The Insecurities: 'We're better than you'
Stubhy just wants to have fun. That's what he keeps saying, through drinks and anecdotes and emails-his new project is all about having fun. And playing rock and roll. He likes rock and roll a lot, too.
Perhaps the most incredibly un-aptly-named band of 2008, the Insecurities consists of Lucky Boys Confusion vocalist Stubhy Pandav from Downers Grove, ex-Penny & The Loafers drummer Ramzi Hassan of Orland Park, former Blackout member Chris Orebaugh from Chicago on keys, Shock Stars guitarist (and Pandav's cohort) Brian Sherman from Ingleside on guitar, and Dan Borgo from Chicago on bass. With such a noteworthy lineup, it's no surprise that there isn't very much real insecurity on display. However, the music itself is surprising.
Based around Pandav's acoustic guitar, the songs are far more mature and sophisticated than one might expect from this particular group.
"We don't get to a point where we say "Oh, we can't have this piece in the song,'" said Orebaugh, over the clatter of the diner.
"I would call it less poppy and more organic," Pandav corroborates. "You can call it whatever you want, but you're always going to like the Boss, you know? You're always going to like Counting Crows. Even if you say you don't , when you're alone in your car, you look around to see if anybody's watching, then it's all [sings] 'Iiiii aaammm the rain king.' Everybody likes that. Don't lie, you like it."
The group started as a side project in the true spirit of the term-Pandav was still playing with Lucky Boys Confusion as well as the electronic-tinged Shock Stars, and began using the Insecurities as an outlet for his more introspective material.
"We wanted people to come to the shows and say, 'Hey, is that the guy from Blackout? Is that the guy from Lucky Boys?'" Pandav explaines. "'No, they wouldn't be playing this crappy place-' And then, as things got bigger and bigger and people started offering us shows, we started taking it more seriously. But still, we all promised ourselves that we wouldn't change our mindset, that it's all about the music and having a good time. That's why we've had this minor level of success, because people can see we enjoy what we're doing."
Starting with the core partnership of Pandav and Hassan, the group took shape rather quickly once interest and involvement picked up.
"Ramzi and I have been friends for a really long time," Pandav laughs. "Back when he was in other bands and I was in other bands, we used to hang out a lot and sit outside of his house and smoke cigarettes and drink beer when we were underage, because I could buy booze and he couldn't. We always talked about starting a band, but then Lucky Boys went on tour and he was in college and playing in another band. And so just recently, we started jamming and decided we'd just mess around and see what happened. Then we asked Chris to join, and Sherman and Dan, and now we're this."
The group recently released their debut EP, a collection of five terrifically strong tracks, and have been gigging on weekends to support it. The EP, "Ban The Kiss Hello: A Social Commentary," runs the gamut from the straight pop romp of "Me & Mona Lisa" to the rockabilly guitar licks and three-part harmonies of "Cavalier" to the subdued meanderings of "Waterfalls and Alcohol." The kickoff of "Circle Three Times" sets the tone for the EP and for the band as a whole, with a singalong chorus and highly textured instrumentation. But it's the dramatic closer, "Bite My Tongue," that truly stands out. With absolutely heartbreaking lyrics, and Pandav's most impassioned, intense delivery to date, the song is enough to give any self-respecting pop fan chills.
"[The EP] is like a book," Pandav explains. "There are 'chapter titles' and subtitles, the last song has an 'afterword,' and it is a social commentary. We don't follow the industry standards on stuff, like most bands will put their strongest song at the beginning, but we figure hey, it's five songs, listen to the whole thing, and we'll put the strongest song at the end. And if you don't like it, don't listen to it. If you don't like what we do onstage, don't come to the shows."
"There are so many other forms of media to reach your audience," Hassan continues. "It's about being able to utilize them all successfully. We've got our plans, we've got our MySpace set up, we've got digital means to get our stuff out there, and it's just making sure people like it. We'd probably be more excited about being huge on YouTube than if a record label approached us at this point."
"I'm really glad Q101 likes our stuff," Pandav amends, "that's awesome and we really do appreciate it, but I think the days where we're going to kiss kiesters for a deal are over. I mean, if somebody wants to hook us up with a distribution deal, great, but if we're not going to play Louisiana, what's the point of having CDs at the Louisiana Best Buy? All of us have full-time jobs where we've got to put bread on the table and [beer in the fridge], and so until this band can do both of those things, we're constricted to weekends. We're not in a big hurry."
This laid-back, easygoing attitude is shared by Pandav's bandmates.
"Any band can book a tour and play across the country for five people a night," Hassan groans. "I've done it before, I think we've all done it before, and it's really hard to justify when you're not even making back your gas money."
With a bright outlook on the future, a fun-loving attitude towards their music and themselves, and a laid-back modus operandi, the Insecurities aren't your typical Chicagoan rock band. No "makeup-and-girl-pants" costuming, no live "act," no sense of how things "should" be done-just the music, just the fun, just joking around onstage and off, and realizing that, if the music is good, people will like it, no matter what tag you attach to it.
"I think Chris put it best when he was talking to me," Pandav explains. "He said, 'You write the songs, and I play whatever the [heck] I want to over them,' and that's usually how it works. We're not here to step on toes, we're all here to have fun. The second it stops being fun, that's the second we stop doing it. I want to play with some high school bands, I want to play at some VFW's, I want to play with some older bands, some country bands, some pop bands, even a good metal band-I'm just over the whole scene of bands trying to be My Chemical Romance, taking themselves and everything else super seriously, it's just not fun. I don't have fun at the shows, and I don't like the scene.
He finishes his whiskey, laughs, and ends on a note that describes the band to a T:
"We're the Insecurities, and we're so much better than you."
The Insecurities
With The Chamber Strings, The Bon Mots and Brad Peterson
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26
Where: The Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake St., Chicago
Tickets: $10 in advance, $13 day of show