Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

on Suzuki lessons, wanting to be a punk, and Spalding Gray

Freddy Deknatel Arts Editor

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a freshman indie-rock band whose star rose high this summer despite initially pressing only 2,000 copies of their eponymous debut album in June, will play Vassar on Thursday. Thanks to praise across the snooty spectrum of music websites—Pitchfork, Stylus, too many others—admissions of fandom from ‘80s rock stars, and a twitchy, sugary sound, the band is compelling people to move like their name commands.

Lead-singer Alec Ounsworth chatted via fuzzy cellphone while on a train to Boston for a show. CYHSY will play the Main MPR at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 15, with the Harlemshakes opening.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah?
It’s a religious thing...[laughing] No it’s from graffiti.

What’s the best part of all the sudden attention?
I guess we get to move around to many different places and have a reason to be there.

And the worst?
There's a lot of stress that detracts from the actual work. I'm used to working every night and trying to come up with new things, and lately you know, the preoccupations of moving around and playing shows—which, you know, I enjoy as well—has distracted me from that.

I saw David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) at your free show at South Street Seaport this summer. Is there added stress, besides all the attention, of knowing that he is a fan of the band?
I'm very much in awe of what he does, his work, but, you know, I just can't think about that stuff too much. Yeah, again, you know, it's flattering. It's nice that he was willing to come, you know, while it was going on.

How do you handle living in Philadelphia while the rest of the band is in Brooklyn?
Well, I do a lot of the work at home before I go off to Brooklyn. I go into the studio [at home] and try and put all the songs together as much as I can. On the other hand, if I have a new idea—like a new, new idea—a few days before practice and I really want to work on it, sometimes I bring it up to Brooklyn with the idea of how it should be arranged, stuff like that. I’ll just have a basic song with the vocals and a guitar and the chords, and then I bring that up to the band and I'm like, "This is kind of what I'm going for with this."

When did you start playing music?
I started when I was five or six. You know I did the whole Suzuki lessons when I was really young and I didn't even know what the hell, you know, music really was. And then I warmed and started classical piano lessons - Suzuki classical. Played guitar after that in high school.

What were you listening to in high school?
I was getting into stuff like Dead Kennedys—this was when I was in 9th grade. I always listened to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and the Beatles, but I also listened to Black Flag, Big Black. I was kind of going through my anarchy/punk period in 9th grade. But I was also taking jazz guitar lessons and I would listen to Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, guys like that. And at the same time, Neil Young, even then, was kind of a big guy for me. So I was kind of all over the place. But I remember consciously trying to engage myself in a certain punk community from afar.

Were you still listening to Bob Dylan when you were trying to enter your punk phase?
Yeah, I listened to all of it. I suppose one kind, at one point, kind of overwhelmed the other, but I mean that's the way it's always been. Like right now I can at any point be listening to like, you know, Schoenburg or something like that, and then on the other hand switch over to like Hüsker Dü...

And then switch over to Harvest?
Yeah, or Another Side of Bob Dylan, something like that. I mean that idea is like, if you listen to music all the time, you come to a point where you can't distinguish between one genre and another. It doesn't matter whether you want something there at a particular time, you know? It's like anything else—you like reading a book and you may be in the mood for Moby Dick or you may be in the mood for a Krakauer book.

I read that Sean is in a Guns N’ Roses tribute band. Any chance we'll hear a cover of “November Rain?”
[Laughing] I doubt it, I doubt it. But there's a chance, there's always a chance. Maybe you can hear it a capella.

Do you know much about Vassar?
I actually really don't know anything at all. I had friends from there and I think it's...[laughing] no I don't know anything. I heard that I'd have fun if I go over there, you know what I'm saying? I hear every so often…I hear Vassar will be fun! I'm counting on that.

I downloaded an early demo of "Details of the War" and it’s so much softer and more acoustic than the album version. Did you turn the sound up in general?
That must have been a year before I even got the band together. That was all...I did that myself as an example of kind of one of the things I'm bringing to them. You know I've given them like 60 songs or something like that and we fished through them. That's one of things, and then it's arranged later, you know what I mean? That's the idea of the feeling—things are flushed out and different personalities get involved and different things start to happen.

There are Vassar students running their own labels here on campus, and people might look to CYHSY as embodying some DIY ethos.
I think it's been very natural for me. I don’t know exactly why things have happened the way things have. But, yeah, it's just a matter of trying to work, and…I think the thing is: just follow your instincts. That's what I think a lot of these bigger labels are missing. And a lot the music industry is left wondering how on earth they're missing good instincts. And that's what really rules everything. I mean this whole album is put together based on instinct; the songs are pieced together based on instinct. And some people have good instinct and some people don't. And other people who don't…then maybe they shouldn't be doing it. They should be doing something else. Maybe they're not quite right for it, you know? But you know that's the whole idea...and then sometimes there are going to be decisions that pop up that you aren't aware would actually happen. And you have to make sure to do the right thing. Your gut tells you usually. Ha!

What have you been reading recently?
John Berryman's Dreamsongs. I've also been reading Spalding Gray's Impossible Vacation.

Oh, Spalding Gray, I've seen one of his monologues...
Oh yeah he's done a few of those...Monster in a Box, Swimming to Cambodia, Gray's Anatomy. His monologues are great, that's the thing...his books are like, "I wish I were watching him do this as a monologue." I mean, that's the way I'm looking at Impossible Vacation. You know what I mean? You just get so much more from just seeing him do it in the monologue.

Would CYHSY ever perform on “The O.C.?”
Probably wouldn't do it. We were already offered, as far as I know. And I don't mean to slander “The O.C.” or anything like that, but I don't particularly...I gotta say I'm pretty unfamiliar with it. But from what I understand it's not something I should feel too comfortable doing...life goes on...

Are you working on new material while on the road?
Yeah, I just wanted everybody to learn a bit of new stuff before we went out on the road so that we could change it up quite a bit, so we didn't get sick of doing the same songs. And also, to learn stuff for the next album. And usually, often, it's like half of the set is from the album and half is not. New stuff that people haven't heard it before. There is enough stuff for the next two or three albums.

My friend David and I are inviting you guys to our new Friday 2 a.m. radio show on WVKR.
Sure, yeah! I mean I'm not sure what our plans are exactly, but that sounds great.

You can pick some songs, or play some songs...
Oh yeah I'd love to do that!