The Los Angeles Review of Books Interviews the black watch

John Andrew Fredrick, the longstanding leader of LA’s the black watch, recently participated in an interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books that examined his career fronting the band as well as his literary efforts. “There’s a manic energy to Fredrick’s thought processes,” writes interviewer John McIntyre in the interview’s preface, “blink and you’ll almost certainly miss something.” In the feature, Fredrick explains how he almost quit music before the release of the band’s most recent LP, Highs and Lows. Yet, he found inspiration with a new collaborator, Tyson Cornell, who plays “a mean Rickenbacker.” Fredrick began to write new songs inspired by Cornell’s playing, “and the rest is minor indie history.”

Get to know this incredibly interesting creative force by reading the whole interview here, and help Highs and Lows make its CMJ Radio 200 debut by getting it into your rotation.

Listen to track #3 “Pershing/Harvard Square” below: