Band Q+A: The Felice Brothers

The Felice Brothers just came out with a new album, Yonder is the Clock, on April 7. And minutes before the band took the stage at Castaways in Ithaca, NY Imprint's Sherry Shen spoke with band member, James Felice.

What was it like playing at Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble?

That was really fun. I love the Band. I love Levon. He's been doing the Ramble thing not that far from where we live for years. It was just a nice kind of vibe to do it and playing at the Midnight Ramble was awesome. It was just a great experience.

Can you talk about your experience of playing at the New York City subway stations?

We were playing on the subway in Union Square and a bunch of other places. We were just trying to play music and make some money. It was almost always fun but sometimes it was really tiring and stupid. There was one spot - 42nd street-where there is the long tunnel at the subway station and we would play there a few times and we would make bank.

You must read reviews of your albums--has anyone, such as the Pitchfork review gotten to you?

Once in a while we'll read reviews. But we don't keep them in mind when we're working on new material. First of all, no one in the band cares what Pitchfork thinks. I remember reading Pitchfork when I was a teenager and I used to read the reviews and sort of laugh at them because they were all bullshit. Those guys don't know good music . . . don't understand good music.  

You guys are maybe too often compared to the Bob Dylan and the Band basement tapes. Do you have a favorite Dylan period that isn't that? Do you listen to his later stuff?

My favorite Dylan record is 1978's Slow Train Coming. That was a great record. He was just rockin' and singing about Jesus and all. Now people compare us to Dylan and the Band all the time which is great but it's because they don't know that what they listened to growing up is the same music that we listened to growing up. People have no reference point. Bob and the Band is sort of the only thing they've heard of us sounding like. But there are hundreds of brilliant American songwriters who played this kind of music before Bob was even born, and that's the kind of music he grew up on which is the same music we grew up on.

Do you feel like in some ways that you are indeed directly inspired by Dylan?

Sure. He's one of the best but he's not the only one. If you wanna say that we are knocking people off or ripping off other music, there's a lot better places to go than Bob and the Band. We rip off music from old school stuff like Skip James's stuff. We used to rip straight off of songs that no one knows about so it's kind of funny.

What other groups would you say you guys ripped off from?

Jimmy Rogers, Skip James, Blind Willie, Robert Johnson, and Randy Newman.

The band's new album Yonder is the Clock just came out a few weeks ago. What's the next step for the band? What are your future plans?

We're gonna tour for a long time on the album. Hopefully we'll get as many people as possible to buy it. Then we're going to make another album probably sometime this year.

The band has been touring a lot recently and you guys have said how much you all miss being at home in the Catskills. Are there any places that you've visited that you would love to live in for a long time?

Not really. I like a lot of places but there is no place like home. I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I can't really find another place like my home right now.

What's the band focusing on strengthening more: the live performance aspect or the recording process?

Both. I think the live aspect comes far more naturally to us because we've been doing it longer but we have an amazing producer and engineer and we are working hard in the studio too.

Do you prefer playing in front of 2,000 people or a much smaller crowd of 200?

Either one works. I like places like Ithaca's Castaways personally. It's a much smaller audience with a bar type scene. It feels more personal. 

What is the writing process like for the band?

Ian [Felice] writes most of the songs. He locks himself in a room or a cabin or anywhere he can go on his own and just writes and writes and writes. He just brings these amazing songs to the table and then we all work on them with him and try to work out the kinks. The writing process is really a lot of personal time. We like to respect the initial feeling of a song so the way it was originally written is going to be extremely similar to the way it will be sung and performed live.

Do you think that the overriding themes of the band's background as working class people from the Catskills--in your songs--will change in the future as you become more successful?

If I get rich, I'm not going to write about the working class and shit because I wouldn't know. But we're not rich or famous. So I don't think there is anything to worry about for awhile.
Are there any favorite drinks you guys like to have before you perform onstage at shows?
Dewar's-we've been drinking that before every show for about 3 years. I think it's about to change. Actually, this show (April 21, 2009) might be the last night we have Dewar's. We're tired of it.

In another interview in QRO Magazine the band stated that there are definitely a couple songs that you all would not want to play live-what are some of those songs and why wouldn't you want to play them? 

It's actually an extremely long list. It's just weird. Sometimes people just aren't feeling a song. You wrote a song a while ago and it's on a record but you're kind of over it. I don't want to get too specific.

What artists did you all listen to growing up? 

Everything and anything we could get our hands on-folk, country, classical, hip hop, rock...everything. I definitely listened to a lot of Ray Charles growing up.