Topshelf Records was becoming a household name several years ago, working with Aeroplane 1929 (who just released their final album) and making some waves as a small label locally (kind of...Northampton). But aside from that, Topshelf was a different kind of label which would come to house mostly hardcore and more experimental variations on that. Pianos Become the Teeth is one of them. And when they came through on their spring tour at another Connecticut house in Windsor, they brought WE WERE SKELETONS with them, an impressive act from Pennsylvania who were as physically spastic as they were musically during their set. 

In promotion for their show tonight in Manchester, the band kindly responded to some questions while on tour. Here are tonight's minimal details:

Your summer tour is pretty hefty, what are your expectations of it? What has your touring experience been in the past?
 
Well, something I know we’ve learned from previous tours is to go in with zero expectations. Anything can happen, both awful and amazing, and it’s best to embrace both. If you set up certain expectations, great things can pass you by without you even noticing, all because of your mindset. In any case, that spontaneity is what makes tour amazing in the first place. It’s the polar opposite of the relatively tightly scheduled life that most people lead. The only constraints are money, the length of drives, and making it to actual shows we’re playing- everything else is up in the air. 

So, we’re super excited for the random fun we’ll have, the amazing new friends we’ll make, the awesome food we’ll eat (WE’RE TAKIN’ YOU DOWN, IN-N-OUT BURGER), and the great new places we’ll visit. It’s obviously really great to just be able to create something and share it with other people who seem to care about it almost, if not as much, as you do. We’ve done a few tours before, mostly just up and down the east coast, but we’ve always had a great time and have been consistently blown away by the graciousness and generosity of people we’ve met, especially of those who we’ve stayed with or who have set up shows for us. It’s awesome to be a part of such a loving community and it’s great to be able to make so many new friends. 

Speaking of friends, who are some bands you're looking forward to playing with?
 
Oh man, we’re playing with some really awesome bands and good friends this tour. We already played with our pals Bubonic Bear and Band Name in Philly and Ape Up! and Merchant Ships tonight in MA. We’re also really stoked to play with our friends Pianos Become the Teeth in Texas, as well as Dogs of Ire and Towers in California. We might be playing with Kidcrash too, which would rule considering they’re one of our biggest influences. It’ll also be great to play with Big Kids and 1994! in Chicago. We’re spending the last 5 or so days of tour with 1994! too, which will be nothing short of gross, hilarious, and  amazing. Finally, Des Ark and Gods & Queens are playing our homecoming show in Lancaster, so that’s going to be a really killer time.

Some of your influences (Kidcrash, Orchid) are pretty clearly heard within your music, especially on  your new self-titled album. Do you think the genre has room for growth? Would you say you've grown  stylistically as a band already?
 
Yeah, I think there’s always room for improvement and definitely for new ideas or mixing different, older ideas. It’s definitely a lot more than just trying to play faster and harder than the last hardcore band. I mean, someone who reviewed our record on Sputnik justifiably called it out for being derivative of our favorite bands like Off Minor and Kidcrash, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no room to build new things off those bands, it’s just that we have to get better at it, which is something that I feel pretty certain that we’ll be able to pull off. We’ve matured drastically since our first songs and releases, both as people and musicians, so I see no reason why that growth will be stifled now. We’re much better songwriters and musicians than we used to be, and I think that’s immediately apparent when comparing our new record with our first album, Summers.

The production process of the album is pretty exciting-- you recorded with Will Killingsworth (Orchid, Ampere) at Dead Air Studios and its your first release through Topshelf Records. What were the more personal processes of putting the record together like?
 
Well, the way we work is that Justin writes the guitar parts himself and the later brings the songs over to us, either in pieces or completely done, and then we write our own parts from there. For Justin, writing the album meant a lot of hours farting around on guitar at his house. For us, it meant groaning over having to write to really, really intricate parts and devoting entire practices to working on 10 second sections of songs. I’m definitely not complaining though, I’m really happy with the way our songs have been turning out and it’s awesome to constantly be challenged and forced to become a better musician. 

Beyond actually writing the songs, Justin and I had a lot of trouble sitting down and coming up with lyrics. I think we just immediately feel pressure when we try to write lyrics to our songs, so it’s often hard for us to come with stuff for the songs. But anyway, recording ruled, Will [Killingsworth]’s one of the nicest people in the world and we think the record sounds great. We actually recorded it way back in January of 2009, so the wait before the release was a huge bummer. It’s just that we really wanted the album to have a proper release, and none of us were really in a position to handle it. No one wanted to put it out, but thankfully we managed to trick Topshelf into putting it out. Sucks for them! <3

The way you conduct your band (places you're playing, bands you're playing with, etc.) are of a pretty do-it-yourself ethic. Do you feel like any of that will be compromised with your recent signing to Topshelf?
 
Part of that is definitely sacrificed by signing to a label. We’re obviously no longer creating our own sleeves or spraypainting CDs (thankfully), nor are we in total control of what we do. Don’t get me wrong, in no way are Seth or Kevin from Topshelf like Tony Victory- but, in a way, they have to “approve” what we’re putting out through them. Why would they ever put money up for a record if they thought the songs, artwork, or something else significant was awful?  Some control is naturally compromised when other people enter the equation, there’s no way to avoid it. Thankfully those dudes are super nice and rule really, really hard, so I it’s been smooth sailin’ so far. Either way, we still book our own shows, print our own shirts, etc. Topshelf has been handling the pressing (though our friend Greg from Chumpire Records financed a large portion of it), distribution, and promotion of the record. Though they lend a hand with finding shows and stuff when they can, everything else is up to us.

What has the response been like to your S/T? What are your plans for promoting the release?
 
People seem to be enjoying it, which is really exciting. Our friends over at the blog Chug Life did a super positive write-up of it which, though I don’t think was entirely accurate (There’s no way our album even touches Kidcrash’s Jokes or La Quiete’s La Fine Non é La Fine), was amazing to see. People’s feedback seems to be overwhelmingly positive, so that’s really encouraging to know. We really stand behind it and we’re really glad that other people are enjoying it. I guess we’re going to try to promote it through just playing as many shows as possible in as many places as we can. I also want to try to get in touch with some international distros so it can get out there more. It’s hard to say whether or not we have concrete plans behind the promotion. I guess we’re just going to keep trying to play as many shows as possible in as many places as possible, though I’d definitely argue that having a record out is mostly to make sure we can keep touring, rather than touring just so we can sell records. In any case, we hope to tour Europe with our friends The Caution Children next summer, so hopefully that works out. Also, the album is currently streaming on punknews.org so people can check it out there.
 

AEROPLANE 1929 have always been contained within a kind of time capsule. They draw from the weathered corners of Americana, adding in their own personal monograms-- piano, horns, clean production-- to achieve just the right age for their craft. They've been dusting themselves off since 2005, finding similar musical companions in town (Sidewalk Dave, Elison Jackson) and out (Deer Tick, Kevin Devine). Maybe its their antiquated sound or the members' polite tone of professionalism, but they never seemed to quite fit their time.

This could be why it feels strange that they're putting it to rest with plans to break up in August. Despite only playing two shows in Connecticut in the last 18 months, Aeroplane has always seemed like a scene staple and elder in the light indie rock scene associated with Safety Meeting and February Records. Even if you were never a fan, you should try to make it out to one of their last shows in July to pay your respects to an old friend to the New Haven scene. This Friday's release show at the Legion should be intimate and friendly-- you'll get a free copy of the new record with your admission dollars.

Scroll down for an interview with vocalist and guitarist Alex Mazzaferro, where he elaborates on the release of their last record, Attic & Cellar (out on Topshelf Records).

Listen to an unreleased track from the upcoming album, 'Soothsayer Said.'



Friends Sidewalk Dave, Elison Jackson, Luke Elliot and Lion Cub will be joining them. The night will probably feel like more of a send-off than an open-casket.

Earlier this week, Inkwell did a brief interview with frontman Alex Mazzaferro regarding the album release and its production:

Why release a record with the imminent break-up?
We decided to record an album despite our imminent breakup because we felt that we hadn't yet made the final statement we wanted to make as a band. I wrote most of the songs for "Attic & Cellar" in the spring of 2009, knowing well before then that we would be breaking up around now. And since these songs felt like Aeroplane, 1929 songs -- like the culmination of the sound we had been building together for a few years -- rather than solo songs, it was fitting to conclude the band with their release. These songs were kicking around in my head -- haunting me; they needed exorcising. They deserved a proper release, and the Topshelf Records guys were good enough to do that for us.

What qualities about the record make it worthy enough to leave behind in Aeroplane's legacy?
The album is composed of twelve narratively-linked songs, songs we spent more time crafting than we ever have in the past. By the time we finished recording them, they had become the purest collaborations in our five-year career as a band. Ironically, the penultimate sessions for the record took place simultaneously in two different cities -- I tracked guitars, keyboards, and vocals in our home studio in New Haven while Jake [Goldman] recorded woodwind and string players in his dorm at NYU -- but we were able to do that because we had developed such an innate trust in each other. When we began the final session together in May we each knew how to best bring the songs to life.

Was the production process any different knowing the future of the project?
Aeroplane, 1929 is, at its core, a collaboration between me and Jake. I write the songs and lyrics and play a variety of instruments. Jake records our albums and contributes arrangements beyond his role as multi-instrumentalist. Wil [Mulhern] and Noah [Goldman] and other folks played on the record a bunch, but it was essentially the two of us at the helm. Jake knows me very well, knows how to make what I'm trying to say translate to tape. I paint in broad strokes; he works on the level of detail. This relationship really started to solidify with our 2008 release "Original Sin," but we felt like we owed it to ourselves to make a full-length together. This is the record we were meant to make, and all the sacrifices required to make it were worth it.

We've always made our records without being hemmed in by what we could reproduce live. But with "Attic & Cellar" we were free to experiment further. Jake spends most of his time listening to and writing chamber music; I spend most of my time reading and writing about literature, so it made sense to push the songs to the level of story and to try to marry American roots music and more avant garde stuff. This record gave us the chance to do that.

What are your plans to promote the release?

The window to promote this record live is very small. We're playing dual release shows -- Thursday, July 1 at the VFW in Florence, Massachusetts w/ Ian O'Neil of Deer Tick, Lion Cub, and the Okay Win; and Friday, July 2 at the American Legion in Wallingford, Connecticut w/ Sidewalk Dave, Luke Elliot, Lion Cub, and Elison Jackson -- to celebrate. Immediately afterwards we're doing a two-week tour. There will only be one or two Connecticut shows left, including our final show ever August 21st at the Space in Hamden. The record will still be available by mailorder through the Topshelf Records Online Store, but we will be officially broken up after that. If folks are into seeing us live, don't hesitate. There won't be many opportunities. And we're working hard to make sure The End is really special.