By snoadmin
Despite coming straight out of Austin, Texas, a city cluttered with countless indie rock bands and other musical acts looking to make names for themselves (not to mention the fact that the capital of the Lone Star State is home to the annual South by Southwest film and music festivals, and it bills itself as “The Live Music Capital of the World”), Voxtrot has been able to break away from the pack.
The quintet has earned a nationwide following and a spot opening for the Arctic Monkeys on their recent North American tour on the strength of its pop-oriented indie rock, which is often off-kilter yet melodic and well-crafted.
“It’s pretty positive, upbeat music, with lyrics that are sometimes not equally positive,” lead singer/guitarist/principal songwriter Ramesh Srivastava said.
Voxtrot’s sound has earned Srivastava and company constant comparisons to The Smiths and the seminal twee pop band Belle & Sebastian since the release of the band’s first single, “The Start of Something,” in 2004.
“I think because it’s melodic, lyrical music, it’s pretty fair,” Srivastava said. “But I think the Smiths one is getting pretty old because it’s obviously just because of that one song [“The Start of Something”] with the beat that was completely ripped off from [the Smiths’ 1983 single] ‘This Charming Man,’ which is fine because I was about 19 when I wrote it, but it’s funny that we’re still getting the same comparisons.”
Voxtrot’s beginnings date back to 2003, when Srivastava decided to form a band as an outlet for a number of songs he had written. During a break from his studies (he was attending college in Scotland, where he studied English literature), he decided to return to his hometown of Austin to form the band.
“I kind of wanted to record some songs, but I didn’t have a band,” Srivastava said. “I had known the drummer [Matt Simon] since I was a little kid, and I would play music with him. We just recruited people from various places, and there are a lot of musicians in Austin, so it was pretty easy.”
Although Voxtrot recorded a homemade EP and even released the single “The Start of Something” on the band’s label Cult Hero Records, Srivastava did not decide to pursue music full-time until he moved back to Austin after graduating in 2005.
That year, Voxtrot released its first official EP, “Raised by Wolves,” which featured “The Start of Something” along with a number of new songs. A year later, the band’s follow-up EP, “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives,” hit stores.
During this time, the band toured relentlessly, playing at a wide variety of locations ranging from the beloved Austin venue Emo’s to beyond-random places such as a Christian coffeehouse.
“The clientele [at the coffeehouse] was quite bizarre, especially when you’re sharing the bill with a bunch of Christian hardcore bands made up of 13-year-olds,” Srivastava said. “I think all of the bands had played on Warped Tour. It was pretty fucking bizarre.”
Eventually, music websites such as the indie behemoth Pitchfork Media began to spread the word about Voxtrot and what it had to offer.
“It was nice and I was flattered, but I don’t read [Pitchfork] that much,” he said. “I used to read blogs all the time, but I just don’t care anymore. To me, there isn’t any magic in it. I would much rather prefer to create or recreate the zeitgeist of something rather than just reading about it or communicating about it on the Internet because it’s too much in the here and now. It’s too focused on constant, up-to-date reporting, as opposed to just being able to enjoy something at face value.”
Voxtrot’s increasing exposure via touring and online outlets helped the band net a record deal with the British-based Beggars Group and its imprint Playlouderrecordings.
“We met one of [Beggars’] A&R guys at South by Southwest, and I really liked him because he knew a lot of the dance music and people I knew in Glasgow and that area of Britain in general because that was his background, so we really saw each other eye-to-eye,” Srivastava said. “I also really liked everybody I met in London [location of Beggars’ headquarters], and the Beggars Group is quite a good, ever-reaching thing. I just liked the total package.”
After making its Beggars debut with “Your Biggest Fan,” which was the second Voxtrot EP released in 2006, the band went into the studio to record its self-titled debut LP. According to Srivastava, however, the process of creating the long-awaited disc was constricting and far from enjoyable, and he admitted that he wasn’t completely satisfied with the end result.
“We made it under the unfortunate circumstance of pressure, so it has kind of a negative sound to it,” he said. “Although I like it, we couldn’t sound as spontaneous as we did on the EPs because you just can’t recreate that feeling. It didn’t help that I had everybody I was working with calling me 19 million times a day. They were like, ‘Oh, I think you should do this and that, and blah blah blah.’ Everybody wants you to do ‘the best things for your career,’ and everybody thinks they know best, and all that shit.
“I don’t even know what I ended up doing because I was freaking out for an entire year of my life.”
Still, the video for the album’s first single, the straight-from-the-’80s-but-in-the-best-possible-way “Firecracker,” has received airplay on MTVU, and the band got the chance to spend this fall touring with the Arctic Monkeys.
“I’m still thankful that [the Arctic Monkeys] were nice enough to take us out on tour, but I just wish there could have been a bit more interaction between the bands,” Srivastava said.
“Though we’re not on the same level, of course, both of us have been on tour for a long time, and we’ve kind of developed an unenthusiastic approach to touring. I don’t think that says anything negative about the people in any band. I just think it’s a reality because you have to tour so goddamn much these days that you kind of get nonplussed by it. I’ll never look back on it and think, ‘Man, those were some great times,’ but I’m still thankful that they were kind enough to invite us.”
Following a hectic year in which Srivastava estimated that he spent all but 14 days constantly working due to nonstop touring and recording, Voxtrot plans to work on its second full-length album, which may be released as soon as next year. Srivastava is also considering reviving Cult Hero Records, which has been inactive since the release of “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives” due to the band’s packed schedule and a lack of money.
Although Srivastava is thankful that Voxtrot has made a name for itself in the indie rock scene, he made it clear that the band’s rise in stature is no fluke.
“There are a lot of bands that are like, ‘We want to make this work,’ but they don’t want to work,” he said. “When we were doing our last record, we had to practice five days a week, Monday through Friday. Outside of practice, I would go work on the guitar and piano every day. It’s a really, really constant thing. I’ve worked completely hard since the day I moved home, so as much as I’m thankful for it, I don’t feel it’s that surprising because we did everything we could possibly do to get to this point.”
