“We knew how much energy and time we wanted to spend on this record, and realized that a traditional recording studio wasn’t best for this situation.”

Jesse Hodges hasn’t always been a member of Pterodactyl (even if he has a penchant for being in dinosaur-related bands), but he’s always been a fan. Although the story may sound a bit different than Rock Star, Hodges joined the band after being a fan first. Over the years, the band has gained and lost members but a core trio has remained and their newest album, Spills Out, is a testament to how much their dedication to the band – and to finding their sound – has paid off.

Pterodactyl – “School Glue” by performermag

Who exactly does what in the band?

The band primarily consists of Joe Kramer on guitar, Matt Marlin on drums, and me on bass and guitar. On this record we have a bunch of guest performers as well. We have a lot of friends on there but it’s primarily the three of us. There was a point where I was in the band and it was me, Joe, Matt and Zach, but then Zach left; this one we wrote all the songs.

And who does the vocals?

Generally one or two of us will do the lead and the others do backup. Joe and I switch off on leads for the most part, but when Matt sings one, his voice is really great.

So what else do you do?

I work in television production, with advertising.

Done anything we’d have seen?

I’ve done a lot of Wendy’s commercials; I did a lot of ESPN ones with Shaq, Jason Kidd, and Paul Pierce. I’ve worked on a few with celebrities, but I never end up seeing them, really. And I can’t say I’m proud of the [ads], because I’ve never seen most of them.

Did you study television production?

I got my degree in American Studies from the University of Texas in Austin. I did a lot of stuff on teenage culture and a lot of pop culture crap; I don’t know how great that was as far as college educations go but I liked it. Gender studies, and history, a minor in psychology – general bullshit liberal arts degree, nothing too fancy, too refined and particular. I didn’t want to be in school most of the time. I wanted to drop out at times but my mom would get really upset and would start crying and so I didn’t because of that. I toughed it out, walked across the stage (with one class left to take), and got a pretty good job out of college. I was touring and playing with bands. It took five years to take that last class, though.

How did you end up in Pterodactyl?

I had been in another band called Why Dinosaurs Rule the Earth, and they’re still around in Austin. Another dinosaur band but I didn’t name that one either, although it does explain the dinosaur tattoo I have. Kill two bands with one tattoo. The first show I ever played in New York was with Pterodactyl and Japanther, who I met setting up shows for in Austin in 2003 or 2004. I was a really big fan and loved [Pterodactyl’s] first record, but I didn’t play on it. They were my favorite band for years. I had all their 7-inches and they gave me special demo CD-Rs that they made just for their friends, and years later those guys were kinda wanting to do something a little different with the band. They heard some stuff I’d done on my own, came up to me after a show I played at Glasslands and told me if I ever moved to New York, we should play together. Not long after that I ended moving to New York. Fast forward and we’ve done two LPs, an EP and a split.

How does your sound translate from live to record?

We all like singing a lot so we all sing live. That’s something we wanted to move towards with this record. It’s hard to go from what you want to do to doing it exactly. Maybe for some people they imagine it a certain way and it goes that way. For us it felt more organic; we went in, let the songs sort of come into their own. There were some songs where I wrote a lot or Joe wrote a lot of it and that’s just how it happened. Some songs I ended up coming up with a melody and Joe ended up singing the lead or vice versa. We just try to fit the voice that goes the best; at the end of the day we want to make music we like that we think sounds cool.

Where did you record the album?

We did the basic tracking in my house, which is a big loft space in Bushwick called Le Wallet. It’s a house that I live in with a bunch of other musicians and bands. Most all of them play in a band called PC Worship; we’re all friends. I met them from different places around Brooklyn. We have a big open space room with high ceilings. We just set up our shit in there for like three days and tracked almost all of the songs, or at least all of the skeletons of all the songs. We did some overdubs there, too. We did two other sessions of overdubs in our practice space; we didn’t go into any other recording studio for this. We have had good experiences in them, but we like the sounds of the records friends are making in the house. We knew how much energy and time we wanted to spend on this record and realized that a traditional recording studio wasn’t the best for this situation. It was nice to be in a comfortable place where we were not on someone else’s clock or dime. We paid our friend and the engineer, but that’s it. There have been a lot of records that have been recorded there, and don’t get me wrong – there are some great recording studios. I’m not the mighty defender of DIY recording. When you’re doing a record, you decide on some place, and sometimes it just has a good fit. We had a great time and it went well.

Some songs sound like they were recorded live in a crowded club (‘The Break’) and some sound like they were recorded in a cave (‘Allergy Shots’); what sort of effects did you use while recording?

‘Allergy Shots’ in particular, that song was pieced together from a bunch of different recordings from all over the place. It also has the most history in the band; it’s funny you said it sounded like it was recorded in a cave. It’s one I wrote while I was living in the Market Hotel in New York. That’s how I felt when I wrote those songs; I felt like I was living in a cave. The ceiling in my room was lower than my height, it was really cold, and I didn’t have any heat. The mood of that shit is reflected pretty well there. I wanted it to sound like how I felt. ‘Allergy Shots’ was recorded live but there were more elements that ended up in the actual recording. ‘The Break’ was live; all of us playing the song together live as a band. We intended to do that. There were some songs we didn’t think would come off the same way, like ‘White Water.’ Originally that song had a weird marching tempo to it, like a fucking storm trooper marching – these bad, evil soldiers marching across this landscape while we were playing it. I think visually a lot of the time when I write songs; it just wasn’t working. We decided to flip it on its head a little bit, and one time we played it more like a dreamy pop song you’d find at the end of a record, almost like a half song – a nice little ditty. We didn’t want to sound like a live band, more like a cool little Beatles song. But most of the songs on the album were recorded live.

So lets say you leave Pterodactyl, what’s the next dinosaur related band name?

Dinosaurs are cool, but I don’t like them that much, they aren’t my thing. I think I’d refuse to be in another band [with a dinosaur name]. I remember when I first found out the name I was like, ‘Am I gonna have to talk about this?’ It’s flattering to some degree to have to answer these questions, but I’d probably just not play music instead, or just record music on my own. I couldn’t face the world. Just like the dinosaurs couldn’t anymore.

www.pterodactyl.info

Photos by Sabine Rogers