Imperial Teen Interview: “It’s always interesting to hear what people take away from the songs”

The world needs more bands like Imperial Teen. Or does it? If there were, then perhaps it would reduce the San Francisco band’s unique hybrid of synth-pop that’s equal parts whip-smart and catchy as fuck!

What began with their excellent 1996 debut LP, Seasick, the four-piece – guitarists / vocalists Roddy Bottum (Faith No More) and Will Schwartz (hey willpower), drummer / backing vocalist, Lynn Truell (Sister Double Happiness, The Dicks, The Wrecks) and bassist / backing vocalist Jone Stebbins (also of the The Wrecks) – have maintained an razor-like sharpness through their songcraft that has never lost its edge.

30 years following Seasick, Imperial Teen’s seventh full-length release, All Over You, is the perfect example. Not only is it the band’s magnum opus, but also the indie-pop album of the year. You know those albums where every song has that single potentiality? Look no further than All Over You.

From the certified pop gold of Overdrive (“I just want to get you in bed / Light you up like a cigarette”) and the fizz and bang of Hands All Up, to the bourgeoning dark pulse of A Single Chair – the latter, a rare moment when Imperial Teen dial it down – the results sparkle.

And there’s no let up or an ounce of fat to trim. The A.M radio-inspired, Get You Home, Imperial Teen at their freewheeling best, while On the Island finds the band showcasing their humourous side. (Where, indeed, it has you smiling like that Cheshire cat, although not upside down.)

Elsewhere, Kiss It Goodbye is informed by the band’s earlier years where they were wedged between indie-rock revivalists acts. A stark contrast to the power-pop glory of Probably So – the kind of song bands close live performances with. (In Imperial Teen’s case, it’s up there with their best.) And through said glory is Have A Shout, which then leads to the wonderful Bringing it Down.

The closing cut is a snapshot of the world as we get older. About our health, and the state of the world. Through all the turbulence, how Imperial Teen have grown together through it. The comradery, All Over You’s greatest boon, and it’s this togetherness that crystallises the Imperial Teen experience. A band that everyone needs in their lives through these dark times.

Last week, Bottum, Schwartz and Stebbins answered a series of questions about All Over You, what it’s like to be in a band well into its fourth decade together, and more.

Sun 13: Given you all live quite far away from each other, with each Imperial Teen album every five or six years, as the world changes at break-neck speed, is the objective for band always the same?

Roddy Bottum: “Yeah, everything around us is constantly changing. Coming back together and doing what we do is kind of a safe space. It’s an opportunity to be us together and do our thing. Individually we are all influenced by the world, obviously, and the frantic pace of change and drama. Getting through it together is kind of always our unconscious objective in making the music we make. Also, we just love music and it feels good.”

S13: From the outside at least, there’s a wonderful synergy in the band. When you all get into a room, does it feel like you’ve never been apart?

RB: “We work well together, for sure. It’s an insane amount of time we’ve been together. Like 30 years. Couples rarely last that long, it’s amazing we’ve been able to remain as engaged as we all are with our music and our ‘family.’ There is for sure a ‘go-to’ that we rely on and it’s hard to put a name on. It’s usually specific and definite and reveals itself as a sound. We all know when the sound is right. We’ve become especially good at that, recognising what works musically.”

S13: Was the writing and recording approach to All Over You any different to your past records?

Will Schwartz: “Yes and no.  For the past four records we’ve mostly lived in different cities, starting with The Hair, the TV, the Baby, and the Band. First Lynn moved to Denver and started a family, and then Roddy moved to NY during the making of Now We Are Timeless. We had spoken about trying to make music by chainmail or over the internet, but it never really felt vital or organic for us to do that. Two, three or four of us need to be in a room together to create the spark for what we do together, so it’s become more and more challenging to do that in a physical sense over the last two albums.

“In that sense there is a pressure to create when we intentionally get together, and for the most part we just do because we have to and we already have that musical language between us.”

S13: What was the most important aspect you wanted to capture with the record?

WS: “That sense of a band, four individuals coming together as our own community to create something that feels almost ephemeral and immediate. I love pop music and individual artists kind of dominate the musical landscape right now commercially, but a band has a different kind of lighting in a bottle because it’s happening in real time. We mostly recorded the anchor tracks of this album in the same room at the same time. We of course did overdubs but you can hear a sensation of a live band playing these songs which is mostly missing from music on the radio.”

S13: Overdrive is quintessential Imperial Teen. Did you know you had the perfect opener as soon as it was written?

WS: “I can humbly say yes. The demo of the song just felt like it captured the attitude and a kind of sexuality and sass that we have with each other and we present to our audience. Lynn and Jone sing lead on the choruses and Will sings lead on the verses. Roddy plays that really simple guitar riff and wrote some fantastic lyrics and keyboard parts. We made a video for the song and I had a lot of fun kind of performing a bit over the top and Lynn, Jone, and Roddy are oozing with attitude and style and Roddy is kind of hilarious to me in it. It’s our humour – like a deadly serious goofball.”

S13: Get You Home feels like one of the great lost pop songs. It got me thinking about your own listening trends. Are you dialled into the new music landscape, or do you prefer songs and artists of the past?

WS: “That song was born in a session in Denver with Lynn and Will. It came about really organically as a fully formed verse and chorus. I remember thinking of Galaxie 500 when we were coming up with it. It has that sense of ’90s nostalgia like coming apart at the seams but holding it together with a melody.  Definitely drew inspiration from bands like Seam and Superchunk and Dinosaur and Unrest and Sonic Youth too, but we usually tend to make it pop and pretty somehow. The meet me in Los Angeles part came about in a session with Lynn, Jone, and [I] and then Roddy has that great harmony on it that brings it to a crescendo at the end.”

S13: Probably So feels like a really central point to the record and captures the whip-smart nature of Imperial Teen. (It even has a fade out!) What can you tell us about this song?

RB: “Probably So is a central point, thanks for recognising that. It’s the one song to at we wrote and orchestrated in the studio. We originally called it Bliss. We wrote the vocal parts and added and took away and came up with some real magic. There’s a Jeff and Steve reference in the song and kind of sums up the referential aspect, acknowledging a past and an aura that we tap into nostalgically but in a fresh way.”

S13: Then there are songs like A Single Chair and Have A Shout, which really feel like escapist tracks. Do you see Imperial Teen as a band where listeners are welcomed into your world where they can escape their own?

Jone Stebbins: “I like the idea of escapist songs. I haven’t really thought about it that way before but yeah, I think it’s cool when the listener hears something and it takes them on a journey somewhere. It’s always interesting to hear what people take away from the songs. Everyone hears things differently and puts their own spin on what the song ‘is about’. That’s the beauty of music.”

S13: How important do you think it is to showcase your sense of humour in your music?

RB: “Good question. I don’t think any of us are like into… ‘funny music.’ Or are we? I mean I have a special place in my heart for Weird Al and Will has co-written some songs with comedians. The genre we create in maybe can have a nuance of smiles and laughter but overt ha-ha’s feel like a no-no. Don’t get us wrong, we are funny, funny people. We love to laugh. It’s one of the things we do best. We usually lead with a sense of sincerity when we write music, though.”

S13: Since the beginning, it’s been some run of form Imperial Teen. How central is the band to your lives?

JS: “The band is a constant. We all have varied, busy, full lives but Imperial Teen is always a part of who we are. As far as being a central part, that depends on what’s going on with the band at any given time. Sometimes it’s front and centre and sometimes it’s quietly running in the background. Of course, when there is a new release or shows, the band takes centre stage, but it is always a part of who we all are.”

All Over You is out via Merge Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.