Entertainment
THE INSIDERS: CROCODILES
“what if my mom reads this?”
Warning: when you talk with Brandon and Charles from the San Diego band Crocodiles, it's almost impossible to tell whether they're kidding or telling the truth. Between joking about their early meetings or their worst hotel room experience ever, it's obvious they don't take themselves too seriously. And that's a good thing. We hung out with the guys before their show in NYC and talked about touring, Vegas, and the problem with pop music today.
Let's start with the basics: how did you guys meet?
Brandon: I met Charles and knew that he was a part of a band. I saw him play and he really stuck out... he had bright orange hair and he was performing naked [laughing]. No, not really. But I convinced him to leave his band for my band, and then we broke up those bands and started our own.
Do you have any crazy tour stories so far?
Brandon: In St. Paul, some really wild, crazy stuff happened, but I can't tell you about it. What if my mom reads this? Just use your imagination.
Charles: A few weeks ago, we stayed in a place in Vegas that was really rundown. My room still was a construction zone and was finished being refurbished; there was wet paint, tools lying about, the shower didn't work, and the door was wide open when we showed up!
Brandon: It was a type of place that people turn a blind eye too. We may have bedbugs [laughing]. Kidding.
Your sound is pretty optimistic at first listen, but then there are definitely some darker undertones. How does your process work?
Brandon: A lot of the lyrics to pop music are kind of vapid. We spend a lot of time on our lyrics, trying to make it mean something. It's easier to go more in depth with negative feelings, you know?
Charles: I think it's unintentional; it's just the way we think. We appreciate good song lyrics and good songs and try to marry them together.
How has your music evolved since you started?
Brandon: I would hate to hear some of the stuff we made when we first started [laughing]. We're constantly trying to get better at it, better at translating the ideas that we have.
Charles: It's partly about getting more confident the older you get, and less about whether people like you or not. We write songs and we like the way certain things sound, and we just go with it.
