I’ve always dug Baby Teeth for its soul-infused goofy-pop charm, pretty much from the first time I caught the band live. While I don’t really remember when or where exactly that was, I’m willing to bet I had had more than enough drinks to be overly engaged, as I distinctly remember dancing, which I don’t really do that often because I’m a terrible dancer.
Peter Andreadis, drummer and sometimes-vocalist for Baby Teeth, has carried on a solo side project called All City Affairs for a few years now, an even more sugary counterpart to the other group, in which he elaborately constructs little indie-pop gems, mostly set to programmed electronic beats and glitches. Keyboards, synths and acoustic guitars often make appearances, and Andreadis’ voice, catching and inviting, seems a perfect match for the material. His work in this band is an example of various elements falling smoothly in line to create a glistening whole. “Identity Theft,” All City Affairs’ new record on Lujo—the release of which the band celebrates January 8 at Schubas—has the unique ability to impress and not impose. The album glides…a collection of calm, cozy, beat-happy nuggets that never drift farther from the middle than what’s required. Andreadis’ knack for churning out delicious hooks doesn’t hurt, either.
He says that with “Identity Theft,” he, for the first time, truly set out solo. “This was the first [record] where I had to sort out much of it on my own,” he says. “And I was also trying to go ahead and do some songwriting that was a little more streamlined and simple. I felt like, when I first got started, that I was gonna write complex songs with a lot of chord changes, different parts, two bridges on songs. [With ‘Identity Theft’] I tried to do something different with the formula, make the songs and harmonies simple.”
It certainly worked, as the allure of “Identity Theft” has much to do with its breezy, relaxed attitude. “I had been influenced by acoustic songwriting growing up, some REM, then I started getting into Jeff Buckley,” Andreadis says. “I was [into] that kind of thing when I was first starting to write songs; this was like high school and early college. But I wanted to make a statement with what I was doing, I [wanted to] elaborate on what I was doing, so I didn’t sound like I was just a regular singer-songwriter guy coming out. It’s so easily dismissed—this is the formula, here’s a new person doing it, but nothing’s changed though. I thought if I’m going to do this, I’m gonna make it so that I can be something that takes a lot more time, more time to sink in…over the course of time came a lot more electronic elements, which was, for me, another departure.”
Andreadis says that it now takes longer than usual for him to complete a song. “It does take me a fairly long time—I wish I was faster,” he says. “When I first got started, I felt like I could turn them out quickly. But then I started playing drums in Baby Teeth and got a whole new perspective on percussion and what that can do to develop a song, take a song that already existed and give it a new shape. I started stripping down what I was doing, starting with just a drum part or a just a bassline. Also, a lot of what I did on the new record, there’s an electronic rhythm that stays steady throughout the song, and that causes the song development to take a little bit longer.”
The persistent electronic element seems to make the biggest impression, as well. A common reaction found in most of the critical reviews for “Identity Theft” is surprise, or a specific interest in why Andreadis, a drummer, would prominently use beat programming as the driving foundation of his solo work. “I was surprised about that, too,” he says of this response to the band. “You listen to the radio, or the things that critics are recommending, and we are in this state of time where everything is a hybrid—rock music now has so many electronic elements. So I found that puzzling. I think there’s a lot of pop music that has electronic instruments. I can make my pop record sound like a Kanye West record, with hip-hop-sounding drums, or basslines, or synthesizers. That to me is a really exciting way of doing something that’s kind-of rock, what I grew up listening to. I really just want to make pop music, something [you] could put on next to a Kanye record, or a Paul McCartney song, or Neil Young.”
January 8 at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, (773)525-2508, at 9pm. $7.
