Felt Drawingsis Dom Tiberio from Los Angeles, USA. His music begs, borrows and steals from so many genres - chart pop, hip hop, R & B, dubstep, techno, goth and industrial. What keeps it coherent is the emotional intensity - Felt Drawings demands to be listened to due to the impending sense of urgency in all his tracks. We first heard about Felt Drawings during our interview with Freddy Ruppert of Former Ghosts, so you can see what kind of pedigree we’re talking about.
Felt Drawings has been getting a lot of positive press at the moment, so is definitely one to watch. Dom is releasing a full length later this year, so keeps your eyes out.
We’re hoping there will be an FD tour round Europe at some point, and will do whatever we can to make this happen, but for now enjoy this live video:
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with Dom Tiberio.
DT: Your sound features unabashed pop influences, the dark melancholy of dance and dubstep, as well as some industrial and goth type moments. How does the writing process work for something with such a variety of influences?
Dom: Well I’m glad you think it works. I don’t think about my influences as a whole when writing songs, but when I listen to music I do take little mental notes of things I like. Then all that stuff gets mushed around and filtered through my own tastes and sensibilities.
DT: Your music has a real, and genuine, emotional core. How do you capture this on record?
Dom: I appreciate that. When I write the songs it’s during the time when the content is fresh or relevant in my life so maybe that has something to do with it. I’m not sure. As far as the sounds I use, I tend to use sounds that are damaged and that fluctuate because it gives them a tiny life of their own.
DT: Whilst it’s a very dark record, there’s a definite sense of dance to your sound. Has this been informed by any particular artists or labels?
Dom: I do like a lot of dance music. Growing up I used to listen to the deep house mixes that DJ Enrie would put out. Then later on I got into house and techno and all that stuff. I think the biggest eye-opening moment for me was when I first heard New Order. Right now I’m not even very familiar with all the artists’ names but I like a lot of the stuff Hyperdub and Kompakt put out.
DT: Does the way you play live reflect how you work in the studio? Which do you prefer, and which is more ‘honestly’ you expressing yourself?
Dom: The way I work at home is pretty much me sitting at my desk fiddling around on my drum machine. Then I play the song live before I record it, just to see if the arrangement seems fitting. I think in the studio it is more of a cerebral sussing out of things and emotions, where as playing live is more of a physical release. As far as which is more “honestly” expressing, I think they both have their importance. The emotions are fresh when the song is written, so that is the initial expression. There is no substitute for playing live though. It’s like being able to scream underwater. Plus that’s the only time I get to hear the songs super loud.
DT: There’s a lot of press about lo-fi at the moment, but I feel you somehow stand apart from this, with your own sound and aesthetic. How much of a role does technology play in your music making?
Dom: Technology plays a huge part in the way I make music. Being able to record on a computer opens up so many possibilities to the way the songs are written. It is really easy to cut and paste a part and change the whole arrangement of the song. It also makes it possible to get ideas out without knowing how to play any kind of traditional instrument.
DT: You’ve released several individual tracks online, as well as the EP ‘Passing’. Where would you like your sound to be as you move towards a full length?
Dom: The full length is almost done. I just need to finish a few more tracks. So far the pop arrangements are more prevalent. Hopefully I’m able to mix it well. I want the production quality to be pretty good.
DT: You recently moved back to LA from San Francisco – how has the change affected your music? How does living in such a musically rich place affect you?
Dom: I don’t think the move has affected the sound of my music much. I kind of felt out of place in San Francisco and that lead me to stay inside a lot of the time and just work on stuff. I didn’t feel too separate from the music going on in LA because I would talk to my close friends everyday that make music there, and we would send things we are working on back and forth. The cool thing about LA is there are a lot of shows going on every night of the week. And going to shows gets me inspired to keep producing.
DT: Which artists are making music that’s exciting you the most right now?
Dom: Right now I’m into Kevin Greenspon. He makes these awesome ambient guitar pieces. I also like what How To Dress Well is doing. A new band I’m really excited about from LA is Continues. We are doing a 7” split together that is going to be out in September.
DT: Do you have a day job? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?
Dom: I do have a day job. It’s a 9 to 5 office job. They fired me a couple weeks ago but they called back and asked if I could stay for a bit longer. Maybe the best kind of job to have when trying to make music is one that you don’t take home with you. Unemployment? I don’t know.
DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?
Dom: Oh man. Umm. The only thing I can think of is that I was really into the Ninja Turtles and Raphael was my favorite one. I don’t even remember why he was my favorite but I remember having an affinity for his character.
Truman Peyoteis Caleb Johannes and Eric Farber from Boston, MA, USA. Their music is a total collage, like a bunch of oddly compelling sounds and shapes thrown in the air by a child, then landing on a glue soaked piece of paper, matured, fully formed, organic and enveloping. They released debut full length Light-Lightning(available for FREE download on the link) in 2009 - it’s a record that shifts suddenly from celebratory pop melodies, to dark, tribal percussive moments. The single New Wife New Life off the album sings from this sheet. They have an upcoming out on lauded tape label Mirror Universeshortly, home to the releases by the likes of Washed Out.
Truman Peyote have a world tour in the pipeline for September, in what promises to be an awesome double header with fellow crazies Many Mansions. This tour really should not be missed if their joint EP Peaced Together is anything to go by. Check out their stellar live show below:
Rumour has it that a show for Ducked Tapes at The Basement in York is in the pipeline…
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with Caleb Johannes of Truman Peyote.
DT: Your music is a real sonic patchwork, combining noises, sounds andmelodies into something that oozes and pulses with true feeling. How do the songs come together? Is it hard to get all three of your headsin the same place at the same time?
Caleb: The songs are always completely different images upon their creation than the final product. Much like a painter paints a canvas, we start with a sketch (a beat or melody; something to get us going) and layer, layer, layer. The process can take months, days, or hours depending on the direction, but as opposed to an album being our one final project, each song is it’s own work compiled into a portfolio.
DT: In an interview from awhile ago I read you guys were making all your own shirts, creating your own graphics etc… Is this something you still do, and if so is it important to you to carry on this DIY approach as the band gains recognition?
Caleb: Absolutely. To this day a record label has never supported us. Any merch we have on the road, or have had in the past, is all hand-made, assembled, and paid for by us. I love creating whether it’s music, art, shirts, records, etc etc so this past October (2009) I founded a record label called Breakfast of Champs Records that has put out TP along with many other friends of ours. It’s proven to be very fulfilling for me.
DT: You’ve commented before that you prefer the house party scene. What is it about it that gets you excited the most? Intimate venues? The people?
Caleb:Well it used to be because I wasn’t 21 (yeah F America…) but I’ve come to realize how impersonal bar shows really can be. Too many times we’ve had fans turned away just because of age at shows, or promised things that never come to fruition. This all depends though because we’ve definitely played some super fun bars/clubs too. It really depends on if the people working at the said venue actually care about the music being performed (which, in my opinion, is far too rare these days).
DT: In live videos and photos I’ve seen, you guys have a huge variety of equipment, from Macbooks, to SP-404s, effects pedals and analog synths. Is live the same kind of setup you’d use in the studio?
Caleb: Yes and no. In the studio we can do and use whatever we want, in any way we want. When we play live we have to account for a lot more things: space/weight in the car, ease of use, general sanity… I like to record all my guitar and synths through amps, but I can’t bring around 6 different amps live just to make it sound like the record.
Also our songs have a lot of layers, so multiple samplers seriously come in handy. Playing live for us is about maximizing our gears potential in the easiest way possible without compromising sound, but simultaneously being wary of space constraints and set-up time.
DT: What’s the most important piece of gear to the TP sound? Are you dedicated followers of music technology?
Caleb:Haha. To be completely honest the answer to the question could change as often as every month. Pretty much whatever piece of gear we’re digging the most, though you’ll hardly ever find us without a synthesizer or a sampler.
DT: Do you have any particular ethos about recording in terms ofanalog or digital, or do you just go with whatever sounds right forthe particular record?
Caleb:Not at all. I think it’s silly to bash one recording technique over another. Recently there has been this lo-fi revolution where we’re hearing/seeing so many more artists using old tape decks again to record demos that end up being called finished songs. It’s an interesting aesthetic, and has the ability to make certain pieces sound fantastic. It also makes a lot of music sound like complete shit. The “I only record on tape” mentality is just another way to limit oneself and build walls. The choice should always be made by artist, but we most definitely do both. I don’t see a point in ever limiting anything one does artistically.
DT: You’re from Boston, MA, a place better known for its history and hardcore than experimental, psychedelic music. How much has your location, and the scene there, influenced your sound?
Caleb:Yeah I was way to young for the hardcore Boston scene to ever eat me, though I definitely went to some fun Toxic Narcotic shows back in the day. That said, being here has had a huge effect on our sound, but not entirely due to location. There is a huge scene of rising artists coming from Boston, and everyone living and sharing in such a close proximity has created a fun, intelligent, and meaningful community of artists / musicians that is entirely self-sufficient. Everyone is feeding off all the energy, and constantly taking ideas further; it’s quite amazing.
DT: Which bands or artists are making the music that’s exciting you the most right now? Is there anyone you’d really like to work with or do a split with?
Caleb:Anything Phil Elverum.
DT: Do you have a day job? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?
Ha yeah, of course I have a day job. I work retail at a teacher supply/children’s learning store, and to be completely honest working is the only way I stay sane. It balances me out. I can’t imagine (at my age) what I would do if I were surrounded by this band shit 24/7; hype, shows, people, questions, blah, blah. I’m only 21 years old, I have nothing but time! I feel like people in similar situations as me all too easily become vain, over confident, and even sometimes bitter.
Not to be preachy, but if you’re not having fun, what’s the point? Having a job keeps me in the real world, and I can more easily balance my life. I didn’t start making music to get wicked famous, fuck half of new york, and get a million dollars, I do it to fulfil a primal artistic (or musical) urge inside of me to create. Getting a pay check from work is a different, and necessary fulfilment. That said I would love to someday get to a stable point in my life where music creation is one with my career, but as I said before, I’m young and am in no way a gold digger.
DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?
Caleb:Thomas The Tank Engine! My dad has always been obsessed with trains so naturally this was what I read/watched the most as a kid. Never gets old man. Also, the US television series had Ringo Starr as the storyteller for the first two years, some truly classic TV moments.
Xiu Xiu are Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo and Ches Smith from various locations around the United States. Their music is a Hadron Collider of influences, smashing together Gamelan percussion with dance beats and post-punk sentiment with almost anthemic choruses. Their latest long player Dear God I Hate Myself has just been released worldwide - yes it’s quite deliberately confrontational, but for all it’s emotional fragility and openness, it’s a record so intelligently informed by pop that it’s hard not to take real pleasure in listening to it’s songs, even with provocative names like the title track. The single Gray Death off the album speaks in exactly this tongue.
Xiu Xiu - as Jamie and Angela - are currently touring England then heading back to the US for a couple of months before heading East then back to Europe, check out the full dates below the interview. In April they’ll be joining Deerhoof for a one of super-special event: a performance of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures at Donaufestival in Austria.
On his 2009 solo tour Jamie covered DT’s favourite Joy Division (/ New Order) song “Ceremony” with just some beats, a stylophone and a bird caller, oh and himself. Check out the below and see just how special the Austria gig will be.
DT caught up with Jamie at the Xiu Xiu gig on Wednesday 24th February, 2010 at the awesome Harley in Sheffield, UK. It was great talking to Jamie, he’s a lovely guy, who seemed to genuinely want to talk, which makes the intensity of the live show and how inolving Xiu Xiu’s sound is on record all the more special.
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with Xiu Xiu.
DT: I read that when you and Cory first started, you had a kind of five point manifesto. Does that still hold now or has it changed or developed at all?
JS: I sure it must have developed, I certainly haven’t abandoned it, but I don’t necessarily feel constrained by it either. I haven’t sat down and written another one [laughs]. But I think that the reason we wrote it is because the bands that we’d been in before I think didn’t have any sort of of clear idea about what we wanted them to be like and I think that’s what led to them unravelling. So I think it was in the hope of setting us off on a singular focused direction.
DT: I read in a recent interview about “Dear God…” that you weren’t writing to make it more accessible, but you’d been influenced by a lot of pop music. When you’re writing a song at what point does it stop being a pop melody and become and actual Xiu Xiu song?
JS: It really depends on the song. Sometimes if I’m really lucky that melody is just there right off the bat but more often than not it’s only at the very end and only because of pouring over every conceivable possibility until finding something that feels like it might be real and might work.
DT: Do you find that time is quite a big factor in it? I do music myself, but I also work so it makes it really tough to fit everything in.
JS: Actually it’s been interesting sort of what it’s…I was just discussing this with a friend of mine who’s a musician also, and I’m in the extraordinarily fortunate position of doing it for a living, but she has a day job and does music and has a kid as well, and you know if she’s got twenty extra minutes in the day she sits down and because she knows she has to do it at that second she’s able to pour a lot more of herself into it at that moment. When I did have a day job I found that that was the case also and now that I don’t have a day job it’s a totally different process I don’t think the end result is any better or worse than it was but it certainly seems to take a lot longer because I have a lot longer to do it. Like I said I don’t know if that’s good or bad but certainly in most instances the amount of time it takes to complete something now than when we first began, probably five times as much [laughs].
DT: Do you have any kind of advice for someone who’s desperate to do music full time?
JS: We just got really lucky, I think. We just completely by chance ended up on a halfway decent label. Probably the third record that we came out with…the first two records we had were sort of popular but not in particularly popular and third record we had was a lot more popular than that and it came out in maybe the last year that people were really still buying records, which was really lucky for us, because even though not a ton of people were coming to our shows, a lot of people were buying that record because people still bought records in 2004 when that came out.
DT: Fabulous Muscles right?
JS: Fabulous Muscles, yeah. So we kind of got in on the tail end of that you could get established in a small way by selling records, which you can’t really do anymore. We just sort of kept a small number of people that have maintained interest since then, and I think enough people come to shows at this point that we’re not going to have to work anymore. It was completely by chance; I think if that record had come out a year later it probably wouldn’t have worked out.
DT: Yeah, I read that tape labels are having quite a resurgence. People are printing 100 copies of a tape and 100 copies of a cd and the tapes selling out and the cd’s not selling at all.
JS: I’m noticing that on this tour we’re selling a lot of vinyl and almost no cds.
DT: You’ve spoken about how you play the same way live that you do on record. Live it’s quite emotionally intense to watch, what’s it like to record?
JS: It’s hard to play live. I don’t find one easier or harder than the other. Procedurally obviously it’s completely different [laughs] but it’s not like, I don’t know… I kind of wish… I don’t know what I’m trying to say [laughs]. They’re both hard! They both, at least for me, take a tremendous amount of effort.
DT: I’ve picked up in your music many many influences, but I’m particularly interested in the dance element. What is it about dance that you particularly like? Are there any particular labels you’re drawn to?
JS: Not really, mostly I’m just interested in club music; I don’t listen to club music unless I go out dancing. I think there’s something about… most dance music has extraordinarily unsophisticated but extraordinarily direct lyrics, that if you heard them in an art rock song they’d be almost too direct in that sort of setting. But I think in a dance setting because it’s in a public space, and because it’s something that’s physical, and depending how you’re nights going it can be social or not, it has an inherent emotionality to it because you’re in a space where almost the point of going to that space is some sort of physical release either by dancing or by hooking with somebody and getting fucked at the end of the night, you go to that space to hear that music and hoping for some physical end result. So that in combination with the incredibly direct lyrics that are almost invariably about pain and loss… the combination of those two things has really kept me going I guess [laughs] just as some place that I know I can go and kind of start my life over if things are getting really rotten. I’m really dependent on dance clubs in my adult laugh. I would never go when I was going up at all, but later on I would realize understand that they can really save your skin.
DT: Yeah I know what you mean, when you go on one of those nights it’s like a release.
JS: Yeah exactly. You can begin again.
DT: You’re playing through Unknown Pleasures with Deerhoof at Donaufestival…
JS: I’m actually wearing the Donaufestival shirt from 1985 right now [laughs].
DT: Very retro, very retro!
JS: [laughs]
DT: …what was it that particularly drew you to that record over Closer?
JS: Well there’s a romantic side to this and an unromantic side to this. The unromantic side is that the person who curates the festival, we played it in 2008, because every year they do a special show, and he asked us if in 2010 we wanted to do it. he said he’d give us a really big budget and we could do whatever we wanted. I asked him when he’d need to know what we wanted to do and he said the middle of 2009, so I had all these kind of ideas about what to do, but I didn’t hear from him, so I thought “ok, he changed his mind,” I didn’t want to come running after him or something. He got a hold of me at the very end of 2009 like in December or something, and was like “you want to do it?” and I was like “yeh,” but I was trying to think what would people be interested in and what would be possible to in a relatively short amount of time. This is a totally amazing record that changed my life and almost everyone else on earth totally loves this record; luckily it’s really simple to play, and if it could be in combination with any particular bands contextually it could maybe be a little more meaningful than just having whoever do a tribute band or something like that. So there is a functional reason for it.
Then the romantic side of it is you know, like I said, like everybody on earth… It’s the inception of a lot of current music that’s happening… I mean, I don’t have anything unobvious that hasn’t been said about their record before. It changed the game for the future of music, and that, along with a handful of other records, has been one that I’ve turned to again and again and again, just for an emotional need and for a creative need as well.
DT: As I said before, there’s a huge number of influences present in Xiu Xiu’s work. Have samples ever played a role in your sound? Live it’s very direct, have you used samples much?
JS: A tiny, tiny bit. I think there’s really only one or two songs that really rely on it and I can’t tell you what they are because we didn’t license the samples [laughs].
But they’re a small but of some relatively unknown pieces of music, and on occasion when Greg Saunier who had worked on the last three records with us he would use samples in a really kind of funny ways, like not in the way that you’d normally use samples. He would do something like put some totally unrelated music underneath to thicken the music in some way; like you wouldn’t hear it if you listened to it, but you would certainly realize if you had taken it out, or almost to be hilarious at times, like he would take drum hits from the most famous songs in the entire world or something, by the most gigantic classic rock bands and just put them into one place or something. He didn’t do it to be funny, it was only hilarious because it was like, we didn’t us The Rolling Stones, but like The Rolling Stones, something that dope-ily famous, just to change…flip a neuron switch for one second. He did it in ways I never would have thought that you could really use something, just because those were recorded in a different time, in a different way with a different person playing completely different equipment and a space that we don’t have any access to. It changed the environment of the record for just a moment that could make a passage seem interesting, more interesting, than if it wasn’t there.
DT: You mentioned equipment - when I spoke to Aria from railcars a few weeks ago he said you’re still using quite an old OS and everything. Is that form some particular ethos or…?
JS: It still works [laughs]! I know how to use it, and I’m really fast on it and I know what it’s limitations are and what it excels at. I mean I could buy something knew, but until that breaks, which will probably be very soon [laughs], I’ll probably keep on it.
DT: Which are the artists that are exciting you musically right now?
JS: You mean new ones?
DT: Well, any really. As an example Aria said Former Ghosts.
JS: Yeah they’re super great.
DT: You mean you’re super great [laughs]?
JS: I have almost nothing to do with that band so I can say that they’re super great. Freddy writes all of the songs, on only half the songs I clink along on tiny keyboard parts. I can say it’s great as I have almost nothing to do with it.
As far as currently playing bands I mostly just listen to my friends bands. Lately I’ve gotten completely transfixed by that label Sublime Frequencies. They have this [laughs], this deal where you buy every single record that they’ve put out for 120 bucks and they just send you all the tracks in mp3 on a dvd and he writes it down in a Sharpie on the dvd, but you know if you bought all the records it’d be like 800 dollars or something. So I have a lot of that to go through, I’m really, really obsessed with it. Then friends bands are really exciting to listen to, if you know the person you know where the music is coming from, it makes it that much more interesting, that much more special.
DT: If you had to chose a favorite children’s character who or what would it be and why?
JS: Oh jeez… [laughs] I taught pre-school for a long time so I have an intimate knowledge of many children’s characters! God, that’s surprisingly difficult.
I can’t think of anything cool to say [laughs]! I feel some kind of pressure to answer this well, it’s actually a very revealing question.
I keep wanting to say Satan or something like that. That’s what I keep coming back to. He’s just appealing…as a child a character I was influenced by, and terrified by and in a lot of ways controlled by, along with most people in the Western world. Then as I got called I was like “woah, I don’t have to believe in Satan” [laughs], even though Satan is completely fascinating and aesthetically really cool, like I want to use a lot more Satan imagery. I told my mom not to investigate anything we’ve worked on - on the rare occasion she does she’s always bothered and disturbed by it, and I have this long, aggravating talk with her and I know that if I got into Satan imagery that would just be too much, even though I’d tell her to stay away, so for the sake of my mom I’ll probably leave it there. I guess for his incredibly, fantastical powers, despite the fact that he doesn’t exist - that’s a pretty interesting character.
I’m sure my bandmate Angela would probably say SpongeBob, the opposite of Satan, or the familiar of Satan depending on your view of SpongeBob. My niece likes SpongeBob too. Angela knows the SpongeBob song in German.
DT: Would’ve fit perfectly in the set.
JS: [laughs]
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Here’s the full Xiu Xiu tour dates for 2010:
UK
feb 20 - Dublin, IE - Whelans feb 21 - Glasgow, UK - NiceNSleazy feb 22 - Edinburgh, UK - Electric Circus feb 23 - Manchester, UK - Islington Mill feb 24 - Sheffield, UK - The Harley feb 25 - Cardiff, UK - Cardiff Arts Institute feb 26 - London, UK - The Luminaire feb 27 - Brighton, UK - Freebutt feb 28 - Coventry, UK - Taylor John’s House
US
mar 05- Greensboro, NC - Guilford College mar 06 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn (w/ Noveller, Girl in a Coma) mar 07 - Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree (w/ Noveller, Girl in a Coma) mar 09 - Little Rock, AR - Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack mar 10 - Norman, OK - Opolis Productions (w/ Noveller, Girl in a Coma) mar 11 - Dallas, TX - The Cavern (w/ Noveller, Girl in a Coma) mar 12 - Houston, TX - The Studio at Warehouse Live (w/ Noveller) mar 13 - Austin, TX - Red 7 (w/ Noveller) mar 15 - Tempe, AZ @ Sail Inn mar 16 - Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture (w/ Extra Life, Noveller) mar 17 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah (w/ Tune-Yards, Noveller) mar 18 - Los Angeles, CA - Echo (w/ Tune-Yards, Noveller) mar 19 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place (w/ Tune-Yards, Noveller) mar 20 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill (w/ Tune-Yards, Noveller) mar 23 - Olympia, WA - Northern (w/ Tune-Yards) mar 24 - Portland, OR - Holocene (w/ Tune-Yards) mar 25 - Boise, ID - Neurolux (w/ Tune-Yards, Scout Niblett) mar 26 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) mar 27 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) mar 29 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot Saloon (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) mar 30 - St. Louis, MO - Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal, Br’erl) mar 31 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) apr 01 - Northfield, MN - The Cave at Carleton College (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) apr 02 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) apr 03 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal, Zola Jesus) apr 05 - Oberlin, OH - The Dionysus Discotheque (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) apr 07 - Cleveland, OH - The Spot (w/ Tune-Yards, Talk Normal) apr 08 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place (w/ Tune-Yards) apr 09 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w/ Tune-Yards, Zola Jesus) apr 10 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs (w/ Tune-Yards) apr 13 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church (w/ Tune-Yards) apr 14 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel (w/ Tune-Yards) apr 15 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 (w/ Tune-Yards) apr 17 - Detroit, MI - Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (w/ TBD)
Former Ghosts are Freddy Ruppert, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Nika Rosa (Zola Jesus) from various locations around the United States. Their music is an emotionally raw juxtaposition of dense synthpop and reverb straight from the heart of St. Paul’s. Sure you can hear Joy Division in there - but there’s so much more to Former Ghosts than post-punk throwbacks. Their debut, Fleurs, is as much about moments of ecstasy as it is about repetitive, stabbing percussion. It really works - whilst you can hear Freddy’s at the center of Former Ghosts, the individual influences of Jamie and Nika make for something really special. If you’d like to hear what we’re talking about check out Hold On over at Upset the Rhythm.
Former Ghosts have recently been touring the US in the guise of Freddy and Jamie. But Europeans don’t worry - when DT spoke to Freddy he assured us there’d be an EU tour in May.
Check out the below to see what’s in store…
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with Former Ghosts.
DT: Former Ghosts is made up of yourself as principle songwriter, Jamie Stewart and Nika Roza. How does the writing process work, given that all three of you are such prolifically creative people?
Freddy: We all live in different cities so it mainly takes place online and through the mail. Jamie and Nika are really busy with both Xiu Xiu and Zola Jesus, while Former Ghosts is pretty much my main focus. I usually will write the majority of the song and then send it to Jamie and Nika, who will then record their parts and then mail them back to me. Then I will piece it all together into a collective whole.
DT: You released debut Fleurs in autumn last year. For such an intense and emotionally dense record, there are moments of clarity and utter ecstasy. How difficult was it to capture this kind of pure expression on record?
Freddy: I’m not sure, it isn’t really something I thought about while recording it. The songs weren’t even recorded for a record in the first place, they were written and recorded for a person I was involved in a relationship with during tumultuous times of our relationship and then posted on a blog. It wasn’t until later that it all got pieced together for a record. So I think maybe those moments of desperation, ecstasy, heart ache, whatever, in that relationship got kind of captured as it was happening.
DT: Whilst it’s certainly has dark moments, Fleurs has a definite dance element to it. Has this been informed by any particular artists or labels?
Freddy: Probably things on the dark minimal techno vibe such as Dial Records, of course New Order and early OMD. I think our “dance” element is definitely toned down though, I like distant kick drums.
DT: On your bio, it quotes you as being particularly excited by the amount of reverb on the album. Can you tell us a bit more about this?
Freddy: I love reverb. I think it conveys a lot of the heavyness of the record and the heavyness in the emotions on display. I love the This Mortal Coil albums and all three of those are just drenched in reverb that creates a certain atmosphere. It just weighs down on everything.
DT: I’ve read that you’ve already made good progress on new Former Ghosts songs. How do they sound compared with what we’ve heard on Fleurs? Have Jamie or Nika heard them yet?
Freddy: Jamie and Nika have heard some stuff. We are working on some things together. I think the new stuff contains a lot of that pop element that was found on Fleurs and blends a lot more of the new agey type synth tones with more textural percussion elements. I think pop. Yeah, pop.
DT: When playing live your setup seems to be quite straightforward, allowing the power within the songs to come forward by itself. Does your live setup reflect how you’d work in the studio? If not, how does it differ?
Freddy: I think it maybe kind of reflects how I work in the studio? Since I am mainly an electronic/laptop musician the song basically is getting recorded at the same time that I am writing it. The live presentation isn’t something I think about a lot. It is interesting to me to add different textural elements to the live set up and for the most part work with laptop based tracks. I have no interest in trying to hide that a lot of what is going on live isn’t really “live”. That isn’t what I really care about. I care more about where the song is located emotionally as opposed to what is going on technically.
DT: You live just outside Los Angeles. At the moment LA is the source of such diverse and exciting - you’ve been involved in one of the key venues, The Smell. How has living in the LA area affected your sound and musical outlook?
Freddy: I have recently completely fallen in love with Los Angeles all over again. It feels great to be a part of a music community and to just have so many friends that are doing so many amazing things. I’m not sure if the actual city reflects my sound as I’ve lived here my whole life. But it’s great to be in a city where you can go out just about anywhere and run into people who are making inspiring things.
DT: Which bands are making music that’s exciting you the most right now?
Freddy:Los Angeles based band Tearist is the best band on the face of the planet at the moment. Another Los Angeles based act that consistantly destroys my boundaries of music is Felt Drawings.
DT: Do you have day jobs? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?
Freddy:I did have a day job up until December of last year. I lost my day job because of doing too much touring. I think for me, it has been easy to balance a day job and music because I never thought of music as a career more of just something I do/create. I’m looking for a new day job because at the moment music is definitely not coming close to paying any of my bills.
DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?
Freddy:Three months ago I would have said Eeyore because I was such a pathetic, depressed mess. Now I would say Tigger. Why would you not want to live your life like Tigger?
Real Estate are Martin Courtney, Matthew Mondanile, Etienne Duguay and Alex Bleeker of New Jersey. Think about surf’s most reverb drenched, ambient moments and you begin to come close to the Real Estate sound - it’s like they’ve just emerged from an underwater grotto to play a beach party in the misty twilight of dusk. There’s no sign of Dick Dale here, but there are definite signs of Mondanile’s solo project Ducktails. Real Estate released their debut self-titled record in Autumn 2009 on Woodsist, followed up by the Reality EP a month later on Mexican Summer. For a band that have such a dream-like sound, their choice of Reality for the name of their EP is interesting - their songs are about real and very normal things.
Ducked Tapes caught up with lead singer Martin Courtney of Real Estate at their show at the magnificent Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds, UK. They were really swell chaps - we gave them a 6 Piece Percussion Set that they promised to use on upcoming songs.
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with Real Estate.
DT: So where did the name Real Estate come from? Are you big fans of the mortgage market?
MC: Let’s start from the beginning. We all grew up together, we all went to high school together; at least me, Bleeker and Matt did, and we all kind of like went off to college for a couple of years and then kind of moved home. I was just trying to look for a job or whatever and I was going to real estate school at the time. We started a band and had to give it a name and didn’t know what to call it - I thought it was a good name, ‘coz it didn’t really bring too much to mind really, it’s just kind of like a pretty generic sounding term. Then immediately afterward there’s like a housing crisis, mortgage bubble, all this shit happens and it’s kind of funny. It was actually Etienne that came up with the idea. It’s just a name.
DT: You’ve all done work with other bands and solo - obviously Matt did Ducktails - how was it coming together? Did it make it easier to work together?
MC: It was easy to start everything because we had all played together so much in the past, and then we all kind of went our separate ways for a little bit and came back - we’d always stayed in touch and everything, so it was the most natural thing to start a band. We know each other’s styles pretty well. Not only have we played with each other so much but we’ve done our own thing separately and stayed on top of that. It’s definitely pretty natural for us to play together.
DT: From the album and from the EP I get the sense that it’s a bunch of friends coming together and partying. Is that the kind of vibe when your playing together?
MC: Like I said it’s just the most natural thing for us to start a band - it’s just kind of what we did to hang out, you know play music because it’s the most fun thing that we all do together and it makes us happy.
DT: I read that you record at home. From the Reality EP especially you certainly get that sense. You can hear it in Atlas Sound’s latest record - it’s got this vibe to it that’s really relaxed and homely. Do you think recording it at home has affected the sound at all?
MC: Yeh, definitely. I guess that’s why people would call it lo-fi or whatever because we don’t have nice shit to record with. We just use like a cassette eight track and stuff. I think that there’s a lot less pressure when you record at home - you’re not spending money on a studio and you have as much time as you want to work on it. That EP is just like songs that were recorded over the course of a long time. It’s not like we sat down and decided to record it. That plays into the sound I guess. Maybe it’s laid back because we weren’t really thinking about it too much or something.
DT: You mention lo-fi. There’s obviously quite a strong scene on the East Coast. I find Real Estate really stands out from the crowd; it’s got a different kind of sound. Do you think that’s to do with you guys being from New Jersey - obviously people like Yo La Tengo are from there, did that heritage have much influence?
MC: I can’t speculate what we would’ve sounded like if we’d gone somewhere else, but I definitely think we didn’t try to make it sound lo-fi. We want it to sound as good as we can. Some bands it’s a way of recording, or it’s part of the sound, which is cool - it’s an aesthetic or something - but for us, if I could afford to have a really nice recording system I’d go for it. We like to keep it analogue and we all really like the way that cassette sounds. It makes it seems like a little worn in almost, like it’s almost old. If we tried recording digital it’d end up sounding shit ‘coz we don’t know how to do that. It’s just like what we know how to do.
DT: Your songs have this whole kind of haziness to them - I can really pick up the sense of a coast or beach in them. How do you feel playing them throughout Europe during the coldest and darkest part of the year? Does it make them feel different when you play them?
MC: We’ve played the songs a lot, we’ve done a lot of touring recently. The actual structures of some of the songs - we’re pretty used to playing them, not to say that I’m bored by it or anything. I don’t think it’s too much about where we are that much, but then at the same time it’s kind of like interesting being… I guess the other times we’ve toured the weather’s been a little bit nicer, a bit warmer, so it is a little different. I don’t know, I think for us it’s not really about the season or whatever. I know a lot of people associate it with summer, a summery vibe, but there’s room for that in the winter time too, even more so. People want to feel that kind of vibe.
DT: Yeh, it takes you somewhere else this time of year.
MC: That’s good to hear!
DT: I noticed a lot of the kind of subject matter is normal life. The whole sound of the album is quite free wheeling, but it’s got this restraint in the heart of it, holding back from being overdone or anything. Do you think that comes from the subject matter you’re writing about?
MC:It’s just our way of arranging the songs. I didn’t want, on the album, to have too much that wasn’t already there. I didn’t want to add too many layers of different things, except maybe to have like multiple guitar tracks to maybe fill it out a little bit. We tried to keep each track kind of simple. The subject matter of the lyrics, that’s just what we read about - I don’t know what else to write about, just everyday life I guess. I does fit with the music in that they’re both kind of simple I guess.
DT: Do you have any particularly favorite artists that that you’d recommend our readers checking out?
MC:That’s funny - right now they’re playing Kurt Vile [on the Nation of Shopkeeper stereo. Ed] - we all really like him a lot. His solo stuff is really awesome. He’s on a kind of similar circuit to us, we’ve played with him a couple of times. He’s definitely on a really good label and stuff - it’s cool that we got to play with him. Also this band Woods - we go on tour with them next month, and we played at SXSW with them. We also all really like them. We feel a kinship with them ‘coz they’re our friends and stuff. Our sound’s different but sort of similar. We all like to jam and like improvise.
DT: Do any of you guys have day jobs or is it music full time? Do you have any recommendations about how people starting out split their time?
MC:None of us can afford to do music full time. That’s the short answer. I have a job. I work at a real estate office and kind of do bookkeeping sort of stuff and boring shit there - it’s the way to pay my rent. Two other people in the band live at home with their parents just kind of doing music and stuff but don’t have jobs. Etienne lives in Brooklyn and he makes money putting on shows and stuff - he’s sort of like a promoter I guess. None of us make enough money to pay our rent. Hopefully that’ll happen at some point - not yet!
DT: Yeh, I heard Deerhunter could only quit their jobs after Microcastle.
MC:You always hear about bands that you think are like…you know… everyone I know that’s in a band has a job - you have to be doing really really well to make money off of it. It’s kind of depressing to think about [laughs]. There’s really not that much money to be made, but at the same time we all feel so lucky to be able to be over here in Europe touring and stuff - that’s amazing and we’re not paying for it out of our own pockets. It’s a free trip pretty much - I mean we’re not gonna make very much money off the tour, we’re basically paying for our plane tickets and all the stuff through the shows - but it’s worth it. For sure.
DT: Do you have a favorite children’s character?
MC:Probably Little Pete from Pete and Pete, I don’t know if you guys have that show over here.
DT: It’s ok - High Places listed like 7 and we didn’t recognise any.
MC:[laughs] It’s this awesome show that was on Nickelodeon. It’s this live action show about the suburbs. It’s kind of funny, I feel like the aesthetic of Pete and Pete fits a little bit with our music. It’s pretty weird. Plus the band that did all the music for the shows was this band called Polaris. This guy Mark Mulcahy kind of like had a solo thing going on too. That band is really awesome too, you should check them out. They made one album, which is like the soundtrack to this show. It’s funny ‘coz it’s like really solid, really good music. It’s pretty much a kids tv show but you can still watch it today and be super amused by it. Steve Buscemi’s in it, and… I can’t believe I can’t remember this dude’s name…. “I wanna be your dog”…
DT: Iggy Pop?
MC:Iggy Pop’s in it. He plays one of the girls’ fathers. There’s a lot of kind of indie… Michael Stipe was in it. It’s a really good show. That’s Little Pete. He’s a prankster.
