"Some Nights" | An (Extended!) Interview With Fun.

Story by Mitch McCann 

| Published Nov 29, 2011

Having been rooted in their respective music scenes years before “fun.” was even thought of, fans would tell you that the merging of lead singer Nate Ruess, guitarist Jack Antonoff and keyboardist Andrew Dost was nothing short of fate. Their debut release, “Aim and Ignite,” is universally praised for its creative, kinetic energy. Ruess’ voice, described by contemporary and tourmate Janelle Monae as “legendary,” captivates listeners, and along with the band’s quirky theatrics easily muster comparisons to Queen’s Freddie Mercury.

The lavish, instant classic nature of “Aim and Ignite,” as well as the band’s heavy commitments elsewhere, led to much speculation on the band’s future. But to fan relief, following a short stint away from the moniker, fun. bandmates returned to the drawing board late in 2010. One excruciating writing process and many moons later, the whimsically named sophomore effort “Some Nights,” eagerly anticipated by fans and the band alike, has finally captured a release date in early 2012. Buzz drawn from the anticipation leading up to the newest record has lent renewed life back into band’s long-dormant, but still true, fan base.

Keeping specifics of the new release under wraps, but bringing with him stories of the band’s travels since their zero hour, the experience of building a skyscraper without any blueprints, and what it he thinks it will take to keep fun. from “jumping the shark,” guitarist Jack Antonoff’s aloof descriptions of the album as “simply different” gave nosey Seeds staffers enough curiosity to track down fun. (for a second time) to poke and prod them with questions and whisper sweet nothings about the upcoming album. Antonoff was polite enough to answer them from a safe distance.


Seeds: fun. released “Aim and Ignite” in 2009; care to bring us up to speed on what you’ve been up to since then?

Jack Antonoff: We put [“Aim and Ignite”] out and toured pretty heavily on it. We took a pretty significant break in December of 2010 and didn’t do any shows until April 2011. During that whole time we hunkered down and started writing like crazy. There were a couple different writing trips, but what really sparked the writing of the new album was going to Woodstock. We rented a studio, went out there just the three of us and fleshing out tons of ideas. That was in January. We did more stuff in New York City and then we finally teamed up with the producer we ended up making the whole album with, Jeff Bhasker. Which is a really interesting story, because he’s the guy who did all Kanye [West]’s records and stuff like that, so he came from a totally different world; and working with him on the album is something that was really unexpected. In the best way. So in March we went out to California and started making the album with him, and we’ve been working on it non-stop ever since. Touring in between, and we’re just about finished.

Seeds: Nate [lead singer] classified the genre of your last album as “Broadway Pop.” What I’ve heard of the new album is that it’s just “different” - will this still be in that same theatrical vein?

JA: It’s still Nate’s voice, and mine and Andrew’s production, so it’s still what it is. But it really does sound very different. All the drums and a lot of the sounds on the record are programmed and samples, it almost sounds like an old hp hop record in that way. I don’t think there’s one real drum kit on the album, everything is cut up samples from older records and all that. I think the song writing is on the next level as well. it’s very different. Some people will hear it and think it still sounds like “fun.” but some people will really be thrown for a loop. For me it’s something entirely different, I almost don’t know how to describe it. There was this idea for [Some Nights] that we set out to do, and for better or worse we just went out and executed it.

Seeds: Not many bands have the level of a debut that fun. had. “Aim and Ignite” had real instruments, backing vocalists, big ideas and big pay-offs. Why, as a new band, shoot so high when it could have easily been more raw or lo-fi, and how does that fun. translate to the new record?

JA: There were three of us coming from years and years of experience in other bands and touring and making albums, so there was a confidence going into it that we capitalized on. We’ve all been in the situation of being young, getting signed, and making albums, and then you’re timid or you want to try things so you don’t really go for it, or maybe you’re not ready, you jump the shark or miss the point of something. So when we did “Aim and Ignite,” it was a chance to go back and make another first record, but with all the knowledge and power that we had at that moment. So we didn’t hold much back because there was a really great deal of confidence in everyone. I don’t think we ever second-guessed ourselves. When we were working on “Barlights” and Nate was talking about having a whole gospel choir, everyone was like, “Oh, cool,” or Andrew had an idea for a french horn arrangement and we’ll go with it. There was no fear going into that.

That was something we took into this album, but in a much more refined sense. “Aim and Ignite” was about trying everything and going completely over the top, and this new album is about going over the top in a way that’s less obvious. This one’s is not about having gospel singers and crazy horn parts, but more about the different feeling of the songs and the lyrics and the melody. Because think about the greatest songs of all time or your favorite bands; even Queen would be considered over the top, and that’s obviously a band we draw a lot of influence from. But their best songs are still just guitar, bass, and drums.

It’s just the song that makes everything feel so huge, not everything has to be “Bohemian Rhapsody” or, for us, not everything has to be “Be Calm.” Not comparing us to Queen [laughs]--just on a production level.

Seeds: How has the Internet and music piracy impacted your approach to your music?

JA: Our band is of the generation where we’re not really angry about it because we were a part of it all. None of us in fun. really had any significant success before the internet was this prominent. So there isn’t an ability, or feeling that we’re getting robbed. If anything it’s been instrumental in everything we’ve done. At the same time, we grew up in the 90’s and that’s when we started getting into music. That was an amazing time, there was so much mystery in music.

There wasn’t YouTube and things like that, so when Billie Joe [Armstrong, of Green Day] got naked at a show in 1994, it became a legend that you just heard about. You couldn’t just look at the video the next day. There is that element of mystery in music and art that is lost, so in any way that we can hold on to that, we’re still trying to.

Seeds: You mentioned “Barlights,” which really stuck out on your first album. What can you tell us about the recording process of that song?

JA: Some songs make a lot of sense immediately, and then they’re really easy to demo or play because of that. Songs like “Benson Hedges” we were just able to make a demo of, or “The Gambler” makes perfect sense--you just have piano and vocals, so you understand what it is. But “Barlights” was a song that we weren’t really able to demo, because it was all just concept. It’s not about “here are the chords, the lyrics, the melody”--it’s about “here’s where the horns come in, here’s where the guitar explodes, here’s where the gospel singers go crazy.” It’s one of those things that’s all concept, and when you’re making an album and you don’t have a huge budget. Especially with “Aim and Ignite,” we had a lot of situations, and “Barlights” is a perfect example of it, where we just had to do it and kind of hope for the best.

So, that song we just went into the studio and started building it and it was almost like... [pauses] Working on a song like “Barlights” would be like building a skyscraper with no blueprints. We kept laying down all these different layers, kind of on a prayer that it would all make sense when it was done. Sometimes when you’re recording things don’t sound right until a certain point, and we did the drums for that song and then the bass and guitar and a scratch vocal. It was a cool song, but it wasn’t quite what it was, and then getting the horn players in and finally the gospel singers all of a sudden it started to make sense. It was a big payoff just going for it.

But there was a couple songs like that on the album. Like, “Barlights” is a big one, and
“Be Calm” is another, because there’s no way to understand how it’s going to sound. Those are the two songs we just went at and didn’t look back.

Seeds: You did a few tracks with your tourmates, first Panic at the Disco, then this newest one (“We Are Young”) with Janelle Monae. Do you want to talk a bit about the collaborations? Is this a new direction the band is taking or will take in the future?

JA: Not so much. I mean, with Panic, we were writing with them just for any purposes, and that was one song that we just really worked out and we ended up recording together. We just met them being label mates, etcetera. We did that way, way before it came out.

With Janelle, that actually wasn’t really much of a collaboration, because we didn’t even meet her until early October. I think she was somewhere in Europe when she recorded her part of [“We Are Young.”] It was the least collaborative collaboration ever, because we knew we wanted a female vocal on it and so we reached out to our favorite artists and she was at the top of the list. She liked the track and wanted to do it, and that was that. Now, we actually have gotten to tour with her and have gotten to know her. Collaborating’s interesting and we’re borderline social people, so it kind of makes sense for us. [laughs] It’ll be interesting to see where things like that go in the future.

Seeds: Since you describe this record as so different, has your writing process changed any on your approach this time around?

JA: It’s all been pretty much the same. Everyone’s doing what they do, just in different ways. Some things more collaborative, others less. What’s really changed this time around are the sounds and the ideas, but I think keeping our process the same is one of the reasons why it’s still “Fun.”

“Some Nights” will be flying off shelves starting February 21, 2012

Find songs and exclusive content from the upcoming album at ournameisfun.com
Link to fun.'s new single featuring Janelle Monae: http://bit.ly/weareyoung