J: Sam, you were just added on keys to the band almost a year ago. Do you find it hard to balance electronic and organic layers with five people working electronics now?

A: He is a producer though and he was a producer and he went to school for it before we added him, so it wasn’t as hard it might have sounded. Some of us produce more than others, some of us are much better just at their instrument, and some of us are not as good at their instrument, but better at composition. That’s kind of me. I produce a lot more. I feel like I’m still developing live skill and it’s cool because we make up for each other.

S: I knew my role coming into the band before we probably talked about. I’ve felt like there are times when I could shred and stuff, but that’s not what I’m in the band to do. I’m not in the band to stick out, I’m in the band to be sort of like the glue behind what was already going on and mesh it together. It is a little bit hard when there are four of us playing melodically in a jam, so you really got to know what’s going on and who is playing what. Basically a lot of listening because it is really hard to improvise with five people.

A: It’s a conversation.

S: It is a big conversation and if you don’t know your role you can’t really do it.

J: Is there a new dynamic to the band? Is there any sibling rivalry now that Sam is around?

B: No, not really at all.

A: Except for that fist fight that one time. (Laughter) I’m just making stuff up.

B: He pretty much just meshed right into the band. He had known all these guys forever.

M: He used to sit in every once in a while.

B: I grew up with the kid, he is basically my best friend in the whole world. There really has never been any sibling rivalry.

J: How many years apart are you?

B: Four.

S: And we grew up playing guitar together, then piano came later. Like I said, I knew my role coming into the band, it wasn’t like… I was ready to rock or anything.

M: It’s cool because in some older songs we had a lot of sequences or loops that we would drop and then Sam came in and he was able to play them. Then we were able to have that more live element and less of pressing play on a computer and playing along with it.

A: I think we can be concise with this one too. I think besides musicians, many people don’t know there are really two types of keyboard voicings. You have the keys, which are the Rhodes piano and the organ, which is kind of what Sam focuses on, and then there is the synthesizer where we sequence and stuff like that and that’s what Billy focuses on. So there really are two different instruments there. Two different roles.

S: I can’t really play the synthesizer very well.

M: Completely different roles.

R: It’s kind of like bass guitar and bass synth, too. I don’t play bass synth.

B: Rob refuses to play bass synth.

R: I just straight up play bass guitar. It works though because sometimes we blend together and it ends up being a really big sound. So it’s more about knowing and dealing with your role and being like, “Whoa it’s cool because I’m really good at this and he’s really good at that.”

S: I didn’t quite know that until I got in the band because they were like, “You’re a keys player, you should be playing keys,” and I was like, “Hold on I’ll try to play this synth part,” and it just got completely lost, this is not the same feel, not anything.

B: You’re also just trained for weighted keys.

S: I know how to make a piano sound how I want it to sound.

J: Who are your influences and what other jam/electronic bands do you look to for inspiration?

A: We listened to Pink Floyd the entire way here. Some Radiohead…

B: And some Arcade Fire.

M: I’ve been diggin’ em hard lately.

R: This band kicks ass live! (points to the June issue of Relix) My Morning Jacket, I’ve seen them a couple of times.

M: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, super huge influences. Aphex Twin, all sorts.

J: You guys have four sets at your festival, Rootwire, Acoustic, Electric (Day and Night), and a Live Looping PA set. Is this the first time you’re doing a looping set and how did you prepare differently?

A: Well, the first time we did the looping PA set was about 3 days ago. Basically we’re doing a set up where everyone is plugged into my computer through Ableton Live except for the live drum set, but Mike’s sample pad, which has live sounds, is all ran through. Everyone plays into the computer, but I have the ability to add effects to the whole band.

B: He’s basically DJing us.

M: He can beat repeat, add electro drums, add effects on everyone.

S: I would like to do it where one day, Anthony was out in front and we’re in a little box behind him.

R: Or we’re in little boxes or cages. Something completely stupid…I think it’s gonna be really cool though, last year at Rootwire we debuted an acoustic set, we had never done that before and totally winged that. We were just like, “All right!”

B: We tried to rehearse and lightning struck the telephone pole outside our house and took the power out for about an entire day.

M: So no rehearsal, and it went so well.

A: Acoustic renditions are some of the easiest things. I think it’s really easy to render something acoustically because all you have to do is think about it simplistically. You can’t do the same thing with an acoustic guitar as an electric guitar. There are no sustained notes. You gotta think, it’s already gonna sound different, so you don’t have to sit and think about your instrumentation.

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