Interview: The Drums
Touring to support their latest album, Portamento, Brooklyn-based band The Drums made a stop at The Loft in Dallas to play new and old songs for an eager crowd. Although the band couldn’t talk to us that night, lead singer Jonathan Pierce called me up a few days later to do a phone interview. We chatted about old musical projects, what makes pop, and a stolen letterman jacket.
How has your tour been going so far?
Touring has been really exciting. The band was talking about how this has been our favorite tour. We’ve been doing some pretty heavy touring. Essentially, we’ve been on the road for three years. We’ve been seeing the whole world, and it’s really great. But there is something about this specific tour, promoting this album, here in America, that makes me feel really alive again, even slightly euphoric at times. I remember when we started this band, and we were shocked that people even cared about what we were doing. It’s been incredible to see all these cities and have all these shows sold out on this really lengthy tour, and it’s been a big surprise for us. We’re really grateful for what’s happening. There’s just something about being in your homeland that validates that feeling, seeing all of the fans pumped up for us.
I remember the crowd at The Loft being really excited to see you guys, and the venue was crowded.
Yeah, I remember being there a year before and the crowd was much more quiet, and this year it was packed. There was this sense of urgency at times that made the experience more enjoyable for everyone, including us.
So before The Drums, you and fellow band mate Jacob had a group called ‘Goat Explosion.’ How did you guys meet up for that?
We met in Bible camp when we were 11 and 12. We both hated it, but we had to go. We hit it off instantly. The reason we clicked so well was because we liked the same music, that really, no one else that we knew liked. So we were both misunderstood from a creative standpoint at a very young age. So we stayed in touch, and eventually started writing music and somehow formed Goat Explosion years ago. That project fizzled out, and we lost touch for awhile, probably a few years, till one day Jacob emailed me and basically said “What happened?” I moved down to Florida, moved in with him, and we started writing music again.
Speaking of Bible camp, one of the themes that presents itself in Portamento is religion. How does this tie into what you want to deliver musically?
I never really was a part of religion, and I feel like I spent my life running away from it. It wasn’t until recently that I realized I didn’t have to run away from anything, especially something that didn’t exist. I finally came to terms with all of this and felt less conflicted by religion while we were making Portamento. The band decided that we wanted this album to be something based out of reality. We wanted it to be the here and now, and that’s why we opened the album with a song that addressed the taboo idea of there being no heaven or hell.
Your lyrics are pretty outright in what they say, which helps define the group as a pop band. What do you feel defines The Drums as pop?
It’s always something we always tried to achieve. We’ve always just had this idea of the perfect pop song. Portamento broke this down a little bit, but we redefined what we found pop to be, and we allowed the songs to breathe a little more. As far as lyrics go, we always deliver something very direct and very blunt. When you write lyrics, you get this feeling that you have to be very clever, but I find that being overly clever waters down what you want to say. So we keep everything very minimalist and try to just be straightforward with what we have to express.
Shifting gears a little, is that you on the album cover for Portamento?
Yeah, that’s an old picture of me as a kid. When it came time for the album cover, we found that only an autobiographical photo would be right for the cover. So I was sifting through a photo box of mine, and I found it and showed the guys, and everyone agreed this was the photo we wanted to use. All that was done to it was that we colored my eyes red.
So reflecting the band’s personal style, what all of that goes into what The Drums is?
Considering pop music, everything we do goes into the music. Any band really throughout history, older groups like The Ramones or The Beatles, even bands as recently as The Strokes, all had this collective uniformity in the way they looked, and I really like that. Pop is the present a fully realized world within itself. For us, we’re such visual people. It creates a mood that coexists with the music.
I remember everything the band wore on stage, and you all had a certain uniformity to you. I really liked your letterman jacket.
Actually, that jacket was stolen from me that night. It was a gift from a dear friend, so I was pretty upset. Everyone was so sweet though, and everyone was facebooking me and tweeting me to help me get that jacket back. The person is supposed to be returning it.
