INTERVIEW: BEAT RADIO

Whenever I’m checking out a band’s myspace for the first time, I do two things, I press the play button, and I look at the hit counter. Now, I can’t really tell you just how surprised I was when the first song began to play. With a modest 91000 views, I thought It was probably a fluke, I was sure that only the first song would be good, and that the rest would be mediocre. Well,  I was wrong, Every song was good. I immediately went to their website and downloaded their two newest releases. Both of them were fantastic. Could I really be one of the first people discovering this band? Of course not.

Well, I got the chance to chat with band leader and Long Island Native Brian Sendrowitz, and ask him what was going on.

FNR: Listening to the new album, it seems to draw from a lot of places, from 90′s indie rock, to electronica, to folk. Was it your goal to create a really eclectic sounding record, or is that just sort of the way things turned out?

Brian: Yeah, I guess I set out to make a more eclectic sounding record this time around.  I’ve been making music for a while, and I’ve tried my hand at a few different styles.  I guess the folk and the 90’s indie rock were always there, and this time I was working mostly on my own in the studio, so it lent itself to diving in to more electronic-based music.  Last year I was also listening a lot to M83, Dntel, and the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, so I was really excited about using a lot of weird 80’s synth-y sounds.

FNR: How long has Beat Radio been your main focus? Are you in any other bands?

Brian: I made a couple acoustic singer songwriter records in my own name when I was starting out, but ever since 2005 Beat Radio has been my main musical project, so even stuff that I’ve done solo has been Beat Radio.

FNR: So, it says on your myspace page that Beat Radio is a solo project. Do you play everything? Do you have a band for playing live?

Brian: Does it say that?  Shoot!  Well, we’re definitely a band now.  Over the last five years the lineup has changed a lot, and there have been times when it’s just me.  On the last record I recorded most of the instruments myself, but Dan, my keyboard player played on a bunch of the songs and really brought a lot to it.  He and I started playing together last spring and the band has grown gradually since then.  Now there are 5 of us, and it’s pretty great.  They’re all good friends.  Also, the new songs we’re putting out this year are definitely more collaborative and more of a band sound.  I’m super excited about it.

FNR: The album has a lo-fi sound, but its not as over the top as some of the lo-fi bands that are popular right now. I’ve heard the terms “punk rock” and “bedroom pop” thrown around a bit. Is your sound a result of being a DIY artist, or did you record in a studio?

Brian: Yeah, I record everything on Pro Tools in my basement.  Our first record, The Great Big Sea, was recorded in more of a professional studio setup, but even then people sometimes called us lo-fi.  I think it’s because Beat Radio started out with me making demos on a 4 track cassette recorder, so that sort of became the sound – distorted drum loops, casio keyboards, double tracked vocals, etc.  I didn’t really want to stray too far from the original concept.

FNR: You’re from long island, right? I’ve found the long island scene to be pretty rough. Did you have trouble getting shows initially/finding people to play with, did you have to look towards brooklyn/ nyc?

Brian: Yeah, I’m from Bellmore, and it’s a great town.  I would never knock it.  It’s got some good punk rock history.  Most of the people I’ve played music with are from Long Island also, but we don’t really play shows out here.  It’s just not where the scene is.  Brooklyn and NYC are where people go to hear original music.  We love Brooklyn especially.  Two of the guys [In the band] live there now and we recently started rehearsing in Williamsburg.  We’re still recording right here in Bellmore though!

FNR: Favorite old record at the moment?

Brian: Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks.  All time fave.

FNR: Favorite new record?

I really love the new Beach House.  I actually just got the new Frightened Rabbit LP and that’s pretty great also.  I haven’t gotten the new Joanna Newsom triple album but I suspect that it will trump them all.

FNR: Oh, I almost forgot. I really love the artwork on “safe inside the sound” and the “everything follows single” did you do the artwork yourself?

Thanks man!  Yeah, I like making weird collages.  I obsess over music and think about it all the time, so having some sort of creative outlet that is totally different is really enjoyable and fun.  My idea for 2010 is to release 2 songs every month, and I want each track to have its own unique visual accompaniment.  I want it to be part of the experience of listening to the songs.

FNR: I like that Idea, I think album art is kind of being forgotten these days with downloads and everything. (Though I know a lot of people still pay a lot of attention to album art, I happen to be one of those people who compulsively makes sure that they have all the right art for all my music)

FNR: It was nice talking to you. Looking forward to seeing you play @ the bell house!

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Beat Radio – sleepwalking

Beat Radio – memoir of a lightning bolt

Beat Radio – hard times for dreamers

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If you like these tracks, you can buy/download the whole album for free @ beatradio.org or better yet, go to a show.

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