Photo by Drew Reynolds

“Take Five” is a new interview series that will focus on Chicago’s ever-growing music scene by giving you insight on the city’s best local acts via the best source possible: the acts themselves. We ask five questions, and they give five answers. Here is the first installment featuring Chicago’s own Netherfriends

Netherfriends have been busy as of late with an ambitious “50 Songs in 50 States Tour” in which the Shawn Rosenblatt-lead indie, psych pop act are trying to play in all 50 states in one year. Additionally, they’re working to promote a brand new digital-only LP titled Barry and Sherry, and they’ve just released a video for the Barry and Sherry track “Brett Easton Ellis Novel”. Most impressive is how they’ve done all of this with no record label. Luckily, we found some time in Rosenblatt’s busy schedule for an interview the afternoon after his incredible opening performance to Pitchfork Music Fest’s hot and sweaty Saturday.

LLP: You’re in the midst of the “50 Songs in 50 States” tour. How many states have you played in and how many more do you have to go?

SR: I have done 22 states now, and it’s been three months. I started April 14, 2010, and I have until April 14, 2011. I’m going to be heading toward Seattle in August, so I’ll have a tour there. Then I’m going to Alaska in September and will be playing a college there. The rest is kind of up in the air. I’m playing CMJ in the fall, so I’ll probably head back east. I have to hit up New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland still. Those were the only three I missed. Hopefully I’ll try to find…I mean I don’t know. I don’t have a booking agent. I’m booking myself. I have to find a new label. Who knows what’s going to happen? But I’m going to be doing this either way, which is kind of why I did it. Everyone’s like ‘why are you doing this project?’ and what’s the idea behind it. It’s so many different things, and it’s not a gimmick like Sufjan Stevens. There are so many obstacles and one of them is to just have something creative I could do because I don’t want to wait around for a label or Pitchfork to write about Netherfriends. I just want to do something creative in the next year. If I don’t have any of those things like a new label or booking agent, it’s okay because I can do it myself and it’s still really fun.

LLP: How is the transition from playing at small house shows for a handful of people on tour to playing to a pretty large crowd at an outdoor music festival like Pitchfork?

SR: It’s actually not very different. I’ve conditioned myself to play to such small crowds that if there is a big crowd, even if it’s like 20 people, I get excited about that. And really, this is what bands should do instead of waiting for this big break. I was just talking to the band Allá. They’ve never toured. They’re on Crammed Discs, and they have a publicist. They could easily get a booking agent on Crammed Disc Records, but they’re never going to tour because they’re waiting for this big buzz and all these guarantees. They’ve never left Chicago. They might have played a few small shows outside of the city, but it’s about just getting out there and meeting people face to face.

You have to get used to playing shitty shows because when you play shitty shows, you understand, “Oh, this is the worst it could get.” But if you automatically get used to playing shows like [Pitchfork Music Festival] and then you play a show to a hundred people and you’re like I only got $200? I’ve played so many shows where I’ve never gotten paid. That’s like unbelievable to some of these bands. They’ve never played shows like that. They’re all from New York, and they’re so used to that. And that’s why bands break up. That’s how people get discouraged. I feel like I’ve conditioned myself to not get discouraged. It’s really taught me how much it takes, and how much it sucks. Then it’s surprising when things happen.

LLP: So, let’s get away from touring and talk about your music. Netherfriends’ songs have a lot going on, but you manage to harness it all in and make it accessible. When you’re writing, how do you know when to pull back or push forward?

SR: I think the idea is to always write a basic song, and then kind of destroy it. Completely destroy it. Someone told me that Wilco does that after I talked about that, and I don’t listen to Wilco. But I get that comparison a lot now. It’s that and Animal Collective.

LLP: I don’t see Animal Collective at all, but…

SR: Yeah, man. But that’s what people are…(laughs)…Anyway, so, I think the basic idea of writing a song, and then really destroying it and making it something that’s completely changed is great. I love doing that because it makes it interesting.

LLP: Yeah, when I was writing that question, I was referring to your song “Brett Easton Ellis Novel”. It starts off as like a standard indie rock song then in the middle there’s this long monotone psychedelic part.

SR: Yeah, a lot of it was recorded sober for the most part. Mixing is another story. I just think music should be interesting, it shouldn’t be what everything else sounds like or just straight rock songs. I don’t want to be safe in what I do. I want to create landscapes of music, not a 4/4 rock song. Dynamics or like getting really quite and holding onto a certain note. Both in live and recordings, that’s where I like to go.

LLP: Speaking of “Brett Easton Ellis Novel”, you released a really cool video for that song. What was the idea behind it and how did it come about?

SR: My friend and I did a stop motion video everyday and posted it on our blogs. So, you can watch the whole short videos on YouTube, so you can see how we sort of put them all together. I didn’t really plan on making a music video. I was just really bored. I came back to Chicago like four or five weeks ago, and I was jsut really bored. It’s so hard to tour all the time and come back and not do anything. I just wanted to do something with my time. I was also waiting on another guy to make a music video, and it never happened. So, I was like I’m going to just do this myself, and I have iMovie. It’ll look really shitty, but it’s better than nothing.

LLP: So to finish up, what’s going on with the physical release of your latest Barry and Sherry?

SR: Hopefully, it’s kind of up in the air. I mean I really don’t think there’s a label that’s going to be like, “Well, we saw your set and we want to sign you.” It’s not going to happen. So, my friend has saved up enough money. He wants to start up his own label and make a physical release of Barry and Sherry, so I can sell it on tour and online and stuff. But it’s really upsetting, all the pictures in the cover art and all that stuff are my dad’s photos from when he was a kid. And my friend photo shopped all of it.

Then when I was in Pennsylvania for the 50 Songs in 50 States tour, I was hanging out at my dad’s house, he told me wrote a book about his life. So he gave me a copy. I read it, and it was amazing. It was so perfect because I was pretty much writing the album about becoming my parents. He talked about his childhood, and I saw myself in these stories. So I decided to put one of his stories on the back cover, like a Bob Dylan cover kind of thing. I feel like a record should be something special. You should be able to read something in there that no one else can read unless they buy the album. So, I feel like that story is very crucial to the album. And it might never come out physically, like I may not ever be able to hold it. It’s upsetting, but I’m sure it will come out eventually. I’m not going to harp on it. I’ve got 22 songs now. Hopefully, I’ll try and put all that stuff out on EPs, full lengths and seven inches.

Bret Easton Ellis Novel from Shawn Rosenblatt on Vimeo.