Austin, Texas natives Voxtrot one-two stepped into indie consciousness with the release of their debut EP, Raised by Wolves, an obvious homage to indie-pop giants like The Smiths and Belle & Sebastian. The EP’s delectable pop hooks and toe-tapping rythms quickly earned them an underground following in the influential world of internet blogs. This Tuesday they released the Mothers, Sisters, Daughers & Wives EP, which finds the band expanding upon the straightforward guitar pop of its debut and placing greater emphasis on piano and string arrangements.
In anticipation of their upcoming concert at Georgetown’s Riverside Lounge this Saturday, The Voice called up Voxtrot’s lead singer, Ramesh Srivastava (center in photo), to discuss his fans’ expectations, the power of blogs, gender roles and preschool.
You’re a preschool teacher, right?
Yes.
Are there things that you learn from the kids that you incorporate into the songs?
Not intentionally. I think the thing you learn from the kids is that they’re people in the purest form, because there’s nothing complicated about them and there’s no inhibition. I guess that the people you end up feeling compelled to write songs about are probably the opposite of children.
Is the solution for these people to revert back to the purity of childhood?
I mean, that’s an idea. I think the problem’s that we never really can. That’s the really sad part. You just know that once you surpass a certain point, you can never go back.
Do you ever play any Voxtrot songs for them?
No, no [laughs]. There’s this weird thing where you’re not supposed to bring in your own music, but old music is always okay. If it’s from before the ‘70s, somehow it’s totally innocuous, but I don’t know why.
Among indie fans, especially those who write on blogs, there seems to be this feeling that you guys are going to be “the next big thing.” Do you feel an added pressure due to these expectations or do you guys just feel like you need to do it to make a living?
I don’t really feel an added pressure because I think it’s a process, you know? You don’t just come into music very suddenly and suddenly everyone just loves you and it’s instant success. You’ve been working really hard at it and it becomes your job. You don’t constantly find yourself going, “God, I can’t believe this is happening!” because you’re doing it already.
Do you think that blogs should play a more prominent role in spreading the word about bands? What advantages and disadvantages do they have compared to more mainstream publications?
I think that blogs are really good because they’re a new subversive form of media. They are media that belongs to people. I think it’s a much more pure form of journalism.
I’ve noticed a lot of references to gender roles and familial roles in the new EP. Could you discuss the meaning of the title, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives?
The song is about men named after women. There are obviously these social pressures on women that are very evident but there are also these other pressures on men that force them to be emotionally inarticulate, emotionally mute. I feel this creates a lot of problems in both family relationships and sexual relationships. It also goes a little bit more unnoticed than it would for the female population.
