Strange Ranger

photos by Pamela Ayala

words by Jaycee Rockhold

When I call Strange Ranger, a Philly-based band led by Isaac Eiger and Fred Nixon, they’ve just picked up the van (now-fixed) in preparation for their upcoming tour with Joyce Manor and Stef Chura. They’re fresh off the release of their new album, Remembering the Rockets, on Tiny Engines a few weeks prior, and the two sound cheerful, and eager to get back on the road. Following Rot Forever, which they made under the name Sioux Falls, and Daymoon, Remembering the Rockets is a sonic revelation.Following Rot Forever, which they made under the name Sioux Falls, and Daymoon, Remembering the Rockets is a sonic revelation. Across its 14 tracks, an emotional drive is still at its core, but it has a poppier sheen.

You two are originally from Montana, then you moved to Portland, and now you’re in Philly. Is there a difference to playing in all three different cities?

Isaac: Playing in Montana was a lot different than Portland and Philly. We were in high school. It was a lot of being really young and confused with not many examples to emulate.

Fred: Our hometown didn’t exactly have a thriving DIY scene, or basically any DIY scene to speak off, at least that we were aware of. It was a lot of jamming in the basement and I think we played two shows there during our senior year of high school.

I: But when we moved to Portland it wasn’t an immediate incredible adventure necessarily. We spent several years playing bars to people who were totally disinterested. We weren’t playing the right kind of shows.

F: It took us a while to figure out how to go about live music. The tipping point was meeting and befriending other people in bands that were trying to do DIY shows and stuff like that.

I: In 2014 we met our friends in Snow Roller randomly playing a show and from there we started finding a community.

F: Basically after three years of looking for drum-

I: Since we’ve moved to Philly we honestly haven’t been playing a ton of shows, just because of tours and stuff, but it has a great music scene. It’s been really fun.

F: All of Remembering the Rockets was recorded before we got here.

Is it daunting moving into an already established music scene or have you found that everyone has been pretty welcoming?

F: I think yes to both. It is a little bit daunting but for the most part people are welcoming. Most people from any given scene are probably from some place else, also. I think sometimes you feel a bit like an outsider until you realize that it’s largely in your own head. People are usually nice.

Plus you’ve gone on tour with some friends, like Spirit of the Beehive. I feel like touring with another Philly-band is a good introduction.

I: I feel like that was the best-case scenario. They’re amazing and we were huge fans of them before we moved here. It was really fun, getting to know them as people.

Is there any venues that you find yourself hanging out at a lot or going to shows at?

I: Tyler, who plays guitar for us, lives at this place called Truck, which is a house venue. I just played a solo set over there the other night which was fun.

F: There’s this one warehouse in west Philly where I’ve been too. There’s like ten spaces in there - I’ll go to multiple places in the same building.

Are you looking forward to immersing yourself more in the music scene and playing more shows in Philly? Or do you prefer touring more?

I: I think you look forward to whatever you’re not doing at the current moment. When I’m at home I’m like “damn I can’t wait to get out of here” and when I’m on tour I’m like “damn I can’t wait to get home.”

Have either of you lived at a house venue or have done any booking?

I: Yeah! The house that Fred and I lived in in Portland threw shows. We threw a lot, actually.

F: We had shows there for three years. A lot of good times.

How was releasing your album on Tiny Engines?

F: This is our third release of Tiny Engines.

I: This album has certainly exceeded our expectations, I feel, in terms of release.

You guys have gotten a lot of great reception for it! The Pitchfork review was really nice.

I: It was super nice! Tiny Engines has done a really job with us. It’s been pretty crazy to have people listen. Very appreciative.

What other Tiny Engines artists are you a fan of?

I: Spirit of the Beehive, Peaer...A lot of them are really great.

What other bands have you been listening to? Philly and non-Philly?

I: I’ve been listening to Young Guv these last few days, pretty much exclusively [laughs]. He’s not from Philly.

F: I’ve been listening to this band called Cherry from Philly. They’re really good. I feel like since I’ve been here people have showed me so many sick Philly bands.

I know you all just released a new album, but are you working on new stuff?

I: There’s enough material to make an album with but we need to start working on it. Enough stuff has been written but we have to demoing and all that jazz. We’ll probably start that between these tours. Do you ever feel yourself feeling a bit tired of the songs when you have to play them live and the album has been done for months?

I: I get completely sick of everything like the third time we play it. And then we play it 300 more times. There is `this kind of funny thing that happens where it’s like “the new album is out!” but I wrote that song like two years ago and we’ve been playing it on tour for a year and we recorded it a year ago... It’s fun now that people know the songs. That reinjects some of the life back into it.

Do you kind of just have to power through that or do you switch up the songs?

I: I don’t want to make it sound like it’s a slog - that makes it sound a little dark [laughs].

F: It’s still fun to play shows. We like being on tour. The material doesn’t feel “new” to us how it feels “new” to the audience.

While you’re on tour do you ever have time to explore and enjoy the cities?

I: We do our best, for sure. It’s hard when you have to make load-in. I think the most fun non-musical way is that we booked this tour that was through the western US that was very lax. We did a lot of nature stuff - it was very beautiful and a fun place to be.

F: You get something out of everywhere that you go. One of the beauties of touring is that it takes you to so many places that you would never go otherwise. You might have a fun special experience in some random town in Kansas...Those kind of little experiences are special and I try to appreciate them.