By Jodi Root

There’s no question that Ryan is the go-to-guy for all things repping the Wisco music scene, and I like to think I know a thing or two about the Chicago vicinity, but it seems our Midwest sister metropolis Minneapolis seems to get left in the waste side time and time again. Up and coming indie rockers We Became Actors hail from the land up north, and just because it might get a little colder up there around this time of year, it’s no reason to overlook their approaching heat in the music scene. Vocalist Jesse Stensby and Guitarist Christian Dahlager started the four-man outfit back in 2006, and joined forces with Bassist Paula Ward and Drummer Mike Hinton in late 2008. One year later with their current formation, WBA has made a lot of noise in the local MPLS scene and will be celebrating the official release of their debut recording, This is Where We Stand this Saturday evening at Sauce Spirits and Soundbar in Minneapolis. The party kicks off at 10:00 with additional local acts Koo Koo Kangaroo, The Invincible Kids and White Light Riot, with WBA taking the stage at 11:30. An exciting time for a deserving group, Jesse and Christian took time from preparing for their big day to participate in our latest round of 5 Questions.

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

(Christian) We recorded with Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota fame at Short Man Studio in Northeast Minneapolis. We spent many cold winter nights in Darren’s basement studio. In addition to recording the five tracks on our EP, I’m pretty sure we wrote three or four jingles for various chain restaurants. Sadly, I don’t remember any of them anymore. When we went into the studio to record This is Where We Stand, I think we had only the vaguest idea of what we wanted it to sound like. A lot of the songs really grew and changed as we shaped them with Darren. When we head back to the studio this winter, I hope to have a better idea of what I want out of the songs as finished products.

(Jesse) This EP was the first time we’d been in the studio with someone like Darren, who has a very clear idea of what he likes and doesn’t like and the skills to pull it all off. I look forward to many more awkward stares and butting of heads only to know that the project will come out the absolute best it can be in the end. I think the original process has given us more of an idea how to best prepare our songs as we write the LP.

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?

(Christian) Stars? Metric? Emily Haines solo? I’d like to hear a band with a female singer tackle our songs. Actually, scratch that. I’ll leave that to Jesse. Ryan Adams. Definitely Ryan Adams, especially if he reimagined them as country songs. We’ve talked about performing Weezer’s Pinkerton front to back at some point, so I’d definitely be down for that. And lately I’ve been on a massive Stones kick, so doing something like Beggars Banquet would be rad.

(Jesse) Christian’s right. I’d love to hear a female voice sing our songs and have her way with them. I try to be more like Emily Haines in everything I do and I obviously fail on many, many levels time and time again. I keep trying though. I think Phoenix would kick our asses at playing our stuff and I’d love every minute of it. Flipping it around, I think we’d have a lot of fun trying to figure out how to play the Con, by Tegan and Sara. As far as something more classic, My Aim is True would probably be high on my list to play. But I guess it’d have to be the US version, because there’s no way I’m not doing “Watching the Detectives.”

What is on your bookshelf at the moment? Any books you’ve read over the past year that you’d recommend?

(Christian) I’m reading a few things at the moment. I’m maybe a third of the way into Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. It’s up for the National Book Award, and the language is thick and rich. I’m also in the midst of a collection of short stories by Denis Johnson called Jesus’ Son. It’s excellent. I also recently read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which is both an homage to and subversion of the children’s fantasy genre featured in books like The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter series.

(Jesse) Stuff that’s stuck out for me over the last year… No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. It’s a really delightful read that has moments that absolutely cut me to the core. There are times she captured exactly what it’s like in my head and it scared me. On the plane back from NYC a few weeks ago, a couple offered me their copy of one of Micheal Chabon’s books and I almost took them up on it because I liked Yiddish Policeman’s Union, but I’m suspicious it was because I had just read all of Chelsea Handler’s My Vertical Life and took a nap on the two-hour trip. Stuff like that was made for killing time (and brain cells) when you’re hung over and thousands of feet in the air. A friend loaned me Devil in the White City, which is this book about how Daniel Burnham, the man behind the Chicago World’s Fair in the late 1800’s and how he inadvertently created a perfect setting for the works of one of America’s first serial killers. It takes all true events and presents them in novel form. I’m really looking forward to that one.

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

(Christian) Definitely check out Lookbook, one of my favorites from Minneapolis. Dark, gorgeous music that will make you dance your face off.

(Jesse) Yes, Lookbook. I think their record should take them places. And we would be remiss if we did not take this opportunity to mention our bud-bands on the local scene, Idle Hands and Communist Daughter. We have this loose arrangement we’re all involved in called the Pretty Kids Collective. It’s kind of our indie rock rap crew. PKC, kid.

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?

(Christian) Well, there’s such a glut of available music. You don’t need a label to distribute, which leads to lots of awful bands but also plenty of awesome music you might not have otherwise heard. I think the biggest effect of the Internet on music has been how we listen to music. I can remember the anticipation of release dates, listening parties, radio station single debuts, but that’s all gone now, because you probably already downloaded the album six months ago. I feel like I get burned out on bands far more quickly these days because of that lack of anticipation and overexposure. I might find a new song I really like on a blog, listen to it all day in my cube and be entirely sick of it by the time the album is actually out. I think there’s something to be said for delayed gratification, and the Internet has kind of ruined all that, because, God knows, I don’t have any self-control.

(Jesse) Like it or not (and I’m not taking a stand), it’s the reality of the situation. Once our EP started getting played on the radio, we knew it was only a matter of days before we saw it on a blog for download somewhere. We made peace with that and figured that it will at least bring us listeners that will have had no way of hearing about us otherwise. And that’s the point in the end. That being said, it certainly has done that. It’s entertaining to me to see that we have a bunch of fans in the Czech Republic and that area.

It’s great in that it’s opened the floodgates for all sorts of artists that might not have made it in to the public conscious under the old guard. There are far more bands making a decent living and far fewer making millions for no reason. But it’s also taken away that sort of unifying thing that happens when 10 million people own the same album. Part of me misses that every so often. Then I’d have more to talk about with my cousins at Thanksgiving. There’ll probably never be another Appetite for Destruction.

Photo: Louisa Podlich
Buy: We Became Actors – This is Where We Stand
MySpace: We Became Actors