Interview de Marriages, par Isaac Atencip de Bearded Gentlemen Music
BGM: I just finished listening to Salome in it’s entirety, and I am honestly floored. It is killer, and definitely a great progression from Kitsune. Would you please tell us a little about the creation of Salome and how the writing process may have evolved since the last album?
AC: Salome is a the culmination of over 2 years of writing, touring, rehearsing, and refining to arrive at a (hopefully) cohesive breadth of songs. Kitsunewas more of a response to the opportunity to form an new project. Kitsune happened quickly in a more stream of consciousness fashion.
This album is equal parts all of us – a fleshy patchwork quilt of our ideas and sensibilities sewn into one body kinda like Silence of the Lambs. We had to be patient and wait for quality substance to accrue and we also had to be diligent to hack away shitty ideas that just never evolved or were unmemorable.
How has the addition of Andrew changed the dynamic of Marriages’ writing process?
ERR: Andrew has brought to the table a more refined sensibility when it comes to production and aesthetic than a typical drummer’s role. He is also a guitarist so he is able to really understand the role of guitar in relation to constructing his drum parts.
Where did the recording process take place?
AC: We initially recorded a batch of demos in my Dad’s garage studio. Those became a rough model for how we wanted to lay the album out.
In February of 2014 we spent two weeks tracking the bulk of the record in a studio in Highland Park, CA called The Hobby Shop. What followed was a slew of overdubs, vocal sessions, and critical refinement in various home studios from LA to PDX.
Any guest contributions on the new songs?
AC: Yes! Our dear friend Fred Sablan contributed his awesome guitar textures, solos, and feedback on a few songs.
Is there a concept or overall theme to Salome? Who or what, were some of your influences this time around?
AC: As a band we have always been interested in various mythologies and religious iconography. Salome, the daughter of King Herod II is the archetypal femme fatale; an icon of seduction. We found the imagery to be compelling and powerful and appropriately encompassing Emma’s lyrical motifs and the musical ebbs and flows we play with. The title track “Salome” has a break down section in it that I feel serves a sonic illustration of the dance Salome performs before Herod Antipas.
With Kitsune, all six of the tracks are blended together into one giant piece of music, was there any temptation to blend/transition together all the songs for the new album?
AC: Kitsune has that seamless transitional nature because the songs were initially written as a live set. It was captured in the recording process the same way. Because the new album was written over such a wide span of time, each song was just treated as it’s own individual piece and not necessarily in direct relation to what came before or after it. We wanted to write songs that could stand alone. The “blending” element came through an aesthetic and stylistic thread that is the sum of its parts.
I saw that there is a bonus edition of Salome with two additional tracks, the nine track version of the album seems like a complete concept / journey. How do the other two songs fit in?
AC: Those 2 songs in particular are the oldest songs on the record and were more or less conceived before I joined the band. One was a demo Emma had written back when she was playing with The Nocturnes and the other was something Emma and Greg had concocted as just a guitar and bass duo before adding drums. They didn’t make the record for a couple reasons, but in relation to your question, I would say that they weren’t necessarily within the bookends of this album’s “journey”.
When listening to a new album, I have a ritual of listening to it with headphones and trying to see if I am able to just lose myself in what I am listening to. I was absolutely able to do that with Salome. What is your ideal situation for listening to new music?
AC: Any situation where the music is not coming out of your laptop, iPhone, or television speakers. Headphones are great. I love listening in the car and watching how music can change my interpretation of physical space outside the vehicle; a moving soundtrack.
Speaking of, listening to anything that we should be checking out?
AC: Listening to Tubeway Army as I write this. Our friends from Deafheaven have a band calledCreepers, and they rule. Them Are Us Too is a new shoegaze band on Dais Records. They are brilliant songwriters and musicians. Highly recommend their new album Remain.
Also, our labelmate Mylets has a new album out that is nuts. He’s a prodigal guitar virtuoso that will make anyone wanna burn their instrument after hearing him play.
If you each had to pick one musician that influenced your playing the most who would it be?
AC: Emma – Billy Corgan. Me – Jimmy Chamberlin Greg – Simon Gallup
You guys played an outstanding show last year here at Kilby Court in Salt Lake City. It was easily one of the best concerts I had seen all year. Ethereal really. How has your live show progressed over the past couple of years?
AC: We’ve gotten more comfortable with calling open ended improvisational sections and have probably dialed up the angst a bit more. We’ve definitely made an attempt to revert back to that seamless transitional nature of Kitsune when it comes to constructing a live set list. Song key and tempo are definitely factors that are considered when building a song order.
You played new material at that show, and have been including more and more of the songs from Salome in your sets recently. Do you have any personal favorites to play live at this point?
AC: “Salome” is a fun one because its such an incremental build. It’s fun to start tempered and subdued and end loud as fuck. I especially enjoy playing it on drums because it’s open to numerous improvisational possibilities.
What are the top 3 choices for food while Marriages is on the road?
AC: Greg is vegan. I eat gluten-free and Emma loves Coke Zero.
We always try and yelp the healthier options to counter whatever damage we’ve done to our bodies the previous night. Greg has a vegan restaurant finder app on his phone. If you follow in Greg’s footsteps you will most likely be lead to a land of replenishing rations.
You have had the chance to tour with a number of great bands recently. Any tour-mates that you would say made a serious impression on you, whether as musicians or just personally?
AC: Touring with Master Musicians of Bukkake was a remarkable experience. That entire band as a whole are such world-class musicians and people, however their music has impacted all of us long before we got the opportunity to tour with them.
What was the most moving experience you have had personally with live music?
AC: I can’t speak for the whole, but watching MMOB organize and assemble on stage and carry out their mesmerizing visual and sonic rituals is quite a spectacle and transcendent experience. I highly recommend seeking them out in person.
Any U.S. tour dates coming up?
AC: Yes. We are looking to do the U.S. in July, but we are leaving for a month to tour Europe in April supporting Wovenhand.
RA is a band from Malmö, Sweden. It is Simon Minó, Erik Blondell, Felix Mårtensson and Martin Nilsson. Their music sounds dark and noisy with a lot of influence from punk and post-punk.
The band was formed in autumn 2012 and have released one 4-track EP, one single and one remix album with remixes from Trentemoller, Bam spacey, Noe spagato and Myth. A full-length album will be released early spring 2015.
Bloodline EP 10”These days / Prism 7”RA Remixes 12”Scandinavia 12”
Line Up :
vocals/drums: simon minó guitar: felix mårtensson bass: erik blondell guitar: martin nilsson
Label :
Adrian Recordings
Tracklist :
01 – These Days 02 – In My Veins 03 – The Void 04 – Be My Lover 05 – Scandinavia 06 – Bloodline 07 – Broken Bottles 08 – Prism 09 – The South 10 – Winter 2012
FUTURE is a three-piece band from Paris, identified by Reverberation Appreciation Society and The Black Angels' leader Christian Bland, as one of the most interesting upcoming psych band via their latest compilation.
Taken in the marble, the body on the cover, designed by upcoming artist Marion Costantin, greatly expresses the music of FUTURE. Horizons is a sensual, cold and gloomy record, sounding like the sequel of The Cure's Pornography (1982) but made in 2015. Sure, it's shoegaze but it's also much more, it's catchy, fierce and bright in its own darkness.
Their live shows are raw, dark and intense, a perfect soundtrack of our times.
For fans of : A Place To Burry Strangers, Soft Moon, Spacemen 3, The Cure, The Black Angels
"Quand on s’enquiert du passé, notamment dans un pays qui s’est violemment épris de Trisomie 21, Front 242 ou Kas Product, autant le faire avec doigté, le regard vers l’ailleurs, l’Angleterre et pourquoi pas le shoegaze. Et autant se baptiser Future. " (Hartzine)
Interview de Thee Oh Sees, par Dana Sagona de New York Public Library
Has any one book in particular had a lasting effect on you?
That's a tough one, but I'd have to say Flannery O'Connor's collected short stories. I waited 'til I was in my 30s to read her and I'm not sure why but I felt like a fool for putting her off til then. But really, so, so many writers have had lasting impressions it's not really a true answer.
What is a classic that you've never gotten around to reading but would like to one day?
Faulkner's work in general. I've been told countless times I would love it. I tried when I was younger but didn't slip into it.
What genre do you prefer?
I've been a classic sci-fi freak as of the past couple years. I'm almost through all of Philip K. Dick's work (which I'm sure you know is an army of stories). But, I'll read anything really. I'm a fan of fiction but I have dabbled in non-fiction. Mostly biographies- Miles Davis, Moondog, even Benny Hill.
What are you currently reading? If nothing at the moment, what was the last book you read?
Are you looking forward to any books to be released soon?
As much as I read I don't really keep up with current authors or their releases. I've always liked how books tend to just fall into your life whether by recommendation or lending or even trash picking. I do occasionally go out of my way to find new releases like the Alex Chilton [lead singer of Big Star and The Box Tops] book that came out not long ago called A Man Called Destruction. I haven't gotten around to it yet. A huge pile of books await.
While on tour, are you able to get much reading done?
I read almost every night. Short stories mostly on tour. Exhaustion lends itself well to a brief tale.
Do you have any tour memories involving books or libraries?
Honestly, we used to always go to libraries on the road because they were first to have free internet, so we would do all our routing and advancing for shows there as often as possible. Also, free newspaper reading!
Do you do any other writing aside from songwriting?
Not really. I wish. I would imagine to get skills as a writer, you'd have to be pretty dedicated to it, and music takes up most of my time.
Have any specific authors, books, and/or poems influenced your songwriting in any way?
Absolutely. I am constantly inspired by a line or image in writing. I have a book I keep next to the bed full of seeds for ideas; many are inspired by settings conjured by authors.
"E-books gives me the creeps. I have to look at a screen enough as it is. A book is a break from that side of life."
"The Miles Davis autobiography is pretty off the chain."
100% physical books. I'll go to my grave smelling a page and falling asleep with one over my face. E-books give me the creeps. I have to look at a screen enough as it is. A book is a break from that side of life.
Do you have a library card? If so, which library system are you a member of?
Now you know what John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees reads, but do you know what the band sounds like? NYPL currently circulates two albums byThee Oh Sees. Place a hold today!
Line Up :
John Dwyer Timothy Hellman Ryan Moutinho Dan Rincon
Label :
Castle Face Records
Tracklist :
01 – Web 02 – Withered Hand 03 – Poor Queen 04 – Turned Out Light 05 – Lupine Ossuary 06 – Sticky Hulks 07 – Holy Smoke 08 – Rogue Planet 09 – Palace Doctor
Interview de Algiers, par Luke Turner de The Quietus
Was gospel music a big part of your upbringing and childhood?
Franklin James Fisher: It was for me but it was also kind of distant. Both sides of my family are from North Carolina, but we moved to the suburbs of Atlanta when I was two years old. We were one of the first and only black families in the county and therefore, became members of a predominantly white church, where the music was very reserved, very stoic. On Sunday morning we'd wake up to my mom blasting this amazing gospel music on the downstairs radio - it was the music she and my dad had grown up with. In fact, my father's dad was in a gospel vocal group in the 30s. We'd listen to the gospel channel on the car radio on the way to church and have this great musical experience until we actually got to church, where the party would abruptly end, so to speak. But my parents were also very active in, what was then, the very small black community, so we would travel to other neighbourhoods and visit more traditional gospel churches - which provided the same intensely visceral and spiritual experience we would get from the Sunday morning radio. But what made the greatest impression was when we went to my grandparents' churches in North Carolina. It was something altogether different: three-hour-long services, everyone dressed up, old people dancing in the aisles or catching the spirit and fainting, the whole congregation singing along, people playing tambourines. It made a lasting impression on my sisters and me and to this day remains an essential component of our spiritual and cultural identities, which are inextricably bound. I always joke that so many of my white friends are atheists because the music they had in church was so bad.
Ryan Mahan: George Jones was the closest I ever came to popular religious music as a child. I arrived at gospel much later, drawn in by its contradictions, the expressions of exaltation and exasperation - the overriding sense of doom amid the jubilation - present in everything from Judy Clay to the McIntosh County Shouters. As a source for our music, gospel also poses a number of theoretical challenges. It problematises my own relationship, as a privileged white southerner, with indigenous forms, how we're all inextricably linked to appropriation and dispossession. It also throws into question the modern obsession with the artefact and the 'Columbising' impulse of musical discovery. That is why noise, harsh sonics and other experimental forms are such useful tools when exploring this musical past, representing in some senses incommensurability and the violence of capitalist exchange.
How did Algiers all first meet? How did the band form?
Ryan Mahan: Simon Critchley says philosophy - and by extension art and politics - begins in disappointment. As three Southerners at the turn of the century, the manifestations of such misery were everywhere: the historical amnesia, the faceless suburban homes, the race baiting, the Bush bumper stickers and the Jesus billboards. When Franklin, Lee and I first met, we bonded over this shared sense of frustration and powerlessness. Thinking back, I'm reminded of Mark Fisher's concept of capitalist realism: "It's easier to imagine the end of the world, than it is the end of capitalism." We felt particularly out of joint with our personal and collective environs. We loved music but had no scene. We were engaged in politics but had no outlet for political expression. Yet constructing any coherent alternative narrative seemed equally impossible. For us, the old punk adage, 'there is no future', did not go far enough; there was no present or past either. But rather than descending into the worst forms of nihilism or hedonism that had stricken so many of our peers, Algiers, at this stage, became the closest thing we had to a riot, a lashing out and an expression of discontent. It also named, however unwieldy, this search and this reclamation, recalling [Frantz] Fanon's messy political project of the anti-colonial struggle, reasserting the idea of the search for the new and reclaiming the promises of lost or forgotten futures.
How was Atlanta as a city to make music in?
Lee Tesche: Complex to say the least. One finds oneself defined by place at a young age. I think I once said that Atlanta was where dreams go to die. It's an environment that has continually tried to rework its identity all the way back to the end of the Civil War - from baby boomers fleeing the decaying cities of the north in the early 70s and building a highway through the centre of one of the most affluent black communities in the United States to the complete commodification of the city with the arrival of the Olympics in 1996.
By the time preparations for them began, any trace of the fledgling punk scene of the 80s that was centred around 688 [Club] or the Metroplex, or any bit of counterculture still remaining, like remnants of [newspaper] The Great Speckled Bird, had been eradicated along with one-way bus tickets for all of the homeless out of town, to make way for a bland Disney-fied culture and blank identity defined by Coca-Cola and CNN for the international stage. It felt like nowhere real, a place that was continually aspiring to be another place, and would always be in the musical shadow of Athens.
When you're 16, trying to figure out who you are and your place in the world, and you live in a city that is claiming and justifying its majesty by trying to be somewhere else, i.e. the New York of the South, someplace it wasn't and never would be nor should be, it creates an atmosphere where it's almost impossible to believe that anything real exists or that one can do anything remotely daring or challenging concerning art.
That environment and way of thought led to a city of emulation and revivalism, and a powerful mindset where if you really wanted to do something that mattered, you had to leave town and go to one of the "real" cities or scenes. If you stayed, a deep, unending malaise would set in, increasing exponentially with each year. It was such the antithesis of the city that an institution like WRAS was making possible. There were a few pockets of hope, these great places like the Eyedrum and Kirkwood Ballers Club, but the audience for them was very small. The most radical, forward-thinking sounds were coming from the other side of the city with the Dungeon Family and the burgeoning trap scene. Then I look over my shoulder and you've got these bozos trying to be the Reader's Digest Rolling Stones for some unknown fucking reason, like the world really needed that.
I really think that that whole stagnant climate and mode of thought infected that generation to the point that so many I know are cursed to a life adrift, jumping from one scene or city to the next, still searching for that identity and definition of place that we were deprived of. And those who stayed put, who didn't buy into the suburban idea, ultimately turned self-destructive.
When did you hit on what might now be described as your 'sound'?
FJF: I remember as Ryan and I were comparing song notes, it became increasingly apparent that punk rock and gospel had very similar energies: driving beats, shouting, call and response vocals, group participation, etc. It was enthralling to stumble on the similarities, and it's something we are still exploring.
Was the religion that often goes along with gospel part of your lives? What's your relationship with religion?
RM: Religion looms like a golem in my memories. Rather than a site of salvation and emancipation, the church was a house of repression and damnation. I went to a Southern Baptist church only a few miles from Stone Mountain, a towering 1,600-ft rock behemoth defaced on one side by a huge bas-relief of three 'leaders' of the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Now this church was not the baying, fire-breathing caricature of Southern evangelicalism, but its 'respectable', middle-class cousin. The contradictions of white Southern identity permeated its foundations, a monochrome smattering of grey suits and polite smiles papering over the signs of the judgment: intolerance, hypocrisy, hierarchy and political conservatism. The solemn songs we sang, like 'Onward, Christian Soldiers', had none of the millenarian zeal or collectivism that I would later find in so much of African-American gospel. At the time, it was the boredom and the social isolation that initially pushed me away. Only much later was I able to locate some of my anti-establishment fervour in these experiences.
Did you have a formative personal experience, or a moment of political awareness?
FJF: I was young and living abroad for the first time in Newcastle, as part of a group of sixteen students studying British and American culture. The programme was about deconstructing concepts of nationhood and cultural identity at a time where those very concepts were being rallied into a propagandised, ideological frenzy by the American right. It was just after September 11 and just before the Bush administration's unilateral invasion of Iraq. As an American kid who grew up naively apolitical, living abroad while witnessing these events occur - particularly while deconstructing the effects of ideological indoctrination with myself as the subject - I found myself in the midst of a perfect storm which led to a Joycean epiphany. This is largely thanks to a series of honest but intense debates I had with Ryan at the time, who was another one of the students in the programme. There was something special about that whole group of kids. They've all gone on to do great things and most of us are still very close friends.
RM: My sister was the rebel in the family. She challenged racism and stood up to patriarchy at an early age. She also happened to introduce me to entirely new musical worlds: Repeater, Daydream Nation, Unknown Pleasures, Bizarre Ride II, The Pharcyde and Entertainment. This introduction to American and British independent music also formed another basis of my political awakening. After that, I was forever pouring over the SST, BYO and Dischord catalogues at my local record shop. This happened to coincide with my introduction to the black struggle in the United States, moving from the Civil Rights Movement to SNCC to the Panthers. I came to see African-American movements as the only truly American emancipatory politics. I then broadened out to the French Revolution, Cuba, Russia and Burkina Faso. I found particular fascination in the Highlander School and Myles Horton, but also gobbled up books on John Brown, Nat Turner, the Jacobins, Emma Goldman and Angela Davis. These two awakenings seemed to emerge simultaneously, but it took me another decade to eventually work out their interconnections and significance.
LT: One month after I picked up the guitar I interrupted a conversation some adults were having around me in a pizza restaurant with my promotion of gay rights. That's when my parents first started getting 'concerned'.
Why did you choose Algiers as a name? There are resonances with the postcolonial struggle with France - was that deliberate? I was wondering if that connected with what you said in a recent interview about "a larger indictment of a systemic and institutionalised oppression that transcends the African-American experience and which has managed to immobilise and suppress all marginalised voices"?
RM: Yes, Algiers refers to the anti-colonial struggle in general. The Algerian revolution was one of the first modern anti-colonial struggles and served as an inspiration for revolutionaries from Cuba to Mozambique, Oakland to Palestine. The Panthers had an office in Algiers; Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver were exiled there in the late 60s/early 70s. In this way, the name also refers to a dissipated notion of common cause, a truly global consciousness in opposition to the elite cosmopolitanism we see today. Of course, we learned about this through a variety of secondary sources: [Gillo] Pontecorvo's film, the Sartre and Camus debate on revolutionary violence and Fanon's Toward The African Revolution. Morricone's score to The Battle Of Algiers and Pasolini's use of African-American gospel music, most notably Odetta's version of 'Motherless Child' in The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, also provided inspiration as soundtracks to resistance. Symbolically, the name refers to a contested space, where violence, racism, resistance and religion commingle. Fundamentally, it evokes a double movement of hope and melancholy - referring to the optimism fundamental to any political project and the violence and reaction inherent in the attempt to overthrow the status quo. You can probably also glean undercurrents of the current 'war on Islam' in the name as well.
Do you get frustrated with the political apathy of your contemporaries? If I look at most of the artists who might be considered your peers in the American independent music world they seem more concerned with escapism than politics.
FJF: I totally agree with that, but it's not surprising in the age of individual celebrity and fragmented communities. It seems nowadays everyone is too busy looking at themselves to look around them, no less do something about it. I remember when I was first learning about postmodernity somebody qualified the culture as being fun, shallow and meaningless... I think that sums it up quite nicely.
RM: Yes, this apathy shrouded in irony and peddled with a sense of superiority motivated us immensely. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. And it is obscene to suggest that any of us can avoid the consequences of historical, economic or social relations, particularly if you are an artist who benefits from the repackaging of certain musical forms for mass consumption. The culture industry in America, particularly as it relates to American independent music, also has a lot to answer for - most American tastemakers champion cults of beauty and youth over substance, and when it comes to African-American music, there is a creeping exploitation and fetishisation of black authenticity.
At the same time, I wouldn't lump all our peers or forebears into this. In general, there are a multitude of ways to practise musical politics, from Crass communalism through Neubauten noise to Public Enemy fury. We're also seeing a reinvigoration of music that speaks truth to social antagonism on both sides of the Atlantic: Priests, Perfect Pussy, Good Throb, Vatican Shadow, Helm, and so on. Ultimately, though, while I would say politics is fundamental to art, I would not say, following Stokely Carmichael, that we are an issue-based band.
I do find it fascinating that you mix gospel influences with sonic aesthetics that I hear from more electronic/harsher places. Never the twain shall meet, usually. Why is this natural to you?
RM: Lee and I both touched on this earlier. There is a sense of a grappling with the notion of musical history, that exchange is not free and that the music industry has been affected by the same violent impulses underpinning colonialism or capitalism. It speaks to the limitations of communication and the monstrosity of entertainment in such times. It is also a matter of personal preference. We all are drawn to experimental forms that emerged in the intervening years between gospel and 'noise', and certain points of intense cross-pollination, drawing the lines from Kraftwerk through Bambaataa, Section 25, Cybotron and Throbbing Gristle.
I can also hear Rowland S Howard and Blixa Bargeld's work with Nick Cave here. Were they inspirations?
LT: If one could take away two things from them, it's a) the importance of the role of the musical foil in the dynamics of a band, and b) that it's extremely important to have a healthy amount of disgust and disdain towards your chosen instrument so as to approach it with the right amount of scepticism and restraint. The guitar has committed more pop crimes than any other instrument in the latter half of the 20th century, and it has a very limited and overly exhausted palette. Most guitar I encounter, particularly in a modern rock context, makes my skin crawl. I have a deep aversion towards the guitar, but at the same time, I'm somewhat cursed by the fact that it's the instrument I chose, the one I'm the most proficient in, and the one that I really have to battle and wrestle with so as to wrangle out the proper expression. I've always subconsciously connected it to some sort of loss in my life and because of that, I've quit playing more often than not because I just associate it with negative things.
Before we went into the studio I hadn't played it in a year. I wasn't in the best place in my personal life, and all I wanted to do was to destroy anything romantic or of beauty that I encountered. When I engage with it now, it's as a weapon that I only use when I absolutely have to.
Do you feel any positivity about the future of America? Do the Ferguson shootings and police violence make you feel like things are going backwards?
FJF: In my adult life, I've never felt any positivity about the future anywhere - certainly not in America. I'm not fooled by the office of President Obama; America is the same place it's always been. Institutionalised violence against people of colour is more American than apple pie. It's just that we have these ubiquitous handheld devices that can document it all now. But you have to fight and you have to try for change, if anything, to prevent conditions from becoming more miserable than they already are.
RM: I am both cynical and hopeful. Despite what we know about the state of the world - the crushing injustice - fatalism only serves the interests of the powerful.
Line Up :Franklin James Fisher, Ryan Mahan, Lee Tesche
Label : Matador Records
Tracklist :
01 – Remains 02 – Claudette 03 – And When You Fall 04 – Blood 05 – Old Girl 06 – Irony. Utility. Pretext. 07 – But She Was Not Flying 08 – Black Eunuch 09 – Games 10 – In Parallax 11 – untitled
Litmus Test: First off just introduce yourself. Who are you? What do you do?
My name is Anthony Anzaldo and I am nobody.
How long have you been straight edge/vegan? What were the deciding factors for you in making those commitments?
I have never drank, smoked, or have used any substance in my life. I claimed straight edge 7 years ago. I think smoking/drinking/drug use is selfish, weak and disrespectful to yourself and to those around you. I have never met one person who when drunk or high was cooler or more fun to be around. I see the kind of fun that people have when they are intoxicated and that is not at all my idea of having a good time by any means. And the odor, impedance and all the health issues related to drinking/smoking and drug use is not very appealing to me.
I have been vegan for 4 years, and was just vegetarian for a year before that. The meat industry produces more carbon into the air than automobiles, it’s highly inhumane, and I am dodging so many types of cancer and other nasty diseases by being vegan. And meat grosses the fuck out of me.
Are those two ideologies linked for you? Could you see yourself still being edge if you werene’t vegan? Vice versa? How do those two affect the way you identify yourself? Are you vegan edge or a straight edge kid who happens to also be vegan?
Well, they are linked, but at the same time they are not. I mean how can I have compassion and mercy for all species of animals if I’m not able to take care of myself? But at the same time it’s edge for veg for me. Drinking and doing drugs is way more self-destructive then eating non-vegan, and I got into both ideologies at different times in my life and (for the most time) got into them for different reasons.
What’s your favourite Ceremony song?
It would be a tie between the first and last tracks on “Still Nothing Moves You”, “Dead Moon California” and “Leartn/Without”.
What have you been listening to recently?
Nick Cave is in heavy rotation right now.
The first time I saw Ceremony I believe you were wearing a fishnet shirt, eye make-up, and platform knee-high boots. Your style’s changed somewhat since then but you still definitely stand out somewhat compared to other popular hardcore bands right now. Has your appearance ever had an effect on the band? Do assholes ever give you shit about it?
Somewhat stand out, huh? I think the last time we played Richmond I had a gold glitter stripe across my face and a see-thru mesh shirt on, if that is your idea of “somewhat standing out” then hardcore’s just way more eccentric with me taking notice… J/K :)
Evey once in a while somebody calls me a fag when they drive by me, or when I am alone and they’re on the other side of the street. And I have been told there has been numerous threads about me on public forums regarding the way I dress and all that nonsense, but nothing too crazy. I don’t like the way I look or present myself has had any affect on the band, I would find that to be very ridiculous, even in this day and age.
How did Ceremony start? What bands were you in before Ceremony? Had you ever worked with Ross before this band?
Ross [Farrar] and I have been friends since Junior High, and we got into hardcore and punk at the same time, and it just made sense to start a band. We wanted it to be fast, angry, dark and against the grain, and we wanted to name it Violent World, then Ross thought of Ceremony. I have played in a few hardcore punk bands in the Bay Area, Jealous Again, Life Long Tragedy and Said Radio to name a few.
What’s the writing process like for you guys as a band? Who are the primary songwriters, instrumentally and lyrically? Does Ross have much to say in the instrumental process and do you guys have much to say in the lyrics?
Ross writes all the lyrics, and I write most all of the music, but we all are involved in the formatting and structuring of the songs. Ross has a lot of say when it comes to write the music, if he’s super excited about the music, the vocals will be that much better I think.
Ross of Ceremony
Ross’ lyrics and some of his statements on stage can be extremely caustic and harsh. Does he speak for the whole band usually? Is the band generally on the same page on subjects like religion and politics?
On subjects regarding religion and politics the band is on the same page. When he writes or speaks on stage about experimenting with drugs he obviously isn’t speaking for the entire band. Writing for Ceremony is a major outlet for Ross, and it gives him a chance to speak his mind they way he feels fit, and as long as he’s honest and doesn’t start being a racist/homophobic/sexist/christ believing moron, his lyrics won’t have a negative affect on me at all.
The new record “Still Nothing Moves You” is in a lot of ways really different from “Violence Violence” and “Scared People”. Musically it is less abrasive and the vocals on the recording have less emphasis than previous records. Any interesting tidbits about how this record came together?
We didn’t feel like “Violence Violence” was a complete album, it was sort of rushed, and after writing “Scared People” I think we had a better idea of where we wanted the band’s direction to go. We spent a couple months just on writing for “Still Nothing Moves You”, and we wanted each song to have something the last song didn’t have, we wanted it to be the simplest and most complex thing we’ve done. Ross was working on lyrics since we finished “Scared People”, and he went through a lot of life changes in between records so he was very inspired and prepared for “Still Nothing Moves You”.
There seems to be a lot of continuity to the way Ceremony writes albums. The use of themes and recurring instrumental breaks makes the records sound more like complete works instead of disjointed collections of songs. Is that important consideration when you’re in the studio?
I’d say it’s more of a conscious decision when we are writing, not so much in the studio. But everything you just described is most definitely intentional.
Ceremony tours a lot, has that always been the case? What’s the dynamic like between you guys on the road?
This past year [2008] was the most we’ve toured, we started in May and we finish in the middle of December, before that it was summer/late fall stuff and weekends here and there. The dynamic depends on the line-up really, but it’s awesome no matter what. All of us (except Toast) grew up in a suburb outside of San Francisco called Rohnert Park, so we’ve known each other for years and are very comfortable with each other. We all have very different lifestyles, but at the same time have so much in common, so it makes for a fantastic/interesting touring dynamics.
What have been your favorite cities to play in or hang out recently? Bands that tour say you can do shit on tour you could never do at home. Have you guys done anything fucked up or crazy on tour that you can talk about?
We probably spent the most time in Philadelphia, every tour it seems like we’re posting up Philly for at least couple of days. We’ve very close with Paint It Black and Blacklisted, so it’s always so much fun when we’re there. The tour started on the East Coast, so we stopped in Omaha along the way to watch movies and have dinner with my grandparents, that isn’t particularly fucked up or crazy, but that is definitely not something I get to do when I’m home.
What bands have you been the most fun to tour with?
We grew up with Sabertooth Zombie and Life Long Tragedy, so touring with them was beyond fun. Touring with Blacklisted is always incredible. We start a tour with Never Healed tomorrow, and I’d imagine that they’ll make the list too.
Richmond sometimes has unusual taste in bands, the bands we love/hate here often aren’t the ones that are loved/hated nationally, but it seems like Ceremony’s popularity happened really suddenly here. Did it happen like that everywhere or was it a more gradual process?
The first time we played Richmond it was awesome (RIP Nanci Raygun), it all depends, some places you do exactly the same in no matter how many times you go there, and other places take time, and some places are never good.
There’s been different people in the band every time you guys have played Richmond recently, are permanent members just not able to tour as much or are you guys have played Richmond recently, are permanent members just not able to tour as much or are you guys actually having trouble keeping permanent members in the band?
We’ve had the same lineup for over 4 years, and we used to have a strict “no fill in” policy, but that ended when JD started going to school full time and, Ross and I will always do all the tours, the rest of the guys sometime need some time off.
Thanks again for doing this interview man. Hope to see you guys will be back in Richmond soon. Any thanks, shoutouts, fuck yous, or final words you’d like to leave us with?
XXX
Line Up :
Ross Farrar Anthony Anzaldo Andy Nelson Justin Davis Jake Casarotti
Label :
Matador Records
Tracklist :
01 – Hibernation 02 – Exit Fears 03 – Bleeder 04 – Your Life In France 05 – Your Life In America 06 – The Separation 07 – The Pattern 08 – Root Of The World 09 – The Party 10 – The Bridge 11 – The Understanding
