By Taylor Long
Hailing from San Francisco, Two Gallants are not only a band one should watch out for, but a band one should go out and find. Recently, the Chronicle’s Taylor Long sat down with Adam Stephens (vocals and guitar) and Tyson Vogel (drums and backing vocal) before their show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ, to discuss the recent tour, street shows and why their music is similar to a support group.
The Chronicle: You’ve been touring with Rogue Wave- what’s that been like?
Adam Stephens: Touring with Rogue Wave-it’s been really fun. They are a lot more established than us, if you will, so a lot of people come out to every show. So we’ve kind of been milking their audience unintentionally. All the shows have been really fun, they’re really awesome guys. I think that’s kind of the most important thing, when you’re on tour with a band or some people, is to get a long with them really well. They’re also kind of veterans of bands and touring, so they kind of are coaching us sometimes. I mean, we’ve done it quite a few times ourselves, but-they’re a little bit older than us, too, so they have a bit of a developed view on things, you know. To summarize it’s been really fun.
Chronicle: So, to continue on touring, what are your favorite and least favorite parts of touring?
AS: Favorite part is staying up until six in the morning.
Both: every night.
AS: Even when you don’t want to. ‘Cause you just have to sometimes. My least favorite part would have to be-
TV: Bathrooms with no doors.
All: [laughter]
AS: Um, yeah-I don’t know. Tyson always has to resort to potty talk. I guess my least favorite thing is driving. I don’t like driving.
Chronicle: Yeah, that must be rough; you guys drive everywhere, right?
AS: Yeah. I drive too fast, too, so, it’s not very safe.
Chronicle: Have you gotten in trouble for that??AS: No. I have a way with the cops. Tyson’s the one that gets tickets.
Chronicle: Oh really?
AS: Yeah.
Chronicle: Then I guess it’s better that you drive.
AS: Yeah-no.
Chronicle: So I guess it’s not better either way. Okay, your recent album got a great review from Pitchfork Media and there was also reviewed in Rolling Stone. Is that kind of press exciting to you, do you feel that it’s influenced crowds at your shows?
AS: I think so. I mean, I know a lot of people who saw the Pitchfork thing. I’d never heard of Pitchfork before
Chronicle: Really?
AS: Yeah, but I don’t really read up very much on what’s going on. That was really cool, I really like the review we got in there, it said some really pretty close to the mark things. The Rolling Stone thing I thought was kind of a joke, ’cause they didn’t really say anything, they just kind of more or less mentioned that we existed. You know. Like, here’s this album. They didn’t really say it was good or bad or anything, they just kind of dropped who they thought we sounded like. I think it was only a couple of sentences long. Whatever. I guess that’s cool.
TV: I mean, I think that it has had an effect. A very small-well, not very small, but-I don’t know. There have been people who have been coming out to the shows that have gotten turned on to us through those things. And that’s pretty amazing; to actually think that there’s people with open minds that pay attention to that stuff. It’s quite humbling, because I guess that’s kind of where it starts sometimes, too. But I kind of agree with Adam, that Pitchfork was very, really cool hearing his perspective. But Rolling Stone didn’t really-there was nothing personal about it at all.
Chronicle: If I read my information right, you two started playing together when you were young. What can you tell me about that, and when did you decide that it was time to turn the pairing into a full-fledged band?
TV: It’s pretty organic. We’ve known each other since were like five years old, and have both played music together in different forms ever since sixth or seventh grade. But this didn’t really come in as it is now until two – two and a half years ago or so. Adam was playing a lot of shows, acoustically on his own, and I just kind of began to pick up the drums a little bit. We never thought of it consciously like we were going to make it into a band, we just stayed up all night drinking and playing music.
Chronicle: Sounds like a good time.
TV: Yeah. [To Adam] What do you think?
AS: I mean, I think basically the same thing. It wasn’t something we planned, at all. It wasn’t something waiting in the basement for years and years or a couple months at most. We just decided to start playing, it kind of happened real fast.
TV: Our first show was on the street, wasn’t it?
AS: Kind of-it depends. Our first show under our name was on the street. But Tyson played with me at a show at a coffee shop out in the Richmond Disctrict. Then he played another show that was kind of under my name, at this played called Café International at lower Haight in San Francisco. But our first show with our name was on 16th and Mission, like a street show. It was kind of like, we had to get a name, which was-it was like, we had this show and were like “oh, okay, I guess we’re a band now.” It kind of went from being-I wouldn’t say this is true-but probably from the outside, it went more from me playing with a drummer to then being like a mutual, balanced band, I guess.
Chronicle: So, going back to the street show thing, you guys used to play shows on the street quite a bit-why did you start doing that, and did you find that street shows drew a large amount of fans? And do you still do that?
AS: Well, we started doing it just ’cause, if you’re trying to get shows and stuff, if you want to play music in the city, there’s a lot of bureaucracy and shit you have to go through, like people you have to deal with, and they expect this little made up image or whatever-you have to have a genre and all this press and whatever.
TV: “who do you sound like?”
AS: yeah, “who do you sound like?” And “how do we pair you?” and all this stuff. And “what have you done already?” which is completely ridiculous, because how do you ever start anything, how do you ever start something if you need to have something to start in the first place? So, playing a little guerilla show on the street was more automatic, ’cause we’d just plug into the bus stop and get free power off the city. And people just walk by.
Some shows-we had one show that was kind of the climax of it; that was an amazing show. There were four bands, all of us were good friends, and we went around as long as we wanted to, the cops never came, and there were hundreds of people there, it was our first big show as far as I remember. It was really awesome. It was our first really big street show and kind of the last that we were a part of, I think. ‘Cause then after that, you couldn’t really-it just wouldn’t really last very long, so we wouldn’t tell a lot of people about it. And that’s the other good thing, is that there’s an automatic crowd when you play out there, and you get all kinds of people who are coming from so many different corners of the city that don’t have anything in common and don’t know anything about us, you know what I mean? We still do them, it’s been awhile.
TV: We try.
AS: Last time we did it, we actually set up everything, we set everything up, which takes a really long time ’cause you’ve got to go to the practice space and bring everything over and then load it all out on the street. We had already set everything up, and spent all this time breaking into the power and then right when we were about to start, the cops come.
Chronicle: Oh no.
AS: We didn’t even play a note. It’s just kind of lockdown now. It’s kind of a dead thing, which is really a shame.
TV: I think that the street shows were also something that’s very-it was started by a group of kids down in San Francisco, at a time when there wasn’t very much for kids to do in the city, music-wise. It represented to me this amazing chance of not really conforming to having to do your music in a place or anything like that. It was free, and just brings you down to this very human level of breathing and walking down the street and seeing people playing music. It was kind of like a little thing for a while, where if a band came through San Francisco, and was more underground, they’d play on the corner and it was really amazing, ’cause it gave us a chance to play for people on a very basic level where there’s no pretensions at all. That’s probably how we met you-playing out there in Seattle, on the street.
Chronicle: Yep, yep.
TV: Yeah. It’s really sad that it’s being shut down now.
Chronicle: When you first started, when you first got together, did you have any particular goals? If so, what were they and have you accomplished them? And if not, do you have any now, or is there anywhere in particular you’d like to see the duo go?
AS: No, I don’t think we ever had any goals at all. My only goal is to move out of my mom’s house right now.
TV: I gotta move out of my family’s house, too. Maybe, I don’t know-yeah, it never really started out with any goal. Personally, one goal was just to expand how we play or how I play and keep on creating. Without a goal, other than what we’re doing. But I think that’s more of a personal thing.
AS: I think a somewhat modest goal, as well, is just to make a living out of playing music, doing something that you love. As long as you’re not compromising anything in the process, or changing anything about yourself to get there, which I don’t foresee us ever doing, especially anything concerning our sound. As long as you’re honest to it in the process, as long as people enjoy it-I feel like it’s our duty in a way, you know? Because we’re fortunate enough that some people seem to like our music and-why stop? It really bothers me when people are really talented and they just kind of mess it up ’cause they don’t care about it. I’m not saying we are. As long as people keep coming to our shows, we’ll keep playing for them.
Chronicle: So, speaking of your sound, your sound is considerably different from a large portion of the bands in the indie and underground scene today, do you think that’s been more of an asset or more of a hindrance?
TV: Well-
AS: That’s a good question.
TV: That is a good question. I don’t know, I think it’s kind of-well, first, on a personal level, it’s never been a hindrance in the sense of as something to be ashamed of on our part, of what we’re doing. I’ve always felt very strongly for what we do, and I think to a certain extent-for example, on the first couple tours that we booked on our own, we played a lot of houses and places where we were paired up with other bands of a different genre, where I guess, maybe, one wouldn’t always put both of them together. We always felt maybe like when we were playing with three metal bands they were gonna think we’re wussy or something, but, apart from that-it was amazing because it always turned out that at the end, most of the time, it turned out really well in that sense. People were open minded and saw both, what each were, and so on that level, it was kind of something that since we are maybe a little bit different, helps it, as long as people are open minded to it. To a certain extent, I don’t really-do you want to expand more on that?
AS: I feel like it’s like a really fine line, you know. ‘Cause like he was saying about getting booked with bands that don’t really work-and it still happens every time, well, not every time. It’s just we never get booked with a band where it’s like “oh, these bands are of the same genre” or whatever, you know? Not saying we’re completely unique, but it just never feels like it’s exactly perfect.
There’s bands that we love playing with that are like best friends of ours, and it works really well. Like Holy Ghost Revival and Trainwreck Riders and a few people.
I just feel like there’s a fine line. A really fine line. Sometimes when we get booked with random people, it’ll be like “oh, these metal kids are gonna think we’re wussy,” you know, and not hard enough, or it’s like, “oh these folky people are going to think we’re too loud, too rock” and we’re breaking up the mood or whatever. But it seems to always kind of work out somewhat. The people who don’t like it, I don’t really care about.
Chronicle: That’s a good attitude.
TV: For example, on this current tour, with Rogue Wave, what I enjoy about it so much is that we are pretty different. It’s been really fun in that way, to not only tour with a band that’s completely different, but playing in front of an audience that maybe, for example, 75% came for Rogue Wave, but seem to be open to hearing what we have to do, as well. That’s pretty cool. And hopefully the people that we bring to shows feel the same way about Rogue Wave. I think it’s sad sometimes, when people have to go by genre so much and kind of stick to the superficiality of music and not really just see it for what each is, kind of.
Chronicle: You’re going to hate this question. So, how would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you before?
Both: [laughs]
Chronicle: You don’t have to use genres, but how would you describe it? You can describe it metaphorically, doesn’t matter-
AS: I think it’s kind of like a- somewhat of a rehab meeting. Like, a social gathering thing, what are those called? There’s all kinds of them, you know, like I don’t mean just like for AA, but for people with smoking problems or whatever or family issues-a support group. I don’t know, I mean that’s kind of extreme, but I would like to think that people find something in our music that they can relate to, and I know from what some people have told me, they do, that enough people do. You know what I mean, that it affects them. ‘Cause I would never-I don’t ever foresee myself being-if this fell apart tomorrow and I started a new band or started 20 new bands or whatever, I never foresee myself being in any kind of music that just rocks you and then leaves you kind of dumb and numb and haven’t changed at all from it, ’cause there’s way too many bands like that. I mean, I love bands like that, a lot of bands like that are really amazing to see, but personally, I just don’t want to be a part of something that doesn’t have some sort of educational or some sort of healing process.
I think I use that example, ’cause the other night we were playing in Pennsylvania, and we played “My Madonna”-which is a song about being a worthless drunk and this guy came up to me afterward and was like “man, I just got out of rehab, you know, for drinking, like a week ago, and this is my first night out in a few months,” and he just expressed to me how much that song affected him. He really could relate to the feeling of it, especially the last line of the last verse. That meant a lot.
Chronicle: So, what do you do outside of the band?
AS: We don’t have lives besides this. At least for the last year and a half, it’s been nothing but this pretty much. We like to surround ourselves with good company.
TV: We give change to homeless people every now and then, too.
Chronicle: Yeah? That’s good. What is next for the band? What are you doing next? More touring? More recording?
AS: We’re actually in the process of looking for a bassist right now. So if anyone out there is looking to join a band, send us your resume.
TV: It’s kind of all of the above, honestly. We’re act
ually going to go to South By Southwest (SXSW) this year.
Chronicle: Really?
TV: Yeah. That’s in March, so that’s coming up pretty fast.
AS: That’s next month?
TV: Yeah.
AS: Jesus Christ.
TV: We’re kind of-we’ve got a lot of music we haven’t recorded, we’re kind of in the process of trying to figure out how to do this next collection of songs, I guess.
Chronicle: Lastly, what kind of advice would to give to other people who want to make it, so to speak, in music?
AS: Well I would have to say that in giving advice you have to already achieve what you’re giving advice upon.
Chronicle: Not necessarily-
AS: Well, I don’t know-as far as making it, I don’t think there’s a point where you say “hmm-I’ve made it! Everything is clear now!” Like what I was saying earlier-advice, as far as being real-I have no respect for anyone who changes their style to “make it” or make money. Especially people who do things they don’t agree with. Like being on a Nissan commercial or something like that. I’m not saying that certain bands who’ve done that-like Modest Mouse-I’m not saying they don’t drive cars or something, but do they really have some kind of affection towards Nissan cars? I think it was Nissan, whatever. I would just hope that someone’s priority shouldn’t be making it, it should be keeping real.
TV: I also agree. I don’t think it’s ever really easy just to say follow yourself, and take advice, but also be true, that’s very ideal, but I think that’s really important; especially in regards to art and music. I’m pretty much saying I’m agreeing with Adam.
AS: I mean, I could understand with certain things, like with a job, a real job, you might have to do something you don’t want to do, but it’s part of your job, and your boss said do it, so you’ve got to do it. But when it comes to art, or anything that uses the creative aspect of yourself, changing it because of someone else’s design-it’s pretty foul. I think it’s one of the worst crimes one could ever partake in-besides rape or murder or instigating unnecessary wars.