On Friday, escape Madison’s icy state with the warmth only family can provide. Nashville’s own Kopecky Family Band will take to The Frequency, celebrating the release of their first full-length album, Kids Raising Kids. This six-piece crew pours all it has into their music, serving up a range of tracks which teem with passion and deep personal meaning, either gripping you in somber reflection or instilling the sensation of a joyful reunion.
Earlier this month, I had a chance to chat with guitarist, singer, and co-founder Gabe Simon. Though I had read and watched interviews from the past, I was utterly unprepared for Simon’s uproarious wit and the fact that this wouldn’t be a one-way interview. Inexplicably, interview questions about the band or the music would segue into lively discussions about literature, school, TV shows (and quotes from those TV shows), video games, football, and even taking his dog out for walks. If the fun I had during the interview is any indicator of tomorrow’s show, my fellow showgoers and I have something remarkable heading our way.
Where are you now, and what are you up to?
“I’m back home in Nashville. We’ve been off since December 19 and we start our tour on Monday. Just got back from hanging with the rest of the band. I haven’t seen them since we went on break. It’s so great to see them again.”
I’m always fascinated when artists can have so many musicians playing at once and still produce such smooth music. How difficult is it to coordinate all six members at once?
“I remember when… I don’t know, maybe seven years ago, I saw a band that had a ton of musicians on stage at once, and the one thing I hated about it was that everyone felt like they had to be playing. I don’t like that. There are certain times you don’t need to say something, and other times when you do. As a band, we try to recognize that, and not force it when it’s not there.”
In the past few years you guys have developed a national presence and have been touring all over the country. What role do your Nashville origins play in your music, especially now that you guys have branched out?
“We all wanted to play music, but none of us really expected to do it for a living, you know? Nashville is just one of those cities — it’s like when people go to L.A. to be an actor; in a lot of ways, it’s the same in Nashville, just with music. It’s a place to create on your own, and that’s what we did. It trained us to be a lot better. Playing in Nashville, we started to think, ‘Okay, maybe we’re not great, but maybe we’re good enough now’. It taught us that we can do what we want. So when we leave Nashville, a lot of what we’re doing is taking it with is and sharing it in the places we visit.”
Again and again from accounts of those who have interviewed you or seen your live shows, I see the six of you compared to your name, as you give the impression of actually being a close knit family. What do you think about that, and how has touring life affected your group relationship?
“Touring life has been the focal point of our relationship. Of course, it can be a mix; we struggle through hardships but we also joke and laugh. We surely wouldn’t be as close as we are without it. Sometimes I just want to be home, with my wife, but we have to turn to one another for support. Because it’s not just me; it’s me and Kelsey, it’s me and Steven, it’s me and Corey, it’s me and Markus, it’s me and David. We really have become family. I mean, what is family? It’s people you cannot live without. I love being in this band. Today was the first time I’ve seen them in almost a month. They’re my best friends in the whole world. Well, after my wife.”
What inspired the title of your latest album, Kids Raising Kids?
“It was initially inspired by Ella, Marcus’s little daughter. Actually, we named the last track on the album after her. We were on the subject of children and we started to think about how even though we get older, we change how we look, we have more responsibilities, and make more — or less — money, but at heart we’re still kids. Just kids raising kids, still trying to figure it out.”
After three EPs, what was it like to put together and release your first full-length album?
“Scary. There’s something about an EP that feels a little less official. It’s like you’re still playing scrimmages. We didn’t think we were ready. We didn’t have as clear of a vision of what we wanted to do, what kind of sound we wanted. When you sing words to people, you want to believe them, so you make the songs deeper and stronger. For me, that comes from digging deeply into myself. So when I finally come up with something, I don’t feel like it’s a sketch. We’ve really started to figure that out, which is why we’re already working on another record. We don’t want to lose that intimacy.”
Your video for “Heartbeat” is hilarious. Where did you guys come up with that?
“The tennis one? Oh, man. It’s funny. A year ago or so, we were approached with an opportunity to make a music video. Long story short, it ended up being so lame. We threw it out and tried to make our own video that we thought was fun and entertaining. I ended up going to my buddy’s house, borrowing his camcorder, and buying a tripod and memory card. We went down to the tennis court and just had fun with it. We even choreographed our own dance, which — I promise you — is much more difficult than it looks.”
And how did you come up with the idea for the bridge?
“We ran out of footage.” (laughs) “I wanted to do this Star Wars type scrolling thing, but my version of it was too nerdy. So instead we took that basic idea, sorted through the extra footage, and ended up doing it over a slow-mo video of David eating peaches just because it was so gross.”
On your website, you are quoted saying that this record where the band has “finally found its voice.” Could you expand on that?
“All of these years we’ve been trying to figure out how we write, how we want to be seen to people. This is the first, but surely not the last, time that we’ve really found our voice.”