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| Interview: Smith Westerns |
| Music |
 Seamlessly blending into the Shoreditch scene at London’s Cargo, frontman Cullen Omori in star spangled vest, brother and bassist Cameron Omori wearing a peachy leather puffer-jacket and denim-clad lead-guitarist Max Kakacek chitchat with The Student ahead of their European tour. I imagine your debut was pretty much the first handful of songs you’d ever written. With Dye It Blonde did you feel you had the time to process thoughts, mess around with different things, tweak or scrap bits etc. before arriving at the end product?
Cullen Omori [CU]: The debut was very much us having these songs that we had to get out, I mean artistically to make Dye It Blonde chronicles our entire growth as musicians. The debut was very grassroots, it kinda just fell out.
Cameron Omori [CA]: I didn’t think anyone was gonna hear it, so we were just like “lets beat some pots and pans on this one”… There’s sitar on some of them… and then people are like, “man this sounds like shit, its so poorly done”, if I’d have known more than a hundred people would have heard this… whereas nowadays it’s like, “you’re inthe big league now”
The T.Rex comparison is often churned out. If that record had been released forty years earlier, how do you think it would have been received?
CU: Everyone knows what a guitar can sound like, we are just trying to make pop songs using guitars. The whole goal was to make it as timeless Smith Westerns as possible. All this shit that comes out now, all the software and people like shit their pants over pushing two buttons, and everyone is shitting their pants, “this is the newest sound ever”, that sound is gonna sound fucking dated in six months or whatever and then it gets lost into a genre.
What would you say are some of your most defining musical moments?
CU: When I was like sixteen I found that Stone Roses track, I Wanna Be Adored, lying about… and that was just kind distant, but poppy and dreamy, lyrics with so much longing.
If you were to tattoo some lyric onto your ass what would it be?
CU: Pussy Poppin by Ludacris
What would you sing at a karaoke?
CU: Tom Petty - American Girl
Before filming the Weekend video had you ever felt compelled to chop down a tree?
CU: We didn’t really have enough money to actually make a video, so the idea was just to get together one night and with a small budget just buy stupid things, it’s not like “Oh man, this is a day in my life”
CA: I didn’t want the axe or the rifle in there, the guy just thought “Oh yeah, guns are cool”. I’m a lover, not a fighter. If you look at the video you can tell that we’ve never chopped a tree down!
How heavily weighted is your emphasis on aesthetics, aside from the purely musical aspect?
CA: I mean, I’m not waking up each morning thinking, oh god I need to dress like this, I don’t want to look like an asshole
CU: Recently we’ve been having to do a lot of photo-shoots and stuff, and that sucks, you always have to tell someone you don’t want to lean on each other or put your heads up against each other, cause I don’t do that every day, that’s not a normal part of my life, just hanging out, all sprawled out on each other.
When you are about to embark on tour does it feel like the beginning of an adventure or a pain, uprooting you from your daily lives?
CA: I have no life outside of this, I don’t think any of us do. But every tour it gets better, after Dye It Blonde came out we went on a US tour with Yuck and I had no expectations, but we were playing actual sold out places
Are a lot of your friends at college? Did you have any reservations about opting out of university to pursue the music?
CU: I mean a lot of our friends graduated college and got jobs and we’re making more money then they are…
CA: Maybe not making more money, but having more fun!! And you can always go back to school…
If you were to start a side-project, what would it be?
Max Kakacek: I’d be like a rap producer, or a rap collective
CA: I wanna become a star! bring back the boy-band...
CU: I’ve been convincing Max that we’re gonna form a Simon & Garfunkel band but that it would have edge to it.
If you’re jamming alone and pick up a guitar, what kinda stuff do you play?
CU: I play along to the Smashing Pumpkins, the sadder parts.
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions that you could see yourself returning to at some later stage in life?
CU: From twelve to fifteen I wanted to be a pro-skater but I wasn’t good enough, so if for some reason I get really good all of a sudden I’d become a pro-skater
CA: be an all-round criminal or drugdealer…
Cameron you usually avert any drug-related questions…
CA: How many fucking bands do you hear like “Yeah, we had a late night, we were getting fucked up man, remember that time snorting cocaine of that hooker”, I mean fuck that, that’s stupid, it not something to brag about.
CU: Addiction is a sign of weakness
Are you all about the blonde chicks?
CU: I just like the idea of dying something blonde to improve it, this kinda warped idea that if a girl is blonde she’s somehow hotter. It’s a good title. I don’t like blonde eyebrows, super platinum eyebrows creep me out
Who would you say is the most attractive person in the music industry?
CU: We all like Taylor Momsen
CA: Nicki Minaj is fiiiine
CU: I like Lykke Li a lot. Last night while really stoned I put her album on, was real scared. Newer news items:
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