Tweak Bird Interview

So I managed to get in touch with Caleb Bird before the show to see if him and his brother would be down to do a quick interview for the magazine and he told me to hit him up when I got to the venue.  I texted him as I was walking up to Vinyl Music Hall and he told me they had about 10 minutes left in their sound check so I grabbed a beer while I waited. A few minutes later, I received a text  from him informing me that they were at the bar. I walked over to find the two brothers hanging out with their merch guy. We shot the breeze for a minute or so to introduce ourselves and then went looking for a quieter place to talk. We ended up stepping outside by their van to talk about their new album,Undercover Crops, how two Illinois boys got set up on a surf company's record label, and what get's them amped.

 

Get Amped: Your new album is awesome. How long have you guys had those songs?

Ashton: Those songs we pretty much wrote from January and February of this year, up until, well, we were still writing in the studio.

GA: And there's like, 7 or 8 songs on it right?

Caleb: Yeah, there's 7 tracks. And some weird noise tracks just to piss people off. Somebody actually wrote a review of the noise track, the first track, and they were like, “this is terrible, I could do this on GarageBand” and we were like “...yyyeaaaah. I mean, go for it, and it will sound shitty as that song.”

Ashton: But yeah, this album was written in about 3 months or something. We don't really do that 12 year song thing. We would do like 12 minutes and it's out of our heads probably.

                                                                                 (closed eyes ^ perfect haha)

 

GA: What's your process for songwriting?

C: This album we kinda just came up with one liners, like, I dunno, like that song people, we were just kinda like “oh man that’s a good line” you know? We were singing the melody before we had any guitar parts. It's kinda the same with the pigeon song. Like, he came up with the idea for that and then it was just about putting guitar and drums behind it. So, that's kinda how this album went. Like, with our last album we kinda just jammed out in the studio and were like “oh yeah, this could be a good riff”.

GA: Y'all went out to LA to record this album right?

C: Yeah, we live out there now.

 GA: I saw that you guys toured Europe a few times and I’ve always heard that the crowd's energy level over there is just crazy compared to over here. Would y'all attest to that? Or do you just think it's kinda relative to the night and the venue?

A: Yeah, I think it's more of like, probably more consistent...this tour especially, being on tour with The Melvins, we've had such a cool opportunity to play to pumped up people every night. Well sold shows every night. Well attended shows or whatever.  And I’ve felt a lot of passion, or whatever you wanna call it coming from people being amped up you know? And I see that in Europe more consistently probably, but I dunno.

 

C: I think Europe, for us, I think they know that they've kinda gotta follow a band online for a while before they're gonna catch them over there. At least US bands. So maybe by the time we actually get over there to tour, they're more into it where as in the US its like, we could put out a 7-inch that nobody knows about and for the band, it just takes a little more work.

GA: Okay, I know you guys are from Illinois, and I don’t know anything about the geography up there, I just know its up north and I was trying to draw the connection between y'all and Volcom.. Do y’all like, snowboard or ski?

C: No, its in the southern part of Illinois. So we get snow up there but its just like, flat as shit.

GA: How did y’all get set up with Volcom?

C: After we moved to LA, we were just doing some shows and one of the guys from the label came out and saw us a couple times and liked what we were doing. And you know, it's not like we had a million offers at the time, so when somebody was like, “hey do u wanna put a record out?”...

GA: Isn't ASG and like Valient Thorr on that label too?

C: Yeah, ASG, they just did a Torche record too. So they got some really good stuff going on.

GA: Do y'all like skateboard or anything? Or just musicians?

C: No, just play music.

GA: That's whats up. So I read that you guys went through a lot of drummers very early on until Ashton finally sat down to the throne permanently. Did you play drums a lot when you were younger?

A: I mean, I've played drums on and off since I was 12 you know, so I just love playing music. Like, I played bass, I wanted to play guitar since I was 10 but  he was older and he got a guitar first so I just kinda kept the rhythm for it however I could. But I like it. I just like rhythms.

GA: So do y'all have any connections with The Melvins? Because when I saw you in Jacksonville, you played with Big Business, which is like, the rhythm section for The Melvins.

C: We kinda just met those guys, through, really the first time we hooked up with The Melvins was we just kinda sent them an email cuz we saw that Dale was helping bands make records and producing them or whatever. So we said, “hey, we wanna do an EP, do you guys wanna come help us out?” And they were like, “yeah”. So that was the first time we met them. So then we would go to their shows and they would come to our shows and just started hanging out.

GA: How long were y'all playing music in Illinois before you decided to head out West?

C: It was quite a while, like 5 years or so, we've kinda been doing it since we were pretty young so..

GA: How old are y'all now?

C: He's 26 and I’m 30.

GA: Sweet. Have y'all been listening to any new bands lately? Anybody y'all wanna like, bring to the light?

C: The last thing I heard that was sticking out was Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats. Ashton turned me onto that.. I dunno where he found them.

GA: What are they like? Or can you really describe it?

A: Oh, it's pretty easy to describe I would even say. It sounds like, yeah, it sounds like Black Sabbath. I think Staring Problem. That's the best band. They're out of Chicago.

GA: Okay, I saw this once and I thought it looked pretty fun, so do y'all wanna do some word association?

C: Yeah.

GA: Okay, so I’ll just say a word and you just shout out whatever comes..

 

 

GA: Bird.

C: Birdcage.

GA: Trees.

A: Awesome.

GA: Pumpkin.

C: Chucking.

GA: Candy.

A: Coated.

GA: Sweat.

C: Uhhhh, sweat lodge.

GA: Sugar.

A: Magnolia.

GA: Radical.

C: Simplicity...yes.

GA: Okay, ugly.

A: As fuck.

GA: Zebra.

C: Stripes.

GA: Minotaur.

A: Awesome.

GA: Alright since I’m with Get Amped magazine I’m gonna need to ask what gets you guys

amped?

C: Uhhhhhhhh.... hmmmmmmm.

A: Assholes.

GA: Assholes? Like, a nice bleached one? Or like jerks..?

A: Jerks.

C: Jerks will put a nice little fire under us sometimes.

A: People that are mean and judgmental make me feel amped.

GA: Like, in a good way? Like fuel to the fire? Or like in a punch a hole through a brick wall kinda

way...

A: No, I don't really punch. I've become really accepting and peaceful. I pretty much accept everybody for everything. But except people that are mean. I just can't get behind it. That's the only thing that really, still gets me....amped.

GA: Is that what amps you up as well Caleb? Assholes?

C: Yeah I mean, same thing. When you're playing music you cant really complain about anything you know?

 

GA: Do y'all ever have to deal with hecklers? Do people still do that?

C: Yeah... I mean, that’s different. That just people, you know, getting there.

A: That’s funny.

C: That’s just people tryin to get there kicks. But I think its just incentive to keep what we're doing. Our whole take on heavy music and metal is to kinda be, the 'fuck you guys'. We'll write poppy songs, we'll draw peace signs, we don’t give a shit. Like, if you wanna be an angry metal dude, like go ahead, but we're here to kinda..

GA: Do y’all have anything else you wanna throw in there for the kids in Jacksonville? For the kids that are smoking weed and trying to make music? Stoners need a little bit of extra ambition, got anything for em?

C: Keep the PMA dude, Positive Mental Attitude. Keep doin it. Don't let anybody try to fuckin take it away from you.

A: Quit.

GA: Alright guys, thanks.

C: Thank you, man.