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Interview with
Andrew McKeag of
The Presidents of the United States
of America
You’ve joined the band after they’ve
already been around for eleven years; what was it like coming in so late?
It was terrible. [laughs] No,
it was fine – I’ve known those guys before they were popular… when they were popular… and after
they broke up. So I was tight with those guys; I just never imagined that band as anything but those three dudes –
so that was the only strange part for me… was being the guy replacing the guy who was my friend. [laughs]
What’s the writing process like for the band?
It kind of starts with Chris’ strange
ideas; some of the songs on the last record seemed like they were kind of done… just needed a little more tweaking,
and then some stuff we just made up on the spot using a riff of mine or a riff of Chris’ or some lyrics he already had
– every imaginable way of songwriting formed that record. But they’re mostly his [Chris] ideas to start
with, but he’s really generous for other input and stuff – then we tweak the crap out of them. [laughs]
Now, what exactly is a “basitar” and a “guitbass”?
In essence…
what it is; Chris plays a two string instrument… it’s an electric guitar that has one bass string and one guitar
string on it and it’s tuned to C Sharp and G Sharp… like a low… like a drop D tuning. And mine is
like a drop D, but a half step lower.
Was it easy to pick up and use?
I was really
weird to learn. There are all sorts of ways to play real cords, but different fingering than I’d ever played before
– never mind that when you’re playing leads you run out of strings real quick. It’s surprising how
much racket you can make with just five strings between us, and how few people notice that that’s the setup. Of
course there’s always someone in the front row who has never seen us before -- you see them down there counting their
strings with their buddy. [laughs]
What’s your favorite song to play?
Oh, I don’t
know – I really like playing “Lump”. I like playing “Kick Out The Jams” every night
too; I’m a huge "Mach 5" fan – so getting to play that song live is the greatest thing. I
also like “Tiny Explosions”. They’re just fun songs to play; you can’t go wrong.
You
guys were over in Denmark and Norway a few months back; what was that like?
It was fun; the shows were
good – mostly just clubs. We really like Norway; that was our second time there – we played some festivals
there last summer – it was fun to go back and play some clubs and see some of the cities. The Denmark shows were
also really good – we also played some shows there last summer. There was actually a town there called Middelfart;
my kids got a kick out of that. [laughs]
Would you consider The Presidents to be a high-tech band?
Hardly; maybe as people we have laptops and cell phones, but high-tech… no, we’re really low-tech actually.
It’s sort of an underlined theme with us that less is more – less guitar strings, less crew… we like to
travel light and keep it simple.
I also noticed that you guys do a lot of jogging while touring –
that’s not a very “rocker” type thing to do.
Jason does, he makes up for the rest of
us not jogging. I’ve optimistically brought my running stuff – and maybe go once or twice on a tour.
But Jason is really into it; he just ran a half marathon a couple of weeks ago. He’s really good at keeping it
up on tour; I’m really impressed.
What’s going on for The Presidents this year?
Man, not much. We have just a few spot dates here and there all summer; after putting the record out last year
and being on tour a lot – everybody kind of wanted to relax. Chris bought a house last year down near the beach
that he really likes and he hasn’t really gotten to hang out there – so he’s enjoying that. I’ve
been playing with a bunch of different bands that I play with when I have the time here in town – I try to play as much…
because my whole thing is always playing live. Chris had a kids record that he put out recently, and I don’t know
what Jason does… if you find out let me know…
Probably out jogging somewhere…
[laughs] Yeah, he’s probably off jogging. [laughs]
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