The Solvents on touring, children and the brilliance of GBV

The Solvents' front man Jarrod Paul Bramson is glad his band never moved to Portland.

"We came really close to moving to there," Bramson said during a phone interview from his home in Port Townsend, Wash. "We thought everyone else is doing it, so we should too. We had a house there and everything, but at the last second decided not to. I think it helps for us not to be from Portland, because then we'd just be another band from Portland. Port Townsend's kind of mysterious. It's like everyone has heard of it, but no one knows what it's like."

Just like the "mysterious" town The Solvents hail from, their music lends itself to the unknown, the poignant and the haunting. Self-described as "indie rock with elements of folk and pop," The Solvents are comprised of Bramson and Emily Madden. While Bramson and Madden generally tour as a two-piece, with Bramson on guitar and Madden on violin, for their latest tour they've added a bassist and drummer.

"It's a bit more rockin' now," Bramson said. "We've never done it before and wanted to try it. When you're just playing acoustic you can just hop in the car and drive."

The Solvents have recorded and released eight CDs since 2001. All of their albums have been self-recorded in their home studio, nestled within an old eight-bedroom Victorian, which was one of the first houses built

"I fold and stamp every CD," Bramson said. "I'm kind of a control freak in that way. If I do it, then I know it will be done right. It's a bit obsessive."

On Monday, The Solvents will swing through Eureka, making a pit stop at the Lil Red Lion. This is their second tour of the area, the last one happening in 2005 when they played Arcata's East Side Deli and at The Placebo. Bramson recalls one of their "best shows ever" took place on the Arcata Plaza when they were busking for gas money, and also said there's a lot of weird similarities between the Arcata/Eureka area and Port Townsend, where he grew up.

He said he was shocked when he looked at the Lil Red's line-up.

"Wow!" he said. "It's amazing that they have so many good bands, and I knew we wanted to play there."

Currently gearing up for a tour that will have them playing 22 shows in three weeks, Bramson said the band was "freaking out a little bit."

"But I love the whole thing," he said. "From booking to getting stuff ready for the road. We're just about to leave, so we're going a little nuts, things are really hectic. But I love the anticipation from getting ready to leave to the accomplishment you feel when it's all over. At the end it feels so good. It's like this challenge I created and then lived up to, but the self-punishment does get hard."

While The Solvents try to tour about twice a year, they're never on the road for more than three weeks at a time as they have three precious creatures back home waiting for them Bramson's 9-year-old twin daughters Anna and Aurora and Madden's 8-year-old daughter Rosie. You can check out the musically inclined young trio on The Solvents' MySpace page featured in the short film "It Doesn't Seem Like Home."

"Touring's hard, but it's also a nice break," Bramson said. "On the bad nights I start really missing the kids. Like, what am I doing out here? I should be at home with them. But it's also a definite motivation. The girls are super into it, and I want to make them proud and keep up their positive view of music. It inspires them a lot, and we get energy from them. It was really hard when we toured Europe to stay in touch since cell phones didn't work, the time was off and it was impossible to find pay phones. But we had an amazing tour, played really good shows and came back with lots of money."

The little ladies could be joining their parents on tour soon, Bramson said, perhaps next summer. Already they've shown a penchant for certain musical instruments Rosie on piano, Aurora on drums and Anna on guitar as a "singer/songwriter." It also helps that The Solvents have that home recording studio to play around in.

"The songs are always coming," Bramson said. "I love recording. Sometimes I will just write a song just to record it and document it. The studio has high ceilings, great acoustics. It's not too fancy, but it's not too low-fi either. There's a piano, organs, drums, all sorts of instruments. Just (stuff) piled everywhere."

Bramson said he first gave himself to music when he was 16.

"I thought this is what I have to do," he said. "And I've never stopped. I don't know what I'd do if I stopped."

A music collector and appreciator, Bramson's "absolute favorite at the moment" are the 13th Floor Elevators, the psychedelic-garage gurus of the '60s.

"The thing about the Elevators is that if you don't like the (electric) jug, you won't like them," he said. "It's the same thing sort of with us. We can relate, because if you don't like the violin you won't like us."

Asked if he thought The Solvents fit into the musical genre of New Weird America or the freak folk scene, Bramson wasn't sure.

"I guess that's thriving. It's a happening thing now, right?" he said. "Like that guy Devendra Barnhart? But I don't know if we necessarily fit into it since there's always a fashion movement tied into these things. Like grunge wouldn't have been grunge without the cut-offs and flannels."

Bramson said his all-time inspiration comes from one band in particular, the low-fi indie-psych-pop of Guided By Voices.

"They mean everything to me as far as pop music is concerned," he said. "And they just cranked 'em out. The records are beautiful from the cover art to the songs. I love finding the hidden beauty of the songs behind the nasty recordings. I've seen them five times, and collect as much of their stuff as I can. There's so much I've tapped into, but there's still tons of stuff out there I haven't heard. It's fun, because you can find these gems that are still out there."

GBV's frontman, Robert Pollard, was a kindergarten teacher before making the leap into the world of music.

"I think he took a lot of inspiration from teaching kids," Bramson said. "Kids say (stuff) that's so off the wall."

While Bramson and Madden will certainly be missing their kids on tour, it's the touring and recording that keeps them going.

"Touring is a real jones for me, personally," Bramson said. "I'm not the greatest person socially. A little socially inept, but when we're on tour we make lots of friends."

The Solvents will be at the Lil Red Lion on Monday. Yes, it's a Monday, but you'll regret not seeing them if you don't go.