Q&A with Frances Quinlan of Hop Along

By: Kenny Ristich | Posted: May 30th, 2014 | Original Article

Hop Along was the first band I reached out to for an interview when I started Die Angry (HAPPY SIX MONTHIVERSARY GUYS!). That wasn't because they had an album coming out or a tour to promote, it was because even two years after the release of their debut full-length, Get Disowned, I was still finding new things to love about it. The band's unique merger of freak-folk and indie-rock is every bit as emotive as guitarist Frances Quinlan's incredible vocals. Her lyrics draw as much from her own personal life as they do from literature and poetry and the band incorporated everything from strings and beat-boxing to steel drums and banjos to compliment their hard-hitting songs.

So after months of busy schedules and exchanging emails with Frances, this interview has finally come to fruition. I asked Frances about Get Disowned's recording process, their recent West Coast tour with Waxahatchee and Title Fight, the band's upcoming full-length and British documentarian David Attenborough.

Tibetan Pop Stars

How did you get into punk?

I really didn't get into punk on my own. I didn't attend or play a house show until I was about 19, and both these things happened in one night on Long Island. I was really just into folk/freak-folk at that time, stuff like Joanna Newsom and Kimya Dawson and artists of that sort. I think the first band to really introduce me to that house show punk scene was Latterman. Matt Canino (from Latterman/RVIVR) set up what was maybe my 2nd or 3rd house show ever (my first was at a place called A Pregnant Lady, in Baltimore, which doesn't exist anymore). Matt found my music on Myspace, all Garageband recordings I'd posted. I forget what led him there, but he asked me if I would like to play at the Hobo House, where Phil from Iron Chic may still reside (Phil also mixed and mastered my first solo full-length, "Freshman Year", incidentally), and I went up with some friends and played to maybe 25 of the nicest kids I've ever met, in this cramped bedroom in the basement. The mattress was propped up against the wall, I remember. I met some really kind folks that night that I keep in touch with to this day. I think Latterman is the reason I know most of the people I do today, honestly. They really had a powerful thing that's still going, in my opinion.

So, since you've written songs with two of your brothers, was your family really musical? Were there always guitars lying around or a radio playing when you were growing up?

Neither of my parents are musicians, but both are great enthusiasts. My great-grandfather was a composer, though, Arthur Nevin. I used to come home from elementary school, to my mother blaring Patsy Cline while she worked on the house. She got me into Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan too, Highway 61 to be specific. My dad used to be a big record collector. I remember coming home at age 15 with that self titled Sleater Kinney CD, and he said, oh, I have that right here, and there it was on his shelf. I'd find Belle and Sebastian CD's in his collection, and get mad at him for not telling me he was into that stuff. He just had so much though, I'm sure he forgot some of it was there. But yeah, there was always music playing. R.E.M., Green Day, Warren Zevon, all kinds of stuff.

When did you get your first electric guitar?

I technically got my first guitar when I was 13, a blood red Squire Strat from my Dad for Christmas. I asked for a guitar for this one, horrible reason: to get boys to like me. Then I picked it up and realized how hard it is to play. Thus I ignored it for 3 years, to my Dad's chagrin. I played Mark's drums when he wasn't, instead. So I've gotten to be a super mediocre drummer, at least!

I finally tried again when I was 16, on a nylon string guitar that belonged to Mark. The action was super high so it was really hard for me to play, I remember getting really mad, sitting at my parents' kitchen table. Andrew had given me a bunch of tapes over the years, Fiona Apple, Ani Difranco, Lauryn Hill, and Patty Griffin were among them. I loved those tapes so much. The first song I covered was "Living with Ghosts," by Patty Griffin. Andrew taught me how to play it. One weekend he took me to Q-Mart and I bought a purple Austin acoustic/electric guitar. That was the first guitar I ever purchased.

It seems like every time I listen to Get Disowned, I find some new instrument or melody that I hadn't noticed before. What was the recording process like for that record? When you were writing those songs, did you intentionally leave room for string sections or beat boxing intros?

Thank you! The recording for that record was a very special method, one we could never recreate. We came to our friend Joe Reinhart with maybe six songs. Half of them were not really fleshed out. We started recording them immediately, decided we'd figure it out as we went. We demoed a little bit at band practice, but basically just went right for it in the studio, which is maybe why we were able to preserve that sense of urgency on the record, despite all the time it took. Everything we did on it was pretty much a fresh discovery. I think I wrote "Some Grace" while Mark was tracking drums for something else. Mark's drumming is so solid amd that really gave us a lot of freedom to go wild too.

I remember following Joe around his warehouse with a tape recorder, and him playing different instruments that were in the building, playing a part of one song over his phone so he could listen and play this part on an organ in someone else's room. It was just crazy and so much fun. We noticed towards the end that the feeling these songs were emoting was pretty unique. Joe's one of the best. He knows a lot but is still willing to try anything. We could never repeat a process like that, we learned so much from it.

Kids on the Boardwalk

The lyrics on the album are really interesting. At times they're really honest and personal and at others they're really metaphorical. Have you always written lyrics that way?

I really love poetry and fiction. I wish I could link the poetry I attempt to write with the narratives I think about. Lucinda Williams is great at it. Belle and Sebastian too. Stuart Murdoch writes the most amazing stories within his songs. Highway 61 is also a perfect narrative poem, to me, as a record. It's like a borderline chaos vignette. My writing is quite all over the place, I'm almost never writing about strictly one subject. It's hard because it's also about the sound of the words as they are being sung, it's listened to much more than it's read on the page. So I think I'm jumping between reading and and hearing what I am writing.

All the songs on Get Disowned are inspired by my life experiences combined with others' experiences along with literature I really enjoy. "Tibetan Pop Stars" is mostly about a dear friend of mine who traveled to India by herself. I just think she is an incredible human being, insanely strong. She's going to write a killer memoir someday. Lately I have been reading a lot more poetry, and recently finished The Tin Drum, which shows up a little bit in a few songs I've been working on.

Which song on Get Disowned was the most fun to record?

"Diamond Mine," and "No Good Al Joad" I would say. For me personally, it was a blast, Joe and I were running around recording a lot of stuff on a whim. Of course these songs are really hard to replicate live. They are basically strictly studio songs in my opinion, there's so much going on (cello, foot stomping, group vocals, etc). I love doing whatever I want in the studio, with no concerns as to how or even if it will translate live. I think it's great to have that alongside the more traditional sound, both have their major strong points, but my favorite part of recording is when you get to say, "oh what if we did this?" and you grab a steel drum and just do it and it's exactly what the song needed. That's what happened with "Young and Happy". I pictured it having a steel drum, and borrowed Andrew's and played it like a maniac. I would love to hear the isolated track because I'm sure it makes absolutely no sense. Like the wonderful producer he is, Joe went with it despite how I sounded playing it, and it ended up adding a cool texture to the song.

Young and Happy!

Hop Along just wrapped up a West Coast tour with Title Fight and Waxahatchee, how was that?

The West Coast tour was great! I've known Katie from Waxahatchee for quite some time, so it was lovely to catch up with her and the Title Fight guys are really nice people. I just felt particularly good about everyone personally on that short tour. I found the shows themselves were really refreshing and interesting ones to be a part of. Not something you'd expect! I love doing things like that.

How did the tour with Owls come about? Are you all big fans?

I'm not exactly sure how the Owls tour came about, I think they asked our booking agent Merrick about us, and Merrick is super on top of his shit. He's also our friend as well as our booking agent, and we're really lucky to have him. He understands our tastes and the longevity we are going for as artists and musicians. It's really important to have people like that around, in whatever it is that you are doing. We all really respect and like Owls as a band so I am very excited to play some shows with them. Again, I don't think it's the kind of package you would necessarily expect, and that's something we really try to do, keep ourselves on our toes, I think.

What has been the most difficult thing about writing the follow up to Get Disowned? What can we expect from the new record?

Writing itself isn't ever easy for me. It's my favorite part, but it's also difficult and daunting. It's basically starting over, every single time. I never feel like I have a leg up, an advantage since the last record, because we can't ever do that again. But in that way, it still yields exciting results, thankfully. The new record will definitely be different, we're trying to be a little more subtle, let the songs speak more for themselves, if that makes any sense. It's hard to do, to restrain one's sound. There is so much to be said for a perfectly understated song though. I think "Hey" by the Pixies is a perfect song, perfectly restrained.

Any last minute thank yous or shout outs?

I'd like to thank Neil Young and David Attenborough. How amazing would it be if they were friends? I hope they are.

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Stream/buy a copy of Get Disowned here.

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Go see them on their tour with Owls and at this year's Wicker Park Fest!
July 11 - Bowery Ballroom - New York City, NY^
July 12 - Mr. Smalls Theater - Pittsburgh, PA^
July 13 - Black Cat - Washington, DC^
July 14 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA^
July 15 - The Sinclair - Cambridge, MA^