by Kristin Chambers
Release date: September 4th
Members:
Joe O’Connor – drums
Jayson Kramer - vocals, guitar, keys
Dan Zima - vocals, guitar, bass
Graham Masell - guitar, vocals
Chicago’s California Wives are not married, and they certainly are not women. Instead, they are self-proclaimed non-conformed indie music geeks who’ve put together a more-than-decent first album, called Art History.
The album’s feel-good vibes are like a sweet summer treat to chill out with; its slightly emo guitar sounds translate to a happy accompaniment that makes you want to pleasantly zone out on a road trip to the shore. The music would probably make a good soundtrack if The OC ever decided to come back (which I personally would love).
As a whole the album flows nicely, moving from indie vocals and melodic guitar in “Twenty Three” to 80s-inspired beats and chimes that give a slight nod to the sounds of Peter Gabriel in “Marianne.”
Chatting with Jayson Kramer, who was able to sneak away from a Lollapalooza after-party, I caught up on why he ditched medical school for music, why they don’t try to dress indie (and isn’t that indie in itself?) and what is really in a name, anyway.
How did Art History come about to be your first album?
Kramer: We decided that a band really has one shot to make a really good first record, and we were kind of encouraged by our producer to explore the ideas that were undeveloped in the songs [from the EP]. So we started doing that in the fall last year, getting the songs together, and we wrote some new ones too. We went up to New York and lived out there for about a month and recorded it.
We really wanted songs that felt good together – not so much a theme throughout the record, because it’s not really so much about that. It is in the sense that I’m writing about my life and my life kind of moves along linearly and things happen, and in that sense the record has some theme. It’s a good collection of songs that we felt worked really well together.
And you ditched med school to be a musician?
Kramer: Yeah, I went to school at Boston University for biology and shadowed in ERs and ended up taking the MCAT, and after that was done I was kind of like, you know…I was so busy and you are just involved in what you’re doing and when it’s over you realize it’s not your passion.
How did you get involved in music?
Kramer: I started at a very young age playing piano, and at about 15 picked up the guitar and also started playing drums in high school. If I have the desire to learn an instrument I just go for it and I’ve been doing that for a while now.
How would you describe your sound?
Kramer: It’s kind of arbitrary to us. I could call this emo or you could call that indie. If I had to describe our music to someone I would say we were an indie band. But what does that mean? Does that mean we sound like Pavement or does that mean we sound like Vampire Weekend? The spectrum is so wide.
There’s a lot of chime-iness to our music; a lot of bells and crystalline sounds, and those sounds are really evident on Peter Gabriel songs from the 80s. We also really like the way good guitar sounds. So maybe a little bit of Stone Roses or The Cure.
What’s up with your name? You guys aspire to wife-up some Cali girls or something?
Kramer: No (laughing). It’s one of those things that had the sound right and sounded good and I wish there was a more interesting story, but I guess that’s kind of the way we approach everything. What clothes do we wear? OK, well maybe we don’t look the way we should or the way other indie bands look, but we are focusing on our music and that sounds kind of trite, but we are focusing on that more than the name of the band. And after a while you just kind of say it, like Vampire Weekend, or Radiohead, Coldplay. What does Coldplay mean? I don’t know.
Most notable experience as a band so far?
Kramer: We played with Joy Division / New Order’s Peter Hook and that was amazing because New Order is a band where we take a lot of our inspiration from. We cover a few of their songs and it was great because we got to watch them sound check and during that he played a few of our favorite songs so that was very cool. And he was really nice.
What’s up with your tour?
Kramer: We start in September from Portland, Maine to San Francisco – a total of 27 shows. We never really wanted to (nationally tour) before we had a record; we wanted to have something to be proud of and present to people and justify driving all the way there.
Check out Art History, available on iTunes September 4th.
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