If you’ve ever been to a show and seen a grown man wear an adult diaper, try bring a robot costume for an audience member to dance in, medicine or continue playing while he trust falls into a group of strangers, then you’ve probably seen Noah Britton live, playing under the name ACLU Benefit. ACLU Benefit has a new album out October 27th, the same day that he’ll be playing the Middle East on his birthday. If you’re lucky, you might even catch him at a few house shows before then. Noah was gracious enough to answer a few questions for Allston Pudding while he ate breakfast. Oh yeah, and he sent us a picture of himself with a pack of adult diapers while he was at it (see below).
Sami Martasian: What does your typical recording process look like? When you write, do your find yourself more aware of how the songs will sound as a recording, or how they’ll sound live?
Noah Britton: So usually when I’m recording, I watch a few episodes of saved by the bell, I get in the mood, I fast forward to the parts that Ox is in and I ask myself “what would he do while recording” and after a couple hours of reflecting on this, it’s too late to record and I have to go to bed. But really, I never write for recording anymore. I used to, but I realized no one buys albums anymore, so why would I record anything? So I started writing for live shows exclusively.
SM: Between preforming trust falls at shows and recording songs live with your audience singing parts of songs, audience participation is a pretty big part of what you do. What inspires that?
NB: If you’re singing, I can just relax. My favorite thing during my set is when I play “I Love You So Much”. People are singing along and it’s like “this one’s just you”. The sing alongs are great because I’d sound great with a choir behind me, but I don’t have one, and I’m not going to rehearse and shit. So, you come to the show, you’re actively engaged, it’s more interesting for you, it’s easier for me, and it sounds better. And honestly every show I play is partially for the recording after. The Amanda Palmer show was great, because it was a thousand people singing my songs.
SM: Do you have any favorite local musicians?
NB: I love Flag Dag, which is the singer from Designer. I saw his first show and after his first song I told him I felt like I was at the first nirvana show, he was amazing. He’s only played about four times solo, but every time it’s different and every time it’s amazing. This guy Ben Hersey is amazing; he’s more of a performance artist. There are some good acts around, I love Cave Bears.
SM: In a radio interview last night you mentioned you have album coming out pretty soon, in what ways is this record different from your other records?
NB: It’s the first time ever recorded anything that didn’t sound like shit, because I used better equipment so it sounds amazing. It’ll be out October 27th, when I play at the Middle East on my birthday.
SM: What do you feel are the pros and cons of house shows?
NB: At house shows you don’t make any money. That’s the con. The pros outweigh It so much, like the fact that you can have people play whatever they want and have bands that aren’t experienced and don’t have a following play, and people still come, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t bring money into the club. House shows are incredibly important for musicians that don’t have a following and don’t want their audience to get drunk (like a bar would), and don’t want to charge as much as a bar charges.
SM: If an audience member brings a costume to one of your shows, you promise to wear it, what’s the best costume you’ve ever worn so far?
NB: This started when someone had an Elmo costume in the back of their car and I borrowed it for my gig, but it was too small so the Elmo head had to be next to me so I was a two headed monster that had one Elmo head and one human head.
SM: On a scale from one to ten, how tired are you of having to answer questions about your band name?
NB: “One” the U2 song or the Metallica song “One”, because I think they’re both better than “10” by pearl jam? I think I’d have to say “Four” by Blues Traveler. I’m not that tired of it, just a little. ACLU Benefit is the name because it’ll appear on the marquee at the venue and every show someone thinks it’s a real ACLU Benefit, and the ACLU is the only organization that would support me using their name as an element of my free speech. It is an ACLU benefit since it supports free speech, which is important. I’ve given the ACLU more money over the years than I’ve ever made as a musician, at this point I’m just trying to get my investment back.
