[From the Ithaca Times] In a music community packed to the gills with roots rockers, reggae musicians, and singer-songwriters, indie garage quartet Candy Pants stick out like a sore thumb. Despite Ithaca’s thriving music scene, Candy Pants are somewhat of an anomaly. Helmed by songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Nate Dennis, the current Candy Pants lineup also includes A.J. Strauss on guitar, Stahl Caso on bass, and Tim Burns on drums. A brash, infectious combination of wry pop melodies, swirling, freeform guitar jams, and deadpan vocals, Candy Pants recall the Modern Lovers, Pavement, and Built to Spill in their most playful moments. The group presents an essential addition to the Ithaca music spectrum.
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This Saturday, August 23, Candy Pants will present the release of their third official full-length album, No Honey, at the Chapter House (their first two albums, The Young Air and Here, were released in 1998 and 2003, respectively). They will share the bill with fellow indie rockers, The Settlers, who also present the release of frontman Cosmo Alpern’s new album, Put Some Morning Sexy Sex On. We recently spoke to Nate Dennis about the new record, collaborating with A.J. Strauss, and driving around town with Cosmo.
Popcorn Youth: How did No Honey come about?
Nate Dennis: Well, A.J. Strauss [of The Sutras] re-joined the band about two and a half years ago. Since then, the four of us have been slowly writing new songs. We recorded the record in A.J.’s basement, where he created a studio. As A.J. was putting that studio together, it also coincided with us having enough songs that we liked so we decided to go for the album. A.J. really wanted to record and engineer it himself, which is something that he’s never really done before. We started in January and finished in July, so it’s been about a seven month-long process.
Popcorn Youth: So No Honey includes songs that you had been writing songs for the past two years?
Dennis: Right. I write songs pretty slowly. Instead of writing a huge batch of songs and whittling it down, I tend to write less songs and try to pay more attention to them so they are good as they can be… We have two other albums, and I feel that this is our most refined and thoughtful. It took me a long time to realize how to ‘make’ a record, from the songwriting to the recording, to instrument decisions to sequencing. We really wanted it to have a classic album feeling, with a distinct Side 1 and Side 2, with a final conclusion, and with the flow of an actual album.
Popcorn Youth: What were some of your musical touchstones for No Honey?
Dennis: Because we had more time to record, we were able to be more experimental with our sound. But because we didn’t really have any money, we recorded the basic tracks live, and that gave the entire album a feeling of bands that we all share a love for: 60s and 70s bands like The Kinks, Big Star, T. Rex or David Bowie. And I think that that approach, and our monetary obligations, also forced us to be more creative within our confines.
Popcorn Youth: In No Honey, I also hear references to a lot of the classic early 90s college rock and indie pop, too.
Dennis: Oh, yeah. I was in my early 20s then, and those bands were so influential. A.J. and I were really into Guided by Voices and Pavement. We were so inspired by the DIY and lo-fi style - the short songs, bad recording quality, and the idea of heart and feeling versus money and big studio. Those were big ideas to me then, and still are. I tried to invoke that spirit when we were making the album.
Popcorn Youth: How collaborative is the songwriting process?
Dennis: On No Honey, there are four songs that A.J. and I wrote together. Typically, I’ll have lyrics or an idea, and then A.J. will come up with chord selection and structure right on the spot. We practice with Tim and Stahl, and then I add melodies, determine which lyrics to use. Usually, I just write songs, we play them, and they stay that way. So this was really the first time that I collaborated with other people in the room, and it was a lot more fun, and relaxing. We’ve all known each other a long time, and there’s less of the ‘back and forth’ that you get with traditional band interplay. It’s more easygoing, and there’s less ego involved.
And as a really good rhythm section, Stahl and Tim provided a really nice backdrop for us to be more experimental. After that, A.J. and I would get together and go through songs. And because we have such a shared loved for rock ‘n’ roll, I would say like, ‘How about a guitar solo like Built to Spill?’ and he would say, ‘I know exactly what you mean.’ (Laughs) It’s like speaking in musical shorthand.
Popcorn Youth: Do you find that the songs that you collaborate with A.J. sound differently than the songs that you write on your own?
Dennis: Sure. A.J.’s chord structures - and sometimes even chords - aren’t ones that I would necessarily have chosen, or even known about. But there’s one song on the album, “It’s Hard,” that I wrote by myself, and everyone agrees that it’s probably the weirdest song on the album. And A.J. keeps saying, “Is that one that we wrote together?” (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: It sounds like you and A.J. have a great dynamic within the band.
Dennis: A.J. comes from a formal training in music, and he brings some of that to our more garage band-aesthetic… I have more ideas than I have musical ability (laughs), so I think the combo with him really created something different. Stahl and Tim bring such a cool, primitive style to us, too, because they’ve been playing together for so long. We’ll just keep playing our same trashy guitar-bass-drums style - we want to be enjoyable for people to listen to; we want to create our own dreamlike world.
Popcorn Youth: Candy Pants officially formed in 1997; when did you start playing music?
Dennis: Actually, I didn’t start playing until the late 90s, from living with Greg Schatz and A.J. Strauss. Every night they would come home and just start playing music, and I had to sit on the couch, listening or reading or whatever, and it always looked like so much fun, but it wasn’t anything that I had ever done before. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: What are your thoughts on the local music community?
Dennis: Obviously, there is a huge diversity to the music scene, which is great. There’s always a band playing out that you can go see, but a lot of it is music that I’m not personally into. I wish there were more young bands; I wish there were more indie rock bands, more guitar-based bands. It can sometimes be hard to find other bands to play with - we usually end up playing with The Sutras, because they get into similar sounds as we do.
Popcorn Youth: You’re co-headlining with The Settlers this Saturday.
Dennis: We’ve played a couple times with Cos [Alpern]. I’ve known him since high school. We would hang out on The Commons, and drive around in my mom’s car and listen to Pink Floyd. (Laughs) It’s nice to share the night with them because it seems as though we’re two of the odder bands that are out there right now.
Candy Pants and The Settlers will play at the Chapter House this Saturday, August 23. The show begins at 10pm. No Honey is available at local independent retails around Ithaca, including No Radio Records, Small World, and Volume.