Turning down the HYPE

 

Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah keeps it real in Philly

 

By Michael Lello

Philly EDGE Correspondent

 

Before it's time to wrap up a conversation about his next-big-thing band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Alec Ounsworth is asked if he has any final thoughts.

“None,” he says. But he mentions he could use some help closing a stuck-open window in the New York apartment that he's visiting.

Though Ounsworth is about to begin recording the follow-up to last year's self-titled debut disc that placed CYHSY in the cross hairs of the music industry hype machine, the band's singer, guitarist and songwriter is worried about a window.

Both before and after Rolling Stone called the quintet a "Hot New Band" for 2005 in its “Hot List” issue, countless critics became enamored with the group's dreamy, colorful indie pop, Ounsworth's distinctive vocals and the do-it-yourself approach that found the band members recording, releasing and even distributing the album themselves. Rock luminaries David Bowie and David Byrne were spotted at CYHSY shows, and the band played the super-cool Coachella Music and Arts Festival this past April.

There are great expectations for the second album, a perception of pressure on the band to equal or better Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

However, Ounsworth -- who lives in Philadelphia, unlike his Brooklyn-based bandmates -- has much simpler needs: write songs, play live and get that window closed before the rain starts. He feels the expectations and hype are not something he needs to live up to because they are not his. 

"I don't read any of that," Ounsworth says. "I don't react one way or another to it. Initially, it was kind of neat to see your name in print, and then as I read along. ... I realized I don't really have time to indulge in other people's speculations. And if it is directly about us and it's accurate, then I probably know it already."

Some might take Ounsworth's dismissal of the positive attention lobbed his way as disingenuous or ungrateful. But it seems more a case of being practical; it's listeners he's trying to reach, not critics.

"For me growing up, it was a matter of connecting to a Velvet Underground album or a Lou Reed album or a Bob Dylan album on such a level that it became a part of you," he says. "It's about the kid who gets your album and becomes influenced even on a subconscious level. That's the magic of it."

Ounsworth and company were set to begin working on the sophomore CYHSY release earlier this month with Dave Fridman, who produced the most recent Sleater-Kinney album and has worked with The Flaming Lips. With CYHSY -- which also features twin brothers Lee and Tyler Sargent, Robbie Guertin and Sean Greehalgh -- facing a busy summer festival schedule, including this weekend's Bonnaroo outing in Tennessee, studio time will be tough to find. Still, Ounsworth says the band would like to finish recording the disc by September with an eye on a January release date. He says the new material includes some songs that "sort of stay true to the first album."

Ounsworth, whose Flashy Python and the Body Snatchers side project is scheduled to perform a hometown gig at World Cafe Live on Tuesday, June 20, feels a certain connection to Philadelphia after growing up in the Mount Airy section of the city. (He declines to say where in the city he currently makes his home.)

"As much as I've been away from it, Philadelphia is always home for me, and always will be," says Ounsworth, who mentions a recent stop at Chubby's in Roxborough for a cheesesteak. "That's not to say I couldn't live somewhere else for a little while. Philly is just home to me. It's comfortable."

With the mainstream sniffing around the band's door, some indie scenesters may have the classic concern that CYHSY might not stay true to its hardscrabble DIY ethos. Just like fans of Nirvana and Pearl Jam were uneasy when their flannel-clad heroes ended up on MTV, the same mini-backlash brews when a band like CYHSY -- or The Arcade Fire or Bloc Party, for example -- threatens to outgrow the underground. Again, for Ounsworth, it's more of an issue for the observers than the observed. 

"I don't attach myself to any abstract notion of a scene," says the singer/songwriter, who notes that he didn't subscribe to any particular social or musical subculture growing up in Philly. "As far as I'm concerned, we have our friends who happen to be caught up in the same thing, which is to say they happen to be making music and making albums. ... As far as leaving anybody behind, the illusory concept of an indie scene doesn't really resonate with me."

With the music coming first, as cliche as that may sound, Ounsworth has managed CYHSY's exposure, realizing that sometimes he has to shake his head and say no.  

“You have to make sure you are doing things that are consistent with your own natural philosophy," he says. "I wouldn't do things that make me uncomfortable, and I've turned a lot of stuff down."

 

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Bonnaroo Festival

Manchester, TN

June 16-18

SOLD OUT

 

Flashy Python & The Body Snatchers (feat. Alec Ounsworth)

World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., Philadelphia

Tuesday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. ET

Tickets: $16

215.222.1400

www.clapyourhandssayyeah.com