April 8, 2015 was a momentous occasion for us. Not only did we get to see Tycho live for the first time in our hometown, we managed to score an interview with the man behind the band, Scott Hansen.
We sat down with Hansen a couple hours before he played and asked him about touring, recording, and the the impending follow-up to his 2014 breakout record, Awake.
For the full interview, listen to You’re Welcome tonight at 7 p.m. on The Spy.
Blackstock: So it’s been a little over a year since Awake came out and you’ve been non-stop touring. In fact, this isn’t even your first time in Oklahoma.
Hansen: No, we did Tulsa. We did Cain’s. It was awesome.
McGugan: It was May 3rd.
Blackstock: You kind of just added that on to your tour last minute.
Hansen: Yeah, sometimes we have a day off and something comes together that makes sense in between, it’ll work. Our big thing is always finding a balance between how to put on our production and how to not play to 100 people in a 1,000-person room. Mostly, we want to try to play theaters but in a lot of markets we don’t have enough fans to fill it. That’s why I think that Cain’s thing came together last minute, because it was like, “Where are we gonna play? Cain’s is too big, this place is too small.” But then we just said screw it and we did it and it ended up being fun.
Blackstock: But now you’ve played at Cain’s and that’s just a legendary venue.
Hansen: Yeah, it’s like Grand Ole Opry. There’s a lot of places this year that we got to check off so I can say I’ve been on those stages.
Blackstock: This is a really big week for you. You are heading to Coachella this weekend. Is this your first time playing the festival?
Hansen: First time even going. First time all around.
Blackstock: You’re from California, so has playing Coachella been a dream for you?
Hansen: Yeah, especially in San Francisco, all of our friends go every year. I just never got around to it. I never went to festivals much before I started touring and now that I do tour, the last thing I want to do is go to a festival in my spare time. But [Coachella] is the one I’ve always wanted to go to.
Blackstock: It seems like, even in the past year, you’ve been to so many different festivals. You’ve done Sasquatch!, Outside Lands and you’re going to Bonnaroo later this year as well. Then I noticed you just got added on for an extended summer, you’re going to be hopping on the train with Skrillex and Diplo. I was pretty surprised to see you on that list there. [laughter]
Hansen: Yeah, Skrillex, he’s reached out a few times. We just talked about remixes and stuff like that. So we’ve been on their radar and it seems this year is a little more eclectic. I only remember seeing the lineup for one of the first ones with Pretty Lights and stuff. It seemed very squarely in the EDM world. But this time it seems to have branched out.
Blackstock: Yeah, he’s got Hundred Waters as well.
Hansen: A$AP Ferg.
Blackstock: And A$AP Ferg! So are we going to see a collaboration? A Tycho-Ferg-Hundred Waters track? [laughter]
Hansen: I have no idea how it works, but yeah, they supposedly modeled it after the Festival Express thing — the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin thing. That was the kind of vibe; they got all these artists on the train and they’re all just jamming.
Blackstock: That would be pretty sweet, we saw what you did with Spoon’s “Inside Out” last year. That was one of our favorite songs to begin with, then we saw you got to remix it.
McGugan: Then we started thinking who would we love to see remix Tycho tracks. I’d love to see The Field, personally.
Hansen: Yeah, we actually tried to make that happen on “Dive” but it never materialized.
Blackstock: I would faint if that happened. [laughter]
McGugan: We’re huge Field fans.
Blackstock: He remixed a Hundred Waters track. It turned out really well and I was thinking if Tycho remixed them it would turn out real good. But if you’re on a train, might as well hit them up.
Hansen: Yeah, if it works.
