Q&A With We Are Scientists’ Keith Murray

No one can call Brooklyn-based rockers We Are Scientists one-dimensional. The band has engaged in extracurricular activities ranging from creating a comedic TV series to self-improvement seminars. However, singer/guitarist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain have returned to their day job to release fourth album Barbara (PIAS/Masterswan). WAS, who were without a drummer since the 2007 departure of Michael Tapper, have added former Razorlight skinsman Andy Burrows to the lineup, and Barbara features a more eclectic sound, with the often-brash group experimenting with slower tempos and fuller arrangements. Lead single “Rules Don’t Stop” is vintage Scientists, though; it’s a nervy power-pop song driven by a thumping bass line. The single debuted at number 14 on the U.K. indie charts, and it’s already an anthem for mustachioed hipsters everywhere. Murray is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.

“Rules Don’t Stop”:
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/RulesDontStop.mp3

MAGNET: The group originally met in Claremont, Calif., but moved to Berkeley and then to Brooklyn. What precipitated the moves? More importantly, which is the better coast: East or West?
Murray: The moves were largely your standard post-collegiate wanderings. For professionally bound, West Coast kids during the late-‘90s dot-com boom, San Francisco was a good place to look for a job and a burrito. Once we got tired of excellent Mexican food, though, we decided to take the plunge and move to NYC. For the pizza, mainly. I’d say that, overall, the West Coast is probably superior to the East. California is awash in great cities and greater margaritas, and Portland and Seattle are top-tier towns as well. On the other hand, New York is far and away the finest city in the world, and I should know: I’ve seen almost 10 cities worldwide.

You were initially the drummer for the band, but you switched to vocals and guitar. Were you a drummer out of convenience, or do you still play/identify as a drummer, too?
I was mainly a drummer out of desperate aspiration. Initially, We Are Scientists was largely a way for Chris and me to learn new instruments. I took up drums while he learned bass. We were a brutally tight rhythm section, but when our guitarist/vocalist left the band, I took one for the team and switched instruments. Drums are still my favorite instrument to play, and most of our songs still start out simply as drum-and-bass compositions, with the guitar part coming very late in the game, generally after even vocal melodies and harmonies have been written. So, yeah, guitar is the least-favored instrument in We Are Scientists.

Your new album features some songs with soul influences and more intricate harmonies. Do you purposefully stretch out your sound on each successive release, or do your influences just come out in the course of writing the songs?
I don’t think any preconceived influences ever actually rear their heads in our songwriting, although we do spend a lot of time talking about the bands we’d love to rip off before we start writing. I think the “soul” you’re referencing can probably be more accurately identified as “blue-eyed soul.” Hall & Oates are personal favorites, and their harmonies drive me mad with envy. Their influence has popped up before, most obviously in “That’s What Counts” from our last record, but I think I’m getting better at nailing the harmony arrangements.

Barbara is only 10 tracks long and under 32 minutes. That is Green Album Weezer-level short. Was the briefness a conscious decision?
We specifically wanted to make the album as short and sweet as possible, and the Green Album was actually the template we used: 10 songs, all of which sound like singles, delivered in something like 31 minutes. That record is a model of melodic efficiency; it’s just hook after hook, and it goes down so stupidly easy that the brevity of the record makes it compulsively listenable. Nothing makes me sadder than imagining people growing weary of our records before they’re through.

Drummer Andy Burrows performs on your new album, but he has his own solo project, as well. Will he be touring with you this summer?
Unfortunately, the demands of promoting a major-label release such as his means that, for the most part, he won’t be playing with us very much at all this summer. We just did Glastonbury Festival together, and we’re hoping he’ll be able to play with us at Reading and Leeds as well, but his schedule is so malleable and unpredictable that it’s impossible to say where and when he’ll appear with us. There’s a chance he may tour with us in the autumn, after his promotional schedule (theoretically) cools off, but who knows? Until then, we’re lucky as hell to have landed a fantastic touring drummer, Danny Allen, whose main band, Youth Group, is currently on hiatus. The shows we’ve just done with Danny in the U.K. have been some of my favorite WAS shows ever, so I think we’ve got a good thing going with him.

How was the Glastonbury Festival experience for you? What is the weirdest thing that has happened to the group while you have been on tour in Europe?
Glastonbury, as with most festivals for me, is always way more fun offstage than on. There’s something about the distance involved in festivals that really makes me feel segregated from the crowd, so those sorts of shows always feel slightly sterile to me. The show this year was great—the weather was a tremendous boon—but I had a much better time just running around the site watching other bands and gulping pear cider.

Which band member can go the longest without sleeping?
I’m not sure, really. I tend to party harder and more frequently than Chris does, but he has a four-year-old son, so I think he’s far more used to having his sleep interrupted on a regular basis. My tendency, though, is to power through a long night of revelry, then follow that with 20-odd hours of hard sleep.

Often We Are Scientists perform comedy routines and have created and appeared in a series of MTV U.K. comedy shorts called Steve Wants His Money. Do you have any aspirations to act or write professionally in addition to your band duties?
I wouldn’t call them “aspirations,” as that would indicate some sort of proactive intent, which we sorely lack. We love doing that kind of stuff, for sure, but we really only do it when we’re forced to (i.e., when MTV commissions a six-episode series of shorts from us). We’ve spoken to them about doing some longer shows, and hopefully, that will happen, but the band is really our main focus.

You guys are popular in the U.S., but rock stars in the U.K. Why do you think that the Brits have embraced you so warmly?
I think it’s largely based on the fact that, when our first record came out, mainstream British radio was pretty focused on music that sounded a lot like ours: guitar-based dance/indie stuff, and so we received a lot of airplay on major radio and television stations. It’s as simple as that, really. We got an early foot in the door over there that never really happened over here. We’re pretty pleased with the way it’s gone in the U.S., though, considering our relatively limited media presence.

In your video for “Nice Guys,” you take a few nasty spills while skateboarding. Did you get hurt during the filming of the video? What is your philosophy on skaters being allowed to skate wherever they want?
I logged a few scrapes and bruises that day. I certainly don’t subscribe to the idea that skaters should be given the freedom to employ all of humanity’s creation as their skate park; it seems like the civilian casualties in that scenario would be shockingly high. As a former skater myself, I can state confidently that many skaters aren’t the most responsible or considerate citizens. A little third-party legislation is probably a good idea.

Both of you share a love for books, especially pulp detective novels. How does literature inspire your music, if at all?
I think literature just sort of infuses our lives in general, and although noir fiction is our current genre of choice, we tend to be the biggest fans of authors who balance humor with a nagging pathos—David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut—and I do think we try to incorporate those duel sentiments in our lyrics. It’s no accident that we named our first album after a J.D. Salinger story. His pitch and tone incorporate what is pretty much the perfect fusion of hope, humor and melancholy.

There are so many great bands coming out of/moving to Brooklyn nowadays. Who are your favorite musical neighbors?
We’re big fans of Rewards, a new project that’s risen from the ashes of Chairlift, as well as Bad Girlfriend, an all-girl quartet that’s been tearing Brooklyn up for about a year or so. In terms of the older titans, I pretty much crap my pants every time I spot James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem out on the town.

I saw a picture of both you and Chris in a record store and you were sporting a Philadelphia 76ers hoodie. Are you guys basketball fans?
Not at all. Neither of us really follows sports, although Danny is pretty much obsessed. About an hour ago, he actually made us listen to a sports-talk radio show in the van, so he could catch up on the World Cup scores. It was perhaps the most excruciating three minutes of broadcast entertainment that I’ve ever been made to endure. I just like that hoodie.

What do you want fans to take away from a We Are Scientists performance?
Lots and lots and lots of valuable We Are Scientists merchandise, ideally.

—Danielle Bacher