Photo by Jennifer Jones
When Gainesville five-piece Hundred Waters released their gorgeous electronic/avant-folk self-titled debut earlier this year, one of the most remarkable things about it was the sheer quality of sound. Every single sonic detail-- from the sparkling synth flourishes to frontwoman Nicole Miglis' dulcet coos to Zach Tetreault's scuttering percussion-- is so rich and pristine for a self-recorded release that it made you wonder if they were being secretly bankrolled by some studio magician. Then, out of nowhere, things took an unexpected swerve for the genteel act: They were invited to travel across Canada as the outlier on this summer's Full Flex Express Tour with Diplo, Skrillex, and Grimes, and have since signed with Skrillex's OWSLA label-- though they swear they haven't gone EDM.
This month, they released the Thistle EP, featuring remixes from AraabMuzik and Star Slinger, and on October 16th, OWSLA gives a proper rerelease to Hundred Waters. With a tour opening for the rather more artistically compatible Julia Holter starting tomorrow, we spoke with the whole band-- including singer/percussionist Samantha Moss, and multi-instrumentalists Trayer Tryon and Paul Giese-- about the difference between crossing America in a vegetable-oil-powered bus and traversing Canada in a decked-out train, label negotiations with Skrillex, and what the hell you talk about when you're up at 4 a.m. with Grimes and Diplo.
Pitchfork: So how does a quiet, folky indie band like Hundred Waters get involved with something like the Full Flex Express Tour?
Zach Tretault: We initially met Tim Smith, who manages Skrillex [Sonny Moore] and is one of the people who runs OWSLA-- he actually saw one of our little shows at SXSW and showed our music to Sonny. We were over Tim's house-- he lives in Gainesville-- and he flashed the idea [of the tour] to us. We were like, "Uh, what?" We got a call a few days later saying, "OK, you guys are on it."
We were obviously a weird bird on that tour; we felt strange in the aesthetic and artistic direction of the whole thing. But we realized so much of it was about getting to know everyone and seeing where they're coming from. That's what became really attractive to us. Sonny's big plan was to cram a bunch of people that he believes in together, a whole family. We were totally blindsided when that opportunity came, but we saw what it was all about when we were on it. The aesthetic differences didn't matter. It was a really awesome journey.
Pitchfork: How did your first Full Flex show turn out?
Trayer Tryon: It was very stressful. We had never been in a plane with all our equipment before and we had some stuff broken-- which we didn't figure out until soundcheck about 30 minutes before the show.
Paul Giese: We lost our bass guitar, a controller, and had to re-map all the instruments in order to play the songs, but we pulled it off.
TT: What we realized pretty quickly on that first date, despite the scramble with our instrumentation, was that all those young people who were there to see the show were just extremely excited, whether or not they knew about us. When we walked on stage, everybody wanted to see some action. And when we started playing, we got some really great responses, which completely soothed a lot of the nerves.
Nicole Miglis: The crowds were actually a lot more into our music than I thought they'd be.
Pitchfork: What was the scene like after those shows? Does everyone go to their separate rooms? Do you just sit up all night watching Netflix?
ZT: There was always an afterparty where a couple of the DJs from the train would play. Then you'd go back on the train and there's a big metal luggage cart at the very front. It had a DJ setup and some speakers and we would just all end up there at like 3:30 a.m. and dance again until 6 or 7 a.m. Skrillex would be the one leading it after having just played for five hours straight-- that's what he loves.
Pitchfork: What did you do when you were on the train just shooting the shit?
ZT: We all hung out a lot until the wee hours of the night. I remember Nicole, Trayer, and myself standing out in front of the train at 4 a.m. with Sonny and Claire [Boucher, aka Grimes] talking about throwback songs that we all listened to and sharing old stories about our childhoods-- our parents purging our music collections and whatnot. Diplo was mostly playing Scrabble on his iPad throughout the tour.
NT: Everyone on that train is really hard working, too, so a lot of free time was spent working on projects or collaborating.
PG: We had this big glass room at the end of the train where everyone would go into and make music. Some people worked on their own stuff, some were passing stuff around, but everyone's in the same room working. It was a very music-heavy trip.
Pitchfork: Were there any collaborations going on that you guys ended up recording?
All: Yes.
TT: There will be something coming for sure.
Pitchfork: When you decided to sign with OWSLA, was being the first indie band on that label part of the appeal?
NM: Yeah, it seemed really exciting in that it was so left-field. Everyone's been very open-minded, and I don't think we have any doubt going forward that it's going to be a big success.
TT: It's almost feels a little bit risky, like it's never been done before. But we liked the feeling of joining a crew as opposed to a company.
PG: I don't think there will be much interaction between our music and that [EDM] world just because we've developed our voice already and it's far from that. There might be some, but were not going to trade all of our instruments in for DJ equipment or anything.
Pitchfork: What was Skrillex's pitch like?
ZT: They weren't throwing numbers at us and trying to make us see dollar signs or anything.
PG: The conversation was normal and relaxed. They said they liked what we do and wanted to make our visions bloom. They acknowledged the out-of-placeness we were in in relation to the label, but we ultimately realized that it was more important to join a family that believes in what you do rather than a catalog of artists that might be similar to you.
Pitchfork: With the Thistle EP and the re-release in place, what does the future hold for you now?
ZT: We're still out on tour for a few months (dates below). Then there are some of the projects that we're finishing up-- especially the [Full Flex Express] collaboration-- and a couple of official music videos.
PG: And we have a lot of new music for albums in the works.
Pitchfork: Out of everything that's happened this year, what was the most unexpected?
TT: When we found out we were on that train.
ZT: We found out when they sent us the artwork with us in it.
TT: We were planning on just staying home and recording, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Also, going to L.A. in May and taking our first trip around the country was amazing, too. We rode a big school bus that our friend built. It was grimy as hell and so much fun.
ZT: It was pretty rewarding making it around the entire perimeter of the United States on vegetable oil... at about 30 MPH.
Hundred Waters:
08-31 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
09-01 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's *
09-02 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09-03 Baltimore, MD - Goldenwest Cafe *
09-04 Charlottesville, VA - Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar *
09-06 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival
09-18 Burlington, VT - Signal Kitchen
09-19 Boston, MA - Great Scott
09-20 Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery *
09-21 Montreal, Quebec - Church of St. John *
09-22 Toronto, Ontario - Legendary Horshoe Tavern *
09-23 Lansing, MI - Macs Bar *
09-24 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom *
09-25 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern *
09-26 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern *
09-28 Champain/Urbana, IL - Pygmalion Music Festival
09-29 Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Festival
10-01 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts *
11-14 Koln, Germany - Studio 672
11-15 Hamberg, Germany - Kampnagel
11-17 Berlin, Germany - Kantine Am Berghain
11-19 Dresden, Germany - Filmtheater Schauburg
11-20 Frankfurt, Germany - Das Bett
11-21 Aarau, Switzerland - Kiff
11-22 Dudingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
11-28 Gent, Belgium - Vooruit
11-29 Brussels, Belgium - Autumn Falls
11-30 Utrecht, Netherlands - Le Guess Who
12-01 Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
- with Julia Holter
