Football, etc. - Sound In The Signals Interview

I recently had the chance to interview Football, etc. Check out the full interview after the jump.

You are about to tour the UK & Europe. Can you tell me a little bit about the tour? What can fans expect from those shows?

Lindsay: We've been to the UK 3 times before. All except one of our UK shows are in cities we've been to before. We are so lucky to see promoters, bands and friends that we have gotten to know over the past few years. Europe is new for us! I've actually never been to the Continent before. We have 9 shows in northern Europe. I wish we were able to travel more of Europe-- hopefully next time! Show-goers can expect a lot of songs from our record Audible some oldies, and something a little different. Our friends in Papermoons/Pswingset will be playing with us-- Danny on drums, and Matt will join us on guitar for a few songs. We have never performed as a four piece before!

You've released a couple albums but last years Audible really seemed to generate a lot of interest with websites/blogs. What do you think it is about Audible that is impressing so many people?

Mercy: Ed Rose, who we recorded with, was really helpful in getting the sounds we were looking for on Audible. He recorded a lot of records we like, such as Appleseed Cast’s Low Level Owl, which made it easier for us to talk with him about what we were going for. We were also more confident going into the recording studio for Audible than for previous records, and I hope that shows.

One track I really like from Audible is "Forfeit" I was wondering if you could tell me about the song writing process of that song in particular and what inspired the lyrics?

Lindsay: The lyrics are about someone I was not quite fond of. The idea of trying and failing over and over again is something that I can sympathize with, but only to a certain point. Mercy came up with the bass riffs first, brought it to practice, and we wrote the rest collaboratively.

Something I really like about your music is the fantastic vocals found on your albums. How do you as a band like to come up with the vocal parts to your songs?

Lindsay: I typically write the vocals when the instrumentation (bass, drums and guitar) is completed. I have a hard time approaching vocal melody until everything is finished. I keep some notebooks around that I write lyric ideas in from time to time. When the time is right, I grab a notebook and try to find lyrics that I think fit with the song. Mercy took the reins on a song on this record. She wrote the lyrics and vocal melody on the song, Audible, which turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the record.

Aside from the UK & Europe tour what else do you have planned or would like to accomplish in 2014?

Mercy: We have some new songs we are going to record when we come back; we’ll probably release an EP and maybe a split. We’ll be recording those with Danny from Pswingset/Papermoons, who is playing for us on this upcoming tour. Aside from that, I hope we’ll be on the road more!

The whole "emo revival" term has been thrown around a lot lately and it seems to be a big buzz phrase at the start of 2014. Your band gets put into that category a lot. How do you feel about your band being put in the emo revival category?

Lindsay: I am inspired by some "first wave emo" bands, but I don't think we were ever aiming for any certain sound. I don't really know how I feel about it.

Your name it Football, etc. I was curious when you think of the etc. would exactly do you think of?

Mercy: Well, we picked the name out of a book about the 1920s. It was the headline for a chapter about American sports back then. So the etc, like the name, doesn’t really mean anything in particular. When we first started what became football, etc., we were going to call ourselves Nella Larsen, who was a Harlem Renaissance writer Lindsay and I admire. I still really like that as a band name. But when the very first drummer we played with dropped out of our lives unexpectedly, we were kind of frustrated and decided to just pick a name out of a book.

With 2014 just starting who do you think are one or two bands outside of your own that you think people should be listening to and paying attention to this year?

Mercy: I heard the new Human Hands LP in the van when we were out with Plaids, and they’ve posted a few songs on the internet since—really incredible, driving stuff. It will be out on strictly no capital letters records pretty soon.

Lindsay: Nina Gordon and Louise Post are writing together as Veruca Salt again.