By Jodi Root

Thinking it would be a wise idea to coincide a long overdue trip to NYC to visit some friends this past October along with discovering some cool new tunes, I worked my vaca days around CMJ. I gotta say, I’m either getting older or the party scene this year was severely affected by the draining economy – because the lure of back-to-back showcases and parties just wasn’t there for me this year. (Definitely no Arcade Fire/David Bowie in Central Park for this girl in 2009, oh how I yearn for my days of college youth).

Luckily for me, however, my friends are cooler than yours truly and pointed me in the right direction for where the party was really at. One of three bands I thoroughly enjoyed catching was the delectably fun, power pop quintet MiniBoone. Hailing from various parts of the country, these dudes have been rocking the NY scene for the past year or so, banging totally loud, righteous beats for first CMJ attendees’ listening pleasure, but soon in 2010, SXSW as well. Side note: MiniBoone’s CMJ set at Otto’s Shrunken Head was my very first show I had cracked and used earplugs for—shit was that crazy. An overall good time, I recommend checking these gents out as soon as they drop their upcoming EP, Big Changes. Doug Schrashun (Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals), Craig Barnes (Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals) and Sam Rich (Bass), were all cool enough to participate in our latest 5 Questions w/MoB feature below.

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Big Changes? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned towards future recording sessions?

Sam:
Big Changes is our first recording as a full band, and for most of us it was our first experience in a “real” recording studio. We wanted to use that opportunity to do some good sounding live recording rather than multitracking everything, which we’d never been able to do, but we also get something really detailed and professional, which of course we couldn’t get recording on our own. We had no desire to do a lo-fi thing, and we still wanted a big sound you get from banging out the rhythm tracks together as a band.

Our producer, Dean, and engineer, Jesse, caught all the nuances of the songs, but because we recorded most of the tracks live, the recordings still have a lot of energy to them. We like to think we’re a band where people can see play in a tiny basement and appreciate the energy and chaos and all that, but then put on our record and find something different to appreciate in the details of the songs.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING —>

One reason the recording worked as well as it did, is that Jesse and Dean got involved months before we even went into the studio. Dean encouraged us to practice the fuck out of the songs, and it really paid off because when we got to the studio we were able to track almost all of the instruments live in just a few takes. We got everything done in two days.

Craig:
I recently read this fantastic biography of Phil Spector called “Tearing Down the Wall of Sound”. Phil Spector would record everything live, with like 20 people playing in the same room at the same time: he’d have 4 guitarists all playing the same note in different octaves, 2 drummers, countless percussionists etc. Since you recorded everyone playing at once, you’d get this massive sound you can’t get if you do every instrument separately. I also recently read this awesome two-part biography of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. It seems like a lot of the time Elvis just learned the songs on the spot in the recording studio and he and the band would just go at it live. Bang bang boom, finish six songs in a day. I love that energy.

Big Changes, wasn’t recorded with 20 people all playing at once but we did do most of the rhythm tracks at the same time in one big room, which created this awesome massive sound. It’s much more fun and positive then painstakingly recording each track separately. Not that I’m against the painstaking approach, but at the moment I’m addicted to that huge, dynamic sound you get from banging out the rhythm tracks together as a band.

Doug:
In terms of what we learned, I think we now have a sense of what’s possible – what you can do in a professional studio working with a professional producer and engineer. We got six songs done pretty well in two days, so it just makes you wonder what bands are doing when they’re spending months in the studio. It puts things like Chinese Democracy in a new light.

What is next for Mini Boone? You just played CMJ this past October, do you have any future plans of hitting the road or playing any additional festivals? Could you describe your CMJ experience?

Doug:
The next big date on the calendar is SXSW in March. I’m hoping we can build a little tour around that, though most of us work pretty regular day jobs so we’ll have to schedule around that a little bit. Before that, I’m hoping we can get another EP’s worth of songs together and maybe get another record under our belt this Spring, but it would be great to get out and play more shows around the Northeast as well.

As far as CMJ goes, I can see how it would be overwhelming for one of those bands that played like eight shows in three days, but we only played two, so we got to be kind of leisurely about it. I don’t know how many new people were able to catch us – it’s easy to have delusions about magically gigantic and adoring crowds pouring out of the woodwork for things like this – but those that did seemed to enjoy it, so I’d say it was a success.

Craig:
Most of the band went to go see the featured talk by Andrew W.K. He is a huge inspiration to me. I think his career represents the gold standard of what the modern musician can and must do. He’s got his hands in so many pots. A musician can’t just play music anymore. I would love to be able to do half of the things he does.

I really enjoyed CMJ. It made me feel validated, like I was actually pursuing a logical and attainable career path by attempting to be a musician. I guess it tricks you like that.

Who would you like to hear cover a night’s worth of your material? On the flip side, if you were to play an entire set of someone else’s songs, whose would you choose and/or enjoy playing the most?

Doug:
I’d like to see someone take our stuff in a different direction, and maybe play up the harmonic, more orchestrated parts of the songs, cause honestly we’re often too preoccupied with not running into each other to get all the finer points down in a live setting. Maybe someone like Prince, who can put on an amazing show while still being really detail oriented. In terms of who we would cover, I think Bruce is an obvious choice. I’d love to do something weirder though. I’ve heard that story about Jimi Hendrix covering something from Sergeant Pepper in a show the day the record came out and how amazing it was. I’m really surprised nobody has started doing that sort of thing with album leaks. It would be really cool to see someone cover the next Animal Collective record in its entirety before it even comes out. I don’t think we’d do that though.

Craig:
I’d love it if Annie Lennox sang one of our songs.

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

Doug:
I just heard that my old room mate’s band Everyone (www.myspace.com/everyoneeveryone) just broke up, but they also just put out a great record called All the Time. Our friends Quiet Loudly (www.myspace.com/quietloudly) also put out a record recently that is definitely worth checking out if you’re someone that enjoys excellent music. My friend and former bandmate Beau Alessi (http://www.myspace.com/beaualessi) also put out a really good EP recently that Craig helped produce.

Sam:
We played with Caddywhompus (www.myspace.com/caddywhompusband), a couple of college kids from New Orleans that were incredible, sort of like No Age playing Battles songs. Just awesome.

Craig:
We played with this band of London-based New Zealanders called Batrider (www.myspace.com/batrider) twice at the same venue in the past month. Some of their songs are near-metal dirges but they’ve always got hooks. So maybe like a slower Nirvana fronted by a chick? It’s rhythmically and emotionally brutal but very catchy. I’m listening to them right this moment!

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?

Doug:
It all depends on how you use it. Trolling for Myspace friends to build a fan base is the lamest thing imaginable, but if you’re creative with it I think it can be a great way to build a mystique or an ancillary identity. It makes music more accessible, which at this point I think we can all agree is both a wonderful wonderful thing and potentially very harmful, at least as far as having a sustained career in music goes. From our perspective as a relatively unknown band, it gives us a lot of tools, but I think you still have to be smart about how you use them and not just throw your work around all over the web just because you can.

Craig:
I haven’t bought a new record with my own money since college. It’s great! I love free music. I just streamed the entire Almighty Defenders album on their myspace and that wasn’t even illegal! Now I have an excuse to go back to their myspace page over and over again. I just wish myspace had a better music player, where you could put together a huge library of your favorite music without ever having to download anything.

I’m very excited that we’ve entered an era where musicians can’t rely on traditional ways to make money. Taylor forwarded this page to me the other day: http://stonesthrow.com/news/2009/09/ethiopium-coffee. You buy a bag of coffee and get a digital download with it. Since music by itself is now worth next to nothing, you have to give people a reason to spend their cash, so you package it with coffee. Our generation has had to redefine what it means to “sell out” and I think that’s great. Now I just wish MiniBoone could figure out exactly how to make money. We have to have a band meeting about it.

MiniBoone Blog
MiniBoone MySpace