INTERVIEW: David Murphy Talks Sound Tribe Sector 9, Up Until Now

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 30, 2013 4:00PM



Photo from David Murphy's Facebook page Sound Tribe Sector 9, but recently he’s been up cooking up new tunes with his younger brother, Jay. The brothers’ band Up Until Now just dropped their second EP in December. Though David is no stranger to the city of Chicago, he’s pulling double touring duty this spring and stopping through twice - first with up Until Now this Friday at House of Blues and then in March with STS9.

CHICAGOIST: What itch do you get to scratch with Up Until Now that you don’t get to with STS9?

DAVID MURPHY: The biggest thing is that the guy who started the project and who does most of the songwriting is my younger brother. We’ve always wanted to do something together. I’ve actually always considered him the better musician in the family [laughs].

C: What role do you play in this new band?

MURPHY: Well, I help Jay out creatively, once he comes up with the song ideas, with an outside perspective. And then I do about 70% of the bass stuff for him.

C:How does an Up Until Now show compare to an STS9 show?

MURPHY: It is, to a degree, like an STS9 show. We’re playing more sequenced stuff. I play all of the bass lines Jay plays all of the melodies. And then there’s a drummer. So it’s similar to the way STS9 does it but a little different. More of the way someone like Big Gigantic or Pretty Lights would have done it when he had a drummer still.

C:1320 Records does a lot of free releases like Up Until Now’s recent EP. What’s the inspiration behind giving away the music for free?

MURPHY: We like to give it away for our hardcore fans. We give it on 1320’s site but we do still sell it on iTunes. For us, we hope it just re-enforces that we do care about our fans. And with a band like ourselves and a lot of bands in this scene you make your money by selling concert tickets. We’re instrumental. We’re not going to have a Top 40 hit. So giving away out music for free seems like the best way to spread our music and get people out to shows.

C: I can’t help be on the phone with you and not bring up your STS9 shows coming up in March. It seems like you guys have been here a lot during the last two years. What is it about Chicago that keeps bringing you back?

MURPHY: First off, Chicago as a city is amazing. Me and my wife joke that if I could ever deal with the winter, we might move there. We’ve also always been embraced by Chicago and by the fans there so I think to a degree it reminds us of being home. It’s a big city but there’s nothing pretentious about it.

Up Until Now plays Friday, February 1, at House of Blues, 329 N Dearborn, 11 p.m., $17.50-$20, 17+

STS9 plays March 16 at The Congress Theater, 2135 N Milwaukee, $30-$40, 8 p.m., 18+

By: Katie Karpowicz