Following the release of his seventh studio album “Um, Uh Oh,” Eric Elbogen of is out on the road –with a stop at the this weekend. Elbogen spoke with Reverb about the new record, the nature of a one-man-band, and what it’s like when people misread your band name.
Q: Being a one-man-band, do you ever confide in anyone for a second opinion?
A: Itap a solitary process. Occasionally I will bring in a friend for their two cents but will still let a song rattle around in my head until I get it right. I usually start with around 70 songs and work on them until I realize some of them are just dumb and I throw those out. The process continues until I have 15 songs. At the last minute, I will usually decide three-to-five of them just aren’t working.
“Um, Uh Oh” sounds a bit different than your previous records. What was unique in making this album?
I was definitely in a different head space when I was making the record and wanted it to be a bit darker. I wanted the arrangements to be a bit sparser and thatap how it is being received which makes me happy. The first five records have synth-bass all over them and none of that on this record.
Do you have a favorite track off the new record?
My brain does not work that way. I think in terms of full records and the actual song cycle. I like listening to other people’s records from start to finish. If there is a song or two on the record I do not like, I just won’t listen to it.
Are there exceptions to that rule?
If itap a band that I really love, I’ll keep listening to the song I do not like and eventually I’ll start to like it.
With the sheer amount of material you have out, are there any songs you get tired of playing when touring?
Yeah, much of the early catalog I am over. We toured so much with those records and I was in a different head space. Most of those songs sound like where I was many, many years ago. It bums people out when they have just discovered “Ferocious Mopes” or “Impeccable Blahs” or the records before that and they come out expecting to hear the entire record from 2005 and we don’t play those songs. I just have to make the most compelling set on each tour for the crowd, myself and the band playing with me.
For this tour you are pretty much sticking with “Um, Uh Oh” and your previous record, correct?
Yeah, there is one actual Say Hi to Your Mom song and then a few from “The Wishes and the Glitch” album. We will be playing the entire new record and a lot off the previous one.
Why did you decide to drop the “to your mom” from your band name?
That name was always received differently than I intended. It came about because the first time I was in the Midwest, I heard a grocery cashier say to her customer, “Say hi to your mom.” Everybody thought the name was a crude “your mom” joke. I was never interested in being in a band perceived that way.
If you had any super power, what would it be?
The ability to be happy.
Say Hi plays the Hi-Dive on Saturday. For tickets and more info, click .
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Greg Stieber is a Denver freelance writer and regular contributor to Reverb.
