Interview by Jeremy Kressman
Photography by Jonathan Black

Rock is a bit like an archaeology dig. That’s not to imply the genre is stagnating or has run its course—far from it. But as the eons of rock are solidified, as blues begets rock and rock begets indie, the average listener begins to view each new band and its respective influences as though they were layers of sediment. Dig beneath the surface, and bits of a guitar riff and the bones of a particular instrument from genres past form the layers for future musical innovation.

Enter the Crystal Stilts. The five-piece band came together in Brooklyn, NY in 2008. Original band members Brad Hargett and J.B. Townsend first met in 2003, releasing a series of singles and an EP on Feathery Tongue in 2004. But the group was not yet complete; band members Kyle Forrester (keyboard), Andy Adler (bass) and Frankie Rose (drums) were brought on board and the band was born.

The Stilts build layer upon layer to their defiantly retro sound—a sound that is firmly planted in the worlds of punk and ’60s surf rock and then drenched in dark and moody atmosphere. It’s a sound that is particularly expansive, layered with echoes of reverb and analog instrumentation. But while decidedly vintage in style, retro nostalgia the Crystal Stilts are not. Their music manages to sound modern yet aware of its roots. The band’s debut album, Alight of Night (US–Slumberland/Europe–Angular Recording Corporation) was released last year to considerable acclaim.

’SUP recently had a chance to catch up with the band in Brooklyn to talk about the appeal of surf rock, Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery and former NBA Slam Dunk Champion Harold Minor.

Here we are, back in Brooklyn—home for you guys. Is it nice to be playing a home show?
Brad: It’s nice to be able to go home and sleep somewhere you don’t have to pay for.

How long have you guys been living here? Some of you moved from Florida and elsewhere, right?
Andy: I’ve got you on that one, suckers—
Frankie: Three years.
Andy: Twelve years.
Kyle: About 10 years.
Brad: (to J.B.) We’ve been here approaching seven years.

Brad and J.B., you guys originally started the band. How did you end up bringing Andy, Kyle and Frankie into the group?
J.B.: Kyle joined playing keyboards three years ago.
At that time we had a drum machine and I played a kick drum. I guess the records we wanted to make sounded more like a five-piece band than a three-piece band. A little later, Andy started playing bass and then Frankie started playing drums about a year ago.

Let’s talk about your first full-length album, Alight of Night. The whole album has a sort of pervasive moodiness to it. What inspired the record thematically?
Brad: A good portion of the songs were either started or written in Florida and the other bunch were written right after I moved to New York, so I think there was a disconnect. I didn’t like Florida and then moved to New York, without knowing anybody aside from one other person. You’re in a huge metropolis and I didn’t know anybody. There’s a sort
of strangeness to it due to the distance.

It seems like that sense of place influenced your sound. Several of you are originally from Florida. Do you think that sunny, laid-back image the state represents is part of your sound?
Brad: I think what our sound represents is how we did not relate to the sunny laid-back attitude. Although I feel like some of the songs, and even some of our newer songs, have a surf vibe.
J.B.: The surfiness has nothing to do with surf; it has to do with surf music.

There seems to be a strong connection to surf rock—the Beach Boys, Trashmen—in your sound. How did you first get interested in these types of bands?
Brad: Both me and him (points to J.B.) worked at Rocks in Your Head which is just a record store [in Manhattan] that’s closed now. I met him there and he hung out there a lot, so coming out of Florida we got exposed to a lot of music that we wouldn’t otherwise have heard. I think the record is just an example of the things we like. The influences are just things we would like to sound like so we just throw that in the pot. None of it is too deliberate. It’s just the sound that we latch onto, that we try and re-create.

You seem to have made a conscious decision to stay away from synthesized and newer music technology. What do you think that adds creatively to your music?
J.B.: I like old gear better. It just sounds better to me.
Brad: It’s nice that you say that instead of lo-fi because I feel like as much as we get lumped in with lo-fi, lo-fi is stuff that’s recorded on GarageBand for no money and we actually have to record and spend a bit of money to get the sound we want. Again, we’re trying to go after a sound we like. We’re trying to make songs that we would want to hear.

Do you feel like this stripped down aesthetic contributed to the way you produced the record Alight of Night?
J.B.: Yeah, we used all planned reverbs, not digital reverbs. We used space echoes, tape delays and stuff like that. The production has a lot of space. I purposely left a lot of space in there. The record is not jam-packed with instruments, but it’s more of a studio record.

I was watching the video on your Myspace page for the song “Prismatic Hall”. It looks like it was filmed in that same vintage style with a Super 8 camera. How was that done?
Andy: We shot some stuff here [in New York] and when we went on tour, we brought a Super 8 camera and we would shoot some stuff. Whenever we went anywhere, we’d just pick up the camera and shoot things and have a bunch of footage.

It almost looks like it could be Central Park.
Andy: Prospect Park [in Brooklyn] is a lot of it actually. And then beaches in California.
Kyle: And Greenwood Cemetery—
Brad: —where we communed with the spirits.

Did you guys check out all the famous graves in Greenwood Cemetery?
Brad: I didn’t know they were famous, but we definitely checked out some of the tombs [like] Harold Minor.

Who’s Harold Minor?
Andy: It’s some dude [who’s buried there] who has that name. That’s where his career is buried.
Brad: It was a joke that I like and Andy appreciated because it was a sports joke.

Harold Miner of the [Miami] Heat? Didn’t they call him “Baby Jordan” for a while?
Andy: Yeah! For like one game.
Brad: Until he had to play!

Brooklyn seems to be ground zero right now for DIY culture, be it music, food or crafts. Do you feel as though the band is an outgrowth of what’s going on there, musically?
Andy: Probably not.
Brad: My answer is no. I can’t cook and I can’t draw and I can’t make crafts. In terms of music it’s DIY but it’s still a promoter who’s booking the show.
Kyle: I would say that DIY culture in other cities is much more actually DIY. [Things like] shows in people’s lofts, but that’s really hard [in New York] because the cops will come.
Brad: And DIY venues are kind of [legit] venues.
Kyle: I don’t think it’s as legitimately DIY in New York at all.

What about that Todd P. show you guys played out in Bushwick at Market Hotel?
Brad: Todd P would call it DIY but Todd P is a big booker here who has a monopoly on these slightly newer venues. I would say it’s more of an aesthetic thing than being DIY.

I’ve heard a few times that you guys were first discovered by Hamish Kilgour from New Zealand punk band The Clean. How did that come about?
Brad: That’s right. We’ve recently been told that we were discovered by Lou Reed (laughs). Not true. Hamish was at our first show. Before we even had a band, before we even had a band name. And he was really complimentary. He came out the next several shows. The Clean are one of our favorite bands—ever. That was something that gave us the strength to continue doing it. And then finally when they reformed and played at [New York venue] Cake Shop they asked us to open for them, which was the end of 2007. We decided we needed to start playing shows because we really just played very sporadically and recorded and put it out ourselves. And that show was really important for us. A lot of people saw us that show that hadn’t previously. And it was a crowd that was more sympathetic to what we were doing. That ended up being really important that Hamish was there at the first show in the coincidental way that he was there.

Were you influenced at all by anything going on in New Zealand? Like the label Flying Nun?
Brad: We love those bands. Union Expressway. We even like some of the weirder New Zealand stuff.

Do you find it odd that such a remote country could be producing such a fertile music scene?
Brad: That doesn’t surprise me at all. I mean one of our favorites, S.E. Rogie, who we love, is from Sierra Leone. Even British music—so much British music is influential and it’s a tiny little stupid island (laughing).