Out of Springfield (not that one) comes a band with a mouthful of a name. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin came through Austin and played a show at the Mohawk on May 7th and I was lucky enough to be there. Afterwards Phil (drums, guitar, and songwriter) was nice enough to talk with us.

Frequency: Okay first things first, why that green tape on the strat?
Phil: (laughs) Well, I’m a bit of a heavy strummer when I play, and often I would hit the tone switch. So we’ve lately just been taping it up so I don’t change tone in the middle of a song.

F: Alright. Why is the album called Pershing?
Phil: It’s the name of my old middle school. Its kind of along the same vien as the whole Boris Yeltsin thing. I mean, in a few years don’t you think Boris Yeltsin will be forgotten just like Pershing was? I mean, history is kind of my thing. Its just a weird thing I like to do, find forgotten historic figures. Hah.

F: Didn’t Boris Yeltsin die recently?
Phil: Yeah. About a year ago.

F: And you guys toured Russia shortly thereafter, how was it? How did that come about?
Phil: Well somebody called us one day and said that we should really try and get some shows in Russia. This was all shortly before Yeltsin died. We were thinking, “Oh man, you’ve got to be pulling my leg, right? But, uh, just in case you’re serious… Call our booking agent and we’d love to do it.” Then, yeah, we got the whole thing set up and shortly before we we’re gonna go over he died. So it was weird to be playing there. The people were great, it was a lot of fun. But I don’t know how to describe the coincidence. Its like, some group named Someone Still Loves You George Washington coming and playing in America right after he died. He’s like that big over there. (laughs)

F: You all look fairly young. How old is the band individually?
Phil: We’re all 25 except C.H., our touring keyboardist. He finished high school early to come on tour with us and he’s only 18.

F: How many songwriters does the band have?
Phil: Ah, well… It’s not like we have one set songwriter. Sometimes I’ll bring parts of songs to the band and we’ll all work together to flesh them out. Or maybe someone else will bring an idea and we’ll finish that. Will will bring completed songs sometimes. I mean, it’s not like we have a system, we all write. It’s really collaborative. I’m far from our main songwriter. Hell, there’s a song on Pershing I don’t even play on. (laughs)

F: Speaking of recording, I notice you guys home record everything. Who’s your engineer? Cause it sounds great!
Phil: Really? You think it sounds good? That’s awesome! Our bassist, John, he’s really into the whole audio engineering stuff. He’s the one who records and mixes it all. It’s great to have someone like that in the band.

F: From personal experience, I know that recording is a real hassle. What do you guys do to afford all the equipment necessary?
Phil: Anytime we get money, instead of spending it on…. I don’t know, stuff normal people spend money on, we just spend it on recording equipment and things like that. Like, no one in the band owns a car or anything like that.

F: What’s on the CD player right now?
Phil: This band named The Mommyheads. [Editor's note: Seriously check this band out, great stuff!]

F: Were there any bands when you were first starting out in Springfield that you looked up to in the scene there?
Phil: Hmm… (good pause) Okay. This might sound nerdy, but in middle school I got this compilation of bands from Springfield. You know? One of those 20 song local sampler CDs. And I idolized those bands. I mean, there was nothing cooler than being those guys, just playing music and recording it and having other people hear it, y’know? That was so cool to me.

F: Lastly, I’ve read that you guys feel you’re ready to record another album, even though Pershing just came out two weeks ago. You even played a brand new song tonight (actually my favorite song of the set)! What are the plans there?
Phil: That’s awesome that you liked that song man. Yea, we’re actually recording that song really soona and we’re gonna release it as a single on our myspace and at concerts. So, be sure to be on the lookout for it.

F: Thanks for talking with us.
Phil: Hey, no problem. Thanks for coming out, guys.

- Interview by James Hoelscher