White Knights

I first saw White Rabbits a few years ago opening for The Walkmen when they were just a new band, and I think it’s safe to say they made more than a few new fans that night. Though they still sleep almost on top of one another in their loft in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the six-piece has indeed come a long way. After two high profile television appearances, a sophomore record produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniel, and a seemingly endless touring schedule, I sat down with half of the band after their intense set opening for The Fiery Furnaces at Fry’s Spring Beach Club right here in Charlottesville.

The Dec: Do you guys prefer playing in more populated areas like New York City, or smaller cities like Charlottesville?

Alex Even (guitar, vocals): I’d say both. They’re both certainly good for an experience. I like playing places like Charlottesville because I feel like I’m playing to people who are really excited to see music and perhaps aren’t really aware of what we’re doing, or who we are. The souther we go it seems we’re playing to a new crowd of people. The cities are also fun because there’s a lot of people and a very diverse crowd.
Jamie Levinson (drums): This tour in particular we hadn’t played a lot of these cities before, so we had no idea what to expect, and it was awesome. All of these shows have been really exciting and these places aren’t major markets, but all of them are really beautiful and fun to play shows. Really enthusiastic crowds.

The cool thing about places like Charlottesville is, for us especially, since there’s not nearly as many touring bands, we’re almost starved for good shows, and when there finally is one, it’s really exciting. As opposed to people in New York City, where everyone seems spoiled.

Matt Clark (drums): Yeah, or where people don’t even watch the shows!

I first saw you guys on Letterman about two years ago. Do you think that both of your appearances have won you new fans, or is this apparent at shows?

Matt: Well, I’d say both of the Letterman appearances came at really fortunate times for us. The first performance happened right before we were going out on tour. We were supposed to be opening for the Mystery Jets, but since they couldn’t make the dates because of visa issues, we just kinda decided to go on tour as a headlining act, though we hadn’t done that before.

Had you toured before that?

Jamie: We had only played very small tours before that. The most recent performance was also fortunate because it was the day before our new album came out.
Alex: I don’t feel this overwhelming surge of new crowds of people at our shows, though. It’s not like, “All these people saw us on Letterman, and we’re huge now!” Occasionally a few people caught it, but I feel like most people caught it later online.
Jamie: I mean, we came back from our first Letterman appearance, and woke up the morning after in our loft, and we were living in squalor and thought, “Wait a second, this isn’t right, we played Letterman last night! This isn’t right!” (Laughter)
Alex: Yeah, but the best part about it is the strange sense of validation you get from some people.
Jamie: Like family and extended family. It totally legitimizes it, like playing Bowery Ballroom or Webster Hall mean nothing, but when you say you’ve played on Letterman, they’re like, “Oh, you’re in a band!” (Laughter)

I saw the stripped-down versions of your songs you guys have been playing on various radio stations recently. Did you have to re-arrange your songs specifically for that or do you play your songs like that in practice anyway?

Alex: One thing that we learned when we were touring for our first record, Fort Nightly, is that maintaining a sense of creative urgency is really hard to come by. So before we went out on tour for this record, we figured we should really make an attempt to challenge ourselves to keep these songs growing. So we’ve been playing them on pretty much every radio station.
Jamie: Plus we’ve been getting a lot of requests to do that stuff on the first few tours we did, and it was a nightmare because we had nothing prepared, or we would show up as a six-piece in a tiny little studio with 3 mics. So we figured we’d get something together and make it unique, possibly give it more depth.
Alex: Yeah, I think what’s really fun about that sort of stuff is it becomes easier and easier to re-imagine a song in a different way.
Matt: Yeah, it’s like a little fun learning adventure. Like a Speak & Spell™. (Laughter)

A six-piece is an unusually large number for a band. Is it ever taxing on the road?

Jamie: Honestly, I’ve had way more problems in smaller bands than this six-piece. We all get along really well. Part of that is due to the fact that we basically live on top of each other in a loft and have known each other for a long, long time beforehand. We were a band for a few years before our first record even came out. Plus, the fact that our lives are confined in a very small space where we live is really conducive to touring in a van.
Alex: I think I’m starting to realize our fairly unique situation of us getting along really well. All the guys in this band are my best friends. When we fight, it’s fighting about who gets shotgun.

The last time I saw you guys before tonight was with Jay Reatard at Prospect Park last summer. Given his recent history of talking trash about M83 and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, did he talk any smack about White Rabbits?

Alex: He’s a really nice guy! (Laughter)
Matt: It’s weird that he’s known for that now.
Jamie: I mean, he can do that, and absolutely get away with it, because he’s always been that kind of artist that says whatever he wants and makes the kind of music that he wants, but he’s really the sweetest guy.
Alex: We met him at that [Prospect Park] show and hung out with him and his band a lot that night. And then, randomly, we played this festival in France and we didn’t know anybody there, and all of the sudden Jay and his band shows up and it was like, “Jay! What are you doing here!”

White Rabbits played at Fry’s Spring Beach Club on Wednesday, August 26.