An Interview with The Districts

Words by Sarah Morrison

Photo by Shervin Lainez

It’s been a difficult few weeks for musicians around the world; tours and festivals being cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future. The Districts, a four-piece rock act from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are just one of the bands that have taken a hit from the pandemic that the world is facing. With their tour cancelled, the band will now suffer a financial loss that would have given them at least two months worth of revenue.

On March 13th, The Districts dropped their fourth album ‘You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere,’ released via Fat Possum Records. With original plans to film an interview, we managed to reschedule a phone conversation with Rob Grote after the band ultimately had to cancel the remainder of their tour. We got to know the man behind the songs on the album, discussed the impacts of COVID-19, learned what it was like to become free while writing, dealing with OCD, and more.

‘You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere’ was released last week. During this extremely rough start of the year within the music industry [from a regular tour to quarantine and celebrating via social media], has what’s been the biggest struggle? 

I guess for the most part adjusting and trying to figure out how serious it is; figuring out how to handle it. Within the first week of touring we were talking about the virus spreading but we spoke with an attitude like ‘We’ll still do the tour, we’ll be fine!’ When we actually started looking at it we realized maybe it wasn’t going to be as easy as that. The whole first week we were on tour we were slowly coming around to the reality of the situation which was ‘Dang, we’re not going to be able to do this tour.’ I guess in general, just not being able to tour and do normal life things.

Has this created any sort of damper on the release? Have you noticed anything different from past releases?

It's hard to say. Usually, when we put out a record we're out playing shows so it feels like a celebration with everyone. People are there that like the record and you can talk to people about it so it definitely feels weird not being able to have that personal connection with other people. But it does still feel like people are really enjoying it, there has been a good response that's come with it so it doesn't feel completely dampened. It's a bummer to have to quarantine your life.

Does it make you nervous, not to talk numbers but yeah numbers, regarding streaming and revenue that would come in from the album and tour?

We'd played the first week of shows and that will help us all pay our rent for the next month or two but looking off into the distance, yeah I'm a little nervous about it. The silver lining, well, I don't know if it's a silver lining but it's reassuring to know that everyone is in the same boat. A lot of people in other industries can work from home or whatnot but there are a lot of people all around the world that are out of work because of this. We don't feel alone in it. I feel like that's reassuring at least.

Do any of you have side jobs?

No, but I mean we'll do random work like contracting jobs or dog walking. But none of us have actual jobs because we have to tour a lot. Usually, that ends up covering it. It's weird because we can't do the main thing. Also, Philly is pretty affordable so it's easier to get away with that than in other places.

As we transition into a tough period within the arts and within society, the idea of transition is something that you’ve had to overcome with your bandmates for personal and professional reasons. From this experience, what are things you’ve learned in coping with change? 

We all grew up together so we've had to go through this period where we've been doing it together so long that we had to look at it and talk about whether or not some of the format and the way we work, that was put in place when we were maybe sixteen, really suited who we were now that we're in our mid-twenties.

I think the biggest lesson for me was a classic one, it's just always good to communicate. The more we communicated with each other the better everything got. It wasn't like it was ever really bad, but something felt off. When we started really communicating, we were able to make it a cool project in a new age of it all.

Other than that, I learned a lot of lessons with trusting your gut. When things are up in the air or in turmoil, you need to be able to follow your instincts because it will usually lead you the right way. 

At one point, you questioned whether or not you wanted to continue music/continue writing with the band; did that scare you at all? How did it feel to question a project that you’ve spent such a large part of time working on? 

It's always been a bit of a weird thing for me. I love being in a band with my bandmates but there's something fairly weird about being so tied to work you made when you were sixteen. That album is out in the world and we created that when we were sixteen. There's something about being connected to that I've always felt a little ambiguous about.

But I really do enjoy making music with my bandmates but there are times where I'd feel like I hit a wall and think 'You need a new start.' But with communication and other stuff, we were able to create that new start together.

You were confined to your own space and created music freely and without input from your bandmates, did you fear a backlash would come with this during a questionable period of your relationship with them? 

When I started, I was just going at it. I felt worried that my bandmates wouldn't want to use the music when I did finally bring it to them. I didn't think it would come with a backlash as they're pretty supportive friends. I felt that they might not be into using this music for the record and those were the only songs I had at the time. I thought 'I hope they want to use them,' because if we did want to do another Districts record, it was the only I had written. 

How did writing without the intention of creating a ‘Districts’ song impact the sound? What made you think these wouldn’t be ‘Districts’ songs?

A lot of times, traditionally, I would write a song on guitar and then we'd play it together, the way we would want to play it live. A lot of these were recording projects so I would sometimes put down a dance beat or a bunch of instruments I wouldn't normally put down on a first demo. It was inherently coming out a lot differently. For me, it was sort of nice because it was me writing my songs. I feel like I always have an idea in my head and because I was recording them right away, I wasn't getting to see them right away. Since it wasn't written for the kind of band format perse, I wasn't sure how it would translate. When we started playing them together, it ended up working out really well and sounded great. 

You took ‘self’ out of the album and made something larger than barrier restricted roles. Did this feel more natural than ever before?

It felt pretty natural to me. I think a lot of times when writing stuff, when you get a nice flow of things, you're not really thinking about yourself and who you are, you're just doing it. It was just a nice and natural flow. A lot of it was just following your instincts and letting them take you were you want to go. 

Did you start any of your songs using instruments that weren't a guitar? 

A lot of the songs were started with a drum machine, or the synthesizer I have, so there's definitely quite a few of them that weren't just guitar. 

There’s flexibility with the album; a series of different topics and themes. You really allowed yourself to open up lyrically. Was it hard to become that open? 

I don't think so. Not to keep giving you the same answer but something about the way I was writing or because they didn't have the intent of being Districts songs, was just purely writing songs, it opened up a lot of freedom for me to be able to take the 'self' out of it or be self-conscious. I was trying to just create as freely as possible. I also believe you need to give yourself that principle as well; just be open to whatever is coming out of you. 

Since you were writing was more of a team effort before, did you all share in the stories or experiences you were writing about? 

I've always written the lyrics. There's maybe one or two lyrics in the past that have come from Braden because we've combined his song and my song together. For the most part, the lyrics and the chord changes are all me. The 'greater' arrangement was more of a collaborative effort. 

Are your bandmates relaxed with that? Do they relate or connect with the topics and themes your writing about? 

Yeah, I think so! We've all been friends for a really long time; intimate good friends. I feel like they usually have a good idea of where I'm coming from. 

You touch base on mental health, particularly OCD (something I have been struggling with for the last nine years). Has dealing with your OCD ever contributed to the structure of how you write? 

Yeah, I think in music, in a way, there's a desire for order or certainty. Making music is nice because I think a lot in patterns and visually about it. The single-handedly most helpful thing for it in my life is making music. It's maybe a curse with other things in my life but when it comes to music it's a bit of a blessing; maybe you notice things with it you wouldn't have otherwise. 

You wrote thirty-two songs in total. How did you manage to cut that down? 

It's one of those things that happens during the recording process a lot of the time, to me, that's when it takes shape. Sometimes the songs will sound really good when I play them on the guitar but when you try to record them with the whole band it just doesn't work sometimes. 

Another thing is that oftentimes while you're recording the song, certain songs start to stand out as your favourites. I think a lot of it is just you end up being drawn to songs. For me, towards the end of a recording process and you feel like you're running out of time, then you only start to work on finishing the songs that are your favourites. It's a very natural way of knocking out the ones that won't be going on the record. 

What do you plan to do with the others?

There's always a few extra songs after we make a record, so I think at some point we'll either put out a collection of B Sides or a song will make it onto the next record. They'll all get out there somehow. 

You truly did experiment with this album, listing twelve instruments beside your name alone. What was your favorite texture that you were able to add? 

I think my favourite instrumental moment is at the end of the song 'Descend.' There's this whole tap looped section with mellotrons and stuff, and that is probably favourite section. I really like ambient music.

Is that your favourite song on the album?

That's at least my favourite moment. My favourite song (pauses), I don't know, I really liked the first song on the album 'My Only Ghost.'

For the album, you produced the album with long-time collaborator Kieth Abrams and brought in Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoons, MGMT, Tame Impala), was this the first time working with Fridmann? 

Yes, this was our first time working with Dave but we had always wanted too. Kieth has been helping us record stuff for a long time and he's one of our really good friends, so working with him is awesome. He intuitively knows what we're going for a lot of the time. Dave is someone who has worked on music that we really enjoy. 

I had got his email off of someone and went out on a limb and shot him a message. I was happily surprised that he got back to me really quickly and gave us a time frame that made sense for us. It just sort of worked out! 

With the theme focusing on ‘trying new things’ and ‘letting go’, what are elements that Fridmann brought in to shape the album that you wouldn’t have necessarily had considered before? 

A lot of the songs have a lot of different layers going on, especially some songs like 'My Only Ghost' and 'And the Horses All Go Swimming.' He ended up mixing it so that all of the layers we're able to be heard and all had their moment to shine.

Moving ahead, are you nervous about the future of the album now that marketing and touring has been restricted? 

I am, but I'm also down to see what happens. Whatever happens, happens. It will be what it will be. You've got to make the best of it. If something bad happens, we'll make something good happen after.