Finding a bar in Alphabet Town that opens its concrete curtains before 2:00 PM on a Monday is more difficult than you would think, but not with The Drums.

The Drums rule the Indie club circuit with songs like the crowd-pleasing “Let’s Go Surfing,” the oddly catchy “Best Friends,” and the hopeful teaser “Instruct Me.”  After landing a month-long residency at The Annex – not to mention a slew of follow-up gigs – The Drums will release their long-awaited EP Summertime on August 4th.  It’s time to put down that copy of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and dance to the new EP of the summer, made by guys who pride themselves on throwing shows like good parties.

The band’s carefree element is illusory.  They are more like technicians who reexamine the interface of pop with their ability to remix and regenerate the old styles.  The effect is the sensation of dancing to the morose, the buoyant, and the absurd in a fashion that cannot be constructed with traditional pop.  Rather, the sentiments manifest themselves in a more genuine expression of human musicality, crafted under a deceptively subtle dose of pop, and all the more enthralling.

A much, much needed dose of post-pop.

Singer Jonathan Pierce confidently leads us through the East Village while guitarists Jacob Graham and Adam Kessler walk behind in an easy stride.  Even without their usual perky stage duds that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Etro’s 2010 menswear collection, they are contagiously exuberant, earnest, and pretty darn cute. After ordering Melon Balls and 007s from a dismal selection of drinks at a quiet place on Second, we talk New York, Florida, and the pains of finding the illest jean jacket around. 

Jacob Graham - JG, Adam Kessler - AK, Jonathan Pierce - JP, Jennifer Sussex for Our Young Art - OYA

OYA: My first question is: did you let drummer Connor Hanwick pick the name of your band?

JG: Are you kidding me?

JP: That guy?

JG:  The drummer was actually the last person we found to be in the band… we came up with the name first and the drummer last. 

OYA:  Was that after you moved to Florida (to Jon)?

JG:  I think it was before.  It was before you moved to Florida. I called you and asked, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a band name The Drums?’  And I didn’t even know if it really was cool, but then Jon was like, ‘No, no it’s cool.’

OYA: It is cool.  Now, I noticed that, in particular, the stylings of the vocals have changed dramatically.  I’ve read that The Drums are largely inspired by Brit post-punk bands.  Did that have a lot of impact on the vocalization since Elkland?

JP: I think I can speak for both Jacob and I, when I say that we’ve both just always been madly in love with upbeat pop songs.  As far as comparing my vocal style [to] before, that whole album [with Elkland]… at the time, I thought it really was sincere.  But, I was dealing with a lot of issues with both myself and the music that I really wanted to make, so the end product was a little lacking.

OYA: You had to be pretty young when you were working with that.

JP: We were babies!  It’s like Jacob and I have lived parallel lives in the way that we evolved and know what kind of music we want to create, whereas before, we were both kind of swimming.

JG: Before we were kind of wish-washy… now it’s something more real, stripped down and basic.  I think that’s where a lot of the 1950s stuff comes in because that’s the beginning of the simple, perfect pop melodies.

OYA: How did you meet these two fellows (to Adam)?

AK: I used to be in Elkland with Jon.

JP:  Adam was the guitar player.

OYA:  What kind of instrument do you have?  Do you have the Fenders –

AK: Yeah, that’s what we (Adam and Jacob) both play.

How long have you played?

AK: Since, I was like twelve.

JP: Weren’t you in a band in high school?

AK: Yeah.

JG: Everyone was in a band in high school.  It’s awful.

OYA: Now, it might be more of a good opener or just a catchy song, “I Wanna Go Surfing,” but I was wondering if there was a strong surf rock culture in Florida.  Whether it’s more like Hot Rod Rock, like the Beach Boys or like Elkie music –

JP: I’m sure there’s a surf culture.  I’m sure there’s a surf culture on the beaches of New York, you know?  But, we weren’t sitting on the beach watching surfers and saying, ‘Let’s go write a song.’  It was more being down there and sort of a reaction to the political climate.  Really, we wrote the song sort of right after Barack Obama was elected.

OYA: Really?

JP: Yeah, the song’s just more about being carefree.  It’s sort of like the feeling we got when Barack Obama moved into the White House.  We felt like we were let out of prison, almost.  So, the song’s more about a “hurrah,” “let’s go surfing,” let’s care about shit.  Let’s have fun again.

OYA: That’s definitely more like what this city needs, what with all these recession drink specials…

JP (laughs): But, it is really sad.  I feel like everyone’s been influenced by that in some personal way.  That’s not to say this song’s going to make that go away, but it’s like a nice stiff drink, you know?

OYA: What’s this I hear about the five-year tiff you guys had (to Jacob and Jon)?

JG:  I don’t know; we just got really sick of each other.

OYA: Were you best friends?

JG: Jon and I have been best friends since we were really young.  Like eleven, twelve –

JP: Kids.

JG: I think that we we’re very similar, more than anyone else in the world. I think I have more in common with Jon, like we have such similar musical tastes.  I think so much so that our personalities just kind of clash.

JP: It’s an alpha male complex.

JG: Yeah, it is.

OYA: How do you feel with all these alpha males running around (to Adam)?

AK: I haven’t experienced any of their fights.

JG:  We’re getting better.  As we’ve gotten older, we’ve mellowed out quite a bit, but I think conflict is what’s so great about our music.  We fight a lot about it, different ideas and things, what we should do with the songs.

JP: We know what we want the end result to be, like if I start writing, sometimes I have a problem with it being too dramatic and if Jacob wants to be more simple, more meek, then that balances out our different styles.

OYA: What’s the typical song-writing process like: is it collaborative?  Who writes the lyrics?

JP: I write the lyrics.

JG: And, sometimes, I tell him to change them.

JP: He’s like my writing coach.

JG: Sometimes, he doesn’t know what a song should be about and I’ll give him a list of ideas that I think it could be about, things like that.

JP: We’re working on a song right now called “Kickin’ a Can.” Just kickin’ a can down the street…

OYA: Like the game?  On the playground?

JP: There’s a game!?  No, more like being lonesome and by yourself, just kickin’ a can.

JG: Kind of moping, you know?  We’re writing another one about finding the perfect jean jacket.

OYA: What is the perfect jean jacket?

JP: I don’t know.

JG: That’s kind of what the song’s about.

JP: I guess we’ll find out about in the end.

JG: Or, we won’t.  The last lyric in that song could be, ‘What the fuck? I can’t find it!  It’s so hard to sew down!  I need to get alterations!’

OYA: What about the track “Best Friends”?

JG: That’s the first song we wrote.  I guess it’s a little stupid for two best friends to write a song about best friends.

JP: It’s not about us.  It’s about two friends –

JG: There’s really no good way to rationalize this –

JP: And one of them dies.

JG: He had this idea about a song and I gave him a suggestion –

JP: So, Jake comes home one night and listened to this song with the lyrics, “I had a best friend who died…”

OYA: If one of you is found dead in the gutter, then we will clearly all know who is to blame.  Or, maybe you (to Adam).

JP: We’re getting there.  Adam’s in love with my life, in a guitar player kind of way.

OYA: So, tell me, what’s next?

JG: I don’t think we know.  I don’t think we made a plan past this point. 

JP: Work on the full length.  Most of the album’s done… everything we’ve done for the EP we recorded in Florida –

JG: In a tiny little apartment.

OYA: I think spatiality makes a huge impact on music –

JP: If we made that record in NY, it wouldn’t have been the same… One day, I kind of asked myself, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’ I called Jake and told him we’re going to start a band.  I got a job down there [in Orlando].  When we weren’t working, we were working on music.  Once, we got enough music, we started posting things online.  People started noticing.  Then, we were like, ‘Fuck, we have to move back to New York.’ 

JG: It’s a very weird environment down there, it’s so strange…

OYA: What’s the scene like in Orlando?

JP: There is no scene.

JG: The only thing you could really consider a scene is this kind of noise, art rock and a lot of house of blues. 

JP: Just lot’s of partying.

JG: Yeah, it’s more about parties in Orlando than music.  It’s like the whole kind of tourist vibe has impacted the youth of Orlando…. We’re also being real careful not to let this city influence us.

JP: And we were able to come back with something different, not being part of the scene here, not listening to it for a while.

JG: But, we don’t really care about being experimental or cutting edge.  We just want something that we can be happy with, being ourselves with. 

Jacob Graham, Adam Kessler, and Jonathan Pierce have all played together before in different bands.  Adam and Jon were both in the band Elkland, which released the EP Golden in 2005 as well as touring for Erasure.  After Elkland disbanded, frontman Jon formed the band Goat Explosion, which was incidentally the original name of Elkland, and signed Jacob on for guitar.  All three reunited this year to form the Drums, after Jon moved from the city to Florida to record with Jacob. Their EP, Summertime, is releasing on August 4th.

Jennifer Sussex, our newest contributor, lives in the East Village where she writes and laments the cancellation of Arrested Development. Her work has been featured in the PBS, The Chicago Tribute, and the Voice. When she was three years-old, she was tight with Ted Nugent’s son, Rocko. They played Cabbage Patch Kids together.