Original interview here.

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What's your business, and who are your customers?

I compose music for films, and my customers are directors of films and, of course, the audience.

Tell us about yourself

I've been a musician most of my life. I remember being very young and roaming around the Eastman theater while a youth orchestra rehearsed Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. I was thrilled with the power of it. I picked up a guitar in junior high and kept going until I had a master's in classical guitar many years later.

Most of my music career was spent writing songs, educating, and performing, of course. I began composing music for films about five years ago, just as I was turning 40. I'm a late bloomer. It seemed right, and just my speed. The best part of scoring films is the challenge of capturing a story in music and weaving that throughout the movie in a relatable way. I love creating music that pairs smoothly with the visuals, performances, and stories.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'm proud of the skills I've grown from scratch. Both modular synthesis and orchestration are vital skills for me, skills that took years of study to get where I'm at now, and I'm nowhere close to where I want to be. Other than that, I'm happy the films I've worked on were screened where they were, and they received the attention they did. It gets me excited for the future!

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

If something seems hard and it seems like I can get away without doing it, I just won't do it. But if I want to do it, I modify my approach until the dam breaks loose and I've got the momentum to solve it. It's all about the approach.

Like, I wanted to learn all the ranges, color-tone ranges, and transpositions of each instrument in the orchestra. I couldn't do that with my old set of memorization skills (aka, repeat it mercilessly). So I started to research the best way to memorize that stuff and found a better way (Loci method). Now, those ranges are stuck in my brain.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Mind your stories and feel your feelings. The things you tell yourself need to be challenged and reshaped, and feelings that you feel need to be felt. Simple as that. I'm indebted to Cassie Parks for her incredible guidance here.

2. Nurture your skills. It's just fun getting better at what you're best at. I love studying orchestral scores and learning about new synthesizers!

3. Nurture your network. A life well-lived is a life full of good friends and colleagues. When someone pops into my head, I often reach out and tell them that. It feels right, no matter what profession you choose.

Interview by Piper Chen.

The Shikes is an American band and a brainchild of Austin, Texas based musician Dave Wirth. Wirth is known for his work as a film composer, producer and writer, in addition to his work across many different spectrums of music. Today we take a listen to The Shikes’ recently released mini-album, Aggression, as well as share our interview with the exceptional Dave Wirth!

Aggression features songs that contain tasteful use of synthesizer and plenty of pop sensibility. The album kicks off with “It’s Gone A Spring Song”, which displays some very strong noise pop in both its intro and outro; this reminds me of the kind of stuff No Age is known for. When it comes to the track’s vocal mixing, expert use of delay and perhaps a bit of distortion makes the vocals feel somewhat otherworldly, though the lyrics are certainly of this Earth, making for an interesting combination that enhances the melody and kept this song kicking around my head for a few days after initially listening.

Next up is “Sit, Think, Make, Say, Do”. This track has an exceptionally bright and airy sound quality to it, really displaying an incredible and entertaining mixture of synth and pop work that is easily enjoyable. That said, the lyrics hold darker overtones involving fear and exploitation, giving this song unique contrasting elements that, while making the song darker in nature than at first glance, give it all the more appeal once you read in between the lines.

“Trouble In The Height Of Spring” is up third, closing out Aggression. In terms of pop masterpieces, this track feels as though it was written to be one, truly capturing a dreamy use of synthesizer while also coming through like a masterclass in melody. As the track progresses, more noise pop elements come through, distorting its initially airy nature, begging the question: is this more a dream or nightmare? The lyrics manage to match the mysterious dark nature that begins to seep through as well. This dark/noise pop approach is delightful and easily found throughout Aggression in a few different forms, really encouraging you to listen close to the lyrics being sang while enjoying the synth-y ride.

Now let’s jump into the interview with Dave Wirth!

Dave Wirth, mastermind behind The Shikes and Aggression

Thank you for being with us today!

"Very happy to be here! Thank you."

I am completely unfamiliar with the word "Shike" is. Can you tell us how you got your name and what it means?

"Heh, that's funny. I haven't thought of that in years. Originally, I just liked how explosive the sound was. I thought it was super intense and it fit the music really well. After doing a bit of research, the word 'Shike' could also be short for 'Shikker,' which is a slang word used in in Australia at around 1910 or so that means drunkard. It's really anybody's guess."

Can you share some of your influences and how their sounds find their way into your music?

"I guess Belle and Sebastian was a big one for this record. I was definitely fascinated with how poppy their music can sound and how dark the lyrics were. I wondered if I could do that, so I really dug into that idea. The music ended up turning out quite a bit different of course, and that's okay."

Your music seems to have a lot of moving parts in terms of its instrumentation, weaving some complex textures. Would you mind walking us through your writing process?

"A friend of mine had this amazing Gibson hollow body guitar from the 1940's, and he graciously allowed me to take it home and write with it. Songs kinda came out of the guitar without me intending to. I often like to record something really simple and then mess it up later by replacing the simple part with something more intense. All of the songs started with the one Gibson hollow body, and from there it came together. Then it was years of me tinkering, putting the right sounds here and there, remixing it and making it sound interesting to my ears."

How has the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on your band? Do you have any upcoming plans to stream live performances or anything in the works for after the pandemic subsides?

"COVID19 hasn't been too big a deal for me. Since I don't really perform (I love being in the studio far more), it didn't cramp on my style. If anything, COVID19 gave me a chance to release this record, which btw, these songs were written in 2004, recorded in 2004 or so, mixed in 2013, and then I did the remastering of it in 2020. And, no plans for live streaming! Maybe if people really wanted to see me perform, but I'm very happy just releasing records and calling it a day."

Your new mini-album "Aggression" mixes noise pop elements with some really synthesizer, which combined reminds me of some of my favorite bands like The Postal Service, No Age and Say Hi. What were your goals when writing and recording this album? How do you feel you achieved them?

"Oh wow, I haven't checked out those bands! Now I have to! My only goal when writing, recording, anything, is to use the tools to create a song that lives on it's own. All I want to feel when it's done is that it feels mysterious, out there, and it's a bit like a beast looking back at me. I think Paul Klee once said that he knew when a painting was done by whether or not it looked back at him. If a song lives and breathes on it's own, I'm happy."

Is there anything else you'd like our readers to know?

"One thing: Support the blog owner. Donate to him. Advertise on his site. He's a good guy."

Thank you so much for your time!

After our interview with Dave Wirth, many elements of this mini-album become a bit more clear. For me, at its core, Aggression is a display of duality; its sounds are mostly innocent, bright, airy and simply an absolute delight to listen to while the lyrics come from a somewhat darker place that make you think and those moments when the music shifts are absolutely incredible. It is through this duality that we find true art in this album from a dedicated and skilled artist. Check out Aggression on Bandcamp (also embedded below), The Shikes’ website and Distrokid. You can also learn more about Dave Wirth and his many projects through his website. Thank you for reading!

This is pretty fun! Just got interviewed by Joshua at midtnmusic.com. We talked about Flutters, music, creativity, and more:

Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?

I feel happy to write in a lot of different genres, but this record in particular was written over the course of a year, simply just hanging out and playing guitar. Sometimes a sound would catch my ear, sometimes a theme would come around. I was surprised because I’ve never really played something so accessible, so simple and pleasing. It felt extremely natural to do it.

What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?

I have no idea. I kinda think that the best music comes by surprise. I’ve noticed there’s a huge amount of time that I think about and compose music in my head before it comes around, but these songs in comparison were so simple. They came like flashes of lightning. I was quite happy about how fast they came along.

As far as the public, I don’t entirely know either. I won’t lie about it. I’d enjoy a bit of recognition, but it’d be just as satisfying if there were 10 people who dug the shit out of the record, listened to it a lot, enjoyed it, and hung out with it like they hang out with a good friend.

Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?

Just about everything, everyone, influences creativity. I haven’t ever seen creativity as all that special really. It’s a part of my life, and the better I live my life the more flow I get. Creativity and living? Well, that’s just me living my life, being a crazy weirdo about music, art, and finding the beauty in picking up dog poo. It’s odd, but living a good life enhances my creativity. Living a good life also includes expressing creativity, expressing music, sharpening my pencils and practicing. It’s all related in some weird, backwards way. I’ll practice, I’ll write, I’ll study more music. It just won’t end. It’s a thread that is wound through every part of my life.

Anyhow, my listening tastes have totally changed over time. In high school: progressive rock and metal. College: indie rock and jazz. Grad school: slo-core, way more obscure indie rock, and modern classical. It always changes. Lately, free jazz, ECM records, Kraftwerk, and lots of Berlioz.

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?

Again it was a surprise, but after like five of these songs were written, the theme of chill-ness became apparent. Just the experience of listening to a piece of music and not neccesarily being titillated by it… that seemed like it was how this record decided to present itself. I had no choice, I just followed orders. I felt like there were so many songs that instantly had that chill-ness about them right from the start. I know there’s people out there who want music to completely overwhelm them, and I am like that too sometimes. This record ended up having the feeling of a super-chill road trip, a lazy afternoon. I was delighted with how it turned out. Very happy.

What was the last song you listened to?

Uh oh… Mozart’s Piano Concerto #20. Yup. I’m a nerd.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

They all seem good for something. Vinyl gives me the sound I prefer, CD’s are great for the car and used cds are a great way to pick up new music, and mp3’s are just for days when I don’t care to choose. They all have use. If I had my druthers, I’d have an entire room of the house dedicated to vinyl and cds and fuckloads of books, but that’s just not happening anytime soon.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I can’t stomach using Spotify or Apple Music, but Bandcamp is great. Good, independent music can be found there, discovered there, and you can directly support the artist, which I do a lot of. I also like YouTube. Everything is on there, and I don’t mind the ads. I aint buying their shit and Google has no idea what I listen to because I care about my privacy.

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?

The biggest challenge I face is simply to find and impress the gatekeepers to those fans. If Flutters ever got reviewed on Pitchfork (won’t happen, ha ha ha), I probably could pay the rent for the next month or two. They’re a hell of a gatekeeper. It’s hard to find anyone who actually wants to listen and give their heart to the music. I personally feel that all music deserves my heart, but not everyone feels that way. A lot of people feel attacked by the music they don’t care for, as if it were so horrible that a song we didn’t like ended up finding it’s way into our ears. Other gatekeepers are simply musicians who have their own different fan base. These days I’ve been making a point of collaborating with other musicians and artists, doing studio work, working on films, sending files back and forth online, etc. It’s been a lot of fun! Getting the music out there is cool, but I think there’s something to be said to just being really open to the people around me, what they are doing, and what I can add to their happiness. It’s more enjoyable, we all create music and post about it, and I don’t have to fight as much to get music out there.

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?

www.davewirthmusic.com has pretty much everything I’m not totally embarrased about.

And tips for discovering more music? Try researching record labels. I spent years getting into Merge, Saddle Creek, Jagjaguar, KRS, etc. It seems like labels always have stuff buried that’s really cool, undiscovered, and totally unique.

Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?

Nothing at all! Thanks for the chance to get on my soapbox!

By Jer at SleepingBagStudios.com

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good SPRIGHT!

Let’s face it – Christmas music isn’t always “all that.” There are often too many bells and certainly not enough ROCK. You might even argue that over time the holiday season itself has become more about presents than it has been about presence…so let’s change that up this holiday season – meet SPRIGHTLY MOANS!

This electric two-piece band comprised of Dave and Jeff from Austin, TX keep the volume up whenever there’s space to crank it up and this interview is no exception. We had the good fortune and opportunity to talk with Dave from Sprightly Moans and find out what’s happening with the music, the upcoming debut album in 2014 and I get some tips directly on how to handle the never-ending Christmas season I live a 12th of my year in.

As it turns out – Dave’s got a WICKED sense of humor – one I really dig on personally. Getting to know him a little behind the scenes allowed me to take a few of the traditional “chains” off in this interview and just ask whatever came to mind. No lie – I always love it when these interviews head in that direction…we all know there’s no telling what might be the burning question on my mind at any time.

So let’s find out what those are and how Dave’s own mind works trying to follow me down the rabbit hole of independent music journalism. It might be Christmas but you don’t have to suffer along with Ebeneezer & the carols that come with it. Start prepping your New Year’s Eve today and turn this music up! Curl up beside your yule log, click on one of the active links in the article to take you to some official music to listen to while you check out what’s happening lately here in this interview with Sprightly Moans.

Happy Holidays All!

Jer @ SBS

SPRIGHTLY MOANS INTERVIEW:

SBS: Sprightly Moans! Hello and WELCOME to sleepingbagstudios – thanks for being here with us. I’ve been slowly researching, listening to and stalking you all in an attempt to get the most I can out of you. And it’s funny you know…I’m a word guy…a writer of sorts…so when I came across this quote about your 2nd Demo CD on sprightlymoans.com:

“Notably, the sleeve was made from a single piece of felt card-stock paper that was lovely to the touch.”

I don’t know if anyone else out there has noticed this, or asked…but that statement is in the past tense. So OBVIOUSLY, when there are a MILLION and ONE things I could ask you about your lives and music…this is somehow the burning question atop my weirdly-bearded-brain – What HAPPENED to the paper? How hath you soiled the loveliness?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Oh, we were fools with that paper, giving it away like we did. Absolute fools.

SBS: Alright…now that important detail is on the record I’ll back it up. For the people that don’t know about you yet – tell us about Sprightly Moans. How did you get together and decide to do this?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: I wanted to create music. Loud music. Music that was direct and incontrovertible. I started messing around with the sounds I heard in my head (not a fail-safe instrument) and put some drums on it. Needless to say, it sounded terrible. The drums needed more awesomeness, so I started the search to find a drummer.

The first drummer I found was pretty cool, but I think he resented me on account that he didn’t find it funny to have found a book entitled, “Isn’t It Wonderful To Be Gay?” in his bass drum after a rehearsal. Another drummer had me convinced that he was a John Bonham expert, but I became convinced otherwise not too long after we met.

Finally, Jeff came along. Jeff has a much more sophisticated sense of humor. That and he can play the hell out of the drums.

SBS: You also sound like you have a solid plan in place when it comes to the recording process. If I’ve got my facts straight, you’re just about to release the final EP before embarking upon the recording of your debut album. What made you choose this approach and what advantages does it give you when you start to record the new album?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Well, close on that one. We’ve got two more demo releases to let go of before attempting the real thing, which will take a lot of money to do it right. We’d prefer to do it right. I’m absolutely considering male prostitution to make budget. It’s an option, and a tax-free one at that, if I can deal with the brutal change of spirituality, of course.

That aside, the approach from the beginning has really been about learning about what

to present and how to present it. It’s a huge advantage to have absolutely no one paying attention and slowly put more time and effort into how things are done. Mostly, I wanted a chance to get better everything before going at it with the big ideas, like recording an album and prostituting myself out to fund it. It’d be a jump in dedication in both cases, that’s for sure.

SBS: After listening, it’s also clear that you’re all about the ROCK. Is this the style of

music you’ve both always gravitated towards or was this the sound that was simply born out of playing together since the beginning?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Me personally, no. I spent a lot of time listening to a lot of music. I tried different genres out, tried them on like a jacket, but none of them really fit all that well. Finally, I realized that I liked rock and roll sooooo much and the clothes really fit. It’s weird that it took so many years, but better late than never.

SBS: In reading the Facebook page, we get that confirmation from you in the about section. “Direct Rock And Roll,” as you’ve put it. Now, just because it’s been proclaimed obviously doesn’t mean it has to stay that way forever, but rock is clearly what you both love to play. I guess I’m just wondering out loud here (On paper, I know, weird eh?) but are there any limitations that somehow come with that proclamation? You know what I mean – does saying it make it more real somehow?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Totally weird: the written word (big smiles!).

The limitations are of expectations and reputations. If people expect us to be direct, of course we’ll feel compelled to be direct. If we get a reputation for being loud, and some money gets put on the table for us to maintain that reputation, of course we’ll feel compelled to stay that way. Who wouldn’t feel the tug?

But…

I really admire people who are brave enough to trash their own reputations. You know the types: they just let go and say “to hell with how I used to do things.” That takes some guts. It’s gotta be fun to mess with people’s expectations of you, trashing a rep like that. It must have the extra added benefit of confounding the people who dislike being confounded!

In any event, I know I’d get claustrophobic being pinned down, having only one way of doing things, and I’m reasonably sure Jeff feels the same way. The thing it all comes down to is, are we willing to do the absolutely most disgustingly wrong thing and scream c’est la vie to the way we used to do things?

I say this: Hells Yeah.

SBS: Rock is arguably the most wide-open genre of them all – tell me how we could identify a Sprightly Moans track apart from any others on a giant music-mix playing randomly. How do we know when we hit the track from Sprightly Moans? What identifies your sound and sets you apart from the rest of the rock?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: If not our personalities, then I’m not sure. Everyone and their mother is in five bands nowadays, and the market is saturated. If the mash-up of what Jeff and I are doing doesn’t make us different than a number of other rock bands, then that’s okay. I certainly don’t mind trying this out and stretching it as far as it can go, and it certainly is fun to do. But if our personalities shine through our music, and people can hear that off the bat, then that’d be awesome.

But I’ll say this however: the hit-track comes when we have hit-track money in our pockets, and we can both afford to do extremely silly stuff with our money like spend it all on boots. I’d take Cavenders for a fucking ride, no doubt.

SBS: In that same line of questioning – when you’re playing true rock and roll – is there any need for any band out there to try and re-invent the wheel? Sometimes more of a good thing is simply a great thing is it not? How important is it for you to do something “different” in music?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: True rock and roll seems like true punk rock; It just doesn’t care about what it’s doing. It’s unaware of itself. There is an element of not-giving-a-shit that is essential to true rock-and-roll. Courtney Love, from what I gather, is a perfect example. And not giving a shit, truly not giving a shit and not just pretending, naturally lends itself well to being rather distinctive. It doesn’t matter that something sounds different nearly as much as it sounds distinctive. To me, the hallmark of distinction is whether or not I can fit a record into my life. If a record can’t do that, it’s hard for me to feel compelled to listen to it. I want distinction.

For instance, I’ve always felt that Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is so distinctive because it’s a perfect album to listen to when I’m completely exhausted and need to get a whole mess of stuff done. To me, when I’m in that mood, it’s perfect and distinctive.

They are doing a lot of different stuff on there they haven’t really done with other records (my opinion), and they certainly re-invented the wheel. But more importantly, can anyone argue with me that it’s not an incredibly distinctive album? They are doing a lot of random stuff on that record, a lot of different stuff as you put it, but there is a soul to that album, a dream that we dream, as listeners, along with Wilco, when we listen to it or even think about it.

That’s distinction. Will Sprightly Moans ever get there? I’m not sure, but I won’t turn down the honor of having a distinctive album to anyone who listens.

SBS: I have the feeling you guys could very well make anything or any experience in life ROCK – so I’m gonna ask your advice on this situation I’m in…

You see…it’s Christmas time and all that…yuletide etc…and I have a MASSIVE amount of family. Good times are had yes…but it also results in a ton of driving around and listening to over-played, boring-ass Christmas music. No joke guys – the family is so big that I usually receive my last Christmas presents around my birthday exactly one month later.

So…for the holidays…for me…and for the people out there…

If your Christmas was to last a literal month – how would Sprightly Moans go about making that ROCK?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Pull pranks on all of your family.

There has to be heavy metal Christmas songs out there. I’d search for death metal, create a playlist, and casually leave the cd in a very normal looking Christmas album.

You could even have a label printed up of Barry Manilow looking all Barry Manilow-ish and paste it to the cover of the cd, just so that no one would suspect anything. Casually leave it by the cd player. Even forge a note from one Aunt to another: “I was thinking of you when I made this mix cd. Love you so much!” Another trick would be to put a massively short and brutal Xiu-Xiu song in between a bunch of Frank Sinatra Christmas songs. It can be done.

You could also enlist your cousins to ding-dong-ditch your family. I wouldn’t stop there; I’d get the entire outside of your folks’ front door decked out like it’s halloween, and possibly enlist more cousins to dress up all ghoulish and ring the doorbell, and ask for candy. Tell them they get five bucks extra if they refuse to take off their masks and brandish squirt guns. Always remember: super-soakers are your friends.

Whoopee cushions are also an excellent way to spend the holiday. Even better, but harder to keep a straight face with, would be a remote control fart machine. The batteries would be well worth the expense, and having kids running around wondering who is farting is good ole fun in the winter months. It’d be exactly like a laser light for kittens! Who doesn’t love kittens? Don’t be a hater on me if you dislike kittens. I don’t want to hear it. Kittens are awesome.

SBS: Ok. On to next year! Tell me about the future – how far away from the recording of the new album are we and what early details on it can we pull out of you now?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: We’re pretty close to finishing up. As soon as that happens, we’re in-like-Nixon. Expect it by the end of January…

SBS: And how about live shows? Anything coming up? How often are you out there?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Not often enough! Since we are so new, I’m having trouble convincing promoters that we’re going to put on a good show and bring an audience with us. The only solution is to accept every single show that comes to us, and frankly, I’m not sure if either of us wants to do that. However, I’m cautiously optimistic that our next show will be better attended, possibly because I’m willing to bribe, extort, and blackmail otherwise well-meaning folks in good-standing with the community to come. Bigger problems have been solved via cajoling than I care to mention.

SBS: When recording as a two-piece band is it important to think about how you’ll be able to play those songs live? At the end of the day I would imagine you wouldn’t want to ever over-complicate things too much in case you wouldn’t be able to bring it all to the stage or have to hire a third member…but let’s hear it from you – what’s the real deal?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: You’re totally right. The last thing I would ever want to do is saddle Jeff with too much detail to worry about. I say, let it ride and to hell with the haters who are in the back saying, “well it doesn’t sound like it did on the record.” Well, uh, duh. It’s more fun anyway!

If we do hire a third band member, it’ll be someone who sticks out like a sore thumb; I have to replace my role in the band somehow.

SBS: I was also curious about this other thing I read on the about page of your Facebook profile. It mentioned that your demos left a distinct “visual” mark in addition to the sonic one. Go into that a bit for me…how important is the visual representation behind the music? What can you communicate or express through art or media that you aren’t able to in your music?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Oh that’s really important. I really feel like any new band that attempts to give their music to others, to sell it in particular, has a hellova hurdle in front of them. Think about it: first, a band has to invite others into listening to the music, and then hope that the people who check it out are interested enough in the band to invest in it both short and long-term. That can’t be accomplished without a sense of taking the relationship between fan and band seriously.

On the band side, frumpiness is cool, but a danger when it’s time to present. When bands don’t care about presenting themselves, I wonder if they do it out of spite, like “I won’t dress up for Sunday school!” Maybe that’s me. Maybe I’m being completely off-base about presentation, but I want people to know that I will not abuse their attention or listenership. Taking pains to make the visual mark so distinctive? That’s one way to do it.

SBS: Alright Sprightly – it’s nearing the end of 2013…as randomly as you can think of, tell us a couple predictions for the upcoming year 2014. Anything!

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Ahh, 2014 will be the year of privacy! 2013 was all about having our innocence about the internet completely shattered, and I think 2014 will be the year we start taking it back. It’s on.

SBS: When is it acceptable to NOT rock?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Never.

SBS: I’ve heard it said many times that AC/DC’s album Back In Black is like, drumming 101 for the new drummer. I was wondering what you guys might say as far as songs go – what’s the ultimate rock and roll blueprint out there?

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: What a question! I have absolutely no answer for you! Fucker- you stumped me!

SBS: Websites! Do some promo! Add a smiley-face! Whatever you guys wanna promote, have at it – but send these people somewhere specific online to find your music and stay updated on the details of the new album!

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Oooooo, point. Absolutely savvy. Okay, then I’ll say this:

Come to our show on January 30th, 2014 at Red Eyed Fly in Austin and you’ll get a hell of a present. You will get a free, limited edition copy of Demos III. Plus, the first ten people to arrive will get a USB stick that has lyric sheets and beautifully done guitar tablatures of all the songs on Demos III. How dat?

SBS: Dave – just wanna say thank you again for being a part of this interview and taking the time to answer all this madness on behalf of yourself and Jeff. Before I let you go for good, I’d just like to offer you the open floor as we do with all of our guests. Take this next spot to say anything you like, shout out anyone you want or bring up anything we missed!

Sprightly Moans – you guys ROCK. Keep doing what you do.

SPRIGHTLY MOANS: Thank you! We will! As we’ve been given the opportunity to get on a soapbox, here are our tips for being a driver in Austin,TX:

1. Try to understand that most drivers in Austin fall into two categories: Fast, and slow. The slow drivers clog up the flow by not giving a damn about anyone, and the fast drivers are keen to pass you at any cost because generally, they don’t give a damn about anyone either. Texas drivers are very much like honey badgers.

2. In Austin’s driving culture, the slow drivers are often in the passing lane. This is due to Texas having so many silly left turns off of highways. Don’t blame the slow drivers for being in the passing lane; Blame the culture instead.

3. Never, ever, drive slow in the passing lane, unless you wish to punish other drivers (see below):

4. Tailgater Management Move Number One! Feel free to punish drivers who tailgate you by boxing them in. Let me explain: four lane road, no passing, slow moving car in the other lane. Match the speed of the slow-moving car to punish the shit-head tailgater behind you both. Insert evil laugh.

5. In a four lane city road in Austin, if the right-hand lane has lighter traffic and the inner lane has heavier traffic, many drivers will boldly pull into that right-hand lane. Never mind if you wish to turn into that very same right-hand lane and have the right of way! These people are turning into it and there’s nothing you can do about it. Approach cars pulling onto the same road as you with caution, because they don’t give a fuck (see below):

6. Austin TX drivers are like honey badgers.

7. Access roads are the roads parallel to the highway that you get on after you exit. They will mess you up if you aren’t familiar with them. If you come to Austin and wish to enjoy this fair city, accept the fact that you will get lost/turned around at least five times. Expect massive shaming and blushing for your efforts, too.

8. If you are a pedestrian who has the right of way in a parking lot, and some car is impatiently coming closer to you in order that they may pass you, look at the driver straight in the eye, and give this person the biggest shit-eating grin you possibly can. They’ll slow down.

9. In Texas, people generally have their shit together, or they have their junk hanging out for everyone to see. People in the latter group will attempt to drink a coffee, choke down a doughnut, and send a passively aggressive text message to their spouse at the same time as downshifting to a lower gear. If you spot one of these drivers, give them their space.

10. Avoid I35.

11. Tailgater Management Move Number Two! Lightly touching your brakes will activate your brake-lights. Nothing is more fun than lightly touching your brakes and gunning the accelerator at the same time, because tailgaters have no recourse but to slow down behind you. Insert evil laugh.

12. Never make the mistake of thinking someone courteous for using their blinkers. Using blinkers is tepidly courteous! There’s nothing as awesome as a courtesy wave and using your blinkers. That, and reward people who give you the courtesy wave. Pay it forward.

To read the full interview, please go to SleepingBagStudios.com.

By Chris Roman of Heartheindie.com

As it is, I find the Sprightly Moans to be an interesting band, and maybe even more interesting in words as I conducted this interview with one half of this pair: Dave Wirth. Check out his often witty and rather intellectual responses to this batch of questions, and considering checking out their album Demos II while you're at it.

Hear the Indie: Could you tell me who Sprightly Moans is? How you guys came together and why you have opted to make music in general?

Sprightly Moans (Dave): I started experimenting with awfully loud music in my studio in late 2012 because I needed relief. I fooled around with different guitar textures until it sounded weird and messed up. I started adding some completely amateur sounding drum beats that I did, and stockpiled those ideas, but I realized quickly that was a bad move. I contacted a studio drummer, but I was keeping my hopes up for someone I could work with long-term. Eventually I was able to snucker Jeff Olson into playing. He is ten times a drummer than I am a guitarist. He keeps me on my toes... 

To read the rest of this interview, please go to Heartheindie.com