Kieran Webber
Director and Founder of CLUNK Magazine, CLUNK Events, and other CLUNK affiliate businesses. You’ll probably find me tucked away somewhere sending emails, listening to music, and creating content.
Austin, TX based band Black Sheep Optimists talk to us about the trials and tribulations of the Austin music scene, new music, and much more
A lot of bands claim to have written the song of the summer but few can truly lay this claim more than Black Sheep Optimists. The bands latest single ‘Feels Like Summer’ is a groove-riddled track that is destined to be enjoyed by a sunset with a crisp one in hand.
With this in mind we wanted to find out more about this band from one of our favourite places on earth, Austin, TX. We spoke about the misconceptions of being based in Austin, new music, and much more.
Kieran: Hey everyone, thank you for chatting with us today! How have you been?
David Price: Thank you for having us! We are excited to expand our audience overseas. We’ve been really well, with lots of big things happening personally within the band. Greg JUST had a baby on July 4th, and Daryl is getting married in March. And I have been focused on health/fitness, cooking, family, and lots of trips and activities with my new girlfriend; we timed this release just in time before life started lifing!
Kieran: How’s life in Austin right now?
Daryl Van Aarde: It’s good! You hear a lot of people on the internet complaining about how the city is changing, but to us, it feels more like we’ve been growing up along with the city – like the city parallelled our growth from college into adulthood. Sure the fun is still there, the rivers, the parties, the shows – but it’s all a bit more focused now, and for better or worse…commercially oriented.
Kieran: What’s a misconception about being an artist based in Austin?
David Price: People think the scene is more expansive than it truly is. While there are a TON of places to perform, and a plethora of very accomplished and talented musicians, it feels small because of the feeling that everyone knows everyone. Especially after being here for this long (the entire band has been here over a decade), you’re really only ever a few degrees of separation away from any other musician in town. And compared to some other major music cities, there’s not quite as much opportunity for original projects as far as labels, high-caliber studios, writing houses, etc.
Kieran: So, how did you all meet and when did you decide to form the band?
Daryl Van Aarde: Greg and I met on an airplane almost a decade ago.…I was in college, he had recently graduated, and we happened to be sitting next to each other on a flight from Austin to NY. I noticed he was working on some lyrics, and I happened to be working on some instrumentals, and we ended up sharing our work and collaborating a few times. Greg and Dave met at a SXSW hip-hop panel event in Austin at which Dave was presenting as a producer and Greg as a recording artist. We used to work with several other musicians in this project, but eventually whittled down to the three of us.
Kieran: Do you share similar influences or does it vary between each member?
Maneikis: The three of us have pretty different tastes and influences, but we are always sharing songs that we want to use as inspiration. Daryl is very pop-oriented, while I am definitely the hip-hop anchor and draw a ton of inspiration from Anderson Paak, Mac Miller, and most recently JID (though I probably listen to Harry Styles more than any other current musician). Dave is an instrumental music fanatic so his tastes are a bit more eclectic – he’s big into funk, fusion, and more jammy bands like Lettuce and Snarky Puppy.
Kieran: You recently released your new single ‘Feels Like Summer’, can you talk us through this release and what it means to you?
David Price: This release is huge for us because it’s a culmination of us maturing and growing into our sound as a band. Combining our influences of classic hip-hop with more funky, full-band-with-horns, fun/party/jammy kinda stuff. It’s exciting to put out something that we truly stand behind and feel unequivocally awesome about, that really represents us currently and where we’re headed in the future. And while we love making passionate, intense, emotionally driven music (check out singles like Questions and Lies and Candles)…at that moment in time, we realized that we weren’t feeling as poignant or emotionally driven. But we still had the itch to write, so what came out was something FUN. Just good, fun vibes that don’t make you think TOO hard. To go along with that, Greg came up with the idea for the album art, which is a modern take on Norman Rockwell’s famous “No Swimming” painting. We wanted to tap into that feeling of being a kid again, where summer vacation really meant something, and we wanted the entire release to reflect that nostalgia.
Listen to ‘Feels Like Summer’ here:
Kieran: There are a lot of elements to your music, so I am curious to know how you go about writing and recording your music?
Daryl Van Aarde: Dave composes and plays pretty much every instrument you hear. Our writing process usually starts with him – an instrumental idea that Dave will share, which Greg and I develop vocals and themes for. Greg normally writes the first verse and I come up with the hook. Then the three of us spend way too long tweaking things and adding fun production elements to make sure the track is always just a liiiiitle bit better than our last. We are trying to speed up our process because we have so many tracks that are 80% finished but then our collective ADD moves us to something new.
Kieran: Lastly, what else is in store for 2024?
Maneikis: Right now we are working to finish up a few songs that are nearly complete, and we hope to release at least 1 more single before the year ends. We love performing live more than anything, but with my new baby and my desire to be the most supportive partner I can be, we have to prioritize studio projects right now. If live shows present themselves, we won’t turn them down, but we’d love to build enough buzz so that people are really clamoring for our next single. On our upcoming releases, you can expect some dope features, tight/funky instrumentation, and a continued uptick in sonic quality/precision. We’re honing in on our sound and so excited for what’s to come.