Rubblebucket is an indie-dance group whose energetic show performances are as noteworthy as their innovative compositions and mega-fun dance tunes. Their new album, Survival Sounds, came out this year. While on tour, frontwoman Kalmia Traver took the time to phone in from Seattle to talk about the new album , being on tour, and the flower creature thats appears on their latest cover art.
Survival Sounds is such a great album. How did the creative development for this album differ from that of Omega La La and Save Charlie?
Oh, thanks. Save Charlie was kind of the beginning of the creative development for Survival Sounds. We started writing for the record at the beginning of 2013 and we didn’t really have any time frame in mind. It was a lot of fun, we probably wrote 45 songs all together and we produced a few of those for the save Ch,arlie EP. That was testing the water. I was a really new and fresh experience writing in that sime, a lot of writing more deliberate. To describe it as one big process with Save Charlie and Survival Sounds , I kept using this metaphor that we’re planting little seed and little flowers spring up, like Save Charlie, and then the album was the full bouquet.
The two founding members of Rubblebucket joined a reggae group upon graduation. Did that experience influence your approach to music in any way?
Me and Alex are the bandleaders and we have five founding members; Alex and I went to University of Vermont where we met. It was pretty profound for me to experience life on the road. We’re all music students so we had a lot of training in classes and college but all of a sudden we were performing in fron big crowd and dealing with all these new kinds of elements. I learned about 200% more than I ever did in school.
What were some things you learned?
Well for one thing I learned about rock and roll history. I studied jazz in college, a lot of us studied jazz, and I grew up in Vermont where my family listened to a lot of Old time irish music. I listened to a lot of bebop and big band. I really got a much more broad musical education while on tour. Living together on the road and learning to collaborate was also pretty. I’m halfway between introvert and extrovert so collaboration is still a challenge for me.
You have seven members, with such a relatively big band what’s the dynamic like?
The core five are the ones who made the album together and then two are touring members. Alex wrote most of the songs and we didn’t have a system for collaboration. With each cook you add to the kitchen makes it more difficult to collaborate but the fact that the album was a success is something we’re really proud of. Together we have this big mumbo jumbo of ideas and influences. We’re four weeks of being on tour and it’s like this big universe of cosmic planets trying not to crash.
What has the experience of being on tour been like for you?
I love the cover art for this album. Whose idea was that and how did it come about?
So much of this album has to do with healing and perserverance but there’s also a dark edge to it. We were working with an artist who sent us that image. We get sent a lot of ideas for the cover art and when we got this we pounced on it. When we saw this image, this flower creature, it looked like this peaceful warrior that really personified what has gotten us through hard times in the past couple of years. We kind of created a mythology around it. To me it’s a symbol of love and healing and of a connection to the earth. I’ve had a lot of imagery go through my mind of being part of the earth which worked it way into things.
Who or what would you say are some of your biggest musical influences?
It’s hard to say because we have have such a diverse range of music that we love. Our forefathers, bands that have paved the way, include The Talking Heads, The Flaming Lips, Bjork. And we all love Michael Jackson and The Beatles.
If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be?
I went to your live show and it was such a fun and beautiful time. How did you develop that aesthetic and those elements within the show?
Yeah, you came into the crowd and danced amongst the people. It was great.
That’s always been my favorite, dancing with the audience. We’ve always done that on tour. I think it freaks them out in a good way.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
Check out our review of Rubblebucket’s live show.
Learn more about Rubblebucket at www.rubblebucket.com.
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