Interview: Behaviors

photo by Natalia Read-Harber

photo by Natalia Read-Harber

Behaviors‘ “Signing a Deal” came to me via an old friend from Georgia (now in NYC) on a particularly sunny day here in Nashville. I was just heading out for a bike ride, so I put the track on and pushed off. Immediately, I was greeted with warm, textured vocals and a driving beat that met the tempo of my peddling in a pleasing, mathematical way reminiscent of jaunts I’d taken with Neon Indian or Toro Y Moi as accompaniment.

I connected with the band’s Daniel Schober over email and we talked about the music they’ve released, are going to released, and how Behaviors was born.

Are you all transplants to New York City or born and raised? That being said, how did everyone meet each other?

Only Frans, our singer is a born and raised NY. Myself, Dan D, and Jake are transplants, hailing from Sydney, Australia. Dan & Jake went to high school together and a mutual friend introduced me to them as we were looking for people to play with. We formed a band with another friend and once our tour commitments for our first record were complete, we all wanted a sea change and moved here to NY. 

We played a show at Piano’s and a friend of Frans’ saw us and recommended they record a song of ours for our sophomore album we were working on. We met with Frans, and the two of us just clicked and we made plans to record some music together in the future. It took a couple of months but when it happened, what would later become Behaviors, emerged. 

What was the writing and recording process like for the recent releases? Also, what’s the story behind the concept for “Don’t Fight It” and what was recording the video like?

“Don’t Fight It” was born off a 16 second bass loop I had stored in a boss looping pedal. 90% of the guitar lines were already written and it was already structured. From there, we recorded all the instruments again aside from drums either at the studio Frans was working at or our apartments. I remember tracking the bass and guitars at Frans’ parents place. 

“Signing a Deal” came about super fast. The chords were written the night before and once I showed Frans, he immediately laid down a vocal melody and it took hold over me. It was the most sparse song we had written. There’s a lot of room allowing every nuance to create emotion. It’s a very sentimental song for me for personal reasons.

We worked quite sporadically, utilizing whatever free time we had at his studio (Ishlab). So, a lot of sessions were from midnight till 5am. Once we had all the tracks where we wanted them, we went to Vacation Island Recording in Williamsburg to track all the drums to replace the samples we building from.

Our friend, Kevin listened to our songs in demo form and immediately began brainstorming and came back with a concept the next day for “Don’t Fight It”. As with any art, there’s interpretation. What I take away from the video is an unusual love story. A man is yearning for his muse’s love but isn’t even on their radar. He’ll do anything to be noticed and acknowledged, even if that means acting in the most despicable ways. 

As the year starts to wind down, what do you all have on the horizon?

We have a couple more singles we are releasing in lead up to the release of our debut album, accompanied by their quirky music videos made possible by Kevin Eis. Then we aim to hit the road and play all over the country. Dan & I made a pact, that when we land our first national tour here, we’re going to bleach our hair. Unsure if our eyebrows are included.

We’ve got $20 and we’re looking for a great meal in New York City — where should we go?

Well, for a great breakfast, I recommend “The Big Breakfast” from Five Leaves in Greenpoint. You get some poached eggs or any style you like, hash browns, toast and your choice of two sides for $14. I rate the fried tomatoes and mushrooms along with their Cold Brew Ice Coffee.

Behaviors – “Don’t Fight It” Official Video

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