The Shaky Hands

By Bob Ham
Photo by Megan Holmes

In a crowded, smoky venue, a curly-haired gent with a blue t-shirt shoves his way to the front. Almost immediately, he starts dancing manically to the jangly pop blaring through the house speakers, in stark contrast to the indifferent audience. Thankfully for Portland's The Shaky Hands (whose song "Why and How Come" is the impetus for the dancer's freeform antics), this isn't the way a typical show goes. In fact, it's not a show at all, but an idea cooked up by director Whitey McConnaughy for the group's first music video.
The Shaky Hands have now moved to the sidelines, exhausted from a full day of filming, and flash bemused smiles to the harried production assistants trying to herd together 75 rowdy extras. "I'm just starting to fade about now," says rhythm guitarist, Jeff Lehman, whose glazed over expression belies the fact that he's been busy for seven hours straight. Lehman continues, "It's a strange situation. It's weird to be filmed but I'm having a lot of fun."
Based solely on the strength of their self-titled debut album, it's easy to imagine that strange situations and flurries of activity like these will become a constant for The Shaky Hands. Alternating between upbeat, Let's Active-style pop and rustic and acoustic guitar exercises, this new disc is chock-full of memorable melodies and a confidence that can only come from the obvious bond between the young band mates.
This bond is something that grew quickly, according to bassist Mayhaw Hoons, who met frontman Nick Delffs and drummer Colin Anderson at a house show they were playing in Hood River, OR. "I remember the first song they did, just to see if the mic was on," says Hoons. "I was immediately blown away by it. By the end of the night, I had my arms around [Nick] and was like, 'You guys are the greatest! We're gonna be best friends!' - which happens at parties when you're really drunk. But it really happened."
It wasn't long after that first meeting that Hoons was asked to join the then trio to replace departing bass player Paul Culp. Since Hoons joined, the band has also added Lehman and a percussionist/pedal steel player Nathan Delffs - who happens to be Nick's brother. "I've been playing music with my brother for a very long time," says Nick Delffs, "So, when he moved [to Portland from California] it seemed only natural to have him join."
With this solidified line-up, the band went into Sidecar Studios last year to record its latest album, anticipating that each of its members would be footing the bill for the sessions themselves. "We just did it without planning or thinking at all," says Nick Delffs, "just to do it. We figured we'd find some way of paying them." Luckily for The Shaky Hands, their friend and manager, Ben Sanabria, took their unmastered recordings to his cohorts at Holocene Music who jumped at the chance to work with the group.
"It was a pretty fast decision," Nick Delffs says. "Scott [McLean] and Matt [Wright] made it feel like we were all in this together." The label has since helped stave off the cost of the sessions, and thinking so highly of the results, is putting its promotional muscle behind it, including financing the video shoot.
Besides their current label, the rest of the Portland music scene has been taking notice of The Shaky Hands, especially their fellow musicians. One supporter is Hutch Harris, leader of the punk/pop dynamos, The Thermals, who namedropped the band in an interview for Pitchfork. "We really appreciated it," says Anderson. "I think a couple of people got into us because of that."
The band is currently gearing up for a tour of the West Coast and (hopefully) to points beyond, but their main focus is getting back into the studio. "Ideally, we want to have a situation where we can just record all the time and play out every once in a while," Nick Delffs says. "I can't think of any other thing we're really striving for." If the end result is an album as good as The Shaky Hands' most recent, here's hoping their wish is granted.

www.holocenemusic.com