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Colour Revolt Interview

PAUSE: I hear you get compared to Modest Mouse, how do you feel about that?

Colour Revolt: They’re a great band! We’ve met them… I think that’s just comparisons from our EP, older songs people heard. The newer stuff, it’s not as much, so, it doesn’t really bother me cause I know that it’s not what we’re doing. It’s not a carbon copy.

PAUSE: How long have you guys been together?

CR: Different formations, but we’ve been Colour Revolt since 2004. Me [Jess] and Len and Jimmy have been playing together since 9th grade, then Sean joined sophomore year of college, and Patrick joined at the beginning of the year.

PAUSE: What’s the significance of the name Colour Revolt?

CR: It comes from this book called Flatland by Edwin Abbott. The whole book is just a funny, kind of weird, social commentary. It has the idea, the actual colour revolt in the book is when art achieves 15 seconds where the race stops fighting… then it all goes to hell. But it’s like a brief part where the inhabitants of Flatland… it sounds ridiculous..

PAUSE: {laughs} No, I understand it.

CR: When you read the book, there’s no color in this world and then there is color and it stirs up everything.

PAUSE: Like Pleasantville?

CR: Well, that part of Pleasantville could be I guess, a little bit like Flatland, that part makes sense.

PAUSE: You toured with Brand New, how was that for you?

CR: It was good, we like those guys a lot. They were extremely nice to us in letting us tour with them on these big shows, so, it was great.

PAUSE: Do you feel like you learned a lot? Or was it just more of a different social experience?

CR: Both, it’s all that. Like, I mean we’re used to playing coffee houses and bars, we’re not used to playing huge venues. So you learn a lot, like we were late to a show and our booking agent was really pissed and, like a “we-can’t-ever-do-that-again” kind of thing. But at the same time those shows are at such a different level, like there was this new air of when you could just relax and have more fun because you’re not stressed out or anything. It’s still a little weird.

PAUSE: A little bit surreal…

CR: Yes.

PAUSE: Are you planning any bigger tours or anything right now?

CR: {laughs} Oh we have plans. We have big plans. Big tours. Well we’re all still in school right now so it’s a little hard. We have ideas of what we’re going to do, while still in school, and that includes a lot of shows. And we’re working on a new record. And after that we’ll be out of school, once the record’s released.

PAUSE: So you all went into this saying “I want this to go as far as it can go”?

CR: Well none of us want to have a job, so…

PAUSE: {laughs} Good, okay.

CR: So we need to get this thing going so we can avoid that.

PAUSE: Understandable.

CR: I don’t know of anything else that I would want to be doing at this time in my life. I definitely want this to go as far as it possibly can. I think if people want to hear it, we’ll give it to them. Like, I like the donut shop and if people want to buy the donuts I make, then I’ll keep making donuts. That’s how it goes. It’s homeostasis.

PAUSE: You are in school! Perfect. Full circle.

CR: And if they don’t like it we’ll still keep making it. We’ll just play in our basement and think we’re awesome.

PAUSE: So do you all write? Or do you each have different things…

CR: Everyone has different areas that they cover. Sean and Jess are the primary songwriters. I’d [Sean] say we’re[Sean and Jess] kind of like the instigators, so we kind of take the good songs they [Len, Jimmy, Patrick] bring in and mess them up, and then we try to like, make them good again. {all laugh} Sometimes it works.

PAUSE: You’re like, “Let’s try a new angle..whoops… well!”

CR: Yeah, our songs have gone a lot of different directions that turned them into what they are now. It’s kind of crazy how some of the songs started. It’s just weird cause it’s five strong personalities all trying to appease each other so, we argue a lot. We argue enough.

PAUSE: How is being on the road? Are there things that you’re realizing you’re hating?

CR: I guess the more amount of time you spend around other people, the little things really get on your nerves. It’s the options kind of like, do I want to keep doing this or do I want to kill that person? It really teaches you that you depend on everybody in the band, in order for it to work you have to get along. And it’s a very humbling thing because at some point, as mad as you get at somebody else, you have to realize that you’re being absolutely as annoying as they are.

PAUSE: Yes, that’s important to realize.

CR: It’s psychology. That’s my [Sean] major and the guy at the end there, Patrick.

PAUSE: So are any of you majoring in music? {resounding “No!”} What stopped you from majoring in music?

CR: Well it becomes kind of like a math or a science if you do that. And that’s not fun. It’s just two different sides of the brain, there’s musicians who love sheet music and know what to do, there’s others who can, like, hear a song and figure it out and if you gave them sheet music they would have no idea what to do. And we’re that side.

PAUSE: Is there anything that you wish would be written about you? I always wonder how it is for bands to maybe read things and say, “Ugh, they just never even get that!”

CR: Well, don’t say anything about Katrina… and don’t say anything about Faulkner. Is that cool? {collective agreement} It’s all in our current bio. I mean, Faulkner, we respect that guy, we’ll say it right now, and maybe he did live in our hometown, it’s just not our focus.

PAUSE: Sometimes your lyrics are a bit vague. Do you mean them to be ambiguous or do you sometimes have a concrete idea for them?

CR: There is intention, but to me lyrics are more something that’s just a way to bring out the melody better. Like using certain words makes the melody stronger, and if you use the wrong words it makes the melody lame or weird sometimes. So if you can form that into a meaning, that’s even better, and if it’s a good meaning you’re on a roll, and if you can pull all that into an album, you’ve got yourself a band. We’re fine with that, we think it’s cool.

PAUSE: Okay, I just didn’t know, because some bands write the words and then the music serves as the bed for it.

CR: Yeah, that’s strange. In this context, like in the way that we all write music it’s almost impossible to do it that way, because we’re jamming and stuff for a long time, and then the lyrics just sort of come out in strings of thought. It’s more focused on the music, it’s all in the melody.

PAUSE: Have you thought of doing other things with your music? Like just chucking the lyrics altogether?

CR: Well, we’re thinking about car commercials… {everyone laughs}

PAUSE: Car commercials?

CR: Do you mean like being an instrumental band? I’d write a song for a car commercial… no. I mean if that’s what the album needs to be, if it needs to instrumental then I’m not opposed to it.

PAUSE: I didn’t know if it was something you were interested in.

CR: I still want to make a psychedelic rap album. After that point, anything could happen. That’s true. It’s a good springboard into “anything”.
No, in five years hopefully we’ll sound completely different but better.

PAUSE: Yes, while still holding onto the distinction that you guys have.

CR: It’s weird though to maintain your distinction among other bands and change at the same time. Like if you change you might start sounding like somebody else and then it gets really weird. And then like I [Sean] look at things in a way they don’t at all, like that’s a conflict, I’m saying, “Do these songs sound like us, guys?” and they’re like, “what are you talking about?” It’s all about changing. And that point of view sometimes conflicts.

PAUSE: But the point is you’re where you are right now, and you’re going one step at a time.

CR: Our songs have definitely progressed from the EP, to now. Hopefully they’re a lot better. And if takes a couple listens, that’s fine.

PAUSE: Sometimes the things that grow on you are the things that stick with you.

CR: Yes, definitely. Sometimes you don’t even know why you like it, you just like it. You have certain moments in your life where this all makes sense to you, it doesn’t have to be relevant. Am I [Jimmy] allowed to relate this to forms? {collective “What?”}

PAUSE: You’re allowed.

CR: Like the form of a chair is the ideal chair, that from which all chairs are actually made are copies of that ideal which could never exist in real life. Hopefully there’s a form, Colour Revolt, and all other versions of that are copies of the ideal. {others, “Way to go, Jimmy.”} That’s something we’re interested in. Have you ever seen that big Jesus right outside of Dayton?

PAUSE: Touchdown Jesus!

CR: Touchdown Jesus, yeah, we call him Big Jesus. We actually saw him and we were like, holy crap! So we went and drove around, I think it’s called Solid Rock Church? And we got up to the gate, and there were like exploded birds, because they had been eating Jesus’s arms and then they would drink the water and blow up. So there are dead birds everywhere. We have pictures of it. It’s amazing. There are like pieces of arms laying on the ground. Big Jesus killed hundreds of birds.

PAUSE: Wow, that’s like a phenomenon.

CR: That Jesus is like a huge landmark for us. We love that Jesus.

PAUSE: {laughs} That is good.

CR: Are you familiar with Charlie Mars?

PAUSE: Tell me, I guess I’m not.

CR: Charlie Mars is maybe the greatest thing to happen on earth, minus Big Jesus. Charlie’s right up there. He’s a singer-songwriter who was really big in the 90’s. He toured with REM, so he was doing alright. He lived in Switzerland for like four years. He’s totally hilarious.

PAUSE: I’ll look him up. What should I know?

CR: Bay Springs Road. It’s the best song. Although it might just be an inside joke with us. You might listen to it and be like, really, why did they tell me to listen to this? But he references Mississippi in it, and that’s what we really like. There’s a line that goes, “the kids are alright in Mississippi”, if ever anything good happens, we sing that song. We’re actually going to be really impressed if you listen to everything on that tape. I actually feel bad for your next interview. This is pretty freaking tops as far as interviews go.

PAUSE: Thank you! That’s so awesome.

CR: Cause normally it’s miserable. Like, ‘What’s Jesse Lacey really like?’ Some dude asked about Jesse Lacey yesterday. Or they freak out and we find out it’s not a real thing, it’s just some obsessive fan who doesn’t even have credentials. “What kind of Cheerios do you guys like?” Usually it’s like, “You toured with Brand New, right?” and we’re like, “Yeah…” and they’re like, “so you know Jesse Lacey right?” and we’re like, “Yeah… he’s, a good guy. He sleeps in an egg.” I [Sean] was about to say something else and then I just said that he sleeps in an egg. I was like, “They’re great and those guys were really nice for taking us out.” They want me to say something weird about them. Like I’ll say that Jesse Lacey is a good guy, but everyone has this obsessive, weird… like they’ll believe anything that is said about the dude.
The best way I [Jimmy] can describe Jesse is, he showed up at my house in Oxford, bought a ton of ice cream, and played video games until 6 in the morning. We’re normal dudes. This guy in Atlanta seriously asked, “Does Jesse sleep in an egg?” and Jamie, the tour manager, was like, “I’m sorry, what?” and the man said, “I heard that Jesse sleeps in a giant egg.” In all seriousness.

PAUSE: By all rights this should have been an awful interview, because the room was so hot.

CR: Well, you’re doing a great job. It’s a lot of fun talking with you. You’re a lot better than any of the Lollapalooza interviews. You’ve got a future ahead of you!

PAUSE: Thank you so much! So, do you have things that you like to watch together? On TV?

CR: Friends, mostly. {everyone laughs}

PAUSE: Is that true? Everyone is shaking their heads no.

CR: Really some of us watch the West Wing. Arrested Development. Freaks and Geeks, that was amazing. We all watched Freaks and Geeks from start to finish, there’s only one season. Twin Peaks.

PAUSE: Media. That’s good. Well, here’s my last question. What are your thoughts on achieving a ‘celebrity persona’, becoming this thing that might not actually be you, but it’s what everyone associates you with?

CR: Well sometimes we’ll get something like that. Like, “Colour Revolt, right?” and we’re walking down the street. Someone says, “You’re playing tonight?” and we were just going to a restaurant. Like we’re supposed to be playing every night. But as far as that, that’s an artificial world that people create. We participate in it but it’s completely ridiculous. It’s also a lot of fun, we all do it, but… people associate with that. That’s why people are celebrities, because mass amounts of people associate with that person. People like what they’re doing. It’s like a game, or a reality show. We had our first rock star thing yesterday, at Lollapalooza. We all got free shoes.

PAUSE: They’re nice shoes.

CR: We all got that and we all got free headphones, free skateboards.

PAUSE: Is that true?

CR: Yeah. And they have dudes up there giving haircuts, tattoos, massages, any drink you wanted. And this is like three worlds away from anything we’ve ever experienced. In the interviews they just start giving us stuff, they’re like, we want you to influence other people with this stuff. They want me to walk down the street in my cool new headphones. Of course, we are doing that.

PAUSE: You’re wearing the shoes.

CR: But they’re good shoes. We just want to make good music and not lose touch with real life. That’s the key. Like if you stop understanding what everyone else goes through, you lose your audience. We’re weird dudes. We get nervous and jittery and say dumb stuff. We don’t understand like, why would anyone want to read what we have to say? I just hope we have something good to say.

-Annaliese Dykstra