Small Reactions play art punk ala Television/Wire without ever coming across as pretentious, and write extremely catchy pop songs without ever sounding square. Normally, bands described as “fun” are either debaucherous or a bunch of dorks, but these guys are neither. They play with un-jaded enthusiasm and handle their instruments like gentlemen. And fairly new to the Atlanta scene they are already in high demand. Recently (and regrettably) having to turn down an opening slot with local heroes the all night drug prowling wolves to open for touring act Art Brut. I spoke with drummer Sean Zearfoss. Here you go.

Dry Ink: Who are each of you guys, and what do you do?

Sean Zearfoss: Well, Clinton Callahan plays bass for us and sings some, Scotty Hoffman plays guitar and sings a few more vocals, Sam Jacobsen plays piano, synthesizer, guitar, and sings and I play drums without singing.

DI: What is the age range in the band? (Youngest to oldest member?)

SZ: Clinton is the youngest at the ripe age of 20, Scotty just turned 21, Sam is 21 and a few months older than Scotty, and I am currently 23. 

DI: How does the writing process work in your group?

SZ: Hmmm…. I guess you could say that much of what we play comes from spontaneous kinds of ideas at practice and improvisation. We are always kind of thinking on our toes and trying to be in the moment with everything. Lines often get tossed out and we all jump on board, see where it goes, and then hammer out the details later. Lines do get brought in to practice, but even then our writing process is very much like an ensemble with everyone participating. The Band, one of my favorite groups, always feels like that to me.

DI: Are you guys into similar music? What are your key influences?

SZ: Yes and no. We like enough of the same things to connect really well, but enough different stuff to keep things interesting. Together, we are into stuff like Television, The Clash Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, early U2, Deerhunter, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, Radiohead, and the Talking Heads. The list could really go on and on. Scotty has been into Times New Viking and New Order recently, Clinton loves the Dirty Projectors, Sam has been playing Animal Collective around the house, and I have been on a bit of Who kick lately. All of these things and countless others make their way into our music in some way or another. 

DI: Are any of you working on any side projects music or non-musical?

SZ: We are always getting together to play music with other people. Most of our friends play instruments of some kind. As far as formal things go, Sam plays electronic dance music in a group called Kid Stuff and I play with some friends in a group called Vipers and Adders. Chad Shivers from Sorry No Ferrari started that project. Our biggest non-musical side project, though, is grilling out at our shows. We are quickly realizing that it is an art in itself to keep a grill going and make tasty, not-so-burned food. Food is free, so come check that side project out right before all of our shows –at least at place that don’t serve food.

DI: What’s next for small reactions? Recording? More shows? Any plans to tour?

SZ: Actually, we are set to record some new tracks here in the next couple days, which is really exciting. We are doing a second EP with at least four tracks. We’ve had the songs for a bit, but we haven’t gotten a chance to record them until now. We are planning on doing a split with Hanna Barbarian with some of the stuff we record. We have some big plans for the record, but you will have to stick around to see what they are! After recording, we are going to play through the rest of the year and then take a show break from January til March to write and practice some new songs, and just relax in general. Our goal was to do 50-plus shows this year and right now we have done about 33 or so. I’m not sure if we’ll get to 50, but either way, we are a bit worn out from it all. When March rolls around, though, we are going to go full speed again and hopefully put out some new records not long after that. Tours will be in the works, too, so stick around for those.

DI: What new local bands are you guys really liking?

SZ: There are so many awesome bands in town that we really like. A few of our favorites are also good friends of ours.  We love Hanna Barbarian, Poiema, Twin Thunder, The North Trolls, and Tealights. Those guys have been on the scene in Atlanta about as long as we have and we really dig them. Sunset Carcrash and We are all Nothing and Something are from outside of Atlanta, but are among the coolest bands around. Fox Trotsky and Sorry No Ferrari have been on the scene for forever. They aren’t new, but we had to mention them. And of course, we can’t live without the ever-present Jeffrey Butzer; the humble man conducting this interview. He’s been on the scene longer than Moses, though, so he is far from new.  

DI: My friends and I have a term for bands like Hootie and the Blowfish, Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler… we call it “nice-guy rock” and bands like Go-Go Bordello and Dresden Dolls, we call “mustache carnival-core.” Do you guys have any inside joke sub genre terms we can add to our list?

SZ: (Laughs) Those are excellent genres. I’ll remember them for sure. We are really fond of labeling some bands “backwards-college-hat rock.” This is pretty self-explanatory, but a genre worth noting. Bands like Sublime, 311, Dave Matthews, O.A.R., and any number of other similar bands. It is kind of a diverse genre, but all of those backwards college hat guys really seem to dig the same exact stuff, so it kind of forms a genre of its own. It’s beyond frat rock. We’re also trying to start a genre called Nerve Pop that we can throw ourselves and some friends under. Hopefully it takes off (laughs). Spread the word.

DI: Where did the band name come from?

SZ: It’s kind of a long story, one that actually lasts like three months (laughs)… literally. For the first three years we played as a band, we were called Soup. Late in 2007, we were contacted to up for a band called RAQ who were going to play Smith’s Olde Bar. When I contacted Smith’s, their booking agent told me that he couldn’t book us because we were called Soup and he just booked a larger band by the same name. So, we didn’t get the show. Reluctantly, we realized we had to change our name, but it took us three months to come up with one. We tossed out a bunch of horrific names that would have probably made “worst band name ever” lists countrywide, before we settled on Eli Whitney. We played one show as Eli Whitney, realized that name sucked just as much, and then went back to work. Earlier, I had proposed the band name Tiny Explosions, which was the title of a Presidents of the United States of America song and nobody liked it except for me. I then rephrased the name into Small Reactions and it worked. I like it better than Soup. Thanks to the Presidents… and those other guys named Soup. No offense to anyone who wants to call his or her band Eli Whitney. As far as I know, that band name is still up for grabs.

DI: You guys have played a lot of shows. Any entertaining horror stories?

SZ: Well, actually, just for purposes like these, I keep a show log of every show we’ve ever played. We have never really had any horror stories, per se, but we do have some pretty entertaining ones. First off, we play anywhere and everywhere, which always makes for an interesting time. Things always seem to get the interesting when we go out to west Georgia. A few years ago, we were invited to play at a church in Carrollton. After getting lost and driving around aimlessly for hours, we pull up to what we think is the church. We look up at the sign and it is labeled “The Holy Ghost Revival Baptist Church” and there are about 70 middle-aged people, all wearing suits, who are crammed into this tiny room. There is a drum set on stage, which leads us to believe that this is in fact the place. Luckily for us and them, our church was directly behind that one. The show was great. I’m not sure, though, how that first church would have responded to loud rock music from guys in street clothes, but it would have made for an even better story. Another time, we got invited to play this thing called Rock Fest which took place in Talapoosa. We drove for a long time until we reached the middle of nowhere. We got to the place, and it was filled with all these old tanks and airplanes. We couldn’t figure it out. There were four or five bands scheduled that night, but only two showed up: the band who organized the festival, Strongsuit, and us. To top it all off, Scotty ended up sinking in some mud right before we played, so he went on stage covered in mud. There were only like seven people who showed up, but it was a blast. I think we played for more than an hour because all the other bands dropped out. Strongsuit still does Rock Fest, but I think they have actual venues now. I’m actually remembering more stories now, but we’ll have to do a special interview on them just to talk about them all. Thanks for making us revisit our dark past, Jeff. Actually we’d do it all over again if we could. Those are the shows you never forget.