Small Brown Bike formed in Marshall, Michigan in 1996. They went on to release two full-lengths with No Idea and another with Lookout! Records before disbanding in 2004. The band got back together three years later and just last month released their first new album in nearly eight years, entitled Fell & Found. We met with singer/guitarist Mike Reed after Small Brown Bike’s recent show at Subterranean and discussed the new record, the band’s relationship with No Idea, Krazy Fest and more. The band’s lineup also includes guitarist/singer Travis Dopp, bassist/singer Ben Reed and drummer Dan Jaquint. 

Bill – After breaking up in 2004, you guys got back together in 2007 and began working on new music in 2009. What were some of the factors that led to the band reuniting?

Mike – I guess it was a slow process. Over the years we all kept in touch and we’ve been friends ever since. There was probably an inkling that we would make music together again, but nobody really talked about it. It wasn’t a priority because we were all doing other music and stuff. In 2009 we had time, we had some songs and it just really all came together. It was one of those things like, “Yeah, why not? Let’s try it and see how it goes.” When we got in the basement and started writing stuff it immediately made sense. The bottom line was that everybody was having fun doing it. It wasn’t like, “Alright, we’re gonna get back and go on the road for five months and do all this stuff.” We wanted to write new music, put out a record, play some shows every once in a while, and that was it. Everybody knew kind of the rules from the beginning, so it was nice. Not a lot of pressure.

Bill – That makes sense. Tell me about recording Fell & Found with J. Robbins at Million Yen Studios.

Mike – It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a studio. I’ve always respected him and his music, and have always been a fan of everything he’s produced and recorded for years. I’ve always wanted to make a record with J. The first day was just getting used to J. being there. I’d maybe met him at shows or something like that, but we didn’t really know each other. It took me a day or so to get used to him being there. He was just the nicest, most personable guy and very hard-working. We worked 12 to 14-hour days on the record because we only had six days to put it all together. Watching him work, he’s just top-notch. He got along with all of us really well. All of us have different personalities and different ways that we work in the studio. He was just right in-sync with all of us. Then when he sang on the record it was like the most mind-blowing thing. It was unreal to hear his voice on our stuff. I was really proud of the four of us too, because we didn’t have a lot of time to all be together like we used to, working on songs. The four of us just had a good time and enjoyed it a lot. I think that shows where we’re at these days. Everybody respects each other and what they’re doing and has fun. 

Bill – That sounds like a really positive experience. The first song, “Onward & Overboard,” has some of the album’s most memorable lyrics. Specifically, the line “You are the ocean and I am the sea, what drowns in you will float in me.” What exactly are you trying to convey with those words?

Mike – We’re all different people. We’re all a lot older and to me the whole record is a lot more optimistic lyrically. Even the title “Fell & Found” just kind of gets at the whole idea of bad things happen and trying to look at them in a good light. That lyric kind of touches on the whole thing of like something might be going bad, but I’m here for you. To me, it sets the tone for the whole record. A lot of the lyrics through the record kind of go on that. There are hard times, but we can get through them.

Bill – I think that’s a message that will definitely resonate with a lot of people. “In Need of Everything” features prominent and unique guitar leads. What inspired you to create such distinctive guitar tones? 

Mike – I specifically remember the beginning tone on the guitar was J.’s idea. I had it dialed-in at more of a dirtier, all distortion kind of thing. He was like, “You know, let’s try something a little different.” So, we moved some mics around, changed the tone of the amp a little bit, switched the pickup and it immediately made sense. It just kind of had a softer, more tube-like sound to it. Travis wrote the lead parts on it. That’s why I love how the four of us work together, because I would’ve never written that. I would’ve never thought of that part. Travis kind of plays things in a different way, whether it’s picking it backwards or I don’t know. He likes to do a lot of single-note stuff. It just works. A lot of it was kind of a surprise for us too. There were parts we left open that we wanted to make more solid in the studio. That was one of them where the song kind of all came together in the studio.

Bill – That’s great that it can happen spontaneously like that. “All of Us” is one of the most personal songs on the album. What motivated you to write its lyrics? 

Mike – Like I said, we’ve all grown a lot in the last five years really. We’ve all been doing different things. To me, that song touches on some of what our other songs have done. It definitely talks about family and friends in a way that’s kind of reflective looking back. It’s about everybody in our whole circle of friends and family, and how we’re all shaping and shifting our lives in different ways, but we’re all still together here. The whole idea behind the song is that it’s got three parts. There are three verses that go back to back to back, and those are kind of like stages in our lives. It reflects and builds up and by the end it turns into this wall of stuff. That was one that we always loved playing in practice and it was another one that came together in the studio.

Bill – Fell & Found is a complete work in that all the songs work together, complement each other and flow from one to the next. Did you intentionally write the album like that or did it just happen on its own?

Mike – I don’t think anything was intentional with this record. Some of these songs are a year and a half, two years old, and some just came up a couple months before we got in the studio. It all started to take shape really as we were at the studio. We knew what was kind of going on, but we didn’t have any kind of order or album title or artwork until we started to put all the pieces together. I’m really proud of how it turned out. For the amount of work and where we are in our lives right now, I can’t believe that we made it happen. We were only in the studio for less than a week.

Bill – Your bassist Ben designed the artwork and took all the photos for Fell & Found. Was there a specific theme or concept he was going for? 

Mike – That was the benefit of doing that stuff afterwards. He got to sit with all the lyrics and focus on them and pull out some themes. He’s really good at photography and design. We gave him some ideas as far as color themes and at that point Ben just kind of ran with it. He keeps things somewhat sparse, but like the lyric sheets for the LP, I just saw those yesterday for the first time and they’re really, really cool. Not a lot of people do this anymore, but just to sit with the record and actually listen to it and read lyrics, to me it’s a nice aesthetic experience. When you have it, vinyl looks really good. It’s rare that I’m completely happy with an album, I’m such a perfectionist, but it’s cool to see it all come together for this one. 

Bill – That’s awesome. What do you like best about releasing music with No Idea?

Mike – I just love how real they are and how they’ve kept it real for over 25 years. They love music, they love what they do and that’s it. It’s just simple. What’s going on in the bigger picture of the music scene or what’s popular now has never been an issue. They just put out music that they love. Variety has always been important to them and to me too. I don’t listen to all the same kind of music; I listen to all kinds of stuff. With No Idea, you never know what you’re going to get out of a No Idea release. That’s why I really, really respect them. They were there from the very beginning. We would not be where we are today if it wasn’t for them randomly pulling our seven-inch out of a pile. It just goes from there.

Bill – Having played Fest in Gainesville, Florida numerous times, what in particular do you enjoy about performing at the event?

Mike – When we went back in 2007, I was shocked because I never looked at us as a big band. We never were. We never sold-out huge theaters or anything. In Gainesville and its surrounding areas, it’s just an awesome family and group of people. We had kind of stepped out of that whole No Idea community by not releasing records for a while, but we went back to Fest and there were like 1,500 people at the theater. We played right before Seaweed, who’s one of my favorite bands, and it was just a mind-blowing experience. Granted those people weren’t there just for us, but it was cool to have that response from a community that was still there and that had obviously grown. It’s always fun playing there. 

Bill – That sounds like a really incredible show. You guys have played shows with everyone from At the Drive-In to Jimmy Eat World to Cursive. Is there a particular band that you learned the most from?

Mike – I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I was looking through all the old shows because we just put them on our website. Just being back in the band and playing with The Casket Lottery. They’re some of our oldest friends in music. To me those were always the most influential bands, the ones that we toured with and the ones that we were closest with. With The Casket Lottery, we’ve done splits, written music together and toured together. I’m always inspired by their music. Going back, Hot Water Music was obviously a big influence. I remember my first time going to see them. Randomly, somebody was like, “You gotta see this band!” There were like 15 people at the show. I got lucky to see that moment in time. At the Drive-In was another one. I was watching old At the Drive-In videos recently. I remember seeing them playing in front of a little room full of people and it was just mind-boggling. I love the way they wrote music too. It wasn’t just power chords and stuff. It was coming out of left field, whatever was going to come out of their amps. Twelve Hour Turn was another band. I loved everything they did. They always had cool, interesting parts and they always just did cool stuff.

Bill – What are you looking forward to in regards to playing Krazy Fest this year in Louisville, Kentucky?

Mike – We’ve played it twice and it’s always been a fun time. It’s been eight years since we played Krazy Fest, so it will be interesting to see who’s going to be there. The bands are amazing, so that’s going to be awesome. I’m just curious to see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. I’m looking forward to it. I always loved playing Louisville and just hanging out in Louisville. It’s such a cool town. Krazy Fest always had something funny, hilarious or goofy that was going on. I’m curious to see what that will be this year.

Bill – What else do you guys have planned for 2011? 

Mike – We’ve got Krazy Fest next week and we’ve got a show in June that we’re doing. It’s a benefit for a skatepark in Marshall where we all grew up. We’re playing Fest. We might schedule something in the fall or something like that, but we’re just taking it month by month because everyone’s schedules are kind of hectic. There’s definitely talk about starting to write some new music. We did those Composite seven-inches for No Idea. We did two volumes of those and we just recorded them in Dan’s basement. We’re talking about getting the third one of those together and maybe doing another seven-inch or something this summer. The big thing was getting the record out, getting that done, so now it feels good to have it out. Playing these shows is kind of like the next step. We’ll see after that.