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Q&A with Head Automatica lead singer Daryl Palumbo

By Liam McCabe
Posted: 4/17/07, 11:10 PM EST Section: Pulp
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Indie dance-rock band Head Automatica will play Schine Underground tonight, bringing to a close University Union's Bandersnatch Concert series. The show begins at 8 p.m., with local electric-pop group Fat Camp opening. The Daily Orange had a chance to chat with Head Automatica's lead singer Daryl Palumbo.



What appeals to you most about playing college shows?

It's cool to play to a smaller audience in an intimate setting, and it's definitely cool to play to a crowd of people with a common thing, like all going to school together. I can talk to everybody about that common bond, and it feels like we're hanging out more than other kinds of shows.



A lot of people feel that the songs on your latest album, "Popaganda," aren't as dancy as your first record "Decadence." Was this a conscious decision?

I was just kind of writing a particular style of music, and I just wanted to get it out there for everybody. I was trying to write, you know, pop, and it definitely is a little different than "Decadence." But I wasn't trying to make it more or less dancy. It's definitely a dancy record, but in a different respect than the previous material.



So do you want to see everybody dancing tomorrow night?

Oh hell yeah, man. That's what it's all about, everybody having a good time at the show.



There are rumors floating around about a new Head Automatica EP coming out before your other band Glassjaw gets back together. Any details?

They both may be happening at the same time, and it's not an EP anymore; it's a full album, and it'll be released around the same time as the new Glassjaw album, sometime pretty soon. There's also going to be something out by House of Blow (Daryl's hip-hop/electronic project with Hatebreed guitarist Sean Martin).



What made you decide to bring Glassjaw back from hiatus?

Glassjaw never really went on hiatus, I just wasn't doing that band as much. We played shows and wrote material, but it just happened that I was doing Head Automatica a lot. I'm just doing more with Glassjaw than I have for a while. It's not a conscious decision for me to do one band at a time, it just kind of happens, you know?



You've worked with a laundry list of bands and artists, is there anybody else in particular you'd like to work with?

Yeah, I dunno, plenty of people, but Men Women & Children, Mastercraft and We Are the Fury, mainly.



A few dozen Syracuse students were sued by the RIAA recently. As an artist, how do you feel about illegal downloading?

I mean, it's stealing, but everybody seems to do it. It seems to be impossible to do anything about it. I don't know if it really can be stopped. It can definitely help smaller bands, just to get their names out, but it might hurt larger bands. Like, a small band doesn't sell that many records, anyway, so it won't hurt them as much if people download it instead, but a bigger band loses a lot of record sales. I mean, I've downloaded illegally before. A lot of people I know have, too, even though they speak out against it.



If you go

What: Head Automatica

Where: Schine Underground

When: Tonight at 8

How much: $5 with SU ID, $10 without
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