Critical Questions: Crystal Stilts

Longtime Critical Mob favorites Crystal Stilts released the EP Radiant Door on Brooklyn's own Sacred Bones Records in November 2011. We chatted with guitarist JB Townsend about the new record, studio trickery, the band's influences (both real and perceived), and if there really is such a thing as The Brooklyn Scene.

Critical Mob: Radiant Door is out on Sacred Bones after several releases on Slumberland. Could you discuss the switch?

JB Townsend: Caleb [Braaten] from Sacred Bones has been a fan for a while and has been wanting to a record with us for a long time, so it felt like a natural move for us. We typically have one-record contracts, even for overseas releases.

How would you describe the sound on Radiant Door in comparison to In Love With Oblivion, since it came out less than a year ago?

It was recorded in the same place as the LP. One of the songs is from the same session. They were all recorded at our friend Gary's studio. The direction with producing didn't venture too far...I'm just learning how to mix as I go. On the past few records and this one, I suppose I'm a little better than in the past.

What about stylistic changes on the new EP?

There's acoustic guitar on the first two songs, which is the first time we've ever used it. I like acoustic guitar when it's layered. We used a phaser at the beginning of "Dark Eyes." I did this thing where I turned a couple different phases, stereo'd them and auto-panned them around to try to make an auditory hypnotizing effect. On the song "Low Profile," there's a weird slapback snare sound that was pretty fun to do. Kind of sounds like someone playing racquetball!

When people write about Crystal Stilts, there's often a lot of namedropping. Is there a certain artist that comes up again and again? Either one you've never quite understood, or one that's pretty dead-on?

We get compared to Joy Division a lot. Musically, I don't think we sound like Joy Division at all. I think there's maybe a shred of it in our early stuff; we could have maybe sounded like "Love Will Tear Us Apart," or one of their other poppier songs. I think Brad [Hargett]'s vocals maybe have a little bit of the same thing going on. Of course, he's a fan of Joy Division, but I don't think it's deliberate. We've played with bands that really try to sound exactly like Joy Division; it's frightening! Like, they're actually mimicking Ian Curtis' voice. Compared to that I don't think we sound like them at all. It's almost an injustice because there's so many things they could be looking into, but instead they're taking the shortcut of labeling us the same as everyone else. A lot of the things people reference, I don't listen to at all.

In a piece for Interview magazine earlier this year, you joked how those Joy Division comparisons seem to pop up with every new release, even when you try to dodge them. Any luck this time around?

The only thing I've seen about [Radiant Door] hasn't really said anything about it. I think somebody said it sounds like Spacemen 3. The record sounds like many different things. Two of the songs are covers, so they're going to sound like of those bands. I can see The Velvet Underground and some other things like that more than Joy Division.

I remember when Girls first came out. They opened for us a few years ago. Everyone was like, "They really sound like Teenage Fanclub," and everyone was saying that for a few days. It was weird. Some bands do sound like things, which is fine if they want to. But we're not a band that wants to sound like someone else's work. The influences are very much at the surface, but I don't want to sound like someone else especially.

Any comparisons that are more accurate?

The thing with us is each song has its own set of influences. I won't sit down and try to do it beforehand, like "Oh, I'm gonna make a song that sounds like these two bands if they were magically in the same room." It just happens. The first song on In Love with Oblivion ["Sycamore Tree"] is a mix of Silver Apples and Bo Diddley. But it wasn't like I sat there with a notebook planning that; it was just the way it worked out.

So what was the band listening to while recording the EP?

We have similar tastes, but we all have our separate influences at any given time. The influences are the covers on there. The second song "Radiant Door" sounds a lot like Television Personalities, a little bit of a nod to Dan Treacy.

Could you discuss the two cover songs in more detail?

"Still As The Night" was by Sanford Clarke, a '50s Western rockabilly guy under the wing of Lee Hazlewood, who wrote the song. "Low Profile" was by Blue Orchids, a band from the original lineup of The Fall. Martin Bramah left The Fall and formed another band in 1980 or so, which was Blue Orchids. They're a really original sounding band; I like them a lot.

Crystal Stilts are intertwined with a lot of other Brooklyn musicians. Do you listen to a lot of other local bands?

To be honest I haven't really been listening around much. It's kinda weird because a lot of my friends are in bands I like a lot, and they're usually the bands I go see. Bands like The Beets, Jeremy Mitchell and Surprisers. (I think they're not playing anymore though.) Last year there was a group of bands I really liked, but I'm friends with all of them. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you like them for the right reasons or if you like them because they're your friends. But I think I like all of these bands a lot; they're the bands I want to go see live. Besides that, I haven't really explored outside of that world lately. I haven't been listening to a lot of new music in general. I have nothing against it, but I've just been trying to brush up on my old stuff. I think I've been more into new music since I've been in Crystal Stilts. Ever since we started getting little bits of press, I've had to stay up on what's going on in the music world or have a general knowledge of what's going on. Like, I never looked at Pitchfork before that.

Anything else you'd like to mention about the new music?

We're just hanging out. We just got back from the UK, where we were for a couple days. We're just sitting round, getting ready to go on tour again. We'll take it easy for the winter...probably just relax and write some songs. We have a few songs written for a third LP. We want to take our time with it and make sure it's really excellent.