Keepaway - 5 Rings

Keepaway - Everything You Wanted to Know Plus Some Things You Don’t

I’m late heading to The Studio at Webster Hall to meet Keepaway, recently dubbed “Best New Music” by Pitchfork with their track “Yellow Wings” receiving tons of attention.  I’m extra excited for this interview because I actually went to high school with two of the three members of this band and I can guarantee you if you asked them then if I would be interviewing them six years from now you would a have gotten a solid, NO. But this being New York, this city where anything and everything is possible including interviewing some friends from high school that happen to have a killer band is now happening regardless of our thoughts six years ago. One of the best things about Keepaway is that no one really knows anything about them. They seem to have appeared from thin air, leaving them the opportunity and ability to mold their image as they see fit.  The plan is to find out more about this elusive band by having a quick chat before their performance that night.

As I get off the train Nick Nauman, the guitarist texts me saying they will meet me in front of the venue.  Nick and Mike Burakoff, who is responsible for the electronic/synth sounds you hear on the EP, are waiting to greet me out front, but we are still short one member, the drummer Frank Lyon, who appears shortly after.  They suggest going somewhere where we can all hear each other since there are bands performing at The Studio. I glance around to see what’s in our vicinity and settle on, The Village Pourhouse, a local watering hole across the street.

We order our first round of beers. Nick is already ragging on Mike for ordering a girly beer and I can see that this will be interesting.  I warn you now that Keepaway may need a specialized font to denote their personal brand of sarcastic humor.  When I mention this to Nick later in an e-mail he responds by saying, “The sarcasm font is Helvetica, guess you hadn’t heard.”

I start by asking them to talk about themselves a bit, as if they didn’t know that they are a big mystery.  Frank, who by the way plays without a kick drum, starts.  “I’m Frank Lyon and I’m from Minnesota and Arizona.  We have all been playing together for about a year now.  I knew Nick from college and we intersected a little bit in San Francisco also and then I met Mike through Nick” (Frank and Nick both went to Wesleyan).  Nick then shares that, “Mike and I grew up together in a little town called Arlington, Massachusetts.  It was okay.” I can’t help but say, “Yah, I know a little bit about that place, A-town down!” and drop the “A” symbol, a kind of inverted peace sign that is a running joke where we grew up. When I look to Mike for his input he answers, “I went to Hampshire College, is that what we’re all talking about?”

I ask about why they changed their bands name from “In” to “Keepaway.”  They all agree that the biggest reason was, “So that people could find it on the internet, mostly”

“So In just wasn’t working?” I say.

“Yah, In wasn’t working.  That was like probably the biggest reason.  That’s what gave the name change urgency, but I think we were also just ready for something that had a little more color, a little more gravity, a little more something that you could actually remember.”

“It really came home to me after that time we were booked for a show and they just forgot to put us on the bill because it was just a short little two letters, so that sucked”, says Nick.

Frank chimes in, “Also, I noticed that my Mom could never remember the name of my band so if my Mom can’t remember no one else will.”

“Where did Keepaway come from?” I ask.

“We think it came from just talking. It came from talking about not naming. And I think I said keepaway from this or that,” says Nick.  “And then it was like keepaway keepaway keepaway.  We like the double meaning of ’a’ like just to keepaway and the classic game that children play.”

“It’s good to have a name that has the potential for taking on meaning, but is not already loaded with a whole bunch of it.  It has the room to grow,” explains Mike.

Many bloggers and journalists compare them to Animal Collective, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, to name a few.  We discuss what they think about all these associations.

Nick answers, “Yah, I mean I couldn’t say that are right.  They’re not totally wrong.  I mean I could say we’re mostly influenced by Merzbow.”  They all laugh.

“Nick is really influenced by Merzbow.  I’m super influenced by this band called The Shaggs,” says Frank.

Mike adds that he, “Likes Pete Bjorn a lot.”

I’m curious about their music making process.  For those of you that have heard their EP, I’m sure you know why.  There is a lot going on, many layers and depth coming from this small three piece group.  Nick says, “We all share, it’s really collaborative.  There are times when one of the three of us will come with something that’s like fairly formed and we’ll work from there, but then there are times when we are all just hanging out and someone will have a few fragments of something and we will build it together.  So we’ve all contributed lyrics, we’ve all contributed songs.”  He takes another sip of beer, “This is really a consensus project, I mean luckily so far we like each other’s ideas.  I’m not worried about that changing.”

“So do you feel like you’re able to easily bounce ideas off each other?” I ask.

“Musically yes, sometimes there are some bad dynamic things that are off, but that’s mostly just my fault,” says Nick.  We all laugh.

“But that’s just part of being human,” adds Frank.

I ask what they think about their recent press in Pitchfork and Fader.  Were they surprised, did they know it was coming?

“Hypothetically I wasn’t surprised, but when it actually did happen that’s always a surprise and when it happens all at once.  I mean the Pitchfork thing came out on my birthday so that I thought that was like a good birthday present and the Fader thing came out the next day,” says Mike.

“Yah, totally cosmic,” Frank says sarcastically.  “What we were more surprised about was the effects of it.  You realize how small the world is when getting one review on one website results in all these offers.”

Mike adds, “I got e-mails from people that I haven’t talked to for years saying, I saw you on Pitchfork.”

We talk about their position of relative anonymity.  They really like that idea saying, “We like being in that position because we can do whatever we want and whatever we do they are gonna think it’s awesome.

“Yah, we are incapable of anything less,” says Frank with a goofy smile.

“Yah, we’ll see,” I say.

“Yah, we could suck”, says Mike.  “I plan on fucking up the show tonight real bad.   What if I just went up there and cried?”  Just call us Emo and that’s the way it will go, wah wah wah wah wahhhhh.”

So why call the album Babystyle?  Mike takes this one in stride, “Well one day Frank was wearing a big white t-shirt and maybe some baby blue pants and I said Frank what is that shit you’re wearing that’s straight Babystyle and Frank said, awww, son you didn’t just say a new word to me I want to hear and he started say aww that’s raw some real shit right there. And now we’ve been saying Babystyle about all kinds of stuff and it really just means having fun, keeping yourself open to wonder, exploring and not getting to serious and primary colors.  And like kind of like secretly serious too.  Like babies get to be serious without trying.”

“What’s irritating is trying to be serious, but if it just like naturally emanates from you it’s a nice thing,” adds Frank.  “We still try and be evocative of as many truly poignant and plaintive emotions as possible.  You should listen to how much Nick sounds like Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. Insert farting sounds, I mean we like Modest Mouse but we don’t think Nick sounds like him.  Mike’s voice is the most prominent on that track anyways (they are speaking about ‘Yellow Wings’).  On the EP the voices are very even, we like switching off, that’s why we are Keepaway.”

We are close to finishing our beers, but I want to know about their favorite performance moment.  They give me a few, but there is one that stands out in my mind. Unfortunately, its way to inappropriate for the public to hear about. Just ask them how their Halloween show went a few a years ago and wait for the reaction. Luckily for them we are friends and I’m willing to compromise my creative integrity.

“Have you worn sweatpants at any of our shows?” says Frank to Nick.  “That’s gonna be your favorite show.  That’s gonna be the 2010 highlight, when Nick makes the switch for good.”

“I just need more pairs,” says Nick.

“Is that the new Babystyle?” I ask.

“Sweatpants is super Babystyle.  He looks good in the Navy Blue Sweatpants that show his peen a little, that’s his style,” says Frank.

“I’m sure the girls will love that,” I say, “but I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.”  We laugh.

“Well that’s because you know him,” says Mike.

“As long as you swallow it afterwards, that’s what I always say,” adds Nick.  Yup, it just went there.

They have to go back to The Studio at Webster Hall soon for their performance so we wrap it up.  They tell me that they are about to sign with a label that will allow them to have national distribution, but since the deal hasn’t officially gone through I promise not to mention any names.  I ask them what they are looking forward for in 2010.

Mike gives us another fantastic answer filled with enthusiasm saying, “First of all 2010 for me is great because it’s such a round number.  I’m excited because on every exponential curve where it seems like nothing is happening, things are really happening and then there is a point where things really start picking up and you notice and I feel like 2010 is where we start noticing things moving faster.”  With a beer in one hand, Mike stands up and starts making a rolling waves shape with his free arm of peaks and valleys and points to a valley and states while laughing, “This is where I get addicted to Heroin.” But seriously, we’re stoked for the year.  Our goal is to record a full length album.  We basically have all the material ready. If we actually release it this year it will mean we are really on our grind.  We are on the ball, but these things take time.  Lots of good things on the Horizon though.”

We head back over to The Studio, where they throw my stuff in the back room and kick me some free beers in thanks for the round that I had just bought them.  As we are waiting for their set to begin, Frank catches me off guard and asks whether I’m an only child. “Yes,” I say “Why do you ask?” He replies, “I could tell you have that air of irreverence about you.” I look at him a bit puzzled, but he offers no real explanation except to assure me he didn’t mean it in a bad way. I have to say that’s something no one has ever said which kind of worries me because it may be the general consensus on my attitude. So cheers to you Frank for being original and upping my self-loathing.

I stay for their set, which is amazing as usual.  They already have cute girlies wanting to dance with them on stage and one almost takes Nick out as she is flailing around to the music, arms outstretched jumping around and loving life.  I have to leave right after their set to make it to another venue so I don’t have the chance to say goodbye and sing their praises.  However, I think myself and everyone else feels that there is great things on the horizon for these three gents and can’t wait for their upcoming EP to be released.

http://www.myspace.com/keepaway

Written by Jessica Page