Royal Baths are nothing if not unconventional. Their live performances are unpredictable and spontaneous, with very clear disregard for how things are supposed to be done. Their drummer sits atop what is, apparently, a small tall wooden side-table, and there is not a tuner to be found on-stage, despite the complex open-tunings used. This unpredictability comes through admirably on their records, full of distressed lyrics and sprawling song structures. I recently phoned Jeremy Cox, singer/guitarist of Royal Baths, about touring, influences, and Animal Collective.

WVAU: How are you guys doing? How are your travels at the moment?

Jeremy Cox: Good, we’re on our way to Greensboro, North Carolina from Washington D.C, and we’re hopefully not gonna run out of gas, because we already ran out of money, but I think we’ll be all right.

WVAU: For those who aren’t familiar with you guys, who would you say are some of your largest influences on your new record Better Luck Next Life?

JC: I’d say at the roots of the songs…we were listening to a lot of delta blues, a lot of Skip James, Flying Willy Johnson. And, more, I guess, stylistically speaking, the guitar style has some pretty obvious influences, I guess. Specifically, Link Wray and Neil Young.

WVAU: Are there any common themes or ideas that run through your songs? A lot of the music press says that your band has a lot of paranoia in your tracks.

JC: Well, we don’t persue them, each song, lyrically speaking, I think each time we make a record, Jigmae [Baer], he writes all the lyrics, tries to create a rounded idea of what he’s trying to say, so I think that was achieved in this record. But we don’t like to try and lean too far into one direction, pigeonhole ourselves. I like how it’s that open to interpretation.

WVAU: You guys recently relocated from San Fransisco to New York – why and has it had any effect on your musical output?

JC: We decided to move, but San Fransisco is one of my favorite cities in the U.S., most people would agree, it’s a beautiful city, we love it. But we’ve been there for a while, and after coming through New York on tour a couple of times, we were really excited about being there, people were really receptive about what we were doing so that kinda brought us out here. Also, a change of scenery, and New York is very fast paced, so that’s really exciting for us. That was another thing that brought us out.

WVAU: Has that had any effect on your music at this point?

JC: Regarding this record that has just been released, all those songs were written in California, and those were recorded on the West Coast as well. But we’re pretty stubborn in our writing process, so I don’t think it’s had too much impact. Sonically, I don’t think it’s really going to change us much, we’re really stubborn. Or at least I am, I don’t know about everybody else.

WVAU: What is the songwriting process for you guys? Does one of you come up with one aspect and then you just build off that, or is it more of a jamming kind of thing where just go with what works?

JC: It’s usually Jigmae and I will sit down for a few hours and get a kind of basic backbone for lyrics, brainstorm ideas for what we’d like to write about, and Jigmae does all the lyric writing. I usually have a guitar, figure out all the chords for that. And from there we’ll kind of keep coming back to it, try and work out the kinks. The jamming usually occurs when we bring in the full band and it’s more of an energy based thing at that point. We try and just figure out what’s going to occur next, structurally.
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WVAU: Do you or you guys as a band have any sort of venues that are your favorite to play? Do you like the basements, or bigger venues, or smaller clubs?

JC: You know, we’re not strictly DIY, we’re not strictly all ages or anything. Personally, I like to play anywhere that the people involved in running the show are actually excited about what’s going on. My least favorite thing is coming to a club and feeling guilty for playing a show there because the sound guy really doesn’t wanna be there, and has no interest in what we’re doing and wants to go home, that’s really what I hate most. I love it when, in any venue or DIY space, when the people working there are truly excited to be there and really want to help be involved.

WVAU: Do you have any favorite records from last year or any records you’re particularly looking forward to being released?

JC: Well, our drummer says he’s very excited about the new Animal Collective record that’s coming out, whenever it comes out.

WVAU: Him and a lot of people.

JC: Heh, yeah, I guess that’s not the most indie thing, talk about name dropping. I don’t really have anything…I’m just kinda stuck in my own world, I don’t pay as much attention as I should to the music scene (Laughter).

Royal Baths’ newest record Better Luck Next Life is recently out on Kanine Records and is currently on the rack.