Interview with Clark Beggs of Stop Motion Poetry

We recently got to talk to Clark Beggs of the California indie band, Stop Motion Poetry. Take a look at what he had to say, there’s even some talk about making their album, future plans and One Direction. You can check out their music on iTunes and view their full HRC feature here!

Describe your music for us:
“To describe our genre, we usually say indie-pop, it’s not quite fully like ‘new-band, lets have some pop music – gonna be like what you hear on the radio’ necessarily. People tell us we sound kinda like Death Cab or Snow Patrol, along those lines.”

You were recently featured in our Some Nights Cover Wars and won by nearly 400 votes, anything to say to all the fans that voted?
“Um yeah, they’re awesome! And we’re surprised, we didn’t even know we were in the Cover Wars until you posted it – so we were pretty stoked to do that. So yeah, you guys are pretty cool.”

Are there any big plans for the new year?

“Yeah, we’re going to Seattle in January and we’re planning on going out to the Southwest in March, we did that a couple years ago.  We haven’t really thought that far ahead.”

If the band was a family, what role would each member play?
“I guess I would be the father, Spencer would be the kid because he still is a kid – he’s not even 18 yet. Jian would have to be my wife – he’s the only one not related to me, and Devin could be the bad child.”

We saw you auditioned for America’s Got Talent, what all can you tell us about that?
“We’re really not supposed to say much of anything apparently, it’s kinda lame. All we’re really allowed to say is that we auditioned, we had fun!”

What is the most rewarding thing you’ve experienced as a band so far?
“It’s really rewarding to finish a song, a lot of times people in the band have different things that they want in a song so usually when everyone’s happy, it’s a good vibe, it’s a good song. There’s usually a good level of tension that comes with completing a song – not like we’re scratching each others guitars or anything like that! But, everyone has something they want out of it, so it’s just really rewarding to finish that. Also playing in front of more than 10 people is pretty rewarding.”

You guys self released your debut album, what was that process like?
“Well, we started recording it maybe like five years ago? Which is a long time because we were working with a producer in LA who basically gave us a really good deal. But then that means we’re not a huge priority either, so we got really good quality stuff that took a long time – just because we got fit in whenever he had time; which was awesome of him. His name’s Mikal Blue, he produced like Colbie Caillat’s first big album, so he’s a busy guy.

Now-a-days it’s pretty easy to put an album out – as far as getting it out on iTunes and things like that. So we did that and bought some physical albums for shows. Other than that, I don’t know, it took us five years to get it and figure it out!”

Your FB page mentioned that you’ve worked with some big names like Bruno Mars and Natasha Bedingfield, what was that like?
“Oh! In both of those cases, we were playing in more intimate venues. When we played with Bruno Mars it was actually the day that they signed their record deal so they were still kind of a secret to LA I guess you could say. I didn’t know who they were at the time, I got to meet Bruno and it was cool we got to see them play a full band set – like he didn’t even play any of his big hits ‘cause they hadn’t finished that album yet.

Natasha Bedingfield was also just her singing and a guitar. Then we had to go on right after her which was of course awkward. It was really cool, she was really nice, we actually knew who she was at the time and really liked her music already before she took the stage. So it was really kinda cool to hear her in like a 50 person venue.”

Since we’re from Honest Reviews Corner, what’s your “honest review” on One Direction?
“My honest review of One Direction? Well, I don’t really know too much about them, and I’m not personally a fan. There’s a lot of like super duper pop artist like that, that I don’t like because they don’t write their own music – I don’t know if they do or not but I’m going to venture a guess and say they don’t. But they’re commercial with Drew Brees is pretty funny though, gained a tiny bit of respect out of that one.”