MIKE: Bowie did Diamond Dogs here; James Brown played 14 times.
JESSE: We’re going to be the first band to play here when it opens back up.
PATRICK: We can play right here on the front steps
MIKE: Why did you guys record at Jesse’s house?
JESSE: It’s the practice space and I already have a bunch of recording equipment set up anyway.
OLIVIA: It’s probably not going to sound any better anywhere else either. It’s much easier to just work at our own house.
JESSE: You have good ears and you have good ears and I have good ears so we don’t have to pay somebody to do it for us.
MIKE: Do you think the best way to sound is like the late 70s? What equipment did you use in the recording process?
JESSE: Oh yeah. We used a Tascam 1/2” 8-track reel-to-reel and analog board from the late 70s.
MIKE: So Patrick you wrote all the songs
PATRICK: Yep
MIKE: How do you merge influences with themes?
PATRICK: Whatever seems right at the times, a lot of the time the themes come later after the music’s there
MIKE: Does the album have a theme?
PATRICK: The album not so much, a lot of the songs were written over the span of a few years. Some are newer; some are older.
MIKE: Are the songs about girls?
PATRICK: There might be a couple but a lot of it’s just about weird stuff with weird little references sprinkled in.
JESSE: He brought us the ones he wanted to do.
PATRICK: We tried to see which would work. Jesse and Liv listened to some of it and got a feel for what would be the best songs to do.
MIKE: Were you shooting for an audio feel or a themed feel with similar subject matter songs?
PATRICK: More audio.
JESSE: Things that would work in a minimalist trio band format.
PATRICK: Thematically it doesn’t matter. I’m not really big on concept records Maybe the next one can be a sci-fi concept album since there’s already some sci-fi elements in some of the lyrics.
MIKE: You shrink the Opossums down very small and inject them into someone’s bloodstream
LIV: Opossums on the Magic School Bus.
MIKE: What do you all think about Jesse’s obsession with the Electric Light Orchestra?
PATRICK: (simultaneously) Oh I love Electric Light Orchestra, I’m about as obsessed as he is.
LIV: (simultaneously) Oh I think it’s great and I actually encourage that, I think we all kind of share liking them.
MIKE: Y’all should talk about your influences. Who are they?
LIV: As far as what we all share-
JESSE: Hawkwind.
LIV: Well we are all into Hawkwind for sure, and also any kind of older or newer psychedelic rock as well as jazz and jazz fusion.
JESSE: We’re thinking about doing more impromptu shows; jam shows.
MIKE: Whenever I hear the word “jam” I get nervous. Do you think it would be outdated to call your record a “punk rock” record or is it just rock and roll?
PATRICK: Some of it I feel is punk, but we’re not as punk as a lot of other things. I like the term power pop.
MIKE: If anything you’re dated punk but the irony is that it’s kind of timeless.
PATRICK: I’ve always liked that sound. Buzzcocks, Ramones, Cheap Trick.
MIKE: But you’re putting more arrangement into it than Dee Dee Ramone ever would have.
JESSE: That’s the jazz influence showing through.
MIKE: I know you’re trying to keep it simple but there’s a nod to complexity.
JESSE: That’s also the Wire influence. I think about Pink Flag all the time when we’re putting stuff together. If you can’t just do it with a guitar, bass, and drum kit live then I don’t know.
MIKE: But do you think the Buzzcocks were self-conscious in the way they produced their sound or do you think that’s just the way it naturally came out for them?
PATRICK: I don’t know about the production but the songwriting definitely because I feel like there’s real pop structures that a lot of three-chord-punk didn’t mess with at the time. There are hooks and it’s simple, but it has a little something extra.
MIKE: Let’s talk about “Worried” for a minute.
PATRICK: It’s a couple of years old. It’s about paranoia
MIKE: Is that why it’s acoustic?
PATRICK: That was Jesse’s idea.
JESSE: If there’s any kind of “theme” between the two short albums we’ve already released that make up the contents of the vinyl record, the first album is “do it all live, do almost nothing to it, quickly as possible.” For the second album, we consciously did one extra thing per song like add a keyboard or a slapback delay.
MIKE: Are you recording live so the neighbors won’t complain?
JESSE: Yeah, it’s our preferred way of recording. I also use tape equipment to force everyone to get better takes down so we don’t have to punch everybody’s takes in.
PATRICK: Live takes are almost always better.
LIV: I definitely think there’s a huge difference in the way the parts fit together overall when you record live versus tracking it out separately.
MIKE: What’s the urge to create sincere music when you know most people won’t care?
PATRICK: I’d be doing it anyway. You never know, especially when you have a record out. The document’s there, maybe nobody will care while we’re actually a band but who knows?
MIKE: Are you going to move on from the current sound or is it the Opossums Trademark?
PATRICK: I’d like to expand it a little bit, but I think it’ll mostly retain the sound. The songs I write are more or less in the same vein.
MIKE: There’s a certain urgency to it.
LIV: So far we haven’t really had an experience where we got super hung up on how a song has to go. It’s either working out or we’re going to move on.
MIKE: I suppose punk ends progression in rock and roll music. That’s why I was wondering if you were more pop than punk. Like the Rolling Stones evolve by seeming to go backward to country and blues after their psychedelic period?
JESSE: Don’t all three of us own a copy of the Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet?
LIV: I do.
PATRICK: I don’t think so.
JESSE: Do you have Their Satanic Majesties Request?
LIV: Yeah, the lenticular cover on mine is ripped off.
PATRICK: I’ve got that one.
MIKE: That’s the most esoteric Stones record.
LIV: It’s so good. There’s an unsolvable maze on the inside.
JESSE: Maybe that says something about the three of us. That’s the only Stones album that all three of us own.