THE BOAT PEOPLE
The SiS Interview by Dany Sloan

A band that has never lost sight of the fun of making music, Australia's The Boat People just released their critically-acclaimed sophomore album Chandeliers in the U.S. To celebrate, the band is coming our way with gigs in LA and NYC this month, including one at our party! We recently digitally sat down with vocalist/ keyboardist Robin Waters to discuss all things Boaties, including their way too serious youth and why every band is influenced by the Beatles.

SIS: How did the band get together? What were your initial goals? How has that changed?

Robin Waters: Most of us met in high school in a country town just outside of Brisbane, Australia. We were very serious, naive young fellows back then. As time went by we've learned to make sure we keep everything fun. Fun is surprisingly easy to lose sight of - even making music. I've found as we've learned to just have fun with what we do, everything else just falls into place. I think partly, growing up in the whole grunge era, we got the message that angst had more artistic merit than other, more complex or layered emotions. As our confidence grew as a band we started to be more honest and true to the things we felt rather than just expressing what we thought people would take seriously (i.e.. TEEEN PAAAAIN!).

SIS: What are you guys up to in 2008?

RW: 2008's been a busy one for us and seems to be getting busier. We made a trip to the UK to play The Great Escape in Brighton and released our new album 'Chandeliers' in Australia in July. We've been pretty much on the road in Australia non-stop since then. We have long roads here. We'll be heading to the US/UK in November for CMJ and a bunch of side shows which will be a blast - we've only been to the West Coast previously so looking forward to NYC. Suggestions for fun in New York should be directed to: The Boat People C/- The Internet.

SIS: Who do you often find yourselves compared to, and do you like or dislike that comparison?

RW: I hear a lot of Shins comparisons which is I guess why we got to support them. The Brendan Benson half of Raconteurs (or the Saboteurs as they are known in Australia) is another one. I'm a big fan of both those bands so no arguments there. You can get some heinous and inaccurate comparisons to piano-based bands just because we have a keys/guitar rather than guitar/guitar lineup. I'm not a fan of oompa-style piano stomps a la Macca. I prefer to use the keys more like a guitar part when I play them.

SIS: Who are some of your favorite bands to play with? Do you think any of them will take over the world?

RW: We played with some great bands in the UK none of which were from there ironically. Wintersleep (from Canadia) were one. Jennifer Gentle (Italia) were another. Australians would have to include Dappled Cities and Youth Group, and like us, I think they show a side of Australian music that people more familiar with AC/DC and Jet have had hidden from them until recently.

SIS: What is your favorite and least favorite thing about being on the road?

RW: Favorite thing: Catching up with all my friends in different cities who I would get to see and be inspired by otherwise. Least Favorite thing: Missing me girl (shucks).

SIS: If any member of the Boat People were on the cover of a tabloid, who would it be and why?

RW: Tabloids? We Australians don't appear in tabloids! We just own them...

SIS: When family ask you what your band sounds like, what do you tell them?

RW: Well when I was three my mum used to play me this funk record called Soul Flutes (feat. Herbie Hancock) to get me to sleep and my Dad would rock some John Denver so I'm not sure if it's possible to plot for them where my band would sit between those two points. What I find funny is how people even bother to say "I'm influenced by the Beatles." I mean come on! That's like saying "I'm influenced by Popular Music." Can we be a little more specific please?

SIS: What's something about your hometown that most people don't know?

RW: That we have two of them! The band's base is Brisbane but two of us live in Melbourne at the moment which has been a lark. We've been touring so much this year that it seems close to irrelevant at this point. I can tell you our country's capital Canberra was designed by the same architect who designed Islamabad in Pakistan.

SIS: In 15 words or less, why should people buy your records?

RW: OK! DO NOT BUY OUR RECORDS! (Fools! Taste reverse psychology! Don't print this last bit.)