INTERVIEWS • PRINT

Interview with Stagnant Pools

May 5, 2014
Jon Berrien
Latest posts by Jon Berrien (see all)

 Together brothers Bryan and Douglass Enas form Indiana based alt-punk band Stagnant Pools.

 With a guitar and drums the duo have created a refreshing shoegaze-meets-noise pop sound, and with their new album Geist dropping soon, it’s safe to say that these brothers stay on the grind. 

 GroundSounds recently caught up with them for an exclusive interview, check it out below. 

 

For those just discovering Stagnant Pools, can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing as brothers and when you guys first started making music together? 

We have an older brother, so there were three of us growing up. We all played sports. Early on we watched a lot of Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello movies. We didn’t fight a whole lot, but when it rained it poured. I remember a time we got in an argument over something while playing basketball in the church parking lot and just starting beating each other up on the pavement. An old lady, reminding us that we were at a church, broke it up. I remember having a pretty bad temper. But we always let by-gones be by-gones and moved on. I got a drum set when I was 9 or 10, Bryan got a bass older bro got a guitar. We used to have family jams. Our dad is actually a pretty prolific songwriter and great piano player, so there were always tunes playing in the house.  

When did you guys decide to actually form Stagnant Pools and how did you decide the band name?

We both played in our own bands for most of our teenage years, but didn’t start playing together until about 2009. Bryan was in college, I was having a rough time in high school and we started hanging out more as “bros” and playing music together. The band name is just one of those things where we stuck with the first thing that came off the tip of our tongue. 

Can you tell us about bringing Geist to fruition? What was it like working on this album and what can fans expect?

We started writing songs for Geist at the end of 2012. We didn’t really know what to expect, never having made a second record. We just knew that we wanted the songs to be honest and not mess around with any big production or anything. We worked really hard and demoed about 20 songs for the record over the course of 2013, made a canon with 10 of them, and went to an all analog studio in January of this year to record. Hopefully the fans we have will hear something more emotive, personal, and dynamic than the last record.
 
Stagnant Pools are about to embark on a big tour, what do you guys enjoy most about being on the road?
 
Bryan is a foodie, so we try and get to the “good places to eat.” I like to take photographs, and have really enjoyed getting lost in places I’ve never been and getting pictures of kids at soccer practice and things like that. Oh, and playing our songs and hanging out.
 
What music are you guys currently listening to?
 
We’ve been listening to a band called Scott and Charlene’s Wedding. It’s really good. I have been listening to a lot of U2.
 
What is it about the shoegaze/noise pop sound that attracts you guys to it?
 
Not much really. It’s just how things panned out for us.
 
What have you guys enjoyed most about growing up in Indiana?
 
Basketball, primarily.
 
Can you tell us about the writing process and inspiration for your track “Intentions?”
 
We wanted it to be raw and intense. It’s definitely the most tiring song to play live. Need to bulk up.
 
After the Geist drops, what will you guys be working on? What’s next?
 
Put our work clothes on and tour a lot. Then write another record. 
Photo Credit: Anna Powell Teeter

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