#AND that phase back before colored hair was Mainstream and people would post photos like 'omg going to bring this to the salon!! dream hair

[icewindandboringhorror]

I love all of these goofy product photos where the water bottle is extremely obviously just photoshopped onto a stock image of someone pretending to hold something or whatever.. very convincing..

[atroopofechoesband-blog]

Band-on-Band Action:  Indian Handcrafts vs. A Troop of Echoes

Here’s the fifth entry in a series of interviews with artists and musicians we enjoy and respect.  In these “double interviews,” bands ask each other a series of three questions.  No agendas, no awkward plugs, no corporate bullshit.  

Today, we’re dishing with Indian Handcrafts, purveyors of righteous Canadian stoner metal.  We learned of these from guys a publicist we worked with back in 2015, who also represented Indian Handcrafts and all of their Sargent House labelmates.  These dudes absolutely shred, and were a blast to catch up with...

Indian Handcrafts:  Stoner rock personified.

Dan (A Troop of Echoes):  You guys write some pretty gnarly songs packed with good choices.  Are there any specific moments or decisions in any of your songs that you’re super proud of?  Bonus question:  Are there any moments or decisions that you still cringe at?  We definitely have a few of those…

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  I think the things that I am most proud of would be the things that weren't done by us but the contributions from others.  We've had the good fortune to have our influences professionally and personally involved in the production and performances on some of our songs such as the Swamp Child EP which featured Buzz from the Melvins and Bruce Lee which had both Coady Willis and Dale Crover of Big Business and the Melvins playing.  Another in particular is Degenerate Case,  which has vocal parts contributed by a lot of family and friends, including my co-pilot’s (I hate the term partner) band, The Rip Nancies, and both Brandyn’s son and my two kids.  As far as cringe-worthy material, I am an over criticizer when it comes to our stuff.  I see nothing but the zits and wiry hairs in odd places...

“Emotionally charged” music.  “Emotionally charged” people.  Dan from A Troop of Echoes, photo courtesy of  Freddie Ross. 

Dan (Indian Handcrafts): Your music is emotionally charged.  What were the influences that fused together to form A Troop Of Echoes?  Are you folks a fan of movie soundtracks? If so, what would be some to check out??

Pete (A Troop of Echoes): Thanks! We've sort of morphed a few times over the years, so we accumulated a caravan of influences along the way. In the beginning it was bands we grew up around, like Lightning Bolt and The Slip (this really sweet kind-of post-rock band that split up; two of them moved to Montreal and started The Barr Brothers). We've also been into classic jazz and modern sorta-jazz groups like The Bad Plus. And as kids we grew up listening to Zeppelin, Hendrix, that kinda thing. With our most recent record, the weird thing is that it ended up reflecting our influences even though we were making a conscious effort to just sound like ourselves. And what ended up coming through was the sound of a bunch of bands we listened to like seven years before this record was made. I don't even think we knew they were influencing us at the time. We'd be recording our practices and listening back to what was coming out and it was like "Whoa. Trail of Dead." I'm personally really into the Neverending Story soundtrack, because as a kid it made me feel like I owned a magical dragon.

Dan (A Troop of Echoes): This is stupid but I really liked the Gone in 60 Seconds soundtrack for some reason.  Also, Star Wars.  Obviously the full score is incredible, but it got even more drilled into my head while playing Jedi Knight on my computer for hours and hours.

Nick (A Troop of Echoes):  Two rando soundtracks for me: I Heart Huckabees and There Will Be Blood. Oh, and definitely Kill Bill, and anything by John Carpenter

Harry (A Troop of Echoes):  Two soundtracks from me, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Blade Runner.

The A-game, hand-delivered by Indian Handcrafts.  

Pete (A Troop of Echoes): Yeah, like Dan said, killer songs, guys!  We love your stuff.  When it comes time to take it out on the road, how do you make sure that you’re “bringing your A-game” to every show? Especially considering how “involved” your songs are - you guys don’t really have the luxury of just getting up on stage and strumming a few boring chords.  Do you have any bands you’ve thought of during your career as role models in terms of how kick-ass a live show should be?

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  Thanx!!  When going out for shows it's like anything else:  practice, practice, and work your ass off.  Bands I have admired the most and looked at as inspirational from a work ethic point of view are without a doubt KISS and the Melvins.  Whether a club or arena you absolutely have to give it your best.  If someone paid to see you perform you shouldn't rip them off.

Who needs vocals when you have one or more saxophones?  Photo credit:  Freddie Ross.  

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  Have there been any obstacles in being an instrumental band?  As someone who loves instrumental music, I’ve never actually played it.

Harry (A Troop of Echoes):  When we were first starting out, I think we had a lot of difficulty with it.  It seems silly to say this now, but around 2005 the umbrella term of "post-rock" wasn't really in the mainstream yet. We'd be playing shows and you could see the look on the audience’s faces as they realized two songs into the set that one of us wasn't going to start singing. I'm reminded of a friend's party we played at very early on.  We overheard someone saying, and I quote, "Why would I want to listen to music without singing?"  That doesn't happen very often anymore, be it that times have changed or that people seem to know what they're getting into more with us. 

There were a few things we’ve experimented with over the years to try to make successful instrumental rock songs.  When we were first writing material, we would try to jam a lot of different ideas into a short amount of time. Part of this was to just keep the audience locked on us and not have them wander off to the bar. The other part was just what we were listening to at the time. We'd fit 7 or 8 different ideas into a piece of music and try to have this kinetic, relentless rhythm bowl you over. We might have gotten in our heads a bit that since most people weren't keen on instrumental music that we had to grab their attention anyway we could. But over time we saw that we just couldn't keep doing that without having the song itself suffer. We took some time and figured out that we would have to get out of the way of a song, that it's better to have two or three ideas and have those make as much impact as possible rather than throw in everything and the kitchen sink.

Gettin’ Crafty with Brandyn&Daniel.

Dan (A Troop of Echoes): You guys are a 2-piece, but your sound is absolutely fucking massive.  What are some of the techniques you guys use to sculpt that sound?  Things like panning, arrangements, looping/layering, reverb/delay, multitracking, etc.?  How much of that transfers over between the studio and the stage?  Or do you have to take a totally different approach in each environment?

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  We've actually just became a three piece as of last Saturday!  But before that, in the studio I used a lot of doubling on my main guitar parts and a lot of overdubs to create a wall of sound.  When it comes to live, I have always thought of it much the same as The Who did: the album is the album and live is live.  They’re totally different beasts.  

A Troop of Echoes with Freddie Ross, whose photography was used as the album art on The Longest Year on Record.  

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  I love the cover of the new album.  I have my own ideas as to what it represents as far as the album sounds and feels.  What does it represent coming from you guys?

Nick (A Troop of Echoes):  Man, I'm a little drunk and my answer is getting kind of deep and emotional...

I don’t think there was ever some unified vision as to what the cover represents. We just genuinely enjoy Freddie’s work. It’s compelling and the pieces we picked in particular feel like a perfect complement to the record. They’re emotionally evocative without feeling heavy or manipulative, which is something we’ve always strived for in our music. As to what the art represents, I find it all bound up in my feelings about making the record.

The theme and color of the images suggest a sort of reverie for youth, or an ending of youth and a transitioning into another phase of life, which parallels our lives in the band pretty uncannily. I don’t think we could have realized the entire thought at the time because we were so focused on putting the album out, promoting it, and touring on it, but looking back on it now, The Longest Year On Record was a swan song for us in a lot of ways, and the images have accumulated that deeper meaning for me over time. Maybe I’m just an old fart now, but I feel unimaginably lucky to have been on the ride that was this band.

Gettin the feels over here boys.  

Harry:  All the feels...Somebody's cuttin' onions in here.  

We’ll take any excuse we can to repost this photo...

Dan (Indian Handcrafts):  Finally how do you guys find balancing life and music?  Do any of you have day jobs, kids etc?

Dan (A Troop of Echoes):  Nick, Pete, and Harry all went to school for music, and have actually been lucky (and dedicated!) enough to have built careers in music or sound-related fields.  Nick just started a guitar school, Pete has been teaching woodwind lessons up in Toronto, and Harry is working in a voiceover studio up in Boston.  I’m kind of the odd one out, I just got my Ph.D. in lunar geology, and am going to be starting a job at NASA this summer.  

None of us have kids, but we’re all in long-term, committed relationships with pretty wonderful people.  We’re really grateful to them for their support of our weird musical dreams!  Its not easy being with someone who’s always tied up touring or recording, but they’ve always got our backs.  

Indian Handcrafts is a rad band with rad songs.  Go check them out!