Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: TAS In Session

The nearly five-year span of time between Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's 2007 album Some Loud Thunder and 2011's Hysterical led many fans to think, during the band's dormant period, that a break-up was inevitable. That wasn't the case, despite CYHSY's many outside projects and frontman Alec Ounsworth's own 2009 solo record, Mo Beauty.

The quintet — Ounsworth, guitarist Robbie Guertin, guitarist Lee Sargent, bassist Tyler Sargent and drummer Greenhaigh — recruited busy producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Okkervil River) for Hysterical, the band's third album. Ounsworth told The Alternate Side's Alisa Ali that the new collection of songs, like "Misspent Youth" and "Ketamine and Ecstasy," centered on "[resigning] oneself to understanding certaiin difficulties in his or her personality and accepting them." 

CYHSY, whose members are now based in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Boston, kick off a UK and European tour tonight, January 30, in Leeds, England.

Below, more of Alisa's chat with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and performance videos or tracks like "Same Mistake" and "Hysterical." Listen  to the session this Friday, February 3 at 11 a.m. on TAS on 91.5 WNYE and streaming on The Alternate Side.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns9pLGrq-3I]

Alisa Ali: I saw a video that you guys did for “Same Mistake,” one of those barn sessions. Is that at your house, Alec? Are there chickens?

Alec Ounsworth: Yeah. [I have] three.

Alisa: Was this an Easter present you decided to keep?

Alec: Not exactly. My wife is from the country, more or less. It’s a nice thing to get eggs from time to time from right outside. Why not have chickens?

Alisa: I don’t know anyone who has chickens. Why didn’t you bring the eggs?

Alec: Well, they’re not really laying eggs right now. I would have brought some. It’s always my natural gift.

Alisa: The recording studio in the barn isn’t where you recorded this record, is ti?

Alec: No, we did a bit of work on demos there but that’s about it. We recorded this one in Dallas and Jersey. We worked quite a bit in the barn, but mostly it sits there unused.

Alisa: Alot of people are saying that Hysterical is the long-awaited comeback record. It has been a little while since you guys put out a record. Your last one was in 2007? Do you see it as a comeback?

Alec: Not so much a comeback as a third record.

Alisa: There was the thought that you guys were going to break up? Don’t tell me this is new to you?

Robbie Guertin: We took a break for a little while. I think [a breakup] is what everyone read into it.

Alisa: Were you reassuring a lot of people that [you weren’t breaking up?]

Alec: Not a lot of reassuring. It seems we do it more now. We didn’t, in fact, break up.

Robbie: We just really didn’t do much [as a band] for a few years. We all did different projects.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icjLtoO_klw]

Alisa: What did you do between Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? Alec, you put out a solo record.

Alec: I don’t know how much … yeah. Yes, indeed. I think it just happened to have my name on it. I don’t know if it was really a solo record. It was more playing with people in New Orleans and I didn’t know what to call it. So I don’t know if I’d call it a true solo record. Although I suppose I don’t really know what that is anyway … so never mind. But I did put out a record called Mo Beauty and I used my name on the record. I thought it went well.

Tyler Sargent: Robbie and I played in a band called Uninhabitable Mansions. Sean produced some albums.

Robbie: I’m also playing drums in another band called Radical Dads.

Alisa: Sean produced other records, but was passed over for [Hysterical].

Sean Greenhaigh: I’m still stinging from that, actually.

Robbie: So we’re back from hiatus, but we’re not talking to each other anymore.

Tyler: John Congleton produced it. I think we were a little uncertain in the beginning but we were really happy with how it worked out. He’s such a great guy and I think he was instrumental in making this thing happen in the end.

Alisa: Going forward, you’ll probably use an outside producer again? Or give the drummer a shot?

Robbie: Did you guys talk before [this session]?

Alec: I’m not sure. It’s still up in the air. I don’t know if anyone ever really comes away from a record [knowing]. John did a great job. Going from one person to the next, as John is aware, is a natural tendancy because you want to have a different feel for a different record and a producer informs it to such a degree that his stamp will be on it. It depends on what you want out of the record, how the songs are.

Alisa: Were there a lot of changes that he instigated on these songs?

Alec: It was more his sonic approach. That was primarily what he did.

Robbie: He would suggest some changes but it was more an aesthetic approach sonically.

Alec: Keeping things moving forward.

Robbie: A good guy to be around for a while.

Alisa: The band Waters worked with him on their record and they said that he was so fast. You get [in the studio], you get out. Super smart. Well-organized and an amazing engineer.

Alec: John’s excellent. But enough about him! (laughs)

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEaYgBJV5B0]

Alisa: Do you mind if I ask you why you named the record Hysterical?

Alec: Let’s see. Which response shall I use today? Thematically I think Hysterical, that word, carried through the entire record. It has a lot to do with making bigger issues out of smaller issues and getting carred away. And I think trying to get over that, I suppose. That’s more or less what this record is about.

Alisa: You’ve been together for a while now. In which ways have you grown as a band? Would you say you’re making the same mistakes?

Alec: No, no it’s not that.

Alisa: This album sounds super-controlled, but what has the development been within this group dynamic?

Alec: I suppose it sounds controlled by virtue of the fact that we did work on this material for quite a while before we got into the studio. I would imagine that we’re getting better, in one way or another, at our instruments. How we approach recording. As far as the themes covered in the record itself, “Same Mistake” and “Hysterical” — really most of them — have to do with the fact that one should resign oneself to understanding certaiin difficulties in his or her personality and accepting them. That’s the overall idea. Rather than coming to hysteria as a result.

Alisa: Or working on changing them?

Alec: Well you can work as much as you want on certain things and it will never change. You can either step back an let it be part of yourself and not get carried away. Usually it’s small, superficial stuff. That’s the idea, anyway.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seDsFh-8XdI]