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When Andy and Chris Fry left the lineup of Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s this year, the guitarist and drummer didn’t scramble to find their next project.
The brothers revived their pre-Margot band, the Academy.
Bass player Tyler Bowman and ex-Margot keyboard player Emily Watkins are new members of the Academy, which issued a self-titled album in 1999. A second album, “Magic,” remains unreleased, although it’s available for download at Musicalfamilytree.net.
Andy Fry talked to Metromix about the past and present of the Academy, which performed on New Year's Eve at Locals Only:
The Academy performed stylish pop music reminiscent of New Wave acts from the 1980s. What were your thoughts when the Killers, Franz Ferdinand and other bands eventually hit it big doing a similar thing?
The first time we toured we went out West, to L.A. and back. I think it was in 2002 or 2003, before the Internet made everyone hyperaware of music trends. It was at the cusp of dance rock really starting to become acceptable to people to listen to in public again. People would come up to me after the set and say, have we heard Phoenix? Have we heard the Faint? That was when I knew other people in the world were making that kind of music.
I was happy about it, actually. Not all music has to be danceable, or in a pop structure. But it always seemed weird to me that people would deny themselves that pleasure.
The adjectives “cool” and “detached” carry a positive connotation in relation to the Academy. Are there artists or things that have influenced your ability to pull that off?
I respond the most to music and art that forces me as the listener to supply the emotional information. “The Stranger” by Camus was a huge revelation in that way. I think musically it was important when I realized the shoegazer movement and the Cars were connected in that way.
If the current edition of the Academy connects with a large audience, would it bug you if you’re accused of jumping on the Killers-Franz Ferdinand bandwagon?
I guess if that was the only thing that people could think of to say about it, I would feel like we had failed. But there is a lot of space to navigate in that genre and I am pretty confident in the strangeness of my own taste.
Musically, what did you learn from playing national tours and making high-profile recordings with Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s?
Oh, man. I could write a book about that, if I remembered any of it. I know that you have to make something you really love before you go out on the road. I mean, you really got to love it.
You and Chris don’t seem to adhere to the rock ’n’ roll stereotype of brawling siblings. How would you characterize your relationship?
I trust my brother’s judgment about music so much, and we’ve been through so much together, it’s beyond brawling. Besides, physically fighting someone does little to change their opinion about anything.
