A photo diary from... more*.

"It's always been a thing that I saw comforting," confesses Los Angeles based duo, more* about their latest single, 'Anything Can Happen' - marking another release in the array of tracks they have shared this year. On what the song means, the band shares: "As someone who has battled with anxiety most of my adult life, I’ve spent a lot of time considering how to overcome it. I’ve bit my nails down to the cuticle, paced around rooms twisting and pulling the tips of my hair, and spent hundreds (thousands) of hours tinkering away at nothing in dark studios around LA. This is a song I made whilst trying to evade a nagging restlessness that seems to follow me everywhere."

more* compiled a photo diary for us while they were on tour with Haim recently, and chatted to us about all things attraction, their songwriting processes, and future songs in the works... 

COUP DE MAIN: You guys just got off tour with Haim - what was that experience like?
MORE*: Kane has been friends with those girls for years - since middle school. For that reason, and because they’re extraordinarily sweet, it was very easy to slot ourselves into tour life with them. Personally, I’ve never been on a tour longer than a week before, and I understand tours at this stage in a band’s career aren’t typically as comfortable as this one was (they were nice enough to let us ride on the bus with them), but I can’t imagine a touring scenario better than this one was. It was one of those times that you’re nostalgic for before it ends. We’re ready to go again. But now we’re snooty and will demand private jets for future tours. It’s the next logical step.

CDM: Do you have a favourite memory from the tour?
MORE*: Many. Backstage drinking games with everyone, Chicago Cubs game, playing Moda Arena, home of the Trailblazers (Damian Lillard plays there so that was cool). We had a day off in a tiny gambling town called Deadwood, South Dakota and put $500 on red in roulette. Lost it in about four seconds.

CDM: You explore the concept of a connection that you can't explain in 'I Really Want To See You Again' - do you think there is a difference between connection and attraction?
MORE*: Certainly. Attraction can be fleeting; something you feel in the head. Connection seems to last. It’s something you feel in the gut.

CDM: You posted recently the process of creating 'Whose Side You’re On’. How long does a song usually take to create from beginning to end?
MORE*: Suppose it depends on the song. Some songs are written quickly, within an hour or a day or two. Others hang around for months and are harder to crack. There are usually about three ‘breakthroughs’ during the writing process that allow a song to maintain a hold on the writer - conceptually, melodically, and chord-ally, and then maybe a surprising (even to the writer) lyrical twist that comes from the subconscious or the ether. But these can come immediately or over long periods of time. It might be the same for production. For some songs, the arrangement and sonic quality is found really quickly. Others are fucking wretched and won’t become clear for too long. Ultimately, because we’re now doing everything ‘in-house’ (from writing through to a finished production), we take some time, typically weeks to months to see a song through from conception to completion.

CDM: When we last spoke, you said that it is always your latest song that feels like it most represents more* - is this still true?
MORE*: Sure. Because it does take us some time to settle on a finished product, we sometimes feel our tastes or ideas or desires for our music shift more quickly than one can account for with a typical music release schedule. So actually, it might be that the latest song is the closest thing to a representation of the band that can be expressed in real-world terms, but really, that representation lives in our combined headspace. Cloud nine, baby.

CDM: Kane! You also play in Haim's live band - what was it like doing double-sets some nights?
MORE*: I loved playing double sets. Our life at home is filled with creative outlets. Be it writing, recording, or even just messing around on various instruments. Often on tour I find myself feeling deprived of that, so being able to keep busy all day with musical chores makes me feel more normal. I don’t take well to sitting around. Got a chronic case of ants in the pants.

CDM: What was running through your mind when you were writing 'Woman On The Move'?
MORE*: Malcolm speaking again. We trade answers to keep you on your toes. Intended to make that one like a Ronnie Lane song, from the Faces. It sounds nothing like him. Lyrically, that one was just taking real-life scenarios from my life and either exaggerating them or compressing them to fit into the song. At the time, I really had crashed my car on Franklin Avenue with lapsed insurance and had debt collectors after me for a year or so. I was also working an office job as a paralegal on the seventh floor of a building in Pasadena, when my girlfriend at the time had accidentally put seven mushroom or weed chocolate balls in our breakfast smoothies, thinking they were frozen blueberries. I drank all of mine and half of hers, then went off to work. It came on an hour into the work day. Found myself picking at my face in the bathroom mirror for 25 minutes and realised I was more high than I’d ever been and didn’t know why. I kept pacing the office attempting to work up the courage to tell my HR rep that I was accidentally high and needed to go sleep in the car, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Every minute felt like two hours that day.

CDM: Have you guys started working on the Jeff Buckley biopic? 
MORE*: Unfortunately, that one has been pushed a bit, but we’re still rearing to do it.  A few months ago we were rehearsing and recording the songs with the rest of the cast that composes the band. There was definitely something to be excited about.

CDM: You've released three new singles so far this year... do we sense an album coming?
MORE*: Not just yet. But expect more songs. It’s interesting the way music is consumed these days- it’s almost back to the system of the early 60’s, where singles were released and the album format wasn’t as appealing to listeners as much until 'Pet Sounds' or so. Everything is cyclical, though. We’re certainly always planning for and writing for the album format.

CDM: Would you ever want to come down and play a show in New Zealand? 
MORE*: Absolutely, and we’re working on setting up some stuff in Australia, too, so we’ll hit you up soon.