Crystal Stilts

Brooklynites Crystal Stilts have a touch of Joy Division to their sound, but it is in an atmospheric, rather than sonic way. They have captured the essence of post punk, but sound like they have been influenced by the music from both sides of that era. There are bits of Smiths, Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain and rockabilly that are mixed together without sounding ripped off or pastiche. Analogue got a chance to catch up with front man JB Townsend in advance of their gig in Whelans.

You grew up in Florida but are now based in Brooklyn. How long have you lived in Brooklyn and what was it that attracted you to Brooklyn?

JB Townsend: I’ve been living in Brooklyn for about 7 years. Brad and I moved here around the same time from Florida. When you live on the East Coast it’s the obvious move to make. We both wanted to get out of there. It was a fairly dismal place.

Was it a musical decision? Were you making music in south Florida?

We weren’t really making music at that time and didn’t have plans to start a band. We both kind of joked about it. Brad doesn’t really play an instrument and wasn’t really a singer then. He was into writing poems and stuff. Then after a few months of living in Brooklyn, this guy we knew had a practice space in Greenpoint with nights available. I would go there. I invited brad along, and for quite a while it was kind of directionless. We were experimenting and trying out different sounds. After about 6 months to a year of doing that, we had a little batch of songs which was the first single we put out. Also, a few of the songs on the LP are also from those days.

Do you consider the Brooklyn music scene to be a collective musical environment?

There are a lot of bands that are known as Brooklyn bands that we don’t really interact with. Because there are people here from so many different places, it almost creates sects in the Brooklyn scene and divides it. There are probably about ten bands that we’re pretty close to, although it’s only really been in the past year or so that everyone has gotten past anything weird.

Do you think that your success has had anything to do with that?

I don’t think it’s been anything to do with success. It’s more an affinity. Especially with Blank Dogs. That’s been great. Mike has been such a help with everything. Mike from Blank Dogs has done really well getting everyone together.

I’m pretty curious about the recording process and the techniques you use to create that sound. On the EP especially, there’s an almost Martin Hannett-like shimmer to the tracks.

That EP has a very cold sound, but also a lot of reverb and tape. When mixing I tend to just disregard 90’s production values. On the EP I used a Roland TR606 Analogue drum machine with some reverb, then doubled the drum track with real drums. I also like mono sounding recordings; so on the EP there isn’t a whole lot of panning going on. The sound is mostly centred.

So sticking to the recording process, and production, I wanted to ask about the positioning of the vocals in the mix. Is their depth a deliberate technique to make people think about, or hide what is being sung? Or is it just an aesthetic thing?

Well reverb adds volume, so when you put reverb on something, you tend to turn it down, but we also like the idea of not being able to make out the lyrics, and then you have to find out what they are. Then when you do find out, they’re not bad I think.

I can hear a lot of your influences in the music, so I’m not going to ask you to list them out, but I’d be interested to hear what makes you tick at the moment.

At the moment, I’ve been listening to the Trashmen and a lot of doowop records that I buy for a dollar. There’s a record store called Academy in Brooklyn, and in the basement they have tonnes of old 45’s. I like to go down there and look for odd R&B and doowop records. They’re pretty fun to discover.

You’re on an independent label at the moment, has there been any interest from any other parties?
About a year ago, we weren’t really stirring up anything. We had that EP that just came out on vinyl only. When we were making the EP we thought that Slumberland seemed like a good idea, but we had no idea if Slumberland was even accepting bands. Then Mike from Slumberland contacted us about doing a single out of the blue and I was like “well we have this whole album if you want to hear it!” He liked it, and from there we decided we wanted to mix it again. Slumberland is an amazing label.

Considering the fact that you’re on an independent label, and the fact that you had to cancel our interview yesterday to go to work, how difficult is it for a band like Crystal Stilts to survive without day jobs?

Right now we’re kind of at the point where we’re almost able to not work. Once we’re touring and more records come out, that will help.

I hope this doesn’t ruffle any feathers, but is there any way you can explain to me what happened to ‘Converging in the Quiet’? The version on the EP is my favourite song of yours, but the album version doesn’t seem to have as much kick.
It’s probably going to tear some fans a bit. That version was recorded in 2005, and I guess you change the way you play. Those records are studio records where I played almost all of them. We also decided that we wanted to re-record all those old songs, because at the time that record was not out, it was CDR only. I wanted to do it a little bit more like we play it live, because then we used a drum machine, but now we play with a drummer.

So tell me a bit about the band set up right now.

It’s the same five people. Kyle, who has been playing organ with us live for a few years, Andy, who plays bass, Frankie and Brad singing. It’s basically been me and Brad since the beginning, but we’ve had some different members. For the past year and a half, it has been a pretty steady line up.

Is that line up just for playing live or have you made any recordings?

We recorded a single with that line up in the way we play live. It was really nice to be able to do that. It took a lot less time. When we play live, it’s a little different. Some people think it’s great, but some people just expect to hear the record.

Well if that’s the case, they should just stay at home and listen to it.

Crystal Stilts play their first Irish gig upstairs in Whelan’s on 19th of February, tickets are €14.