Crazy energetic Brooklyn quintet MiniBoone are coming to Philly tomorrow for Pilam’s Human BBQ. To get you all properly excited for their set (730ish) I tracked them down to find out a little bit more about what fuels their music making ways.
TWIAPC: You guys really charged out of the shoots on the tails of your album release in January, popping up all over the blogosphere. Clearly you didn’t appear outta nowhere; what is MiniBoone’s history as a group?
James: Craig and Doug were in a group before. That group broke up, but the two of them kept writing music together. They asked me and then Taylor and then Sam to join their new group one by one. I had my own group during all of this and quite ridiculously my group had 80% of the same members (Doug, Craig, and Sam). So one day, Taylor had the common sense to say “hey, why don’t we join the two groups.” Taylor is a smart boy.
Craig: Doug and I made a whole record as a duo before we were a five-piece, but we sent it mostly just to our friends. It formed the basis for some of the songs we’re performing now. “Big Changes” was the first thing we recorded as a five-piece and it sounds way better, and we’ve been pushing it a lot harder.
TWIAPC: Your music is infused with pure pop energy how do you guys ensure that is conveyed in your live show?
Sam: It feels really lame to stand still while playing a MiniBoone song. So we don’t. Lots of running and jumping around, banging on things, screaming along. All of the little flourishes and ornamental noise on the recorded songs that might be too subtle to come across live we try make up for with extra craziness. Onstage, I like to imagine myself as a hyperactive 4 year old covering MiniBoone.
James: Yes, Sam is totally nuts on stage. I never really realized it because I am always also going nuts. But one day I saw a picture of Sam on stage, and I was like whoa.
TWIAPC: As we head into summer and people begin amassing their sunny playlists I’m sure Big Changes will be featured in a number of those. What music would be on Miniboone’s playlist?
Doug: Oh man! Summer Jams are my favorite type of music ever, which is one reason I wanted to call the song “Summer Jam”, “Summer Jam”. I love this question.
Collectively, we will be listening to the following this summer:
Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits
Phil Spector’s Greatest Hits
Major Lazer
Lagos Disco Inferno
The new Robyn EPs that we are anticipating to be great
Music that cannot even begun to be imagined, and other future music
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
The new Big Boi record
Lots of Freestyle
Journey
James Brown Singles Collection Volumes 1-8
That air horn sound that all the hip hop DJs use all the time
TWIAPC: Your video for “Cool Kids Cut Out Of The Heart Itself” features you all in various stages of hair play. Where did the idea come from?
Sam: “Hair play” sounds sort of like an icky fetish…Anyway, this winter we realized we were close to developing ZZ Top amounts of facial hair between us, so that seemed like a good starting point for a video. We had a bunch of ideas of where to go from there, but after a couple weeks of debate we just decided to make a list of all the funny things we could think of to do to our faces and spent a day squatting in a warehouse, with our friend Jesse behind the camera, shooting and making a really, really disgusting mess. Seriously, by the end of the night we were literally up to our ankles in shaving cream, skittles, confetti, fingerpaint, fake blood, hair and other assorted items, mostly from the dairy case or the dollar store.
TWIAPC: I take from the <3 over Brooklyn you draw a lot from your homebase. Are there any other factors, geographically or otherwise, that influence the music you make?
James: Right now most of our songs are about growing up in the suburbs and falling in love. So those.
TWIAPC: Any plans for an extended tour?
Craig: As soon as we sell James’s grandpa’s Grand Prix and buy a van, we’re hoping to drive all over the place. Right now we’re just sticking with little weekend jaunts along the East Coast. We’d love to be an opener for some other band if they will take us with them. I hear MGMT is doing a world tour?