The Pharmacy are a three piece indie-rock band that have been around for a decade in one shape or another. They have toured incessantly over the past 10 years across various continents and throughout the US with acts like Matt & Kim, Japanther, and Vivian Girls. They have recently released an EP entitled Dig Your Grave in anticipation for their next LP, Stoned & Alone. I was able to talk with them for the length of a cigarette before they had to head to another show at SXSW.

Do you hate each other on the road? What’s your tour vibe like?
Brendhan Bowers: We usually live together outside the band.
Scott Yoder: We’re like brothers. Literally. We spend like every moment together.
Brendhan: Scotty and I play in the same band, work at the same job, and live at the same house.

I first saw you almost 10 years ago — how have you stayed a band that long? Most bands come and go in less than half that time.
Brendhan: Well, Scotty and I have been playing music since 2000. It’s been a long time.
Scott: I don’t know how. I just know that it’s fun. It’s always kind of changing a bit — we’re not the same band that we were back then. That would be sad.

What’s your favorite kind of show to play?
Scott: Well, I’m not sure if a bar in the middle of the day is anyone’s favorite show to play.

Oh well. This is SXSW, it’s kind of different.
Brendhan: As long as there are people [gathered] to listen to us. We played a bathroom stall once.
Scott: That was probably one of the most fun shows, playing in a bathroom in San Francisco. That show had maybe 20 people; all the lights got shut off, someone ripped open a glow stick and sprayed the stuff everywhere, so it was like a rave party, basically. We were playing and there were people dancing on top of the bathroom stall dividers, it was really fun.

How did that happen?
Scott: There was a weird party happening in this warehouse, and there was this creepy guy — who was actually kind of cool, but he was being creepy that night. He had this metal band, and he’d get naked while the band was playing and do the “helicopter thing” with his wiener. We just decided to move it into the bathroom at that point…kind of hiding from him.
Brendhan: We played a boxcar on a train once, and a yacht that went around the Hudson River. The weirder, the better.
Stefan Rubicz: Sometimes a weird spot [to play a show] — like that train car — will be completely packed with people. It was so fun, [there was a] really intimate vibe.

Where was the boxcar?
Brendhan: A town in Germany.

Any last words of wisdom or sage advice?
Brendhan: No, not me.
Scott: We’re not wise men.