SXSW Preview: 5 Questions
with The 4onthefloor

Good things may come in threes, but really fun and awesome things come in fours. Minneapolis quartet The 4onthefloor’s swampy blues-rock jams are perfect for rowdy booze swilling with friends. The nostalgic tunes are brimming with unbridled joy and youthful abandon, with choruses to shout and groove to. The guys are releasing a new LP, The Spirit of Minneapolis, soon and it promises to vamp up the foot-stompin’, raucous glories of past releases. Between supporting the album and a busy touring schedule that includes a visit to SXSW next week, The 4onthefloor’s Gabriel Douglas was kind enough to take some time to talk to us before playing at Memorial Union’s Der Rathskeller tomorrow night.

You guys are touring in support of a new album, Spirit of Minneapolis. What should we expect to see during your stop at UW?
“Mayhem. Pure mayhem. Merriment. Unbridled Merriment. Lots of new songs from the upcoming record, but also if you are familiar with our first LP & EPs you will hear some of those tracks. And don’t forget some meaningful covers that might pop up! Surprises.”

Being from Minneapolis, you come from a very fertile and diverse music scene. Do you get a lot of support from the community and do you feel the influence of your peers in your own work?
“Minneapolis is a great place to call homebase and to play music. We definitely do get support from the community, and our fanbase is amazing in the Twin Cities. I am constantly influenced by my peers. There are so many great inspiring and innovative bands that I get to see when I’m in town. Our record Spirit of Minneapolis‘s namesake is actually derived from the plane Spirit of St. Louis, which is sung about in the Cowboy Curtis song ‘Best Part.’ Also in the aviation sense, a songwriter from Milwaukee who has a band named Conrad Plymouth and now more familiar as Field Report, has a song called ‘Fergus Falls.’ Both influenced how the album was conceived in a very prominent sense.”

Speaking of the local scene, you guys are going to be performing at SXSW as part of a regional Minnesota/Wisconsin showcase. As veterans of SXSW, what are you most looking forward to?
“The opportunity to see a lot of great friends who are on the road as much as we are, as well as seeing some familiar haunts, like the Iron Cactus, Cheers Shots Bar rooftop, and Side Bar.” 

Bar rock and the rock revival scene gets unfairly maligned, but you really seem to embrace the spirit of your forefathers (and mothers) and defy critics. Do you feel the need to actively defend the genre or do you approach it from more of a “spread the good times and they will come” point of view?
“Genres are always a personal thing, so to say actively defend, I don’t think that really happens. But I’m not ashamed of it. It’s not something that comes up and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, we are a bar rock band.’ We know what our wheelhouse is and we enjoy playing energetic, merry music. I’ve always loved roots rock and stompin’ blues, so to be in a band that drives those movements is a really fun experience. We are all about ‘spreading the good times.’ We really feel that if you see us live, it is hard to keep your feet still and not groove along to the music.”

Thematically, your music seems focused on youth-centric Americana. Why do you think these ideas still resonate so strongly with listeners?
“Most of my favorite songwriters write about what they know. And the times we are living in are amazing. There’s a lot of road songs, a lot of relationship songs, and those moments are ones any person can be in or at least understand where you’re coming from. Understanding other people, that resonates still. That resonates more, especially with as much bubblegum and homogenized rock that is out there now.

“We write about what we know. And many folks have seen a couple moments in the countryside, or been to the urban centers. There’s a lot of folks out there that might feel unconnected. It’s easy to put yourself in a box or give yourself the solitude treatment. The Americana and young vibe, I just get worried people are losing the DIY spirit, the camaraderie. There is so much joy to be shared out there and coming to one of our shows, you’ll be in it.”