Polar Bear Club Interview

Interview with Chris Browne of Polar Bear Club

August 11, 2010 by Brian Kraus
Category: Interviews
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Polar Bear Club

Photo Credit: Mitchell Wojcik

Does constant time on the road at 24 affect your ability to lead a normal life?

“Normal” is all relative. There’s no way to make what we do fit into the same mold as someone working a 9-5 job, but we’ve had to make it normal for ourselves. It becomes a routine on a larger scale. Instead of getting up and going to work eight hours a day and then coming home at night, we go out and devote ourselves to our craft for a couple months on end and then come home and try to decompress for a week or a month or something (all while writing and planning our next block of activity). And it becomes normal life by necessity. Little things tend to keep us grounded — seeing friends in different cities, eating at regional food chains, getting the spot closest to the a/c in a shitty motel room, and so on. It’s great because I wake up every day excited for what that day is going to bring, but it sucks because it requires sacrificing relationships with family and friends who have a more conventional life. All in all, I’m just very lucky to be able to devote my time exclusively to things I want to be doing.

You managed to finish school while PBC was still on the rise. Does it seem most of your peers skipped college? Is it something you’re glad you got out of the way before going full-time with PBC?

I’ve found they come in all shapes and sizes, but people in our walk of life seem more likely to have foregone higher education in favor of hitting the road early. Some of my best friends never even finished high school, and have more intelligence and maturity than any of the people I met at a top-20 law school. I’m definitely glad I went to college and even to grad school. That stuff gave me perspective and established some of the most important relationships and life lessons I’ll ever learn, and I have no regrets. Am I using ANY of the substance I learned there? Absolutely not. But I don’t really think that’s the point anyway. If I could take back any one thing, it would be the crippling financial debt from the grad school I never finished. But it’s all part of the journey I suppose.

What do all these mystery haters that are the topic of “One Hit Back” have against PBC?

I don’t really like addressing lyrical questions because, well, I don’t write the lyrics. But to go out on a limb, I think that song was important more as a time and place thing, as a means of growth. I feel like all of us care much less about that sort of thing now than we did even a year ago. We needed to get past the negativity that always comes with being an established punk/hardcore band in order to fully realize and enjoy what we do. At some point you take a step back and think, “man, for every one outspoken shithead there are ten cool people that love or hate what we do but don’t need to tell everyone about it.” So to answer your question: it doesn’t matter what anyone has against us, and I can’t even pinpoint it. For as long as music (and the internet) exists, certain people will find things to hate and insult and others will appreciate the art and move on with their lives, and maybe even make their own! For a band making their first properly organized record whose lives were mired in uncertainty, hateful comments could hurt a lot. But with experience comes more confidence, and now I think we’re less concerned with critics and haters, and more with just making music that we feel good about and letting the rest work itself out.

Have there been any creepy side effects of being in PBC? Stalkers? Bizarre Facebook messages? Spill.

Not too much, really. Most of the people that bother to meet us or write to us are super cool and appreciative, and we’re just grateful that they care. I don’t add people on social networks that I don’t know in real life, so I hope people aren’t offended when I deny them, but that’s about it.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen during your set?
Live @ The Underworld, London

Photo Credit: BMHC Photography

At a headline show in London this spring, a drugged-out crowd surfer landing on stage unconscious and pissing himself mid-song. It was honestly terrifying but luckily he was OK. That, and the first and only time we’ve been flashed a set of boobies while playing was at the Phoenix Warped date.

You guys are notorious for slaying some covers in the set. What ones do you have cooking up, or are they a surprise?

We actually don’t have much cooking right now but we do like to keep it a surprise. We’ve tossed around the idea of a sort of classic-rock-cover-medley song, but I don’t want to go into specifics because that’ll just ruin the fun if and when it does happen.
Chasing Hamburg

Chasing Hamburg

Looking forward to the writing process for the follow up to Chasing Hamburg, are there any unifying aspects surfacing already?

Between Jimmy and I we have probably 14 or 15 song ideas ready to go. I know Nate has some stuff he’s working on as well. We’ve only had time to get to one or two as a full band so far, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about PBC songwriting. Things are coming together naturally and smoothly, and we all seem to want the same things this time around. I think the next record will maintain the variety of songs that we like, but the performance will have a little more “vibe” or “groove” to it if that makes any sense. We’re not going to be afraid to just take a song where it needs to go rather than micromanaging everything. It may end up being more of a pop-rock record than we’ve ever done before, but the ideas are just as quirky and intense as ever in my mind.

With bands of your level have you observed any conscious efforts to be something else rather than themselves?

It is just so different for every band. Most of the time bands across the board are just trying to make music they think is good, you know? People tend to think there’s some secret or something, but even the most successful artists are just perfectionists trying to do what they do best. In some cases that may be to look cool and get haircuts, but most of the time the music industry is surprisingly like a meritocracy. Do an awesome job, work your ass off, and success will (okay, may) follow. That’s just how I like to look at things, though.

You’ve been on the road as a unit for a while. Being in a band is like a Mormon marriage, can everyone love each other unconditionally?

Something like that, ha ha. It’s definitely a cliche at this point, but we’re like a family. More like siblings really. We fight and bicker and hate each other at times. But we all want the same things and we have all grown to trust each other and have each other’s backs. Touring has taught me to let go of anger and to realize my own faults in a way more magnified way.

How many hands are in the PBC creative process, meaning everything that we see and hear? Does it go beyond the five of you?

Jimmy, Nate, and I generate all of the song ideas. The five of us arrange them together. When we work with a producer, we like him or her to be an active and vocal part of the process. As far as press and photos and other non-music stuff, we have management and an agent and a label just like most other bands like us, and we welcome their input because we chose them and we value their expertise. But all decisions ultimately come down to a vote between the five of us. Again, there’s no big secret.

This is going to be PBC’s first Warped Tour. What’s going through your collective heads? Edit: It’s over.
Warped Tour

Photo Credit: Ethan Hansen

If I were a more motivated individual, this question would have been relevant as I type this. But alas, it’s not. All I can say in retrospect is that I had a great time and I can’t wait to do it again, but it was very different than any tour we’ve done. I’m glad to be sweating less and sleeping more now.

Anyone on the Warped circuit you were anticipating meeting? Bands you watched daily?

Eh, I’m over being starstruck by musicians, with maybe a couple exceptions. I watched a lot of our friends (The Swellers, The Flatliners, Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, Every Time I Die, etc.) and hung out a bunch with them and a lot of others. I discovered some great stuff like Closure in Moscow (from Australia) and I Can Make A Mess (Ace Enders from The Early November). Warped was great for expanding your horizons and testing your own ability to truly maintain an open mind. I saw a lot of shit I didn’t like at all, but I also made some unexpected friends. At this point I have to mention NeverShoutNever, who I didn’t know before the tour and turned out to be a group of genuinely good people, both band and crew.

Where does this crossroads of new listeners wandering to your stage lead you?

We have no predetermined ideas on this. We want as many people to like our band as we can get, because we know what we want to be and we only plan on changing as change naturally occurs. Headlining tours are awesome in some ways, support slots are awesome in others, festivals are great in still different ways. At this point, I consider myself a musician and all of this is part of that career and life experience. I’m along for the ride.

Was the grand response to the “Living Saints” music video expected?
Living Saints

Living Saints

Not really, but it wasn’t wholly unexpected either. Tom Collela, who created and directed the video, is a genius who we’re lucky enough to be great friends with. Emmett and Tom went to high school together and we’ve been crashing on Tom’s floor for way, way too long now. So when we saw the video and went “holy shit this is awesome,” it wasn’t surprising, but we had no idea what to think about its wider reception. I think its great and all the credit should go to Tom for knocking it out of the park.

Are you happy with the creative outlets currently available to you?
Live @ The Boardwalk, Orangevale

Photo Credit: Carly Hoskins

Like any borderline-OCD perfectionist type, I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied. I end up hating most everything I make shortly after its finished, and the focus turns to improving the next creation. I love that I’m a part of Polar Bear Club, Achilles, and the few other things in which I get to participate, and lack of time pretty much prevents any large-scale new projects. But the last two years or so have also brought a great deal of new friends, many of which I have a ton of respect for and would LOVE to collaborate with at some point. So I guess we’ll see what comes up when time permits. I’m moving to Boston with my girlfriend shortly and know a number of people there that I’d like to make music with if possible.
Achilles

Achilles

It’s not common knowledge among PBC fans that you play drums in Rochester, NY’s Achilles. Anything new to report from the camp for 2010?

Achilles is alive and well and an important part of our lives. We don’t have many chances to get together, but we’re close friends and always love when we can play. Rory is in Soul Control; Rob is a married art teacher with two kids, two pets, and a slew of other activities taking up his time; Josh is just graduating college and moving on to employment and/or grad school; and I do PBC. For now, we’ll be doing shows in Buffalo and Syracuse at the end of August, and then a show in Brooklyn to benefit Jake Stults in September. We’re writing a new EP that we’re going to record with Jay Maas from Defeater, and we have some exciting progress but can’t really predict when it will be ready to record. I firmly believe Achilles will exist in some capacity until one of us is no longer physically capable of playing our instrument.
Cave In

Cave In

When was the last occasion you moshed, if ever?

October 26, 2004. Club Tundra in Syracuse, Cave In played “Juggernaut” and that was that. Yes, I had to search through the syracuseshows.com archive to figure that out.

Finally, Upstate New York is a breeding grounds for pop-punk and hardcore. Who do you hope will take it to the next level this year?

The new Such Gold songs I heard were a really big step up and they’re working hard too and that’s awesome. Like Wolves is an awesome band and seems to be gaining momentum, too. Some of my friends started a new band called The Curl And Drag that should be great, in the vein of How We Are. I’m sure there are a ton more but those come to mind first. Oh, and Tracker’s band, Mayflower, is awesome despite being less active.

Taken from adequacy.net