Here’s the next installment of My First Time, the interview series that gives a little peek into the musical firsts of some bands I’ve been crushing on as of late. This week is Cody Swanson of the Lexington band Noisycrane. The group just finished up their second full-length and will be playing Athens Popfest later this year.

My First Time … with Noisycrane

First record you bought
The first record I can remember buying myself, for myself, was either the Titanic soundtrack or the Men in Black soundtrack. The sole reason was because I liked that Celine Dion song, the theme to Titanic, and I really liked Will Smith’s rap, the theme too I guess. “Here come the Men in Black; won’t let you remember.” .

First record that changed your life
I’m going to be really cliché and boring here. I had listened to Beck’s early stuff and Uncle Tupelo while driving around in the car with my dad when I was little, and that surely had a huge influence on me (I avoided most mid-90’s radio rock that way as well), but the record that consciously changed my life was In The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. The reason it affected me so much was that it proved that someone can make an amazing and moving record, and not be the best singer in the world, or know a million scales or do it in a big time studio. I am not insulting Jeff Mangum or any of those guys at all, but they were not, and never claimed to be, technically brilliant. While the singing and music is amazing and almost glows, it’s not classically good. That revelation, as well as their unusual song structures and instrument arrangements allowed me to really open up and feel more relaxed and comfortable doing new things musically.

First concert that blew you away
There might have been something years ago that I can’t remember, but the most vivid concert I can think of was The Flaming Lips at Bonnaroo 2007. It wasn’t as much of a stage and a crowd as it was a whole, self contained universe of joy; and I wasn’t on nearly as many drugs as most. The crowd was so tightly packed and the sky so dark that it seemed like the field had been transformed. The Lips did the UFO stage theatrics and it was breath taking. When Wayne asked everyone to point laser pointers at him, only to reflect hundreds of red beams back at the crowd with a mirror, sweeping through the smoke like a giant red sunbeam, I realized that the only way I could ever see a show that was better would be if I saw a better Flaming Lips concert.

First time playing live
The first time I can remember playing live was in my band, Manchuria, from high school. We were an instrumental rock band and it was in the basement of my dad’s art gallery. We put up lots of fun colored lights and were the only band playing. The audience was mostly curious friends or girlfriends; however there were a few prominent musicians in the crowd, such as members of My Morning Jacket, which thinking back now is pretty crazy for a first show. We ended the show playing our half-joke hardcore song, “Don’t Chain Me”. It was the only one with vocals, sung by my friend and keyboardist Steven. The hardcore band was called Air Mattress and we only wrote that one song.

First tour (horror stories, unexpectedly great shows, etc)
Our first tour, as a three piece, was in Ohio during spring break. We had five shows, Columbus, Dayton, and three in Cleveland. When we arrived in Columbus, our first out of state show, there was no audience. The venue hadn’t promoted at all. The punk band, who was supposed to be the draw, got in a fight across town and wasn’t coming. We almost had to pay the sound guy $10 to play but the other act, an adult themed rapper dressed in a chef’s uniform, The Doughmaster, kindly paid both our ways. The only redeeming aspect of the whole night was that the rest of the tour couldn’t be as silly as that night.

First instrument you learned and/or first piece of equipment you loved
I really didn’t care for playing music when I was little. I did a few things in preschool, called kindermusic, but refused to take up the guitar or anything else until I was 15. Suddenly I wanted to play guitar and I still don’t know why. But it’s what I did and I’ve been in love with it ever since. If I go too long without playing it I start feeling what I guess would be withdraw symptoms, which is either really good or really silly.

First band you were a part of
My first band was called Manchuria. We played instrument rock and we were all sophomores or so in high school. The cool thing, thinking back, was that we (or at least I) had such little understanding about what kind of music we “should” make as an instrumental rock band that we ended up doing something that was actually really interesting and unique, as far as I’m concerned. It wasn’t brilliant, but it is something I can still listen to today and enjoy because it doesn’t really sound like any other bands I listen to. If I tried to do the same thing now I’m sure I’d have way too many ideas in my head about what the music should sound like, or how it should be that it wouldn’t be the same at all.

First time getting press and/or being interviewed
Hmm… For me personally it was when my high school band had a record review in the LEO newspaper in Louisville, KY. The review spent most of the time on our album art, however. Currently though I think Noisycrane first got press in the Wildcat Weekly’s column Between the Bars by Samantha Herald when she, out of the blue, found our website and started giving compliments or notices about our upcoming shows. It was a really weird and neat to see our name in unsolicited print.

First song you wrote and/or recorded
It was a song about a kitchen and giant rats and napkins and when I sing it sounds like a little kid screeching while a large hand is dragged on a chalkboard, all with too much gain. I believe I even put it up on Garageband.com for people to hear, and some people actually gave positive feedback! God, it’s really, really bad.

First awesome thing that happened solely because you were in a band
When we first got free beer or really cheap beer at venues