If you think The Buffali is a ridiculous band name, just be glad members Clare Fehsenfeld and Andrew Yonda did not go with Fehsenfeld's original name.
"Originally, I thought it would be funny to name the band 'Standy Handby and the Boring Buffali,' and then Andrew said that that was really stupid," Fehsenfeld said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Fehsenfeld and Yonda will be bringing their self-described "bombastic acoustic indie pop" to town on Friday at Magdalena's Tea House, 2006 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing. They talked to The State News about the origins of the band, the advantages and disadvantages of not having a drummer and how they define their sound.
The State News: What is bombastic acoustic indie pop?
Andrew Yonda: That is a genre all to itself, or sort of just for the band. It's not folk; we're a little too poppy, and definitely too raunchy to be folk.
Clare Fehsenfeld: Indie in that we have a lot of influences. I feel like that's a big part of the indie movement, if bands have eclectic influences, which we definitely have. Blues, country/folk, jazz, classical, everything.
AY: We're trying to avoid the adjective "quirky" because it just kind of pigeonholes us, I think.
Why do you say that?
AY: "Quirky" is not the first thing I would use to describe The Buffali. It's sort of one of our characteristics, but I think when people hear the word quirky, they get a picture in their mind based on that single word, and they don't hear the indie and the pop and the acoustic part; they just kind of hear quirky.
How did the band come together?
CF: We were both going to the University of Wisconsin here in Madison, and we met in this co-op that happened to have a really large concentration of musicians. Most of the musicians were experimental, avant-garde-type people, and Andrew and I played with them some, doing some shows with a group called The Acoustic Collective, and once we started playing music together we realized that we were really the only two in the house that were really into pop. Then I got an eight-track recorder, and I was learning to use it, and Andrew came up to my room in the co-op, and we recorded this improvised rap song called "Sweet Potato Pie," about what we had for dinner. It was really great. We were like, "This is really fun," and we were feeding off each other really well, going back and forth, and we were like, "We should play music together more often."
What are some of the challenges of not having a drummer in the band?
CF: It definitely makes touring easier. But the biggest challenge for us is playing in bars. It's harder to keep people's attention without a drummer because they can't dance as much. I think we reach a specific audience that really likes what we're doing, but it also puts a lot of people off. We don't have mass appeal necessarily.
AY: Yeah, we've found that it's very important for people to hear our lyrics and hear us live because it's a really important part of what we do. If we had drums, a backbeat and everything, people would be kind of grooving along, they wouldn't have to understand what we were saying to enjoy the spirit of the music.
What is a Buffali live show like?
AY: Our live show is kind of boisterous. We joke around a lot on stage. We'll pursue a joke further than we probably should sometimes (laughs), or maybe change a song we've never done before. We like to have fun. If you play a song 1,000 times, you need to keep it interesting somehow, so sometimes we'll change lyrics or just change it up. We have to work pretty hard — like Clare was saying before — to keep the audience's interest. We have to really put a lot of energy into our songs, so we're just a pretty energetic live show.
How do you inject humor into your music without coming off as a joke band?
AY: Don't do it in every song and every line. I think when you listen to the album ("Kerfuffle No. 10," released in July 2005), you know there are going to be some songs that make you laugh and some songs that aren't trying to make you laugh at all, so people won't expect to laugh every time they hear a Buffali song. What I hope people expect is to experience a whole range of emotions.
CF: I think it is easy to get gimmicky, and I'm always thinking like, if I'm writing this song, is this the kind of a song I've already written? And if it is, how can I change it, how can we progress and develop as a band?
The Buffali will be playing at 8:00 p.m., June 9 at Magdalena's Tea House, 2006 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing. All ages welcome, $6 to $10 sliding scale cover. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/thebuffali and http://www.magdalenasteahouse.com
