Ideal Soul Mart

More and more two-people bands are forming, proving that it doesn’t take an entire lineup to form a wall of sound (as cliche as it sounds). Perfect examples of this are The White Stripes (RIP), The Black Keys, Matt and Kim, and our own hometown heroes, Ghostland Observatory.

But here in the small local level of Austin, we have Ideal Soul Mart. While this interview may be about the two-man band, the story is really behind the guys that make up this band, Clay Fain and Adam Luikart, as they have played together for over eight years.

Introduce yourself and what do you play.

Clay: I'm Clay, and I play drums and guitar.

Adam: That's not all Clay.

Clay: Let's not get carried away.

Adam: I'm Adam, and I play drums and guitar also.

Is that's all that's in the band, just drums and guitar?

Clay: There's a keyboard set-up that these days we use it minimally.

Adam: Yeah, we use it less these days.

Clay: It comes out on a song or two.

Adam: Well, it's hard. If we're going to use the keyboards, we have to really plan, because we'll be doing something else at the same time. We get to work out where we're going to have an arm free to play other another part. So it's harder to work that in.

Clay: Take a lot of practice.

So how did you translate the music from the record to the live setting?

Adam: It was actually almost the other way around right?

Clay: The live show is actually how the songs started. When we went into the recording studio, all we knew how to do was play the songs the way we do live. So I think maybe that's what (Adam) meant by the other way around. What we do live is actually the only way we knew how to do them. Then we went into the studio, laid down exactly what we do live, and then embellished it with overdubs. So we recorded as a two-piece in the studio every song, and then overdubbed on top of those recordings. If he laid down the rhythm track on guitar, it was on top of that that we said, “Oh, it would sound cool maybe a keyboard part.” Then we played that into our set later, like he said, if we had enough hands.

Adam: It was weird. They started just like you would expect them to. Then there’s another small layer added, and then we took what we could.

I read in your bio that you booked shows before the songs were written so you went on the fly. How did that happen?

Adam: Well, that's how we had to do it because we forgot how to do everything. Our old band died off, but we still had friends that play. We still had a lot of contacts. So we still get show offers, and we knew we wanted to work this project up. We just said yes to those shows before we knew exactly what the band was going to be, what the name was going to be even. And so yeah, just sort of happened naturally.

And how long have you been playing together?

Clay: Since 2001? 2002?

Adam: Yeah, we met in 2001 maybe.

Clay: Yes, we've probably been playing together like eight years.

How many bands since then?

Adam: Let's see Friends of Lizzy, Crawling with Kings, The Ashes. That's really it right?

Clay: This is the fourth.

Adam: Yeah, Ideal Soul Mart would be the fourth.

What do you think it is that you keep coming back together to play musically?

Clay: I don't know really.

Adam: We like a lot of the same music. Our roots have been the same for a long time, and we're good friends. Once you know what it's like to work with somebody, it makes it easier to keep working with people. Because we've done a bunch of stuff not together, there's a lot of stuff that Clay brings I wouldn't think of or I'll have an approach that's different. So it's good to have that that other voice, but it's with someone I trust really well so makes it easier I think.

Clay: I think it's a trust thing. It started because we were both, I think, willing to help each other out with the projects we were doing but it all started on having the same touchstones as bands we like. Whether or not we still draw from them as influences, we both have been big fans of Weezer and at the time, Jimmy Eat World.

Adam: Jimmy Eat World, Superdrag, Nadasurf, The Beatles, Elliot Smith.

Clay: Yes, all these bands that we don't necessarily listen to anymore or want to sound like or whatever. But there's something about being a fan of a band with that you can speak the same language as someone else. Even if it's talking about music, it's totally unrelated to any of those bands. Using the same vocabulary and the same reference points and just talking about music. I think there's something to that. Then the other part is just being friends, and being civil, and having being in bands that have broken up, and your personalities clashing with some people in the band.

Do you and Adam ever fight?

Clay: We disagree about music pretty often, but it's always very NRP and intellectualize it and disagree. Then we'll go to dinner with our wives.

Adam: We know how to disagree, and we don't take it personally. Some people, it's really hard to work, because they take everything personally, and you can't disagree with something like an idea they have without them thinking you're criticizing them. Makes it really difficult, and we're at a point where it's just pretty easy for us to disagree, because it doesn't have anything to do with how we feel about each other or whatever.

Clay: Yeah, let's argue about this but we're going to get back together tomorrow and write a song. Part of it's intentional too, because I like the fact that he does not go along with everything I say or what to do musically. I think that sometimes when you get everyone within a band, when you get that group thought and every one's just agreeing with each other and patting each other on the back and “Oh that's great. Oh, your bass part's great, the guitar's great” and there's no friction, I think musicians tend to get complacent. There's no one to be like “hey, you could be better.” Doesn't have to be that it's terrible, but just “Hey this could be better.” Adam and I do that stuff all the time. It's like “I like your idea but it could be better,” and then we work on it, and it gets better. That only comes about because of those little disagreements, differences of opinions.

You prefer the two person band thing?

Adam: Yeah.

Clay: This is something we've talked about recently.

Adam: It definitely started that way, but I think we were always been on the fence. When it started out, we were really charged about it. So much easier to make decisions. We were moving way faster than we've ever moved before with things that we would argue about or that would have taken a committee to resolve. Bands work like committees all the time, and nothing's worse than being in a room with a bunch of people that all have the different ideas about something, and nobody wants to be in charge, make the decision. It's really draining, so really charged up. We just didn't have to spend four hours talking about...

Clay: ...T-shirt design or something. Something not important.

Adam: Stupid stuff. I like it can be difficult to just be two people also, because especially since we know each other so well, we've worked together for so long, if we're not really feeling like working one day, then it's real easy to be like “Well, we'll just come back to it some other time.” There's not necessarily that other party to come in and energize things.

Clay: We could use the accountability that comes from having a bigger band. Earlier when I said we've been talking about it, we've been talking about the fact that we're open to growing if someone makes sense. The thing we want to avoid is saying “Oh, we just need somebody, anybody to play bass because bass would sound cool.” If we can find another partner that we want to write with and be a real teammate, then that could be cool. Someone like-minded that we get along with. But we're trying to avoid going out and getting a drummer or whatever, because again, we're going to make sure that extra person would really bring something to the table, more than just the ability to play another part. Some people have said it, but it's not often that people have said “Oh, you guys would be great if your band was bigger.” A lot of people really like the small band thing.

Adam: And it makes us look cooler too, because people are always “Oh my god, you guys are doing so much stuff.” At least for me, I'm not doing anything. I'm not playing anything particularly well, but the fact that I'm playing different things makes me look cool.

Because I look at the live band photos and you're in different positions in all the photos. You don't sit still. You're not behind a guitar the whole time. There's Adam on drums in one photo and there's Adam behind the guitar in another photo.

Adam: It's definitely challenging. I love the challenge of that and trying to make it work.

Clay: I think some people have the misconception though that we play all these instruments. I'm playing the drums. Maybe I'm just really into the song. Maybe I'll just reach over and pull off a keyboard riff like we're improvising or something. “Oh how'd did you do that?” It's like well, practice a bunch. You'd probably do it too, but I'm not gonna lie. I do enjoy the fact that people are entertained by that. It's a little gimmicky and that makes me feel weird, but if people are enjoying themselves because of it, fine by me.

I saw your music video for “Wrk.” Can you tell me how that idea came about and what was it like filming it?

Clay: We were having lunch.

Adam: Eating Pho.

Clay: Eating Pho. Yeah. Still don't know how to say it. Pha? Pho? I usually default to Vietnamese soup. We're eating Vietnamese soup.

Adam: Whenever we have a tough decision to make, it's let's eat some soup. Our friends were doing this thing, and it sounded like the worst thing in the world to have this happen and have nobody not have camera on it. We rode that. Fell into our laps. That's what it felt like. Holy shit, this is perfect. We should totally just do it.

Clay: So we were sitting there. We were having lunch with our friend Bobby. We were actively trying to think of a concept for a music video. We wanted to make a video. Trying to think of a good idea and we went to lunch with our friend Bobby. He's a close friend of both of ours, and he's always got crazy ideas. We just wanted to pick his brain, like what would make a funny video, and we were at an impact. We couldn't think of any good ideas.

Adam: Or they were all really hard and well ok, this is gonna be the best video ever, but we have to find 12 cars with no engine block and then if it's raining... Like all this stuff was going to have to come together and it'll be really expensive. It seemed like there were elaborate ideas.

Clay: The way I remember it, we sorta gave up. Then just moving on from the music video thing, he was like “Oh so we're going tubing this weekend in business suits, you guys should come. It'll be totally fun.” We're like “Oh it'll be fun.” Then about five minutes pass, and we're like “Why don't we just bring a camera and there's our video. That's perfect.” And we thought ding ding ding and that's the funny thing about the video. Everyone thinks that we came up with “Oh you know what would be a great video idea, go tubing in suits.” No, that was just what our friends were doing and we just brought a camera. I tell everybody this. Our friends are just that dumb. Fun.

Adam: Yeah, it's one of the things that they've done. We need to take cameras and follow them around more.

Clay: Yeah, but it was fun. My favorite part of that video is still Adam at the end answering that guy's question. He's say “So I got to know. What are the suits all about?” And Adam goes “Michael Jackson,” and guy's like “Oh yeah. Yeah sorry.”

Adam: I totally understand. Sorry for your lost.

Clay: I know this is hard for you. It's like come on man, that made no sense. You went along with that.

Adam: Have you as much to drink as we have?

Clay: Yeah. That was a lot of fun though. They did it again (last) year.

I saw that. I actually thought they stole it from you.

Clay: We stole it from them. We were invited to go as friends, just to go, but we used one of those Flip cams and we bought a waterproof bag and took it. I edited it, and it was free.

Adam: But our next great idea, our legion of fans would adopt it and make it a yearly thing. I'm totally confident about that. Ideas at the tip of my tongue. Werewolf hang gliding?

Clay: Too expensive.

In regards to music journalism, 2009 was a great year for me. For life in general, not so much. Here's hoping 2010 will be better. But nevertheless, 2009 had it's highlights. I got to attend several music festivals for free with press passes, was asked to join some great writing teams and from there, formed some really good friendships. It seems that people are starting to notice my writing from the various publications I write for and that's a pretty good feeling. So I know this is the time of year where people do the whole “Best of...” articles, but I'm doing more of a highlights type list and less of Top 10 whatever lists.

So without further ado...

Song I Can't Get Out of my Head Lately: All Hail “ex lover” and Like Clockwork “Hands Up!”
"ex-lover": This song is pretty awesome. Try getting this song out of your head after the first listen.

This review says it all for “Hands Up!”

Best Band Discovery: Quiet Company and Fireants

Quiet Company giving out Free Hugs from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

In my experience, when a band usually uses clever promotion such as passing out free hugs during SXSW, the band isn't normally very good. Hence the clever promotion. So I was in for the surprise of my life when I ran into Quiet Company during a dinner break at that March festival. I introduced myself, met the guys, interviewed them about the gimmick and of course, got free hugs. Afterward, they handed me a cd to review but with all the chaos of SXSW, I didn't get to hear it until a week later. Not only did I write an album review, I also write a short feature. Both for different publications. That says it all. Pay attention to this band ya, I expect 2010 to be the year for them.

Man, Fireants. What a great discovery. I'm so glad I was at the right place at the right time. After my interview with El Guapos, I stuck around Momo's during SXSW and heard the Fireants. For those that hang out with me regularly (especially my Accent friends), know I'm a huge fan of the Fireants. I know I mention that they're high school students, but that doesn't make them a great band. They are seriously talented. The fact that they are this talented now while in high school makes me excited to see what these guys and gal are gonna become once they get older and maturer. I've only seen them twice but the two times I saw them, they had turned every member of the crowd into fans by the end of their set.

Bittersweet Goodbye: Bankrupt and the Borrowers
I first saw this band perform during Emo's Free Week in January at Beauty Bar, but seeing them in their true element: drunk and carefree is what really won me over. I kept following them throughout the year, seeing them gather more and more fans with each performance. Named one of Austin Monthly “Nine to Watch in '09,” it was obviously this band was going places but then it was over. Just like that. After the death of band member Jon Pettis, the band decided to not continue and ending their run at Fun Fun Fun Fest in November. While I completely understand their decision, I know I'm not alone when I say that I hope the remaining members keep playing whether it be in another band together or in their own separate ways.


I started working on this slideshow of the last song they performed at Fun Fun Fun Fest. The plan was to create this awesome slideshow with all the 300+ photos I took with the audio I captured. When listening to "I Love You Baby" recording after the show, it was an obvious choice to put the photos to this song. However, the song is over six minutes long. I worked on it as much as my attention allowed me to in one sitting. This is what I have so far.

Bankrupt and the Borrowers "I Love You Baby" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

The Year of the Music Festivals
SXSW
This was the first year I actually went with a wristband. Usually, I just wander around and check out free shows during this festival. But thanks to the Accent, I was given a wristband and a photo pass. Although my usual experience wasn't enhanced because of this, it was cool seeing people part away from me when I got up front to take photos because of my orange photo tag.

Fun Fun Fun Fest
My first experience with this festival was again thanks to Accent. When we came back for the semester, I asked my faculty advisor if we were applying for passes because I was determine to attend, even if it met I would pay for myself. Luck would have it that we got in! Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy Sunday acts because of the rain but what I did see that weekend was pretty memorable. Death! Danzig! Need I say more?

Best TV Show of 2009: Glee
Yeah so this show is not Austin based but who cares? It's a great show. I love this show!!! I watch it religiously. With my love of musicals and pop songs, the moment I saw the trailer, I knew this would be my new favorite show. The plot could use some work but there are many memorable moments that make that flaw forgivable. But really it's all about the music.

2009 Most Memorable Interview: Whitman
I interviewed a lot of bands this year but Whitman takes the crown. It had been years since the last interview with these guys so we had a lot of catching up to do. Before the actual interview, things got a little awkward as one of the band members unknowingly asked me about my relationship that just ended. With the wound still fresh combined with PMS resulted in some tears shed. Whoops.

But irregardless, Ram Vela as always gave me an entertaining interview. Without the rest of the guys, nothing regarding the band would have been shared. I think that's what makes this band work. Reading the interview shows the great chemistry they have with one another to provide a great show and music.

Here's a clip that didn't make the final product that proves what I just wrote. When I transcribed this part, I couldn't help but laughed out loud making the surrounding people wonder what the hell was wrong with me. I'm glad it didn't get published. Reading the text version wouldn't have done it justice. See for yourself. Well more like hear for yourself. The video is a bit dark.

Whitman describing themselves from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Most Momentous Night: Martin Atkins
No I didn't sleep with this man. Get your head out of the gutter.

Just attending this guest speaker's talk was an event in itself. Ok, first off, I don't have a car. I ride the bus. So I rode the bus for over an hour all the way to Northridge Campus. Then my phone service went down. I had no way to contacting anyone, couldn't use google maps to check when the next bus stop was coming. I got stuck on a bus for over an hour, got stuck at UT in the cold and rain. Overall FAIL. Thanks to twitter and free internet at a coffee shop, I was able to contact my brother and he saved the day, or rather the night.

Listening to Martin Atkins was a great experience. I learned a lot from this knowledgeable musician. Even though I'm not a performer, there was still lots to learn from him that could be applied to my site and my writing.

Year of the Mixtapes and Downloads
I dunno what it was but also thanks to Twitter, I've received a lot of mixtapes and albums for free downloads as a way of promotion. Most bands just posted a link to a handful of songs and viola! I have music to check out from bands I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Unless they added me on MySpace. Smart move bands. Smart move.

Spring Awakening
Man, talk about spontaneous. I received an email earlier in the day that Accent needed someone to attend Spring Awakening and review it. I've heard so many great things from this musicals and being a huge fan of Glee, I wanted to see the musical that gave Lea Michele one of her big breaks. So I said I would go, got my roommate to grab the tickets for me, attended a meeting that night and had my boss rushed me to Bass Concert Hall with 2 minutes to spare for curtain call.

The review will be up soon. I'm so close to finishing it. I've just had other projects that were bigger priorities.

Here's another song to get stuck in your head. "Bitch of Living" is one of the more rockin' songs from the musical. It's been on repeat for awhile now. I would forever love a band if they were to cover this song.

Most Annoying Thing of 2009: Social Media Widgets on Websites
You know, I thought was done with slow loading pages when bands stopped using flash and javascript on their website and went with the “simple is better” websites or just stuck with MySpace. I was wrong. I was way wrong. Now to social media, everyone wants to include their twitter widget, their Last.FM widget, their Facebook widget, etc. all on their main website. So what does that mean to me? Slow ass loading websites yet again. On my personal laptop, this isn't really a problem but when I'm on a computer of lesser value, this presents a problem. It's like being back on dial-up again. So bands, stop it! Simple buttons that direct me to your social media is so much better. Seriously. I know I'm not alone in this.

Favorite Albums From 2009: (in no particular order)
Chief Rival
Quiet Company
All Hail
Ideal Soul Mart
Built by Snow
The States
Statement Code

Toys I Couldn't Never Live Without: Macbook Air and Flip Camera
First of all, Thank you Vista for sucking so much that it forced me to go Mac. Never again will I use Windows by choice. The love for my computer can never be explained. HAHA. Sad, right? But seriously, I carry this thing everywhere for the most part. It's super light, does what I need it to do which is pretty basic: internet, word processing, video watching, music playing and now video/audio editing. Best purchase I've ever made. Plus, it's so pretty!

Best purchase I've ever made #2 is my Flip Mino Camera. I've used many types of recorders for interviews: tape records, iRiver mp3 player, digital recorders, cheap video recorders, my bro's Sony HD camcorder and nothing compares to my Flip. Push of a button, it's instantly ready to record. I don't have to worry about making the band wait so the recorder can turn on, or make sure the tape is ready or whatever the other recorders gave me havoc. The sound quality is more than superb. I recorded an interview in the middle of 6th street surrounded by the loudness of all the people walking down the street, bands blaring from all the clubs. And you know what? Those interviews still sounded clear. It was obvious they had trouble hearing me during the interview but the camera obviously didn't have a problem. Seriously amazing.

There you have it. 2009 in a nutshell. I'm sure I forgot some things but these were definitely the highlights I wanna remember.

The self titled album is confusing, but it is good and that is important. The eight tracks on “Ideal Soul Mart,” initially sound like very simple garage rock that leads to toe tapping. However, give it another listen, and you will discover there are layers within each song.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.