After a rainout kept them from taking the stage at Governors Ball last year, The Backfires returned to Flushing Meadows this weekend with a fresh perspective. The transatlantic indie-rock band is gearing up for the release of their new album, fresh off the launch of their latest single, "Super 8," and preparing to hit the road across the U.S. with Dogstar in August.

Following their Day 1 set, Shaky Cam caught up with the band to talk about the year that changed everything, from new music and touring plans to the importance of physical media in an increasingly digital world.

Jonah: Since you’re playing together as brothers, what’s that dynamic like creatively? Are you harder on each other or more understanding because you’re family?

Kieran: We’ve been doing this brother thing for decades now, so it’s really been a journey. When I was 14 and Dermot was 16, we never would’ve been able to do this. In our 20s, we actually lived together while we were both coming up as actors. We stopped fighting after the high school years, and now this has become the easiest collaboration you can imagine. It’s completely simpatico.

We have very similar musical instincts. We sing together in that Everly Brothers style, harmony on almost every note we play. Having the same musical upbringing and instincts makes everything easy. We barely even have to talk about what we’re going to do. We just do it, and it comes out fully formed.

Dermot: In a snapshot our process is that Kieran brings us a fully formed song, that song is missing a band so we add to it, Kieran’s lyrics are already written he knows them already he’s not cribbing off a sheet or anything. 

The rest of us have a very clear assignment: make this a country song. For me, getting to add harmonies that instinctively land where they’re supposed to is incredibly gratifying. I get to fit into the song and help it become what it’s meant to be, which is this blended baritone harmony country duo sound.

We’re really proud of our sound, because it’s been part of our lives for so long. And it makes for a great live show too, so come on out to the Sellersville show.

• 
  “Like James Said” is such a fun way to start the record. How do you decide what opens an album? We knew as soon as the arrangement was settled that it would be the first tune. Something about the way those opening chords sounded, everyone in the room agreed, “Thats gotta be the first song on the album”. It sounds like something getting started. It grabs you and pulls you in and that is what you want from the first song on an album. 

• You’ve been making music as U.S. Girls for nearly twenty years. If you could go back and change anything about your debut, what would it be? And if not, what’s something you did back then that may be unconventional, but you still stand by? I wouldn’t change a damn thing about my debut album even though I recorded it with each track in the red. Back then, I thought that “red” meant it was properly recording. I still stand by that, it was right for me at that time. No shame. 

• My first introduction to you was through In A Poem Unlimited. What record do you think represents you most truthfully? Each record I’ve made has been a little time capsule that preserves my age, where I lived, who I was collaborating with, how far along with my singing studying I was, etc. Each album is a snap shot of certain facts, but who I am truthfully, who the hell knows?! I don’t think that’s something I could ever really represent in art.

• What’s been your favorite release so far this year? Or alternatively, your most surprising favorite of the year? Sister Smile by Lightman and Lightman

• A few songs off the new record have harmonica, but in “Bookends” it’s especially sick. At what point writing that song were you like, “yeah this needs harmonica”? Once the songs were solid and the instrument palette set, harmonica became the apparent soloing instrument to feature. I had never worked with harmonica and making an album in Nashville and all, it felt like such the obvious choice that it wasn’t even a choice at all. It was just the logical thing to do.

• What is your approach to songwriting? What do you see first when you’re constructing the song? I have no set approach to songwriting. It’s a case by case basis. But more often than not, it starts with an event or experience in my life that I have the need to process and exorcise.

So, you guys are getting ready to drop your debut album soon. What made you choose Fields to be that final single push before the release?

Josh: When we went into the studio to begin recording all these songs, we picked four of our favorites that we wanted to release as singles and worked on them first. But as time went on and we began finishing the other songs we started falling in love with how they were sounding and Fields was one that really stuck out to us. When we were sent the masters of all the songs we listened to them separately and I’m pretty sure we all texted in our group chat saying that Fields made us cry. It’s definitely one of our favorites and we felt like it would be a great one to share with the world before the album to give everyone a taste of what to expect.