What a privilege it was chatting my two favorite things, baseball and music with Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel front man Will Johnson. The recently released Dual Hawks is an early contender for my favorite release of the year, and I cannot wait to hear the material live when they come back to town with Langhorne Slim on Friday, Sept 12th. Onto the interview…

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Dual Hawks? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you’ll apply towards future recording sessions?

We did both sides at The Echolab, in Argyle, Texas, with Matt Pence engineering. The Centro-matic session happened pretty quickly, over the span of about eight to ten days, with much of it being written and recorded right there in the moment. We wanted it to have an element of spontaneity to it, so that’s what we went for. Was the type of recording session that definitely kept us all on our toes and in the moment. As for the SSG session, it was more intricate, more orchestrated and more labored, and i mean labored in a good way here. There were a lot more people on hand to make that record, and it took the better part of a month to assemble. It turned out to be a great experience in the wake of the CM session. Just completely different. With so many hands and brains involved, there were ideas just flyin all over the place. It felt more like a workshop setting in contrast to CM’s clubhouse kind of feel. As for lessons learned, I would like to pursue more of a collective approach in the future with certain projects, much like the one we pursued during the SSG session for Dual Hawks.

We’re always looking to uncover new favorite artists, are there any band(s)/record(s) that you could recommend to our readers?

A few right off the top of my head would be The Dexateens, Destroy Me, PPT, Bo Bedingfield, Don Chambers and Goat, The Theater Fire, Sarah Jaffe, The M’s, Sera Cahoone, Cavedweller, Dudley Perkins, Rev. Charlie Jackson and Glossary. Those are all peeps I’m sure listening to a lot of lately.

What was the last concert you went to see as a fan?

Last month just before we left for tour i went to see Ladyhawk and Neva Dinova down at Emo’s and sure loved it. Last big concert, I think ZZ Top. Last summer.

The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

I was a little skeptical about it early on. I think as a music consumer I thought it was just too much, too fast, and deviated from what I thought was the natural way of discovering music. I guess I’m kinda old school, but I’ve changed my tune on all that over the years. A few years ago we played a college show on a cold and snowy weeknight in Ithaca, New York. We’d never been there before, and looking at it practically, there’s no reason that many people should have come out, but they did. We wound up talking to a lot of ‘em at the merch table later, and it turned out that a good deal of those kids found out about our music through myspace. They picked up some of our records that night and had a good time I think. I remember driving away realizing that that wouldn’t have happened just a few years earlier, feeling thankful that the word was getting around about our music somehow. It was a good thing and I think by and large, it remains to be.

You’ll be playing in Madison in September with another favorite of ours, Langhorne Slim. I’m curious how/if the South San Gabriel material will make into the Centro-Matic set?

We keep each catalog of material separate, so we’ll only do Centro-matic songs that night.

I know you’re a big baseball fan, so if it’s alright with you, let’s get your baseball favorites: who’s your team, favorite current player, favorite player of all-time?

I’m a lifelong Cardinals fan. Favorite current players are Dontrelle Willis and Ichiro. Favorite players of all time, probably Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson.

Did you collect baseball cards as a kid? Still got ‘em?

Yes, and yes. Much to my folks’ chagrin they’re still occupying a good bit of space in their attic.

As a Brewers fan I’d love to get your opinion on their recent signing of CC Sabathia. Do you think he can help propel us to the playoffs?

The Brewers are right back in the thick of it, no doubt, and yeah, I think CC and Sheets are very capable of pitching your guys into the playoffs. It’s become the most intriguing division in baseball again, especially with the Cubs signing Harden yesterday and with Carps, Wainright and Mulder getting healthy (hopefully) soon for the Cards. Gonna be a real fun second half of the season to watch, and I think any of those three teams are capable of getting into the playoffs and knocking some folks around.

You’re on the pitchers mound, and you’ve got the opportunity to throw high and inside on any player, in any era. Who would it be and why?

I’d go ahead and choose this era and say Clemens. Dude threw his wife under the bus on the stand, amongst other classless things. That’s not nice. My blazing and unstoppable 72 mile an hour heat would surely give him somethin to think about. Hah!

Photo: elchicodelaleche
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Myspace: Centro-Matic / South San Gabriel
MP3: Centro-Matic – “I, The Kite”
MP3: South San Gabriel – “Trust To Lose”

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