Preston School of Industry

Kannberg, under the Preston School of Industry moniker, released his first full-length in August on Matador Records. Titled All This Sounds Gas, the album presented a refreshing collection of guitar rock that expanded upon the previous themes from his limited catalog. One of the record’s ever-present traits that the listener cannot help but notice is the high degree of fun. Fun in writing, fun in recording, and simply fun in expressing his own voice. This characteristic is even more evident during Preston School of Industry performances. There is little doubt that the artist former known as Spiral Stairs is having a blast with his newfound artistic freedom.

fakejazz sat down and caught up with Kannberg before his recent show at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC, to discuss a number of topics.

fakejazz:How’s the tour been going? Any shows really stand out so far?

scott:It’s been really good. It’s been a little over two and a half weeks so far. I kind of figured we’d hit our stride once we hit the East Coast. We started in Portland and Seattle and just kinda made our way across Canada and those shows were cool, but it was a matter of getting things settled in. Jim, the drummer, had played with me before but the two other people, Dan and Maureen, were new and it took us a few shows to get it going. As for shows, New York was really great, DC, Philadelphia—it was just a matter of getting the band all on the same page. We had some really long drives, doing this whole thing really low budget with our own van; no soundman and just someone selling merchandise—that’s it. It’s a lot like the old days and it’s nice. It reminds me of the old Billions tours with “here’s a 10-hour drive and then play a show” and then repeat. It’s been cool, though.

fakejazz: Do you think the band you’re touring with now might show up with you in the studio sometime?

scott:I don’t know. The next record I do is going to be done kind of solo again, and I’ll just bring in a bunch of different people like I did with All This Sounds Gas. I’m sure some of these guys will be playing on that, but it won’t be like a full band.

fakejazz:Do you ever plan on having PSOI become a full band?

scott:I really want it to be like that, but it hasn’t turned out that way yet. I’ve found the right people, but they’ve always had their own things going on. I don’t want to be the person stealing them away from those projects and making people mad. I’ve already gotten Jim in a bit of trouble for getting him away from Oranger for too long. I guess we’ll just see how it goes. I’m happy just doing it all on my own and having all the control, but I would definitely like to have some sort of band eventually. For now, this is my new project and I just want to do it for a while. If I do end up pulling a band together, maybe I’ll treat whatever happens then in a completely different fashion and with a new name.

fakejazz:Since you’re rotating and bringing people into the studio with you, is there anyone that you’re still dying to work with?

scott:Definitely. Everyone I’ve worked with has been really cool. There’s this guy who played keyboards and horns on the record, and I really wanted him to come along with me on tour, but I just couldn’t afford it. We’re a lot more rocking now when we play, and if we had had horns and keys with us, it would have sounded a lot more like the record and more laid back. When I do stuff in the spring I want to bring him back in, especially since he can also play the pedal steel, which would be great since I can’t play that on my own.

fakejazz:I read the interview you did earlier in the year in Devil in the Woods where you said you didn’t plan on working with Matador. What ended up happening there?

scott:Well, the guy who wrote that kind of got it all wrong—he really didn’t get my sense of humor. At that time I was still working on the record and I said to him that I didn’t know if Matador would be interested or not. At that point I was willing to put it out myself, or let other people put it out, but in the end Matador really wanted to put it out. That line in the interview just didn’t come out the right way and neither did some of the other things in there.

fakejazz:Really? At the time I was excited to see that interview since nothing had really filtered out regarding what you planned on doing musically, post-Pavement, and that was the first article to lay some of your intentions out. After reading it, I thought maybe you didn’t want to work there since that’s where Steve was putting records out.

scott:No, it was a mix-up. I think I did say that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it with Matador, or if I wanted to do it with someone else, but it definitely wasn’t a dogmatic thing. Really, I love the Matador people—it’s been a very good and productive relationship over the years.

fakejazz:Speaking of your label, is Amazing Grease ever going to expand? What plans do you have for the future of the label?

scott:I really don’t know yet. We’re small now, but I definitely want to keep putting out records of bands I like. We’ve put out the Oranger record and there’s going to be a new one coming out. It’s been nice to be out on tour—that way you get to hear a bunch of different things from just from being in the van and everything else. I also want to get away from the San Francisco bands, to a degree.

fakejazz:Back to the Devil in the Woods interview one more time. You mentioned in there that you wanted to make All This Sounds Gas into a triple record. What changed that?

scott:Well, I did want to release it as a triple. It was kind of a joke, although I wanted to do it, but not enough to get myself to record that much material. It was really going to be tough to get a big side three and four jam going. I ended up recording twenty songs of the thirty-five or so that I wanted to record. The people I was working with started to get a bit impatient after fifteen, and I didn’t want to push more. Once we’d get done with a track, I’d be all excited to record a new song and they eventually just wanted the whole process to wear down. The other stuff I recorded is filtering out as b-sides, on the vinyl of the record, and maybe some other places.

fakejazz:Out of curiosity, how much of the material on the album dates back to the Pavement days?

scott:I tried to record “Encyclopedic Knowledge Of” and “Whalebones” for Terror Twilight but it just didn’t work out. We practiced them, but we never got to the point of recording them. I had recorded the song off of Goodbye to the Edge City, “Where You Gonna Go?,” around that time, as well. I had a few other songs on tapes, and once Pavement broke up, I finally sat down and listened to a bunch of those old tapes. I took ideas from some of those tracks, made up entirely new songs, and came up with everything you hear now.

fakejazz:Are you writing any new songs now that you’re out on tour?

scott:Not really. I can never really just make up songs on the road. I have to be in my house and doing other things—wandering around the yard, the kitchen. Whenever the song hits me is when it hits me.

fakejazz:So you said earlier you are planning on going back into the studio in January. Is that for a new album?

scott:Yes, a new album. I’m not sure if I’ll finish it in January, but I want to start. I’d like to see it come out sometime next year.

fakejazz:What other material are you listening to these days?

scott:I really like the Shins. I’m into the new Smog record, Texas Pete from Sheffield in England—just all sorts of things. I’m also enjoying the new Bob Dylan record a lot. The latest record from The Clean is really nice.

fakejazz:So far, out of all the interviews that you’d done for the new album, what’s the one question that you wish someone would ask you that you haven’t heard yet?

scott:Oh god. I don’t even know. You know how on the back of the CD there is “out” and “in” written for the sides? Some guy knew that was a links-style golf reference, and that was really cool. I was excited when I heard that question. I guess that I’d like to be asked about the themes of the album. That’s one thing that no one has really touched on.

fakejazz:Would you like to go into those themes now?

scott:No (laughing).

fakejazz:One last question for you. In Pavement you were always the band member who made sure that there was a definite connection with your fan base, be it through running the websites, having your sister respond to letters, or other means. Is that something you plan on continuing now with PSOI?

scott:Definitely. It’s something I feel you really have to do. It’s just natural to me to do that sort of thing. Being on a different level of playing shows, you get to meet your fans close up. In Pavement it was very easy to have a sort of wall between you and the crowd, but not now. There’s a website (www.prestonschoolofindustry.com) up and running that I’m pretty active with. There will be no change in that department as far as I’m concerned.