As one of the few bands from Kansas City to do a Daytrotter Session, O Giant Man has a lot to be proud of. 
And they’ve only been a band for about a year and a half.
When TV Torso (Austin) came through Lawrence this past summer, O Giant Man agreed to open for the show – even though it was a Monday night and they knew the crowd wouldn’t be very big.
A couple of days after they said yes, Chris Robbins (singer/guitar) got an email from Daytrotter that said they were opening a studio in Austin with one of the member’s from TV Torso.
Robbins gave the band a copy of their newest singles unmastered – and about a week later, O Giant Man was confirmed for a session.
O Giant Man officially formed in September 2009 and released their first album, Everybody Knows I’m Just An Animal, in May 2010.
“It’s like the first time a kid rides his bike,” Robbins said of the first album. “Ten years later when he’s riding a bike, does he really care that he ate shit the first time he rode? We were more like a little wobbly, but we stood up still.”
While they’re proud of the record, they feel they’ve progressed past it.
“We don’t feel bad (about the record) in any way,” Robbins said. “It’s just a part of becoming who we are. It was something that needed to be done to see where we wanted to go.”
“We recorded that record as Rick (Schulenberg; keyboard) was joining the band so we were still learning how to play with Rick and what we sounded like with him,” added Jake Schulenberg (bass).
The record also established them in the local music scene, nabbing an honorable mention from the Pitch’s “Top ten local albums and EPs of 2010.”
But O Giant Man isn’t resting on what they’ve done – they’ve been practicing more and perfecting their unique sound and style.
“The word genre and the band O Giant Man don’t go together,” Robbins said. “We don’t fit into a genre… that’s not something we set out to do.”
O Giant Man happened from combining completely different influences from each different member, from pop punk to reggae to singer-songwriter music.
They’ve also been working with Michael Stout on new music, a Missouri native and recording engineer with a resume including Rogue Wave and Wavves.
At first, they were hesitant to work with an engineer again but couldn’t pass it up since Stout wanted to do it; they’ve already released three new songs they recorded with Stout, and Robbins considers the tracks “a huge step up.”
But they say the biggest thing they’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter how you translate on a record, you’ve got to bring a good live show.
“We used to be so serious on stage because we didn’t want to mess up,” Robbins said. “Now it’s like, we’ve played this live set so much… we like to just have fun.”
“Now we don’t care if we play it wrong – we’re still going to be having fun while we’re doing it,” Rick said.
The Daytrotter Session hasn’t been released yet, but you can pick up their new singles for FREE here: ogiantman.bandcamp.com.
*Note: their other member, Andy Wendling (drums), wasn’t there for the interview.
