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Pomplamoose interview: favorite songs, recording techniques - and the second live show - Part 3
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Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose are just as adorable (and modest) in person as they are in their youtube videos. I was lucky enough to meet up with them at the Aroma Café in San Rafael the day before Nataly’s 23rd birthday and chat over tea and cider. We talked about their upcoming show at the Brainwash Café in San Francisco next Friday November 13th, their second gig as a band EVER, the future of music, the nuts an bolts of being an “internet band,” and recording techniques.
Read part 1 and part 2 where Jack and Nataly talk about how they use the internet to completely support themselves as musicians.
And now for part 3
Jamie Freedman: What’s your favorite Pomplamoose song?
Nataly Dawn: We tend to like the songs that our fans tend to like the least.
Jack Conte: My favorites are “Twice as Nice” and “Be Still.”
JF: Why?
JC: Well Nataly wrote “Be Still” before we were Pomplamoose and it’s always been my favorite out of Nataly’s songs. I really like the bass line and the melody.
ND: I think the reason why it’s not as popular is because the verse is pretty dissonant and there’s not as much going on as in our other songs, it’s a slow song. But I sort of have more a connection with it. But fans have a connection with some of the other songs that are doing well like “Beat the Horse,” “Little Things” and “Expatriation Date.”
JC: One of the things we always talk about is that if you listen to my music and you listen to Nataly’s music it’s all really different to Pomplamoose’s music. You’d never think that we would come together and make something that’s so accessible and pop-y since we both make, really out, weird music.
ND: Mine is a little more “out” now. But mine is definitely less weird [than Jack’s]. I don’t have all the stuff Jack has for recording, like sounds and petals.
JC: What’s most bizarre way you’ve ever made sound?
NH: Ooh, that’s a good question. The most bizarre? Well there are a couple things, I really like reversing sounds and slowing them down so you hear the individual samples, you hear the grains. Something that we’ve done in “Single Ladies” and “Twice as Nice” is something called Granular Synthesis. That’s a pretty common compositional technique.
ND: Sometimes I hit a bottle…
JF: [To Nataly] Do you ever go flat?
ND: I go flat all the time; sometimes you can hear it in the songs.
JC: She doesn’t go flat.
ND: Pitch and harmony have always been a forte for me. I inherited them from my mom. My mom is a singer and she directed choirs and I think I heard a lot of it when I was in the womb. I was born with it and was harmonizing by the age of 14 months. I think by then I was sitting at the piano with my mom and singing along with her. Harmonizing just came like that because of her!
JF: Your harmonies are really well done.
ND: I work really hard on the harmonies and Jack works with me on the harmonies sometimes. It’s something that I want to be really tight. It’s my main instrument I would say, that and the bass.
JF: [To Jack] How many instruments do you play?
JC: Really not that many. Anything that’s piano based or guitar based. Anything that’s piano based I feel really comfortable playing.
ND: He’s an incredible pianist.
JF: Your piano is really cool.
JC: Thanks, it’s from the 1890s.
ND: He’s actually a phenomenal jazz pianist too.
JC: Actually that’s not true! I can hack my way around the guitar and play the parts and do what I need to do. I use mostly three fingers on the frets. I can kinda lay down a bass line… basically anything that’s guitar based. It’s deceptive because in my room I have a lot of instruments, but they’re all based off of guitar and piano. There’s a glockenspiel, an accordion…
ND: You do great on the drums!
JC: I do okay on the drums and I do well enough to keep a sloppy beat.
ND: And there’s that toy saxophone.
JC: yes, I do play the toy saxophone very well.
ND: He can also rock the melodica. I fell in love with him because he was playing the melodica.
JC: No that’s not true!
ND: The first time I saw you were playing the melodica!
JC: Oh god, the melodica is so sexy…
ND: Yeah, you were having a lot of fun. You jammed out on the melodica and you jammed out on the piano and you were really cool!
JF: What’s a song you want to cover and haven’t yet?
JC: I’ve been wanting to do “Bohemian Rhapsody” for a long time. I think it would be ridiculously complicated. And the danger with that is that it’s just such a classy song, it’s perfect. I mean if you covered it you’d have to do it differently. I don’t know if it can be done better. I mean our goal isn’t to do anything better. When we’re doing a cover, we just want to make something; we don’t want to make something better than the original.
ND: We don’t cover anything we don’t already like.
JF: [To Jack] What are the most layers you’ve put in a song?
JC: Probably a hundred layers? Or more. Sometimes it doesn’t fit on one Pro Tools session.
JF: Are you self-taught?
ND: I’m Jack-taught.
JC: I did a lot of film stuff in collage.
ND: I worked for a PR company one summer and I learned how to edit really well.
JC: I was a music major in college too. Nataly was an Art Major and has French Lit Master’s.
JF: How’s that working out for you?
ND: I’m a fulltime musician.
JF: You’re lucky to make enough money off of iTunes.
ND: it’s all about perseverance.
JF: Well you guys really know how to work the internet.
ND: I feel like a lot of artists should talk to us. Or we should put out a how to video or something.
For other tips on how to be a successful musician [Jack and Nataly support themselves on their mp3 sales!] read part 1 and part 2 of this interview.
Also, see my blog www.alwaysmoretohear.com to see the special 'hello" video that Jack and Nataly made for me and my readers!
For more info: Pomplamoose's youtube channel Things that Sean Connery Should Say
Nov. 13th Show - Brainwash Café in San Francisco
8pm Greek National Road
9pm Danielle Ate the Sandwich
10 o'clonk Pomplamoose
Pomplamoose's cover of "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire
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