Interview with Quiet Company; Frontman Taylor Muse Discusses New Album ‘Transgressor’ and Return to Rock Roots

Austin, TX-based indie rock band, Quiet Company, released their latest album, Transgressor, on February 24, 2015. Loaded with anthemic rock, the recording’s songs are not only super-catchy, but also each have their own special southern touch. As Transgressor continues to excite new and old fans alike, we decided to catch up with lead singer Taylor Muse and discuss the release, and his group’s return to their rock roots (think Manchester Orchestra, Brand New, Weezer).

For those not familiar with your band, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Muse: We are Quiet Company. Forged in the fires of Hell and currently residing in Austin, TX. We are a rock band and we enjoy political satire and long walks along the beach. My name is Taylor Muse and I sing and play guitar.

Your new disc, Transgressor, has just been released. Now that it is complete how do you feel about it, and what has been the response so far?
Muse: I’m really proud of the record. Of course, there are always things you wish you’d done differently, but I think it’s our best record. Response has been great. Our last record was a concept record about leaving religion and since there aren’t a lot of albums like that, I think people connected to that one in a crazy deep way. I don’t know if Transgressor will have that kind of connection, but I do know the performances are our best on record, and I think the songs are our most mature.

When you write, do you do so with the live setting in mind or do you write a song just for the song’s sake?
Muse: We generally wrote for the studio and ended up with super-complex arrangements that were problematic to recreate live and we would always hear that our records were good, but we were much better live. So for all of those reasons, we chose to arrange and record our new record live. We put limitations on ourselves for overdubs in order to force ourselves into arrangements that were more interesting at their cores and not just dressed up pretty.

Along those same lines, do you take advantage of technology and email riffs and parts back and forth, or do you get together in a room in a more traditional sense and write together?
Muse: I’ll send shitty recordings of songs to the guys, just me and an acoustic guitar, but we feel pretty strongly that the best way to arrange songs is with everyone in the same room. So when it comes time to actually work on the songs, we do it together.

What do you think of the current state of the rock/metal world?
Muse: I don’t know much about the metal scene, but I wish there was a little more tenacity in rock. I worry that younger generations don’t have a Fugazi or a Pixies. Obviously, they could and should just listen to the Pixies and Fugazi but you know what I mean. Bands like Mother Mother give me a lot of hope but I’d like to see more bands playing with that kind of creative venom, and I’d like to be one of those bands, too.

Do you receive a lot of support from your local scene and fans in general?
Muse: Our fans are awesome everywhere, but home is home. The Austin scene has been so incredibly supportive and there are a handful of non-profits in Austin that pump lifeblood into the bands like The Health Alliance of Austin Musicians that provides no/low cost healthcare for musicians, or Black Fret that gave ten $10,000 grants to Austin bands last year.

Do you have any touring plans in support of the new recording?
Muse: Yeah, we’ll be hitting the west coast soon, doing a few shows with Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional, and going to Germany. It’s going to be an exciting year.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take 3 CDs with you for eternity, assuming there was a solar powered CD player, what would they be?
Muse: I think the 3 best records for that situation are OK Computer by Radiohead because it is the most perfect record of all time, Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins because it’s probably the most important record in my personal growth, and The Beatles’ “White” album because it’s the fucking “White” album.

Check out a ‘Transgressor’ album trailer here.