2004 05 MAY RAG - RAG Magazine

Tim: Absolutely. [After] the first record I bought tons of recordingequipment, and I knew exactly what I wanted. I really knowwhat I want and how to record it.Rag: I don’t think Sugarcult is in the punk category anymore.Tim: We never really thought we were a punk band. We onlylate in the writing process of our last record we wrote “Stuck InAmerica” and “Bouncing Off The Walls”. We were like, ‘Theseare fun songs, they’ll be great to play live.’ And that was it. Welike to tour hard. We like to tour like punk bands do and theyjust never stop. We’re just relentless in the sense that weenjoy playing music. That’s really a genre of music that appreciatestouring. As Sugarcult keeps putting out albums you’regoing to see a band that’s...I don’t know which word–evolving.“I really enjoy being artistic, and I don’t think thatplaying in a band is as artistically gratifying as otheravenues in music... I’ll probably producerecords...on the side after Sugarcult...”discipline, because I feel like songwriting comes naturally to me.But a certain kind of songwriting comes naturally to me. You couldhand me a guitar and say, ‘Tim write a song,’ and I’m sure I couldforce out a song if I disciplined myself. If you discipline yourselfyou can work out, but the types of songs that I wrote for this recordwere more from a very unforced thing of my personality. It kind ofwould be like one day if I decided to take up this rock climbingpassion and that’s how I got in shape as opposed to discipliningmyself everyday like a twenty-four hour fitness buff. Some songsthat I’ve written have been a discipline and I felt kind of guilty becauseI felt like the writing process was a bit forced. This recordwas written slowly from going through the experience once andwanting to get more out of the songs at the risk of maybe notselling as many records. That’s kind of interesting. As an interestingby-product, last week we’ve sold more records than we’ve soldever in the history of the band.It’s funny...I don’t even really think of myself sometimes as asongwriter. I only think of myself as a songwriter when I’m in thatmode, but very rarely do I kind of slip into that mode. If I were to bea plant, I’d be some very hard plant to grow, because it’s like Igotta check wind direction and humidity. [Laughs] But whenit’s right–it’s awesome.Rag: Were you happy with the way that Start Static turned out asfar as the sound goes?Tim: I was never really happy with the way that record sounded. Iwas never stoked with that record. I liked the songs at the time andnow I have a hard time listening to it–and I also have a hard timelistening to the sound of it. I have really peculiar ears and I reallyvalue the recording quality of a record, and that necessarily doesn’tneed to be fancy or expensive–it’s just a particular taste. While wewere making Start Static –it was our first recording studio experiencethat was like in depth–more than just some weekend getawayto record a demo. So I had a really hard time articulating tothe producers and the engineers what I was looking for in tones.And on that record [to me] it sounds bright and brash; and on ournew record I feel that it’s much more colorful and darker.Rag: Were you surprised that the last album did as wellas it did?Tim: No, I wasn’t very surprised because it took so long to do it.We toured for three years, just solid touring; so it was very gradual.We felt like we built it brick by brickRag: When you went into the studio for Palm Trees and PowerLines, did you have a certain goal that you want to accomplish?We want to focus on what kind of sound we truly are. [Records]are a little tough because you kind of go through a little bit of anidentity crisis as to what you’re sound is going to be. Obviouslyyou would gravitate towards sounds that you like andthe audience likes at the same time. On Start Static the audiencereally likes some of the punky songs. We necessarilywouldn’t like playing those, but then sometimes the audiencewould really like “Pretty Girl (The Way)” or “Beautiful Day”, andwe like those songs too. And so we’re like, ‘Ok Cool.’ And nowwe’ve got this marriage–I think this marriage, if you were tosay, ‘What’s the sound of Sugarcult?’, that’s the sound ofSugarcult. The identity of the band is based on what we likeand what our audience also likes. Palm Trees and PowerLines might reflect that we’re in sync–we’re on the same page.Rag: Do you find it weird that people want to analyze yourlyrics or read into things?Tim: Not really. I find it more weird trying to explain what theymean in ways where I can articulate a feeling that will makesense to somebody else. Because we all feel different thingswhen we go through different situations, you know. And I thinkthat’s why songwriters are songwriters because they can singabout things that other people can relate to.Rag: I’m sure you’ve had major labels offers, was it a consciouschoice to remain on an indie?Tim: Yes and no. The state of the music industry is totally influx right now, and we talked to a bunch of labels after wemade our last album. What was coming back to us was that ifwe were going to be on a major label then our record is goingto have to cost $17, and we didn’t want to do that. And some ofthe things that labels were thinking about was really basedon, ‘Well how many records are you guys going to sell the first28 • RAG MAGAZINE • JULY 2004