This Friday, August 16th, catch Smith Westerns at The Crocodile (8 p.m., $13 in advance, all ages).
Since my early teenager years and now into my mid-20s, I’ve heard the same consoling line, “Honey, boys mature much slower than girls do.” With that in mind, the age of Chicago natives Smith Westerns gets thrown around a lot. Most “boys” (I hesitate to say men) around my age can barely manage take a shower, yet alone play an instrument well enough to open for Wilco. When I heard Smith Westerns second album Dye It Blonde, I was impressed. When I heard their latest, and third, LP Soft Will, I was shocked. Its dreamy, layered sounds had me secondguess the ambition and mental capacity of men in their early 20s.
Like George Clooney, the Smith Westerns only get better with age. I spoke with guitarist Max Kakacek over the phone about Jack White, Jurassic Park, and moving on from house shows.
How was it performing at Lollapalooza? I know you guys also performed in 2011, but as a Chicago band, has it always a dream to perform there?
Yeah, totally. We all went there when we were younger because it was in the city and it was something you did when you were younger and into music. We had a really great crowd. We had been on tour for maybe 10 or 11 days just grinding it out, then we had a couple of days off in Chicago before we played at Lollapalooza. So it was refreshing and exciting to be able to play in our own city.
Did you have any memories from attending the festival when you were younger?
The first year I went I was a freshman in high school and it was when Arcade Fire had just come out with their first album, and they were playing early on the big stage. It was the first time I had ever really heard of their band, and now they headline festivals all the time.
How did you begin playing music? Were their certain artists or albums that inspired you to start playing?
I played the piano a bit when I was a kid. But in 7th or 8th grade, I wanted to start playing guitar. I was bored at school and wanted something to do. Then I started playing every day and eventually got into it. There was no specific moment really. Everyone loved Jack White, so if it would be anyone that inspired me, it would be him.
People often mention you guys as a ’90s-loving band. What did you think you would be doing in the ’90s, career-wise?
I’m pretty sure I wanted to be a paleontologist or something because I had seen Jurassic Park. I was a baby! I was like 9 years old and my favorite song was by Matchbox 20. (Laughs)
You started off playing house shows – do you miss playing in those type of venues?
Yeah, of course. There is a certain energy to playing in front of all your friends when they are drunk and it’s for free. But having done that, we try to take it for what it was and not dwell on the past. House shows were super fun and a part of our band at a certain point, but now I’m super happy playing at venues.
On this tour for Soft Will, what have you done to enhance the live show?
We got a new drummer, who is amazing and has been playing with us since we recorded the album. We also got some new keyboards and guitars. Geared up basically.
What was the vision for your latest video “Idol”?
It was an idea created between us and Sandy (Kim), who is a friend of ours. She came up with the idea of having it be similar to the Ramones video “I Wanna Be Sedated.” We filmed both digitally and on VHS. And the VHS one is the one that ended up being chosen.
Was it hard to stay straight-faced during all of that commotion?
Yeah, there was some difficulty since we were filming in VHS format. All three of us had to move really, really slowly while everyone else was moving normal. Everything we did had to be super slow and consistent.
You guys are pretty active on social media. Do you believe that plays an important role in a band’s success today?
I’m not sure if it does or doesn’t, but it’s really fun to have that additional element on tour and to post pictures and have people comment on it and such. Even if you only have 50 people ‘like’ something that you post, you can tell people are paying attention and care. I’m not sure if it sells records or brings people to shows, but it’s really, really fun. It’s a new way to connect people to the band since there’s nothing in between. It’s our own original stuff going straight to their phones.
I came across a FB page dedicated to Cullen’s hair. What do you think of that?
I mean, it’s just really funny. We were all like, “that’s awesome.” In some sort of ridiculous way, we realized that it’s the coolest thing ever. (Laughs) There are also these two amazing people that lived in Belgium and had this blog called “Ode to Asians.” They would paint pictures that looked like a 5 year old was painting them, and they painted Cullen and Cameron. It was amazing.
Do they still do it?
I think they stopped about a year and a half ago, but they made some really cool paintings. One of our friends actually bought them. I mean, these are big pieces. They did a portrait of each one of us crying, called the “Pain” series. There’s one of every member of the band tearing up and and staring off into space. I think he bought all of them.
