Yer Cronies
The Radioheadesque locals trim the proverbial tree at the Entry for their Crony Christmas show.
If local indie-rock quartet Yer Cronies seem remarkably cohesive for such a new band, perhaps it’s because the quartet have been cronies and musical collaborators since eighth grade, though the current project and its dreamy and tightly wound sound only came together in 2007. Yer Cronies’ debut record, When I Grow Up, which incorporates folk, rock, and Radiohead-like abstractions, came out in August, and the band has slowly been gaining fans through their many live shows. This week, they deck the halls of the 7th Street Entry with their “Crony Christmas” show on Dec. 20, with openers A Night In The Box, Joey Ryan And The Inks, and The Floorbirds. Decider sat down with the band for a Q&A.
Decider: How does your songwriting process work?
Greg Reese, guitarist/singer: We’re all songwriters, so sometimes somebody has something that they made on their own time and brought to be finished by everyone, and sometimes we just make up stuff in the room.
Michael Brown, bassist: There’s times when we’ve been practicing and someone will play a little part, and we’ll just work off of that and end up writing a complete song. And other times, someone will bring in a song front to back, and we’ll just arrange it or simplify it. I think we all do a pretty good job at listening to each other.
Jared Isabella, drummer: And I think that’s kind easy for us, just because we’ve been playing music over the years for so long, and we know how the other person writes or what they’re going for, so it’s easier to tune in on that.
D: You recorded this in a bedroom at Jared’s house in northeast Minneapolis. Did those surroundings affect how it ultimately sounds?
MB: Yeah. With all of us being friends, hanging out, there wasn’t a ton of pressure, recording-wise in each session. The other three would be hanging out, watching Frasier or something. [Laughs.] So it was a relaxed environment.
Casey Garvey, guitarist/singer: I remember watching Wild playoff games on mute, and trying not to be loud. And we had someone recording the Rhodes while two people were sitting on the other end of the couch, watching a TV that that person couldn’t see, on mute.
D: The CD has a, for lack of a better word, “jammy” feel to it. Is that a deliberate contrast, to have that looseness but also have a tight structure in each song?
GR: You’re not the first person that’s said that, that it sounds sort of improvisational. But it’s weird to me, because we’re very much aware of what we’re playing, and it’s very written.
CG: I feel like we’re actually, for the first time, trying to write really structured rock ‘n’ roll songs. It’s really strange that people think there’s a jammy aspect to it.
D: There are a lot of quiet and loud moments on this record, often in the same song.
CG: We like songs that make you want to do a jump-kick, but then we also like songs that put you to sleep, so why not put it in the same song? We all kind of have our own variations of ADD—especially Jared [laughs]—and American culture is becoming more ADD, so let’s just go through all these styles in one song instead of taking ten songs to do it.
D: What happens next for you?
CG: Play out of town, to get our music out of just the Twin Cities. As much as we love it here, obviously, we have goals to get it elsewhere.
GR: There’s still a lot to be done here, but we definitely want to start moving around a little bit. We’re all very serious about [our music], but we want to be taken seriously at the same time. So getting more people to hear it, and getting more cities to recognize that we exist is a big step for that. And we’re writing music all the time; we have a bunch of new songs right now, and we’re just going to make more music.
MB: We still dig this record enough to promote it and support it. It’s only available at one record shop [Treehouse Records] right now, so there’s plenty more to do with this record before we keep going. [But] like Casey said, there’s a lot of ADD, so we can’t just keep playing the same songs and not write new stuff when we’re thinking of it.
D: Where did the idea for a Christmas show come from?
MB: “Christmas” just flows together with “Crony”. And every band has to play at least one Christmas or holiday song.
CG: There will also be formal attire. Blacks, whites, and greens.
MB: The night starts with an acoustic duo and keeps getting more rocking. And it’s all going to be classy, so everyone’s got to dress really nicely.
GR: I’d pay six dollars to see any one of those bands.
MB: I’d pay six dollars to dress classy.
Greg Reese, guitarist/singer: We’re all songwriters, so sometimes somebody has something that they made on their own time and brought to be finished by everyone, and sometimes we just make up stuff in the room.
Michael Brown, bassist: There’s times when we’ve been practicing and someone will play a little part, and we’ll just work off of that and end up writing a complete song. And other times, someone will bring in a song front to back, and we’ll just arrange it or simplify it. I think we all do a pretty good job at listening to each other.
Jared Isabella, drummer: And I think that’s kind easy for us, just because we’ve been playing music over the years for so long, and we know how the other person writes or what they’re going for, so it’s easier to tune in on that.
D: You recorded this in a bedroom at Jared’s house in northeast Minneapolis. Did those surroundings affect how it ultimately sounds?
MB: Yeah. With all of us being friends, hanging out, there wasn’t a ton of pressure, recording-wise in each session. The other three would be hanging out, watching Frasier or something. [Laughs.] So it was a relaxed environment.
Casey Garvey, guitarist/singer: I remember watching Wild playoff games on mute, and trying not to be loud. And we had someone recording the Rhodes while two people were sitting on the other end of the couch, watching a TV that that person couldn’t see, on mute.
D: The CD has a, for lack of a better word, “jammy” feel to it. Is that a deliberate contrast, to have that looseness but also have a tight structure in each song?
GR: You’re not the first person that’s said that, that it sounds sort of improvisational. But it’s weird to me, because we’re very much aware of what we’re playing, and it’s very written.
CG: I feel like we’re actually, for the first time, trying to write really structured rock ‘n’ roll songs. It’s really strange that people think there’s a jammy aspect to it.
D: There are a lot of quiet and loud moments on this record, often in the same song.
CG: We like songs that make you want to do a jump-kick, but then we also like songs that put you to sleep, so why not put it in the same song? We all kind of have our own variations of ADD—especially Jared [laughs]—and American culture is becoming more ADD, so let’s just go through all these styles in one song instead of taking ten songs to do it.
D: What happens next for you?
CG: Play out of town, to get our music out of just the Twin Cities. As much as we love it here, obviously, we have goals to get it elsewhere.
GR: There’s still a lot to be done here, but we definitely want to start moving around a little bit. We’re all very serious about [our music], but we want to be taken seriously at the same time. So getting more people to hear it, and getting more cities to recognize that we exist is a big step for that. And we’re writing music all the time; we have a bunch of new songs right now, and we’re just going to make more music.
MB: We still dig this record enough to promote it and support it. It’s only available at one record shop [Treehouse Records] right now, so there’s plenty more to do with this record before we keep going. [But] like Casey said, there’s a lot of ADD, so we can’t just keep playing the same songs and not write new stuff when we’re thinking of it.
D: Where did the idea for a Christmas show come from?
MB: “Christmas” just flows together with “Crony”. And every band has to play at least one Christmas or holiday song.
CG: There will also be formal attire. Blacks, whites, and greens.
MB: The night starts with an acoustic duo and keeps getting more rocking. And it’s all going to be classy, so everyone’s got to dress really nicely.
GR: I’d pay six dollars to see any one of those bands.
MB: I’d pay six dollars to dress classy.
