Don't be surprised if American Princes grace this blog on multiple occasions throughout the remainder of the year. I've been enjoying their recently released Other People for a little over a month now, and gotta recommend you check out this rock and roll outfit from Little Rock, Arkansas. I caught up with Collins Kilgore for one of my all-time favorite 5 Questions with Muzzle of Bees features yet - insightful answers and top-notch musical recommendations!

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Other People? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you'll apply towards future recording sessions?

We recorded at Fireplace Studios in Manhattan, which is where Chuck Brody, our producer, does most of his work. It was recorded in three sessions. After spending most of the Spring of '07 in Little Rock writing, demoing, and adjusting the pool of songs we were devoting to the record we headed to NYC in June to do the first two weeks of initial tracking. We did a couple more weeks in July doing some more overdubs and vocals, and then pretty much all of the last half of August and early September was devoted to mixing (most of which Chuck did on his own).

The experience was fantastic. Recording in a city which is so cramped and busy lends a very frenetic pace to everything, and I think that is reflected in the record. There's something to be said for how sleep-deprivation can magnify creativity, and we frequently worked until four in the morning after which we had at least an hour commute to our various places to stay. I have to say, we saw some amazing things on the F train at 4:30 in the morning. I definitely want to work in the city again because it certainly keeps the edge on.

As far as lessons learned, the greatest thing we did was to work from a large pool of material going into the recording. We were prepared to do our picks from nearly 30 songs written for the record, and we ultimately recorded thirteen of those (one song is available as a bonus track, and another was never totally finished). It was pretty brutal having to ultimately choose some of the songs to record and to eliminate others. Some material that we really loved was left out because we knew it wouldn't work as well with the album as a whole. And the record benefited greatly from the fact that we gave ourselves those options. For the next record I have a goal of having 100 songs from which to choose. It may be tough because we want to record again soon, but I think it's certainly doable.

I enjoyed reading David's recaps from SXSW. Did you guys have the opportunity to see any great shows while in Austin and how did your performances go?

Actually, we were crazy busy for two of the days (during which we played six shows) so the only bands we saw on those days were the ones we were playing with. That's okay though because twice we played with The Golden Dogs who are just fantastic to watch. If a band like The White Stripes took them on tour they would have to ask Dave and Jessica to tone it down, lest they out perform the headlining band.

Also, our friends J Roddy Walston and the Business put on one of those experiences that you never see at SXSW. Namely, a show which passersby are unable to ignore. It's pretty special when a relatively unknown band is able to draw in a crowd of people who are already highly-particular and also happen to have zero minutes to make it to the show of that next band whom they were really hoping to check out. But when you pass by Jerry Lee Lewis playing Queen songs with Van Halen as his backing band, it's pretty hard to ignore.

Other than that though, we really tried to take it easy and not try and do too much. We took in some BBQ and hung out with some good friends, and that made it all a great time. Last year I saw some amazing things, such as David Byrne playing outside at the Hotel San Jose, but was truly unable to enjoy it because I felt like I wanted to die I was so fatigued. Not trying to do too much is key to having a good time, which, in turn, is key to performing well. Nobody likes seeing a band who isn't enjoying themselves at least a little bit.

We're always looking to uncover new favorite artists, are there any band(s)/record(s) that you could recommend to our readers?

Well, I wouldn't usually tout something from our own label since there would seem to be an obvious lack of objectivity there, but The Golden Dogs' record Big Eye Little Eye is fantastic, and we've been listening to it regularly since picking it up last fall. I'm amazed they haven't caught on here, and I think had their record come out 2 or 3 years ago when there was less competition (and when the blogs were really launching bands on a regular basis) they would have gotten ridiculously huge.

There are also some bands from Little Rock (Tel Aviv, Smoke Up Johnny, The Good Fear and The Moving Front, to name a few) who are truly making excellent music that is totally unique. I can really see that Little Rock is starting to produce bands that will have a chance of making a splash nationally, and I say this with all the impenetrability of today's music scene well in mind.

The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

I think it's pretty obvious that the internet has helped in many ways. Mostly, it makes it possible for us to have direct contact with our fans, which is a huge deal for us. And I don't mean that in a marketing or money-making sense. Rather, we've made many great friends around the country with whom it would be extraordinarily difficult to have contact with were it not for our website and myspace page (and now, increasingly, facebook).

And I believe strongly that the internet has helped music in general. Essentially, it's brought down the dominant cabal of major labels that have shaped and controlled music in the last 10 to 15 years. I don't mean that they've controlled the music-business, which they've done for decades, but that the major labels have been directly responsible for a lot of awful, awful music that's been forced on us since the mid-Nineties. That dumbing-down of my favorite art form I consider a huge cultural step backward for the entire human race, and I mean that in all seriousness. Music has truly, truly sucked for quite some time now, with a few very obvious exceptions, and I think that the internet is helping to bring what I consider to be the Musical Dark-Ages to an end. Namely, it's directly taken away the stranglehold that the majors have had on the actual musical content that we're all able to access.

Now, I'm well aware that new entities have gobbled up a greater and greater share of the music business, Apple in particular, but there are literally thousands of boutique labels putting out interesting new (and old) genres and making that available to everyone who is able to access the internet (or who is able to know someone who is). That makes up a vast amount of people, and my hope is that all these nascent genres and boutique labels (and the bands they represent) will succeed in growing and refining their craft. Hopefully in another decade or so there will be loads of great music that's up there with the best of the music that was created during the renaissance of popular music that occurred in the 20th century. (In case you can't tell, I have strong feelings on this issue).

I initially got to know you guys opening up for Lucero. If you guys had to cover one of their songs what song would you pick, and what song of yours would you like to hear Lucero's take?

Ha. Well, we've actually covered one of their songs before: "And We Fell from Nobody’s Darlings." And Ben has expressed interest in covering "Born To Die" off of Other People, which I would really love to hear. That may be my favorite song I've ever written and the fact that Ben is interested in doing his own take on it is an honor.

I'd love to cover "Bikeriders" some day, but I don’t think we could do it justice. The final bars of that song where Ben just sings "Uh huh huh, uh huh huh" about six times is, to me, one of the greatest musical moments that Lucero has produced (of which there are many, I should say).

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