Written Erin Mathis
Phoenix based band The Technicolors recently gained hundreds of new screaming fans while on tour with The Maine. They brought their chilled out personalities and great hair all the way to NYC’s Best Buy Theater to rock out with their signature sound, something that they self describe as a combination of New Millenium garage rock and mid 90’s Brit-pop. We got a chance to sit down with them before the show, and talk to them about the excitement of a big tour, their appreciation for the Brit-pop era, and lead singer Brennan Smiley’s surprising obsession with food.
So what is the origin story of The Technicolors?
Brennan Smiley: Well I grew up as a guitar player and I started singing and writing late in the game. My dad is a producer, and around the time I graduated high school my dad challenged me to write some songs, and maybe put together an EP or something like that, and I just fell in love with writing. And that acoustic project turned into something where we had more musicians recorded on the songs, and then naturally I wanted to play shows, and in order to do that in a consistent way I needed to find a band of dudes. I’ve known Nico (Mike Nicolette) forever, and we just pulled some dudes together and started gigging out, and then we just started booking our own tours.
Is the American Candy tour the biggest tour you’ve been on?
BS: Let me think about that… yes. Definitely.
How’d you react when you got word that you’d be touring with The Maine?
BS: I ran around my condo screaming at the top of my lungs. And my dogs got scared, probably hid under the bed.
And how has it been so far?
BS: It’s been amazing. We’ve toured a lot independently, but everything has always been very DIY, just on a very much lower key. And we’re learning how this is just a whole different monster, with a different dynamic of the way that you have to function. I think mentally for me that’s been the biggest task. Physically, it’s always a lot of work, with all the late night drives, and trying to keep up with the tour.
Your publicist mentioned to us you’re a Brit pop influenced band. Can you talk about that?
BS: I think for a while I was really influenced by the Brit-pop era. I love a lot of music that came out of it. There’s obviously a lot of really great songs, but a lot of it was the time period and what was happening in that country, and the way that the culture progressed was just so insane. So that, in line with the songs that came out of it, have always really fascinated me. And then also just growing up being a young child in the ’90s and you hear these songs before you’re really a conscious music listener, and then kind of revisiting them as you get older, and having them sort of already ingrained in you.
And I know you guys are probably sick of the same old boring questions, so how about some superlatives? Who in the band is most likely to get arrested?
BS: I would say Nico.
Mike (Nico) Nicolette: Whaaaaat? No way.
And for what reason?
BS: I don’t know, probably stealing animals from the zoo or something.
Nice. Who is most likely to randomly break out in song and dance?
BS: Troy (Lowney).
Troy Lowney: Me? I’d say probably Brennan.
BS: Ehh, I guess I do.
And who is most likely to spend money on something they do not need?
BS: I’ll gladly take the fall.
And what do you buy?
BS: Food. Just food.
TL: More food than he knows what to do with.
BS: I have this problem where we’ll be eating somewhere and by the time that I finish eating I think that I need more, and so I’ll order more food, and since it takes your stomach a little while to tell your brain that it’s full, there’s a window of time, and then the food always comes and I’ll be like oh, why did I, get more food? And then they give me a hard time about it.
And what are you looking forward to for the rest of 2015?
BS: Going to the Bahamas. Road trip! Nah, just touring and writing. We have a bunch of things set up like were coming home in June and doing a couple west coast dates, and then going to Brazil for two weeks with The Maine, and then I think we’re going to be touring in the fall as well. And then in all the little gaps in between the idea is to be making more music and recording.
https://youtu.be/WlHPw5Aa40M
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