By William Ruben Helms

Keith Murray on the left

We recently spoke to We Are Scientists’ Keith Murray just before the release of his band’s latest effort, Barbara which was released across the world and across North America on June 14th and June 15th respectively. The Brooklyn-based band, by way of California have already started a whirlwind tour which began with some festival shows in the UK, followed by a more extensive world tour which will have them touring through the US in July, followed by dates in Australia and other far flung parts. As you’ll see, we spoke to Keith about his own entry into music, the early days of We Are Scientists, his eclectic influences, about the new album – and interestingly enough, the TV show they did in the UK.  
 
Countless musicians, whether they were on a major label, a tiny independent label or even unsigned, can all trace their forays into music and bands to one particular and unforgettable moment that seemed as though it were destined. Knowing that his grandson was obsessed with hip hop, LL Cool J’s grandfather bought the then-teenage rapper a turntable, mixer set with a microphone – with the hopes of that by encouraging his grandson’s passion that it would keep him off the streets; Ian McCullough, the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen has been quoted as saying that he knew he had to be a musician after catching David Bowie on “Top of the Pops” as a boy. For a rare few they were child prodigies born with a special gift. And for a number of others, they serendipitously discovered that they had a gift. But We Are Scientists’ Keith Murray has probably had one of the strangest routes to becoming a musician, we’ve heard of so far. As Murray recalled to us in a recent interview shortly before the release of their fourth studio album, Barbara (which was released on June 15th here in the United States), his older sister was a huge hair metal fan back in the 80s and she had begged their parents to get her a guitar because she was desperate to form a band and pursue music so her parents bought her a hot pink Kramer. He joked that his parents were so angry about the fact that Keith’s sister abandoned the guitar they had purchased that they had literally forced him to learn the guitar. “Goddamn it, someone’s going to pick up this thing and play it,” Keith joked about his parents thinking at the time. Of course, it helped as he mentioned that he was pretty passionate – in many ways, more passionate than others – about music. 

Murray’s unusual entry into music belies the relatively normal beginnings of just about any band. As Murray recalled, We Are Scientists can trace their beginnings back to Northern and Southern California. The band practically started when after graduation, college buddies Murray, Chris Cain and Scott Lamb all moved to Berkeley, California and decided that they would start a band. At the time, Murray who owned a drum set and a couple of guitars became the band’s first drummer by default, Chris Cain who had no prior musical training at this point became the band’s first bassist, and Scott Lamb was the singer and guitarist. They used to jam and write songs but as Murray joked, “It was basically just basement buzz. I think we played maybe two or three shows outside of our basement.” Scott decided to remain in the Bay Area to stay with a girlfriend while Murray and Cain moved down to Los Angeles, leaving jobs they both hated to seriously pursue music. With the realization that he wasn’t the most technically proficient drummer in the world, Murray and Cain recruited Scott Lamb’s friend Mike Tapper to be their new drummer. “I was a much better guitar player than drummer so I became, the guitarist/singer,” Murray mentioned to us. It was after becoming sick of Los Angeles, that the then-newly formed band decided that they should give New York City a shot, and they relocated to Brooklyn. “Basically, we were college graduates who moved to a major metropolitan area,” Murray said.

In many ways, this extremely delicate and almost contradictory balance between the strange and the incredibly normal is something that seems common for the band considering that Murray describes his band’s music as “pop music written by someone who really doesn’t know a whole lot about pop music” and as “idiosyncratic guitar pop” while explaining that We Are Scientists’ brand of pop comes from their “disinterest in the standard delivery of pop.” And yet, Murray considers pop icons Fleetwood Mac (“a collection of songwriters I revere to no end,” he told us), and Hall and Oates as influences, as well as Franz Ferdinand (“a revelation” he said), the Velvet Underground and the Pixies. The same sort of contradictions comes up once you We Are Scientists live, check out their website or the liner notes to their albums or listen to their music – their music is sincere and thoughtful while their videos and other material is absurd and at times hilarious. The liner notes for their new album, Barbara contain some rather bizarre tips to readers desperate to win the affection of their romantic interests and they recently had a short TV series in London. This actually got its start from a bizarre NME Q&A session the band participated in during a British festival. The members of the band were highly uncomfortable and hated the idea of it but they had done so well that their label suggested that they expand the concept to a touring Q&A session across England. The band, in their manner suggested that they would do a fake TV show, loosely based on the album. It later got picked up by MTV in the UK and with some alterations so that it wasn’t as wedded around their album. The program which aired was primarily based around the concept of the band members desperate to quit the music biz to become self-help authors. (The show did pretty well in England and the band is currently in talks to bring the show across the Atlantic.) But as Murray admits, “I think some people would attest that we don’t actually balance it very well at all. You know, there’s something very precarious about having the character that we have because there’s a threat in some kind of sense, you know an actualized threat that it could undermine the severity of the material. I think the issue is that that’s legitimately just how Chris and I are at all times. So it would be like a weird farce for us to be straight faced and terribly serious. Of course, we care about the music and I think that’s obvious once you listen to the record but I think it’s hard for us to be serious like it were an artistic mandate at all times.” He also mentions that there have been a few people who have wondered why their songs aren’t comedy songs and why they won’t do comedy songs and his immediate response has always been that, he thinks “comedy songs are the worst art form of all times – on the same level as interpretive dance.”

During our interview, we also talked about We Are Scientists’ new release Barbara. The title was “a response to the inscrutability of the title of our last album which was Brain Thrust Mastery which was literally a term we invented. We know what it means but it really doesn’t mean anything. We felt it was right to follow up with a name that was also a title which doesn’t really mean anything. There’s not a Barbara but it really seems to evoke something,” Murray told us. It also seemed to be a fitting name for an album that deals with a lot of romantic issues in many of the songs. Interestingly enough, the album name also inadvertently harkens back to the band’s past in many ways as well. “Architecturally,” Murray tells us, “it’s [the new album] similar to the first one. The first record was pretty much three guys playing the song live.” This scenario in many ways for the band recreated the sense of urgency and drama of the live show while balancing the tighter songwriting of their second album. “The songwriting is much more thoughtful than the first record but the delivery of it is sort of essential.” This is done while balancing guitars that on tracks sound extremely reminiscent of Nick Zinner’s guitar work on the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s It’s Blitz!, hooks that will remind listeners of Franz Ferdinand or of Phoenix. It’s an exciting combination of hooks and humor that will make you want to get up and start dancing around like you were at the club and laugh (with them and at them) – even while listening through your iPod headphones on the subway.