Seattle-based Curtains For You is kinda like an All-Star team for musicians – full of guys who excel at so many things in the industry – on the stage and behind it. They have audio engineers working with U2 and Nas, songwriters that appear on NPR’s “All Song’s Considered” and the swagger to record their latest EP live at London Bridge Studios, home to past records from bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Hell – they’re kinda like Baltimore O’s outfielder Adam Jones – all-stars with gold gloves!

Enough with the baseball analogies (it’s halfway through Football season after all) – let’s get to that new Curtains For You EP: "What a Lovely Surprise to Wake up Here". Matthew and Mike Gervais Nick Holman, Peter Fedofsky and Dave Lawrence show off their twist on ‘60s pop, self-described as “The Beatles meets Vaudeville meets the Muppet Show.” Fedofsky talks about the latest collection, “It’s such a throw-back to a different era. The album is really clean and ‘live’ sounding. It is a tight little record, clocking in at about 30 minutes, so there’s no filler on it. So many albums that I love have the vibe of every song having single potential.”

Check out “What a Lovely Surprise to Wake up Here” ASAP – the band doesn’t plan on taking too much time off. They have a big show this Friday (the 13^th – gah!) at The High Dive in Seattle, so swing by if you’re in the area. There’s so much more to learn below, so keep going for the answers to the XXQ’s.

XXQs: Curtains For You

PensEyeView.com (PEV): What goes through your heads the minute you walk onto stage?

Matty G: Usually the last drops of my whiskey (by way of  mouth), followed by the most earnest attempt possible at completely shutting off my thoughts.  Other times, depending on the situation, I'll be scratching for some ridiculous opening statement to coax the crowd's gaze stageward.

Peter F:  Don’t fall – don’t fall. Kidding aside, I try to be as relaxed as possible. I am usually running through an internal checklist of things like where is the setlist, where is my water, and most importantly, can I see/hear everyone else on stage.

PEV: How did the band first come together and was it an instant connection?

MG:  We got together, like so many bands before us, from the wreckage of another band.  I was drumming, Nick was the lead guitarist, and Petey had just been hired as the token keyboard guy. Once we gravitated towards what we're doing now, it was definitely an instantaneous and unanimous, "yeah, that feels about right." Never really smiled so much as those first few rehearsals.

PF:  Matt, Nick, and I had been playing in another band that broke
up. We started informally playing and recording, and it just
clicked. Mikey came in shortly thereafter, and Dave joined us much
later.

PEV: What is the story behind the name “Curtains For You” and why
did you choose it for the band?

MG:  As a kid I was big into Dick Tracy for a while.  I think the
Warren Beatty movie had just come out and you could get fake hi-tech
gadgets at McDonald's or something.  Anywho, when the band was
getting started we were playing this music you would imagine playing
in the background of one of those sultry scenes in the comics.  I
don't know if they ever actually used the words "curtains for you,"
but I think the words evoke that same classic cartoonish mobster
darkness that seemed to make sense for us.  A brightly colored
rendering of something quite dark I suppose.

PF:  I guess the name sounded vaguely dastardly, kind of a dialog
card that would pop up in a silent movie while someone was tied to
the railroad tracks. Strangely enough, there is another Curtains For
You in Ohio somewhere. They’re a bunch of teenagers who play some
loud music. We tried to “friend” them on MySpace years ago, but we
got shutdown. I’m still a little sad about that one…

PEV: What can fans expect from a live Curtains For You show?

MG:  We've been accused of doing cocaine before the show.  I almost
broke my ankle at one of our last shows when I thought for a moment
that I was a gymnast.  Goofiness seems to be the winning formula.

PF:  Tight little pop songs at 141 b.p.m. no longer than 2 and a
half minutes a piece. We really subscribe to the don’t bore us get to
the chorus thingy in pop music!

PEV: Tell us about your first live performance together as a band
that we see now. Was it an instant connection?

MG:  It was awesome!  We were lucky enough to open up for Carrie
Akre from Goodness, Rockfords and Hammerbox so the place was
packed.  We got this awesome response and the whole day had a
certain feeling to it.  We were playing without a drummer at the
time so in lieu of drums I stomped on a hi-hat with a tambourine on top for the whole show.  It was sort of carnival like, and I think we all got a good charge out
of it.

PF:  Shoot now, let’s see – we didn’t have a drummer, so Matt
played the hi-hat with his foot while he sang and played guitar, and
we were also lugging around a Wurlitzer at the time. I think it was
April 1st, and it seemed like a fitting day to foist ourselves on
the public. As far as instant connection, I can tell by looking at
pictures from that day that we were all a bit “deer in the
headlights” to connect to anything other than our amps.

PEV: What can fans expect from your recent album, "What A Lovely
Surprise To Wake Up Here" EP?

MG:  Well I hope it's long enough that you can call it an LP. Ha.
I'd say people can expect to hear plenty of harmonies and a little
more cohesive overall sound compared to our last album.  We recorded
all the basic tracks live in the studio, so it should sound pretty
close to our live show, which is something we all really wanted to
shoot for.  Keep your ears open for some incoherent blathering in
one or more of the songs.

PF:  It’s a mish-mash of styles, but in the best possible way. We walked
into London Bridge Studios, and had our hearts set on keeping it
as close to live in the studio as possible. When I listen to it now, it
brings me back to how fun that whole process was, and I think
that because it was recorded in this fashion, no matter how diverse
we get in style or influence, it’s a very cohesive record.

PEV: How is "What A Lovely Surprise To Wake Up Here" different from
other albums out today?

MG:  I don't know really.  I've been listening to too much Johnny
Mathis.  I can list a lot of ways that it's different from Johnny
Mathis.

PF:  It’s such a throw-back to a different era. The album is really
clean and “live” sounding. It is a tight little record, clocking
in at about 30 minutes, so there’s no filler on it. So many albums t
hat I love have the vibe of every song having single potential. Whet
her it’s Odessey and Oracle by the Zombies or the Stone Rose’s
first record, every song serves its purpose on the record. There’s a
movement in music today to pump out 14-15 track collections of songs
that don’t play like albums used to. We made a compact and solid album
that feels … well, I think it feels like an “album”.  Also
the decision to release it on vinyl (instead of just on CD) keeps the
A-side B-side feel of albums of yore. I’ll never forget the first
time I listened to Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart. I
flipped the record to the B-side, and flipped it again and again just
because I couldn’t help it. I hope that’s what it feels like to
listen to our record.

PEV: Tell us about the creative time behind the making of the album?
What was it like creating this?

MG:  It's been a long time coming.  We recorded really slow and
primitive versions of four of the songs at a beach house in Copalis
that we ended up scrapping.  The sessions that you hear on record
were a blast.  I spilled maple syrup on myself on my way to the
first session, so I had to record in my undies that day.  Geoff Ott,
who engineered the sessions, is a maniac and a hell of a lot of fun
to work with.  Petey had the foresight to record a lot of it on
video, which he'll eventually edit down into a feature length film.

PF:  We made an earlier attempt to record the album in the overdub
and click-track heavy way that most albums are created these days.
While initially excited about the results, it was just missing that
spark of spontaneity that was really present in our rehearsals and
shows. We sort of slowed down and tried to take a different approach
by sequestering ourselves out on the coast in a house to start
recording again. It was a really fun and creative adventure, but we
returned without much progress. It was only when we walked in the
door at London Bridge that the real album began. It was as if
walking through the front door to the studio put us in a different
place where time, responsibilities, and pressure evaporated.
Speaking for myself here, it was the most slap-happy and giddy
experience we’ve had as a band. We were working long days and
getting loopier and loopier, but we were also nailing take after take. It
was a great creative and wild time for us.

PEV: What is your take on today’s mainstream music scene? What’s
something you are tired of seeing today in some bands?

MG:  I guess this further reveals my lack of current musical
knowledge.  I can tell you that I'm not tired of what I'm hearing in
mainstream hip-hop and R&B.  I can do the Stanky Leg pretty well.

PF:  Geez, I’m pretty cynical about music today. I read an interview
in Wired a while back where one of the major label heads was saying
that he could care less about artists and art. He was only interest
ed in selling whatever format of plastic made noise. Everyone knows
that that is what the industry has always been about -it’s just hard
to make that tangibly known. Once it’s said out loud, that statement
carries incredible power. I don’t think that it’s ever been
more present than today, though. One thing that I’m tired of seeing
bands doing is shirking their homework as songwriters.

There’s a wealth of recorded (and non-recorded) music to digest out there.
I feel that the songwriting of today is all flash and gimmick and not very
complex. Listen to something like “This Whole World” by Brian
Wilson and then listen to “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas.
It’s like Goofus and Gallant in Highlights Magazine these days.
Goofus’ songwriting technique is de rigueur right now. I don’t want
to rant, but the mainstream industry needs to write smarter music. Writers
really need to diversify and study the past a bit more. Beeth
oven’s sonatas are frighteningly good pop songs if you break them down
into chord charts. It’s a craft and a discipline. All of us “research” all the
time, whether it’s tackling George Formby, Stephen Foster, Smokey Robinson, or Paul McCartney.

PEV: What’s one thing we’d be surprised to hear about the members
of the band?

MG: Davey's going to be a doctor.  Mikey speaks Spanish everyday.
Nick can lick any sonofabitch at arm wrestling.  Petey has a baby girl. 
And I'm an ordained minister.

PEV: Was there a certain point in your lives when you knew that
music was going to be a career for you and you were determined to
make it happen?

MG: For me it happened pretty early on.  I spoiled myself as a young
teenager by writing a few songs and feeling the tremendous amount of
pleasure that comes with it.  Plus, it like totally worked on chicks.

PF:  Career?  You must have this decade confused with another. No
one can make a career out of music anymore! Hehe.

PEV: What one word best describes Curtains For You show?

MG:  Uhh...Awesome Choreography...awe crap, I knew I was gonna mess
this one up.

PF:  These days, “Rotate”

PEV: What can we find each of you doing in your spare time, aside
from performing?

MG:  We usually just hang out in Mikey's back yard and drink beer.
You might catch us singing CCR or The Drifters really loudly.

PF:  I’m usually at home playing with my daughter, Annabel. She started her music career early, guesting on two of my last three solo records starting at the age of about 6 months.

PEV: Where do you feel the band will be ten years from now? Do you
find your path in music taking alternate turns?

MG:  I will be absolutely thrilled if we are still playing together
in ten years.  A lot can happen in that amount of time.  I will say
that we write a hell of a lot of songs (and hope we continue to do
so), and I wouldn't be surprised to see a solo album or two popping
up from any one of the band members at some point.

PF:  Gosh, I’d love to have a few more records under our belts by then.
We all write music, and it would be cool to each have a solo record
released simultaneously, then do a “reunion” tour.
Personally, I’d like to see us scoring films or writing jingles. We’d excel at both…

PEV: Is there an up and coming band or artist you think we should
all be looking out for now?

PF:  Holy loaded question, Batman! Without a doubt, Andy Werth is
worth a listen. Mainstream-wise, you owe it to yourself to latch on
to Richard Swift and Sondre Lerche. Both of those guys should be way
bigger than they are.

MG:  Yeah!  There's this one band, Curtains For You.

PEV: If playing/writing music was not your career goal, what would
each of you most likely be doing?

MG:  I know for sure that Davey would be snorkeling in a river
somewhere, poking at Salmon and researching ecosystems.  I would be
working towards curating, writing or something of that nature.
Mikey would also be snorkeling in a river somewhere, only he would
be poking at bug larvae and researching bugs.  Nick would already be
the CEO of a fortune 500.  Petey would have become a monk, or a drunk.

PF:  I’ve always loved making films. It’s something that I never
do anymore, but someday…

PEV: If we were to walk into your practice studio/space right now,
what would we find?

MG:  I'll spare you the boring details about what gear we use.
You'd likely see a strange painting after Carravagio with the
Beatles heads replacing the original subjects.  A few empty cases of
PBR, a bunch of CFY merchandise, lots of tums, some cups with dried
little puddles of wine at the bottom, a Chuck Close poster, a giant
posterized version of our album cover art by Tim Marsden, a toy
harmonica, the typical ephemera you might see at any band's space
but with a shockingly refreshing smell to it.

PF:  Well, a couple of nicely framed pictures of The Beatles, an old
organ that we’ve plundered for tubes, a dry erase board full of song
titles that has not changed in three years, and a total lack of
guitar picks, which can be frustrating. Oh, one of my favorite things
in there is a graph that shows the x-axis as “Curtains” and the y-
axis as “For You” which shows the plotted curve of our band’s
existence. Goofy!

PEV: So, what is next for Curtains For You show?

MG:  I'll give you two for the price of one.  Halloween night at The
Comet in Seattle and Friday the 13th of November at the High Dive in
Seattle as well.

PF:  We’re plugging away madly at songs for the next record.