Story of the Sea

Thirty seconds is my guess. The generation of 20-something over-stimulated technophiles has notoriously short attention spans, fitting snugly within the confines of rapidly flashing images in 30-second commercials, mind-numbing YouTube videos, maniacal iPod shuffling and ever shifting favoritism to "bands of the hour." But some musicians have managed to cash in on our generational ADD. Girl Talk is the best example. The Pittsburgh-based king of sampling weaves together furious seconds-long bursts of the best and worst dance hall hits to create songs sounding like a schizophrenic radio station that can’t decide which Top Ten number to play. The result is a schlepped-together creation, and a serious copyright nightmare, that stands on the legs of others instead of its own two feet.

In contrast, Minneapolis foursome Story of the Sea takes on this similar fast-paced blitzkrieg approach in a more intelligent, and listenable, mode. The music is overwhelming. At the July 18 Triple Rock show, the waif-filled audience simply stood and stared, wondering where the band would go next. Story of the Sea may be the very definition of genre-hopping. The music consists of blips and blurbs meshing, coercing, exploding and sinking below the surface, breaking through, thrashing, smashing and ultimately fading away. One moment they fill the room with psych drone– a millisecond later they resonate with guttural fervor. Then the music is melodic, then angular, then it stabs through with jagged dissonance and seeps with interludes of grunge. Story of the Sea splits and reassembles genres like Mary Shelley’s monster and builds an entity just as fantastic.

But this isn’t a band to watch. It’s a band to listen to. Story of the Sea appears wholly disinterested in lively distractions. It is literal shoe-gaze with no banter or audience interplay. Onstage the four are talented statues, barely acknowledging the existence of anything but their epic sound, this heavy, heady obelisk. Rarely, a thin grin emerges on their faces when they can tell it’s really working. Still there is an enormous presence. Drummer Ian Prince is the ultimate beat blaster with a sound that seems too massive to come from his rig. He is the hidden weapon that ties down the band’s constant, frantic diversions. He is the pace that grounds the intricate but stable fortress of guitars as they swoon, intermingle and coalesce.

Story of the Sea is indeed a strange machine. Shucking trends, the band is the misfit inside the Minneapolis scene. Yet it is one of the city’s top contenders. I recently sat down with Ian Prince, brother of singer Adam Prince, bassist John McEwen and guitarist Damon Kalar to discuss its encapsulated mischief.

Erin Roof: Are there any brotherly rivalries?

Ian Prince: Not really, no. We have very different personality types.

ER: What are they?

IP: I’ll give you an example. [Adam] is three years older, and he had a paper route, which I could not wait to get a paper route. He broke his ankle, and I had to take over for his paper route. And people–when we were kids–people thought we were twins because we looked so much alike. And he used to do such a bad job. The route was after school. When he would do the paper route he would go after school and watch TV and deliver the papers a couple hours later. And I was so gung-ho I would do it right away after school. All these people thought I was him, and they nominated him as paperboy of the month. And he totally took the credit for it. Somebody from the paper came and took his picture and interviewed him. They asked him what his favorite band was. I remember his favorite band was Def Leppard. I was just like ‘Go fucking figure.’ That’s the story of our lives, basically.

ER: When is your new album coming out?

IP: We don’t have an actual date. Fall-ish.

ER: Could you explain the difference between this record and the first one?

IP: The production is different. The first one was really kind of blown out.

John McEwen: Real glossy.

IP: [The new album] sounds like you’re a band in a room, instead of in an arena.

JM: We also got Damon in the band. We were a three piece before. So getting him in the band added that whole new element that we had written for but hadn’t actually played live.

ER: Why did you decide to add another person?

JM: The songs were always kind of written for four pieces. All the recordings had four pieces. The songs actually sound the way that we thought they would.

ER: Damon, how did you feel about stepping into this already established band?

Damon Kalar: I was just pumped. I heard that they were trying people out, and I jumped out of my seat. It’s so exciting to think about this because I’ve seen Ian playing around a lot, and it’s always been unreal. Adam was pretty good about talking to me about what he wants me to play, what he hears. He’s very specific about the parts he wants. Something I really appreciate is direction. These guys already had a great idea, and it translated easily.

ER: Describe your sound. It’s very genre-hopping and difficult to describe.

JM: We never really go into songs thinking we want a song to sound exactly like this, or we want it to sound exactly like that. It’s really whatever feel is on the mind. We like to do a lot of pop things. Really poppy bands or more math rock.

ER: What are some of the bands you like?

JM: None of us really listen to exactly the same thing. All of us have a different collection of music that we listen to.

IP: Adam is the primary songwriter. He’s into old pop– Roy Orbison and stuff like that.

JM: He also loves Britney Spears, really strange things.

IP: He’s a sucker for a pop song.

ER: But you’re not pop at all.

IP: I think ‘cause we grew up on not really punk, but post rock type stuff, so we have that angular element. They really are somewhat pop songs, in a nutshell.

DK: I wanted to be in Pearl Jam. Really. I loved grunge. If there was a type of music that influenced me the most, it was that, like Pearl Jam, a little Sound Garden, a lot of Alice in Chains.

ER: Do you think you, as a band, fit into the Minneapolis scene?

DK: I don’t know.

JM: We try to pick good shows. We try to make it a show that everybody wants to go and see. We play with bands that we really like. With a scene, there’s so many different ones. Scene is kind of a tough word.

ER: I don’t see anyone here trying to do what you do, which is why I asked the question.

IP: We definitely try to pick oddball shows, where there’s an acoustic guy and a pop band. There isn’t necessarily a scene that we fit into.

JM: There’s so many bands that fit into so many different scenes. We try not to be in one of those.

ER: I think you’ve accomplished that.

JM: Well, I hope so. If we’re not playing for new people all the time, then what’s the point?