White Rabbits, a rambunctious young six-piece based in Brooklyn, describe themselves as “honky-tonky calypso.” Their debut album Fort Nightly, released earlier this summer, is a remarkably self-assured, confident debut.
White Rabbits recently opened for The National at a free concert on the Cornell Arts Quad. They’ve already played Letterman, CMJ, SxSW, and performed overseas; they’ve been compared to The Walkmen, Cold War Kids, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and their energetic live performances have earned them rave reviews.
The following is an interview with pianist/vocalist Greg Patterson and guitarist/vocalist Greg Roberts. We talk about everything from appearing on Letterman, growing up in St. Louis, their new home in Bushwick, and plans for a second album. They were a ball to interview, and we joked about shooting guns in the Catskills, why Best Buy is their favorite Manhattan record store, and just why Brooklyn is “the new Midwest.”
Popcorn Youth: So where are you guys now?
Steve Patterson: We’re at Gigantic Studios in Chinatown. My piano is getting looked at.
Popcorn Youth: Why did you guys decide to move to Brooklyn? Was it because you felt that you had reached your potential in Columbia, or maybe because the local music scene wasn’t enough?
Greg Roberts: There’s a pretty healthy music scene in Columbia. It’s a decent sized college town and the town usually has its fair share of bands and scenes. But I feel like we moved to New York for the same reason any performer or artist does — there’s just a lot more opportunity in that city for those kind of things. And it really doesn’t go much further than that!
Popcorn Youth: Chicago is much closer; why not there?
Greg: We thought about it for a minute, but I don’t know. There’s definitely a lot of people that migrate from Columbia and move to Chicago, but I think we wanted to take ourselves even further out of that element. Something a little more.
Popcorn Youth: Did you go to school in Columbia?
Greg: We went to school there, yes — University of Missouri-Columbia, but most of us grew up in the St. Louis area. Greg and I worked at Street Side Records in Columbia.
Popcorn Youth: Did you play a lot in Columbia before you moved to Brooklyn?
Steve: Yes, yes. We were out there playing for about a year.
Greg: —as this band, yeah.
Steve: Yeah, we played all the time.
Popcorn Youth: Was Fort Knightly recorded in New York?
Greg: Yes. It was actually recorded at the studio that we’re at right now.
Popcorn Youth: So why did you choose to move to the Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn? Was it for financial reasons?
Steve: Absolutely.
Popcorn Youth: So how do you like it?
Greg: Uhh yeesh. (Laughs) Well, it’s not the safest neighborhood that’s for sure.
Steve: Four of the six of us have already been mugged is that right?
Greg: Yeah.
Steve: The space that we have is really, really great. We’re able to practice there, it’s really big, not too terribly expensive. But then, there’s no privacy when you get six guys living together.
Popcorn Youth: I read that your loft was broken into.
Greg: Yeah. I feel like it’s just one of those neighborhoods [Bushwick] that a lot of artists move to because they can afford to.
Steve: And it’s also a lot of loft spaces that artists can rehearse in and do whatever in, which is what we’ve done.
Greg: It isn’t the worst neighborhood in the world, for sure. Most days it’s completely fine. I don’t want to put down our neighborhood too much.
Popcorn Youth: Do you go into Manhatann to see lots of shows? Or do you like to stick around in Brooklyn?
Greg: Actually, I think most of our New York shows are actually in Manhattan.
Popcorn Youth: What kind of venues are you playing?
Greg: Our last show here was at the Bowery Ballroom. We were on tour with The Cribs.
Popcorn Youth: Speaking of which, you’ve supported The Cribs, Art Brut, Kaiser Chiefs. Is that a coincidence, or do you feel a kinship with British bands?
Greg: (Laughs) I think for the most part it is [a coincidence].
Popcorn Youth: Your show at Ithaca with The National — is that just a one-off?
Greg: Yeah. It is, yes.
Popcorn Youth: So you’ve never played with The National before?
Greg: No, we haven’t. We’re pretty excited to play with those guys though.
Popcorn Youth: The show will be on Cornell’s arts quad. How do you like performing outdoors?
Steve: I don’t specifically prefer playing outdoors. I think many bands prefer to play indoors, at night, you know? [Playing outside] just has your typical sound issues and you’re generally really far away from the crowd.
Greg: And sunlight…
Steve: (Laughs) And sunlight…
Popcorn Youth: Steve, what equipment do you tour with? Keyboards?
Steve: Yeah, we tour with entirely way too much equipment. We have two full drum sets and I have a actual piano.
Popcorn Youth: You tour with a piano?
Greg: Yeah, with an upright.
Steve: It’s kind of a weird upright. It’s actually more portable than you might expect.
Greg: But it’s so heavy.
Popcorn Youth: Are you a classically trained pianist?
Steve: Absolutely not. (Laughs) I went to school for drums, and they kind of teach you everything so I am able to fake my way through it all.
Popcorn Youth: What is it like having two drummers? How do the duties get split up between Jamie and Matt?
Greg: I think we’re still trying to figure that out. Jamie actually joined the band after the majority of the songs for the band had been written. The record was actually in its final stages. I grew up with Jamie, and we’ve known each other since we were five or six years old. He’s another former Columbian that moved to Chicago, played the drums for a band for a long time, and played with James Chance for a long time.
Popcorn Youth: Wow — of The Contortions?
Greg: Yeah. Jamie was his drummer for a long time. Jamie left Chicago to go to grad school in Madison. He got about a year into it and decided he wasn’t feeling it, and was entertaining the idea of coming to New York. And I think Steve started to put his feelers out there as far as bringing him on for percussion duties. Because the way the record had been shaping up, it was just so percussive and drum-heavy, that it was going to be hard to pull off some of those things live — which we really didn’t into account when we were making the record. So he came up, and before we knew it there was another drum set in the practice space. I think it’s been going great, though.
Popcorn Youth: How did you get hooked up with Say Hey Records? Did that happen after you moved to New York?
Steve: Yeah, it happened afterwards. We were actually a very lucky band. We played our first show in Manhattan, and Aaron, who runs Say Hey, came to the show and decided to sign us then and there.
Popcorn Youth: Wow.
Steve: We’re very, very, very fortunate, and it turned out to be a really good decision for us.
Popcorn Youth: Did you release anything when you were in Columbia, like short-run CD-Rs or anything like that?
Greg: We had a couple of embarrassing demos floating around out there.
Steve: They’ll pop up soon.
Popcorn Youth: Selling at street side, as bootlegs.
Greg: (Laughs) Right.
Popcorn Youth: When did you finish recording the record? How did that all go?
Steve: It was long.
Greg: It took a long time. We started April of last year, and we were pretty much just stealing studio time whenever we could, sneaking in when our producer wasn’t doing other records. So it ended up taking a lot longer than the process should be – it took about a year total.
In a way, it was a blessing because it gave us time to grow and kind of adapt to the way the record just naturally progressed. So we had time to think about it, and it some ways we had too much time to think about it. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: It seems to me like good musicianship is really important to the White Rabbits. Was that important from the get go?
Steve: Probably not. I’m sure we sounded horrific at that show that night. (Laughs) We’ve gotten a lot better. I haven’t really thought about that, but I suppose you’re right. I feel like New York bands have a very strong work ethic, obviously — it’s not easy to make it in the city. I mean, yes, we practice all the time, and when we first got here we wanted to get good.
Popcorn Youth: In Columbia did you identify at all with other prevailing Midwestern aesthetics, such as Touch & Go?
Greg: If anything, we identify with that kind of stuff more just because we were younger in the Midwest. We definitely played in our fair share of punk bands.
Popcorn Youth: What’s the average age of band members?
Greg: 24, I think?
Popcorn Youth: Are you finding that you’re meeting a lot of other displaced Midwesterners there in NYC?
Steve: There’s quite a few, yeah. A lot of us temped when we first got here, and, like, six temp jobs in a row I was working with people from St. Louis. Yeah, strange.
Greg: I think it’s often joked about that Brooklyn is the new Midwest.
Popcorn Youth: Gotcha. Do you have any favorite venues in Brooklyn?
Greg: Studio B is a pretty nice venue. We haven’t played there yet, but we think it’s pretty good.
Popcorn Youth: That place is fairly new, right?
Greg: Yeah, that’s a new one. Northsix was good….
Popcorn Youth: But it’s not there anymore though…
Steve: They just reopened it, it’s all fancy: the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
Popcorn Youth: So you’ve been in New York two years.
Greg: Yes, just over.
Popcorn Youth: So does Brooklyn really feel like home now?
Steve: We didn’t really feel that way until the first time that we came back from tour.
Greg: Yeah.
Steve: That’s when it felt like home to me.
Popcorn Youth: Do you all keep day jobs now?
Greg: We actually don’t have day jobs now. My last job that I was at for about a year was actually at Cornell, in Manhattan. Ironically enough, I worked for Cornell for over a year.
Popcorn Youth: Have you ever been to Ithaca?
Greg: No, I haven’t. But I’m excited to go, though.
Popcorn Youth: It will be good to get away from the city for a bit.
Greg: It sure will.
Popcorn Youth: So what are your favorite record stores in Brooklyn or Manhattan? Do you still find time to buy records?
Steve: I don’t really have money to buy records. (Laughs) I don’t know, Best Buy is a good record store. (Laughs) I think it’s really good in Manhattan. Now, in Brooklyn, where do we go…
Greg: Earwax…
Steve: Sound Fix, we’re playing there next week…
Popcorn Youth: What have you been listening to lately?
Steve: I really like the new Spoon album. So does everybody.
Greg: (Laughing)
Steve: What else … what other new stuff can you think of, Greg?
Greg: Umm… I like this band The Child Ballads, from D.C., a lot.
Popcorn Youth: Do you miss Columbia? Or Missouri?
Greg: I miss my family.
Popcorn Youth: Have they had a chance to visit in Brooklyn?
Steve: My parents love to come out. They flew out for the Letterman appearance.
Popcorn Youth: So how did the Letterman performance happen exactly?
Greg: I still don’t know.
Steve: I think their booker saw us at South by Southwest [Festival] and liked us. I don’t know. We’re just as baffled as everyone else is as to why we go tot play that.
Greg: (Laughs) Yeah. A little confused.
Popcorn Youth: So what was it like?
Steve: It was really cold.
Greg: Yeah, the studio was really cold. [Letterman] keeps it really cold, that’s not a rumor.
Popcorn Youth: Did you just play one song?
Greg: Yes, just the one.
Steve: Yeah, 3 minutes and 30 seconds, and then sayonara. But I mean, we did get there really early in the morning, and did like 30 sound checks.
Popcorn Youth: Were you happy with how it went?
Steve: Yeah, I was happy. I thought it was good.
Popcorn Youth: Do you have any official music videos? I couldn’t seem to find any.
Steve: In the next few days, actually, we’ll be launching our debut music video.
Popcorn Youth: So it’s done already?
Greg: Yes.
Steve: Yeah.
Popcorn Youth: For what song?
Greg: “The Plot.” We just ended up taking a bunch of footage that we shot from our U.S. tour and our trip to the U.K., and just made a modest little tour video. It’s simple but it’s fun.
Steve: Yes, it’s fun.
Popcorn Youth: Have you done your own major headlining tour yet?
Steve: Yeah, but by default.
Greg: Yeah, sort of accidentally.
Steve: We were supposed to go out with this band the Mystery Jets, who were — not surprisingly — another UK band, and they couldn’t get their visas lined up. We got the news that the record came out a couple of weeks before we were going to go on tour, and we had already quit our jobs, so there was pretty much no turning back. So we went out on our own. And it went really well actually.
Popcorn Youth: What would make a good opening band for the White Rabbits?
Greg: Opening for us? Oh man, I haven’t even started thinking like that yet!
Steve: There’s this band called The Subjects…
Greg: Yeah, there’s this band called The Subjects from Brooklyn that we’re fond of. I think we’re still in the stages of thinking of bands that we would like to go out with and hang out with.
Popcorn Youth: So this year was your first SXSW?
Steve, Greg: Yeah.
Popcorn Youth: Was it crazy?
Steve: It was pretty hectic. We played four shows.
Greg: We started off on this note: We took our van into a guard rail at about 80 miles an hour. We were fine, miraculously.
Steve: The van, not so much.
Greg: And the van has been plagued with problems ever since. Actually, speaking of which, it’s in the shop right now.
Popcorn Youth: Man, that’s too bad. Did you get to see a lot of other bands while you were out there?
Steve: Yes, we got to see Richard Swift, who we did a short tour with. He’s really fantastic. I think that’s pretty much the only show I was able to catch, but it was a pretty great one.
Greg: We played with The Walkmen twice down there, so it was fun to see those guys. We didn’t really have much time to see a lot of other stuff. We saw Elvis Perkins too, he was really fantastic.
Steve: And Bat For Lashes played right before us one night, and she was good.
Popcorn Youth: Ah, Natasha Khan has a beautiful voice.
Steve: Yeah, she does.
Popcorn Youth: Are you playing CMJ again this fall?
Greg: We’re actually going to be on the road, so we’re not going to be here for CMJ this time.
Popcorn Youth: Have you been to upstate NY area at all?
Steve: We recorded part of Fort Knightly upstate in Deposit, New York.
Greg: In the Catskills.
Steve: It was really fun. We set up mics outside and just sang into the mountains. It was really beautiful, actually. We just went up there for a weekend and recorded some vocals.
Greg: Shot some guns.
Steve: [Deadpan] Yeah. And shot some guns.
Popcorn Youth: How do you figure out who does what vocals? How does the songwriting process work?
Greg: No, it think it’s pretty… everybody brings their own thing to the table. As far as vocal duties being split up, I can’t even really remember how [we decided] who sings which song.
Steve: We arm wrestle for it?
Greg: Yeah, we arm wrestle for it. (Laughs) I don’t know. It just kind of happens.
Popcorn Youth: Have you started thinking about a second record yet?
Greg: Oh yeah.
Steve: Oh, yeahhhh.
Popcorn Youth: (Laughs) So does that mean you’ve already started writing and recording songs?
Steve: Yes, we’ve written a few new ones. We’ve just recorded some new stuff a few weeks ago, which may or may not end up on the album. We’re going to put out a 7 inch—
Greg: In the next month…
Steve: Yes, in the next month or so. It has an original and a cover. We really, really want to get back into the studio either in December or January.
Popcorn Youth: Are you going to play new stuff at the Cornell show?
Steve: Yes.
Greg: We’ve been playing it live and it’s been going over pretty well.
Popcorn Youth: And lastly, what were your musical inspirations for Fort Knightly?
Greg: I think there were a few touchstones that we were looking at when we did Fort Knightly. The Specials were a big one for us; we like a lot of the Phil Spector stuff, that’s where a lot of the percussion comes from; those grandiose girl group songs from the 60s; Everly Brothers are a big one, as far as Steve and I doing harmonies in songs. Lyrically, stuff like Randy Newman, Shane MacGowan from the Pogues.
Steve: And I’m a really big Squeeze fan.
Popcorn Youth: Who isn’t?
Steve: Exactly.