Pure X Broke A Leg But Not In A Good Way

Austin's Pure X dropped what could be the best “downer-friendly” album in recent years with 2011’s Pleasure, a hazy, dense cloud of psych-rock that could bring a mean case of the munchies. Following critical praise, the trio was just about to capitalize on its attention when singer/guitarist Nate Grace suffered a nasty leg injury from a skateboarding incident. Without health insurance, Grace found himself in a pickle, forced on a waitlist for public health care. But with every clusterfuck comes a silver lining. The months and months of sitting on his ass allowed the band to truck on with their second album, which they worked on for a year-and-a-half. Talking with the band now, it seems Grace destroying his leg was worth something, because Crawling Up The Stairs is one motherfucker of a follow-up, causing sounds of confusion, psychedelia, paranoia, and euphoria.

Loitering outside of a CIBC bank, Noisey caught up with the trio just before their first ever gig in Toronto. The band shared riffed on the gruesome details of Grace’s skateboarding accident, how they gained from his pain, and why they gave up their original name of Pure Ecstasy to some geezers in a wedding cover band.

Noisey: Nate, you injured yourself skateboarding last year. What exactly were you doing on your board? Something epic?
Nate Grace: I really wasn't doing anything cool. Across the street from the house I was living in was a five-foot halfpipe with two six-foot extensions on it. I had been skating all day with Austin. I was doing this, I don't know what you call it, a surfer kick-turn on the extension and one foot came off while one foot stayed on the board. So one leg went one way and one leg went the other way, and my knee just made a 90-degree angle outward. Instaneously I knew I was fucked. Austin was there with me. My house was only 75 yards away and I couldn't even fucking get there. Austin had to get his car and help he hobble into the car.

Austin Youngblood: I knew it was bad too. As soon as he started yelling, "Fuck no! Fuck no!" I was at the top of the ramp, thinking, "Sheeeiiiit." I hope he could just walk it off, but no.

NG: The thing is my knee was locked up. When it got twisted out it partially tore the ACL, sprained the MCL, and ripped the meniscus completely out, which then got shoved in the socket. My knee was completely locked in place. The worst part was the sound, man. The sound still haunts me sometimes.

AY: It popped like four times. I could hear it from the top of the ramp.

Did you guys see in the NCAA tournament when Louisville’s Kevin Ware broke his leg? People were trying not to throw up when they saw him. How horrific was it?
AY: It wasn't horrific. But I was hoping there was a chance that it was just tweaked. It was pretty obvious, quickly, that it would be bad.

How serious was the injury?
NG: As far as skateboarding injuries go, it was pretty fucking serious. Because my knee was locked, the only way I could walk again was to get arthroscopic surgery to clean out all of the shit that was blocking my knee from moving. I didn't have insurance, so I had to go through the public health care system, which in the States is a joke. So I just sat around waiting, calling the people every day for four or five months. Then I finally got the surgery I had all of these complications because my knee had been locked up. My entire leg was atrophied. It was totally fucked up. I had to do physical therapy, and still need to be doing physical therapy but I don't have insurance. I've had to do it on my own at the gym. So yeah, I was sidelined for a year, basically.

Being from Canada—where we have universal healthcare—I could just go get my leg repaired if that happened to me. Wouldn’t cost me a thing.
NG: I was supposed to pay some. I haven't paid any of it. I still have to pay the anesthesiologist. But I got into this system where they knock the rates down, so it was fairly cheap. I just had to wait forever. And the level of care was, like, get in and then get the fuck out.

You should have come to Canada.
NG: I thought about. I really truly thought about moving to Canada or Europe to get the surgery.

How did Nate’s injury affect the band?
NG: The first record had barely even come out and we had just gotten back from Europe, so we were riding a pretty good high. And then I got hurt. We were actually in the process of writing this new album at the time. So we just said, “Well, I guess we’ll do this album legit and go all the way.” It was a blessing in disguise. It definitely hurt like a bitch, lots of bullshit. But we got to go into the studio for about a year and a half, just grinding it out. And I was in the studio on crutches for the entire time.

Were you able to travel or tour at all during this time?
NG: I played like five or six shows on crutches, and that fucking sucked. We did South By Southwest the year before last on crutches, and that was fucking so shitty. But we did it. Some of the reviewers were saying, “Someone’s sitting down on stage…” It’s like, fuck you! I can’t stand up on one leg!

Jesse Jenkins: Yeah, they were writing about how the drummer and one other dude were sitting down on stage, saying “this is the laziest band on the planet!”

NG: If I had seen that dude, I’d have fucking punched him.

So, Nate was immobile for a long stretch. Did that have any part in naming the album Crawling Up The Stairs?
NG: Partly. When I was injured I had this dream, vision—it’s a long-ass story—but basically I had this experience of being possessed or something. Basically a breakdown. I went into this dream that was an infinite hell and I was crawling up these stairs surrounded by fear, terror, agony. It was one of those dreams where you think you’re gonna get out and then boom, it starts all over again. The dream felt like an eternity and that’s what it was based on.

Jesse, during the making of the album you broke up with your girlfriend of nine years. Would you call this a break-up album?
JJ: It’s not about that as much as it is about resetting yourself. Or a rebirth. Being released.

NG: I like that! Less of a break up, more of a release.

Austin, what drama did you bring to the album?
[Band laughs.]

AY: I had a good year that year! I brought no drama. I was just chilling.

JJ: If it wasn’t for Youngblood’s lack of drama we would have just died, I think.

Crawling Up The Stairs is much more emotional than Pleasure. It switches moods and uses a lot of different sounds. What triggered that?
JJ: Mostly growing definitely as a band. We’re not trying to make the same record. We’re already talking about the next record being different from this new one. We had more time because Nate was hurt and we were all stuck in Austin. More gear. But the biggest thing was that we wanted to make a drastically different record.

NG: And we had a more stable studio environment. We had one studio for the entire album, one spot to go to, and time out of the fucking ass to just knit-pick everything. We spent a year-and-a-half to perfect it. Actually, we mixed it in only three days, which was cool, with this really bad-ass dude.

When you have “time out of the fucking ass” to work with, how do you set a deadline?
JJ: [Laughs.] We weren’t going to do anything until it was satisfactory to us. There wasn’t as much pressure because Nate was hurt, so it was easy to say no to touring. There wasn’t a deadline, but the thing that kept us in the studio was the fact that Nate couldn’t walk. We were just locked away not concerned about deadlines or time.

NG: It all kind of came together perfectly. Right as I was able to start moving around, we were finishing the record up. So it worked out really well.

Was all of the drama a big part of this album?
JJ: We started working on this one before Pleasure was even released.

NG: We had started on it, but it was definitely influenced by all of the stuff that happened, and the touring we were able to do before that. We were all riding this high, we were all stoked, and then everything came crashing down and fell apart completely.

JJ: There was a time where we knew the record would be done and all, but it felt like we were dangling off in space. Nothing was solid. We knew we were still going to be a band, but whether anyone still gave a shit, there was definitely some grey area for a year.

The vocals on a track like “Someone Else” are gut-wrenchingly expressive and personal. Where did that shift come from?
NG: To me, personally, we were doing it the whole time, it’s just the production value wasn’t there. This time we had more time to hone in the sounds.

JJ: There is definitely a lot more singing on this record and harmonies, whereas last time it was a completely different idea.

NG: The first album was reflecting our live show. It was all recorded live. It was a different way of approaching it. Everything was tracked at the same time in the same room. So you couldn’t even mess with the vocals because there was bleed over everything. The drums were in the vocal mics and the guitars were in the drum mics. For this album, we did a regular studio album, recording the vocals later, the backing tracks first, that type of stuff. A big part of the way the vocals ending up sounding was the guy who came in, Larry Seyer, who helped us with mixing and mastering. He just fucking murdered the vocals. He knew exactly what to do.

JJ: He’s an old Nashville guy, who worked with all of the ’90s country stars like George Strait. His perspective was, “This is the weirdest album I’ve heard in my life, but I love it!”

NG: Working with him was just mind-blowing dude. He was a studio monster! He mixed it in just three days, going, boom, boom, boom! Jumping on shit! He was like, “Okay, next song.” Fuck! It was like a tornado came in there. It was awesome.

I remember Pure Ecstasy. What happened with that name?
JJ: It was a copyright thing. There was a wedding cover with 50-year-old dudes who had that name since 1991. I think they just do weddings and sing the national anthem at Giants Stadium, so they also make a lot more money than we do. [Laughs.]

NG: They had all their legal shit straight. There was no fighting because we had no choice.

AY: We contacted them and asked “Is this a problem because y’all don’t record?” We had to page the guy, because he didn’t have a cell phone. He got back to us and was like, “Fuck no.”

NG: He said, “I’ve already taken so many people to court over this.”

JJ: And added, “It’s a good name. It’s a good name.” [Laughs.]

NG: I actually like Pure X now anyway. It’s more succinct.

In Britain, they call ecstasy “E” and in the U.S. they call it “X.” When travelling in Europe, did anyone ever ask you, “Hey, why aren’t you called Pure E?”
NG: No, no.

JJ: Pure E? Pure E, man! That’s funny. Puree!

Cam Lindsay reps Canada hard. He's on Twitter —@yasdnilmac