Scissors For Lefty: Stealing San Francisco
By Veronica Young
Photo by Julie Schuchard

San Francisco's own band of brothers, Scissors For Lefty have successfully managed to balance being on the brink of superstardom with being completely down-to-earth, party-loving California dudes who just love writing music and playing shows. The band's second full-length album, Underhanded Romance, was just released by L.A.'s Eenie Meenie Records last month, and with a distinct penchant for capturing audiences, the boys are excitedly preparing to get back on the road in support of their fresh material.

"The new album is based off songs that were really succeeding live," explains lead-singing Lefty, Bryan Garza. "It's energetic but still possesses that story-telling quality. So it's a great album to go sit in the bubble bath with and take from start to finish. You feel like when it's done, it's time to pull the plug on the tub."

Most of Scissors For Lefty's tracks have enough pop sensibility to make them irresistible, etching catchy hooks into the listener's aural memory. Yet the band deviates from the traditional Velveeta cheesiness of most radio-friendly pop songs - it rocks a little harder, drops beats that are a little more danceable, and delivers sassy tongue-in-cheek lyrics. If that combination of power moves doesn't pique interest, the fact that the band is prone to costume changes, wildly ambitious geometric hair cuts, and actually really wants to meet its fans should at least raise an eyebrow. Scissors For Lefty are not afraid to let their personalities shine - and steal a few hearts while they're at it.

Unlike many of the band's up-and-coming counterparts, Scissors For Lefty have already cut their teeth on the touring circuit, having played 60 shows in a month and a half this year and racking up 25,000 miles on the tour van. "Any band that says it's totally easy to tour is giving you a line of bullshit," says Bryan. "It's tough to spend 10 weeks in one really small van, working 24/7, figuring out details like who's paying for gas. It's an art of compromise."

Earlier in the year, the band trumped thousands of potential acts and earned not one, but seven shows at SXSW, and has already played over 70 shows in the U.K., opening for acts like Arctic Monkeys, Blonde Redhead, Metric, The Fratellis...the list goes on and on. "We had this ethic of going into shows blindly and doing really weird things - like ordering pizzas in the middle of the show, leaving the stage, and then finishing the song over our cell phones," says Bryan. "We always wanted to make our shows fun and that caught a buzz. Rough Trade caught wind of that, and it opened doors for us overseas."

Guitarist Robby Garza adds, "We never play the same set of songs. We have a lot of material for a 'baby band,' so the most intense part of our night is the 10 minutes that we take to write down our set list on a little piece of scratch paper."

Scissors For Lefty truly is a family affair. The band is made up of two sets of brothers who are all multi-instrumentalists: the Garzas - Robby (bass/guitar), Steven (bass) and Bryan (vocals/guitar); and the Krimmels - Peter (piano/guitar) and James (drums). Starting off originally as a trio in San Luis Obispo, the band found its groove as the current day quintet after moving to San Francisco in 2002.

"In San Luis Obispo we played more somber coffee shop shows, which involved more subtle theatrics," Bryan says. "But we were interested in doing shows that rocked a little harder and included some funny antics - like running backstage and changing into red leotards, pouring buckets of water over our heads, or having intentional wardrobe malfunctions. We love the silliness of it."

The lightheartedness that Bryan speaks of has definitely carried over into Underhanded Romance and increased with the band's relocation to the Bay Area. While Bruno, the group's 2005 effort, explores more dismal themes such as being broken-hearted, Scissors For Lefty's sophomore album is buoyant and built from the band's experiences in San Francisco. "We kept writing songs as usual, but they started to be about our adventures with people in the city and kind of a renaissance of our youth," says Bryan. "Being in the city made us feel young again - we'd spend our days riding bicycles or trekking across town to try a new flavor of gelato. We'd kidnap our friends and make videos of them, and these songs documented that playfulness."
Once, all this exploration of youth was balanced by the band members' day jobs, which some waved a fond farewell to in order to focus more on the latest album. "We quit our jobs, sold all our stuff, and recorded the foundation of what Underhanded Romance would be," explains Bryan. "We cranked the music out in a week, the vocals and 'flair' in two weeks. So yeah, in three weeks we created a kick-ass, spontaneous album. I think about it sometimes and say to myself, 'Sonofabitch, this is an album I'm really happy about!' - and I have a tough time being happy about things."

Coming up with material for Underhanded Romance was a highly collaborative process that was simultaneously effortless and difficult. "Half the songs on the album just came out and required very little thought," Bryan says. "Other songs were really tough - like 'Next to Argyle.' I really had to wrack my head on how I wanted to finish the song. 'Do I want this to be a story of hope at the end, or a down-the-tubes kind of song?' I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I wanted to end it."

Robby Garza also felt the pain: "We loved how the album was shaping up but needed two or three more songs before we went to record it. We were practicing in our studio, which was literally freezing cold. We were hitting a wall, so the guys gave me my pedal, headphones and guitar, and locked me out in the refrigerator-cold hallway with the instructions to stay out there until I had a great riff. It took me about 30 minutes to come up with the bass line and guitar for 'Lay Down Your Weapons.' It was a case of emergency writing - I was like, 'You guys better like this!'"

With the album in tow, Scissors For Lefty began looking for a U.S. label and in the process received a lot of attention from indies and majors alike. But it was L.A.-based Eenie Meenie Records (home to bands like Irving, Great Northern, and Oranger) that really appealed to the band's core beliefs and proved to be a perfect fit. "We already had an album under our belt when we started talking to Eenie Meenie," Bryan says, "so it wasn't an issue of selling ourselves and promising to cut this great record. We said, 'We're really proud of this and think this record is really worth its weight in gold. This is how our live show goes, and these are our expectations for where we want this band to go.'"

Despite the name-dropping these boys could be doing, they are keeping it real with their fans. "It's really important to win over the hearts of the people at our shows. We are there to entertain them, and we don't assume they adore us," Bryan asserts. "Our fans write us letters, we write back. We keep close contact on MySpace. We sell our own merch. It's a little bit of extra work, but it leads to word-of-mouth marketing. If we put a lot of time and energy into it, people will come again to see us."

And people do. Scissors For Lefty have found their niche not only in San Francisco, but also amongst many all-ages communities throughout the state of California. "It makes sense to play San Francisco, L.A. and the Central Coast," explains Bryan. "But on the way there, we realized there are markets where you never would have guessed like Merced, San Jose, Fresno and San Luis Obispo - these ended up being some of the best shows we've ever played." Describing a show the band played in Merced, he continues, "There were 100 people not just watching but freaking out, doing somersaults and break dancing and coming up on stage."

Such mutual energy and reciprocal give-and-take between the audience and the band became contagious for Scissors For Lefty early on, and inhibitions soon went completely out the window. "I kind of consider us like San Franciscans consider themselves - they think they're part of the norm, and then realize that they are actually a city all its own that's very different from rest of the US," Bryan says. "We're definitely beginning to realize that the band is a little less in the center. We thought we were a friendly pop/indie band, but are realizing that we're considered loaded weapons - people never know what we're going to do."

After very memorable hometown performances at Popscene and Live 105's BFD festival, Scissors For Lefty are eager to get back on the road to share Underhanded Romance with the rest of the country.

Bryan affirms, "It's in our blood to want to participate in this walk of life - it makes us feel like three-dimensional people. We have something to share. If someone wants to rip the album apart, then I can say that's their take on it. But it still means the world to me."

www.scissorsforlefty.com

Catch Scissors For Lefty at the Bay Area Indie Music Festival on August 25.