Interview: Adam Baker of Annuals [10.31.07]

Delancey Street was crawling with zombies, witches, aliens, and one really convincing Kurt Cobain as I made my way to the Bowery Ballroom this Halloween. As Spoon’s Girls Can Tell played in the background, I sat down at the bar for a low-key chat with Adam Baker (pictured, on the floor), 20-year old singer/songwriter of North Carolina’s Annuals, a few hours before they invaded the stage dressed like Old West zombies to play their dynamic, Brian Wilson meets Arcade Fire rock.

Though he describes himself as not a city guy, (“I’d much rather be on a highway in the middle of nowhere”), Baker seemed excited to be playing New York as he munched on an apple and geared up for the show.

LR: Well Happy Halloween! Have you seen any good costumes around the city today?

AB: I don’t know if this is a costume or not, but I saw a guy with vampire teeth, but that might have just been, you know, New York. But I saw a couple of Dorothy’s from the Wizard of Oz walking around.

LR: A few?

AB: Yeah, like three actually. And the band that’s opening the show tonight, [The Nevers], they all dressed like ninjas, like from the Ninja Turtles. They couldn’t get turtle costumes, but they still look awesome, they’re like a bunch of Shredders. Plus they’re a great band. They’re good friends of ours from back home.

LR: So you’re touring with Manchester Orchestra as well, and you’re selling a split 7”, each covering a song by the other band. How did that come about?

AB: We’re like the only two rock bands on our label [Canvasback Music], and we both needed to get some touring done for our records, and we both liked each other’s music, so we thought we’d just put something together and get sort of a cross-promotion train going, and we ended up just getting to know each other, over the phone at least, we never really met until the first night of the tour, but they seemed like really nice guys, and we liked the tune, so we decided to just totally, totally fuck up each others songs, make them completely different. But it turned out really well I think, and we’re definitely having a great time on the tour with them. It’s really nice because they’re also a young band, so it’s easier to get along with them, I reckon.

LR: I read that your label is having a mash-up contest - “Mannuals” is what they’re calling it, where fans are encouraged to mash up a Manchester Orchestra song with an Annuals song. And I guess you guys get to pick the winner. So are there any pairings your especially like to hear?

AB: I really like the song “Where Have You Been” on their record, I’d like to hear that mashed up with our song “The Bull and the Goat”, I think that’d be really cool. Plus, we all think that song on our record doesn’t get enough attention.

LR: I read that you were thinking of incorporating an orchestra from a high school or college when you record your next album?

AB: It’s always been a dream of mine, I mean you can tell from listening to He Be Me , that orchestrations are just a big thing for me, so since we do have a larger budget for recording this next record, I want to get a college orchestra together, but they’re always really busy, and plus I’m not really good at writing music, so I thought a high school orchestra, I mean they’re usually just as good anyway, and they’d probably be more flexible, with my not-so-great musical talent.

LR: So if you don’t tend to write music, what’s your writing process like?

AB: Really, I just have to get in there with whoever it is, and just play it for them. I mean, I can write music, it just takes a long fucking time.

LR: So would the orchestra be something you’d want to incorporate into your live shows?

AB: That would be a dream, that’s definitely what I want to do. But we don’t play stages big enough, we don’t have enough money to pay that many musicians, but hopefully in like, a year or two, that’s our ultimate goal.

LR: Are you road testing new songs on this tour?

AB: We’re playing new songs. They’re new songs so to speak, that are actually old songs that have been recorded, and done. The recording process is really strange, it’s pretty much just me, in the studio, late at night, trying as many different things as I can until something clicks. So playing the newer, newer songs, it’s tough, because it’s hard to teach the band parts that I’m not sure about yet, so there’s that. But we’re definitely playing three newer songs tonight.

Playing newer songs also, I have a big problem with overextending parts, and myself vocally, like I’ll have 20 vocal tracks going, and you have to step back and realize that you have to play this live for the next year and a half, even though it also bums me out to have to think about that because it’s art, you’re not supposed to limit yourself, but I also understand that the art is encompassed by the whole being of Annuals, so you have to take into consideration all those sides. But really, it doesn’t affect the music that much. But a little bit. (Laughs)

LR: So I know that the members of Annuals are also involved in a bunch of other bands and side projects. What’s been going on with that lately?

AB: Another band that all of Annuals is in called Sedona has a record coming out pretty soon. The difference is that Kenny Florence, the lead guitar player of Annuals, he writes the songs for this. Actually, Sedona’s been around longer than Annuals, Annuals started as a side project, because I was just the drummer for Sedona. I have an electronic, sort of Aphex Twin project called Tundra. Zach [Oden]’s getting a metal band together called Bandand, I mean, we just love doing music, all different kinds, hopefully people will end up hearing it one day.

LR: Would you do a separate tour for Sedona?

AB: We’d love to do that. We want to do a 2-week East Coast tour maybe. Hopefully, eventually, once Annuals gets to a comfortable point, and we get the Sedona record circulated, we’d like to go on a full scale tour. I love playing drums, I really love it, and actually one of the songs we’re playing tonight started as a Sedona song, it’s called “Ease My Mind”. It’s a song that Kenny wrote, and it sort fit in more with the Annuals style.

LR: So whenever a band that starts out on an indie label decides to sign with a major, it seems like there are always people who feel upset about it. I was reading a blog today where there was a lot of debate regarding your decision to release your next record on Canvasback. What do you think about the debate of indie versus major?

AB: I think it’s kind of silly. Ace Fu [label that released He Be Me ] is wonderful, but you just can’t get your music out there like you’d like to. I think every musician or songwriter’s ultimate goal is to get their music out there and heard, and it’s just the promotion that indie labels have isn’t as great. And plus the label that we’re on now isn’t exactly a major, they’re involved with Columbia indeed, but it is certainly not Columbia. I think it’s always been like that since I’ve been listening to bands since back when I was a kid, that when a band signs to a bigger label, that they’ve sold out, but if a band’s good enough, people will get over it.

LR: So this being Halloween, I thought I’d conclude by asking you if you had any scary touring stories? Maybe funny scary or actually scary?

AB: Oh there’s been plenty of scary stories. This one is classic. When we first started touring, we were coming back on the NJ Turnpike, we had played in New York, and we were coming back to Virginia to play a show, and it was so fucking hot, we stopped at a rest stop along the turnpike to just get some shut eye, there were too many people in the van, it was steamy hot, and I’m wearing this kimono, do you know what a kimono is? It’s like a silky robe, and I’m burning, sweating, I can’t think, so I get out of the van, and I lay down in front of the van, so that Mike [Robinson], our bass player, who was driving would see me. Um, he didn’t see me, they drove off, down the road, and I wake up to a police office checking my pulse, they thought I had like, OD’d, because I’m barefoot wearing a kimono and nothing else. And I’m like, “No, no, I’m just in a band”, and I tried to call the guys from a pay phone, and of course they’re not answering, because it’s an unavailable number, they don’t know who’s calling- they think I’m in the van, we used to have a weird hammock with the equipment in the back, someone could lay down in, and they thought I was back there.

But luckily, well not luckily, but Mike was still really tired, and he actually crashed into the side of the turnpike because he fell asleep at the wheel, and they thought I had died because I was in the back and all the machinery slid over. So it was great that I wasn’t back there. And then they finally answered my calls and came back, but it was kind of scary because for three hours - they had gotten like three hours down the road before they had to turn around -I was just staying at the rest stop with the cops just watching me.

LR: Did they buy your story?

AB: No, I don’t think they bought it at all, but when the band got there, they were like, “OK, alright”. That was scary, but now it’s funny. But that was a very bad day.