A CONVERSATION WITH: Upright Man
Nestled deep within the hustle and bustle of New York City lies Upright Man, a rock group made up of guitarist Aidan Dolan, bassist Nick Katz, and drummer Max Yassky.
The band combine elements of alternative, psychedelic and classic rock with complex harmonies and non-traditional time signatures to create a sound that is both eerily comforting and pleasantly interesting.
Their debut album, Upright Man, is out now, and they're just off a run of shows opening up for Robert Randolph and the Family Band. You could say they've been pretty busy.
In this interview, we chatted about the band’s new album, what their idea of "chemistry" really boils down to, and meeting someone inside a music festival port-a-potty.
Angie Flores: Hello! Congrats on the new album release. That’s exciting stuff.
Max: Thanks.
Aidan: Thanks! It feel’s good to have it released
Nick: OHHHHH YEAAAHHHHH
Angie: So, let’s talk about your album/single covers. The artwork for “Animals,” “Three Easy Pieces,” and “Checked Out” all look like pictures from some trippy, far-off world. I love that they all go together well. What was the inspiration for the album’s cover art and how does it tie into the cover art for the singles?
Max: The artwork was done by a friend of ours named Andrew Vickery. I believe the album art and single artwork is the same. The whole vista really comes together when you see the back and inside of the album, which you’ll have to get your hands on a physical copy to do. It’s worth it.
Aidan: Thanks for the great question! I think there are a lot of ways to read into the album cover especially when you see it as the full 4 panel CD case. The skeleton’s posture and the general art style were geekily inspired by the 18th-century anatomist and artist, Albinus. He painted some famously accurate sketches of skeletons and we decided to put our Upright Albinus skeleton in a world that’s maybe another planet, or could it be earth in another time? The imagery ties into the lyrics of our song “Upright Man” and the themes in other songs off of our album.
Nick: Basically what they said.
Nick: To clarify, the separate pieces of art for the pre-release singles were just different crops of our final album artwork. Gotta stretch what you got.
Angie: For the new album, you took an Elvis Costello approach to songwriting where you wrote and recorded over 20 songs and then released 10. What was the process like for narrowing down songs and getting to the final tracks?
Max: The three of us can really write a lot in a short amount of time; maybe a chorus gets written for a song but doesn’t fit and becomes its own tune. Maybe we shouldn’t have written and recorded a song about Hobbits.
Aidan: The process of elimination was pretty natural. We had two batches of recording and mastering over the 2 years of building the band. The first one was a shotgun approach, where we came in with a lot of material and ended up with around 14 recorded tunes, some of which sounded very different from each other. After taking those songs into a live atmosphere and playing a lot of shows, we started to evolve more as a band and realized there were certain songs that were clicking for us and aging well and others that weren’t. That inspired us to write some more songs and go into the studio again. The second time around we recorded six songs, all of which made the album. We have become a lot more focused in our writing and in touch with the fact that we want to rock. It was easy to pick after going through all that.
Angie: Why ten songs?
Max: We tracked 17 songs in 8 days and played some of them live for a few months but most of the first batch of tunes were either too clunky to play as a trio, or just didn’t roll with the rock. 11 is a hard number to count to, so we stuck with 10.
Nick: We thought the 10 made a cohesive record. We didn’t set about to make a ten song album, we just wound up with it. Also IDK WTF Max is on -- LOTR lyrics are awesome, he’s just too “cool” to admit it. Speaking of, anyone wanna buy a song about LOTR?
Angie: You met while studying music composition at New York University, then went on to form Upright Man. How has your music education background influenced how you approach both songwriting and performing?
Max: How? In some ways, and not all the time. Sometimes I’m more fixated on what I’m eating, and I’ll use the neurotic energy of desperately wanting my hands to be free of barbeque chip-grease to get inspired about a lyric or series of chord changes. Sometimes I'm thinking about implying subdivisions or pedal tones. Coin toss.
Aidan: I knew based on my informal music training before college that I needed a good educational ass-whooping in music to become a better musician, so I took it gladly in the form of studying music theory and composition at NYU. Along with all the standard music history and formal skills, I had a private teacher that pushed me to write complex modern classical pieces with heavy rhythmic elements and changing time signatures. I went full on into those studies for four years but quickly reverted back to my singing, rocking, songwriting self after graduating college, just with a lot more tools and tricks up my sleeve.
Nick: I know nothing.
Angie: You've mentioned that, at first, Upright Man's music was very scattered with no real identity. What was the process like for you all when trying to discover and create a consistent sound?
Max: There weren’t too many twists to the path. We just stuck with what worked naturally. I remember one day we started talking to each other about “the band’s sound,” and that was about the time we started excising tunes until we were left with what you hear now.
Aidan: We started with a collection of songs that we wrote together for fun. We were exploring with little direction, but the intention to create something. Once we started talking about the types of songs that we write together and want to write more of, we were basically on our way to being a band. By the end of our recording process for this record, our vision of what Upright Man sounds like became clearer to us and we didn’t feel the need to try so many extremely different song ideas.
Nick: I think a lot of it has to do with what it feels like to play the material live. It’s easy to sit in a recording studio and go “Oh, this is a great song, let’s just follow it and record what we get,” but once you get in front of a group of people, you can feel which songs work and which ones don’t.
Angie: You talk about how strong of a chemistry you all have. Seems like you really lucked out. What are some important (and often overlooked) things people should think about when starting a band with their friends?
Max: We worked together a good bit before we got to the point of writing songs as Upright Man. Aidan had brought me on to play drums for his friend’s band, then I brought him into my own music where he read charts that I’d wrote. After that, I did the same thing for him when he got Nick and I to read and perform his complex rock-ensembled prog jazz. At that point, we were all friends and used to playing with each other. But chemistry is kind of a red herring. Trust and respect are earned, lost, and regained. Those qualities don’t just happen and they’re more important than something intangible like “chemistry”. What we have is a commitment to our music, which means we have to have a commitment to each other. The only way we actually lucked out is that I can always count on Aidan and Nick to play the shit out of their instruments.
Aidan: At some point, understand that you’re all going to have to get in a van together and spend a good deal of time driving, moving gear, and waiting around. Oh, and you’ll get to play some music too. The reality of the grind required to get something happening for a band is something to be realistic about, in the beginning, knowing it has to be a priority for everyone and it’s always a big risk.
Nick: I think there’s an element of chemistry in terms of the writing. We tend to, intentionally or not, come up with ideas that are cohesive and demonstrate an understanding of where the others are, musically. All of the songs were written by the three of us together, the melodies, the changes, the grooves, all of them are a group effort. To have three sets of ideas that actually work together the majority of the time is what I’d call chemistry. I do think Max is right though, we approach this with a dedication to the music and a professional trust between the three of us that we know that no matter what happens we’ll play the living shit out of the stuff and everyone will deliver. It’s easier to solve personal differences when they’re inconsequential to the task at hand and when we all know that performing the task at hand is the main priority for everyone.
Angie: You all played Savannah Stopover earlier this year!
Max: That was a blast.
Angie: What were some major differences between playing a festival of that caliber compared to, say, a small club show?
Max: We befriended a few bands down there that we’re still in touch with. Show-wise it really wasn’t too different except that afterwards we really hung out. Can’t do that when you’ve got a five-hour drive back to NY.
Angie: What were some things that surprised you about playing a festival?
Max: We got free festival merch.
Angie: Free merch is always great!
Aidan: It was pretty different than a normal club show in NYC, where you step out of the club and you’re in a big a city where no one cares. Savannah Stopover had the feeling of a scene that loves and propagates music. Before and after our show we walked around the nearby streets, hearing the buzz about other bands and meeting other musicians in a similar developmental place as us.
Angie: If you were playing your own headlining tour, what musicians or bands would you want to open for you?
Max: By the time we get there, there’ll probably be a smattering of new awesome bands out.
Aidan: Mini KISS.
Nick: I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here.
Angie: Well, which bands would you want to open for if you had the chance?
Max: BECK and Crowded House would be incredible. I’d also love to meet Dave Grohl or Glenn Kotche. So if we got the chance to play for Them Crooked Vultures or Wilco that’d be a dream come true.
Aidan: Radiohead would be an awesome one..
Nick: Dr. Dog
Angie: What was the most interesting way you’ve met someone, either a fan or someone in the industry?
Max: The bathroom door in the band lounge at Savannah Stopover didn’t lock, so I had to multitask (crap while listening for people striding confidently towards the bathroom). I pantslessly had to refuse this woman entry, which I did courteously by complimenting her sweater. Later I saw her play an awesome set and she complimented my jacket so our friendship was cemented. Speaking of laying bricks.
Aidan: There was that one time at band camp …
Angie: At That’s Why We Musyc, our staff members participate in a feature called “Growing Pains Playlist.” What are a few artists who were important to you growing up?
Max: Most things from 2007 (In Rainbows - Radiohead, Boxer - The National, Era Vulgaris - Queens Of The Stone Age)
Aidan: Eric Clapton, John Scofield, Trey Anastasio, George Harrison--just a few of the many.
Nick: The Beatles, The Who, Beck, Led Zeppelin, U2, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, XTC, Crowded House, Leon Russell, Little Feat, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder.
Angie: Thanks for the interview, guys!
Aidan: Thanks for having us!
Angie: Do you have any last words you’d like me to pass along to our readers?
Max: If you find yourself in a place you’ve never been and you’re having to weigh the pros and cons of ordering fish tacos, just get french fries.
Aidan: We’ll be playing a few shows at The Bowery Electric this Fall. October 5th, and another date to be announced. Keep an eye out for a music video we hope to release this Fall.
Conversation with: Angie Flores
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