I came across Portland, OR’s Eskimo and Sons in a very organic and accidental manner, in fact I had heard their name about a thousand times before I actually heard their music. One of my dearest friends while living in Eugene, OR for 4 years was Kirsten Himes and just about the time I was moving to LA she was moving into a house in Portland with her younger brother Thomas and some of his band mates in Eskimo and Sons. Kirsten of course raved about them continuously and after a couple myspace listens was impressed myself and this summer when I was up visiting Portland she handed me their terrific new EP How Does if Feel to be Crushed by One Man With the Strength of a Million? which was released on the artsy co-op label of Boy Gorilla Records. Led by the vocals of Danielle Sullivan who takes equal quest from Jenny Lewis and Joanna Newsom and combined with the songwriting of guitarist Dhani Rosa, Eskimo and Sons sound like one of those Portland spring days when the rain stops long enough for some rare beams of sunshine to break through the dark clouds.
Danielle, Dhani and drummer Dylan Reed filled Indie Schmarm in on the group’s history, their label and what lies ahead.
The Schmarm: How and when did Eskimo and Sons form?
Dhani Rosa: We started the band in September of 2005 I believe. I don’t really know how serious it was at first, because we were all so horrible at playing instruments. And none of us had written a song, so I don’t really think it would have lasted unless Tyler and Danielle met and he asked her if we wanted to play the first Typhoon show in December that year. And she agreed, which was pretty ridiculous thinking about it now. Around October we were like, shit, we need some songs, this is actually going to happen. And so we started cracking away. And they were horrible. But they have special places in our hearts I think. In the garbage cans of our hearts. It took a lot of time to be able to write songs that a whole band could play as opposed to just a guitar and Danielle. It was just Dylan, Danielle, Thomas and me back then. But I think before long we were really realizing how fun and doable being in a band was. I think Portland has a lot to do with that. Difficult too though, damn difficult. Bands take patience. But really, music was what we were all into and realizing that we could be doing it was amazing. And I can’t speak for everyone, but I think I really thrived on that at the beginning. When we put out our first 7″ we made this song called Oh, It’s Even More Crash and I think that is the first time where we had made something we were thoroughly pleased with and proud of, and really felt like we had pulled out part of our hearts to make something. And since then I guess we have been just trying to tap into that feeling while we make songs. Up until this summer we had felt pretty short handed though in our live setting, and the other dudes had a friend named Clayton who played bass and we had him with us a for a few shows to help with some instrumentation, and just this summer he moved back here from Rhode Island and he’s pretty much a legitimate member. Which is wonderful. 2 legit to quit. I think… Right, Clayton? He hasn’t said anything about going back to Rhode Island. Hopefully not for a while. He’s awesome. We’ve had a rat in our basement all summer and Clayton has been duking it out with the bastard. It is uncatchable. He’ll get it though.
The Schmarm: You’ve released a 7″ and earlier this year released the EP “How Does it Feel to be Crushed by One Man With the Strenth of a Million?” are there plans for a full length in the near future?
Dhani Rosa: Making the last record was such a crazy learning experience. We spent so long on every song really, and wrote it as we went along, with the exception of ‘The Blizzard’ it’s tracklisted in the same order it was written. It took us almost a whole year to get that finished and out, and it’s only five songs. And it was like, at times so agonizing and frustrating because we were literally just learning how to record on the spot by trial and error. So it almost feels like it was a full length to me, and I guess it plays a little over a half an hour, so maybe technically it is a full length, ha. But we intended on it being an EP when we were finishing it, and the next thing to be our first full length. And thats what we’re working on now. We’re going to try and take all of the fall and winter off to get some new songs done, like whoa. If it didn’t take me so long to write a damn song, I would say it could be done in the next year, but I think it will end up taking longer than that. Which is scary. It’s really scary. But I honestly have just recently found a comfortable place in how I’m writing where I feel more confident and I’m really excited about it, and I’m going to try and take my time. And hopefully what we’ve learned last time around will shine through and we can make the recording process like that as well. Just natural and as pure and fun as possible. And the band has been super patient and cool and everyone is really excited to work on it. It’s going to be a concept record!!! Oh and we’re supposed to put out a four way split 7″ with Typhoon, Dirty Mittens and Starfucker which everyone is hecka pumped for. Who knows?
The Schmarm: You’re label, Boy Gorilla, seems to be a very tight knit DIY type of label, how did you begin working with them and how has it been?
Danielle Sullivan: I first met Tyler, of Typhoon, my first day of college at PSU in 2005. He was basically my only college friend when I come to think of it now, but meeting him spurred aproximately 25 other friendships, including the Typhoon family, as our Portland and Salem crews merged. After a few weeks he proposed that we play a show together, which would be both Typhoon and Eskimo & Sons first show everrr. We were terrified, or at least I was terrified. Ready to pee my pants. But luckily it all came together, and shortly after it was proposed that we join the Boy Gorilla family. We have them to thank for the opportunity of putting out our first 7 inch and our first EP. We’ll all agree that it has been a very interesting and rewarding experience growing as a band and watching the label grow and mature as well. New bands within BG are forming all the time; combinations of different projects as styles evolve. All I can say is that we have been so lucky in joining the BG group, and Eskimo & Sons would not be the same without them.
The Schmarm: You’ve recently got some attention from Dave Allen of Gang of Four in which he has personally been giving shout outs to you guys in interviews and coming out to your shows. What has that been like?
Dhani Rosa: Dave Allen is a funny dude. I think I’m going to call him Dave while I respond to this, which is still kind of weird. But anyways, he sent us a message on the old MySpace while were on tour. In Seattle actually, that said he had listened to our shit and wrote something about it on his blog. Which is www.pampelmoose.com. And we were all pretty stoked just seeing a message from Dave Allen. I think we had all at least heard Gang of Four, none of us were really avid listeners, but we knew he was pretty involved in a lot of local shit like Wet Confetti, etc. We corresponded a few times through e-mail, he gave me his phone number and he called me about playing this thing called Wadstock. Long story short, his friend organizes this festival in his backyard with TONS of beer and expensive hot dogs and a really good sound system every year. So, we were scheduled to “head line” it, and we showed up super early which meant we had all day to hang out and walk around and talk to Dave, and this was the first time we met him. We got drunk with him and made fun of some of the hippie-ish middle aged dudes that were there. This band of twelve year olds were playing Pink Floyd covers and their moms were eating it up. Michael Jackson’s ex-guitarist played a set right before us (wtf?) and she shredded hard (no, seriously). Dave took his shirt off and put and Eskimo + Sons shirt on. Then we played, and we didn’t really feel too good about it. The twelve year old guitarist from the Pink Floyd cover band made fun of my guitar playing out loud during our set. It was merited though, I don’t blame him. But Dave was drunk enough to somehow be fooled into thinking it was good performance, and ever since he has been very supportive and nice and all. It’s been a good experience. We’ll see what happens next.
The Schmarm: You went on a west coast tour this summer, how did that go and are there any plans for another one soon?
Dylan Reed: The tour was so much fun! It almost didn’t happen too, like we bought our van a week before we were supposed take it on the road and we had these shows booked and we were freaking out trying to get a van or someone to drive us. But it worked out, we got a big blue van that used to be used to shlep around mental patients, yikes. Anyways, it was a first for all of us and I think none of us really had an idea what to expect. It ended up basically just being a road trip with your best friends first and foremost and a chance to play shows secondly. You definitely learn a lot about yourself and your friends when your day to day living gets swapped for what amounts to goofing around all over the country for a couple weeks. Everyone we stayed with along the way was so generous and helpful, most of them were people we had never met ourselves, just friends of friends or aunts and uncles, stuff like that. There really isn’t anything like driving 500 miles through the desert in one day in a van that doesn’t have AC, ya know? But I can’t wait to do it again next Summer.
The Schmarm: What have you been listening to lately?
Danielle Sullivan: Jens Lekman! “Kanske Ar Jag Kar i Dig” off of his latest album will cure any ailment, I’m convinced. And Doubledutch, another band from Boy Gorilla is completely killing it. When their full-length drops you better keep a firm grip on your underwears.
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November 14th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
gena lions
i hella love eskimo and sons.