MD: We should get on the train tracks. Also, I think we want to have the flexibility to be a duo and then kind of invite whoever we want.
CC: And to be sure, thus far The Small Ponds has been this thing that happens in my office, where Matt and I are writing these songs and even recording them before we bring them to the band. Although we’re really close friends — well, I’m really close friends with the drummer (Skillet Gilmore).
He’s my husband, so to be sure he’s involved in somewhat of the creative thing. Jesse (Huebner), who plays bass, is a phenomenal musician, and he has very nice recording gear at his house. He’s really flexible about doing pretty much anything we ask him to do all the time.
Dive: How does the male-female dynamic play into your songwriting?
CC: The Bowerbirds kind of do the boy-girl thing, but I think that it’s actually pretty unique in the world of music, and it always surprises me because it’s so much — it seems to me that music is pretty much about things that happen between boys and girls. To be able to articulate that more literally because you’re both there is really — it seems so vital to me. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen a lot more than it does.
I mean, chemistry really does have to be there. Otherwise it’s not good. But I mean, I am really surprised. We had fun with a little review that we got from Rick Cornell at the Independent (Weekly) when The Swell Season was in town. There was a cute little conceit in his review where he said something really nice about The Swell Season, and then he said the exact same thing about us, except for changing the name —
MD: Like, he used the exact same words. It was like the “versus” section.
CC: It still didn’t cause people to come to our show instead of The Swell Season’s show. We were a much better economic value.
CC: Yeah, we’ve got to make a movie.
Dive: What would you call it?
MD: “The Amazing Season.” Wait, no — “We Are Way Better Than Swell.”
CC: Theirs was “Once.”
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MD: Oh yeah, “Once.”
CC: We could do “Twice.”
MD: I think as far as the guy-girl thing, I think we both sort of share a little bit of disdain for the front man and tambourine girl. Not that there’s anything wrong with the tambourine girl, because somebody has to rock that tambourine, but it’s like —
CC: It’s rare enough to see a girl that can do it.
MD: That can really do it. The backup girl who sings some harmonies and does a little something or whatever — that has nothing to do with whether it’s a woman or not. It’s sort of like a decorative thing. We both want to be the decorative part, together.
CC: I would say too that we’ve both been the front man, and both of us, I think we’ve had conversations where we’ve both said, “Wow, this is so much better.”
Sharing the weight makes the whole thing a lot more — it’s really a large responsibility. All that social networking and actually just playing the shows and being the guy and being in charge of managing the band is really hard for one person to do. It’s fun to have somebody to share it with that you like a lot. It makes it a whole lot nicer.
Dive: What are your influences on the new record?
CC: I don’t know whether we — it’s funny, I don’t know if we know. This record’s all about finding out what we sound like. I feel like it comes just out of what happens, us writing together and singing together.
I mean our influences are probably as big as all of his and all of mine. That’s really hard to say. Are we a new wave band? Are we a country band? I don’t think we’ve ever really had that conversation.
