Santah, will be throwing an official record release this Friday at Schuba’s for their new 7” single, “Awwh Man.” If you haven’t heard of Santah yet, you’ll want to hop on this train really quick! They are Stanton and Vivian McConnell (bro & sis!), Steve Plock, Tommy Trafton, and Michael Winegardner.
Their music is full of sunny melodies with a rock n’ roll backbone paired with metaphorical lyrics about life, nature, and love. The release of the new 7” single, “Awwh, Man,” from these Chicago indie rockers seems to go perfectly with the start of the summer season. It’s about that time when a hint of humidity hits the air and winter coats can finally take their place in storage. To see them play at Schuba’s this Friday will be a solid start to the summer indeed.
Santah has had a short but busy past three years in Chicago. Since 2011, they’ve put out two very solid LPs, and played all around Chicago while making a genuinely good impression on the music scene in this city. They are the kind of band that when you hear their songs, you will crave to see them live—the music is so layered and sonically full and it would be a disservice to yourself to avoid tracking down their vinyl and snagging tickets to their shows. With Santah, you are going to want the full effect.
The songwriting is also just outstanding and cool. The more I listened to Santah, the more I was curious about the stories behind these emotional yet upbeat rock albums. I wanted to know if White Noise Bed and You’re Still A Lover had a connection. Was there another chapter to be written? Did it all just mean nothing? I found out that there’s a bit of both plus more in Santah’s songs.
Between taking photos and tidying up their practice space, the band gave me their perspective on their intention to record via analog, what artists and albums they’ve been listening to, and what’s next.
You just released “Awwh Man” this Tuesday. It must be exciting.
Tommy: You work so hard to put something out, so it feels good.
Stan: It feels good to just get behind something you know, because there’s so many steps before that.
Like it’s all leading up to this thing?
Stan: Or once you just decide that this is the version of the song that we’re putting out. It’s freeing in a way. Your decisions, the artistic decisions, have been made. If people dig it, cool.
Do you go into the studio knowing you want to press your records? Whats’ your intention there? We are surrounded by streams and fleeting mp3s, yet the internet is the easiest way to just get out there.
Stan: It’s disorienting, the internet, because I feel like a lot of my favorite bands, the first time I hear something, it’s a stream. A first listen on Spotify or Rdio and you don’t have to pay for anything. If you want the artifact you can get up and get it but, it’s overwhelming because a lot of times if you love the music you can forget to get the vinyl, and with that being said, zooming out, if you forget to buy the new Lykke Li record for example, just because you haven’t heard it on Rdio or haven’t remembered to listen to it and you forget a week later, if you don’t buy vinyl, then what happens in two years, there’s not even a chance to even remember.
I lost my iPod that I got for my 21st birthday in the back seat compartment of an airplane in the pouch—it was so tragic because it was a bummer to lose however many gigabytes of songs, but what’s more valuable maybe even more than the songs was the index of all my songs. That’s a huge reason why I love vinyl. I feel like it’s overwhelming to look and see that you actually have an index of all the stuff that you can listen to, rather than just an idea of it.
Tommy: All of our records have been pressed at Pieholden Suite Sound and they do a lot of analog recording. I think vinyl is really the best platform to showcase an analog recording. I think the best parts of doing analog comes out on vinyl and it makes a lot of sense. I think that’s another reason why we’ve always made it a priority to release our music on wax discs.
Mike: You pay more to record in an analog studio too, so there’s a certain devotion even before you’re making the product for the product.
Your first record, White Noise Bed is all about a break up and You’re Still a Lover seems to be about learning to love again, since that’s what being a human is all about. Maybe I put my own lens on things, but I want to know what’s the next thing that comes after? Is there a next thing? Is it not connected at all?
Stan: [The next LP] will be the next chapter and the single is cool for sure. I think with any band there’s gonna be a symbology, a story you know, whether that’s accurate to real life events or not. In our case it pretty much is. I’ve tried to write songs that really aren’t about anything—about just ideas. It’s just so hard. It doesn’t sound cool. You find yourself being more of a thesaurus than like being a person. I think “Awwh, Man” and “Won’t Be Long Now”—it’s kind of, in terms of the vocabulary and the subject matter and the stories that are within those, it’s such a small piece of the iceberg of our LP that there isn’t a logical connection that you could draw. I think they’re kinda just fun songs, I would say.
I definitely felt the danciness on this single. It’s really fun without taking away the lyrical depth of the songs.
Stan: All five of us like to dance and party a little bit. It’s another form of self-expression. For the first time we’ll really be embracing that on the new record which will also be married to our history of emotional and sunny tunes as well.
Vivian: Even though it’s Stan doing most of the lyric writing, the themes—it’s cool to see an outsider’s perspective because I find myself doing that, like—what is this record about?” Does this record have a theme? And sometimes it doesn’t. It’s really just all over the place. It’s interesting to put those together.
Stan: To summarize or rather preview what the next record is about—if the first record was about losing a lover and the second is realizing that you’re still who you are, the third record is about yourself. It’s about giving yourself, not necessarily in a romantic sense, it’s about giving yourself to the world and about seeing yourself in the people who you love.
Mike: It’s more of a universal love whereas the last records were more of a romantic love. I mean we love the Beatles so much and I hope that comes out more and more from the band because when you mature you kind of are trying to figure out how to expand your love to the world. That’s what we’re trying to do, basically, with music.
Stan: I think the dancing’s a big part of that too like, we’ve all been to an indie rock show and then you’re just like, what am I doing here? And everyone “loves” this band but no one is like, relaxed and comfortable with themselves. But by us wanting to dance on stage, it’s like guys everything’s going to be ok, what you’re doing is not that important, and you’re going to be OK. I am honored that people listen to the lyrics and stuff. I will always hold that in the utmost respect. Really it’s about giving yourself.
So, what’s next for Santah?
Stan: We’ve got the show on Friday and we are playing with some dear friends—we’re really excited. Really, we’re just going to be completely focused on finishing the record in the two months that follow that.
What are you guys listening to right now?
Stan: I’ve been listening to Woods a lot lately. They just came out with a new record called Light and Love and it’s awesome. I really like Girls. Vivian and I love Fleet Foxes.
Vivian: I’ve been listening to a lot of Mac Demarco. I can’t stop listening to both of his albums… It was a nice transition from winter to spring album. It’s a weird, melancholy, happy, sad happy, calm, but also funky. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. I was just thinking about that I’m in a huge rut right now. I think it’s because I’m really overwhelmed with the content on the internet. I’ve also listened to that Parquet Courts record a lot because I feel like I’m just sticking it to the man all the time when listening to it.
Stan: I really like the band Pillars and Tongues. They are a local band and I think the stuff they are doing is super rad. One of my favorite bigger bands is Yeasayer. Their first record, All Hour Cymbals is one of my top tens and they have alot of cool, natural, woody sounding percussion, especially in that first record—and Pillars and Tongues kind of has a similar vibe and that really speaks to the folk artist in me which is kind of how I started writing songs—just on an acoustic guitar. Vivian and I grew up on a lot of folk—Dylan, Neil Young, because of our dad.
Do you have any favorite venues?
Tommy: I love the Hideout! I haven’t played there yet, but that’s one of the places I really want to play. Schuba’s, …Empty Bottle.
Vivian: Lincoln Hall was really nice and fun to play. We’ve played there a couple of times. The Bottle is so fun. It’s so grungy and so loud.
Stan: We played the Whistler a few weeks ago and I had never been there before. It’s fancy there.
Tommy: Ha yeah, it’s funny how a venue can help define your show.
Vivian: I also really like some of the DIY art spaces. There’s this place called Elastic—it’s right on Milwaukee and above this Chinese food place and you walk upstairs and it’s this big cool room. It’s like free jazz. Even basements. I’ve been going to a lot more of those and I’ve been trying to find the scene in Pilsen but I still haven’t found it yet.
Stan: Where’s the scene?
Vivian: In the basement.
Stan: I love Chicago. I’ve had kind of a love/hate relationship at times. I think Chicagoans are the coolest people on the planet. We travel a lot and so in every region there’s a schtick and even though very ones supposed to have a schtick in Chicago, it’s like there’s no pretenses.
Vivian: I just moved officially in September or October which was in time for the worst winter ever. So I was the saddest I’ve ever been this winter and now I’m coming out of that.
While I’m in Chicago I’d like to think there is a music scene, but I feel like it’s kind of competitive and strange. I want to see people instead of being like, “I got this show” or “this show.” I want it to be more supportive and that’s what I’m excited for because I think we’ll see a lot more of that in the summertime because people will actually want to leave their house and go see music.
I totally, agree Viv, totally agree.
See Santah at Schuba’s this Friday, 5/16, for their record release party. They’ll be supported by Carbon Tigers and The Bonesetters, also awesome local bands.
You might as well grab both of Santah’s previous records while you’re at it—White Noise Bed and You’re Still a Lover are both on vinyl for a perfect summer soundtrack.
