Three guys, a girl, and a phenomenal sound
By Whitney Weiss

We Versus the Shark are from Athens, GA. Their music has its own sound, though there are hints of Dismemberment Plan and Fugazi (in a tasteful, not-ripping-them-off way). 15 minutes into their CD, Ruin Everything, I liked them so much I had already emailed their publicist to ask for an interview [read a review of that CD, and the Hello Sir! split, in this issue of MOVEMENT]. I had the pleasure of interviewing both Jeff and Sam, who together make up exactly one half of this wonderful band.
 

The Jeff Interview
Jeffrey Daniel Tobias, who contributes bass, keys, and vocals to We Versus the Shark, also has impressive facial hair and is articulate and funny. These are my questions, and his answers, in their entirety.

First and foremost, how do you maintain such impressive facial hair?

Hours and hours of backstage primping. People have said that I have done for sideburns what Brett Michaels did for hair, or what Vince Neil did for car crashes.

How long has We Versus the Shark been together?

As a four-piece, we've been playing together since around August of '03, which would make us all of a year and a half old. However, Luke and Sam started playing out with the assistance of a laptop as early as March of '03. Once I moved down from New York, the full-band version of We Versus the Shark was ready to go. We ditched the laptop, which was abruptly kicked out of the band with only a bus ticket, due to its drinking habit. That laptop later went on to form Megadeth.

All of the songs on the CD are really, really solid. And complex. And really listenable. And sometimes they make me want to dance! How does the band write songs (is it a group effort, do you jam, does someone bring in an already-completed song, etc.)?

We have a well-established writing system in We Versus the Shark, which involves positive and negative reinforcement. Interesting, catchy, or "so stupid it has to work" ideas are rewarded with Pepperidge Farm's
Goldfish Crackers and "Sparks" energy drinks. Anyone caught "jamming" is fined. We typically write the songs as a group, with as few lawyers sitting in as possible.

How long have you been playing the songs on Ruin Everything live?

We tend to not sit on new tunes for too long; as soon as it's written, we like to unleash it on our friends here in Athens and get the thumbs down or thumbs up. A general "thumbs up" from the crowd typically causes
a brief jumping-up-and-down period; a "thumbs down" causes months of depression and binge vegetable peeling.

Are there any other songs that you play live?

We have a small repertoire of covers, mostly learned on a lark, as favors to friends, or as a seasonal encore. They range from Nancy Sinatra to OutKast to Fugazi.

How did you hook up with Hello Sir! Records?

For all intents and purposes, we are very much a part of Hello Sir. The legwork and mechanics of Hello Sir Records is a 16-armed beast that basically consists of the members of We Versus the Shark and our buddy band, Cinemechanica. While Bryant of ‘mechanica is the "C.E.O." (i.e. ‘play this chord differently’ or ‘stop spending your advances on blow, JEFF’), we are all pretty equally involved in Hello Sir, and have been since the beginning.

How has the reception to your band been in Athens? Have you gotten many chances to play elsewhere?

Athens always treats us real nice. We've been on a few tours, but our favorite out-of-town places to play are Birmingham, Alabama, and Greensboro, North Carolina.

The only bands I could think to mention in the same sentence with you are Fugazi, The Dismemberment Plan, and a Boston band called Clickers (www.damnthatclickersmusic.org). Do you know of or listen to any of those bands? How do you feel about their names being mentioned in reviews or descriptions of your music?

Ian MacKaye stole everything he ever released from We Versus the Shark. Uh, but seriously folks, we'd be lying if we said we didn't have a soft spot in our hearts for Dischord and DeSoto's back catalogue. It's nice to be compared to any of those bands (because we admire them) but of course we'd like to think we have our own thing going. Guy Picciotto ripped off Sam's guitar tone.

What's it like being a band in Athens? Do you find yourself playing more in clubs or basements? Is there a large audience of people willing to listen to new music that takes indie music a step further from what is currently "comfortably edgy?"

Athens has an incredible support system for any band that is doing something interesting. It's a small town full of creative, curious people who, if you have your act together, will certainly give you and your band a chance. We used to play apartments and basements and whatnot, but at this point if we did that all of our friends would get too close together, causing friction, and the next thing you know you have a White Snake situation on your hands [editor’s note: I think he means Great White?] Long story short: We love Athens, Georgia.

What's your favorite thing about each of your bandmates?

Scott does this funny thing sometimes where I'll catch him leaving my apartment with my DVD player; it's cute. Luke is the master of the extended metaphor. Sam knows kung fu.

If you could go on tour with any two other bands, which other two bands would they be?
 

The loaded part of this question is the fact that when two bands go on tour together, it's no big thing, but when THREE bands go out on the road, it's a touring mini-festival. So I really have to think about this in terms of eclecticism. I think a Lightning Bolt/Sage Francis/We Versus the Shark tour would be pretty off the chain, no?

Have you been out on tour before? If so, what was it like? What city had the most enthusiastic response to your music? Are there any on-the-road horror stories?

Touring is basically the greatest thing I've ever had the privilege to experience. We've only been on three or four, so I guess I'm not jaded about it yet. It's like being on a IV-drip of codeine (due to lack
of sleep, low-level malnutrition) while constantly being bombarded with scenery and people to whom you have no reputation and of whom who you have no previous knowledge. Like I said earlier, Birmingham and Greensboro always go ape when we play there, and we've gotten surprisingly responsive reactions in places like Pensacola, Florida, and Wichita, Kansas. As for on-the-road horror stories, I'll just say this: sixteen-year-old's birthday party.

What's the best MySpace comment that We Versus The Shark has ever gotten?

The lovely note from U.N. secretary general Kofi Anan really touched us. (Seriously.)

Would you rather be playing a living room/basement show or in a club?

It really depends. Clubs have certain amenities (free beer, good sound) that house parties can't offer; however, I can't deny that I'm really happiest when an audience member is at arm's length...this makes them far easier to harass.

Your band is really, really great. And not like any other band right now. You've put out an awesome CD on a very nice indie label that has other talented bands on it, too. You've toured. It seems like you are on the edge of something great and have already done things that other bands set as their ultimate goals (being on a label, putting out a CD). What do you want next for We Versus the Shark?

That question has lots of nice words in it--thank you!

Right now we're working on new songs that are really exciting to us...a little darker, a little weirder. We're gearing up to tour again in less than two weeks, and we hope to get out to the West Coast by this summer. In short: the only thing We Versus the Shark isn't planning on doing next is stopping.

 

The Sam Interview
Samantha Erin Paulsen plays guitar, keys, and sings in We Versus the Shark. Everything she does musically on Ruin Everything will amaze you. Here is our interview in its entirety. If we had more space in the print version of the magazine, it would be there, too.

Jeff said that the band started with you and a laptop and one other person. How did it morph from that into the four-piece that it is today?

Well, Luke and I were waiting for Jeff to move from New York to Athens, but we were impatient, so we started writing songs together before he got here. We programmed beats to play along to because we didn't have a drummer yet. Once Jeff moved here, we started looking for a drummer and found Scott. We always intended on having a full band, we were really just impatient and didn't want to wait around to start playing out!

Very nice! How did you know Jeff, and why was he in New York while you two in were in Athens?

Luke, Jeff, and I actually met a while before I moved to Athens. Luke was going to the University of Georgia here in Athens, I was going to school in Colorado (which is where I’m from), and Jeff was going to school in New York. We were all in bands that toured, and kind of met that way (and also through some friends...it's kind of complicated). Once we met, we kept in touch, and realized that we all wanted the same thing in a band and music. Both Jeff and I were unhappy with our situations and figured that Athens was the best place to be. So, we left school and moved. I just happened to move about six months before Jeff did.

It sounds like it's worked out really well for you all to be in Athens. How did you settle on that particularly city/town?

Luke invited us to his house one summer for a couple of weeks and introduced us to Athens. Both Jeff and I loved it immediately. Both of us were living in towns with very sparse music scenes, where we saw ourselves not progressing much, so Athens was a huge change. This town is packed full with musicians and new bands and artists and there's always something new going on. I didn't see our band doing much in my town and neither did Jeff, so Athens seemed like the place to be.

How has the reception been in Athens to your band? Do you play out a lot?

Our first show was at our friend’s house, and was packed with mostly our friends. We only had four songs at the time, and after we were done, they made us play them again. That's how incredible our friends and our first show was!

At first we played all the shows we were offered, and it was amazing how positive the response was right from the start. We've tried to limit ourselves recently for Athens shows because we don't want people to get sick of us, but we're all still surprised when we play these shows in town and over 300 people show up. A lot of people who come to our shows know the words and sing along or clap or dance, which is what we love. It's great to be playing and look up to see everyone being as into it as you are.

That is really awesome, and sounds like a wonderful first show. When you've played in other cities, how have people reacted to your music?

We've toured about four times now since last year. I’d say we've had an 85% success rate for all those shows. There are a few different reactions, the first being, "Yeah! I like this! I like dancing! I can figure out where to clap!"; the second is, "Hmm...this is weird, they change a lot, but I like this part, but I can't keep up"; and third is, "Are they supposed to be playing like that, or are they just messing up?". A few cities in particular really stand out, like Birmingham, Alabama and Greensboro, North Carolina. We consider those cities our second Athens. We can draw a crowd there like we do at home, and they all know us and know our songs.

The only city I can think of that wasn't particularly fond of us was Baltimore. At this one show, all the kids stood with their arms crossed at the other side of the room. But that happens. You can't please everyone, especially those arm-crossing kids. We've hit the northeast the most and I feel like every show we do just keeps getting better and better.

That's a shame about the arm-crossing kids, it's such a downer when people do that at shows. Do you know if your upcoming tour is going to bring you up to Boston?

We have a friend of ours working on a show in Boston, though I don't know the exact date. It's around Easter Sunday, I think. We played in Boston over the summer at this Asian restaurant. It was a Sunday afternoon show, um, let's just say it wasn't the biggest crowd we've played for. But, yes, I think we're going to try our best to play in Boston this time.

Very nice, there is a band up here that has a style similar to yours and it seems like a lot of people turn out to see them live. What is the funniest thing that's happened to you whilst touring?

On our first tour with Coulier, we had a few extra hours to spare in Wilmington, North Carolina, so we went to the beach, and we walked into this surfing competition. It was like being in a movie or on Baywatch. There were surfers, chicks in bikinis, families with lots of kids, and this radio station was there with booths set up everywhere.

We were just sitting there, obviously out of place, eating our sandwiches in our dirty jeans and sneakers, and the radio station DJ yells out, "HEY, ARE YOU GUYS IN A BAND?" in this stereotypical obnoxious radio voice. So we talk to them, give them a CD, and they played it right there. So there we were eating our sandwiches, watching a surfing competition, listening to ourselves at the beach. We actually got a bunch of compliments. It was just so surreal and hilarious.

That is seriously amazing…What is your favorite thing about each of your bandmates?

Well, Luke is my boyfriend, so technically I have to like everything about him, but mostly I just like his collection of monster trucks. Jeff is hilarious and witty and has great hair. Scott is the biggest goof and is the best/worst dancer. These three are the best musicians I've ever played with, seriously.

Aww! Jeff mentioned that in addition to the songs on Ruin Everything, you have newer originals and sometimes do covers. What's your favorite cover song to do, and what are the new originals like? Is there another full-length coming up?

The only cover we've played more than once is "Five Corporations" by Fugazi. All the other ones we only play once, and I think my favorite was us throwing "Groove is in the Heart" by Dee-lite in the middle of "This Graceless Planet". People went crazy when we started playing it, and I got to pretend to be a diva.

Our new originals are all different...it's hard to describe them all together. We have one song that's very pretty with straight up disco parts. There's one that's fast and the most rock and roll song we've ever done. There's another that's mathy and spazzy and full of riffs. And our newest one sounds like it should be in a horror flick. Overall, I'd say they're a shade darker than anything on Ruin Everything, but we don't ever decide on what a song SHOULD sound like before we write it. We usually just write and see what happens, which is why every song sounds like it should be in a different genre.

We are definitely mentally ready to start recording again, but we need to write at least four or five more songs before we think about putting an album together. Hopefully by the end of the summer or early fall, we'll have started recording, or at least started making plans to record.

Well I will definitely be psyched to hear the new stuff whenever you do record it, and perhaps sooner if you're playing it on tour and end up in Boston.