Merchandise Want Journalists To Lighten Up

Merchandise's first UK show was played in front of a potentially stultifying audience of superfans and an indecision of A&Rs (that’s the correct collective noun right?) Some bands would find it a bit daunting, but Merchandise are taking the fact that they’re being lauded as post-punk messiahs in their stride.

Their plan is basically to swoop in, all brooding and electrifying, and prove they can stand firm through the initial wave of hype. For Carson Cox, Dave Vassallotti and Patrick Brady, who all grew up in the freaky Floridian enclave of Tampa, this shouldn't be too hard. They started out playing hundreds of punk shows on America's southern tip and really couldn't give a monkey's about anything beyond making music they think is great.

Now Merchandise have been fully unleashed on the global tour circuit, I caught up with them to see how they felt about their journey so far.

Hey! Are you excited to be playing in London?

Dave: We’ve been dying to come here for a long time.

Carson: The tension has been mounting for years now. It’s pretty difficult for a band from America to come over.

But you’re still very much keeping control of everything, even as things are taking off for you?

Dave: We’re trying to.

Carson: There are a lot of places where we can operate in complete secrecy, but we can’t in Europe because we’re already in the press, and a lot of people are being, like, we’re the hope for them or something.

So you are feeling a little pressurised then?

Carson: There is pressure, but at the same time you can’t blow it out of proportion as a musician on the stage. Like if we were local we’d be treated totally differently, but because we have something that’s already been built up and we’ve never been here in person before, there's a bit of a buzz.

The thing that grasped me about your music is, well, it’s the combination of beauty and terror. It can make you uncomfortable, it sort of disrupts you. So is that an aim, to wake people up?

Carson: Well there are some things that are natural, but yeah, to push people out of their comfort zone, even to the point of them turning on you. Music has become so boring that I’d rather be alienating or jerking the chain back. Everyone’s at shows for the wrong reasons. Most of the time they don’t want to see the band, whether it’s to be part of a scene, or for free drinks. It’s one thing to make people uncomfortable, it’s another thing to bring them back to the room. You’ll see that tonight, a lot of people on their phones.

When it’s all industry and people staring at phones, does that encourage you to be more evil?

Dave: Yeah, usually we figure that out at the end of the first song, how the rest of the set’s going to go.

Carson: Not every room is capable of doing the same thing. Or depending on how drunk someone is in the band. There’s a lot of things that happen are just like well, Plan B…

For you, is it about as many people as possible hearing your music, or is there any intention as musicians, artists, to try to be the avant-garde. Do you have any explicated aims?

Carson: In New York we played with Mission of Burma just before we came here. That’s a band that changed my life more than most American punk bands. Definitely one I’d put on the same level as a lot of English post-punk, like The Fall, and it was very apparent that they’re not famous or anything. They were surprised even when people would clap at the end of songs. They followed whatever they wanted to do. We don’t want to make sellable pop music, but I like making big things, or beautiful things, or complicated things, or super simple things, but they have to be beautiful, complete ideas. The idea of being a pop music band, being just part of the music industry and not being a part of art or fashion or film in a creative capacity, seems like half of the idea. It needs to be something where we’re creating our own world.

Like the short film you just put online, or the short story that Dave wrote that was included with the Desire vinyl? I actually re-read it preparing for this a couple days ago and I had the worst nightmares I can recall.

Carson: You’re welcome.

Dave: We need to put a sticker with that quote on the front of the record. “Worst nightmares of my life…”

Carson: I definitely felt like that was happening all the time for us.

Dave: Especially whilst making that record.

Carson: Yeah, just losing our minds. Or maybe the city we live in, Tampa, just has that effect on people.

Dave: The heat drives people crazy, the isolation.

Carson: It’s not a cultural hub…

Dave: While we were working on that record we were all working minimum wage jobs, not knowing what we were going to be doing with our lives.

Carson: Or that we would even be able to do music.

You've said before that when you started writing you never thought you’d have to play anything live.

Carson: Never.

So now with the next record…

Dave: It’s kind of reversed.

Carson: Yeah, it’s totally reversed, because we’re going to write it and then record it. Which we’ve never done.

Dave: We’d record the songs and then figure out how to do them live afterwards, as they all have like 100 guitars on them.

Carson: Yeah, they do have a lot of stuff on them. Dave plays keyboards on them too, but obviously we can’t have him grow extra arms out of his back.

Elsner: I feel like we’re breaking through a wall right now.

Dave: Especially having Elsner in the band.

How’s that been?

Dave: It’s been amazing.

Carson: It’s been the easiest paradigm shift. You’d think it would be difficult or strange and it’s just been so easy. A room like this is really good to watch him in. I have a feeling he’s going to be in all the pictures tonight. That’s one thing I don’t like, hundreds of cameras everywhere.

Is that as you want to control the images?

Carson: Absolutely I want to control the images, but I’m just like, “watch the show!” I get that it’s press, but press is funny. The way underground music is documented, it’s not promoted. You don’t have people going like “we have to sell this record” it’s more “this record’s been out for ten years and this is the document of it.” It’s always earned itself documentation and the story is usually crazy. Now there are all these agents and publicists and journalists that are trying to push this thing that’s just out or hasn’t even come out yet. Rather than something that’s been out and was said for a reason.

What's the weirdest show you've played?

Carson: We played a show in Orange County where Dave’s guitar was so loud that you couldn’t hear anything else because the sound guy was so out of his mind on pills. I mean told him in the mic that “he needs to be louder than all of us,” except then he did it and it was ridiculous. It sounded like Stockhausen or something.

Elsner: He didn’t even have a strap!

Carson: He played sitting on the floor.

Dave: Punching my pedals.

Carson: It was just one of those days…

Dave: Our van broke down so we had to get a ride to the show and leave some of our gear in the van…

Carson: It was a nightmare. I didn’t have distortion. The amps didn’t have it. I plucked my guitar. They were just like “we can’t do anything for you”. I feel like I have a temper tantrum when it happens, but it kind of always makes the show better. It’s just like “whatever.”

Dave: Improvisation isn’t a problem for us.

You’re not worried you might get too comfortable soon?

Carson: I like playing well too.

Elsner: How much more boring can you get?

Dave: I like it when things go how we want them to go.

Carson: I just don’t care about, well, how many shows have I played in my life? I don’t know. Hundreds and hundreds. We’re going to play again and even if it’s all fucked up, it’s funny. No one has fun anymore. I like playing fucked up. Just like, out of tune, in tune. It’s just a different thing and you can coerce both to go well.

Elsner: I think the Mohawk show was one of our biggest shows and that was the most fucked up.

At SXSW?

Carson: Yeah, we were fucked.

Fucked half asleep or fucked fucked?

Dave: Both.

Carson: Fucked drunk. Like everything.

Elsner: Drunk. Shittiest instruments!

Dave: The backline was bad.

Carson: We played the opening songs wrong. Fucked up intros. Then in the middle of the set we just, like, extended the saxophone part of the performance. The new record has a sax solo on it. It’s like a freaked out downward spiral, but live we were like, “this whole thing sounds like garbage”, but it ended up being one of the best shows. We won the crowd at the end. It was really fun. The Palma Violets were there just running around like drunk kids, running into everybody which just jarred loose all the journalists.

Dave: They had more fun.

Carson: It became about fun.

Dave: Rather than scrutinising this band.

Agreed. Thanks Merchandise!

Check out their video for "Totale Night" premiered on Noisey below.