Midtown Dickens began as a collaborative effort between Kym Register and Catherine Edgerton, who used instruments they found in dumpsters and friends’ houses. Now, the band has four members and is finishing up a national fall tour. In April, Midtown Dickens released its third album, Home.
Dive staffer Meghan DeMaria spoke with Register about the band’s origins and future plans.
Diversions: In an NPR post from February, Laurin Penland wrote that your band is known for playing instruments the band found in someone’s basement. What was the idea, and what instruments were found?
Kym Register: It’s a little different now, but in the beginning in 2005, we just found a lot of instruments. Catherine found a banjo in a dumpster. But it’s different now. I bought a banjo that I’m caring for. It started off like that — people gave us instruments, or we found instruments. It developed into this other, eclectic instrumentation. But now we have nicer instruments we care about a lot more.
Dive: Where did you come up with your band name?
KR: Again, this was like seven years ago. Like all band names, it just sort of came out of thin air. We found this book in Berkeley, Calif., when we were living there. It was a Charles Dickens book on the side of the road, and it became a Bible for us. We’d open it up and ask a question, and it would give us an answer.
Dive: What sort of questions were those?
KR: There was one time we were playing pool, and I asked what my future was for the pool game. Just open-ended questions you would ask tarot cards.
Dive: Who are some of your musical influences?
KR: We all have different ones, but I listen to a lot of Neko Case and Fleetwood Mac. Honestly, a bunch of local people like Des Ark. I’ve known about her music for 10 years. And Megafaun. Local bands influence me more directly, because we know all these people. And Mount Moriah.
Dive: Where did you get the inspiration for your video for “Walk, Don’t You Run”? What did you want viewers to take away from it?
KR: The song is about living in the moment, just stepping back and enjoying where you are instead of thinking about where you’re going. That video is a 20 second shot spread out over two minutes. It’s about being in the moment, and that’s a big moment. And there’s a play on “Don’t run around the pool, or you’ll fall and end up hurt.” It was crazy — the water was 55 or 60 degrees, and we thought it would be warmer than that. We were trying to fish stuff out of the bottom of the pool, and it was really cold.
Dive: The band began as you and Catherine. How did you find other people to join?
KR: Will Hackney just sort of came around. We played with him and some members of Megafaun at a benefit, and he sort of just stuck around. Our friend Michelle started playing with us because we wanted a drummer, and Jonathan’s been a friend for a really long time. It’s about being open to what the universe brings you.
Dive: What are your plans after the tour?
KR: That’s really open-ended. We’re not really sure. We’re having a really big show at the Haw River Ballroom with Matthew E. White that we’re really excited about. That’s the end of the year for us, and after that we’re all going to still keep playing music somehow, but we’re not sure what we’re going to do.
Dive: So you’re taking the spirit of that video and living in the moment in terms of your career.
KR: That’s exactly what we’re doing. We all love music and will keep playing. We just don’t know how it will be yet.
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