Crowd Control Q&A | Brody Price

1. Coming to Dallas from Austin, what strengths and weaknesses does each city as have in regards to the ability to support a thriving music scene?
Both cities certainly have amazing musicians and great venues. The more we learn our way around playing music here in town, the more we have come to enjoy it. For a long time, we were going down to Austin at least once a month for shows, but Dallas is really starting to feel like home now and we’ve started to get excited about investing in the Dallas music community. I think Austin regularly has local bands break out into the regional or national spotlight... that definitely helps a music scene thrive. I think great music and unique music is coming out of Dallas… the more that we can catapult artists into the spotlight the better off we’ll be. Sometimes there’s a competitive aspect among local bands, but in reality any success that a local band has is a victory for everyone.

2. Your full band show is very different from your solo work. Is that an intentional approach or did the band organically form a more raucous, noisy sound? Do you have a preference?
Hehe. Yes, there’s a massive difference between my solo shows and playing with the Tasteful Nudes... it just kind of happened. We’re about to record an album together, and I’m unbelievably excited. I kind of bring a half-formed song to everyone else, and we just hash it out over the course of an afternoon. That process has yielded some songs that are super unique and fun to play. I think our guitarist, Marshall, said it best when he said that we're a “country noise rock band.” We didn’t set out to play any certain style of music, we just kind of started playing. In terms of what’s my favorite… I don’t think I could choose. It’s definitely more fun to travel and hang around before and after shows with the band… but playing solo is the reason I started writing songs. I think that’s the most important thing... being able to write songs that hold up without distorted guitars and effects... but I also love distorted guitars and effects.

3. What do you think are some of the factors that play into having a successful show (attendance, crowd energy, reception, etc.)?
It changes a lot when I play solo or with the band. I’m probably much more critical of my playing during solo shows. I want the music to be pretty and I want people to connect with the words. It's usually pretty easy to tell if there’s a connection... and that always feels pretty good. In terms of playing with the band, it's very different... we don’t really have any expectations... it's such an emotional release. We want to play to the best of our ability, but more importantly, we want to have fun. Usually that involves consuming as many free beers as possible, playing very loudly (preferably out of tune), and making the audience/venue feel confused. We also take a lot of pride in putting together unique bills with artists of different styles. That’s so great. We’ve had the chance to play and become friends with some absolutely amazing bands and songwriters in town... Watering (our current obsession), Frankie Leonie, Delmer Dennis, Ian Salazar, Wesley Geiger. In the fall we’ll be playing shows with a fella named Jordan Moser out of Austin. I’m unbelievably excited to for that.

4. Last week, you released a single titled, “By the Book.” This is the first song to drop since your debut album, What’s the Point in Trying, came out last fall. Have there been any changes in your approach to songwriting over the last year, and are there any themes that you’ve been exploring in the new music you’ve been writing?
I think my “approach” is still the same... and by that, I mean that I don’t really have an approach. Thematically and sonically the music is very different. It all centers around the idea of change. A lot of that is personal. There’s no doubt that I’ve grown more as a person over the past year than I ever have. I’m thankful to have amazing friends to grow alongside of. I think I’m very comfortable with myself for the first time and that has resulted in a lot of freedom while writing and playing songs. I used to worry that the music I write isn’t going to be appealing to people. I don’t really think about that too much anymore... this new stuff is my favorite material I’ve written to date, and I’m having more fun than ever. Not only in music, but in life. I just don’t really care about how my music is perceived by people. The world is a big place, and I’m sure there’s some folks out there that want to hear scary folk music and country noise rock.

5. What is one of the biggest challenges you’ve run into over the course of your career as a musician?
Comparison is always super toxic. No matter how different someone's music is or their career goals, when someone else does something there's always a brief moment when I think, “Oh shit. Maybe I should be doing something differently.” It's popular right now to play “Americana music” I don’t even know what that means (though, from what I’ve deduced, it has something to do with vintage western wear). On the other hand, there are trends that are super popular in the indie world. So it's easy to feel like you’re doing something wrong just because you’re doing something in a different way. I think playing with the band has really helped me distance myself from that comparison-based discouragement. It has just become clear that there’s not a point to comparing myself to other artists when we’re trying to do totally different things.

6. If you could put together a local DFW lineup (no holds barred), who would be on the bill and where would the show be at?
The show would undoubtedly take place at Ships Lounge. The lineup is tough... we’ve gotten to play with a lot of the bands we love here in town. I’m trying to think of folks we haven’t played with... it would be fun to play a show with the Bralettes. They’re total badasses, and their shows are very, very rowdy. Preferably, it would be a Bralettes hologram though. I’ve yet to catch the Ottoman Turks live, but I saw a video of them smashing guitars on stage... it looked crazy.