After releasing their major-label debut, "With Love and Squalor," in early 2006, Brooklyn-based We Are Scientists [ tickets ] spent much of the following two years touring Europe and the US--winning a devoted international following along the way.The charismatic group became known for its stellar live performances, hilarious on-stage banter and dance-inspiring energy. Taking a much-needed break from touring, the band set about writing its follow-up album, "Brain Thrust Mastery," released in the US in mid-March of this year.While gearing up for a summer tour, We Are Scientists' frontman Keith Murray found time to talk with LiveDaily about the new album, the band's busy tour schedule, and his deep-seated dislike of a certain breed of dog. LiveDaily: The new album, "Brain Thrust Mastery," features a lot of new sounds, most notably synths. Do you feel the 'album represents a new direction for the band?Keith Murray: I would say, to us, it feels like a fairly natural progression because we've been tracking our own listening tastes for the last two years in a way that listeners have not. To jump from "With Love and Squalor" to this record with no information in between could make it seem like a pretty erratic jump. I've definitely been into very synthy music, whether it be '80s pop or krautrock stuff. It just seems like that's where our interests were naturally lying this time. I don't know if the next record will be even more synthed out, so to call it a direction may be misleading, but it's certainly a new aspect of our sound. You and Chris Cain are the principal band members. What's your songwriting process? Do you two collaborate from the get-go?Usually, the songs start with just me. The way the songwriting has always worked is I'll write a song that I think is great and complete, and then I'll give it to the other guys and they'll say, "Yeah, that's about halfway done and here's how it's going to change." Then it becomes a very different song. So, yeah, the basic songwriting is a very solitary process, just to give the band something to actually work with. We definitely don't write songs based on jams or anything like that, but the arrangements and everyone's parts are very collaborative. The group's lineup has changed a bit. Last year, drummer Michael Tapper left. You've since added Max Hart who's playing keyboards and guitar, and Adam Aaronson who's drumming. What's it been like playing with these new guys?Certainly the last two tours we've done have been the most fun for us in a long time, for multiple reasons, including that we have all these new songs to play. Both Max and Adam are each better technical musicians than Chris and I combined. [laughs] So it is fun to have guys who make the band even more solid than it was before. And the fact that they recently joined the band keeps them feeling a little fresher about it than the three of us were by the end of our last record. I mean, by the end of our last record, we had been on tour for something like 23 months straight. It wasn't that we hated playing shows. We had just played a show every night for two years. We were just sort of like, "Yeah, I know there is something else in life that doesn't involve sitting in a club all day and then playing at night, but I can't remember what that might have been." Now, having nine months off to write and record the album, we want to play again and are definitely having a lot more fun again. You finished up a European tour last month. How did that go?It was amazing. It coincided with the release of our record over there. Our record came out a couple months earlier over there. So it was really cool. Chris and I went and lived in London for about six weeks, just doing press for the record and stuff like that. Then, once it came out, we did a jaunt in Europe proper, and then four weeks in the UK and then another two and half weeks in Europe. Every European tour we've ever done, for whatever reason, has either been in the dead of winter or the dead of summer. This one fell very nicely at the dawn of spring, so the weather was perfect. It was amazing. I highly recommend Europe in late April, just so you know, just for your edification. [laughs] Are there any highlights from the tour you'd like to share? Yeah. Hamburg in Germany is always really good. I was experimenting with alcoholic mixtures that day and have very vague memories of the show, but I remember liking it. The audience reaction may have been different--I can't remember. Glasgow is always a really awesome place to play. We played a very small show in Bologna, Italy. We don't visit Italy very often. The last time we were there was for a co-headlining tour with Wolf Parade. It was really weird and that was one of the tours that was in the dead of winter, so everything was really uncomfortable and those shows were sort of awkward and not particularly exciting. But this show in Bologna was at this really cool, small club, and it was really hot and everyone was into it. So that was a good show and it was nice to have a refreshed image of Italian shows. You have a US tour coming up this summer. Are you eager to play these new songs for American audiences? Yeah. I don't know when the last time we did a US tour was. It was probably about two years ago with Art Brut. So it's been some time. We are definitely very excited to do some US dates again.Any particular cities you're looking forward to playing? Chicago is always a fun town to be in and the shows are also really good there. There's just something really fun to me about pulling up into Chicago and playing there. I think it's because it's one of the cities that I had never been to before we were in a band. So there is something slightly foreign about it to me. San Francisco is always amazing. Chris and I lived in San Francisco for about a year, so it's always fun to go back and play in a town that was once your hometown. After your headlining tour, you're opening a number of shows for R.E.M. Excited? Yeah, it should be pretty interesting. We've done a couple of tours where you open for a huge band in an arena, and they can either be really great or really weird. Initially, we were kind of worried when we got the offer because R.E.M. is an institution. You don't really know if people that go to see them are even thinking about hearing new music. They're just like, "R.E.M. is a huge, important band. Yeah, of course, I'll go see R.E.M. Oh, there are other bands playing?" [laughs] On the other hand, the shows are huge, they're in really cool towns around Europe, and it's R.E.M and I just want to watch R.E.M. 10 nights in a row. I watched and enjoyed your video for "Chick Lit," which features the band dressed up as cowboys and a herd of wild Pomeranians. Where did the idea for the video come from? Are you a big fan of Westerns and Pomeranians?I am a big fan of Westerns. I am not a big fan of Pomeranians. The idea was my idea. My girlfriend loves Pomeranians and I despise them. Somehow, I was thinking about those horrible bastard creatures and the image of a full herd of them, which is essentially my worst nightmare and her greatest dream, was just playing itself in my mind. But I have to admit that while we were filming the video we were hanging out with the dogs and they were really, really friendly. So my hatred for them has sort of subsided, but they are still ugly as hell. [laughs]
