or misinterpretations contained within these articles.
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October 13, 2004 :
Besides the usual tea parties, red socks, and beans, Boston also puts out a bongloadfull of great indie bands. The latest comes in the form of the folk/pop-centric and exclamation point friendly Pants Yell! Tiny tunes, crafted with care but played with persuasive non-precision, are their specialty. And while the barest hint of tweeness does come through in their sound, they're equally adept at a variety of styles including folk wimprock, drone, and straightforward pop. Recently, the Shmat unleashed a few questions upon the unsuspecting band, and below are the results.
- interview by
 Your latest release, Songs For Siblings, is really cool because there seem to be quite a few styles of music on it: "Onward Sailboat" sort of reminds me of Tullycraft, while "Public Gardens" sometimes reminds me of Belle and Sebastian, and "Directions, Directions" reminds me of American Analog Set. Do you consciously write songs that are in different styles?
Andrew: No, not until recently have I been challenging myself to write constantly different styles of songs. When I was writing "Songs for Siblings" I had this idea in my head of writing a concise album. Something that was comprised of individual little nuggets that also formed a uniformed whole. For our
new stuff I've been trying to write out of my little safety zone.
 What are some of your favorite Boston area bands, indie or otherwise?
Andrew: We're lucky enough to been friends with people here in Boston that write some absolutely
amazing music. Bands like: Ponies in the Surf, Carlisle Sound, Soltero, Big Digits, UV Protection, Mittens, and Ryan Doyle (though he lives in NJ).
How do you come up with ideas for songs? Is it lyrics or music first usually?
Andrew: The songs always start out with a chord progression or two. All the music is written first
then when everything is in order chord and melody wise, I sit down and write lyrics. I try to take as much time as I can on the lyrics, they're very important.
I saw that you recorded the album on 16 track analog... what made you decide to do that rather than just record at home like many other indie bands do?
 Sterling: We wanted it to sound good, and we wanted to step out of the home recording style of our earlier recordings. We're not interested in the digital, pro-tools sound, but we want to give the songs
justice as to how they're represented on CD.
I read in your bio that you have friends across the way - I know Best Kept Secret in Italy released a tape of yours and journalist Everett True has also played your stuff in the UK. How did that come about?
Andrew: I ordered some stuff from Best Kept Secret and sent them a cd-r demo as a trade for one of the cassettes I was buying. They sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks later and asked if they could put it out. I've always been a big fan of all things Everett True (I mention his real name Jack Thackray in our song '83 in '03.) I sent an old demo to his magazine "Careless Talk Costs Lives" and they wrote a great little review for it. As we released other stuff I'd send it to him and we've been lucky enough that he plays it on his radio show.
 Carly, you've got a cool, loose drumming style; I think of Shivaka Asthana from Papas Fritas, and plus she sings while playing too. How'd you end up playing drums, is that your instrument of choice?
Carly: They are definitely my instrument of choice. I need to stay hidden in the back because I get a
little nervous when we play.
This question is for Sterling: What kind of keyboards are you playing on the album... is that some kind of Farfisa?
Sterling: I used a casiotone on a few songs, and yes
you are correct, it was a farfisa compact combo
organ. If anyone's interested in buying ours; e-mail
us, we don't use it anymore.
Andrew... What's your "axe" of choice? Actually, I know a lot of Pants Yell! songs focus around acoustic guitar, so... what kind of acoustic are you playing on the album?
Andrew: I'm not a gear-head, by any means. On the
album I used a hollow body D'Armond electric guitar I bought in high school and my trusty $100 nylon string
acoustic. My brother gave me his 1970's Gibson SG that I use now and it lets me live out my Angus Young fantasies.
 Nice... so, have you had a lot of success getting college stations to play your stuff on radio? A lot of bands say that seems to be one of the toughest parts... the MIT station WMBR seems to be pretty open to playing different music, I know they've played Shmat bands before...
Andrew: We've had really great success with college radio. That's been such a big way people around the country have found out about us. WMBR and WERS here in Boston have had us on a bunch of times to play live on-air, which is really flattering because they're great stations we always listen to. I think radio people give the CD a chance because of the packaging, then they find out the music isn't so bad.
Time for the "Liz Phair" conundrum: Would you rather sell a lot of records or receive critical acclaim?
Carly: We'd go for the critical acclaim.
Do you believe in any of the following: UFOs, ghosts, Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster...
Sterling: I believe in UFOs, ghosts, and the Loch Ness monster, but no sasquatch, that is ridiculous. My bandmate Carly is terrified of such things and I don't want to scare her, so that is all I have to say about it.
What do you think of the current state of top 40 music today?
Andrew: Not to sound like a snob, but neither of us know anything about top 40 music today. Carly likes Beyonce and we all liked that "hey ya" song at
parties. I hear that Franz Ferdinand song sometimes
and I like that beginning of it.
Any shmats, er, cats living at your places?
Carly: No, but Sterling and Andrew's roommate is getting one soon named Barley. I have a neighbor
named Socrates who feeds all the stray cats in the neigborhood and keeps kittens in little boxes that say "no dogs allowed".
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Pants Yell!
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Members:
Andrew Churchman, guitar, vocals
Sterling Bryant, bass, backing vocals, keyboards
Carly Smith, drums, backing vocals
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Website: Pants Yell!
Current Label: Asaurus Records
Latest Release: Songs for Siblings
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Archived Shmat Features
February 2005
Anamude
November 2004
American Analog Set
October 2004
Pants Yell!
July 2004
Snoozer
June 2004
Elk City
May 2004
Popgun Recordings
April 2004
East River Pipe
February 2004
Elliott The Letter Ostrich
January 2004
Damon of the Swirlies
December 2003
The Ladybug Transistor
November 2003
Bill Ricchini
October 2003
Shiny Around The Edges
September 2003
Dave Klotz of Fonda
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