Sleigh Bells have been one of the buzz names at recent music industry showcases such as CMJ and SXSW and with good reason.
The self-released 2HELLWU EP gave a taster of what to expect: a blend of contemporary NYC sass with sweet 60s girl group vocals over a dancefloor-friendly yet hard-edged – occasionally massively distorted – sound (think Mad Decent meets the Jaynetts in Butch Vig’s studio as Debbie Harry drops by).
Now, with US tours supporting Major Lazer and Yeasayer lined up and a well-received trio of London dates completed, the duo of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss are threatening to become the next Brooklyn thing to break out big time. FACT caught up with Derek and Alexis via phone on their way to another show in the U.S.
‘Crown on the Ground’
Hi Derek, how you doing?
“I’m good man, just sitting in a car.”
Where are you off to?
“To Baltimore.”
I know it from The Wire, not much else about it.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s fun, it’s cool. We’ve played there before, the crowd’s always pretty nuts.”
How did you and Alexis meet?
“We actually met at a restaurant that I was working at. I was waiting tables at a Brazilian place called Miss Favela in Williamsburg and Alexis and her mother were my customers. Alexis’s mom’s really friendly so we ended up talking kind of later in the night and it turns out we are both from South Florida. She asked me what I was doing in New York and I told her I was looking for a vocalist. Alexis was sitting right there – “hey, I’m a vocalist” – so I told her about everything I was trying to do, gave her probably some ridiculous references and yeah, it worked out.”
“I told her about everything I was trying to do, gave her probably some ridiculous references and yeah, it worked out.”
How long ago was it that you met?
“This is July of ’08. We just recorded for a solid year before we started playing live. Alexis was teaching. I met her July and by September she was back at school so until the summer of ’09 our work was pretty limited.”
Why’s the band called Sleigh Bells?
“The name really has zero significance, it’s just one of those things. It’s just something that wasn’t already taken that we can’t get sued over and now we’re just stuck with it – it doesn’t really mean anything.”
What’s your working process? Do you write most of the music and Alexis the lyrics or…?
“I’ve done most of it up to this point. Alexis and I have started collaborating a little more recently which has been a lot of fun, so hopefully there’ll be more of that. It was just me for years writing songs and I didn’t really have anyone to work on music with, so out of necessity I just did everything and when I met her I had a lot of material already, but I think it will probably be more collaborative in the future.”
You used to be in a hardcore band, Poison the Well, who or what got you into beats and beatmaking and how did you start marrying the two influences?
“I mean just the interest in rhythm and just the sound in general. After 10 years in a room with a drum kit I just was so sick of the sound of a kick drum and a regular rock snare, it just bored me to tears. So pretty naturally I just started to find ways to find different-sounding rhythms like claps, low-end, 808s, that kind of thing. It was much more exciting. And just a general interest in anything rhythmic, whether it was hip-hop, R&B, funk, anything with a really strong beat.”
How does Brooklyn affect the music that you make?
“Not very much. I’m from South Florida and I think it left a pretty strong impression on me. Brooklyn’s a lot of fun, but maybe that question would be better for Alexis. I just went there for a very specific reason, and I’m not sure how much of it has rubbed off on me if any. But nothing wrong with it, it’s fun – expensive.”
Pages: 1 2