Duos are the new trios. The White Stripes, Fiery Furnaces, Black Keys, and now Brooklyn-based Shy Child all prove that less can sometimes be more. Although drummer Nate Smith and keyboardist Pete Cafarella used to employ a complicated array of synths, computers, and drum machines to flesh out their sound, they've since stripped their sound to the basics. This simplification was necessary, they felt, to get to the essence of their music - and to make live shows less of a hassle.

Shy Child's sound is largely beat-oriented, with melody sprinkled on as an afterthought to groove and energy. Techno, prog, and punk are the obvious touchstones, the band resembling an electro clash version of Yes at times. When I saw the duo in late August, the two were getting ready for the release of their sophomore album One With the Sun on the fledgling imprint Say Hey. The two are close friends, and often finished each other's thoughts. Defensive, antagonistic, and with a sarcastic sense of humor, Pete was the more outspoken of the two. Nate spoke quietly and with less assurance, but was a strong, brooding presence. I got the feeling that the only time he really expressed himself was through his drumming, a mesmerizing display of voodoo rhythms not seen or heard since Mitch Mitchell or Can's Jaki Leibezeit.

How long have you guys been around?

Pete: We've been around a while.

Nate: Four years.

But your record is just coming out now?

Nate: We had a couple other records come out on a Canadian label [Grenadine]. One came out in 2002, and we had an EP last year.

How did you guys meet each other?

When I first heard you guys I thought you were a part of the electro clash scene. But now that I see how you're dressed, and that you have a live drummer....

Pete: We were never part of that at all.

Tonight I thought it sounded more prog than anything else. Like [German power trio] Triumverat.

Pete: Yeah, we used to be a lot more into prog. A couple years ago we listened to a lot of that stuff, but I still like it. Our older records have a lot more prog stuff on them.

Were you guys in bands before this?

Pete: Nate and I played in this band El Guapo on Dischord. This was in '96 or '97. But it's a totally different band now, like Amon Duul and Amon Duul 2.

A band that sounds like Amon Duul on Dischord?

Pete: No, I mean, the difference between the two versions of the band. We didn't sound anything like Amon Duul 2.

How did Dischord find you?

Pete: We just recorded our record and Ian McKaye liked it.

Nate: He just came and saw us a bunch of times. It was great. There's tons of good bands there.

Did you guys feel like you were part of a scene at all?

Pete: No. We have bands that we like. We have friends in bands. There's not a word for it or anything, which is fine by me. I don't want a word for it.

If you guys lived in DC, I can assume you have a tolerance for punk.

Pete: I have a very high tolerance for punk. Not so much, like, indie rock.

Nate: But we don't come from any background.

Pete: We play all kinds of music. We were like jazz nerds.

Nate: I did all kinds of things, I was in a punk band in college.

[Mishearing him] A funk band?

Nate: Punk.

Pete: We played funk tastefully. Not punk funk necessarily.

Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Nate: We wish.

Pete: But I wasn't in punk bands when I was like 12.

Nate: I didn't even know what that shit was until I went to college.

Who runs Say Hey Records?

Pete: Aaron Romanello.

Nate: We played a show with Inouk at sine last year and he was there. He told us he was starting a new label.

It seems well funded.

Pete: He's really organized and serious about it.

Nate: He's also has worked at record labels for a while.

Pete: Yeah, he works at French Kiss.

Nate: He's worked at Arena Rock.

French Kiss has employees?

Pete: Oh yeah. I was there a month ago and it's like a real, full-on office.

I overheard you telling someone you were getting surgery tomorrow?

Nate: Yeah, I've been getting kidney stones, so I'm getting this gland taken out so hopefully I won't have them. I had one last summer and it was really bad so I called Pete and told him I needed to go to the hospital. But then the phone died and I passed out. The painful part about it is that it's like crystallized calcium that forms in your kidney and goes all the way through your urinary system. It starts in the kidney, and then it goes through a tiny tube to your bladder until it gets dislodged and comes out.

How long does the pain last?

Nate: I had one for five weeks. One of them, I barely even felt it until it came out. What you're supposed to do is just like drink water all the time. If it gets too big, they have to break it up, which I've had to do twice.

Pete: I can't think of a less pleasant topic.

Nate: And there's nothing you can do to get more comfortable.

Tell me about the new album.

Pete: It's songs we've been playing for a year now. But we're not sick of them yet. We'll get sick of them soon.

Nate: We've done that a lot. Like, write songs, play them for a while, and get sick of them before we get a chance to put them out.

Mark Griffey
October 6, 2004