Interview: Automatic Drawing

It’s a rare case when you find a band just immediately fucking likable… where multiple songs grab you right away and you wonder why or how the hell you’ve never heard of them before.

It’s the very definition of a band crush – and new group Automatic Drawing (who make smarty pop music loosely reminiscent of early Belle & Sebastian and Interpol) is, as such, infinitely crushable.

We’re featuring Automatic Drawing at our next Let’s Independent! event at Boardner’s of Hollywood -- a night meant to spotlight some great local acts you may not have heard yet, like the equally charming Broken Remotes and Pizza!. (Hint: You should come.)

Here’s the transcript of a conversation we recently had with Automatic Drawing members Diana Salier and Drew Kirkpatrick, followed by an MP3 you ought to download.

RFSL: Hey, guys. Thanks for the patience setting this all up.
AD_Drew: No problem.
RFSL: How are you both doing tonight?
AD_Diana: Pretty good.
RFSL: So how long has Automatic Drawing been around?
AD_Diana: We got together last June, I think. We were called Streets On Fire til about three months ago and the band has been kind of reborn since then, we added a new singer
AD_Drew: Diana and I have been playing together for about five years.
RFSL: What were you two doing before?
AD_Diana: We were in a band in high school and then we did some electropop stuff.
RFSL: Did you play out for it or was it just home recording?
AD_Diana: We recorded it on garageband and did a few demos on a 4-track recorder. Never got to playing a live show, though it would be fun.
RFSL: Have you played a lot of shows with Streets On Fire/Automatic Drawing?
AD_Drew: I’m trying to think of how many, but yeah since last summer we have played about five or six shows. And have a lot coming up..
AD_Diana: Yeah, a few different places -- The Mint, The Derby, The Roxy. We have a lot of shows coming up, not just in LA.
RFSL: The reason I ask is because you sound like you've been playing for awhile now. The EP sounds great. The songs are immediately likeable.
AD_Diana: Thanks. That's awesome to hear you say that. Three of those tracks are from when we first started writing in 2007. Or no, two of them are. The other three are from earlier this year, but we've been doing them for awhile.
AD_Drew: Yeah, I definitally feel like every new song we right is always one of my favorite lately.
RFSL: That's great. You said you're playing out of town, too? Where are you headed?
AD_Diana: well we're doing a gig in Long Beach next week and we're taking a couple days in Santa Barbara and Ventura at the end of this month.
RFSL: Where do you guys live in town? What areas?
AD_Drew: I'm in the Westwood area.
AD_Diana: I live in Mar Vista, kind of near Venice.
RFSL: Ah, I work over there. It’s funny. A lot of the people in bands that play at The Echo and Spaceland regularly and get called "East Side Bands" (or whatever) live over there.
AD_Diana: yeah we're definitely a west side band. All of us live out here, except our new singer Rachel, she has a trek.
RFSL: I'd love to see you guys play at Spaceland or Pehrspace or The Echo because I think people would really appreciate your band there.
AD_Drew: I think we are setting up a show a Spaceland, right?
RFSL: And because I'm COMPLETELY lazy after commuting from work and usually stay around here at night. :)
AD_Diana: It's not confirmed but yeah we're trying to get a date for mid-December.
AD_Diana: Are you on the east?
RFSL: I'm in Silver Lake. Work in Playa Vista.
AD_Drew: Yeah, I would love to play in that area. Those are great venues.
AD_Diana: Yeah, our drummer Jon loves The Echo. I'd love to play at any of those places.
RFSL: It's a good spot for musics.
RFSL: You said you were playing electro pop before. What made you change?
AD_Diana: Personally, I just missed being in a band.
AD_Drew: Yeah, I really wanted to play shows and get a whole band together
AD_Diana: It's really fun to do the 2-person thing. Like the Postal Service thing. And we did it for an entire summer, but I think after awhile we just wanted to play with a lot of people
RFSL: How did you find the other members? What are their backgrounds?
AD_Diana: I found Jon on Craigslist. He had just moved here after graduating from Denison in Ohio. He's originally from Turkey. And Sarah is a friend of mine, we were introduced in 9th grade through another friend. And we actually were in a really hilariously bad punk band in 10th grade called Lefthandsalute.
AD_Diana: And then Rachel we found on Craigslist, too. Our original female singer Maria moved to SF and we waited until this past summer to actively search for a replacement and then we magically found Rachel and it was awesome from the start
AD_Drew: She is on the song War on the EP.
AD_Diana: Yeah, and We're Not From This Town. (Maria, that is.)
RFSL: Great song.
AD_Diana: Thanks!
AD_Drew: Thanks. That’s probably the first one I brought in to the whole band.
RFSL: My girlfriend (who I just looked up and noticed is, no joke, playing DOOM) and I were playing Scrabble on Sunday and listening to the EP.
RFSL: And she really really liked it.
RFSL: And that's rare.
RFSL: She usually doesn't like anything that came out this century… She's an dj and plays a lot of 60s soul.
AD_Drew: Awesome.
AD_Diana: Very cool.
RFSL: Anyway, anecdotal comment… :)
RFSL: (My best word was BRONZEN, by the way. 35 points! Ha ha.)
AD_Diana: i didn't even know that was a word. I used to lose horribly in Scrabble.
RFSL: I am a scrabble hustler. (My shame is apparent to the entire world now.)
AD_Diana: That would be a great song lyric. "I am a scrabble hustler" Drew, don't forget that one.
RFSL: Ha ha.
AD_Drew: I got it.
AD_Diana: haha
RFSL: I hate to ask you what your influences are, so let me ask you instead...
AD_Diana: ahh the dreaded question!
RFSL: What bands made you want to make music?
AD_Diana: Well, The Magnetic Fields, Death Cab For Cutie, Green Day (way back in the day, haha). There are so many - random obscure bands like The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Little Name…
RFSL: You've out-obscured me on those last two.
AD_Diana: Oh, and obviously – Dylan. Simon and Garfunkel. Tons of Dylan. More recently Peter Bjorn and John.
AD_Drew: Yeah, I love Death Cab and I’ve been listening to a lot of Neutral Milk Hotel lately.
AD_Diana: Oh, yeah. Neutral Milk Hotel.
AD_Diana: You got me into them actually.
AD_Diana: I used to judge Death Cab without knowing them at all. Drew would tell me to listen to them and I'd be like, “Eww, no. They're emo.”
AD_Diana: And now I have seen the light.Haha.
RFSL: So let me just ask you one more question... What did you play in high school band?
AD_Diana: Guitar
AD_Drew: Like music style?
RFSL: Instrument.
AD_Drew: Oh, guitar and and vocals.
RFSL: Nothing like the oboe or anything...
AD_Diana: And the band was called Zen Marlin. (Don't ask why.) The oboe is totally cool in bands now though!
RFSL: Ahh, I thought you were in high school band not in a high school band.
AD_Drew: Diana was.
AD_Diana: I played the violin and clarinet and stuff. Hahahaha. Well, I actually played clarinet in the high school band, too.
AD_Diana: Yeah.
AD_Drew: I played the French horn in middle school…
AD_Diana: You did?

DOWNLOAD:
- The Captain and the Sea MP3

Rad poster by Christine Hale.