“They’re such kind people, and their fanbase has been so attentive and wonderful to play in front of. It’s been a breeze. We’d never even met one another before this run of dates. They were doing some festival shows over here, so they added some club shows in between. We had some mutual friends and were available for those dates – that’s all it took.”
Since the inception of Into It. Over It., Weiss has fluctuated between working entirely on his lonesome to collaborating with various musicians to help create intricately arranged and wonderfully heartfelt indie rock with elements of emo, folk and Americana. Having completed several releases under this guise – including Standards this past March – it seems to be working for him. Weiss notes that the idea of moving in and out of musical modes is liberating – and, in certain circumstances, convenient. “It helps with things like going to Australia, for instance,” he says.
“It’s very expensive for bands to come to Australia – so, by me coming down for a short tour by myself, that will hopefully lead to coming back next year and bringing the entire band. The other guys in my band are also in a band, and they’re heading out on tour around the exact same time that I was booked to come to Australia. It’s convenient for me to be able to continue doing shows solo when the band isn’t available, instead of stopping everything entirely.”
Standards marks the third studio album from Into It. Over It., with Weiss writing all the songs and arrangements save for the drums – those were taken care of by long-time collaborator Josh Sparks, who has played with Weiss on and off for over four years. Although it’s just over six months since Standards‘ release, Weiss is still getting himself acquainted with the album from a live perspective.
“Josh and I took a retreat to Vermont, where we wrote the album in this beautiful snowy cabin,” says Weiss. “We recorded the album in San Francisco about four or five months later, and it was only then that we were able to start properly looking at the songs from a performance standpoint. I’ve honestly never been able to perform songs before they’ve been record – there are still songs from Standards that I haven’t completely gotten around to navigating as solo versions. When I’m playing some of the newer songs in Australia, it’s going to be for the first time in a couple of instances.”
Weiss will perform in Australia for the first time ever. He hopes to keep the sets as intimate and flexible as possible, accommodating to fans both old and new. “I’ve never been to Australia before, and I know that there have been people there that have wanted me to come for a long time,” he says. “With that in mind, I’m going to do my best to rehearse as much of my catalogue as I can – so if anyone has a song in particular they really want to hear, I want to be able to play it for them regardless of how old it might be.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
