[Video] Lin Yu Chun – “I Will Always Love You”

This is ridiculous.

[Video] Manchester Orchestra – “Shake it Out”

Amazing.

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[Interview] Rewriting the Basement Manifesto: A Conversation with Sister City’s Adam Linder

On this sopping wet late March evening in Worcester, Adam Linder is not playing music. Instead, safely inside the dry confines of Clark University’s Estabrook Hall, he is behind the controls in the recording studio as the bassist of a friend’s band lays down some tracks. Soon after the session ends, it’s just the two of us in the studio, wrappers from his fast food dinner resting on a nearby table.

Me: Hello Adam. Thanks for joining me.

Adam: My pleasure.

Me: First question: when did you start playing guitar?

Adam: Well, I initially started out playing the bass guitar in sixth grade, and I played in a punk band in middle school and we broke up, and then I started—I bought an acoustic guitar and I started playing that around probably eighth grade or ninth grade.

Me: When did you start writing your own songs?

Adam: Umm, well I wrote some of my own songs for that punk band in sixth grade. It was not a pretty sight. It was no good. [Laughs.] But I started writing songs for Sister City in its current—well, form—I started writing serious songs around the second semester of eleventh grade.

Me: How/when did you meet your bandmates?

Adam: I met my drummer Daniel at outdoor education (which was like a camping thing that the whole school went on) in sixth grade. We were both wearing Blink-182 t-shirts so we started talking. I’ve known our bassist Scott from summer camp in third or fourth grade in the park, in the neighborhood park.

Me: So you guys go way back.

Adam: We go sooo far back.

Me: Genre classifications are pretty awful but if you had to describe the type of music that you play…

Adam: Now THAT’S a professional interview question.

Me: …what would you classify your music as? [Adam hesitates.]

Adam: Well, I would classify us as—I think I say “indie rock that grew up listening to punk and can’t get rid of it.”

Me: Hey, that’s better than going with the MySpace “we can sum up your band in three genres or less!” So you’re presently recording a new full-length entitled Carbon Footprint. How long have you been working on it? [Adam stares at me, looking annoyed.]

Adam: Well…I mean the songs—the earlier songs on the album have been around now going on two years. We’ve been recording it since July.

Me: Do you have a tentative release date for the record yet or is it still very much a work in progress?

Adam: If it’s not out by the end of the summer I’ll quit music.

Me: Strong words. [Adam cracks a smile.] Given the album title, do you have a position on global warming? [Adam starts laughing.] Or climate change, anything like that? What science do you believe? Do you believe any of the science?

Adam: I believe EVERY science.

Me: You believe every science. Okay, very good. [Adam continues laughing.] Changing gears—how does the music scene here in Central New England, or at the very least Worcester, compare to back home in Maryland?

Adam: [Ponders the question for a moment.] I think that there are more bands here willing to be a community, and because of that there’s more of a community. If you want to play a show, there are shows to play.

Me: You’ve described your lyrics as autobiographical in nature. Do you see that changing or are you wedded to that writing method?

Adam: I would say that I’m married to that writing method. I did a little project last year while I was taking a class called “The Short Story” where I tried to write a song about each short story, and I got four-and-a-half songs in and realized that I couldn’t really keep it up anymore. But it was an interesting little exercise…but yes, that’s how I know how to write, and that’s how I see myself writing FOREVER. [Laughs.]

Me: Last question. What’s the long-term outlook for Sister City?

Adam: Death.

Me: Death is the long-term outlook? That’s the outlook for us all, Adam. [Adam laughs.] Okay, maybe not fifty-year outlook, how about…

Adam: [Laughing.] You should paint me as some death-obsessed…

Me: What do you hope to be doing in five years? I know that’s hard to do, but…

Adam: Five years from now…I hope to continue to be writing and recording, and I hope to be playing shows and possibly touring, and “living the dream.”

Me: All right, thanks for your time.

Adam: It was my pleasure.

You can learn more about Sister City at myspace.com/sistercityband.