What do you think of the way your live show translates to the dance floor in an era where musicians are relying heavily on electronic music or the integration of electronic elements into a live band?

Brennan: We keep it real without relying on drugs to be the main substance of a party. While there’s probably sober cats that go to dubstep shows, I imagine the majority of the shows are based around something that’s not, in my life, sustainable for all of time. Like you can’t…it seems like a fad as to where real serious musicians will always take serious music seriously, you know what I mean. It’s not to say that dubstep isn’t serious at all, I mean people are makin’ really sweet like….really sweet cats doin’ their own takes on it. Obviously, electronic music like The New Deal and EOTO and all these great bands that have taken live instruments and played electronic music with live instruments…

That’s the best of both worlds.

Brennan: Yeah, it is the best of both worlds. I’m not knockin’ it, I’m just saying I think ultimately, musicianship…that’s really like…that’s deep. And it’s really easy for one guy to show up to a gig, or two cats to show up to a gig, and like laptops I guess are the way of the future but I’m not very good with computers, and I don’t have a laptop. So I just rock the electric bass. I rock the electric bass as my means of…as my voice. And Nick (Ayers)’s got like a laptop and a whole bunch of shit, Griffin’s got a laptop, so everybody’s got the stuff…

Griffin: I don’t use a laptop on stage or anything.

So what do you think of audience values in today’s music? Have people been critical of when you get experimental or have you seen widespread support?

Brennan: We have and we haven’t. This is an argument in our band to the day we die because there are songs that are effective according to some people and songs that are really beautiful. I mean it’s weird, it’s an issue, I think that as an artist it’s our job to play music and feel music for music’s sake and play the shit that we actually like to play. And there’s a fine line between placing songs at a bad place in the night. If everyone’s wasted they probably don’t want to hear like, a super intricate song. Well…there’s a judgment on our side there but I think that it’s up to us to create our stuff and have people listen to it, and accept it for what it is. And that’s true for pretty much anyone who plays music.

Griffin: I think it’s kind of hard to gage what the audience is really thinking. You know, if they’re dancing, as a drummer, if they’re dancing, we’re doin’ alright. But as soon as they stop dancing, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t like the music anymore, they can be thinking about it, but what they’re thinking I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to tell.

How closely do you stick to the set list you write at the beginning of the night so you can adapt to those changes in attention?

Brennan: It’s funny you say that. Our set lists are pretty…loose.

Griffin: Sometimes we won’t finish ‘em. Like we’ll write a set list, we’ll get like a couple songs before the end and we’ll like cut off or something.

And you guys just figure out the rest on stage?

Brennan: Sometimes we’ll meet up before a show and talk about the first couple tunes. And then we’ve been playing, at the last like four shows, we’ve been working on this set for a while, and it’s a pretty sweet set. And we’re not doing the exact set verbatim but we’re doing a lot of the same tunes from that set and trying to re-create this show that we’ve created. And we’re actually making it really hype. Because we know there’s certain songs that work really well, and we’re also in the phase where we’ve been in a band for five years and we can’t be playing all this old material all the time. We have to be constantly re-inventing ourselves and our sound…for us to have it be worth it for us.

The Macpodz have also been touring heavily for four years now. How have you evolved over that time on the road?

Brennan: We actually realized that we’re on stage playing music for people.

Griffin: I think the musicianship had to get taken very seriously because you’re playing huge national festivals with literally some of the best musicians in the world. Dumpstaphunk played right after us late night at Summer Camp. Amazing musicians, Raymond Weber on drums played with everybody…these cats are some of the best players in the world and when that’s who you’re starting to play the same gigs with…you can’t suck. So the musicianship had to definitely get raised over the years.

Brennan: I think we’ve always agreed that the most important thing for all of us is to play music. Pretty much we’re all bound by music together and it’s undeniable…and that’s crazy.

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