Drink Up, Buttercup

For a band that had a meteoric rise in popularity in the Philadelphia music scene, Drink Up, Buttercup sure is taking its sweet time getting a record together. We talked to lead singer Jim Harvey about why the highly-anticipated release is taking so long and what it might sound like in comparison to the band’s acclaimed live performance.

What’s the progress report on the album you guys are working on?
For a while there, we were trying to figure out whether or not we wanted to try to get a label’s help to make it or just try to do it on our own. We just didn’t know what to do. Basically, we just got started, because we didn’t know if we were going to sign to a label or try to do it ourselves, but we decided to just try to do it ourselves. So now we just started like, two weeks ago. 

So you’ve been in the studio for two weeks, or what?
Basically, yeah. We’ve only been there for a couple days per week.

Last time I talked to you, you mentioned being involved with Bill Moriarty for this record. Is that still the case?
Yeah, that’s who we’re doing it with.

How has that been?
It’s been good. We’re doing it totally differently this time, as opposed to before when we just went in, and we recorded everything all live. This time, we’re recording it piece by piece, and as far as he’s concerned and we’re concerned, we’ve done some pretty cool stuff so far, but we’re all sort of under the same opinion that we could have recordings two weeks from now and just throw away everything we have so far. We’re really kind of taking our time with it.  

How has this approach been different for you?
Basically, it’s just not as easy as doing a live take and being like, “Okay, that was good enough.” This time around, it’s a lot of listening back to what you did and deciding what was the best take and then rolling with that. Sometimes you get away from the studio for a day, and you come back and realize you like something else better. So it’s all going back and listening to stuff. It’s more decision-making than just going in and playing. It’s a lot of weeding out, basically.

Are you completely done with the writing process, or is that coming together as you record?
We’ve had basically our set that we’ve been playing for a while. We feel like that’s really solid material, and then since we had such a busy playing schedule, I actually had a bunch of stuff written that we never got to figure out as a whole band, because we didn’t have time to practice. So we still have that handful of songs that I wrote that we never really worked out as a band. Interestingly enough, some of them do lend themselves more to a sparse arrangement. I think that’s why we never figured them out as a band, because they don’t fit in to what our sound is. They’re not these big huge arrangements. It should be good because we find ourselves kind of out of breath at the shows, because everything’s so energetic and we put so much into it that it’ll be nice to finally record these songs, figure out how to play them, and take a break when we’re on stage instead of freaking out the entire time. Also, my brother has a bunch of songs that he’s written. We were playing one of them live. That was actually one of the first songs we recorded.



When did you guys put out that first record?
We never actually officially put anything out. We just started burning copies and selling them at the shows for a couple bucks. It was just a CD-R in a paper sleeve or whatever. We got a stamp made and we’d just stamp our name and our website on it. We finished that in October, I guess, and we decided to sell it in the winter, over the holidays and stuff.

It seems like you guys have generated a pretty good deal of excitement over the last year or so, especially in the Philadelphia area. How has that been?
As I said before, we were playing so many shows that I feel like — not that we were playing so many shows where we were playing every day or something, but along with the fact that we all have stuff to do full-time, it was really a lot. We definitely got way better at playing the songs. Everybody used to say we freaked out on stage and were moving all over the place, and I feel like that’s even grown. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re even writing little segues between songs and everything’s just kind of become more refined. Like I said, we’re working on some newer stuff, too. We haven’t taken any of the press quotes and tried to strive more to them or anything like that. We just do what we do.

Every time I read about you guys, people always mention your live performance, and having seen you live a few times, I can speak to that as well, and as you were saying earlier, a lot of the stuff you’re recording now is slower so you can take a break while you’re playing live. So it sounds like you put a pretty big emphasis on performing – why is that so important to you?
I think everybody in the band would give you a different reason for that. I would say it’s just because we love playing music live. I feel like it’s a lot more fun to perform for people. I think it can be satisfying sometimes to just sit and record by yourself, but playing is more of a short-term carrot, as opposed to when you’re making an album and that carrot is just so far away. When you’re busy with other stuff, too, it’s a lot easier to have that instant gratification of just playing a really fun show and seeing people get into it and hearing what people have to say, seeing what people’s reactions are. And also it’s just really, really fun.

So has the take-by-take recording approach been a struggle or any easy transition?
It hasn’t been a struggle at all. Of course, it takes a lot more time. Like I said, our first EP, we just got in there, pressed “record,” and just played the songs two or three times each, and that was it. Some of them we even only played once. It’s not a struggle, but it’s definitely more of a process. It’s really worth it because it’s really hard for a lot of people to get into bands that recorded similarly to our first EP. People want to hear a big, modern-sounding recording. The way that you have to do that is to record digitally, do things the way we’re doing them now. I think once we do that we’ll appeal to a much wider audience. It’s already paying off. The recordings do sound a lot bigger.

Talking about a bigger audience, what are your aspirations for this record?
I don’t know what to say really about that. That’s top secret stuff. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say or not. Basically, we just recently got a UK booking agent as well as a really great lawyer over in the UK, and also we’re going to put out a single that we recorded ourselves, not with Bill. It’s going to be the B-side to a 7” vinyl we’re going to put out over in the UK this summer, and we’re basically hoping to garner some attention over there and hopefully tour there in the fall. By then, we’re hoping to have this album done.

Have you guys been to Europe before?
No we have not.

Why is that a goal of yours?
Basically, I feel that our music appeals to people over there. For some reason, we seem to have a really easy time appealing to the business side of people over there, like the lawyers, booking agent, all that stuff. They came to us. We didn’t search it out or anything.

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