CC: My intention was just getting out into a new place. I didn’t think about starting a band actually. I really loved music, and a lot of my friends are musicians, and I started to play music more my senior year of high school. So when I came here, I was totally into music, but I had never been in a band or anything, so that was a new thing. So I started writing songs around then, and the next step was just finding a band.

SFBG: What’s your favorite song on your record?

CC: On the album, I really like the last song [“When We’re Apart”]. It’s a little acoustic ditty that what we threw on the end, sort of like the epilogue. That one is cool because we were trying to figure out for a while what would be the best way to close the album and we couldn’t figure it out, then all the sudden we thought of this song we had for a while - this acoustic thing that’s only a minute and a half long. It struck me as the perfect song, and we went in and did it in one take. I like songs like that.

SFBG: And you have the acoustic album of covers as well.

CC: We put it out actually a couple months after the album, a free album we put on the Internet. It’s just songs we like, and songs that sound cool in an acoustic arrangement. We do acoustic shows sometimes, and for that, it’s a perfect thing. We love covering songs.

SFBG: That’s good. Some musicians think they’re too good for covers.

CC: It’s hard because usually the cover is not as good as the original. But if you just admit that’s the case then you can just have fun with it.

SFBG: After you perform, do you ever encounter girls who try to hit on you or woo you, and is it awkward? How do you deal with that?

CC: A lot of the times it’s weird, but almost 99 percent of the time it’s people who are really excited who just want to meet you and talk to you about how they love the music. It’s really pure. We rarely get someone coming up to us in it for some other reason. The people who come and meet the band, they’re like people who just really want to reach out on a human level about music. Most people are basically just good kids. There have been awkward times, for sure.

SFBG: Tell me about an awkward time.

CC: I feel like the audience-and-performer dynamic has changed over the years, and there is this huge separation. The audience just stands there, and they expect to be entertained. They want the people on the stage to do everything for them, which is true that when you go to a show - obviously that’s what’s going to happen. But when you look at concert footage from the ‘60s there’s a lot more back and forth. You can see the energy in the audience. It’s hard to get that. So when you meet people after the show, there’s still that dynamic sometimes where they say, ‘Hi,’ and they expect you to carry on from there. They say, “I just wanted to meet you.” And you’re like, “Oh, hi.”

SFBG: And then what?

CC: Exactly. It’s like where do we go from here? But that’s why I think younger kids have more energy. At shows where it’s all-ages, they’re the ones that are more eager to talk to you and they’re more excited about life and music in general. So it’s usually a better situation on all fronts.

SFBG: What do you think of this college band trend that is emerging, with bands like Chester French from Harvard and Vampire Weekend from Columbia University?

CC: Well, [college is] an obvious place where there are a lot of kids and they’re trying to figure out what they want to do. And there’s a general freedom and flexibility there because people haven’t started on a career path. People engage in things that are obvious risks like joining a band. It’s not a financial risk in terms of stability, but they’ll do it because they’re young, passionate, or whatever.

For me, it’s been like a process of trying other stuff, and it’s really what I want to do, playing music and writing songs. I feel like we’re a little different than a lot of bands that are coming out of that collegiate circle because a lot of the bands that are associated with that now are really heady and cerebral. It’s just a little too... I just don’t really like that world.

SFBG: The collegiate world.

CC: Yeah. [Laughs] Like they’re hitting ideas over and over in a clever way. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, you know.

Morning Benders, "Crosseyed" live

SFBG: You think there’s a pretentious feel to it?

CC: Yeah, exactly. At Berkeley, I noticed a lot of the graduate students who are teaching us - their fields are just so specialized. They’re writing dissertations on the smallest little thing. I look at the world with a bigger picture - I can’t imagine putting forth energy on that. It’s so strange to me. And those bands that come out of Ivy League circles adopt that mentality in a way.

SFBG: So you don’t associate yourself with that circle?

CC: That’s where I feel like we distinguish ourselves. I have to make the distinction because I feel like we’re more soulful. We’re not trying to conceptualize everything.

SFBG: Who’s Anna?

CC: [Laughs] She’s a fictional character, derived from a lot of real people. Kind of ambiguous. I have to be ambiguous because my songwriting is not ambiguous. I feel like the songs I’m writing are very clear, and the record kind of bares all.

I was actually talking to my friend recently about how apparently Tolstoy had this belief that the only art that’s acceptable is art that affects everyone who views it the same way. That’s the only thing that’s considered art. I don’t believe that at all - the complete opposite, man. I feel like it’s impossible for anyone to see the meaning exactly as I interpret it. Everyone’s going to derive something different.

SFBG: What’s your top five for musicians and/or bands?

CC: That’s an impossible question. I can tell you maybe - maybe, like, narrow it down.

SFBG: Into genres?

CC: Genres or maybe time periods.

SFBG: Oh, man, OK.

CC: Like contemporary or before 1970. [Laughs]

SFBG: Tell me your favorite time period, and we’ll go from there.

CC: I can’t answer that, either. I love it all. I’ll give you my top five of the last month.

A brand new thing that I’ve looked into is the band Department of Eagles, which has the guy from Grizzly Bear. That’s one of the best bands that’s coming out in the past five, 10 years. They’re great. I’m going to go back and forth. Ray Charles I listen to a lot of. I like the earlier stuff with him - it’s more bluesy and completely raw. Lately I’ve been listening to the older stuff where he had a lot of money and arrangements and things with the strings - I really like that. Some of the not newer but later period of his stuff has amazing string arrangements. It’s really lush and beautiful. But then his voice is so raw - it’s a really good contrast. I’m trying to think of what we listen to in the van.

SFBG: Is your van white?

CC: Yeah. Why do you ask?

SFBG: When I think of white vans I think of sniper shootings.

CC: It has a creepy vibe for sure. Pedophile van or something.

SFBG: You should paint it.

CC: It has a blue stripe.

SFBG: Well, that helps - it gives off a more airline shuttle bus vibe.

CC: Totally, that’s actually what it was originally used for.

SFBG: I’m going to end with a final great question. What period of David Bowie is your favorite?

CC:That’s a really hard question because I love Ziggy and Aladdin Sane. I love Aladdin Sane better, but those are one after the other, you know? That’s, like, ‘67 or something. I love Low. I don’t like the really early stuff he did. I don’t like the first two albums. I like Lodger, that’s a really good album. It’s all good, but that’s hard because he’s like a chameleon.

SFBG: Like Madonna, but so much better.

CC: Yeah. Exactly. I think Low is probably, no, Low or Aladdin Sane are my two favorites. A very respected period. That’s my two-part conclusion.

THE MORNING BENDERS
With the Muslims and Miniature Tigers
Fri/5, 8:30 p.m., $12
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011