TALKIN TOUR with Grave Babies

Grave Babies play Topaz Wednesday October 17th, at 8 pm, with local shredders Womb Tomb, Sleep Like Trees, and Boo Boo Kiss, RSVP here

An Interview with Danny, Keith, and Tyler follow, with a Video posted below, and don’t forget to download the Topaz Fall mix from our soundcloud page

Topaz If it was your grandmother asking, how would you describe grave babies to her?

Grave Babies (GB) Politely saying we’re just really loud and kind of weird.. that’s the general description.

Topaz You guys just released a EP with Sub Pop subsidiary, Hardly Art Records, what’s next recording wise?

GB We are just wrapping up a full
length for Hardly Art right now. It’s been a bit of a process getting it all finished up, edited and mastered. It something like 16 tracks and starts to stray a little bit from stuff on the other releases with a few different vocal styles sprinkled throughout, slightly more complicated song structures and instrumental arrangements. The recording process is still evolving in general and the new record feels a little more solid in that way..

Topaz How many tours does this current one make for you guys? What’s the best and worst show you’ve ever played?

GB We were trying to count earlier in the van and it seems to be something like 6 or so trips of various kinds now, where we were gone anywhere from like a couple weeks to a month and a half in the past few years probably. The worst show on tour for sure was the first night of our west coast tour, fall 2010, at Ducketts in Portland. We were greeted immediately on the sidewalk by a homeless man telling us a story about his uncle giving him crack as a child and then pleading how he “was only a baby”! The show was just weird vibes, speedy guys rushing in for a quick pool game by themselves, none of the staff wanting to talk to us or tell us where to put stuff… just bad juju all night. When it was time for the bar to pay out we got shook down and told we better be really happy they were going to pay us and to make sure to tip the bar and then handed us $10 in one dollar bills, tipped the bar half of it. The best shows are pretty consistently in the Bay Area; San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento. I don’t think we could pick just one show really but there’s an amazing scene of great bands in the bay and all the venues are great, a lot of great people/artists in the Bay.

Topaz Do you ever get introduced to bands you really like while touring (i.e. ones you where previously unaware of)?

GB Terry Malt’s (SF/saw them in Calgary), Chasms (SF), Saint anne (SLC) are just a few that come to mind that we either played with or just met at a show that are bands we didn’t really know about but then saw or found online later and were really surprised at how really great they were. There’s a lot of really bad bands on tour and it’s always a pleasure to see a band that’s really good at what they’re doing.

Topaz What advice would you give bands who’ve never toured before?

GB Go! Tour now! If it’s something a band wants to do they should just leap and stop looking. It’s tough sometimes if you’re not too weathered to know how to save money on the road or if you don’t have any friends in the cities you’re going through to help out with places to stay or help booking.. But it all starts when you decide to just go and do it. If a band wants to tour, make the decision to do it and look about a couple months out.. reach out on the internet to other bands to help book shows and you’ll make friends that way and find help that you can return the favor to in the future. Once you start to reach out you basically start joining a community of people just like yourself that are all over the country doing the same things. It’s always worth it to leave home.

Don’t worry about being late to shows, even when you are late, you’re earlier and no point in sitting in some bar in Indianapolis for 5 hours.

Speed as much as you can, but don’t ever be the fastest on the road.

Topaz What’s good in seattle these days?

GB Pho. Baby Guns. Haunted Horses. Not the pizza. Pony Time. Zombie Apocalypse Safari. Outback Kangaroo Farm. Shout out to Cairo. The Webs / Creekies split tape. Derek Erdman’s House of Paintings, The weather was but not anymore : /

FUCK OFF by GRAVE BABIES (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) from Jordan Utley on Vimeo.