Faulkner Detectives: The Modern Handshake

In late May, the New York City-based indie-rock quartet Faulkner Detectives released its new EP, The Modern Handshake. To mark its release the quartet–which consists of Elizabeth Keenan-Penagos on bass; Vanessa Lopez on drums;  Alex Segura on guitar/vocals; and Meg Wilhoite on keys/vocals–was kind enough to participate in a brief email interview. (Full disclosure, Alex and I are old pals, since the days I wrote for The Great Curve [the comics blog precursor to  Blog@Newsarama {now Robot 6}]). Once you’ve enjoyed the interview, be sure to follow the band’s advice: “You can get it pretty much anywhere digitally — iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, CDBaby, BandCamp, stream on Spotify – and if you’re a fan of holding records in your hands, like us,you can also get hard copies via Livid Records!” My thanks to Faulkner Detectives for their time and thoughts.

Tim: A lot of folks play in bands, but not every band are organized enough to release an EP. Why do each of you think you collaborate so effectively and what were some of the biggest challenges to getting this EP together?

ELIZABETH: As a band, we’re a good mesh of personalities. I think it says a lot that both Meg and Alex have been my roommates in the past, and I’m still happy to be in a band with them!

For me personally, the biggest challenge getting the EP together is that I hate recording. I was a music major in college, so I have a long history of recording. But I’m a perfectionist, and I hear every mistake, which can be frustrating if you only have a short time to record.

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