Scientists discuss music with`Nique

Looking for an upbeat band with catchy lyrics that you can dance to? Look no further than New York-based We Are Scientists (W.A.S.), whose poppy blend of punk-infused music and quirky choruses are sure to make you a fan. With Love and Squalor, the Band’s Virgin Records debut, is a New Wave masterpiece, with every track offering something new.

Like most aspects of W.A.S., the origin of their name has a humorous story behind it. “We actually got it from a guy that works at a U-Haul truck place in Berkeley,” said Chris Cain, bassist and backup vocalist of the band. “He thought that the three of us all looked very similar to one another—we all had on glasses—and he asked whether we were all brothers and we said no and he asked whether we were all scientists. We said that we were not, but that was the theme of the name.”

The members of W.A.S., guitarist Cain and lead vocalist Keith Murray and drummer Michael Tapper, met while attending The Claremont Colleges in California. After earning their degrees, the group moved to New York, eager to become musicians struggling to fulfill their “desire for wealth, the desire to be desired by sexy ladies and the desire to own a great deal of musical equipment.” There, they independently released three E.P.s before signing with Virgin and beginning work on With Love and Squalor.

In a sea full of copycats and wannabes, W.A.S. is both original and talented, when it comes to musicianship and songwriting. They compose music in a style they like to call “Advanced High Level Sectional Articulation.”

Essentially, all the parts sound good together, despite being rhythmically or melodically very different. When fused with the erratic, sing-along vocals provided by Murray, the result is an intricate album that is just as good, fun and exciting the thousandth time you listen to it as the first.

For an idea of what W.A.S. sounds like, think of groups like Bloc Party, The Strokes or Hot Hot Heat. “To me we don’t sound a whole lot like anybody else,” Cain said. “I certainly recognize similarities to certain other bands. I don’t feel like we have a ton in common with anybody. If we ever did feel like we sounded too much like another band, we would deliberately deviate from that sound.”

The album opens up with a driving guitar riff and a techno-like drum rhythm on the first single, “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt,” where Murray repeats, “My body is your body, I won’t tell anybody. If you want to use my body, go for it.” When asked what inspired the song, Cain said, “I don’t know that anything inspires any of our songs, anything specific. We just kind of write them and put words to them.”

In the video, a man in a bear suit chases the band for the entire length of the album. “The video, I think like all of our videos, just came from wanting to do something stupid, and the idea of having a bear chase us around without any cause or resolution we felt to be quite magical. So we did it, and unfortunately there it is. I think it worked out pretty well.”

The third song and second single off of the record, “Inaction,” is Cain’s favorite song on the album. “Just from a purely visceral standpoint I enjoy it the most.”

Possibly the best song on the record is the eighth one, “The Great Escape.” It combines the frenetic, hyperactive style on tracks like “Inaction” with the extremely musical style of “Cash Cow.” The juxtaposition of the heavy, driving bass line and the soaring, staccato guitar riff forms a song that is just as beautiful as it is interesting.

Despite having a great new album, finishing off a sold out tour of Great Britain this Friday and heading out on a headlining tour of Europe, the future doesn’t look too good for W.A.S. “We’re going to have to do something about the fossil fuel issue. I don’t think the earth is going to continue to give the way she has the last 100 years,” Cain said.

“Unless we find some way to power our society in a clean and renewable manner, I think it’s going to be dark days indeed, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. We’re doing our part by switching over to low wattage requirement amps as soon as those are invented. We certainly don’t have the [means] of creating such a thing. And we’re also going to keep our membership low. We’re not going to add any extra instruments. We’re not going to do much in the way of fancy lighting or stage production that would involve, say, burning jet fuel or anything—the sort of thing you’re used to seeing from your U2s. So that’s how we’re doing our part,” Cain said.