Talking Tour with IAN

By Joe DiFazio

_MG_3733We caught up with one of our favorite Boston bands that doesn’t quite live in Boston anymore, Ian, to talk upcoming projects and bicoastal lifestyle.The short and sweet moniker belongs to singer and guitarist (and LA native) Jilian Medford, drummer Tim Cheney, and bassist Damien Scalise. The next few months hold big thigs for Ian. The band’s recording a new album in Boston this May, are set to rip up SXSW next month, and are releasing a new music video March 3rd via Noisey. So keep your eyes—and ears—peeled.

Ian tripleAP: You toured the West Coast in December. How was it?

Jilian Medford: Tour was incredible. It was probably the most productive tour we’ve ever been on, as far as money wise. We drove a Prius. Saved a shit ton of gas money which is rad. We’re trying to get sponsored by Prius or something. We’re like, “please help us because we drove in a tiny car.” It was really crazy.

We met a lot of good people. It was fun to make it to places we haven’t been, like Seattle.

AP: Who was your act favorite to play with ?

JM: We love Girlpool, I’m super sad they moved [to Philadelphia]. We also played with a band out here called Media Jeweler. Now they’re our really good buds.

AP: How has moving to California been?

JM: We’re super lucky because a good friend of ours has been helping us out on bass [because Damien is back in Boston], Alex from Dirty Dishes on Exploding In Sound. We’re so lucky to have him playing with us. Tim and I have just been writing a bunch, and we’re actually going to demo some of these new songs right now. Everything is really great, and everyone is really connected. It’s very stereotypical LA. Everyone knows everyone somehow.It’s the strangest thing—the connections we’ve made. We’re new, and people already want to continue to ask us to play shows and want to know what’s up with us. That feels really good, being in a good spot and having that so soon.

“It’s the strangest thing—the connections we’ve made. We’re new, and people already want to continue to ask us to play shows and want to know what’s up with us. That feels really good, being in a good spot and having that so soon.”

AP: How about the new video?

JM: We’re going to premiere the video on Noisey and it’s for the song “If You’re Cryin’.” We were thinking of doing it for a new song, but now that we’re a little more serious about this next album that’s coming out we want [any new releases] to be timed with when [the new album] comes out. We don’t want to just throw stuff out there.

It’s pretty goofy. It’s just us doing dumb shit on tour. Tim has been editing it. It’s all iPhone footage and live footage from this past year on tour, and from shows in Boston. I think [Noisey] saw us play at the Echo and we came home at one in the morning and I had an email that was like, ‘if you have anything in the future that you want to premiere, can Noisey premiere it.’ And we were like “What? Of course!” We weren’t planning on doing anything, but we were like “Let’s put together a video,” because we love that blog.

AP: What are your SXSW plans?

JM: We’re going to head out there around March 11. We’re going to stop in Arizona and New Mexico and then a few spots in Texas before we get to Austin. And then once we get to Austin we’re playing a few shows. We’ve got a few house shows lined up, and then we have a showcase for She Shreds Magazine. It’s a magazine based out of Portland about female guitarists and female bassists. It’s a really incredible magazine, and we get to play that with Chastity Belt. Hopefully we get to play an Exploding in Sound showcase or one of the shows they’re throwing.

This’ll be my first time [at SXSW], Tim’s been before. I’m kind of scared. Hopefully it’s worth it. Everyone tells you “you lose all your money and you’re shit out of luck the entire time.” Everyone is telling all these horror stories. I’m just thinking about what outfit I’m going to wear. After South By we’re going back to LA to play Burgerama. We’re tiny little guys on the bottom of the poster, but we’re on the poster. We made it!

“Everyone is telling all these horror stories. I’m just thinking about what outfit I’m going to wear. After South By we’re going back to LA to play Burgerama. We’re tiny little guys on the bottom of the poster, but we’re on the poster. We made it!”

AP: What’s up with the new album?

JM: We’re going to fly out to Boston to officially start tracking our new album with Mark Fede. He did the first record. We’re really excited to start tracking with him. Then we’ll be in Boston for a good few months just hanging, playing shows, and getting really deep into recording. Then we’ll be back to LA and figuring out our lives.