XPoNentially Awesome UTB Love

Last weekend was WXPN's XPoNential Music Festival on the Camden Waterfront! And since UTB and XPN share a love for Penn, puns, and being awesome, they asked is if we wanted to come pop by on Sunday and catch all the blogworthy action.

The festival was a big success, with great bands like Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Dawes, Fool's Gold and Philly's own Dr. Dog, who made references to Baltimore Avenue and 2nd Mile in his songs. Amidst all the frolicking between stages and yummy food stands, we sat down to talk to a few of the members of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros before they went onstage. Check out our interview after the jump!

Under the Button: None of you are named Edward Sharpe... so who is he? Stewart Cole: Alex was writing a book before he started writing the music and the protagonist of the book was this character Edward Sharpe who was sort of sent down from wherever to save the world but kept getting distracted and falling in love. And the magnetic zeroes came from a really arcane system of math that may or may not have a purpose. And then we started making the music and that just became the band name. Josh Collazo:I think with the whole Edward Sharpe thing – anybody is Edward Sharpe now, it’s just an idea, more than a person.

UTB: Do you feel like you have a relationship with your audience, either onstage or just in general? How do you feel like you interact with your audience? Airin Older: I think we do quite well. You have to have a relationship with them. Nora Kirkpatrick: It kind of dictates how the show goes. Like we oftentimes don’t make a setlist, we kind of go on the vibe. AO: Otherwise it wouldn’t be a show, it would just be rehearsing.

UTB: How do you feel like your sound has evolved since you started playing together? AO: I think when we started it was sort of trying to represent what was on the record and the demos. Now I think we jam a lot more, songs are drawn out. It feels better live. More improvisation. NK: People have picked up different sounds and different instruments, all different types of things. JC: We started out being very raw and primal and ramshackle, and it still is I think. It’s still totally ramshackle and raw and fierce, but we’re a little more mature. AO: And the more and more you play with someone, you build like a psychic thing [with each other]. SC: That’s true. We can remember each other’s names now! There are a lot of people [in the band].

UTB: Do you have any instruments that you haven’t learned how to play yet that you want to? NK: I just bought an autoharp two days ago, so I’m gonna learn that. JC: Some people are learning the clarinet, trombone… SC: The mandoline is on my list. JC: I want to learn all of them. Why not? NK: And we will. AO: We will! We’re going to have a semi-truck full of them.

UTB: If you could have a superpower what would it be? NK: I’d like to be able to remember everything I’ve ever learned. JC: I’m gonna go a little more comic book on this one. I’d like to either go invisible or fly. AO: I’d go with the Heroes route with the person who absorbs everyone else’s powers. But I’d be the good guy who’d do that. SC: I’d go with the teleporting or being able to understand and speak any language. Go Star Trek on that.