If you haven’t noticed yet, The Grecian Urns are sort of all over the place right now. The folk-pop outfit is made of five college students and one recent graduate who study at different schools spread across the South, but the band hasn’t let the distance (bass player Jared DiMaggio studies in Virginia), stop them from crafting one of the year’s finest albums — LOVEDREAM. On it, the Urns sound less like a local band, but more like a regional or national act proud of their Florida roots. They’re all back in the bay area to enjoy the summer sun and play some shows in support of their new album. They’ll be playing at Ella’s folk art café on Sunday, and have scheduled two more appearances at Crowbar in August.

Reax caught up with the Urns’ Bryce McGuire and Laurie Beth Norris in an email interview and talked books, cover songs, and writing and recording the new album. We also touched on what makes Florida means so much to them, and found out what the “wysokki factor” actually is.

REAX: How's the summertime treating you? Are you able to enjoy your break, or are you strictly focusing on music?
Bryce McGuire of The Grecian Urns: We always enjoy our summer breaks back in The Bay. Most of us are working part time, but outside our band pursuits we find time for road trips, slip n’ slide parties, fishing, reading, all the good stuff.

REAX: The band started in 2006 while you guys were at Keswick Christian School where you all played music. What was the high school experience like for you guys and how did your upbringing during teenage years affect the way you approached music and being in a "serious" band?
BM: We all grew up singing together in the choir at Keswick, and I think that choral approach to bringing a melody alive with heavy harmony shows in this album especially. We were all friends in high school; were on the track team together, art class, book club and the school’s production of “The Music Man.” That’s where we got the name for the band, and I actually just found out that James Mercer of The Shins also got the band’s name from the play.

REAX: The album was recorded in Tennessee, parts of Florida, and in the Blue Ridge Mountains. How long did the album take to put to tape/mix/master?
Laurie Beth of The Grecian Urns: The wizard behind the album was David Norris all the way. His equipment, his rules. The kickoff of the recording was channeled in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains when most of us gathered to celebrate my graduation and drive back home to Florida together. David had already done the drum tracks in Tennessee, and the fresh mountain air pumped us up for some hiking, stargazing, and of course, some banjo and guitar recording. We also got inspiration for some of the arrangements of the other songs over those few days.

The rest of the recording took place as soon as we got back. David would mix whenever he got the chance – even in the back booths of some of our early summer shows – but we had the album finished to send away to productions by the 1st of June. We had a big Memorial Day get together where we all listened straight through the album and voted on final changes. So the "fortnight in the bedroom of David Norris" bit on the back of our album is not an exaggeration.
BM: We started recording over Christmas break last year and chipped away at it from there. That’s why it’s recorded in so many different locations. Wherever we were, David would set up shop and make his magic. Recording in the Blue Ridge cabin was beautiful. The wood everywhere just sucked up those guitars and oozed them back out like maple syrup.

Magical things always happen when you record with so many creative people. People would be playing, and these parts would just kind of appear. Those moments at three in the morning when you’re trying to stay on schedule because you’ve already set a release date are when the “wysokii factor” just sits up in the song — that’s the best.

REAX: What is the “wysokii factor?”
BM: The “wysokii factor” is the name Brandon came up with for that special energy in a song or show when everyone is totally locked in and feeling the power and the glory.

REAX: It’s been printed that sometimes practice is pretty musically unproductive for you guys, but LOVEDREAM isn't sloppy at all. How do you manage to get so many different players to be on the same page for the songs? What is your collaborative process like?
LB: We've all come to grips with the reality that band practice doesn't actually start until an hour after its scheduled and that cohesive productivity might not come to fruition without a handful of choice cover jams. Keeping it light keeps us excited to practice and motivated to get through long sessions in the band room, which is especially important when learning new stuff.

I love our collaborative process. It's such a great blend of right and left brains, creativity and cohesive musicality. Bryce or Brandon usually come in with a template of a song, and either one of them will play through it on acoustic and let us know what sort of vibe he was thinking the song would feel like. Then we'll all throw out ideas like, "maybe the violin would play here...," or, "do you hear some room for a good flute part?" before sitting down to our instruments and going after it. While there are several exceptions to this rule, the player of each instrument makes up their own parts.
David and myself bring more music theory into the song patterns- we'll fit the song into a key and figure out the chord structure. Still, a lot of our songs have nontraditional chords that you'd get yelled at in theory class for. We like flirting with that line between respected musical precedent and creative expression.

BM: Sometimes our practices tend to go down the slippery slope of “classic rock cover town” and “failed hip-hop Avenue.” There are a lot of people in the band so we do have to practice pretty hard in order keep the live show tight. Everyone is constantly switching instruments, and it’s a constant struggle to keep everything moving and minimize the headache for the sound guys. Thank you Florida sound men!

When it comes time to record, David keeps us in line. He ran a pretty tight ship (for LOVEDREAM). I was there almost all the time because I get nervous that something would go wrong. We spent almost a month recording for ten hour a day, and I loved it. We all know the album isn’t perfect, but we’re all happy with it and proud of what it means.

REAX: There’s an article about the collaborative process between Brandon and Bryce and it also mentions you guys using "gang vocal jams" to develop harmonies. Describe the song writing/recording process for LOVEDREAM. What was it like for you guys considering your commitments to higher education?
BM: Gang vocal love jams are what happen when you’re just singing it living room style. Once everyone has his or her pitches wired, we just charge it. That’s where the “wysokii” factor lives.

Sometimes I write stuff at school and then bring it all back home. Sometimes Brandon does the same thing, but most of the time we’re writing here in Florida. The songs I feel most attached too I’ve written in Florida. Although I say this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, school can be distracting.

REAX: You've mentioned The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, and Neil Young as influences, but what else inspires you musically? What were you listening to when you wrote LOVEDREAM, any contemporary influences?
BM: We all have diverse tastes in music. I think the most influential things were Nick Cave, Warren Ellis’s soundtrack for “The Assassination of Jesse James”, the Welcome Wagon, and anything by Sam Cooke. I know Brandon, Jared, and myself were all listening to David Bazan’s most recent album, Curse Your Branches and Belle and Sebastian.

We always listen to the Beach boys. Beach house. ELO. You can probably tell we listen to Fleet Foxes, but I’m sure I’m missing a lot. Oh, Jay Tillman. David loves Tillman, and Laurie Beth loves Fun.

REAX:The lyrics and vocal phrasing on the album are pretty impressive. While you guys aren't exactly sages, your lyrics ooze of vivid imagery (especially on "These Shores Are My Home") and things that every twentysomething doesn't exactly notice day to day. You've mentioned reading a lot before. How much does literature influence your songwriting? Any must reads for our readers?
BM: I know I’m not a sage but there is a lot you can learn from life when you just listen to people who know more than you do. I volunteered at a nursing home every Saturday morning this past year, and the wisdom those people have, the incredible stories they have to tell can’t help but inspire you. However, I have gotten in trouble with using so much personal experience in my songs. People get offended if they feel they’ve been misrepresented in a song. While I’m not trying to trivialize the place some one girl had in my life, everyone’s stories are intersecting, or running parallel to each other, and that’s important.

While I know very little about life, literature has helped to translate the experiences I’ve had in a way that I can relate to. Imagery driven stories, magical realism in film and literature have always been appealing for me. Disguising yourself in the “more than” is a way I try and get around the corners of a song.

Like Hemmingway says, I try and “write about things I know.” Although I’m kind of a Hemingway nut, I don’t think his bare bones style has really affected my song writing. I’m probably more in line with a Ray Bradbury, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or filmmaker Federico Fellini. This summer I’m reading Raymond Carver’s short story collection “Cathedrals” and I just finished E.M Forester’s “A Room with a View. Both great reads.

Jared wants me to mention that the band’s designated favorite author is Flannery O’ Connor, who inspired the peacock cover on the new album.

REAX: You mentioned that a "music producer was coming" to see you play ay a recent show. What are the plans for this band? Is this just something to keep you occupied, or do want to do something bigger with it?
BM: Yeah, I won’t mention his name without his permission, but he saw us at Skipper’s Smokehouse? last week and I guess he liked us because he wants to meet again and see where we want to be headed. That’s the real question at this point I guess.

The Urns is definitely more than something to occupy our summers. We all love it too much. But everyone seems like they’re going different directions, and this summer was kind of a test – “Let’s put the album out, let’s promote it, let’s see how far we can come in one summer. – if we’re at the point where it seems realistic to do the full ride, sign with a label, tour, make this our jobs, then we’re open to that, and we’re very excited about that possibility. A lot of good things have happened for us this summer. I guess LOVEDREAM has been well received, and we’ve had a very encouraging response from fans, which for us is the best part. We’re averaging over 200 plays a day on our MySpace, which is funny because we used to give ourselves plays to make it seem like people were listening.

For now were just taking the opportunities we’ve been given. We’ll be back for a few shows this fall and have a slot at WMNF’s tribute festival for what would’ve been John Lennon’s 70th birthday. It’s quite a challenge to cover and entire album like Imagine, but we’re honored to do it.

REAX: With some of your religiously themed lyrics ("Comfort", "LOVEDREAM"), it would be easy to be pigeonholed into being a "Christian" band. Why do you think you guys are able to transcend that label on your records and in your live show?
BM:We are not going to retreat from a venue or a person because they are different from us. That’s ridiculous. We want to play music the best way we can to glorify God, and want that joy to emanate from us so we can talk to people about what inspires us. The idea of being a “Christian band” is as absurd as saying you’re a Christian baker. Music at its best can bring love to someone who otherwise might not have given you the time of day if you were in his or her face with a track or banner saying “Christian band,” and we look at people like Sufjan Stevens, Damien Jurado, and Rosie Thomas as examples for that time or genre transcending act.

REAX: Do you guys really speak in tongues when you get bored?
BM: No, not personally. That line was more of a critique of how people try and make religion about an emotional experience rather than a way of life that follows Jesus Christ.

REAX: ''You are friends with a lot of Florida bands (The Sugar Oaks, The Sun Society, Alexander and The Grapes), and you mentioned having a "That Thing You Do" moment after hearing "These Shores Are MyHome" on WMNF. What does being a part of this local/regional community of musicians and music lovers mean to you?
BM: I don’t like the notion of a Tampa or St. Pete “scene,” but I do firmly believe in the importance of a music community that is trying to help each other and not competing. I love the guys from Alexander and The Grapes, they are way more talented than we are and just downright good people. We hang out a lot.

REAX: You also mentioned keeping in close contact with Steve Hobbs (former The Sugar Oaks) whom you said helped spur you to try to capture the "Florida mystique." I saw that some of you surf. What is special about our state to you, and do you have any thoughts on the oil spill and the younger generation's seeming apathetic attitude towards the crisis and other issues that affect the world at large?
BM:We were all born in Florida, and Brandon, Jared, and I surf. We’re working on the rest of them. I think the impulse to capture that Florida mystique might have been encouraged by Steve, but it was always there for me. I truly do consider these shores as my home and it’s devastating to see them threatened by something like the Gulf Oil spill disaster. We try not to get political in our music but I do think that overload of information has numbed a lot of our generation’s youth to a state of anesthesia when it comes to social and political concerns. It almost feels like the problems are so big and prolific that’s there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

We just shot a couple videos with Alexander and the Grapes for a very important non-profit called Give Us Names, which seeks to improve lives of displaced Columbians. We want people to understand this issue and do all we can do to reverse the injustice facing these displaced farmers in Columbia. The live session videos will be featured on Give us Names’ website as well as our own later this week.

REAX: So you’re doing some videos. Are there any more in the works?
BM: I’m a film student so we’ve gotten the opportunity to shoot some of our own music videos for the songs, “LOVEDREAM”, “Muhammad Ali”, and “These Shores are My Home” My dad is on “Muhammad Ali” boxing his socks off. The films will be released sometime this weekend.

REAX: ''You guys are receiving a lot of attention for the music your making and the communal nature of your shows. If you continue to grow, your story could get skewed a million different ways. When this is all over and done, how do you want your listeners to remember The Grecian Urns?
BM: I hate that this is becoming a platitude for us, but we are, first and foremost, a family. That’s where the music comes from that’s where the music ends. We will playing music in some retirement home, singing our same gut-busting harmonies and plucking away at chipped guitars long after some hipster following forgets we evey took in the stage here in Florida for brief, beautiful time.