About a month and change ago, I had a chance to sit down with Chris McCaughan of Sundowner and The Lawrence Arms.
Let me preface this by saying that this was most the most drunk I’ve ever been during an interview. I wasn’t like face down on the table but things were a little looney tunes. In fact, I was afraid to listen to the tape for so long because I figured I made a complete ass of myself. Two dollar PBRs will do that to you. After getting over my cowardice, I realized I had some decent stuff on this tape. It was mostly me and Chris rambling about music and life, not that different from any other bar room conversation.
Chris had just played a show with Chuck Ragan at NYC’s Knitting Factory and he was winding down his 2007 touring schedule at this point. Although he admitted he was exhausted going into it, the show was incredible and it was obvious that he was pretty speechless because of the whole experience.
It’s been a huge year for you. You had the solo thing really take off it seems.
Chris: I’ve been fortunate and lucky to go out and play shows by myself. It’s a small record and that’s fine but I just got some cool opportunities.
You went into this thing as it being your own thing. Separate from the Lawrence Arms and all that. Has it come to a point where you think you can do this by yourself?
Chris: I started this initially just doing some acoustic shows around Chicago. I played some of the songs that I had that weren’t Lawrence Arms songs, but I played a bunch of Lawrence Arms songs also. I talked to Toby from Red Scare and he was like ‘man, if you make a record, I’ll put it out.’ I needed a kick in the ass to be like ‘hey, I’m actually going to finish this record. I’m going to write these songs.’ I had no necessary aspirations about where it would go. I always wanted to make an acoustic record. It’s a whole different experience playing by yourself on stage. It’s cool when I have Neil [Hennessy. Drummer, also in The Lawrence Arms], Eli [Caterer. Guitarist] and Jenny [Choi. Cello and keys] playing with me because it feels like a band. I don’t feel quite as exposed. It’s different than anything I’ve ever experienced honesty.
Read more with Chris after the jump!
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Tags: Interview, Lawrence Arms, Sundowner, interview by Matthew
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