 "Photo: Courtesy of Explosions in the Sky")
As I write this, I am listening to “So Long, Lonesome,” the last track off Explosions in the Sky’s last album, 2007’s All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone.
The last time I remember listening to it, I was driving away from South Padre Island right before dusk. The windows were rolled down and my friends were asleep as the sky turned lightly purple, the moon a rare pink. Had any other song been playing, the moment would have been lost forever, cast away into a sea of other lackluster memories.
The Austin-based quartet makes music that could easily serve as the soundtrack to anybody’s life. From their first full-length album, 2000’s How Strange, Innocence, the band has consistently evolved, adding tremendous depths — both emotional and musical — to their live repertoire.
The Texan spoke with guitarist Chris Hrasky about the band’s birthday, what they have been up to the last two years and Austin’s best Indian restaurant.
The Daily Texan: I really like the fact you’re playing on the Fourth of July here in Austin where the band got its start. It seems kind of prophetic. How does the band feel about playing on Independence Day?
Chris Hrasky: We’d been playing together for a few months already, but when we played at KVRX, we were in the process of thinking up a band name. When we were loading out that night we could hear the fireworks going off, so we look at that as sort of our birthday, which is kind of ridiculous. But we always talked about how we should do a 10th birthday show on the Fourth of July, so we decided we should actually do that!
DT: It’s been a little more than two years since the release of All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. What is the band currently working on?
CH: We basically toured for two years behind that record, and after that we kind of just decided to take a little break. I think we felt like we should take a breather. In the last few months, we’ve been working a lot on new stuff, recording and writing. We’ve got a huge pile of things. But having said that, I have no idea when we’ll have something completed or a new record, but it’s going pretty well.
DT: Has the band completely ruled out vocals and other instruments besides guitars and drums, or is there a chance something like that might happen in the future?
CH: We’ve definitely not ruled any of that out. It’s hard to imagine right now where lyrics could be sung, but I think the use of voices — particularly [guitarist] Michael James’ voice — is starting to look like it might play some role in the next record. The stuff we’re working on now is a lot more layered; we’re not sure how to pull it off live. We’re definitely working with some weird synth stuff, The thing is, we always wanted to sound more organic even if it’s a synthesizer or something — we want to work with different textures.
DT: When you’re in Austin, what are your favorite places to go to?
CH: Mostly each other’s houses. [laughs] We’re a bunch of homebodies. We go see a lot of movies at the Alamo [Drafthouse] a lot. Mark is married, I just got married a few months ago, so we’re living the domestic life.
DT: Favorite restaurant?
CH: There’s an Indian restaurant we go to way north on Lamar called Shalimar in a run-down strip mall. Munaf [Rayani] took us there and we liked it a lot. It’s so delicious and nobody really knows about it besides the Indian community.
DT: Last question: What emotions do you feel when you’re playing live?
CH: [laughs] I’m pretty sure the prominent emotion is fear.
WHAT: Explosions in the Sky with The Octopus Project and The Wooden Birds
WHERE: Stubb’s
WHEN: Saturday at 7 p.m.
