Quirky, Seattle based electropop band, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, is everything you would expect from a band with such a name. Their new album, Glistening Pleasure, dropped in July, and is full of synth-happy songs about summer love, turtlenecks, and beard maitenance. NPSH backs their often comical lyrics with catchy guitar riffs, dancable drum beats, and excellent use of cowbell, and they're taking that tallent on tour, playing with The Go! Team and Matt & Kim. The band took some time out of their crazy tour schedule to answer some of our pressing questions about what they do and how they do it, and If you're in the Bay Area, you can see them do it live on September 18th at Bottom of the Hill.
First of all, how did you all meet?
We met in our formative years at a small arts-focused public high school in Seattle. There were only about 300 kids in the school, so we all knew each other from classes and lunch and whatnot. Over lunch I would talk with Shaun about forming a band, and one day we got together whipped up some songs about fruit snacks and partying. Claire got us our first show before she was in the band. We added friends David and Claire to our group to fill out the live sound. Later we found Liam our drummer on myspace through his old band. We stole him.
What drew you guys together as a band? Common interests, musical influences, great facial hair, etc?
We were friends and there was nothing better to do. We were trying to get girlfriends too.
What's life like on the road? Is is something you've always wanted to do?
It's pretty sweet. Different than I thought it would be. I used to wonder how performers could be so whack as to not know what city they are performing in and exclaim, "HELLO CLEVELAND!!!" when they are in Chicago or something, but being on the road now, I can totally see how that mistake is made. You spend all day sleeping or being sleep-deprived in a van and show up in a city you've never been and your brain is all buzzing with names of cities you know you are going to be in on the tour, and hope you say the right one in the heat of the moment on stage. It helps to do some hands-on research of the city to really feel it out. We're in Toronto now and we had a day off, so we went exploring. I feel like we've made friends with Toronto, and now we can rock it's beautiful citizens more accurately. But yeah, touring is something we've all been dying to do for so long. It's like one of the first and best major milestones of being in a band. And we gotta share the looooove!
So, you guys are friends of CSS, and definitely in the same realm of sound as performers -- What other electro bands are you in love with as of late?
I know they might not be exactly "electro" but I have to give huge love shout outs to our fellow tourmates Matt & Kim and The Go! Team. They, along with CSS, have been so cool and nice and we just want to get married and have musical babies with all of them. Other electro-style bands that we love are LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Junior Senior, Daft Punk, and MGMT.
Outside of electronica, what are some of your most random musical influences?
Weezer, Adam Green, The Zombies, Bo Diddley, KanYeezy, Feist, Curtis Mayfield, Gwen Stefani, Led Zeppelin, Justin Timberlake, The Mamas and the Papas, OutKast, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, T. Rex, Tegan & Sara, and especially NIRVANA, SOUNDGARDEN, and ALICE IN CHAINS.
Your album Glistening Pleasure just came out in July -- How did you come up with the title, and what, if anything, does it have to do with lions?
I was chatting with my good friend J. Waine on iChat, and I was like, man, our record needs a title. He said something about "listening pleasure" and I looked at that phrase and imagined a "G" before "listening" and it became "glistening." Glistening Pleasure was born. I really like corny puns and things like that, so I liked the name. The band liked it too. I think it fits really well with the album. It can sound dirty if you want it to, or it can sound happy and nice. Admittedly, the title has absolutely nothing to do with lions. Originally we shot an album cover with us on the cover and it was somewhat related to glistening and pleasure, but it just didn't have the magic spark. We were working with some guys professionally known as That Go on our music video and we asked them if they had any ideas for our album artwork. They liked the lion and tiger imagery that we have played with on our myspace in the past, and they ran with it. It was bold and iconic and somehow bizarrely fitting. We realized that most album covers are viewed at a few inches small on a computer screen, so the bold lion was perfect. And we like lions.
What's in the works for the future? New albums, non stop touring, world domination?
WORLD DOMINATION. That's the ultimate goal. We want to be the cool version of the Jonas Brothers (partially joking). We've started preliminary work on our next record. We're learning from our mistakes, learning how to write a song maximized for the live show experience, learning to love. The goal is also to tour everywhere around the world spreading love and musical joy, meeting all the cool people, seeing the sights. It should be a lot of fun.
And finally, what is your least favorite thing about being on tour, and what do you miss most about being home?
The least favorite thing about tour... probably not getting enough sleep. We play late late shows and then have to get up early early to make it to the next show. It's not so bad though. We're kind of in a happy-go-lucky sleep-deprived state where looking at key chains in an Indiana gift shop is a really fun time. So you can imagine how much fun we're having at the shows! Honestly, I haven't even thought about home since we left, except when we marvel about how far in the past Seattle is compared to us on East Coast time. Shaun's watch is still on Seattle time and he refuses to change it. We're having so much fun on tour that it's hard to miss anything about home, except maybe our beautiful Seattle fans. David says were supposed to say that we miss our girlfriends. I guess that's supposed to make the girlies out there jealous. But there is a lot of NPSH love to go around!
