Chris Staples made a generation of emo kids think when he fronted Twothirtyeight and released a handful of honest and beautiful rock albums.  We spoke to him earlier in 2005 about his return to music under the name Discover America.

You’ve released a few solo albums in the past.  How do you differentiate these from Discover America?  Is it an entirely different monster to you?

It is a different monster. With the solo music I try and stick to a more traditional songwriting formula. The songs are simple folk, blues, or country kind of songs. I’ve written songs like this since I was a kid. These songs find a special home in my solo music. Discover America is more inventive and unrestrained and I can do whatever. Basically, if you are bummed and want to sleep, listen to the solo stuff. If you want to drive really fast and rock out cause you just got off work…and you are ready for the weekend…pop in some Discover America.

What were the last days of twothirtyeight like?  At what point before or after the split did you start thinking about this new project?

The last days of twothirtyeight, we were touring our asses off and not writing any music. It kind of sucked the life out of it. After twothirtyeight broke up I was taking a break from music for about a year. Living up in Nashville working in a hospital. I started playing guitar again and decided I wanted to rock again. So I adopted the name Discover America and started making plans.

Did you ever look around or shop your music to any other labels or was Tooth and Nail involved from the beginning? I still owed them 2 records from twothirtyeight days. So I released this one….and now I have one more to do. I’ll either resign or get on another label at that point.

You played almost all the music on Psychology.  What were some of the different instruments you used and what was the overall recording experience like?

A Yamaha reed organ from the 70’s. It’s like a big accordion, but instead of squeezing it, it’s got a motor that forces air through the reeds. I bought an Aleisis ion synth. A micro korg synth. Drums. Acoustic and electric guitars. Kazoos. Maraccas. Tamborines. As far as recording, I moved into this old house in the straight up ghetto. I had these crack dealers living next door which actually worked out to my advantage. They would never call the cops regardless of how much noise I made. The last thing they want is the cops around so they never bothered me.  It was really cheap to live there. I knew if I could live cheap, I’d have plenty of time to work on this stuff. So, I started recording indie bands a few times a month to pay my bills. That took up 5 or 6 days a month just to pay my bills. The rest of the time I was writing or tracking drums, or guitars, or whatever. This whole process went on for a year. Sometimes I’d write a song and track it completely, 4 times in a row until it was right. Sometimes I’d have 2 or 3 songs going on. Sometimes I wouldn’t have any ideas for 2 weeks and I’d go walk around downtown and hang out with friends. Sometimes, I’d work until 6 in the morning on a idea. Sometimes, I’d start to go nuts so I’d go to the beach or go hiking. 12 months went by so fast like this. I was huddled away, with the world buzzing all around me. It was a nice escape from life.

How do you describe Discover America’s songs to fans of your previous works? 

It’s not as dark as twothirtyeight. There is hope in Discover America. Also, there are many different musical influences coming into play…whereas twothirtyeight pretty much stayed the emo course. I’ve listened to a lot of jazz, hip-hop, and unique rock this past year.

What have your first shows been like?  Are there any crowd favorites so far?

We’ve only played a few shows. I’m thinking that Pensacola and Jackson will be nice. I can’t wait to start playing shows up here in Seattle. This is such a great town. It’s kind of intimidating being around all this amazing music and all these incredible musicians but it’s also encouraging to me. It gives me hope, that I might be able to actually do music the rest of my life. There are so many people that are doing that here…and they manage  to buy clothes and consume 2000 calories a day. That is important. I need to eat and have clothes and a roof over my head.

What are some of the messages and ideas behind the record?  I read the passage you included in the booklet and you touched on some interesting topics.

We are basically animals. Since our primary desire is to protect ourselves, we lack the ability to really be unique and think “out of the box”. I mean, you can pretty much predict the way someone will react in any given situation. That is what I learned in college psychology. More often than not, people react consistently. We all have that in common. At our most basic level, we are just animals, full of instincts, fears, and we are basically unoriginal. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years thinking about God and Christianity. I guess I’ve been trying to figure out what all that means to me. There was a time in my life (pretty much my whole life) where I was not sure why I needed Christianity. I considered walking away from it because I saw no reason why it benefited me. I started reading this guy, Joseph Campbell. I don’t believe he’s a Christian in the literal sense. He shed a lot of light on things though, and all of a sudden I had all this food for thought and I looked a little deeper into who Christ was. Basically, spirituality in general is a bridge that we can cross out of our ancient, animal, petty selves. It enables us to think bigger because we are empowered by love. We realize that all this shit on earth does not matter. Our priorities shift from loving and protecting ourselves to loving other people. All of a sudden our lives become abundant because we are truly letting other people in. Connor Oberst, on his new record says, “if you love something, give it away.” I don’t know if he’s a Christian or not…nor does it matter. He’s stumbled across a truth, and his life is improved because of it. You can argue all day and night about Christ being the son of god or not. It’s not really any of my business what you believe. But you have to admit that Christ was a man who had some divine insights about humanity, and the key to living an abundant life on earth. He presented some heavy ideas in a way that people could understand. It’s no wonder, that he’s the most important religious figure in the history of this world. Anyway, I didn’t really push these ideas in the record but this is what was going through my head when I wrote it.

The internet and file sharing play huge roles in music today.   Some bands and labels use it to their advantage while others try to avoid it as much as they can.  Do you have any preference when it comes to your music?  What are some of the ways it has affected you?

I suppose I’m not in control of whether people steal my music…so I don’t worry about it. I think you can buy the record on iTunes, which is pretty cool. iPods don’t sound as good as a cd. I don’t know if people realize that. Cymbals sound kind of weird. I guess that’s my only beef with it.

Most people are probably familiar with you as a musician.  As a music fan, what are some of your favorite artists or records?

Hayden, Gillian Welch, Spoon, Pavement, Pedro the Lion, Karate, Burning Airlines, Starflyer 59, Counting Crows, Yo la Tengo, Built to Spill, Starlight Mints.

I wanted to make a point of asking you about your recording studio the Snake Ranch.  How did you start it up?  Also I noticed you worked with Legends of Rodeo.  I have a copy of their EP from years ago and last I heard they were released from a major label contract.  Do you have any news on what they’ve been up to or if they’ve got any new release planned?

I started the studio cause it made sense. I already had all this equipment and I know how to record bands. I make better money doing that than working some crappy job. Which is what I’d be doing if I was not touring or recording bands. Legends of Rodeo is still playing shows and writing some great songs. Jon just did a solo record. It was engineered by the old guitar player of Wilco. The songs are great.

What are some of the plans you have coming up?  Where should people go if they’re interested in picking up a copy of Psychology?

Touring with some bigger bands…hopefully. Recording some bands in Seattle. You should go to my website to pick up the record: http://www.discoveramericamusic.com/.

Links
www.discoveramericamusic.com
www.toothandnail.com