California Dreaming 

By Marcie Garcia

As a Chicago-based band, there is no connection to California, nor are any of the members of California Wives betrothed. It would seem their moniker is nothing more than a conversation between friends at a Panera Bread restaurant, as one of the foursome casually noted the eatery was created for none other than California wives. Insignificant conversation became relatively significant for a band whose refreshing waves of rock and electro-pop feels like a cool breeze off the shores of Malibu. The name stuck just like the simple and repetitive synth-lines that flourish within the structured backbone of its drum splashes and creative lyricism within the band’s standout track “Twenty Three”.

LISTEN UP || California Wives - Twenty Three || DOWNLOAD


But while the quartet of Joe O'Connor, Hans Michel, Jayson Kramer, and Dan Zima, prepare for a string of shows at venues near you - including Cole’s this Friday Nov. 13, Double Door Dec. 16, and The Hideout Jan. 15 - where they’ll introduce new tracks, and play favorites off their EP No. 8, and the Franz Ferdinandish-ish “EL84”, the guys give us a look into what makes them tick and what’s up next—click "read more to check it out.  

How did the band start? Did you all have a background in music?

Dan: Joe, Hans and I were in a band together for about six years, since high school, and CW began as a side project of that. We wanted somebody to play keys, and Hans knew Jay through a friend, so I sent him a pretty trashy demo and he apparently liked it. Once we had played together a couple of times, it stopped being something we were jerking around with in a basement and became an all-the-time thing. We’ve all been playing some instrument or other since childhood and playing in projects on and off since high school, so it wasn’t new to collaborate with other people.

Your sound is a mix between indie-rock and electro-pop, which is difficult to get away with for some. How difficult is it to not lean more towards one direction?

Dan: For me, I think it’s not so much about what instruments make your music but how you structure it. I don’t always want to play really pop-structured rock songs, like verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, and then throw some synthesizers on top of it. If it’s hard to describe what’s the chorus and what’s the verse, I’m happy. I think that kind of structuring keeps us from sounding more rock than we want to. And we have a real drum kit, so the rhythm will sound human.

What bands have influenced you and why? Do you try to mirror these influences?

Joe: New Order is the short answer. We all love that band and we all happened to be pretty obsessed with them when we got together. I think that shaped where we wanted to go as a band and despite the fact that we stopped listening to multiple New Order albums everyday, they are probably still our main influence. Outside of that there are probably too many influences to list, but other big ones that pop into my mind are Ride, Broken Social Scene, M83, and the Cure.

You’ve been in bands before, why did you decide on this project as your next musical adventure?

Hans: Me, Joe and Dan were all in a band together for a long time. It was pretty standard rock music, and after a while it got kind of exhausting to play the same thing over and over. The three of us found ourselves listening to a lot more eclectic and electronic music, and formed a side project that was anything goes besides the main band. As things to happen with bands, our "main project" ended suddenly and dramatically so this side project became our main focus. We already knew Jayson, and bringing him on board made too much sense for the direction we were pursuing. He knew everything about the electronic/synth world that we wanted to, and really made the unit complete. As much as the two projects couldn't be farther apart the transition was pretty seamless. We got to play with people we were familiar with, but work on something new and exciting. I think Jayson was as excited as we were, except he was coming from the opposite direction, getting to work with a live band that had their shit together.

Tell me about “Twenty Three” and who is the girl with the fancy shoes?

Jayson: “Twenty Three” was written during an interesting period in my life. I was starting to watch a lot of the people around me grow up. Many of them were starting to assimilate really well into something that I was afraid of being a part of. I think I was holding on to this idea of staying young. I would see so many people holding themselves back all week, getting up early, going to work, riding the train home, day after day…until Friday came around. There was something really alarming in that image…of someone so restrained during the week, yet so carefree when responsibility wasn’t holding them accountable. So I guess “Twenty Three” is about that last attempt at being young. And I liked using the image of shoes to get the point across. It’s the last decision we make before we leave for the night. The shoes we wear probably reflect what we expect from our night. And the girl…well it’s not meant to be about anybody in particular…I guess the message applies to us all.

The opening is really interesting and grabs you from the start. Tell me about the synths used in that song and how the rest came together. It seems effortless.

Jayson: I really believe in the idea of repetition in pop music. I think that a good synth line doesn’t need to change every bar for it to be effective. Actually, some of my favorite synth lines are ones that are simple and repeat throughout the entire song...think New Order. The song was written with that intention…of a repeating synth line and chord changes that work beneath that pattern. You get some really interesting relationships when you write a song with that intention. I came to the band with the chord changes and synth line in hand. The song came together rather easily and because we all believe in the simplicity of pop music, we knew what to do with the song.

Tell me about the EP No. 8 and what’s next in the studio.

Joe: Well the last EP we recorded, No. 8 has actually been done and available for about a month, and by available I mean free online or for purchase if you see us. Just saying "available" makes it sound like the disc is at your local Best Buy. That said there are always new songs being made and we want to keep releasing them to keep people interested. That was why we went back and recorded “Twenty Three”, which is also free online, and “Planes in Patterns”, which we’re putting the finishing touches on. After that we have no specific plans for recording but knowing us we’ll probably get the itch before too long.

What is your favorite new track and why?

Joe: The one we’re finishing up, “Planes in Patterns”. It was originally supposed to go on the EP but we couldn’t settle on an arrangement. Originally the song had sequenced parts and a bunch of other crazy ideas. It was sort of everything and the kitchen sink, too much. So we kind of tore it apart and stripped it down to the main idea. It’s much better now and we’re excited to finish it up and get it out there. It’s probably our danciest track too, which I’m a sucker for. If my music makes people dance its mission accomplished.

You’re a new band, but are you breaking any new ground on these songs? Any new experiments happening?

Jayson: Personally, I think California Wives is really bringing something new to the Chicago scene. We don't really concern ourselves with trying to sound like bands that came before us. When we write, we just try to focus on what sounds sweet to our ears. All too often, you see the reluctance of some bands to trust the music they write. It just comes off all wrong. So I guess we've never been shy to admit what we like and we don't really feel like any excuses need to be made for our tastes in music. There's something really special about keeping things short and sweet, and I don't think we could do this any other way. As far as new experiments, a few of us are getting back into some records of the shoegaze movement. There's some great stuff going on in that music and right now we are working with some of those ideas, fitting them into our writing process.

Tell me about playing live – have you been playing all the songs from the EP, including the new tracks you’ve been finishing up? Does it take a little before they feel like part of the family?

Hans: Since we record all of our music ourselves, and do all of the editing ourselves, we get REALLY familiar with everything we record. After we've recorded a song it's pretty much cemented in all of our brains. Besides that we usually have a bunch of songs floating around and pick from those to record. It usually takes a little bit of time to get a song from conception to finalized form, however. I think we learn a lot from playing songs live. Crowd reaction is the best way to tell if what you're doing works or not. It doesn't matter how good it sounds to you when you're practicing, if it's not reaching people it's not working.

California Wives play Cole’s (2338 N Milwaukee Ave.) at 9:00 PM, Friday, Nov. 13.