White Rabbits pull album out of a hat
And their ability to text? Well, It's Frightening.
Published June 3, 2009
Like many good things -- booty calls, bitchin' slang and most high school romances -- the latest White Rabbits album started with a text message.
The scene: With the last show for the indie sextet's first album, Fort Nightly under wraps, the guys' latest focus was on who would produce their second. Long story short, drummer Jamie Levinson is a bit of a sloppy texter.
"That night when we went back to the hotel, we thought, 'Why not have Britt (Daniel, Spoon front man and friend of the band) produce it?' We're all talking about it, and Jamie (Levinson), our drummer, is sending a text message to his friend, whose name also begins with a B,'" vocalist Stephen Patterson said, laughing enough to give away the 'uh oh' ending. "He ended up sending a text to Britt saying, 'We're thinking about having Britt Daniel produce the record, what do you think?'"
Although Levinson was closer to a panic attack, the move proved more helpful than embarrassing, much to the band's relief. With Daniel at the helm, It's Frightening is a less dense, more relaxed pop project than its predecessor. This time around, the band wasn't afraid to give songs space.
"_Fort Nightly_ was just really extreme with how dense it was, and we were all really sick and tired of firing on all cylinders all the time," Patterson said.
For some of the band, this meant sitting on the sidelines every once in a while.
"We came into it with a focus on what serves the song best, not thinking that we have six people so all six people have to be playing at the same time," he said. "We don't want to repeat ourselves as a band."
The band's biggest magic trick to date remains its move from Columbia to New York in 2005, an undertaking Patterson still admits could have gone either way. Since the band's debut, White Rabbits have been known for three things: the powerful soul undertones of their debut, the move to New York and, most recently, the fact that they survived it.
"We wouldn't have been able to even make it through the first few months of living in New York had we not been so close before moving out there," Patterson said.
He put it lightly. In the loft they shared, all six members slept in twin beds less than a foot apart.
"Columbia is amazing, and we loved being a band in Columbia," he said. "But being a band in New York forces you to really get it together, because if you don't, you get the boot."
And so far, they haven't.
"The biggest change, really, is that now we're spending $6 on Budweiser instead of $2," said Patterson, who conducted the Paul Shaffer Orchestra two weeks ago. "We did play Letterman, and it was awesome, but those things are fleeting. They're helpful and they're a lot of fun, but you still have to go home and make good records."
He laughed.
"SNL would be a good time, though," he said.