On the heels of the release of their latest album, The Nerve, we catch up with Filligar. Casey, Johnny, Pete, and Teddy have been traveling the country for years playing mainly to the college crowd (but in their defense, they were in college at the time).  But with their new album they have accepted a new level of maturity and decided to change things a bit and introduce a whole new audience to the new sounds of Filligar.

Bootsy and I had a chance to meet up with the guys and drink some beers several weeks ago in Santa Monica, and now that the album is out, we follow up that meeting with some questions.

Frank: This album definitely sounds grittier and more rock n roll than your last albums.  You mentioned over beers that things were different this time.  What was the new process and so far, has it worked out?

Teddy: We had just finished a two-month tour before starting to record the album and were feeling very comfortable with our live sound. We wanted to capture that raw, live energy on the record, and the move to a new studio, Electrical Audio, allowed us to achieve that. Rather than putting down the instruments one at a time and building a track piece by piece, we’d cut the track as a full band playing live onto 2-inch tape, then go back for any overdubs and vocals. It was definitely more fun to do it that way, and I think the end result has a much more organic and exciting feel.

Frank: You mentioned some bands you were into during the writing of this new album, and one that seemed to come back to me while listening was The Black Keys.  To me, this album sounds on the same caliber as the Keys – how does that feel?

Johnny: That’s pretty good company! We really look up to those guys–we were lucky enough to play a show with them in St. Louis in 2009 and, besides being just really cool dudes, they put on an amazing live show. We’ve had their new album, Brothers, on repeat since it came out. They’re definitely one of the better bands out there right now, so to be compared to them is certainly high praise.

Frank: Okay, I know you’re coming to LA in August (yes!), but how does the rest of the tour look?  Will college shows still be the backbone?

Pete: Given that it is the summer, this time around we are playing mainly small to mid-sized clubs and festivals. We are visiting parts of America that we have never been to before. We’re looking forward to traveling back to the eastern seaboard and making it down south all the way to New Orleans. The itinerary even includes a stop in Vegas–no shows, just seeing the sights. Then we’re heading out west with a great bill lined up at the Troubadour in L.A. that includes our friends Red Arrow Messenger and All Wrong and the Plans Change. Really excited to finally get together with those bands for a couple of shows in California.

Frank: It was really interesting talking to you about working outside the label structure and doing it alone.  How has that been so far?

Casey: Our version of walking and chewing gum at the same time is loading the van while confirming shows with talent buyers. Controlling both the business and creative aspects of our band has been rewarding and a real advantage in many instances.

Frank: Your last album, Near or Far, had a very robust companion videos to the music.  What can we expect with The Nerve?

Johnny: Expect the unexpected. And the unexplained.

Frank: You told me an awesome story about some USB Flash Drives, I think the Muffin readers must hear this.

Pete: Lets just preface this by saying we have since severed business ties with this company…We ordered some flash drives from a company in China that does custom-printed, 2-gig flash drives. When they arrived, they had “customized” MTV logos on each drive and also “customized” less-than-2-gig memory. They were useless. Might as well have been Legos. Just another lesson in Running Your Own Business 101.

Frank: Okay, so I already asked you what muffin you guys liked in our last interview.  So what is your favorite place to eat in LA and Chicago?

Casey: Let’s start with Chicago, which is probably the best food city in America. Hitting all three Windy City food groups: Giordano’s for pizza, Hot Doug’s for hot dogs, and Kuma’s Corner for burgers. In LA, Cha Cha Chicken has great jerk chicken. $3 beers at Dillon’s is always a great time, too.

You can check out the band’s website to see when they will be playing in your city. And don’t forget to pick up their new album on iTunes. And I would expect some crazy video stuff to come soon from Filligar, so either bookmark their site or we’ll try and keep you updated.

Filligar – Resurrection Song

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Filligar – Robbery (Shocking Love)

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