Clap Your Hands Say Yeah may forever be pigeonholed as one of the first “blog bands.” Its self-titled, self-released debut became popular through word-of-blog acclaim upon arrival in 2005. The Philly/Brooklyn quintet, led by Alec Ounsworth, navigated the success well, but 2007’s Some Loud Thunder revealed that CYHSY was as interested in outsider weirdness as it was in indie-pop hooks. Yet it suffered a seemingly inevitable backlash from the fickle blogosphere, as did 2011’s Hysterical. In that LP’s aftermath, the band shed members and disappeared until late last summer, when Little Moments arrived. That four-song EP set the tone for the vibe that threads through Only Run, the new CYHSY album, which updates one of the EP’s songs as its title track. Ounsworth will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com. Read our new CYHSY feature.
Ounsworth: I’m re-reading this book. It is a collection of interviews in which Cassavetes goes into great detail regarding certain important artistic decisions he needed to make his films. I lump his decision to remain a true independent into one of his artistic decisions in that it allowed him the freedom necessary to finish Husbands, A Woman Under The Influence, Love Streams, etc. I wouldn’t necessarily say that he was the primary inspiration for me to continue to make records independently, but his work ethic and overall approach to how he takes on projects are similar and very inspiring. The work of making an album seems not entirely dissimilar from that of a director’s work. I often think of myself as having actors at my disposal and (hopefully) putting them in the best possible positions to come off as well as I think they can. More than musicians, I try to dig up personal notes and interviews on directors to see if I can get a little glimpse into why they make the decisions they do.
Here’s a little excerpt from the book that might be helpful:
“It is more important to work creatively than to make money. We would never have been able to finish [Shadows] if all the people who participated in the film hadn’t discovered one absolutely fundamental thing: that being an artist is nothing other than the desire, the insane wish to express yourself completely, absolutely.”
