When we heard quintessential California punk rock band The Soft Pack has come east to record their debut album for Kemado, we were a little surprised they'd want to take the surf from their sound. But when we showed up in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, they were hunkered down in a basement studio with board wizard Eli Janney, who was the reason for tempting them cross country. We sat with the band (a shy Janney had to make a phone call) to talk about the recording process and what comes next for a lovingly scrappy group named after the weird kind of cigarette box.