Chicago quartet Maps & Atlases is about to make its Lollapalooza debut. The band plays Saturday at 2:15 p.m. on the Google + Stage. In lieu of their hometown festival appearance, singer Dave Davison took some time out of the band’s busy tour schedule to talk about the group’s music, festival appearance and some of his favorite spots in the Windy City.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: You guys are getting ready to play the Lollapalooza festival. For people who haven’t heard you, how would you describe your sound?
Dave Davison, Maps & Atlases: A lot of times, people describe it as sort of technical pop music or something. I think we have a big focus on songs and song structure and we go a little further out with that in using technicality in music. So, it’s as simple as you want to make it, I guess. 
PW: I know you guys met in art school. How does your art background translate into your music?
Dave: I know that for me personally that because we started at a time where we’re learning so much about everything, especially art, that the band sort of served as a sort of place where we could experiment with a lot of the ideas that we had been exposed to and had been learning about. It lets us experiment with concepts that we had learned about in school and stuff. I think that developmentally that played a role like that. It’s been an extension-forming ideas into how music can evolve.
PW: Does the art background also carry over to your videos? You just released a video for “Solid Ground.” How much input did you guys have personally in that video?
Dave: Erin [Elders], our guitar player, and Chris Hainey, our drummer, they both majored in film and the video that we did for “Living Decorations,” Chris shot the video and Erin directed. So they’re the video experts. “Solid Ground,” we didn’t have as much input because Taryn Gould directed and had an interesting concept, so we let Gould direct that and that was fun. I think we definitely try to use whatever things we’ve learned, especially for video; and you know, Shiraz [Dada], the bass player, he majored in sound engineering, and recorded our first two EPs. So the stuff we learned in school, we definitely try to use as possible.
PW: Now that song, “Solid Ground” is off your first LP, Perch Patchwork, which came out a year ago. Are you guys already thinking about a new record or working on some new songs?
Dave: We try to stay consistently productive and all that. I personally try to not think too deeply about the actual release aspect of music until we get further along. We’re definitely thinking about doing something in the future and have recorded some music and played around with some ideas, but it’s hard to say when it will come out because we want to make sure that it’s something that we feel like we need and want to do as opposed to just having something new to release, so we’ll see when we have that. Hopefully something like that will just come together and be something we’re really excited to put out.
PW: Will you guys be playing anything new at Lollapalooza and your upcoming tour? What can people kind of expect from those performances?
Dave: I think Lollapalooza, we’ll be doing a lot of songs from Perch Patchwork. I think that they’re good songs where we can tour quite a bit and the songs have just naturally evolved from being played a lot, so there’s definitely some different stuff in there – our take on the songs that have evolved on Perch Patchwork, as well as some songs from previous EPs. I think the same can be said for the tour in October, but you can’t really say yet. We might play some newer songs on that tour, but we’ll see how it goes.
PW: What was your reaction when you were told that you’re playing Lollapalooza? You’re a Chicago band and you’re playing pretty much the biggest show of the year there.
Dave: We were extremely excited. Just on a really basic level, I think it’s really fun to play outside at festivals. It seems so much like the shows I went to when as a teenager and it was the times where you sort of…what it would be like for people developing. So for me it developed with that in mind. So a big festival and a big stage, anytime we have the opportunity to do that, and Lollapalooza probably being the biggest, any time we have the opportunity to play a big festival, the crowd has been is really exciting for that reason. It’s such a Chicago specific thing now and it’s really exciting to be able to go. And we’ll get to play for a lot of people that actually know us. People from the area that haven’t really been able to see us play. And I’m excited about that.
PW: Since you are from Chicago, and there are a lot of people coming in from out of town, do you have any must see, must visit Chicago spots that you’d recommend?
Dave: That’s tough. Probably all my recommendations are all restaurants. One of the advantages of not being from a place is being OK with doing touristy stuff. And Chicago has such a concentrated area of that. When I first started going to Columbia, I really loved being down in the South Loop area and going to all the museums. Definitely that stuff-the Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium. Hopefully it will be nice…the Zoo. I really like doing that kind of stuff. As far as off the beaten path recommendations, I’d have to think a bit more. 
PW: What are some of your favorite restaurants?
Dave: This will be all veggie stuff. Irazu is really good in the Bucktown area: a Costa Rican restaurant. It’s one of my favorite restaurants. The Spice Thai in Logan Square is definitely worth checking out. Hm. Trying to think of places that aren’t quite so obvious…those are like the two places that I eat everyday. Downtown, it’s not super close to Lollapalooza, but you can get good veggie stuff if you go to Karyn’s. I always try to recommend that to everyone.
PW: Sounds great. Finally, what are you guys most looking forward to about Lollapalooza?
Dave: You know, I don’t even know really. I’m just excited to play. I’ve never actually been to Lollapalooza before, so I’m really looking forward to the actual performance. We’ve been gone on tour since like June 22 or something and we’ll get home that day, so it’s such a great way to be able to come. We get to come home and play this big show. It’s been a really fun summer of touring. Then we go back on tour like a week later.
For more information on Maps & Atlases Lollapalooza schedule and upcoming tour, visit myspace.com/mapsandatlases.
