Fresh Friday: Senryu

Matt so often likes to ask the question of bands "Who the hell are you?" Well, this time it is my turn and my focus of interrogation, into that age old philosophical question, is on Knoxville band Senryu. I discovered Senryu when I discovered The Physics of Meaning back around Halloween, when I DJ'd a party they were playing. Senryu Wil and Steve were on tour with The Physics of Meaning, acting as back up and teaching the crowd the moves to 'Thriller.' After hangovers were vanquished a few days later, Wil sent me his MySpace page and it was all over...

Photo by Josh Godin

Jen: What EXACTLY does the band Senryu have to do with the short form Japanese poetry Senyru?

Jen: And to follow up, please make one up on the spot.

Wil: well, much like the poetry, Steven and I are both short.

Wil: though neither of us are Japanese.

Wil: We like Senryu because they started off as a satire of themselves. I always loved the idea of the vehicle getting bored with itself.

Wil: An english professor at UT once saw one of our fliers, I heard, and said "they must not take themselves very seriously" to his class. He may be right.

Wil: I mean, we're silly, but we take our silliness very seriously.

Jen: Do you think not taking yourselves too seriously has let you be able to work more freely?

Wil: without a doubt. And that isn't to say that we are jokey and cartoony. We try to keep a poker face on. But not treating it like life and death really alleviates the kind of non-constructive tension that hold some bands back, creatively.

Wil: We welcome constructive tension.

Wil: I get extremely wound up and intense about what we do, but not because I think we're saving lives or changing music or anything. When it's time to feed and cultivate new ideas, sometimes we catch ourselves getting really uptight. And it cracks us up every time

Jen: So speaking of creativity, your songs feel so interactive and have these avant garde subjects. What inspires you to write lyrics about spiders for example?

Wil: these days I base a lot of our subject matter on dreams, and I have been stuck in a cycle of weird scary dreams about animals. The song about spiders is more about buildings made out of bugs that can just move around as they please. Basing songs on dreams instead of trying to mythologize regular things that happen is a lot easier, I think. I'm sure the dreams are loosely rooted in things that happened anyways...but they come pre-mixed in dreams! Like the TGIFridays mudslides that they sell at the liquor store! Nevermind.

Jen: Oh my gosh, I LOVE those

Jen: Did you know they say that dreams are the parts of your day that your mind throws away, that it feels it doesn't need to store? So instead of throwing them away, you are storing them in a song.

Wil: Waste not, want not.

Jen: How very economical of you.

Jen: So I think people would be interested in the roots of Senryu. How did Wil meet Steve? Was it musical love at first sight?

Wil: No way!!! We were in college marching band together. I was 3rd year and he was 1st year. I thought he was a little bastard with a big beard. It was Seth Barber (original drummer, Senryu founder) who convinced me that we needed a keyboard player. He brought Steve, and Steve was really good. Really, really good. And I learned that he wasn't a little bastard. I actually never heard him play the drums for years, until Seth had to leave. Steven, as far as I know, had never played rock music. That guy is a beast, now. It was a very long courtship before we really became the hot-to-trot musical romance that we are today.

Jen: A little bastard with a big beard? That's awesome.

Wil: Steven Rodgers can grow you a beard at an hour's notice. And i'm fairly sure that he's been able since he was quite small. There's a famous picture of him as a very young child, with pieces of paper taped to his face...intended to make him look like a triceratops. I swear there is some stubble. Beardy, he is.

Jen: haha, and you too have facial hair! What is it with indie guys and beards lately?

Wil: I only just became able to grow one. I think that it's from touring with such beardy acts. Eventually, my face couldn't take anymore humiliation.

Jen: Maybe it was all the testosterone floating around the van.

Wil: probably. I probably fell asleep and leaned my head too close to Steve. It's probably one of his beards on me.

Jen: Haha, I feel like that could be a great song. A love song.

Jen: A Tale of Two Beards

Jen: Tell me about touring. You tour a lot and not just with Senryu. What do you love and hate about it?

Wil: I love touring, because it's like rolling camp. Everyone is gritty and there are sleeping bags and long-running jokes. And I get to meet so, so many great people and see amazing cities. I have fallen in love with so many cities this year!

Wil: The only thing I really hate about touring is...well, coming home.

Wil: It's like the day after christmas.

Jen: That's a little heartbreaking

Wil: There are a few cities I hate too (fuck you, Baltimore) and so I don't like that part of touring.

Jen: Which cities have you loved (feel obligated to say New York)

Wil: I DID fall in love with New York. We played for the first time in New York this year, acting as Daniel Hart's backing band (The Physics of Meaning). I love the Brooklyn so much, and we are quite excited to bring Senryu to nyc for the first time. Can you believe 7 years of touring and no NYC? I think i've been scared of trying to park. What a baby.

Wil: I also fell in love with Pittsburgh.

Jen: Really? Pittsburgh? Never been but it's not something you often hear.

Wil: I had heard that it was a rough place, but we ended up having such a nice time. We walked along one of the rivers, the whole band and friends from there. We picked up fallen branches and built a fire and our friend Jacques made us this amazing tea. The city was really pretty and the weather was nice when we were there. I could've done 2 more days.

Jen: Sometimes the stars aline perfectly somewhere, don't they? That sounds perfect.

Wil: It was perfect. I'm touring a bunch after the new year. I hope I go to pittsburgh 3 more times!

Jen: Get ready Pittsburgh.

Jen: But after touring is home, which is Knoxville. Senryu is really loved there. I've seen footage and people are jumping and singing, looks amazing.

Wil: The people in Knoxville are fabulous to us. I did not mean to sound like home was a bad place to come to. I'm actually staying in a quiet little place outside of Knoxville, but I love it. What a great little city. People here love us and we love them right back. The shows here can get quite wild.

Jen: Wild is good.

Wil: I can't really justify putting on concerts, for Senryu I mean, unless things are relatively out of control.

Jen: haha. And there is blood and sparkles?

Wil: Sometimes! We are always trying to improve our live experience, and if we haven't had time to work new songs into the set, then we try and make it visually stimulating in new ways. Or at least interactive.

Wil: and we thought once that it'd be a good idea to bring a whole bunch of fake blood and confetti and glitter to spit and throw on everyone.

Jen: Who doesn't like fake blood and confetti? I mean, honestly.

Wil: It was a great idea, but I accidentally swallowed a TON of fake blood, which made me quite sick. It was really cool to see outside the club afterwards, though. It was just lined with people who looked like they'd been in the happiest, most magical car accident of all time. So, we're trying to build on that.

Wil: I think that's really the impression we'd like to leave behind when we're done with all this.

Jen: A magical car accident?

Wil: sure! Niiiiiiice and traumatic.