Interview: Julia Brown on Tour

My friend Ben Wiley had the opportunity to talk to one of the year's finest new indie pop bands, Julia Brown, on their recent tour. Read the interview below, which concludes with a surprise appearance by Coma Cinema's Mat Cothran.

INTERVIEWER: What tour date is this and how long have you been out?

Sam: This about two weeks now.

John: This is the fourth night of the tour. It’s not officially the first day out on tour because we played Baltimore the first night of the tour. Then we went back

Sam: A home show first, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Where do you guys play in Baltimore?

            Sam: We played at Club K. Which was ok. It’s the best thing there since Bell Foundry shut down.

 INTERVIEWER: What’s been your favorite part of the tour?

            John: Tonight probably.

            Sam: Tonight and last night probably. Tonight was maybe the most fun to play because we got to be goofier. Shea, where we played Brooklyn last night, it’s like a venue and a studio and they record everything they do and archive it so we couldn’t mess around. It sounds phenomenal.

            John: We don’t really do sound checks and have our stuffed mic’ed because of the places we play it doesn’t make sense.

Alec: We played on a stage.

John: We actually played on a stage, which was cool.

Alec: It was definitely a less professional show tonight.

John: I think the three Brooklyn shows and the show here tonight are my favorite shows we’ve played as a band.

 INTERVIEWER: John, what were you doing before Julia Brown?

Sam: I can tell you all about that.

John: Before Julia Brown I played bass in a bunch of bands including the Night Crawlers. I actually just started playing drums for this band because they needed a drummer. I was in school.

INTERVIEWER: How do you think your sound has translated live?

Sam: When we were recording ‘to be close to you’ there were only really two or three songs we did all together. We started recording it before the band was formed, before we knew who was in it. I was recording songs. There were a couple songs we were like “we need a drummer for these” and that’s when John joined but then you were in Mexico. Yeah, You got really lit in Mexico for a while and I specifically remember you talking about sea lions for a while.

John: Every night in Mexico, that’s when I bought my first pair of drumsticks, I was vacationing with my family in Mexico for a week. I looked up how to say drumsticks in Spanish and went to a music store and sat there and played drums on a couch and got hella lit and talked to Sam all night. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Sam: ‘Library’ and ‘falling in love’ are the opening two tracks, the only tracks we did as a full band on that so were thinking naturally that was going to be how it was going to go live. So when we were working on ‘to be close to you’ and ‘I will do this for the rest of my life’, they have drums, we were trying to not just replicate but to do a more unique version of them. The new one we’ve been playing is probably going to be very similar to how it is. It depends on the song but we can’t have a lot of super-no-drums-downtempo  stuff and really get away with it.

INTERVIEWER: What’s it like playing with Mat Cothran all the time?

Alec: It’s a lot of fun

John: Uhh its fucking awesome. I love seeing Mat every night.

Sam: He’s a character. He’s another that writes very downtempo. I like when he does Her Vore….and there he is now.

Mat: You guys talking about me?

John: Do you want to be part of our interview?

 Sam: I got a question for mat. So who is Mickey and who is lee and who is Eva Angelina?

Mat: Oh no.

Sam: Who is Blue Suicide?

Caroline: How do you play an F chord?

Mat: I’m like the guru of the mountain but only idiots climb up.

            John: Is Blue Suicide dead? Did the dog kill himself and is that why he’s sad?

            Mat: Someone asked that one once.

Interview: Mat Cothran of Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly

An interview with lo-fi singer/songwriter Mat Cothran, who operates under the names Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly. Thanks to Ben Wiley for conducting this Q&A session.

Between Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly you have garnered an incredibly devoted following: did you expect anything of this magnitude?

When I first started making music it was purely for my friends to hear. A few of my friends had some success sending their music out to blogs (before all the blogs were inevitably killed my the corporate tastemakers) and I gave it a shot. the amount of people listening to my music now is vastly beyond what I ever thought it could be. I'm still just doing this for me but it's nice to have people there to encourage me all over the planet.

Did having an established fan base during the creation of Posthumous Release affect your creative process?

It sort of wore on me during the last album "blue suicide" but i've learned to let all that go. I haven't gotten a single negative response from a listener about Posthumous Release. regardless of that album's financial failure it is an artistic success for me and i stand behind it completely.

From your Twitter posts to your lyrics, your words are often shockingly honest. Did it take time to let go of inhibitions? Does it take work to be so honest?

I think it takes a self awareness that is detached from self obsession. honesty is almost a defense mechanism for me now. The ugly truth will get people to leave you alone a lot faster than a ruse. I feel responsible to be honest with my audience because they are honest with me about themselves and their opinions. It's a two way street.

The lyrics on Posthumous Release seem less impressionistic than those found on earlier records. Was this record written with specific events in mind?

Definitely. This album references certain very important and sometimes traumatic events in my life. It's all about how to survive when you're homeless, poor as fuck, addicted to bad shit and trying desperately to keep going. It's the most cohesive thing I've done. I saw no need to get symbolic...everything is pretty literal...the book of revelation when taken literally makes the most sense to me. we are in the end times.

Did the writing of Posthumous Release feature much collaboration?

Delaney Mills (who is 1/3rd of Elvis Depressedly) wrote all the music for "Lee" and Rachel Levy of R.L. Kelly was integral in finishing these songs. Also the guys from TV Girl wrote a lot of the drum parts and percussion, on top of engineering the album. everyone knew we had a job to do and acted accordingly. They're very professional like me...I don't fuck around and I am NOT a hobbyist.

Reviews for Posthumous Release were overwhelmingly positive except for a somewhat sour write-up from Pitchfork. What was your response to the review? Did you gain any audience because of it?

The review didn't sell any records or garner any followers, but i don't believe it was sour. I think it was a well written review and I have no shade for Ian Cohen. I do question the relevancy of Pitchfork for any artist that isn't white bread indie.

In those reviews you are often compared to Elliot Smith; both of your songs share a focus on things broken and cast out. Do you agree with these comparisons? Does your music attract a certain type of person?

Elliott was a living angel and I miss him a lot. While in LA, I visited solutions audio where the cover for figure 8 was shot. Elliott has always been in my mind when i write songs. I think we had the same goals. 

If you could play a show anywhere on earth, where would it be?

I've really gotten to play every venue i could ever dream of playing. It'd be nice to play during bike week at Daytona...or on television...

What's next for Coma Cinema? Will Elvis Depressedly be seeing action soon?

Coma has said what it needed to say. there will be an Elvis Depressedly full length this year called NEW ALHAMBRA/11th COMMANDMENT

Thanks again to Mat and Ben for the awesome interview. Listen to Coma Cinema's new album below.