This week I sat down with Stephen MacDonald and the Okay Win, a band hailing from Boston Massachusetts. The band consists of Stephen MacDonald, Ryan Ward, James-Michael Craven and Matt Jones. The guys recently wrapped up a tour of the East Coast.
1. Where does the name Stephen MacDonald and the Okay Win come from? Were they any other band names tossed around?
MacDonald: Well, I started out just doing solo shows and kind of got bored with being limited to just that sound. I wanted to bring in a backing band that could play with me on occasion. Matt Jones and I were throwing around band names that mostly consisted of dick jokes and such. The Okay Win came up when Matt suggested “Stephen MacDonald Trio” and I said that I would maybe ask more people to play. He responded with “Okay, Win” in reference to Win Butler of Arcade Fire. I took it as…Okay, good point. Either way, we kind of liked how it sounded and just kept it. It was all an accident.
Jones: Steve and I spent awhile just shooting names back and forth, but like he said, The Okay Win was kind of a happy accident. I thought he got the joke, I didn’t find out until tour that he misunderstood what I meant, which made it that much better.
2. Who plays what instrument?
MacDonald: I play guitar and sing.
Jones: I play the drums.
Ward: Bass.
Craven: Guitar and backups.
3. How long have you guys known each other and how did you meet?
MacDonald: I have known Ryan and JM now for 6 years. We met on the first day of college and have been friends since. I met Matt my senior year of college. He was a freshman who came to an interest meeting for the school radio station, which I ran at the time.
Jones: Like Steve said, I met him the first week of my freshman year of College, and I met Ryan about a month later. Ryan was the Music Director for the radio station, and he started giving me CD’s to review. I eventually just started hanging out during his office hours, and then after he graduated I took his job. I actually don’t think I met JM until March of this past year, despite our going to the same school.
4. What are your influences? What are the influences of each band member? How did they mix to get your own sound?
MacDonald: I try not to rip off anyone’s sounds. As far as influences, I would say it’s more of a situation where I listen to bands that just make me want to write music. I really like Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Sam Cooke, etc. but I wouldn’t say we even come close to sounding like any of them. The music is so great though, it just becomes more of an inspiration. I listen to a lot of Kevin Devine, Pavement, Elliott Smith, David Bazan, etc. and I’m sure that they sub consciously slip into the music.
Jones: We’re all fans of bands like Wilco, Radiohead, Jimmy Eat World, and Sigur Ros. But then we definitely go off in different directions. I’m a huge fan of The Hold Steady, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, (Clouds Taste Metallic-era) Flaming Lips, The Weakerthans, The National, The Mountain Goats and Guided By Voices. For the most part just accessible rock-ish stuff. I have a huge hard-on for pop music, really literate lyrics and big drums, and most of those hit two out of three at least. I think that we follow through with that formula too for the most part. I mean, I know that I beat the shit out of my drums, so there’s one of them taken care of.
Ward: I’m kind of all over the place. Wilco, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Broken Social Scene and Nada Surf are my contemporary go to bands, but I’d have to say Motown, specifically James Jamerson, is probably my biggest influence on the bass. I listen to those songs with wonderment.
Craven: Yeah, all of our musical tastes are very similar, but we do draw from very different places. I’ve always listened to a lot of Alkaline Trio, Cursive and Coheed and such. I’m not sure how much of it translates into the songs, but I enjoy Dissonance.
5. What happens in the song making process? Who writes the lyrics? Who comes up with the music? Who arranges the music?
MacDonald: So far the process has been a bit one sided. Like I said, I started solo so I always just wrote music on my own. For this new record, I wrote everything with my acoustic. I brought the songs to the guys and we would flesh them out. If it felt like it should be a band song, we’d do it and if it felt that it should stay solo, I’d do it solo. I feel like in the future though, the writing process will be more collaborative though. Ryan, Matt, and JM are all super talented have a different ear for things than I do so getting a collective piece together would definitely be great. It may be harder, but I think the possibilities are good.
6. How much does a song change from a demo to record recording? 
MacDonald: Well since all the demos are acoustic, I would say a lot. The demos tend to be softer spoken and based on the lyrics. Once we started recording songs for the record things were heavier and more upbeat and I was yelling songs.
Ward: I’d write along to early demos of just Steve with an acoustic, and then a month later, there were new demos with Matt’s drums and the lyrics and structure is the same, but the approach is entirely different. Seeing the songs grow was inspiring. It was also really nice to be able to live with the songs for awhile; walk around with them, listen in the car, and then spend some time trying to write parts that would do the feel and content justice.
Craven: I found that during the recording of this album my guitar parts were the last thing added. I did my best to make sure not to add anything that would make the songs sound muddled.
7. What are your songs about?
MacDonald: It varies. The main thing I try to do is be honest and sincere. It’s easy to see when someone is singing something and they don’t mean it. They’ll just write something cliché about love or something and it just feels so forced. I’m not the smartest or most experienced person in the world, but I try to just take what I know and observe and put it out there in a way that makes sense to me. Whether it’s love, family, religion, politics, etc.
8. How do you describe your music to people?
MacDonald: People ask us that and I never know what to say. I don’t think it’s something completely out there, but I have a hard time pin pointing it.
Jones: It’s really tough to describe it. One of my friends said that we sound like an Americana band mixed with Fugazi. I really don’t know if I agree with that, to be honest. I guess the easiest thing to say is Folk-Rock, but I think we definitely have a bit of a heavier edge that we let in some times, as well as a kind of artistic edge.
Ward: I say rock n’ roll every time. As much as that’s a wildly vague categorization I think it works.
Craven: I generally laugh and say, “I don’t know…it’s fucking great.” I feel comfortable saying this too because Steve wrote these songs and as much as I play in the band, I absolutely believe it to be true.
9. What kind of gear did you use in the studio? Live? What’s the difference?
MacDonald: This was the 2nd record I have done, and was a much different process. I wanted to be more organized and do things I didn’t get to do on my first solo record. Recording was pretty basic. We did instruments track by track and I would do the solo songs live.
Jones: Well we recorded the album in our producer’s basement studio, just using the gear that we had. It’s not like we went out and rented any gear. However, Steve didn’t have his new amp yet, so he just used my Tweed Deluxe clone, which gives that really great on the edge of breakup sound to the guitar. There are almost no effects on the guitars on the album, except for a backing guitar on “In Spit” which has a little bit of delay on it. I fiddled with a delay pedal at the end of “Fiction” to get that ramping up sound too. A couple of tracks might have been done with our producer’s Crate Club 50 amp. The acoustics are just Steve’s 000 Martin, which we got a really cool tone from. We ended up using two mics on it, as well as the pickup he has in there which has an internal microphone as well. So there were really three acoustic guitar inputs. It really opened up the sound of the guitar, and made it have a really nice jangly but big tone. The entire album was recorded through a Presonus Firebox into Cubase SE. Just going to show that you can get a really decent sound from inexpensive equipment!
Craven: My equipment breaks, and Matt Jones fixes it.
10. How did the writing process for the new album go?
MacDonald: It was strange. I released my first record in the summer of 2008 and then went through a hard time and basically quit. I canceled all of my shows and moved to Chicago. I barely wrote and honestly had no desire to ever play again. I came back to Massachusetts in January though and started writing a bit here and there. I eased back into things with some shows and started to feel a bit inspired again. I still wasn’t sure if I’d record again and I never thought I’d have enough for a full length so soon. The songs came out of nowhere though in about a months span. It’s all still a blur to me and I can’t even remember writing some of them.
11. What was the tour like?
MacDonald: Tour was great. It was only 8 days, but for a band on there first tour I felt it was a good length. There were tough times and by the end we all just wanted to be out of the van and back home. Looking back on it though, I can say it was one of the most fruitful experiences of my life. To just get closer with the guys and become a real band. We played a wide variety of shows and in the end it really solidified that this is where I want to focus my time.
Jones: It was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. I freaked out a little bit during a portion, but that was my own doing. It was really cool seeing some different parts of the country that I hadn’t seen before. Being in a car for 16 hours in a single day was a bit unsettling, especially with the lack of sleep we had at that point, but it was definitely worth it. I think I’m still trying to get my internal clock back in line…
Ward: To be able to travel with these guys and play these songs every night is about as good as it gets.
Craven: One of the most long awaited experiences of my life. I feel so lucky to have been able to do it, and to do it with this group of dudes.
12. How was touring out of Mass different than in the state?
MacDonald: The main difference was just not knowing people. When in Mass, we know a lot of people who come and see us. On tour we had to win over people. I have a tendency to be a bit quiet so I had to scrap that and be a lot more outgoing than I normally am.
Jones: I honestly didn’t feel a huge amount of difference. Just a new day, a new town, and new people. Most of the people that came out to our shows were very much into the same stuff as the people that come out in Massachusetts, so it seemed we all had a launching pad for conversation.
Ward: more land, less Dunkin Donuts.
Craven: Besides playing in Plymouth and in Allston, almost everyone we played to were strangers. That was the big thing for me and some of them were the nicest strangers I’ve ever met.
13. What live performance experience have you had?
MacDonald: Playing live is a rush. We go up and rock out and when we walk off, I feel like it was a dream.
Jones: I’ve been in a few bands before this, but this is my first one that’s actually toured, and also the first that I’ve played drums in. I just get off on the experience of playing out and seeing people enjoying the show. It’s a really nice feeling.
Craven: It’s great when my shit doesn’t break.
14. How was the record release party?
MacDonald: It was amazing. I was super nervous since I had put it together and I wanted people to show up. I went on stage and looked out and it was packed. I was pretty shocked. We played the longest set we had ever played and the crowd was really into it. It felt like we were really a band that night.
Craven: One of the best times I’ve ever had.
15. Where are your up coming shows?
MacDonald: It’s slim right now as things are being planned and we’re all having to work. We have a show in Boston on September 23rd and one in Northampton, MA on October 2nd.
16. What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?
MacDonald: Definitely spontaneous and with Matt out at college now it’s harder to get together. We generally just play songs over and over until it feels good. I’d say overall, we don’t practice a lot.
Jones: I tend to ruin things that way. Over the summer we’d just practice whenever we really had time. We’d either play in my basement, or at a rehearsal studio in Cambridge that I’m pretty sure we weren’t really supposed to be in. I was working two jobs, Ryan had erratic hours, Steve and JM were working too, so it just kind of complicated things. I’m in my senior year of college, so after this May things should hopefully get more organized, and seeing how the job market is shit, I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble for us to practice without the usual 9-5 schedules hindering things.
Ward: It’s hard, but in a way I think it forces the time we have together to be fruitful.
Craven: It’s tough.
17. If you guys were to describe yourself in simple word choice what would you say?
MacDonald: Slate
Jones: Passionate
Ward: Living
Craven: Really?
18. What’s your most embarrassing experience?
MacDonald: Hmm…I have no idea.
Jones: I don’t know if it is as embarrassing as it was startling, but walking into a room of 50 college freshmen girls eating popsicles in Pennsylvania was certainly a weird one. A bird shitting on Steve in Philly was pretty ridiculous too.
Ward: Inaudibly playing “Could Gamble” in NYC for a good twenty seconds before I realizing something was up with my bass.
19. Who screws up the most live?
MacDonald: We’ve all screwed up, but we’ve always made it through and the crowd never knows.
Jones: I’m pretty hard on myself when I fuck up. I have a tendency to drop sticks when I get really into it, which is fairly often. I’ll blame being off time on Monitors every time.
Ward: We all have our moments.
Craven: I’d wager it’s me, but I play well when my shit doesn’t break.
20. How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo cd?
MacDonald: A proper website is being worked on but for now they can go to myspace.com/stephenmacdonaldmusic or stephenmacdonald.muxtape.com
21. What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
MacDonald: The biggest challenge so far has just been breaking into the Boston area I guess. We’ve done pretty well so far for only being a band for a few months. With people having so much access to new music, I feel like even though it’s easier to find new bands, it’s harder for people to really like a new band because they are constantly bombarded with things. I realize that taking this somewhere is going to be a process, and the first step is becoming one of the respected Boston bands. That is my main goal right now
22.Anything you would like to ad?
Jones: Unfortunately, Slate Powers, the backbone of our band wasn’t able to make it for our interview. We can only assume that he is busy on the Jersey Shore.
For each member
What was the one song you wish you had written?
MacDonald: A lot. I would say currently…Via Chicago by Wilco. The live version is amazing.
Jones: This is going to sound really bad, but “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. There are two reasons though; #1. It’s an AWESOME pop song. Just the way it is written is incredible, the key change comes in at the perfect moment, and it just kills me every time. #2. I’d have a butt load of cash, which isn’t everything, but hey, we could have a fleet of 1998 Dodge Caravans to tour in instead!
Ward: “You Can Call Me Al”
Craven: “What have I done?” by Cursive, “Killbot 2000” or “End of the Line” by Murder By Death
The James Lipton questions
What sound or noise do you love?
MacDonald: The combined notes for the “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” theme. It always makes me happy.
Jones: The drum sound on “Clouds Taste Metallic” by the Flaming Lips and “Pinkerton” by Weezer. It’s just raw and huge and booming. I eventually want to get into production, and those are the golden tones in my mind.
Ward: Soft breeze through the trees.
Craven: A very specific wind chime. It exists in Somerville, and is the most beautiful sound in existence.
What sound or noise do you hate?
MacDonald: When people sigh…It makes me tense up.
Jones: The Dave Matthews Discography.
Ward: A ringing alarm clock.
Craven: Babies Crying? Pop Country? They sound the same.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
MacDonald: I used to want to be a surgeon. Obviously I’ve chosen a different route. I have a backup plan of owning a Christmas tree farm. Maybe be a chef too or work for NPR.
Jones: It’s my dream to work as a Producer or Engineer in a recording studio, or to build and fix guitars for a living. Either one would do, I’m not that picky.
Ward: I’d like to own a coffeehouse.
Craven: Botanist
What profession would you not like to attempt?
MacDonald: I have worked in the customer service field for most of my young working life. I would rather not have to attempt that anymore.
Jones: Anything where I’m in a cubicle.
Ward: Anything in an assembly line.
Craven: Anything involving septic systems.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
MacDonald: I have no idea…
Jones: “Just Kidding” then a fall back into that little notch of hell that is already reserved for me.
Ward: “Ryan, you old dog.”
Craven: “Hi JM, look at me, I’m totally not imaginary or anything. No, seriously, I’m absolutely real.” Then I’d make him prove it having him make it rain candy. Similar how the little kid in Kazaam makes Shaq prove he’s a genie.
Well guys thanks again for your time.
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I love the okay win. i love to know how the names come about. its funny!