Daniel Balk from The Postelles. See more pictures here
This is the second half of an interview with The Postelles at All Points West, discussing the differences between the UK and the US music scenes, and the interaction between music and politics. Read the first half of an interview with The Postelles and pictures from their performance here.
PART TWO
Christian: I feel like there is more opportunity than ever for bands to make it over here, do you think this is going to continue?
Daniel Balk: Well, we love so many bands from the UK and loads of great ones are coming out recently so we certainly hope it continues.
John Speyer: I think it is interesting that UK bands take American music and do great things with it, its true with The Beatles who took Chuck Berry stuff and turned it around, and The Stones who took a lot of American blues and turned it around, Led Zeppelin is a result of that. Also, the UK has a whole original sound on its own, Stone Roses are definitely their own thing, Oasis, and although rock and roll is an American thing as least traditionally or originally, UK artists have added spin after spin across the decades. I feel like the UK does alot more for its rock artists, cares more, you know we don’t have the NME here going crazy over every little band.
Christian: Yeah, and BBC also provides a great platform…
John: Yeah we don’t have a national presence like that here, that’s why bands like The Strokes and Kings of Leon had to go over there and come back and re-introduce their music.
Daniel: it’s too big a country..
Christian: Well talking more specifically, does it matter where you are from in New York and why is there such an emphasis on the boroughs?
Daniel: Well I don’t think it matters but they are very different – Brooklyn is very young, hipster (for lack of a better term), whereas Manhattan is a little more family orientated, except parts of downtown. If we just moved here we would probably go straight to Brooklyn because that’s where the young people are, but we grew up here in Manhattan so its home.
John: Its just our home you know, we didn’t go somewhere to be artists.
Christian: Talking of New York, we have just celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village – what do you think about the difference of rights between here and the UK, like LGBT for example?
John: Well obviously we are still living in the shadow of the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ fiasco, where Clinton half promised to get things done, but didn’t advance any of the cause. I think there was an awakening when Prop 8 passed in California and I hope that means people are going to wake up and realize it is something they have to care about, otherwise the Mormon church is gonna spend a lot of money and fuck up a lot of people you know?
John is referencing the Mormon Church’s substantial donations towards the Prop 8 campaign – a bill that allowed the Californian constitution to be amended to prevent same sex marriage. Many believed their activism provided the margin to pass the bill – Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage – NY Times
Daniel: Fortunately I think socially things are getting better, but politically I don’t think its really getting better, if people start standing up and start voicing their opinions hopefully that will change things. That’s how it was done in the sixties with Vietnam, but yeah politically I don’t think anything has changed.
Christian: The reason I ask, is because a lot of celebrities/musicians came behind the civil rights eventually.
Daniel: That stuff helps, that’s how you change things.
Christian: So do you hope that one day you will change things? I mean, many bands when they reach a certain popularity, use their position to advance causes they care about.
Daniel: Well we are not a political band, were not like Rage Against Machine or anything…
John: We are not apolitical either, we are concerned about politics.
Daniel: I would love to change and affect the world the same way the Beatles or The Rolling Stones did, the whole album wasn’t full of politics, but musically every once and a while, and John Lennon was very open about it and led a lot of marches. That really worked.
John: As an artist you can’t let politics compromise your art, you are here to make great art, that is our role as entertainers and if we have a platform to speak about politics then that is a great honor, but our first job is to make great music.
Dan: And if it gets pushed into the music and it works then I’m totally open to that. But sometimes it seems too forced.
John: Yeah some artists don’t really know what they are talking about, when they get into politics they don’t know what they are saying – I am all for informed discussions about anything. However, I don’t want to hear political bands that aren’t well thought out, especially from someone I just want to hear a hit song from you know – just stick to making hits.
Christian: And yes you are doing well at that, so keep it up!
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