JB Townsend talks 'Nature' and Crystal Stilts' new LP

Brooklyn quintet Crystal Stilts come out of the gate with a unique swagger on Nature Noir, the group's third full-length released earlier this month via Sacred Bones. Crystal Stilts' brand of psych-pop is finely crafted, lethargic, and exciting all at once. JB Townsend, founding member, producer, and guitar player for the Stilts took a few minutes to talk about their new record, influences, and the songwriting process.

[http://badearl.com/|Crystal Stilts play the Earl tonight (Monday, October 28) with Zachary Cale and Warehouse.]

In Love with Oblivion, your last record, is one of the best psych-pop records to come out in recent memory. What has the band been up to since it was released in 2011?
Oh thanks man! We wrote and practiced like mad in 2012 then started recording at the beginning of this year. Now we're on tour.

You call NYC home, however, a few of your members are from Florida, yet there is very little sunshine in your songs. Has the Sunshine State influenced your sound/songwriting at all?
I think it probably has in some ways. Some of the stuff from our first LP I believe Brad wrote the lyrics in Florida. The song "Sinking" is sort of a double entendré about Florida. You know, because it's sinking.

The whole New York thing is cool and I like the music history of New York a lot. That said, I'm not sure if we're as New York as everyone thinks in terms of influence. We like the Velvet Underground, but I like Love equally. I'm also half French Basque so yeah, I don't know, we're mutts.

There are a lot of genre labels thrown at your music: post-punk, jangle pop, Kiwi pop, garage rock, or even goth. How would you describe Crystal Stilts' sound?
That's a tough one. I started using the word Psych more to describe us because it's a bit more nondescript than some other labels ... I don't know ... we have some songs that might not have jangle. I suppose It'd be cool to have a variety of pigeon holes! We've been called a lot of things that I'm not sure are accurate. It's funny, we've played indie pop festivals where we felt like Black Sabbath, and some serious psych fests on the same tour. I guess it's kind of cool to be a bit broad in our flavors.

Yeah, I remember having long conversations with you on our porch in Tallahassee about our mutual love for Lou Reed, Arthur Lee, and obscure psych comps. Who would you say are your major influences? Aside from a musical influence, is there one band whose ethics influence you?

Yep. I remember making a tape at your place with Small Faces on one side and The WhoSell Out on the other - I think that was winter 2000-2001. I suppose we aspire to a degree ethically with some folks- I have a bit of an affinity with the underdog outsider, as well as the other side of the coin. I mean, I love Syd Barrett's music but I can't say I'd want the same fate as him. Although perhaps his decisions were what he wanted to do, which probably made the legend even cooler. I don't know, there are tons. I do feel like if you're going to do something, you should do it to the fullest or whatever.

Your new record, Nature Noir, is fantastic. In Love with Oblivion, was a more grandiose and driving record, while Nature Noir is a more simple yet fragile set of songs. Was this a conscious change? What was the influence behind the songs found on the new record?

I don't think it was conscious, I think it was more natural - pun intended. We felt that this group of songs fit well together. We have about five more solid songs from the sessions that we didn't include on the record (some scorchers, too) for the sake of sequence. It is a bit more fragile. On In Love With Oblivion we were going for a more dirty, dense sound.

What is your songwriting process like?
There are a few songs, like "Sycamore Tree" and "Dark Eyes" that we sort of wrote spontaneously, and there is definitely a brand that's sort of all of us writing at the same time. For the most part these days I'll either come in with a part or a finished instrumental guitar thing and then everyone writes their parts with that. We all contribute to editing and arranging and things like that, and then Brad Hargett does the vocals on top. So he's sort of disconnected from the songs from a musical standpoint, which I think is good cause he's not anchored to the songs musically as much as say, someone who's writing lyrics and melodies with an instrument in there hands. Brad actually doesn't play any musical instrument.

How does your lead singer not playing a musical instrument influence the band's songwriting? Does he come up with the melodies or is that worked out in practices?
He comes up with melodies, and we'll occasionally make suggestions. I guess it fractures the singer-songwriter thing - unhinges it a bit.

Was there any particular themes that inspired the production of this record?
It's funny, I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to pursue for this record that sort of half-way made it through. Some of it, as you know, becomes semi-accidental as far as the final strain goes. There's a Lee Hazlewood influence that people have yet to notice. Um, I don't know, I listen to a lot of different things that I hope manifest into the songs and the production.

You've made the switch from Slumberland Records to Sacred Bones Records, tell me about the impetus for this change. Did the label change influence the record at all?

No not at all. The label switch just felt natural (there's that word again). We love Mike Schulman and Slumberland. I guess we're over on the other side of the country where there's all these labels that we know well that are right outside our doorstep, so it felt logical. To be frank, I'm not sure if we really have a label identity. Like, we don't really sound like a Slumberland band or a Sacred Bones band, if you know what I mean.

You are currently on tour. From your recordings and the infrequency of your live shows, it seems to me that the Stilts are more of a recording project than a live band. Do you enjoy playing live?
I didn't used to like playing live because I thought it was pretty flat, but now I think we're much better and more dynamic live. We are a studio band by nature (damn) but in this climate you really need to be able to ball the jack live or you ain't gonna eat.

What's next for Crystal Stilts?
Crime. We're planning ways we can stir up some shit. We might kidnap another band...