[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s a few hours until The Colourist take the stage Monday night at a long sold out, all-ages show at Great Scott. It’s also the night before the SoCal pop foursome will see the release of their self-titled debut, so there’s an air of nervousness floating about as drummer Maya Tuttle and guitarist Adam Castilla — who share singing duties — wait for some local Vietnamese food to show up.
Spirits are high though, most dates of the tour, which hits The Met in Providence tonight, have been sold out, there was a successful, multi-gig run earlier this month at SXSW and just days prior to them, The Colourist won the award for “Song of the Year” at their hometown OC Music Awards for the ultra-catchy “Little Games.” The vocal combination of Castilla and Tuttle — the latter who sounds like a cross between Len’s Sharon Costanzo and Metric’s Emily Haines — is what makes the outfit stand out among their peers. The two talked to Vanyaland how thrilled they were with the success, which has been quite the whirlwind since their Lido EP dropped last summer.
Michael Christopher: Congratulations on the “Song of the Year” award in Orange County. How much more does it mean being recognized in your hometown for something like that?
Adam Castilla: It’s close to heart. Everybody we know was probably over there, unfortunately we were on tour then the award night was happening and we couldn’t be there ourselves. But we tried to make as personal a video as we could.
Maya Tuttle: It means a lot because they’ve seen us firsthand from the very beginning from when we were playing empty rooms to just our friends to where we were selling out residencies. It’s cool to have that appreciation back from your home city. It’s a crazy feeling, but we totally wish we were there! It was such a bummer.
It’s the eve of the record release. It’s got to be pretty exciting, a little nerve-wracking…
Adam: All of it.
How excited are you to have fans hear the whole album?
Adam: We’ve been touring this whole year and we’ve done it all on an EP. To have a full length record, our very first one, come out is exhilarating; to be able to have that music out there for them to actually hear rather than live or on a live YouTube video.
I’m guessing that a few days in, like when you play The Met Friday after the record is released, that’s when it will sink in that fans have picked it up, gotten into the songs that weren’t on the EP. Live, what excites you most about that?
Maya: What’s interesting is we’re on our first headlining tour right now, and we play a lot of the new songs live. So we’ve been watching reactions to these songs live for months now. I think I’m most curious, actually, to see how the recordings will go over. But it’s been streaming for a few days now and the reaction has been really positive and encouraging. I’m just feeling really good going into tomorrow – really excited.
Do you feel like the songs have developed even further in the live setting?
Adam: Yeah, this tour has really done a lot for us to feel these songs live and feel, like Maya was saying, how they react toward certain songs. As far as the live versions, they’re not exactly like the record, we try to spice it up a bit and add our own little [element].
Maya: Yeah, for some songs there’s always that little bit of frustration since we finished the recording where, “We could’ve done this with this, maybe, maybe,” but you have to end it at some point and say, “This is finished.” We’re all feeling very proud of the record. Could we have kept going? Yeah, but where it is, is a really good place.
Other than the obvious, longer sets and mainly your fans coming to the shows, what has it been like not just headlining, but headlining and selling out?
Maya: Selling out, I think this is the fifth of sixth show that’s been sold out, has been totally unexpected. To be a few thousand miles away from home and have a room filled with people who are here to see you, we’ve been completely blown away and humbled – it’s surreal.
Adam: Doing our own headline run gives us creative freedom that we don’t usually get, we bring our own stage props and backdrops; it’s more of a thing that we created. It’s such a crazy feeling to go to a place you’ve never been to and it’s completely sold out.
There were a lot of remixes done by other artists for the songs that came out on the EP. Were you a little leery of that, like, “What are they going to do to our song?”
Adam: I think for me, personally, one of the most awkward things is when they ask for notes on a remix, like changes or anything. It’s hard because it’s our song, it’s like our baby, but at the same time they’re creating their own artwork out of it and it’s really hard to comment on something like that.
Maya: Collaborating with remixers, for me, is one of the most exciting things. It’s so cool to see someone reimagine your work and take it to a place that is just completely new and interesting. And sometimes you are surprised, like, “Wow – this is interesting,” and sometimes you’re just absolutely blown away. I think we’ve been blown away way more often than the opposite; we’ve been really lucky.
How was South by Southwest for the band?
It was intense. I think we had eight shows in five days and that’s not counting interviews and all that. We were running from one show to the next on adrenaline – it was incredible. And we got to see so many other acts as well and the shows we played were packed; we had a really high quality showcase. I mean, how often do you get to have The 1975 open for you at a showcase? It was crazy, fulfilling and amazing.
Talk to me about labels…I’ve seen the “math pop” tag attributed to you guys and thought, what the hell is that?
Adam: It’s like a made up…
Maya: It’s a facetious label we gave [ourselves] because we feel exactly the same way. We always get asked what genre we fit in and it’s always very confusing and it’s really hard to describe, so collectively we came up with “math pop” and “majestic jungle soaring rock” or something.
Adam: We wanted to give you something where you’re looking at it a few times and think, “Why do they call themselves that?” From the very start, we never took the whole branding thing very seriously. All of our songs on the record, you’re going to hear ones that are more rock and more electronic, but it all molds together – it’s cohesive.