Photos by Benjamin Hoste www.benjaminhoste.com
The Long Beach-based Avi Buffalo released their much anticipated debut album on Sub Pop Tuesday. They play an all ages record release show at the Troubadour Saturday May 1st before they leave to tour Europe for the first time. Later they play summer dates with Modest Mouse and Blitzen Trapper. The group has been touring extensively this spring including dates at SXSW, but we were lucky enough to catch up with them between shows on the early leg of their US tour in March. I talked to Avi by phone from New Jersey.
Kathryn Pinto: Where are
you guys now?
Avi Buffalo: Right now I’m in Weehauken, NJ. We are staying at our friend’s house. We’re at his office right now. We just finished eating some lunch and practicing a little bit.
KP: So this is your guys’ first national tour, right?
Avi: Yeah, it is. We went up to the Northwest for the first time last summer. Last month we went to New York for the first time for about a week. On the East Coast we did about four dates. [This is] the first time doing the real deal, like two months, a bunch of shows thing so it’ll be an exciting thing for us. Just gonna keep our heads on, keep playing every night so should be fun, should get tighter, [we’ll] have a good time.
KP: And you are on your way to SXSW, right?
Avi: Yeah we are, and it’s going to be really sweet. We’ve never been there and we hear it’s pretty fantastic and wild and crazy, so it’s going to be another experience. Definitely.
KP: So, how did you guys get started?
Avi: I started recording two years ago by myself and I
recorded songs acoustically with a computer microphone on Garage Band to
Audacity and just kind of using what I had around. I wanted to make some nice
quiet sounding music, soft voices and guitars and things like that. Then I put
it on myspace and got asked to play shows. So I played shows with me and a few
friends I asked to accompany me and help me out. Then eventually made it a
real, permanent electric band and we started playing shows around Long Beach
and then got asked to play LA. Once we started playing LA, Echo Park and Silver
Lake and around those places we got a lot more gigs because there’s so many bands
and scenes out there so we got a lot more opportunities and just played as much
as we could.
And we met Aaron Embry, this really wonderful piano player and guitar player and musician, engineer, everything guy. He started recording us playing and just became a really great friend and soul teacher and we learned a lot from each other and played a lot of music together and started making an album. Essentially some people from Sub Pop heard some recordings and called us up which took us totally by surprise and we kind of freaked out for a little bit. Aaron had a baby so we took a couple of months off from recording the record and then we went back a couple of months later and finished it all up. And that’s—I guess that’s what’s happened so far.
KP: So how long was it between playing your first show and starting to record with Aaron [Embry]?
Avi: It was about two years, I guess.
KP: And, so who were some of the bands you played with in LA?
Avi: Flying Tourbillon Orchestra (now Walking Sleep), [all sorts of people], Best Coast, Bobb Bruno, Nels Cline. We opened for the Nels Cline singers once and Banyan, that was really exciting. It was just crazy, a lot of people, a lot of groups that are really good, Luis Gutierrez, 60 Watt Kid, a bunch of beautiful people in Los Angeles… the Monolators, Spider Problem, just all sorts of bands, a lot of them.
KP: Were you playing with different bands because there are a lot of bands playing all around or were you mentored by anyone?
Avi: We just started playing and if people asked us to play we’d play and we played as many shows as we could. Played a few shows a week. That was just good to keep us tight and keep us playing music. We never really chose a scene or became part of one scene or anything like that. I mean we’d play wherever and play with whoever and wherever all the time.
KP: What was the first show you ever went to? Your first concert.
Avi: The first concert I ever went to was Paul Simon at the Coors Amphitheater, which was pretty sick. It was actually Paul Simon and Brian Wilson opened and he wasn’t in the best shape. It was 2001 the first concert I went to and it was really incredible.
Then recently my favorite show, a few years ago at the Troubadour I saw Melt-Banana, that was like mind blowing and I love seeing Mike Watt play and the Missing Men and I love seeing Nels Cline play and recently I saw Nels play with Norton Wisdom, this painter and they have this thing called Stained Radiance, where Nels plays guitar and he [Norton Wisdom] paints and they just kind of interact with each other and it’s really cool stuff.
Other great shows, Deerhoof is fantastic, I’ve seen them like four times, they’re really beautiful. I’m a Wilco fan, I’ve seen Wilco three times. So…all sorts of stuff.
KP: That’s a couple.
Avi: Yeah.
KP: You guys are pretty young. Anytime there’s any press, there’s always a point that’s made out of that. What do you think it is about that teenage high schoolness that it’s an iconic time?
Avi: I don’t think that there’s anything that has to do with us being in high school that reflects in our music necessarily. If it does it’s just because we were in high school. I was a sophomore when I started recording the songs. It’s really just something about youth and being young that I think is really good for making music. If you start playing music young, the younger you are the more open you are. I just try to embrace that… that we’re young and that we’re always learning and that there’s just so much that we don’t know.
You know just try to soak it all up and I think that combining drive and passion with youth can be a really amazing thing. Young people can create art that’s you know, really special. Maybe even something that people lose later in life, you know. So I hope we can keep our youth and that everybody can just keep their youth and keep making art and music.
KP: Yeah. You listen to [your] music and there’s definitely the youth, but it’s like a sweet-salty thing. There’s definitely an old soul thing going on at the same time.
Avi: That’s cool.
KP: Have you played with your tour mates, with Rogue Wave
and Japandroids yet?
Avi: No we haven’t and tonight’s our first show with Rogue Wave, should be really fun. I like Rogue Wave, I used to listen to them years ago. I dug their recordings and they’re good dudes to my ear. We’ve been in email contact and they’re really, really nice, good-hearted people and so are the Japandroids guys. We’re excited to just meet nice people and play with them. Yeah, I’m curious to see what their shows are like. I’ve never seen their live show, so I hear it’s a little more rockin’ out. But I guess [we’re] gonna be seeing a lot of it.
KP: Have you had any misadventures touring yet? Have you gotten into any touring rituals?
Avi: Actually unfortunately we’ve been sick a little bit which has been a bummer. [We] went to Urgent Care, got some antibiotics and stuff. Me and Sheridan the drummer, we’ve been a little sick so we’ve been doing antibiotics and mucinex and stuff.
But, we’ve been pretty good other than that. We got up to New York, New Jersey yesterday and I was like, “Man, we just fuckin’ drove across the country and here we are.” It’s definitely, it’s a wild feeling, it’s really exciting. It’s really cool to look out the window and see landscapes and listen to music.
It’s been nice, I’ve got a computer now, a laptop—I’ve never had an ipod before or anything—so now I have all my music to listen to. I’m just taking the time to listen to a bunch of records I have.
KP: I think it’s really funny that you had this whole crazy list of all these shows you’ve seen starting with Paul Simon, and this is the first time you’ve had an ipod.
Avi: Oh yeah, I’ve never had an ipod. Now I have a laptop so it works, I can listen to music. But yeah whenever I’ve had enough money to buy an ipod it’s just been like, a pedal. You know, or something like that.
So it never goes there. I used to have a CD player, but it broke and lost it a while ago. It’s hard, but it makes a huge difference to have your music at your disposal, especially when you’re on tour. You know?
KP: Yeah. I was kind of late in getting an ipod, and all of the sudden it’s in one place.
Avi: Yeah, you just, you do whatever you want. It’s great. [At] our friend’s house that we’re staying with, he has one of the hugest record/CD collections and box set collections ever and so we’re just, we’re really like every night sitting on his living room floor ripping box sets, all night long. I just scraped up this huge early Grateful Dead box set and a bunch of Brian Eno, tonight I’m doin’ Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and the Pet Sounds extra sessions and whatever else I can find. There’s all, soo much music so we’re just trying to rip it all on there, just get all the music we can. It’s pretty awesome.
KP: What have your highlights of the last year been,
personally and professionally?
Avi: Highlights of the last year have been recording with Aaron Embry—[it] was really fun, playing shows.
It’s been a hard year. It hasn’t been the happiest year for me, necessarily. It’s been a lot of, like, freaking out, and getting caught up in cloudiness and stuff like that. But it’s been pretty fun. I’ve been looking forward to right now, like around this time, just really getting into music. Life’s kinda feeling good, right now.
But like the past year’s just been like “oh man, all this crazy stuff is happening and I don’t know what to do with it” and just being really overwhelmed.
KP: Yeah. Well, yeah it would be, you were probably signing your yearbooks and everybody’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to Berkeley, I’m going to UCLA.” You’re like “I’m going on tour.”
Avi: Yeah, it’s totally a freaky thing. Falling asleep in class and not paying attention to any thing because I’m concerned about mixes, stuff like that. I’m glad to be [here] we’re doing great now and playing a lot of music to people.
KP: The record is coming out April 27, you’re excited about that?
Avi: It’s going to be nice, it’s really nice that it’s all done. It’s going to be great to hold the actual vinyl in my hand, “Yeah this is real” and be proud of it. I’m also really excited to move on and record new music. I think that this record has been really fun, that we’ve gotten our ideas out, so far. There’s still a lot to be said, in the future. But it’s some and I like it. It’s a good first record for us.
KP: What’s your favorite song, or the one you’re most proud of?
Avi: I like this song called “One Last” It took a long time
to get it right, but I think it came out like very smooth and that was kinda
cool. I’m into “Truth Sets In.” It’s another song that came out really nicely,
and this song called “Can’t I Know,” which we tracked live, before we sent it
to mastering. We tracked four songs live and just kinda finished the whole
thing. That one came out really nicely, too. It’s really smooth and, creamy
sounding.
It’s exciting stuff, but I can’t emphasize enough how excited I am to make new things, record new material because a lot of the stuff has just been so old or just been around for so long I’m really stoked to be recording on my own, [in] the comfortability of my own practice space and on my own tape machine and kinda doin’ stuff like that.
KP: So are you writing at all on the road? Or are you going
to [record] when you get back?
Avi: I’ve been trying a little bit, it’s kinda hard to write on the road. I’m mean it’s nice to be in your own space. I’ve heard from some people—my friends Alex and Victoria from Beach House, they’re a Sub Pop band. I was talking to Alex… and [he said that when they] came back from the tour, all the juices had been building up on the road and after the tour was when they all started writing. He was getting into music a bunch more after he’d gotten back and that’s been kinda true for me, too.
When we got back from that East Coast trip I was like “now I’m home I can like relax and play guitar again It’s like a weird, it’s a funky thing. It’s trying to find all the time we can to jam on the road now, me and Devon and Aaron are playing as much as we can. But when you’re on the road you’re always moving and you don’t necessarily always get the time to just sit and soak in your normalness. It’s a really weird limbo, you’re always kind of in limbo so it’s hard to grasp a hold of your pure juices right there. But I’m trying to and I brought a tascam tape four track on the road with me so I can demo stuff and work on little things, try to mess around with that.
Avi: Cool, thanks so much for doing this.
KP: You’re welcome. I’ve seen you guys a couple of times live and you’re always great.
Avi: Oh no, we’re working on it. We’re not that good, we’ve got a lot to work on.
KP: Yeah, that’s part of the charm. It’s like the youth thing, I'm like “I want to tell these guys to put their seatbelts on on the way home.” But at the same time, the music is there. You know that you guys are going to mature later on, it’s knowing that it’s fleeting, you know?
Avi: And knowing that you’re not going to mature later on also.
KP: That’s true.
Avi: That you’re always fighting with your ego and fighting with your, that part of you that doesn’t want to, that wants to be lethargic and self-indulgent
KP: [laughs uncontrollably in agreement]
Avi: …balance with that. It’s always a struggle.
KP: Yeah, true, very true. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me.
Avi: Thank you. It was really wonderful. Thanks and say hey to everyone back in LA because we miss everyone very much.
KP: I will say hey to everybody. And take care on the tour, wear your seatbelts, don’t do any coke.
Avi: Yeah, absolutely not. No coke, nothing. Coke’s awful.
KP: It breaks up bands.
Avi: Yeah, it’s like that’s a very bad idea. I’m not doing any coke, not even pot on the road or alcohol, really. It’s all about the pure clean, getting, being healthy and rockin’ out.
KP: I’m going to follow up with you about the total straight edge on the road thing at the end of the tour.
Avi: Yeah, please do, definitely. I’m not totally straight edge on the road. But we prefer to keep it clean and really solid, you know?
KP: Thank you so much.
Avi Buffalo - Remember Last Time mp3
Special thanks to Benjamin Hoste www.benjaminhoste.com for photos of Avi Buffalo from South by Southwest 2010.
Avi Buffalo plays Saturday May 1st at the Troubadour. Get tickets.
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