Photo Credit: Flore Diamant
New York based alt-rockers We Are Scientists are back with their seventh studio album Huffy on October 8th. A bombastic collection of high octane bops that give fresh air to the group’s established sound. Led by a slew of singles culminating with the recently released “You’ve Lost Your Shit”, the album is ready to be heard and with the world reopen, Chris Cain and Keith Murray are ready to be back on the road. We recently spoke with Cain about forced cloistering, the prosperity of brown vinyl and the importance of friendship…
Allston Pudding: In 2019 you were interviewed by NME and you said you hoped to relax more and be more sedentary going into 2020. Now in the second half of 2021, how did that work out for you guys?
Chris Cain: It worked out fucking great. I guess it’s a classic one of those movie wish fulfillment things where you have to be careful about the way you phrase your wish because obviously what we inadvertently did was create a whole lot of down time for the entire planet. Which was not our goal. But it worked out great for us.
AP: Did the pandemic have any effect on the album, or your musical process in general?
CC: We initially planned to spend six weeks in a friend’s studio [while they toured Europe], and it was right as lockdown started. [My friend] is an Irish national, so he was not allowed to return. We had an additional six months in this studio which certainly changed the scope of what we were able to accomplish. We created a lot more music and ended up deciding to split [these songs] onto two albums. Huffy is up-tempo, which we felt people would want after 18 months of forced cloistering. The next album has more of a night vibe, not really introspective, but dance-y.
AP: What was the inspiration behind the title Huffy? You also have a pretty expansive merch rollout with this album artwork as well…
CC: We do. The title came, as all of our titles do, from the ether. [laughs] First of all, it’s always deadline provoked. When we realize we’re about a month out from having to pull the trigger on a title, we will, with increasing frequency, text ideas back and forth. 9/10 ideas are composed just to make the other person laugh, but there is this dare vibe like “what if we called it that?”. Huffy was right down the middle. Keith texted it initially as a joke but we talked ourselves into it. It jives really well with a Rockstar attitude and does so in a self deprecating way. The artwork idea was kind of spontaneous. We just flail about and when we land on an idea we like we just go with them.
AP: That might be more of a common practice than you think.
CC: Yeah, for most people there’s some degree of just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. The practice of your art is just doing that regularly. For the artwork, I liked the audacity of it basically being blank, but then we give you stickers to put on it. We wanted it to look like a graffitied wall of a public bathroom somewhere.
Credit: Press
AP: In an interview Keith mentioned enjoying the freedom of self-producing this record. With that experience, would you continue self-producing moving forward?
CC: Yes. We love self producing. Were very introverted artistically. Keith and I, separately, have always tended toward individual art forms as opposed to collaborative ones. This band, obviously a huge exception to that, has nevertheless allowed the two of us to accept each other as collaborators but were still totally introverted about letting other people in. I think the challenge will be forcing us to not always [self-produce] in the future.
AP: What are you looking forward to the most with touring again?
CC: Playing Boston!
AP: Ah, that’s so nice of you to say!
CC: [laughs] Just playing shows is going to be insane. It’s the first time I can remember being nervous, like giddy-excitement. We’ve never taken a break anywhere near this long since we started and we’ve got so much material that we want to get out there.
AP: The two of you have maintained a pretty positive working relationship throughout your careers. What would you say is your advice on making that work?
CC: A big reason ours has worked so well is because of the underlying friendship. It’s just kind of luck, like how do you meet the friend that your friends with for life? There’s effort that goes into not allowing a shared job to corrupt that friendship, but I think we are long past that as an issue. We were around 28 when this band kind of hit. It’s probably harder for kids to figure that out.
AP: If you could only drink one cocktail for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
CC: I’ve been obsessed with a variation on the Manhattan that I discovered while developing one of the cocktails for our “Cocktails of Huffy” series: The Earth Scoop. Sort of a modified Cuba libre. It’s Coke, bourbon, Amaro and lime. Blended with ice.
AP: Looking through your cocktail series the “Earth Scoop” was definitely my favorite name and did look delicious.
CC: It is, and I think it’s the best of the cocktails and it’s the worst performing vinyl color. We gave it a great name but at the end of the day people do not want a brown vinyl [laughs].
AP: See, I was looking at the choices, thinking through my collection and I don’t think I have a brown vinyl, so I would very much be drawn to the “Earth Scoop”.
CC: Well the larger statistical picture I’m seeing unfortunately does not validate your feelings. But I feel the same way! I had never really seen brown vinyl, but maybe that’s for good reason.
AP: If you were a scientist, in what field would you be studying?
CC: I loved chemistry. I wasn’t good enough to be a good chemist or to think that I might ever work in it, but I think it’s the coolest of all the sciences.
AP: Lastly, did you ever make up with your old friend Morrissey?
CC: You know, we haven’t broken bread. Does Morrissey eat bread? Is he Gluten free in addition to everything else? Like what do you do? Raise a glass? Does he drink?
AP: Judging off his personality, I think you both blindly worshipping him would be a good start.
CC: Yeah, compliments and worship would go a long way.
Check out Huffy, the new album from We Are Scientists out this Friday, October 8th! Make sure to follow the band for more updates on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube!