By the time Music Times and the band Smallpools found an empty tent to record our interview in, the grounds at Lollapalooza were full of anything but small pools. The downpour and rain at music festivals in general was one of several topics touched upon by the band when it spoke with us at Lollapalooza. Check it out below:
Music Times: First of all guys, how was the set yesterday? (Smallpools returned on Sunday to check out some other acts)
Sean Scanlon, vocals and keyboards: The set was awesome. It was a pleasant surprise, the crowd was awesome.
Joseph Intile, bassist: It sucked! I hated it, it was the worst thing ever! <laughter>
Mike Kamerman, guitarist: You never know what to expect. It's like your crew's setting up for 30 minutes and there's no one out there, and then you're like "are people gonna show up or are they not gonna show up?" And they showed up! So it was great.
Joe: We were just playing at the same time as a lot of bands that we wanted to see or that we're friends with so that's just kind of a bummer, and we kind of share fan bases with some bands, but yeah a lot of people so that's good.
MT: Who are you guys looking forward to seeing today or was anyone awesome that you saw yesterday?
Sean: I caught about five minutes of Temper Trap, which was great. Would have loved to catch the whole thing but that was fun.
Mike: We played with Betty Who last night. I wouldn't mind seeing her again today. She killed it. Let's see, who else is playing...
All in unison: 1975.
Mike: And yeah, we'd love to see Kings of Leon!
Joe: I can follow it on my Lollapalooza app (pulls out cell phone).
MT: You've had a lot of success with The Hype Machine (the band's single "Dreaming" went to no. 1 on the blog aggregator). I'm curious how you feel about The Hype Machine and its ability to help bands, versus is it subverting the whole blog process of just stumbling upon new bands.
Sean: I don't think any of us put much thought into that. We didn't really know that Hype Machine existed before we were a band, which was only a year and change ago. I think it might be a cool way for blogs to get more attention. I don't even know how you would get viewers if you just start a blog and throw it on the internet. You would need some kind of promo or knowledge of existence. It's kind of cool, I guess.
Joe: I don't think it's being force-fed.
Mike: I don't really understand the whole process of what makes a song popular on Hype Machine. Some things have like five blog posts and a certain amount of hearts that are really high but other songs aren't. I don't get it.
Beau Kuther, drummer: What's the algorithm? What's the formula? I don't know.
MT: The last song you released was "Killer Whales" and you guys busted out the inflatables for that (the group sent a set of inflatable orcas into the crowd during the performance on Saturday at The Grove). Given the whole political context of hit documentary Black Fish, was that just completely coincidence or was there any thought put into the subject?
Sean: I feel like that tag came pretty randomly. When we write songs I just kind of sing nonsense words and that nonsense word sounded good at that part. So possibly the whole killer whales issue was deep in my subconscious. I tell a story about how we search our band name online sometimes, and unexpectedly we would see posts about how it's messed up to keep killer whales in small pools. Those posts were just in the search. The song isn't really about saving whales or anything.
Joe: We do want them all saved though.
Mike: It can be about that if you want it. We definitely don't support keeping whales in small pools.
MT: Wow. That's meta.
Sean: It comes full circle.
MT: A lot of bands are heading to Brooklyn and New York in general to make a name for themselves in music. But you guys actually started on the East Coast and moved to Los Angeles, if we understand it correctly?
Sean: Two of us did.
Mike: Sean and I's story started there but the band's story started in L.A. I feel bad because a lot of people report that we're from Jersey but I'm the only one from Jersey. I feel like the Oregon guys aren't getting...
Joe: It's all about Mike though, f--k us. <laughs>
Mike: Yeah, it's all about me.
Sean: That's why we just go with "L.A." It's where we all met, where we all came together.
Joe: The first room we got together in as a four-pack.
By this point, the clouds that have been looming over Grant Park all day have let forth in a downpour outside the tent.
MT: What are your guys thoughts on rain at music festivals?
Joe: I love it. I love the rain, we don't get enough in L.A. so I'm stoked.
Sean: I'm trapped in this tent right now so I don't know what to do next.
Mike: I hate rain at music festivals. You show up to a music festival and it's raining...and you had this vision of what it's going to be like. I never think it's going to rain and then you show up and it's raining. People are in ponchos and it's muddy, and you get like half the crowd that you thought you were going to get, and you're just thinking about what could've been if it didn't rain. I hate rain at music festivals.
ALL: <laughter>
Joe: Our first festival, ACL (Austin City Limits) last year, got rained out so we didn't even get to play.
Sean: It was a flash flood overnight and there was standing water around the generators and everything so it was pretty much a no-go. Kinda sucked. We're really upset about it still as you can tell.
MT: How does Lollapalooza stack up against your previous festival experiences?
Sean: It's been great. I love the atmosphere here...The park, the trees...it's a cool vibe.
MT: Do you have an ideal festival for the future that's on your bucket list?
Mike: Smallpools Fest.
Sean: Reading in London.
Joe: We'd like to do Austin City Limits when it doesn't get rained out.
Beau: Or Soundwave in Australia.
MT: Smallpools Fest may sound ridiculous but at one point Lollapalooza was basically Jane's Addiction fest, so dream big.
Sean: But we can only play in the rain.
Joe: We play our four songs for 24-straight hours at Smallpools Fest.
