“With Signs & Wonders” album cover
Street Clothes exploded onto the Savannah scene in 2015, and so far this year they’ve been tapped for Savannah Stopover and have now released their debut album, With Signs & Wonders, which was recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by Peter Mavrogeorgis at Dollhouse Productions.
The record is now available via iTunes and a vinyl release is planned for sometime in early summer.
Here’s the official video for “Five Minutes”:
We did a little q+a recently with Street Clothes’ lead singer Andrew Sutphen.
hissing lawns: So what’s the backstory on Street Clothes?
Andrew Sutphen: When I first moved here I had a band with a girl named Ella Jane Thomas, I wrote the songs and she sang and I played guitar…eventually I wanted to put a bigger band together but Ella wanted it to stay a two piece even though I was a much better songwriter than I was a guitarist. So me and Jimmy and Austin kind of founded the band. Then Veronica came and she kind of whipped us into shape. Then Dave got in when our drummer moved. We kind of started as this loud garagey rock band. We were pretty raw, which is the nicest way to put it. Then Peter [Mavrogeorgis of Dollhouse Productions] got his hands on us and kind of made us sound like the band we all wanna sound like, if that makes any sense.
A lot of the songs on the record are songs that I was playing before the band started and most of this record we’ve been playing since day one….but “Disruptor” and “Smells like Sex” I wrote in Street Clothes. But really all the songs eventually become Street Clothes’ songs. I write them, then Veronica and Dave kind of transpose them to fit us, and then Austin and Jimmy put the guitars on top. Then it sounds like us.
hl: I’ve only had a chance to see you guys a couple of times, but it seemed like there was an especially strong crowd response to “Viktoria”? What’s the story behind that song?
AS: Viktoria was a woman I was crazy about in New York. She was the manager of a very prominent NYC restaurant I won’t name…anyway she was married and had a kid. She was Lithuanian and very tough. She had lived through some crazy shit, she was only 25 or so and probably five foot three but the whole restaurant was scared of her. She was pretty intimidating. And of course she was really mean to me, so I fell in love immediately. In the chorus I say “The one thing i can’t get my hands on.” that pretty much sums it up.
hl: With Signs & Wonders — why that name for the record?
AS: The chorus to “War as Art” goes: “It’s here with signs and wonders, at the door you can hear it if you listen, it’s here with slings and arrows at the door you can hear it if you listen. It’s here…. listen listen listen.” The song is about how terrible people are from the viewpoint of a madman. It’s a song from the perspective of a crazy person, like that guy who carries the sign “The end is near” or whatever and walks around Forsyth Park yelling about Jesus. Like if he got into power.
hl: Now that this record is out in the world, what’s next for Street Clothes?
AS: The next move for us is to get real weird with it. We want to do more dancy, creepy, weird shit. If that makes sense. A lot of this record is really fun and eclectic and I just wanna get super dancy and weird now that it’s done. A lot of bass and drums. We’ll see if the band goes for it….This thing kind of goes where it wants and none of us really have any control over it.
A few shots from the hissing lawns archives of shows at The Jinx and on the patio at The Rail for Savannah Stopover:
