Early last month, Los Angeles exports No Age, Mika Miko, and Abe Vigoda performed at the Smell's second annual matinee performance. I'm still a little in the dark as to why they decided to hold such a stellar show during some of the hottest hours during the day and how they managed wrangle up every hipster in the great L.A. region, but -- needless to say -- the mini-festival (or whatever you want to call it) was fun.
I did this film for Anthem Online. Check out the original article and small clip here. We got footage of all three bands' sets (amazing), a solid Q&A with No Age, and a fun chat with some of the Mika Miko girls and a couple of the Abe Vigoda guys.
As expected, the three were a pleasure to meet and work with, although Lykke Li was a little tougher to deal with. Their respective performances were jaw-droppingly stellar, too ... Lykke Li is the energetic, overtly expressive "child" whereas El Perro del Mar and Anna T. are more mature, subtle. All three performances offered phenomenal insights into their characters and songwriting talents, aptly complimenting the interviews.
This week's Internet installment of Anthem's Future Sound is pretty stunning. The five bands profiled include Pink Skull, the Littl'ans, Abe Vigoda, the Answering Machine, and Blonde Acid Cult. A varied and compelling shortlist, to say the least!
I conducted the Littl'ans interview ... that was thrilling. Blonde Acid Cult was also a pleasure to talk to. Be sure to check out the whole story! There's plenty of content not worth missing.
M.A.N.D.Y. & Justin Miller Interview @ La Fiesta de Fiestas, 2008
M.A.N.D.Y. & Justin Miller Interview @ Anthem Party, 2008 from Anthem Magazine on Vimeo. I briefly interviewed Justin Miller (D.F.A.) and M.A.N.D.Y. at our Anthem Coachella party, La Fiesta de Fiestas and the resultant video documenting the "round table" discussion is finally up! We had some stellar DJ's pass through out event, so it was hard to not take advantage! Other artists included Para One, Surkin, the Ed Banger crew, Boys Noize, Claude VonStrok, and a handful of others.
Check the M.A.N.D.Y./Justin Miller video out at the source! There's more L.F.D.F. love to be found here as well.
I interviewed Holy Ghost! (not to mention a handful of others) for Anthem Magazine's Future Sound feature, our version of Bands to Watch 2008.
Calling it an "interview" isn't completely accurate: Nicholas and I emailed back and forth for a few weeks until we got bored of it. I published the raw discourse and dubbed it a Q&A. Hopefully, it offers a unique and compelling look at the DFA-signed duo.
On that note, could you tell me a little about the MoMA opening party that you DJ'd at along with a bunch of other DFA folks? How did that get arranged and how did you feel about the gig? Were you purely the musical entertainment for the night or was a symbiotic dynamic between DFA and the museum there as well?
More broadly, what do you like about DJ'ing? What don't you like? And ... have we reached a sort of "critical mass" of DJ's? Are there simply too many out there?
As I understand it the MoMA approached Jon at DFA. The label has done a few events at P.S.1 in the past so it made sense I guess. As far as any underlining symbolism or connection between DFA and the Color Chart exhibition, I don't know. I suppose you could say something about a common pop aesthetic but you could also call be pretentious for saying so. What else? Oh, the light boxes on either side of the DJ booth were ours. They were made by Marcus Lambkin (AKA Shit Robot) for LCD's "Movement" video and have been collecting dust in the DFA offices so, given the theme of the show, Tim thought it'd be fun to bring them and play them with a drum machine (they're controlled by MIDI). I loved that people thought they were part of the exhibition.
All in all, it was a great night and I think everyone had a blast. I did for sure, but unfortunately I think we were the weakest part of the night. Tim and Tim's set was amazing and watching people freak out when they dropped James Brown was an all time highlight for sure.
What's it like living and working in Paris? From the U.S. standpoint, we assume you're all having parties every night and hosting shows DJ'd by some of the most talented folks in the world. Is this the case? Furthermore, do you think that the copious attention France's music scene has received is a positive or negative thing (personally and otherwise)?
Paris, as you know, is the most beautiful city in the world, so living and working in the city is great. Not so sure about the great parties, but lots of good clubs are working well now here... the attention given to French music is super positive; lots of press and media focus on one movement brings attention and new fans and that’s good for everybody in the music scene here! We'll see [how long that will last]. And while we ourselves are based in France, we feature on our compilation acts from many, many countries.
Check it out and download a couple tunes while you're at it ("Thor" is a b-side from the forthcoming Do It! release; "Free Not Free" is the first single off said LP).
Do It! sounds like your poppiest effort yet to me. You seem to incorporate more digestible and straightforward pop hooks into your otherwise minimalist, gritty psych-pop/post-punk aesthetic ("Free Not Free," "Memories"). Were you deliberately trying to make something a little subtler and accessible for this album?
Yes definitely. We felt it was time to change. I love pop music so it was inspiring to make it more melodic and mellow. It also in a weird way makes the LP more extreme, to have those sharp cut-ups between melody and a raw sound.
I'm curious about the album artwork and visual component that you've applied to Do It! The cover illustration is more playful; you're now wearing Hawaiian T-shirts instead of Freemason getups -- any concept behind these alterations and developments?
It all went hand in hand with the music being brighter. There's more humor and yes, a playful piss-take side to Do It! and the artwork etc. I much prefer it, if that side is brought out.
I've done my best to confirm this, but if I'm wrong, don't kill me. I just completed the first non-Japanese interview with Tokyo's Escalator Records, the label that brought us all Yukari Fresh, Miniflex, Cubismo Grafico, most recently the astounding young talent that is Avalon, and many, many more.
On top of that, Escalator has a spectacular Harajuku record store, cafe, and weekly events night that's literally one of the most fun times you can find in Tokyo. They've been the bold voice of an outspoken and ignored generation that's been unable to fight its way to any sort of real cultural acceptance in its homeland. To outsiders, it's easy to say that Escalator and its followers are just obsessed with foreign musics, but look beneath the surface and you'll find a world of creativity, unique ingenuity, and individualism that's unparalleled even in the States, a land of tremendous musical output.
I'm curious about these new compilations called We Were Escalator Records. They're very ominous! Do they mean anything or is simply just a new series of mixes?
So, in my own mind, Escalator ended around 2006, when I started Every Conversation. I may be killed by the Japanese fans, so I can't say that in Japan [laughs], but I have no interest in the Japanese music scene, and never want to do business [in it].
If we keep on doing stuff like we did in those old Escalator days, maybe we'll get a smash hit and maybe we will make the living... but can you imagine that? [I'd be] so bored, fed up, nauseous.
Now Escalator has Cubismo Grafico's label KIT, so I don't concern myself at all with Escalator. Maybe only Avalon. They'll become better in a while, and maybe you'll want to put them in your magazine. But Escalator's old works are still highly acclaimed, so I did We Were Escalator Records, [out of] responsibly. Oh yes it maybe it's ominous. Quite literally. It's an anthology.
Editor's Note: A Japanese compilation album is called an "omnibus" CD.
And now a few Escalator tunes from the archives ... enjoy!
Cut Copy Interview, Concert, and After-party from Anthem Magazine on Vimeo. Cut Copy (MySpace) has a rigorous and super busy year or two ahead of them. After four years of waiting, the Australian trio has finally produced a sophomore LP, In Ghost Colours, and their fans -- not to mention the group itself -- couldn't be happier, more ecstatic. (It's really good, by the way.)
The three passed through L.A. on March 10 on their way to SXSW and a few other select U.S. locations before kicking off their "real" tour in April. I was fortunate to meet up with them on behalf of Anthem in between their countless interviews, photo shoots, performances, DJ sets, and scarfing down of food. We captured some photo shoot footage and a brief interview at the Modular offices in Echo Park, tons of concert footage at the Echo, and a significant portion of their after-party DJ set.
Check out the full story over at Anthem Online and stream the stellar "So Cosmic" DJ set below (too good to forget about).
Check out the first half of the interview here! And speaking of touring ... what're your live shows like? Exuberant? Relaxed? Do you try to add something different to the songs or are you too occupied with just playing the notes?
I'm not sure what they are like for the audience -- for us, we just give our live shows everything we have at that particular moment. We're a rock band I suppose, so we put a lot of energy into it: there is occasional bleeding, mandatory sweating, falling down, guitar solos, drum fills, inexcusably bad dancing (on our part only) etc. We play our songs and occasionally indulge in a long ending rock out, most of the time we try to keep it only tastefully long. People seem to like it though.
I hate to ask this question, and I rarely do, but your name is just too damn strange. Are you named after the French artist, Yves Klein's 'Blue Monochrome' or is that just sheer coincidence? Anyway -- where'd it come from? Does it connote any particular meaning for you?
Not at all -- its a perfectly natural question. Yes -- or at least you are on the right track. We named ourselves after the color IKB (a hue invented and patented by Klein which a great deal of work, including "Blue Monochrome" is painted with). The color is famous because it appears the same dry as it does wet - it does not lose its vibrancy with age. I guess you can take our name as a metaphor, as it is our aspiration to create music of timeless quality, lasting music. Whether we do or not is another story altogether.
Here's a more conceptual one for you. You're a great band, but is it ever frustrating to know that, as time passes, there's less and less of a chance of (a) distinguishing yourselves from the massive piles of music that surround up and (b) be appreciated, remembered? Are these just not concerns or is it something that sort of ... haunts and bothers you?
Thats a big question. I must preface this by saying I'm absolutely pooped and my brain may not be able to apprehend all the relevant thoughts disobediently whizzing about inside my skull however I'll do my best. Well it's not a concern, in short, but I am unable to answer questions succinctly. You are saying that its competition with our peers and teachers and we have more teachers than our teachers did sort of? right? So, first of all I would question the accuracy of those statements -- people have made breakthroughs in music, but its all a cobbled up version of everything they know to exist and consider relevant and then they open up their mouths up kind of thing most of the time so in a way this has always been the case. Further things always get rehashed and sometimes its successful and even less times its inventive but it happens. Might it be, maybe its just the number of "first times" that has diminished? Its all been done to a certain extent but in away its always all been done. I think you have to distinguish yourself from is the hoard of music produced by your contemporaries more than those that have come before you. People look back on the 60s nostalgically as a golden era of music (it of course was) however, they forget that the pool that we listen to now is what survives from masses and masses of cheaply cut 7"s of market-orientated pop bands. I don't think its harder now; I imagine it's the same thing today, it's just you don't know until down the track. In any case, I don't think you can calculate being remembered; you can only write what you can write to a certain extent. Being remembered is not something that is left up to you after all ... Fuck it! I don't know! I can only answer that question in this multiple choice format ...
(A) Yes (B) Strongly disagree (C) A protective mask worn by bee keepers (D) None of the above
And I choose ... (C).
Rapid fire shorties: Favorite Australian beer? XXXX Bitter.
Favorite Australian band? John Steel Singers
Favorite band at present? Tom Waits (is he a band?)
Australia's band on the rise, Yves Klein Blue, answered a few questions BBBD shot their way. They're on the verge of exploding onto the music scene right now, so read this as it's their last testament as being an "undiscovered" band.
You guys are Australian, so I have to ask: what's the Australian music scene like in general? What about the Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney dynamic?
I have no objectivity or external reference but I'm going to blindly say that it is very healthy. Everyone of those cities you mentioned has a different dynamic -- but it wouldn't be doing any city justice to sum them up in a genre, and I dare not try lest I offend someone. Suffice to say that whenever we arrive in a city to play a show we are always rushing out on free nights or after we play to see a group of some description.
How did you four come together? Any dramatic, exciting stories?
Truthfully, no. Its less than mundane -- we met in high school and university. But! You could choose to believe that we were at one time all arch enemies working for different governments and during a tremendous gun battle on a glacier in the arctic circle fell down into an ice cave where nature, with a closed hand, offered up a simple choice: cooperate or die. During the 17 years we spent in the ice cave we developed a mutual respect, even love for one another. Then it gets a little hazy ... at some point we escaped from the ice cave and formed a band.
You've a very unique sound ... it's garage-y; it's straight up rock; it's proto-punk a la the Velvet Underground; it's Austrlian pub-rock; it's indie-pop ... it's so much all at once, but you put it together into one concise sound that's completely yours. So -- how do you personally describe your music? What are you trying to achieve with the sound?
First of all, thank you. What are we trying to achieve? Um, I'm not sure -- songs are mysterious (they seem to come together of their own accord, I'm not sure as to the extent that you can direct them). We are all fans of older music, surviving music if you will -- so I think that comes into it. We want to make something classic, and interesting -- so we try to steer clear of anything obvious or cheesy, unless its absolutely necessary (although most of the time cheese is liberally applied).
I'm trying to dodge the question. Well, its difficult for me to describe our music, I have no perspective or objectivity. I'd say its like a blend of old punk, 50's rock 'n' roll, R&B, gypsy jazz, glam rock, classic rock, ska, reggea, and indie rock. Or you could just call it indie rock I suppose (a conveniently inclusive genre). And we're heavily influenced by the sound of a piece of toast hitting the ground jam side down. (SHIT! NOW THERE ARE LITTLE PIECES OF DUST AND SMALL UNIDENTIFIABLE DRIED GRASS LIKE FLAKE THINGYS ON MY TOAST!)
Clearly there're a lot of influences seeping out of your tunes. Who're some of the people you most enjoy?
We really like... (audible inhalation) the Clash, David Bowie, Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Toots & the Maytals, Bob Marley, the Specials, the Cure, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots, the Pixies, Elvis Costello, Kings of Leon, Dappled Cities Fly, the Strokes, Tom Waits, Fleetwood Mac, the Band and there are lots more, but that will do for now right? (Panting.) (Sound of a defibrillator being turned on.)
A bit of a dumb one here. If I said your singing voice sounds a bit like Carl Barât, would you be confused, flattered, or upset with the comparison?
No thats not dumb, its quite understandable -- I guess you could say I'm surprised (that you didn't immediately think of Julian Casablancas). And to actually answer question, I suppose I'm flattered because he's a pretty good singer. My "singing heroes" (as it were) (and if this was the bush you were beating around) are more like Bowie, Sinatra, Reed, and Casablancas.
Musically, where do you four come from? What sort of experience do you carry? How'd you get into music, playing in a band, listening, etc.?
Well we all have the obligatory early childhood stuff -- piano lessons, plastic recorders (the wind instrument, not a device that records the sound of plastic objects of course) etc. Primary school bands: tick. High School Concert Band: Sean, Charles, and Chris only. Angsty Teenage Nirvana/Blues Rock Bands: Michael, Sean, and Charles only (we are Chris' first band; I feel like there is a duty of care there, like I owe him all the cliche blues and stoner rock jams I had as boy). Other than that we all learned to play our own instruments, to a large extent without tuition, there is not much formality. We are keen listeners though -- I first started listing to music quite late so I have an embarrassing ignorance of the 90s. I first remember thinking it would be a fine thing to play music after listening to NOFX and Pennywise. I was quite a little punk rocker for a stint, I engaged in activities such as playing only power chords and skateboarding. I even shaved my head and went to Warped Tour ... I look terrible with a shaved head, my skull is by no means even. So it was my spoilt punk friends who first got me into a band -- I was the singer because I couldn't play any instruments. But we didn't own a mic, so I was pretty superfluous.
I love your demos so, so much. What was it like recording them? Any particular process or did you just rock out for a few days?
Again, thank you. Its hard for me to believe that they are a couple of years old now, its actually very nostalgic to listen to them -- Sean had only been in the band for about two weeks and every time we listen to it he kills himself over all the mistakes he made (naturally we put it on whenever he is especially cheerful, just to bring him down to our level). We knocked them out -- no method -- in a studio call Alchemix in Wooloongabba. The total recording time was 8 hours, the only overdubs we did were the vocals and the solos I think, then we mixed it overnight. We did it for absolutely nothing, like maybe 300 bucks or something like that -- 300 bucks and a bottle of bourbon for the lovely Matt Whitehouse who didn't charge us nearly as much as he should have. I remember it was so exciting and I felt stretched, I was trying against all odds to study for mid semesters while doing the mixing. Acedemia was once again the victim I'm afraid (intentional misspelling ... lol). At the time we had absolutely no idea, doing our new EP was a total eye opener, but I still think they sound pretty good.
What're the future plans? Is there an album in the works? Touring?
We have our first release coming out -- an EP, its called Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention to Themselves. It'll be out in April in Australia -- on iTunes as well but I don't know if that is international or not. But look out for it; I very much hope you get to hear it as we are very pleased with how it all turned out. Other than that ... I believe the phrase "heavy touring" sums up our plans nicely. Perhaps a real album in early 2009? I salivate at the prospect however the details are all a bit uncertain at the moment on that front at the moment ... (In other news, our [pretend] debut album entitled "?"!* is released metaphysically on the 31th of February when the moon is full. You can purchase it at all reputable frontal cortexes. But I wouldn't recommend getting it because it may or may not exist.)
Q: You get a lot of attention for being a phenomenal live band. What do you try to do when you're on stage and how does it differ from your studio recordings? Do you try to differentiate the two?
JOHN: There is a difference, and some of it is intentional, but we don't think of the two as totally different things, I'm sure if there was a producer involved, some songs would be slowed down for the record that are much faster live, but the live songs and the recorded are very similar. Were allowed more crapulence with overdubs and such. Live there's a different NRG arc in the sequencing, some things get you off differently recorded vs. live.
Q: And more generally -- how's touring been for you? You've hopped around a few continents now and seem to be garnering quite a following. How's the touring life treating you? How're you liking it?
JOHN: We've always been touring, before we had a record, or fans or anything. So were pretty used to and get antsy staying at home. We generally love tour, but it does kick yr ass. The upcoming tour with Crystal Castles through central Canada in winter were expecting to run our asses ragged.
Q: As a band signed to a small label [Love Pump], how do you think the music industry at large is treating smaller groups and labels? Do you think the current environment is overall helpful for independents or is it still tough to "make it" today?
JOHN: I think its easier than ever for independents to "make it" today then ever, but let me clarify that "making it" is being known, not like making it rich or nothing. The interweb, dood.
Q: Any projects coming up that we should know about? Collaborations, forthcoming releases, music videos?
JOHN: 7" singles and 12" singles w/ originals and remixes, in limited colored vinyl pressings. There will also be a HEALTH//DISCO album in early '08 on Lovepump United, it will be a remix album, but a lot of care is going into it, it wont be just a comp of remixes. There will be some enhanced CD content too. Dan Deacon mentioned he wanted to collaborate sometime...but given his schedule that will be sometime in 2019.
Q: Thanks so much for talking! You make me proud to be in L.A. -- just when I'm starting to feel down about the health of the music scene around here, you pop up and make everything better! We all hail HEALTH!
Q: I really liked your debut video [for "Heaven"]. Why did you pull that footage [from Werner Herzog's documentary, The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner]? It works really well with the music, but seems like a strange choice ...
JOHN: Yes, well it wasn't our idea. In fact we didn't know about it until after it had been posted on YouTube, and it started getting posted a lot of places. The video was done by Bret Berg of a great band called Anavan, he also did an Anavan video made with found footage ... The video is still not technically "official" but we really like it.
Q: And speaking about aesthetics and imagery -- where did the cover art for the eponymous debut LP originate? What was the inspiration there?
JOHN: The design used is one we've used for a lot of t shirts and our live cassette before, but the LP art was inspired by a lot of old record art, when the song titles or hits were often listed on the cover. Taking that idea and making it modern.
Q: Now, on to music. When asked to describe your music, what do you say? You're noise, but you tend to play more melodious stuff that other noise-rockers; you mess around a lot with pedals and weird effects, making the "experimental" categorization an easy one, but you seem to be more interested in song structure over random sounds; your tunes feature heavy, stoic drumming and speed guitar often, but no one's described you as a metal group yet. What are you!?
JOHN: Yeah thats tough. We tried to join several genre clubs with little success. We do get metal associations on tour, but Jupiter is the only one with a metal pedigree, though Beej is most accused of having one. We wish we could just be called Noise, but the L.A. Noise guys have reminded us that we are a band that plays music and not Noise. I like how BBBD says "Noise Dance". The genre thing doesn't bother me.
Q: What sort of stuff did you grow up on and how did you all personally get involved with actually making music yourselves?
JOHN: My formative years were punk rock, then I added classic rock, then progressive rock, then actual current music in that order, dance music got in a few years ago. We all played instruments in high school, and had high school bands. Weve always wanted to be in a band. Jake's was also punk rock, Jupiter, Metal, and BJ Blues Traveler. We all had equal Classic rock obsession and its the experience we share.
Q: And what type of music are you digging right now? Any undiscovered gems we should know about? Are you really all Michael McDonald fans?
JOHN: Um, Im really loving anything from "Italians Do It Better", get hip to Pictureplane, Captain Ahab, Telepathe, Narwhalz, Videohippos. If you live in L.A. get hip to Kyle H. Mabson, hes a goofy musical movement all to him self, in about 14 bands, all hilariously stupid: Kyle H. Mabson MySpace.
We finally got the chance to do an interview with BBBD favorite, HEALTH (MySpace). I think we've literally been talking about this for a year now. Anyway, enjoy Part 1 today, 2 tomorrow, and 3 on Friday! Q: Tell me a little about how you four got together as band.
JOHN: Not terribly interesting. Jake and I met each other working at Guitar Center Hollywood,I was playing Chinese Stars in the accessories section and he went: "hey you listen to cool music..." etc. etc. Him and Jupiter had already been trying to make a band and didn't know what they wanted to do, so I started meeting with them after work. After much talk and little action we decided to get a drummer off of Craigslist, BJ. Then we were a band.
Q: Shortly after the album came out, you began releasing a wave of remixes. Why did you decide to commission so many DJ's to remix your work? And what do you personally think of them?
JOHN: The original plan was not for so many remixes, I didn't think so many of them would be down for it. Every remixer was hand selected, I'm a huge fan of all parties involved.
Q: Maybe the most important and significant remix was the Crystal Castles one that was done way back before you had much of anything released. How did you get together with them and do you credit them with bringing you to any sort of fame?
JOHN: We discovered Crystal Castles upon my first visit to the blog 20jazzfunkgreats. Immediately stoked we started stalking their MySpace, added them. They left a nice comment about the tunes. Stoked+ we worked up the nerve to ask them to do a split or a remix possibly, at the time they had only two remixes both of which were amazing. Finally we emailed and asked. They were down for both. We owe a lot to Crystal Castles, possibly a right eye.
Q: The Smell has received major press in the past couple of months from sources as desperate as the New Yorker to i-D. Along with No Age, Mika Miko, and a few other groups, you're closely tied to the venue ... so how do you take all this press and, more importantly, what're your feelings on the place? How have you interacted with and benefited from the Smell?
JOHN: We don't mind the press, its not harming the scene one bit, and The Smell is a very willing participant in all this, so don't shed no tears. Nothing is in danger here. The Smell is a big deal for us, its always been a legendary place, I would drive up in high school from San Diego to go to shows there, but the biggest thing we owe to it is our record. Jim Smith gave us keys and free reign, and the Smell is really the sound of the record.
Enjoy Part 1 of the interview right here! Thanks for reading!
Q: And speaking of influences ... Skeletons is routinely compared to the likes of Sonic Youth, free jazz groups, no-wave bands, Can, and Prince. How accurate would you say these parallels are and how well do you personally identify with them? What are you own influences?
A: I like all of those things very much, so I appreciate the parallels... but I hope that it always takes a few parallels to sort of deliver a picture. I'm always searching for something that hits me so hard I can only listen and gather up everything that band or person did for a while... it keeps happening!
Q: Why all the regularly-altering band names? Skeletons & the Girl-Faced Boys; Skeletons & the Kings Of All Cities ... where did the monikers come from?
A: It's nice to have a name that can change a l'il bit, no?
Q: I love the video you most recently made for "Sickness." Who directed that and what was the aim with the film? It's a pretty eerie film ... like a David Lynch-inspired quest done Hunter S. Thompson style. (Was that way off?)
A: Thanks! The video was directed by Jojo the King, Minister of the New New Heavy, Senior VP of Development for Skeletons, INC. It was filmed between Nevada and Kansas for no money. We started filming at 3am when we ran out of gas in the middle of the desert. The story finished itself! You start to notice all the abandoned gas stations more when you run out of gas once or twice.
Q: From what I understand, you've a history with the visual arts, too. How does this affect your musical work and what stuff are you currently working on now outside of Skeletons?
A: I'm working on quite a bit of video... When Skeletons first started, there was an idea to keep it multimedia. The first record we did with Shinkoyo was originally an album with videos from start to finish, mostly from educational videos about driving and growing up. It sort of fell to the side when we started touring so much, but in the past year or so I've tried to always have a camera around. Lately I've been shooting various things, little ideas, TV shows, etc. I'd like to make musicals.
Q: Aside from touring next year, what else is on the horizon for you? Are you recording a new record? Working on some sort of collaboration?
A: We're right in the middle of a record right now, and starting another one if time permits before we go on a big tour in the Spring, plus there's another one that's about 90 percent done that I recorded a while back more solo style. I'm hoping to get them all out in the next year, that's my resolution. That and maybe exercising. And keeping my job.
Q: I think that's about it. Thanks so much for doing this interview. Hope to see you soon!
Skeletons (MySpace), the NYC-by-way-of-Oberlin, Ohio experimental pop ensemble is currently in between albums after releasing 2007's Lucas on Ghostly International (which topped many year-end music charts), but their current state of transition doesn't make them any less interesting (it probably makes the band more interesting, actually). BBBD was fortunate enough to get a few questions in with the band before they finish the new record and tour tour tour! Remember to finish reading Part 1 after the jump! Part 2 will be published tomorrow!
Q: I believe I saw you at the Grog Shop in Cleveland years ago ... maybe 2003 or 2004 or something. Just though I'd start this whole thing off with that note -- I'm from Cleveland, you're from Oberlin. Tell me a little about the city, what you think of the place ...
A: Oh! 2003! What'd you think of the show?... feels like a long time ago... Mostly places are about the people in them, and the time I was in Oberlin there were great people moving in and around. The school sort of had this "bubble" thing? The minute you arrived everyone was like, "Don't get stuck in the bubble!". But sometimes it was a great bubble! Just talking about and making things, monthly concerts in the recital halls and try to make them as bizarre as possible, all nights in the studio, instruments filling the living room for anytime jams, and then going to the one bar in town because it was the only place to go. I also spent a lot of time on Greyhound busses... I highly recommend a good five hour sit at the Elyria Greyhound sometime. We'd go into Cleveland pretty frequently for the Bent Crayon and that thrift store Unique. We had our first big shows in Cleveland... I really like that stretch on 90 I think? Where you're elevated over all the industrial gunk, flames burning out of smoke stacks? Then you come up on the stadium! I didn't grow up in Oberlin though, I think I have only a glimpse of it.
Q: You released a bunch of records, before signing to Ghostly in 2005, via the Oberlin collective you co-founded, Shinkoyo. Where did that name come from and what's the underlying purpose or mission statement of Shinkoyo?
A: Shinkoyo came out of all those things... I think we wanted to have some vessel to send things out of the bubble? Seve Martinez and I got "loans" to put out the first three records (Skeletons, Peter Blasser's "sound of doves in a cave", and Seve's "Clocks and Psandas") and we'd have big round table "board meetings"... really heated discussions between 8 or 9 people, amazing! Seve had a dream that he was going to start a fashion company called Shin12koyo, but the 12 was silent... We found out that Shinkoyo sort of means "new employment" in Japanese. Then Doron Sadja put out a record with 12k... We were talking about a logo with two dead birds, and Seve and Peter found this flag that we adopted as the logo... which ended up being Pennsylvania Dutch - a sign to ward off evil spirits - we had been using it upside-down! We spent one meeting writing up our "mission statement" which said something about newness and collaboration and technology without "tech or retro - fetishism"!? We never really had any money though, or distribution beyond bringing records to record stores while we were on tour, which we still do. We've also put most of that music up to be listened to on the Shinkoyo site.
Q: Any cool projects coming up with that?
A: So many if only we had money and time! We co-released a new Sejayno (Peter B., Seve, and Carson Garhart) record. Doron and Zeljko McMullen are running a performance space in NY called Paris London West Nile, recording and archiving much great music played there. I've been preparing video for internet TV shows. And we have albums and albums waiting to be put out into the world, gathering lovely dust...
Skeletons - Hay W'Happens? Q: You're clearly an eclectic musician. Your lyrics, continually-rotating and enlarging line-up, tremendous array of musical styles and these, and overarching ambitious, completely unique sound make that very clear. So tell me a little about your musical background!
A: Hmm... I started pretty young playing music, but never practiced enough. My major in college was Technology in Music and Related Arts.
Q: Regardless of how many influences you cite and how many instruments you throw into your arrangements, your songs continually wind up sounding sort of lo-fi. Not necessarily bedroom recording lo-fi, but just quieter and more restrained than what one would assume you sound like on paper. What the writing, recording, and producing process like for you?
A: I think it depends how loud you listen to it! I've always wanted the records to be their own thing... they have to be, considering the space and the tools you have to make it. It means the process is always changing... when we made Lucas we moved into a new place (The Silent Barn, they have shows at now...) and sort of halted recording in order to build our rooms. Set up the "studio" in the basement, which had the biggest effect on the sound of the record. Every track recorded in that room sounded like that room, so you sort of have to learn how to use it to your benefit. Everything beyond the "sound" has an effect too... the place and time and people. Now we're recording at a place in Times Square, only at night, only a few days sporadically, paying for time. So where Lucas was more like sculpting, long hours adding and taking away things - the process now is much more planning, every part, every sound, every experiment. Oh, and I think what you're talking about is trying to keep things multidimensional? Trying to make something BOTH loud and soft at the same time or funky and fucked up and the same time... so the focus becomes finding the overall feel of the record that differs from a description of it's parts, it's own thing?
