The Postelles have built a following the old-fashioned way: relentless touring. Their fans include Vampire Weekend, who brought them on a recent Canadian jaunt, and The Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr, who showed up at a show when they were in high school and offered to produce them. The Manhattan quartet marries the sing-along pop of the Crystals with the jagged guitar hooks of the Arctic Monkeys, bashing out three-minute rock and roll tunes that stay in your head.
This promises to be a busy year for The Postelles. They’ve got a new EP coming out March 2nd, followed by their first full-length later this year. Their calendar features a tour with Hockey next month, a Carnegie Hall appearance for a Who tribute and a busy festival season (including SXSW and Bonnaroo). To get the touring gears in motion, they’re beginning 2010 with a month-long residency at the Bowery Electric on Wednesday nights. Examiner caught up with the guys backstage before their first show.
Why did you guys set up this residency?
Daniel Balk (vocals/guitar): We wanted to do a residency for a while, to have our New York crowd come out every week instead of the one big show we usually do. We also like the vibe of this club. It’s small, but not too small.
Do you see the same faces at these local shows?
John Speyer (bass): Yeah, there’s a little scene.
Balk: We definitely do. And that’s something positive about going out and playing with Vampire Weekend: we get to see new faces.
Do you engage in typical rock star antics on the road?
Balk: We’re not like Led Zeppelin, doing what they did with a shark. We have pillow fights.
Billy Cadden (drums): Tickle fights.
David Dargahi (guitar): There’s a lot of apple juice.
Some of your songs have interesting backstories. Tell me about “Boy’s Best Friend.”
Balk: It’s based on an Ernest Hemingway book called The Garden of Eden, but is also a true story about a girl that Billy and I turned into a lesbian.
Cadden: I think it was mostly me. We dated and broke up and then after two more guys she went full-on lesbian.
Speyer: Billy was the half-way step.
Let’s talk about your upcoming White Nights EP. When you were recording the EP were there any records in particular you listened to?
Dargahi: I think in the studio we just wanted to make it as authentic as possible. Records like London Calling, which really sounds like it’s just a bunch of guys in a room…our first album, that’s how we wrote those songs and that’s how we wanted those songs to come across.
Balk: By the end of it we got so tight we were really doing two or three takes of every song.
You’ve worked quite a bit with Albert Hammond, Jr. from the Strokes. Is he a very hands-on producer?
Dargahi: In terms of guitar playing, he was super hands-on and involved, to the point where he’s literally messing with my pedals as I was playing the song.
Balk: I remember going in the first day and Albert was just going to every amp fiddling with it like he was taking apart a car or something.
Everything written about you primarily mentions two influences: The Strokes and ‘50s rock. Are there any influences that people might not expect?
Speyer: We all listen to a lot of jazz, we listen to a lot of classical. We’re really big music buffs.
Balk: Personally, I’m really into Radiohead and Blur. That would never come across in the music, at least not yet, but they’re two of my favorite bands of all time.
Dargahi: We’re really into the whole Brit-pop thing. I think it’s a cool period of music where the mainstream rock had this pop sensibility to it, which was kind of what it was like in the ‘50s. A Sam Cooke record was poppy and catchy, but it was also very cool and heartfelt.
So you see a bigger disconnect now?
Balk: Right now, there are some great bands that are big. The Vampire Weekend record was number one, and that’s pretty cool, they’re on an indie label and everything. But there are definitely some mainstream artists that may be a little too manufactured.
Speyer: I think we feel like there’s a loss of the art of the songwriter. Like really constructing a perfect rock song, with the perfect bridge and the perfect chorus. No one does that anymore. No one thinks about using the organic rock instruments to create a great song.
Any hints on what song you guys are going to perform for the Who tribute show?
Balk: I think we’re going to do “I Can’t Explain.”
Why did you choose that one?
Balk: We all like the early punk vibe that the Who had. I mean, we like all their stuff, but I feel like we’d be going out on a limb trying to do something from Tommy. “Can’t Explain” could be one of our songs.
You mentioned on your MySpace page listening to Quadrophenia. I was trying to picture you doing a “Love, Reign o’er Me” cover.
Balk: I think it works more for Pearl Jam.
Speyer: Come to us in ten years, we’ll see.
The Postelles’ Wednesday night residency at the Bowery Electric continues tonight. The shows begin at 9pm and are 21+ and free. Visit the venue’s website for more information.
Learn more:
The Postelles on MySpace
The Postelles' Blog
The Postelles on Twitter
The Postelles on YouTube
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