Posts Tagged ‘Interview’
Interview with Washed Out
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Washed Out was one of the biggest buzz bands of 2009. Out of nowhere Washed Out’s EP Life of Leisure was being talked about everywhere. First the blogs carried him, then Twitter and Facebook, and then the big boys like New York Times and Rolling Stone were calling him a rising star. Everyone seemed to get wrapped up in this EP that they forgot there was a person behind this great music. Washed Out is the creation of one man, Ernest Greene, whose eclectic interests and styles came together to make a set of music that could be pop and fun as well as serious and atmospheric. What I love about Greene’s music is that while some bands last year became famous by association I felt, Greene’s music stood on it’s own. While the kid’s in the city are partying to his jams Greene is probably at home in rural Georgia, working on his craft. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this interview, I always viewed Washed Out’s music to be a kind of shield, a way for him to keep his privacy. What I found out is that Greene is a very humble and laid back guy that I’d love to have a beer with and just talk music with. This is definitely one of my favorite interviews that I’ve done and I’m thrilled to have it be a part of the next issue of Letter to Jane Magazine.
ERNEST GREENE: Hello, is this Tim?
Ya hello, how are you today?
ERNEST GREENE: Good, it’s kind of raining here, but that’s alright.
It’s raining here too, but I’m in Oregon so that’s not really a surprise. Well I’ll just get to it so you can enjoy your rainy day.
ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) Ok, sounds good.
Are you still unsigned, or are you connected to a label these days?
ERNEST GREENE: I’m still unsigned. I’ve been talking with a handful of labels about the next record and I’ve started working on new material, but I felt like there wasn’t a big hurry, especially when I’m about to go on tour in March. It just makes more sense to wait till after the tour to see where I’m at then.
So there’s new music on the way?
ERNEST GREENE: Ya, I’ve been making new music for the past month I guess. It’s kind of a slow process because this project is still pretty new, and I’m still figuring out what I’m going for and what I’m best at. So nothing right now, but I’m hoping to finish something as soon as possible and get it out as soon as possible. The whole promotional schedule, where let’s say I finish something, and then it takes 3 or 4 months till it gets an official release is really frustrating for me because generally I like to work on new material. Odds are that in 4 or 5 months from now I’ll be working on something entirely different, so that’s frustrating but that’s how it goes.
I’ve seen that happen a lot when I helped produce for an indie label. They’d hold a product for a couple months, and by that time we were all into something extremely different, and yet we’d have to go back and promote this old stuff that we weren’t excited about anymore.
ERNEST GREENE: Ya see I guess I understand when you go by the old school methods of print magazines and big things like that where they take a while, but I feel that now things move so quickly with Twitter and stuff, that it’s not that big of a deal. I mean people will know the record is coming out, and you can always come up with all these different schemes to build up hype for it. My situation is kind of an exception because I never thought it out or had those intentions; it kind of all fell in my lap. I’ve done a couple interviews where people ask me for recommendations about how to promote and sell and I just tell them I have no idea. It’s just complete luck that I am where I’m at right now.
You sure gained a lot fans quick. Is there anyone out there that you know who’s a fan that made you go, “Wow that guy likes me?”
ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) There have been a few, kind of “what the fuck?” moments out there. This is really early on in the beginning when a lot of the attention was going on, someone sent me a link to Ricky Martin’s Twitter page where he had wrote about how he liked one of the songs. It was one of the oddest things, but I guess he’s an avid blog reader or something so that was pretty funny. A friend told me once that Ashton Kutcher also wrote a thing about my music as well. Those are just a few of the odd ones. There are some people that I really look up to that I’ve been in contact with, so that’s been really cool. It’s definitely a surreal feeling. I guess I’m getting more used to it now, but it’s been pretty strange.
(laughs) I never would have guessed you were going to say Ricky Martin.
ERNEST GREENE: Ya I found it pretty odd, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to meet him.
I was reading yesterday about Swizz Beats sampling Justice for that track on Blueprint 3.
ERNEST GREENE: Ya I saw that…
So I was wondering if there’s any producer out there that you’d like to sample you?
ERNEST GREENE: Oh wow that’s a good question. There have been a handful of remixes where they did something similar to what he did in that song, where they took small samples and built up around it, but not like any hip hop groups. Most of the time it’s mashups, where it’s just 4 bar loops and they just drop an a cappella on top of it. I don’t know, let’s think about that one… maybe the Neptunes. I love their stuff but they’re really not into sampling.
I definitely love hip-hop, that was a big influence when I starting making music on my computer and sampling.
I thought it was really subtle and clever how he (Swizz Beats) did that song. I forget what the original words were in the Justice song but he cut it up and made it say something completely different. You can definitely see the connection when you put the two side by side.
Ya I know, I never made the connection till I read that article, then it was so obvious. This sort of leads to my question about your drums. It seems like your drums usually get overlooked when people talk about Washed Out, which is a shame because your drums are great. Is that because of your hip-hop background?
ERNEST GREENE: Definetly. You know, some people’s style is to really mix it up and have a lot of little drum fills and make it as complex as they can, but I’ve never really been into that. For the most part the beats have always been really simple, but always very important. I would say until the last couple years it was mostly instrumental stuff, so the beats were even more in the forefront and even more important. With the Washed Out stuff it’s mostly just “kick, snare, kick, snare,” you know, nothing really complex at all, but the sound is really important to me. I compress a lot and that gives it a distinct sound.
What’s your typical setup like? Are you using Reason or something like that?
ERNEST GREENE: Ya I’m using Reason and Cubase, which is a bit of an older program. I use Cubase for tracking vocal and live instruments and also for cutting up any samples I’d use. Then I transport all that into Reason, arrange everything. Then I add in some synths to make some melodies, bass lines, and beats. So ya, most of the work is done in Reason and that’s pretty much it. I have a couple little keyboards that I use on occasion, but mostly I just use the computer.
The beauty of software is that you can move pretty quickly from idea to having at least a rough draft recorded. That’s what I’ve been doing lately, not necessarily writing demos, but coming up with song ideas so that I can move really fast, which is exciting. I’ve definitely gotten used to working in that style and I think it would be really hard to move away to another software program, or even doing it the old school way of micing up instruments. It just takes so long and I’m pretty impatient with all that.
Since it’s so easy to translate your ideas into songs and you’re know for having these really simplified melodies…
ERNEST GREENE: Ya that’s definitely what I go for…
But can you start out simple or is it more of an editing process? I know when I used to make music in Reason I’d get all my ideas out, and end up with like 20 instruments on a track.
ERNEST GREENE: That is exactly what it was like early on when I first started using the program, I was the same way. I believe the virtual mixer on Reason has like 14 different tracks on each mixer and I would have 3 or 4 mixers on each project, which is a lot of tracks. I guess I was never that great at mixing down to where that many tracks would make sense. 3 years ago I was really into that Caribou album Up in Flames. It’s a great album and there’s just so many things going on at once. The guy used like a 1000 tracks on the album, and I was trying to achieve that but it just never worked, it sounded like shit; there was just too much going on. So I kind of figured out that if I limit myself and think more about what’s really essential for the song and how things compliment each other then it makes for a stronger song. I really try to limit myself to just one of those mixers, so like 14 tracks, and in most cases it’s 14 or under. I start with a bass line and a vocal melody and make sure I can get that as strong as possible. It’s all about adding a few layers of texture, and just simple little stuff that will compliment the melody and that’s it.
Would you say you’re a pretty consistent songwriter, or does it come in waves with the occasional drought?
ERNEST GREENE: It definitely comes in waves, and it’s impossible to predict. When I was writing Life of Leisure it came pretty quick, with everything I would sit down to work on would get me pretty excited. I guess now my mindset has changed a little bit. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m in a different situation where there’s a lot expectation and somewhat of a deadline. There’s this feeling that I’ve got to do something fairly quick, so it’s been a bit harder of a process. I also edit myself a lot more to really hold out for something strong, and just brush aside something that’s just not working immediately. In the past I would work a song or at least an idea every day, and then in a week one song would really stand out that was good, and I would work on that. A song a week is pretty good I think.
I would say that’s a very good pace.
ERNEST GREENE: Now that’s slowed down a bit. I have maybe 6 to 8 pretty strong ideas. In some cases though, the hard thing about making an album is that everything has to work together. So one song on one side of the spectrum isn’t going to work well with another song on the other side of spectrum, so I’ve had to edit while thinking in that context.
I read that in the beginning of all this you weren’t interested in performing live, but now it looks like you’re performing live fairly regularly, so what’s changed?
ERNEST GREENE: There were a couple reasons why I wasn’t too excited about playing live in the beginning. One was that I’ve never really performed live before. Any recording project I’ve done has been just myself in my bedroom as kind of a hobby. I have friends who are in bands and I’d always consider about performing live, but the right situation never came along. Songs to me are just better to listen to on some headphones, not just me standing up there by myself. So that was one reason I wasn’t too excited, and then factor in that people expect some kind of professionalism when you reach a certain level, and that was a bit intimidating. The other reason was that I just got married and I wasn’t really psyched about touring for 4-6 months or more. However, I do think it’s great on one level where you’re traveling and seeing the world, which is something that I’ve started to embrace with these tours coming up. I’m really excited to get out and travel and play the shows, but I’ve been up front with all the labels that I’ve talked with that I don’t think I’ll ever be that kind of band. I just felt like I should take advantage of this opportunity and go to Europe or whatever. And the place I’m in right now, yes I just got married, but I don’t have any kids, so there isn’t much holding me back. I’ve had a pretty good amount of time to rehearse and come up with some good stuff for the live shows. I think it will be pretty intense at the beginning because I am still pretty new to it, but after performing every night for 30 days I should hopefully kind of get the hang of it.
Are the live performances changing your writing process at all? When you’re making music do you think “Man, it would be easier live if I made it like this…”
ERNEST GREENE: It really hasn’t changed the way I work. I can usually tell early on when it’s going to be a live song that will work. I’ve really been thinking about this for the tour in March. I’m trying to get away from having the majority of the song happen on the backing track and moving towards building the track on stage with loops and stuff so I’ll be playing more, which I think will be more entertaining and more fun for me. So I’ve definitely thought about when I’m writing about just keeping things really simple. I’m going to try to keep things relatively upbeat because I’m not a big fan of going to see a show and just stand there with my arms crossed. Sometimes that can be cool to have those heady atmospheric parts, but my favorite stuff has a little bit of both.
Ya I know what you mean I went to a hip-hop show not too long ago, and it was nothing but arms crossed all serious and mean muggin and it just looked like no one enjoyed anything.
ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) Ya you might as well just be sitting in your house smoking a joint with a really great sound system. I’m sure that would be much more entertaining if you’re going to be like that.
Since you have a background in so many different genres, if you wanted to do more of a rock album would you keep it under the Washed Out name or would that be a different side project?
ERNEST GREENE: Ya actually before I was doing the Washed Out stuff I was doing more of a rock thing called Lee Weather. So I had about 5 or 6 songs and I wanted to try to make something out of it, but it never really worked out. I’m thinking about doing a small run of 7” because I have a little online store, and all of this stuff has been pretty small numbers so it’s all sold out rather quickly. Also, it’s going to be awhile till this next record comes out so I’ve been thinking I’m going to do something with those tracks. There’s been some interest with a few labels that have heard some of it, but I think I might just go ahead and do it myself, it’s just easier that way. Anyways the sound and vocals are pretty similar to Washed Out where there’s a lot reverb and vocal harmonies, but it sounds like a rock band with the drums, guitar, and bass; that’s at the heart of it. It’s really fun when I get burned out working with synths; it’s fun to work with something completely different, it’s refreshing. I’ve written maybe two new Lee Weather songs this past month that just came about at random. Generally they work out really good when I’m not trying to write a hit but just playing around.
I’ve heard you describe yourself as a pretty stubborn person when it comes to making music, has that changed at all?
ERNEST GREENE: I’ve reached out a little bit to people; that’s another thing I want work on for the new album. I want to mix things up a bit. I don’t want the same vocal sound on every song, or ya know, a copy of one song on five other songs. I’ve reached out to a couple of musicians and sent them some songs. I’m trying to work it where someone could sing a melody or sing a part of a song, and I think it might work out but it’s really hard. In most cases these people are busy doing their own thing, and some people don’t have the means to just sit down and record a vocal part. I hope it works out, but I really don’t know how it would work. I am really stubborn in most situations where I’ve sat down with someone else and tried to write a song; it’s just been a disaster. It might be something like I haven’t sat down with the right people or something, but in most situations it just seems like nothing gets done. It will be like one person will be playing a riff, and then they won’t budge from that, and then another person is playing a different riff, and it just doesn’t work. I don’t if you’re familiar with Toro Y Moi?
Oh ya I think he’s really going to blow up this year.
ERNEST GREENE: Ya, we’re really good friends, I used to live in Colombia where he still lives, and we had a little project for a week. Someone asked us to do a show only a week in advance so we sat down and wrote 8 or 9 songs, and even that was really frustrating and he’s a great musician. He can come up with a hundred different ideas for whatever you’re playing, but ya even that was frustrating for me. I don’t know, I guess I should be more flexible, but we’ll see how that will work in the future. Maybe I’ll bring some more people in.
You still live a fairly rural lifestyle and you’re not tied down to any label or deadline. Do you view those things as ways to keep the control over your music?
ERNEST GREENE: Ya, I got married in October, and before that we didn’t really have any plans about where we wanted to be. I guess the music was taking off at that point but we really weren’t sure where we’d be 6 months down the road. I was living in a really small town called Perry Georgia, which is about 20 minutes from where I’m living now in Macon. It’s a little bit larger but it’s still a pretty small place, and we did that for a couple reasons. One of them was that I kind of wanted to be away from all the hype and the hoopla. I think moving to someplace like New York would be just too much to deal with and I wouldn’t get any work done. That’s kind of just the way I’ve always been, I’m pretty shy, and I’m a bit of a homebody. I would rather just like to stay at home and do my own thing, and work on my little projects. We’ve considered about moving to Athens Georgia which isn’t very far from here, and it’s a college town, so there’s a lot more going on with music. It would be a lot easier to do a couple one off shows there, but it still would be a situation where it would be relatively small and I could get things done. I feel that with the tour I can get all of my craziness out of me and it’s nice to do that and then come home.
I think that’s a benefit to you personally. I mean let’s take where I’m from, Portland. Every band that comes from here has that “Portland” label on them, or someone will say they’ve got that New York sound, etc. With you being away from that, you can just be you.
ERNEST GREENE: Yes! I mean I’m sure there are certain things where that helps, such as getting inspiration or bouncing off ideas people. The hardest thing for me is that this is rural Georgia, not that progressive. People for the most part just want to listen to southern rock, something like the Allman Brothers, and that’s pretty much par for the course. I would love to get a band together and try to make that work, but I honestly don’t think I could find three other people that would be interested or had the freedom to do that. But I have friends in Atlanta, and I can just drive down there for the weekend and meet with people. I’ve had a couple business meetings up there, and it’s nice to come back here and be anonymous. It’s kind of a little haven, and that’s pretty cool.
What do you like to do outside of music? I know you are a photographer as well.
ERNEST GREENE: Ya I carry a small digital camera around, and it’s kind of just whenever the inspiration strikes sort of thing. For me, it’s more about trying to capture random things that happen; it’s more of a diary for me. I love looking at pictures. I would definitely say that I look at pictures online more than I listen to new music. I have a handful of blogs that I read. Honestly, it’s been a really boring month lately because I’ve just been in my bedroom working on music stuff, so I haven’t been out and about. That’s another thing I like about photography is that it works best when you’re around other people or actively engaging life, whereas music for me is being held up in a room. Other than that my wife and I watch tons of TV on the computer. We just finished Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and that’s about it, it’s a pretty boring life (laughs).
That doesn’t sound too bad to me.
(Washed Out is a musician from Georgia, to learn more about Washed Out and Ernest Greene, visit: http://ernestgreene.blogspot.com and http://www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods)
Interview with Chrissie Miller of Sophmore
If you’ve ever seen one of Sophomore’s lookbooks, or had the opportunity to get a hold of some of their clothes then there’s no need to read this introduction because you’ve already been won over. There’s an inviting warmth and openness in their attitude that makes you feel comfortable. These aren’t the cool kids who sit at their own table at lunch, these are the cool kids who threw the great parties. There’s an undefinable quality to Sophomore that just makes you want to like them, and that quality is derives from designer and owner Chrissie Miller. Miller started Sophomore in 2002 designing t-shirts and with the addition of designer Madeleine Von Froomer has expanded the line to become one of the coolest brands out there. There is a genuine nature to Miller that makes you a fan. She never comes off as trying to be cool, trying to sell you something, or trying anything at all except just being herself and doing what she loves. There are so many genuine people out there, but they get lost in the hype machine that the blogs and pop culture create and they come out looking like a token figure for some fad. Miller and Sophomore sidestep those potential traps by keeping things simple and only make what they themselves would want. Their clothes are comfortable, affordable, never serious, and always fun. It was a pleasure to sit down with Miller to talk about fashion, music, and of course Woody Allen for our next issue of Letter to Jane Magazine.
I want to start with your recent lookbook for the spring 2010 because I really do love this film, I would have paid money to see it.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Aww thanks so much.
How do you avoid the usual clichés that most fashion videos suffer from? I think most companies still think it’s cool to have two star crossed lovers magically find each other while they’re spending millions across Europe?
CHRISSIE MILLER: You know what I think it is? It’s that the clothes are secondary. It’s more about making something artistic and being creative; that’s more important to me than just showing the clothes and trying to sell to somebody. I’m not trying to do that, it’s more about creative expression. We make t-shirts so we don’t take ourselves too seriously and if people like the clothes they’ll buy them. I mean I really liked the thing Levi’s did, but it was so much about the jeans that it ruined it. Everybody wants Levi’s or buys Levi’s already; you don’t need to show them.
Now the film is comprised of interviews of people telling stories of how they got in trouble in high school, first loves, etc. Was the dialogue taken from your own lives or were they actually the characters own words?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Well originally we thought it was going to be more planned since a lot of the people in the film are actual actors, but what the editors mostly wound up using were their real stories. I mean obviously those two girls aren’t twins and there’s some other funny stuff, but ya those moments are real.
Any stories of your own match the ones in the film?
CHRISSIE MILLER: [laughs] Oh my God, how much time do you have?
If the story is good I have all day…
CHRISSIE MILLER: [laughs] I’ll just say I wasn’t too good during my high school years. I wasn’t a good teenager, but once I got to college I really got into it and got good grades and really turned it around.
You went to art school right?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I went to SUNY Purchase.
What were some of your heroes to study?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Well I studied film when I was in school and they were really geared towards independent filmmaking there so we were watching Hal Hartley and stuff like that, but oh man it’s hard to remember all of them. To be honest, I mostly just watch rom-coms these days [laughs]. Once you get out of film school you just don’t want to watch films like that anymore. I studied you know Godard, Mike Nichols, stuff like that.
I know what you mean I used to TA film classes in college and now the only thing I watch is sitcoms, which is kind of embarrassing since I named this magazine after a Godard film.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Oh really? I don’t remember that one.
Ya not too many do, I don’t think it was supposed to be remembered but I loved the name and it just stuck with me.
CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s cool.
As I was preparing for this interview I noticed you’re a big Bowie fan, what’s your favorite?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Hunk Dory for sure, that’s my favorite.
I think what Bowie album a person likes says a lot about them as a person.
CHRISSIE MILLER: So what does that say about me?
Early Ziggy means you’re a pretty fun and outgoing person, but if you said something like Low I would be led to believe you’re a bit of a shut in.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ha, well good then, I think it’s more to do with I just didn’t find those albums till a lot later.
Do you play any instruments?
CHRISSIE MILLER: No, no I wish I did.
Well why don’t I actually ask a question off my list here… what’s the one thing you hope to find when you go into a vintage store?
CHRISSIE MILLER: You know it’s funny, I just went to LA and went vintage shopping, and I realized that what I do is look for things that I already own, which is so stupid [laughs]. I’ll always go straight to the jean jacket section and it’s like “How many more jean jackets do I need?” I feel like your brain kind of does that, you go with what is familiar to you. So my goal next time is to get something I don’t have. I also just moved into a smaller apartment so I’m trying to be more selective with what I buy.
I read one bio that mentioned there were a lot of obstacles to overcome with creating Sophomore. Is that true? What were some of those struggles?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Well yes and no. I started really early in 2002 and everything just happened very organically. I would make some shirts, they’d make some money, so I would make more shirts which would make some more money. So things were going really smoothly, but owning your own business is really difficult which is why I realize not a lot of people do it. There were times where I would be wondering how I was going to pay for my office or my rent, and I really didn’t have the time or the energy to get another job while I was doing it so just financially it was hard. But the great thing is that the stuff has always sold well and we always get good feedback so that’s kept me going.
How many people are involved in the day-to-day operations of the company?
CHRISSIE MILLER: There’s only three of us. I design together with Madeleine Von Froomer. She’s a technical designer but the collection is a lot of her vision. Then there’s Leah Dell who runs the office for us and she’s actually in the film, the girl with dark hair who says the line like, “because you’re my brother’s friend…” It was actually her idea for the movie. She grew up in Wildwood New Jersey and we saw this documentary about it and took a lot of ideas from that.
And when you teamed up with Madeleine to extend the line, what clicked with her, what made her the perfect partner?
CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s a good question. It’s funny, sometimes you meet someone in life and you just know right away. It was a total instinct thing, I didn’t really see a lot of her work, but when I met her she looked like the person I was thinking about, it was really strange. It’s like when you’re looking for an apartment and you just know you’re going to live there. Her interview was just her bringing over clothes she really liked and that was it. It wasn’t that I was so blown away with what she brought, it was just her, I really liked her. She is really talented, I’m really lucky to have found her because she was a designer for Proenza before. She had this amazing job already but with this she has a lot more freedom.
Well it’s a great partnership. What I love about Sophomore is how everything can be so simple but it has that little twist to it, that little something extra.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya that’s totally her, if it were me alone it would look more basic. She had much more of a fashion background so she would say things like, “we have to make these things have little details,” she’s always been really attentive to the little things.
Going with that, it seems like with every new season you implement some new element into the collection.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya that’s absolutely right we do a different fabric group every season. We do t-shirts in jersey, ah I hate that word, then a French terry, and then we add in a different group. So we did leather that one season, then we did oxford for spring. For fall we’re using this material called ponte. We actually did a lot of new stuff for fall, there’s a few different fabrics. It’s fun to do something special ya know?
Speaking of fall, fashion week is pretty much here, what are you looking forward to?
CHRISSIE MILLER: We usually don’t do anything for New York fashion week, but this year we’re doing Gen Art, so I’m excited about that,. We threw a party in Paris a few times. This year we’re throwing a party in London. I’m excited; I haven’t been to London since I was a kid.
Sophomore is dedicated to basics and sportswear, but are there other places you’d like to expand, maybe some collaborations? it doesn’t have to be clothes, would you like to extend Sophomore into film, music?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I really enjoyed doing the film, I would like to do more of that. I guess I don’t necessarily consider myself a fashion person. I’ve gone into it more recently, but I think that’s just sort of what comes through. It’s just clothes, it’s just simple stuff that I felt like I couldn’t find. I want to do more things soon like bathing suits, especially for men. It’s really hard for men to find good bathing suits.
Yes that’s completely true.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Right? They’re all really sporty or really long so that’s something I’d like to design. As for collaborations, I feel that so many designers do that. If we did one I’d want it to be special; I don’t want to do it just to do it.
If I could say something about the swim suits. If you make one keep in mind that it’s impossible to find a suit that doesn’t make you look like an old man or like you’re flaunting something, both scenarios that do not work well on someone like me.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya like in the 70’s they made really nice ones that just looked like shorts that you could just wear, they didn’t look like a bathing suit at all.
Ya know there is always a lot of talk about a sort of New York 70’s vibe around Sophomore. Are there any specific scenes or eras from New York’s past that you love?
CHRISSIE MILLER: I think designers come back to the 70’s often because it’s such a flattering silhouette; it just looks good on people. I think that classic look with the higher waist jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket is just more flattering. The bodies look so disproportionate in the 80’s and 90’s. In the 70’s everyone looked so long and lean.
I was just thinking the same thing the other day when I was watching some of the early episodes of Saturday Night Live and everything just seemed more natural, I was a bit jealous.
CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s funny I recently watched some of those too; ya the clothes are really good. Did you notice their old logo? We were going to make that into a t-shirt but I think originally the show was just called Saturday Night. So for fall I just made a t-shirt that says Saturday Nights.
What would you say inspire your t-shirt designs more: your day-to-day life or things you see such as books, movies, tv?
CHRISSIE MILLER: I feel like the key for me is to not look too much at what other designers are doing. I don’t mind to look after we’re done and I have my antennae out there to think about what is coming next. Also living in New York is a big inspiration almost to a fault; I feel like that antennae goes off in other places. It’s really hard for me to get inspired unless I’m in New York because I want to get my inspiration from the people around me. I don’t want to guess what is going to be hip.
I was thinking your “Girls Girls Girls” t-shirt kind of looks like a New York Dolls album cover.
CHRISSIE MILLER: That one came from an old Motley Crew t-shirt I had.
Ah yes of course, the old stripper anthem.
CHRISSIE MILLER: The hardest part to me is designing the graphics. It’s weird you’d think the other stuff would be harder. I have a really hard time doing the graphics, but they sell really well.
No I can understand, you don’t want it to come off as a Hot Topics shirt. You got to find that perfect touch that makes it unique.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya it’s like this weird thing where it has to have mass appeal, but with a little bit of an inside reference to it. What you were saying earlier about vintage shopping, I always go through the t-shirt section so a lot of the stuff comes from that. There are some shirts that I’ve just scanned and redone, like old random graphics. Remember the one from spring that has a yin yang thing on it? That was a Yoko Ono t-shirt. We changed a few little things so we wouldn’t get sued but that’s really just Yoko Ono. I really love graphics; I started with graphics so I’m always on the hunt, but there will be months where I don’t feel like wearing a graphic t-shirt. But I think guys really like graphics. Every guy I know has a graphic tee in their rotation so I feel like it will always be popular for them.
Is there anyone in the industry that you’re jealous of?
CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s a good question; I guess I get jealous of people that are making money because we’re not making a lot of [laughs] if I can be totally honest. I look at someone and go, “those guys got a Target deal? They’re so rich!” Not that I want to be rich, but it would be very nice to not have to stress about money.
Thank God somebody is honest about this. I get asked all the time why I do this and I tell them it’s because I it’s what I love to do, I just wished it made money so I never have to work in another office.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I know it’s true, a real motivator for me was that I couldn’t imagine working for someone else.
You’ve developed this close circle of friends around Sophomore that you work with. Are you socially outgoing or do you just like to stay within that social circle?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I’ve always been a social person I think and it’s always been important to be around my friends, it’s my inspiration too. That’s just a priority for me.
That’s good, I have a real problem with staying in touch some times.
CHRISSIE MILLER: We’re all working harder and harder when we get older but I try my best.
Do you like to take vacations or is it pretty much work all the time?
CHRISSIE MILLER: I have a boyfriend so I like going away with him. We went away to Miami for new years and that was nice. I wish I could go on vacations more for sure.
Miami, nice your’s was a lot better than mine, I got stuck in the Portland airport for mine. Hey this is random, but what is your favorite Woody Allen film?
CHRISSIE MILLER: When I was in school I took a whole class on Woody Allen so I’ve seen them all. My favorite? That’s so hard. This is random but I love Deconstructing Harry. You know one of the newer ones?
Oh ya, it’s been a while since I saw that that, but he’s great in that one, he’s just so angry.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya and that thing about the out of focus is so genius.
People usually say Annie Hall but there’s really nothing wrong with that.
CHRISSIE MILLER: Stardust Memories is another one I like. I just don’t think there’s one that you can’t like. Interiors is the one that people give him a lot of shit for, but I think they’re all good, I love him.
I haven’t seen the last one with Larry David yet, have you?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I did, it was good but it was a little like Larry David trying to be him, and I would rather it just be Woody Allen.
Ok last question. You seem to have the insider’s connection to The Virgins. Have you heard of any new music coming our way?
CHRISSIE MILLER: Yes they are recording new music at home right now. I used to live with them, and I grew up with Nick. I love them they’re the best guys ever. They’re really three of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
(Chrissie Miller is designer and owner of Sophomore. you can find out more about them at their website www.sophomorenyc.com)
From the Mag: Interview with Dean Spunt of No Age
Without a doubt our interview with Dean Spunt a couple months back has been one of the most popular articles on Letter to Jane and for the first issue of our magazine Dean and I thought it would be a good idea to do a follow up, since a lot new stuff has come out of the No Age camp as of late. Their new EP You’re a Target has been one of my favorite listens this year and they recently wrote a score for the movie The Bear. You can read the extended interview in Letter to Jane Magazine.
You recently did a new score for the film “The Bear” for the Seattle International Film Festival. How did that project come to be and is there any chance for a DVD release? I’d love to see it.
DEAN SPUNT: We were throwing around the idea to do a live score for a long time; it was really pushed by Randy to get us to do one.We put the word out and the Seattle Film Festival invited us to perform. It was great fun; we also did it at Cinefamily here in LA and are going to be doing it at the New Museum in NYC in October. I am not sure if anything will be released, we have been recording each show though.
You usually make music for yourself, what was it like switching it up and writing music for something that already existed?
DEAN SPUNT: It was fun. The main difference was the length, it’s a 94-minute film, we are only used to playing for about 50 minutes max, and so it was a different kind of thing. It was really fun and exciting to get to make that much live music.
Your new EP, “Losing Feeling” is out now. What is the response you’ve received and what are your thoughts on the new record?
DEAN SPUNT: I have only heard positive things, I think it is good, it is just a small sketch, a four song EP before we release a full-length album. I like to listen to it; we go in some different areas, which is al- ways exciting. We have been writing a bunch of songs for a new record, those were some songs we thought would be good together as a four song thing.
The lyrics feel like a look back on your past or a retrospective on youth at least. Is this somewhat accurate or am I reading too much into it, (which isn’t uncommon by the way)?
DEAN SPUNT: Ha, it’s whatever you want it to be, they are songs about losing feeling in one way or another, and they are also love songs, especially “Target” and “Genie.” Losing Feeling has a darker sort of growing, expanding vibe to it…
Can “Losing Feeling” be considered it’s own record or can we look at this as a taste of what the next LP will be like?
DEAN SPUNT: Losing Feeling is its own EP, not to say that the next record won’t have similar moments, but it was meant to be four songs that flowed and existed together. The songs for the new record so far are unique in ways I can’t describe… I am really excited.
The first thing critics talk about is your cleaner, more mature sound. I was wondering, is there still a sense of novelty to recording still like when you first started cutting demos?
DEAN SPUNT: Well, we have gotten used to recording, we are more comfortable writing and getting songs down on record and we are always getting closer to the sounds that we want. To me the new stuff just sounds and feels natural. Sometimes I go back and check out our EP stuff, like Weirdo Rippers and realize how different it is, but it really is the same thing to me. They all hit the same line in my head, it all sounds pretty progressive and pretty and catchy and simple.
No Age are known as road warriors, what are the tour plans for the year?
DEAN SPUNT: Ha, we are TRYING to take it easy for the rest of the year. We got some East Coast and Euro stuff in mid October and after that we are writing and recording and experimenting until early ‘10.
(You can find out more about No Age by going to their website at http://noagela.blogspot.com/)
Listen:
Interview With Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono is not a name that needs much introduction. She is arguably the most successful modern artist. As long as The Beatles remain popular it’s destined that Ono’s name will also remain a household name, but it’s really a shame to only know her for her fame. I fell in love with her work in college when a professor showed me some of Ono’s installations and performance pieces from the Sixties. They were in typical Yoko Ono fashion: daring, original, and always positive. Through the decades she has kept herself ahead of the curve and worked with every notable artist in every art form known to man. Amazingly all of that is still only a fraction of what she has accomplished when you add the fact that she’s been a champion of human rights and other causes as well. With her recent album she teamed up with her son Sean to bring what might be the most eclectic album of the year. With so many different sounds and styles, the 73-year-old Ono created an album that is more aggressive and unique than what most 20 somethings turn out these days. As you can clearly tell, Yoko Ono has been one of my heroes in my young art career and it was great to be able to talk with her as part of our Artist Interview Series.
The title of your LP Between My Head and The Sky, What about that phrase that stuck out to you when naming this LP?
I thought it was a cool title.
Is it true that you improvised all the lyrics on this album?
Almost. There were three songs which were something I’ve scribbled one summer, and I changed them into songs in the studio this time. But other than that, all songs just came to me at the studio.
As I’m listening to your latest work again, I’m struck with your presence on each track. You’ve always remained such an independent spirit throughout your whole career and as a young artist I wish I had more of that. Has that always been there or was it a progressive process?
I was very independent from a very, very early age. I think it had something to do with the environment I was brought up in as well.
How was the dynamic of making music with your son Sean?
It was a total surprise. It went very well.
With your latest LP there are so many different styles, what was the overall concept?
Like life. I wanted the LP to reflect reality.
You are releasing remixes of Gimmie Something which is a track that I always loved. What made you want to bring back this song now?
Because it is expressing the emotion we all have now. GIVE ME SOMETHING THAT’S NOT COLD!
These remixes take the original punk inspired sound into a modern dance scene, I guess both really want to make you dance. What do you like to dance to these days?
I dance to the wind, the sky, the sun. We are children of nature.
I know you are someone who is always looking into the future, but I was wondering if there is something you’d like us to remember about Double Fantasy, because it still is an underrated record I feel.
I think it was what we were then. I don’t look back.
Do you like to hear your voice in auto-tune?
The very fact that it is something new, that lets you hear your voice in a changed form excites me. Yes. I would like to hear my voice in it.
Being a conceptual artist and you’ve made a lot of strong “whole” albums. How do you feel about this shift to smaller releases? It feels like music is almost going back to the beginnings of rock when it was just singles.
If it changed once, it will change again. Change is the nature of life. So enjoy what it is now.
I was recently watching some of your films from the 60’s 70’s, and you were such a pioneer of experimental film back then. The way video is used socially these days there seems to be new venues for to reinterpret the artform. Do you think you’ll get back into experimental film/video?
No. I already did that one. So I’d like to move on. I am moving on.
You recently celebrated the release of The Beatles Rock Band game. Would you ever like to see a video game of your solo work be released?
I don’t have the need to see it happen, but if people want to do it, I won’t be stopping them.
I’d kick myself if I didn’t ask this last question. For a lot of us in a creative field, the pressures and outside distraction are enough to make a lot of stray over the years. You’ve gone through it all and keep on growing and getting better. I was just wondering why you think that is? How were you able to focus on the work and not let the business get you like so many others did?
I really don’t know the answer to this. But I guess the fact that I’m moving on all the time, being super-active may be helping!
(To learn more about Yoko Ono click here)
Listen:
Interview With The Morning Benders
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The Morning Benders have some of the catchiest tunes out there. The first time I heard songs like Dammit Anna it instantly hits you in the same way when you hear that first smack of the guitar in Hard Days Night or The Kink’s Picture Book. It’s not just me, Grizzly Bear, Girls, MGMT, White Rabbits and others have also loved their music and brought them on tour. Their lead singer, Chris Chu’s wit and presence in the music is what interested me. Good songwriters are few and far between it seems at times and it was a pleasure to catch up with Chis for our Artist Interview Series.
I read somewhere that the band was originally just you with a computer and a guitar, so how did the band as it is now come together?
Time and patience
Your music has that great British Invasion sound of the 60’s, but there’s also a great tradition of that sound from the Bay Area. What are some of those old influences and what are some new ones?
I love it all. I grew up with The Beach Boys, and Neil Young, and The Beatles and such… but lately i’ve been listening to a lot of new stuff. Beach House I really love. Been in love with Blur’s “Think Tank.” Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love.” To name a few.
I’m trying to stay away from the standard questions like “what was your favorite song you’ve ever written” so I’ll turn that around a bit, what was the worst song you ever wrote?
I don’t think I remember it
What is your writing process like?
Magical
How’s the tour going?
F’ing AWESOME! Grizzly Bear is such an incredible and inspiring band to play with. Love those guys!
Your songs have the quality so that they can be performed differently live, like some I can see being played hard and some really mellow and soft. What’s a typical show like and do you change it up based on the crowd?
Lately we’ve really been trying to find the perfect arc for our set. Making it into a real journey, with lots of diversity and ups and downs. So we’ve just been making slight tweaks to that.
Your album, Talking Through Tin Cans, has some very intimate moments and you produced and engineered a lot of the record yourself, how personal is this album?
It’s definitely a snapshot of what I was going through a few years back. It’s quite personal. I think that’s pretty obvious from listening to the record, and maybe a bit limiting? I don’t know. To be honest I haven’t thought about that album in a while, since I’ve been in album 2 mode. It is what it is.
I’ve heard about some new songs from you guys, when can we expect a new release?
March. BIG ECHO is the album title. We are super super excited about it.
I just sat down and listened to your album again before this interview and it got me thinking about full-length albums. There was a time when I was in favor for more ep releases over albums, a current trend in indie music, but recently there have been a lot of good complete albums, that like yours flow so well and seem to demand the length of an lp. What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think our current iTunes, blog culture can support a full length album in the years to come?
I don’t think people have been listening to albums for a long time. I don’t think it’s a current trend. Even in the 60’s when vinyl was the primary method for listening to music people would just buy singles, or skip around to the singles. People like to listen to a couple songs by a given band, and thats enough. And that’s fine. That’s the way most people listen to music. STILL, I would say there’s a passionate group of people out there that like to listen to music in the album form. I’m one of those people, so I’m going to keep making albums. But yeah, I don’t think things have really changed that much, people need to chill out! Vinyl, CDs, itunes, I don’t think it really matters…
(The Morning Benders are a indie band from San Francisco CA. You can learn more about them here)
Listen:
Interview With Gary Graham
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Designer Gary Graham’s Spring 2010 collection was one of the shining examples during New York Fashion Week this past September. With the “Fashion’s Night Out” event starting off the week, the question of how the economy would effect fashion loomed over almost every show, Graham being one of the exceptions. The CFDA/Vogue ‘09 Fashion Fund finalist put out a collection that was aggressive but not over the top. There was the evidence of tradition with looks that clearly narrated a time and place from America’s history, but there was also that transformation into something modern and attractive that kept me interested. The collection worked because of a designer’s strong vision and concept. I’ve always been so interested as to how a designer at this level works. They live in a middle ground that other creative professionals don’t have to necessarily stay at. A designer has to be part historian and part psychic at the same time. To be honest to your inspiration, present a product that is culturally relevant, and to be an expert craftsman, all in an ever changing environment is nothing short of amazing and something that honestly fascinates me. This is why I was so glad that Gary Graham agreed to be part of our ongoing Artist Interview Series. I found Graham’s commentary on fashion to be so insightful that anyone can at some level find some inspiration. It’s always great to meet someone who you know could make something interesting whether they have a budget of 5 dollars or 5,000 dollars. With all the economic worry that surrounds the creative industry right now, it’s artists like Gary Graham who show that one’s vision and concept rises above it all.
Hello, Every fashion review always uses the term “(insert designer’s name)’s woman is…” So what is the Gary Graham woman like?
She has a casual approach to glamour and definitely likes to mix disparate styles together. She has a history of Goth and punk but sort of keeps it on the back burner and expresses it in a more rustic sort of way.
How has your idea of that woman changed over the years?
I once did a show where I divided the collection into three women: a scientist, a farmer living off the land, and an isolated society lady. I think I always sort of mix these three together but now its become more precise and refined and not so aggressive.
With your Spring 2010 RTW collection, there seemed to be a big influence from silent films with a sort of Lillian Gish type of muse. What were some of the inspirations behind this collection?
Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon was a huge influence on me as a kid. Our library had a copy of the sequel, which had the photos of the Black Dahlia that I would stare at. There are some stills, which I referenced for this collection, of Anger appearing with Lillian Gish in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I wanted to think about women from two generations coming together, one at the end of her life and one just starting out.
I also found this photo of Imogene Coco after a performance with her head down. Her posture was so different from how I remembered her on television shows, where she always seemed so up and crazy. It was the downtime of Imogene that I was trying to capture.
What would you say is your approach to fashion?
There is a transformation that happens with Tallulah Bankhead’s character in Life Boat, not just in her wardrobe but within her, when she uses her diamond bracelet as fishing lure. It’s a moment of letting go. I think that was a big influence on me—seeing glamour torn apart or worn, either by weather or life circumstances.
I sometimes look at the creation process as making problems and then finding the answers through the work you create. What are some problems in fashion you like to answer with your collection?
I often work from narratives or scenarios. For next fall I am working on constructing a Masonic order of women in Pennsylvania who controlled all the building of the roads. I am also thinking about the story of the Fox sisters, who were famous 19th-century mediums. So the problem is connecting them all with research. The research has me thinking about the history of librarians and how their roles have changed in the digital age. I’ve been talking to librarians and getting their views on the way information is being accessed and the Dewey Decimal System, so this will create ideas and new problems. For example, this might raise the question what do the librarians and the masons have to do with each other? Were they enemies or did they work together? Also, if the women masons of Pennsylvania controlled the roads, how did the politics between the men and the women play out? I can imagine women masons stitching the roadways into their quilts and then somehow they would materialize, like sorcery.
When was it that you felt like you understood fashion, that it was what you wanted to do?
I think in high school I figured out the transformative power clothing can have, especially in relation to the physical and emotional changes one goes through in those years. I feel like I’m only really getting it now, in terms of the big picture. Which really just goes back to that DEVO song, We’re Through Being Cool.
I was doing some performance type work in college and realized there was a discipline to fashion that I loved. The reality of selling things I made was also attractive. I was excited by the idea of creating a garment and it then being worn in the “real world” – the theater that happens out on the street at 2 a.m. in the pouring rain.
How did you get your start in the business?
I started in a basement on West Broadway and sold out of a store called Shack. It was owned by J. Morgan Puett, who is now just working on her artwork but she was a big influence on me in terms of fabric manipulation and garment dyeing.
You just opened your flagship store in Tribeca, how’s the response been so far?
It has been very interesting. We do not advertise so it’s all by word of mouth, neighborhood men and women, we just started a few men’s pieces, and customers that buy our clothes in other cities, and from our boutique inside ABC Carpet and Home. For me it’s really like having guerilla research. You get direct feedback and it’s all very exciting. We are planning many events in the new space, everything from dance performances to film. I am currently working with my friend Liz Collins on a sock monkey terror film that will coincide with her sock monkey sweaters. On the business side, the response has been great.
The economy has been a big topic in fashion lately and I felt some of the recent collections at New York Fashion Week seemed to reflect that with a more consumer, commercial friendly apparel. As a designer how much do economic factors go into your thought process when designing a collection?
There are different economic factors. One is the overall health of a company in terms of cash flow and then the details of margins, profit, and volume. They all affect budgets, which then allow or constrain the amount of money you get to spend on development. So this could come down to being able or not being able to buy a certain lace or beading or leather. It does not ever effect my initial inspiration or concept, which is ultimately free. No one is going to say I cannot be inspired by a Masonic woman who was a witch in Pennsylvania in 1840 but we can say as a company that maybe the apron I designed that was inspired by her with intricate lace work on it is not going to retail for under 1200 and therefore we are not going to sell very many and maybe you should think of something else in addition to this item. That’s sort of how it works. The trick is not letting the two extremes; the sellable pieces and the collection pieces cancel each other out into a void.
There have been many complaints that fashion weeks are becoming too much about entertainment instead of design. How do you feel about the current state of fashion?
Fashion along with everything else is moving so fast that its inevitable there will be a new medium that comes out of all of this. I think DIY fashion is going to take the place of so much. It would be great if home ec became relevant in a new way, reconnecting us to the physical act of making things. I think what Alice Waters is doing with slow food could be done with fashion, if only in terms of making a connection between human labor and the end product, or at the very least an appreciation of quality.
(Gary Graham is a fashion designer from NYC. You can learn more about Graham at his website www.garygrahamnyc.com)
Interview With The Virgins via LOOKBOOK.nu
When Rich Girls came out there was not a person out there that didn’t have that song stuck in their head. My professors had it on their iPods, the kids I worked with were singing it, and lyrics were on at least a third of my friends Facebook status updates. While everyone was waiting for The Strokes to come back The Virgins took over and became THE example of New York rock and roll. With catchy hooks and a sound and attitude that led back to their influences from 70’s clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. Their self titled album has been critically acclaimed and their live shows have gathered a large following. With such a great fan base I wanted to open up the chance to have their fans ask some questions so I teamed up with the culturally defining site LOOKBOOK.nu to let their community conduct the interview. Music and fashion have always gone hand in hand and is a large part of what Letter to Jane is all about. I’d like to thank Nick Ackerman from The Virgins and Andy and Yuri at LOOKBOOK.nu for helping make a great contribution to our ongoing Artist Interview Series.
If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and what would say to them? – Sasha S.
Wow, so many people. Maybe Van Gogh or James Jamerson or someone else who died unknown and penniless just to tell them how important to the world they’ve become. Or maybe Cleopatra or Helen of Troy to see if I (a modern man) would find them as beautiful as they we’ve mythologized them to be.
What bands, past or present, are strong influences or give great inspiration to the music you all make together? – Chris F.
We love so many bands and listen to so much music but the main picks would be: The Rolling Stones, The Faces, Neil Young, Chuck Berry, The New York Dolls, David Bowie, and The Wu-Tang Clan. All the basics really.
Do you think music can be used to create and effect wider social change? Are all of the genres and styles of music that branched off from each other in the 20th century making a reunification in sounds, and a fusion of different types of music? Are the Virgins a part of this? – Ellis D.
Can music make a difference? Sure. Of course a human thought or a human idea has the potential to make people see the world differently and therefore initiate social change blah blah blah, whether its in a speech, a law, or a song. Although it occurring in music in any substantial way is an extremely rare phenomenon. It’s happened with Robert Johnson, Elvis, Dylan, The Sex Pistols, Grandmaster Flash and Mellie Mel and that’s about it.
And, Yes I do feel that in 2009 genres are less defined and more fluid than ever before; which is great. Its exciting to see people blending Motown with electronica or Folk music with punk rock. We definitely enjoyed a lot of genre mixing on this first record.
What has been your favorite concert you’ve given so far? – Veronica G.
We’ve been very lucky to be given the opportunity to play some crazy and amazing shows. But I think our favorite will always be a benefit concert we played for the saint mark’s church which is on the block we live. The whole city turned up and it was like a mini festival in the courtyard and then us and a bunch of our friend’s bands played in the church and it was mayhem. I remember being up there and literally thinking “this is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”
Does image play an important role in your band & do you believe your style should be just as relevant as your music? – Bombs
Style is a obviously a huge part of rock and roll but to us, writing good songs is our job; that’s why we’re a band. After being “in public” for a couple of years now we’ve learned that we have very little control over our “image.” Listeners, the press, bloggers, and promoters basically decide who we “really are” and we don’t have the time or the inclination to go around correcting misconceptions. So I guess the answer to that question is no.
In your song Fernando Pando, the lyrics say “kids I used to know that died now they’re not around I wonder what they think of life when they’re looking down.” Was there any personal inspiration for this beautiful lyric and what do you actually think they would gather from the lives we lead now? Do you think they would feel ashamed or proud of our generation? – Bethany G.
Well all three of us have lost young friends. Its something that is very hard to wrap your brain around: that this interesting, pretty girl or this amazing energetic guy that you loved has just vanished. In my opinion, when Donald asks “I wonder what they think of life when they’re looking down” it’s less of a literal question and more of a fantasy of his that they actually are “up there looking down” instead of just simply gone. The real question I think he’s asking is “what the hell happened to my friends? Where are they?”
Aside from music, do you have any other creative talents? If so, do you feel that your other interests help you to make better music? – Ella W.
I don’t know about other talents but certainly other interests. We all love visual art and novels and movies and I think that plays a huge part in who we are and the music we make.
What comes first for you, music or lyrics? How much input does each member of the band have when writing? – Sandy R.
We don’t really have a set song-writing formula. Songs will come from a riff one of us has come up with or a concept or a lyric or a jam. But Donald writes all of the lyrics. He keeps a notebook that he’s always writing in. Once we have something interesting musically he’ll then provide the lyrics.
If you could only listen to one song, watch one movie, and eat one dish of food for the rest of your life, what would you choose? – Janny P.
Ugh. That’s an impossible question to answer. You’d get sick do death of any choice. So I guess I’ll say Days of Heaven for my movie; The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band, and an amazing Cheeseburger.
How did you decide on the name ‘The Virgins’? – Elsa F.
We wanted a very simple name that was fun and ambiguous.
(The Virgins are a rock band from NYC, you can find more out about them at their website)
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Interview With Jody Rogac
There’s one thing young artists sometimes overlook doing as they are starting out and that’s reaching out to the people already in the profession they want to do. Just leaning how to do something in college doesn’t solve things, going out and finding a path brings up a lot of questions. This is why I’ve been so happy with Letter to Jane’s Artist Interview Series, and to have it include great artists such as Jody Rogac. Rogac is one of my favorite photographers working these days. Her images are soft and inviting, her simple style and attention to details lets her subjects be dynamic. Her work can be found in various look books and magazines such as Monocle, i-D, and CITY. Once I came to Jody Rogac as a fellow photographer looking for some friendly advice and she helped me figure out things that seem obvious now but weren’t until someone actually said it to me. I contacted her again recently and luckily she agreed to talk to Letter to Jane about the profession and her work.
Hello, now I’m pretty sure that everyone knows a photographer, but it’s not a general position and few know a photographer who is working at the level you do. So I’d like to start with some simple questions. What are your day-to-day operations like?
Non shoot days: make a big pot of coffee, computer work (emails, photo prep), read, go out, keep inspired. Shoot days: make a big pot of coffee, go out and shoot!
How has the job changed since moving to New York?
The job hasn’t changed that much, I’m still shooting the same kind of stuff, just for different clients. It’s actually become a bit easier because I’m in the center of the industry.
What is your typical equipment setup like?
Me, camera, bounce (maybe). I like to keep things as simple as possible.
Here’s a chance for you to be as pretentious as you want, you get a free pass here: How would you describe your style in regards to your work.
I find it really hard to answer this question whenever it is asked. Although judging by feedback I’ve had from others I’d say my style is calm, simple, and unintrusive.
I love how a lot of your work has a hybrid studio/atmospheric feel to them. I was wondering after you got out of school, what was your first studio like?
I’ve moved apartments a lot and always just made studios out of where I’ve been living. As long as I’ve had a wall and a window I’ve had a studio!
So was there a time when photography was just a part time gig? When did you make the jump to full time?
Photography was definitely a part time gig for quite a while after I finished school. I’d say I made the jump to working full time as a photographer about a year and a half ago.
You’ve done many magazine features now. You don’t have to go in detail but if you could give our readers a glimpse how the process goes from start to finish?
Sure… it starts with the photo editor getting in touch and seeing if you’re available for a shoot they’re doing. Then there’s a bit of back and forth regarding location and logistics about the project. After the shoot, I compile a folder of selects and send them to the photo editor. From there, the magazine makes their choice, and voila!
I think some of the first images of yours I saw were from some of your work in fashion. Are those projects such as look books or ad campaigns better or worse than the other kinds of projects you shoot? What are some of the pros and cons?
I wouldn’t say one is better or worse than the other. Everything is so different from project to project. I generally really like to photograph people, whether it’s fashion or a portrait for a magazine. I try to make the most out of every assignment!
Photography can be quite time consuming, is it hard to take a break from the business?
It’s definitely time consuming, but I love it so much that even when I’m taking a break I’m still thinking about taking photos! I can’t help it!
(Jody Rogac is a photographer working in Brooklyn NY, you can learn more about her work here)
Interview With Fool’s Gold
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One of the things that I look forward to each year is that I know there are going to be a couple bands out there that just catch me by surprise and blow me away, this year Fool’s Gold has been one of them. As a critic I’m supposed to be able to break down and analyze why I like something but there’s there’s just so much here that it would be futile to compartmentalize this music. Flowing horns, a driving rhythm, and a hypnotic guitar and vocal melody just instantly put you into a groove. There’s also something else in the music that can’t be translated by any single element. It comes when so many people come together and start playing music together. Music comes in many different and exciting forms, but there’s really something to be said about a live band. Each person bringing their unique take on the music and weaving it all together live, in front of you, will always be a real treat to me. These are just some of the thoughts I had when I was watching Fool’s Gold run through their soundcheck right before their performance that night. For how much fun their music is, it doesn’t just happen. There I watched them diligently work to get what would seem like a small thing to you and me to sound just right. Afterwards I was thrilled to be able to sit down with members Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov and discuss music, influences, and their home Los Angeles.
I shouldn’t start out with this question because it’s the quickest way to insult someone, but are you guy’s ok with the term jam band?
LUKE TOP: Don’t worry we don’t insult easily, if people are into jam bands and to us then that’s great.
LEWIS PESACOV: I’m ok with it, I’m not as scared of it as some other bands are. I mean, don’t electronic bands jam? Because some of their songs go on for ten minutes but people don’t call them jam bands.
LT: The guitar is what makes people associate it with jam music.
LP: Yeah but I don’t think we sound like Phish. We’re more of a dance band than a jam band… but I do like to jam
(laughs)
Ok well watching sound check It reminded me of my old office job where the first part of the day was just getting through paper work, is sound check like your paperwork?
LT: No it’s still fun. There are elements of stress that come into it when you’re not familiar with the room, but the whole point is to play music, so after driving all day a sound check feels really good.
LP: Yeah, you dial everything in during sound check so you can just enjoy yourself when you play.
LT: It’s like doing the paperwork and then getting your paycheck right after.
(laughs)
So it’s been hard for me to figure out exactly how many people are in the band. Is there a set number of people because I see there’s seven people here tonight but I’ve heard of numbers like ten or twelve.
LP: Traditionally in LA we’ve been twelve, but this is the first tour where we’ve started to whittle it down and this might be the beginning of us becoming a seven-piece band. I think we’re really enjoying having some consistency. Before there generally wasn’t much consistency, kind of a free for all.
LT: The beautiful thing about this band is we’re capable of changing up the numbers when needed, but it’s rarely twelve, we really only do that in Los Angeles,
LP: I really love having four guitars; it’s completely indulgent I know.
Everyone in the band also has other projects going on, how do you even manage to get twelve people in the same room?
LT: We’ve been blessed with the fact that people kept coming to rehearsals and kept playing at the shows. There was never any formal discussion or pressure put on anyone. These days there’s really just the question of, “Okay, so who wants to go on tour?”
So how many musicians are featured on the album?
LP: Everyone and then some were on the record. Honestly, I think there were probably seventeen people at one point.
That’s certainly more than I thought.
LP: Well I was thinking about this the other day, there’s this band from the Congo that I love called The Kasai Allstars. They have like twenty people in their band and I was just thinking, “Damn, that’s cool.”
Speaking of that, the first thing I ever read about Fool’s Gold is the African influence. Do you feel that there is too much focus on one particular influence because there are definitely others in your music.
LT: You can’t deny the fact that it’s a definite part of our sound, but it would be somewhat limiting to just say we’re an African band. At the same time there are a lot of other factors at play. All of us with have very specific, different backgrounds and we bring different things from that into the music.
LP: I mean it depends what people want to say about the band. Because if they want to sum it up in one word they can do that, but if they want to delve into the songs and want to talk about the songs then there’s way more than people can say.
LT: The influences are there and we’re not trying to hide that.
LP: Far from it.
LT: We love this music and we want to expose people to it. We filter the music we love through our songs and that’s why we do it.
So you feel a responsibility to educate people? Because world music and ethnic influences are starting to come back into indie music a lot more but there’s not a whole lot of attribution taking place.
LT: I think it’s important to honor your heroes and honor the music that influences you.
LP: Whatever it is, whether it be world music, folk music, or whatever you’re inspired by.
LT: I mean with whatever art you’re making; ideally you should be aware of the context of what you’re doing in history. The greatest artist of our time have to know the history of what they’re doing, or else they would think they were the first people to do it. You need to know enough to know your place in the spectrum. That makes our music more informed, more honest.
LP: I think we’re doing exactly what we set out to do, in a sense. It wasn’t accidental; we’re playing exactly what we want to play. I would like to think that we’re honoring it by showing people this music.
LT: we’re also starting to do DJ gigs and that’s a great way to show a little bit of what we like.
LP: We’ve been doing interviews where we list ten tracks for people to listen to and we love that, we recently did a list for Zune as well, so it would be cool for people to read that and get the music and enjoy it. I’ve always made mix tapes for friends and I love doing it on a wider spectrum.
I’m always interested with how one’s environment influences their work. Like if I had never heard of you guys before and closed my eyes I would be able to figure out you were from LA. Do you agree with that? Could you have made the same music in Chicago for instance?
LT: I absolutely don’t think so.
LP: Yeah definitely not.
LT: A city like Los Angeles is a perfect environment for our band to evolve. It’s such a large, diverse city with so many different venues. There are public parks, BBQ’s, and clubs that gave us an opportunity to play our songs in so many different settings. Like we’d go from a party, to a museum, from west side to east side. Without that support we couldn’t have made this music.
LP: I do feel that cities have their own sounds. Like New York City, I love a lot of bands from New York, but they tend to have a cold, edgy sound, and LA tends to have a warmer, good feeling sound to it.
LT: And there’s a big tradition of music from California.
LP: Yeah, we’re completely influenced by that. Beach Boys and stuff like that influences us in a really weird way.
Yeah, you really got what I was trying to say. I didn’t know how to intelligently say your music feels like sun.
LT: It’s in our blood, we’re children of California.
LP: I mean it feels like sun to me as much as it does moonlit night with palm trees, there’s that weird dark side of LA as well.
LT: When you’re making art you’re reflecting your surroundings to some degree, either directly or indirectly. Lewis and I love Los Angeles, we love the Lakers.
LP: Yeah I live like a block away from Dodger Stadium so I’m a big Dodgers and Lakers fan.
LT: Yeah, we’re inspired by the Lakers and the Beach Boys.
I’m a big Lakers fan so I appreciate that, but outside these walls people will hate you for that, ( Ed Note: Portland Blazers fans are very bitter towards the Lakers).
LP: (laughs) Yeah, especially up here right?
Well now that I know the influences I was wondering what the writing process is like? There’s such a loose, free flowing nature to your songs. Does it start with a lick or is there a concept that starts it usually?
LP: It can start with just one lick. Most songs have that one lick that just happens throughout the song, and then we just spin it. It’s all about just spinning it, and that’s how most of the songs are written. There are parts to the songs, but they’re definitely open ended. There’s a lot of looking at each other, then the drummer does something else and we go on to the next part.
Luke, I wanted to ask about your vocal style and the concept of melisma. I’ve been reading a lot about it in reviews and I was wondering if you could talk about it some.
LT: I’m just learning about the concept in reading press about our band, it’s really not something I set out to do specifically. Even though I’m doing it, it’s not something I researched before hand; it’s just that this style of singing seems to fit with this band. There is really no academic angle to way I sing.
LP: Basically it’s saying his voice is another instrument, especially when he’s singing in another language that no one can understand. By doing that he’s kind of imitating what the guitars are doing and adding another layer of melody.
LT: Like I said earlier, I’m just filtering all of my influences through me and it just fits with the sound. Luckily when I started singing that way all my friends were really supportive and it just developed over time.
Lewis, I wanted to ask about your work with Mark Randall Osborn. Now I only know a little about his work. It was about breaking apart structures right?
LP: With the classical music? That music is about over structuralizing to the point so that the structures fight against themselves; it’s a crazy thing.
LT: It’s music in the head
LP: The idea is that there are literally structures that you build like little musical machines, and then there’s points where there’s conflict, and that’s where the tension comes from. With this music there’s not much of that, I mean there are structures but it is a lot looser, but all that stuff is in my brain.
LT: This music is more about repetition.
LP: But repetition is a structure, everything has a structure to it.
LT: But that music is a little more non-linear.
LP: Yeah this music is way more linear, but it’s all in there. I mean everything you read or see finds its way in there somehow. I’m sure it’s in there in ways I don’t realize, but I’m just happy playing guitar these days.
(Fool’s Gold is a band from Los Angeles California. You can learn more about them here)
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Interview with Aziz Ansari
Many people are just now getting to see a rising star in the comedy world. Aziz Ansari has been making a name for himself for years now with his standup tours and his MTV show Human Giant, which he made with Ron Huebel, Paul Scheer, and Jason Woliner. Ansari is now reaching much bigger audiences in primetime as Tom Haverford, the slick assistant in NBC’s Parks and Recreation. You probably saw him in other shows as well such as ABC’s Scrubs and HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. This summer also saw Ansari take on the role of Randy, a young upstart comic in Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Ansari was one person I really wanted for Letter to Jane’s interview series, and if you’ve seen his standup before you know why. His timing and ability to react and improvise display a great natural talent. Ansari’s delivery and insights showcase his hard work and dedication. It was a pleasure to be able to talk with Ansari about his current projects and what the future has in store for him.
Hello, now most people now know you as Tom Haverford, Amy Poehler’s sidekick in the NBC comedy, Parks and Recreations. I recently read Poehler comment that her character Leslie wasn’t necessarily dumb, but rather didn’t have the charisma to get the job done. I kind of view your character Tom as kind of the opposite of that, but I was wondering if you could describe your character to us?
AZIZ ANSARI: I think he’s smart and knows the game, but he’s kind of an idiot in social ways. He also loves the ladies, but is maybe a little overeager and puts himself at risk of sexual harassment lawsuits on a regular basis.
Parks and Recreation just started it’s second season and the reviews have been good, most notably for starting to include social issues instead of just focusing on the pit which was the main plot of last season. Is this a sign of a new direction for the show?
AZIZ ANSARI: No, I think in general the show is just finding itself more. If you watch any great sitcoms like Seinfeld, The Office, or whatever, you notice the show takes a while to really figure out what it is. I think with all the hype around our show, we were under a magnifying glass from the get go. Bottom line, season two is great and much stronger than season one. I wouldn’t say that unless I believed it. If I was promoting The Mentalist, I would tell you season two of The Mentalist is a huge disappointment.
With the introduction of new shows and the return of Jay Leno, do you feel any pressure from NBC or do you feel you’ll be given time to grow just as the other shows such as 30 Rock or The Office had?
AZIZ ANSARI: We got a second season, so I feel like the network is behind us.
You wrote on your MTV show Human Giant, are there any chances of you picking up the pen again for Parks?
AZIZ ANSARI: Perhaps, right now I’m pretty lazy though. The writers are great about hearing out our ideas and we also improvise and rewrite on set sometimes, so for now I’m content with my input.
I want to ask you about Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Your character Randy seemed to represent everything that’s wrong in standup. What were some of those things in stand up right now that you or Apatow wanted to satirize with this character?
AZIZ ANSARI: It was never really a calculated attack on standup. I just liked the notion of a guy with a Soulja Boy-like demeanor being a standup. Hence the DJ, the catchphrases, endless merchandising, etc. Randy to me is a guy who saw a Def Jam special and went – oh that’s easy; I’ll jump around and yell about my dick. I don’t think all those Def Jam guys stink by any means, but I can see someone watching that and thinking standup is much easier than it actually is.
As a marketing campaign for the film there were these mini-documentaries you made for the Randy character and they’re really great (I’m laughing right now thinking about the DJ’s 3 rules to live by). Were these all your doing or did have Apatow have any hand in these?
AZIZ ANSARI: Myself and Jason Woliner (director from Human Giant) wrote them. Jason directed and Judd was an Executive Producer on it. He trusted us to make it good and I think we pulled it off.
You still do stand up regularly; do you still include Randy into the mix?
AZIZ ANSARI: I’m doing standup a lot to try to put together a new act before my standup special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, comes out in January on Comedy Central. Right now, no Randy in the mix, but I’m not opposed to bringing him out in the future. I need to write a new Aziz act before I write a new Randy one!
Is there going to be another stand up tour to follow up your Glow in the Dark tour? And how did you get Kanye to let you use the name of his tour, because you guys weren’t friends at the time right?
AZIZ ANSARI: I hope I can do another tour. It’s hard with our filming schedule. I just called Kanye and asked him and he said he thought it was funny and was cool with it.
I used to work at a music studio and my friends and I somehow always wound up debating over some facet of Kanye’s life. It’s kind of sad because it wasn’t cool things like girls, parties, cars etc, but more about lame domestic things, like what it’s like just being friends with the guy. So is he the kind of guy you go grab a pizza and rent a Will Ferrell movie or when you’re around Kanye is it like a music video? (Side note: I have money on this depending on your answer).
AZIZ ANSARI: The times I’ve hung out with him, we’ve always been on a hovercraft with a bunch of models and champagne.
Thank you, I want to end the interview by asking if you could talk about your upcoming film, Get Him to the Greek and your role in the film.
AZIZ ANSARI: Sure. First off, that movie is going to be hilarious. Russell Brand plays his character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow, and Jonah Hill plays a guy who works at a record label that has to get him from London to LA to do a show at the Greek. It’s a really hard hitting road comedy that they are going to knock out of the park. Myself and Nick Kroll (along with a few other comedy buddies of ours) play Jonah’s co-workers. It’s a small part, but it was really fun. Our boss, Sergio, is played by none other than Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and he killed.
Well Thank you for talking with us, congrats and good luck on the new season.
AZIZ ANSARI: Ok, I’m going to go make some oatmeal now, thanks for the interview!
(Aziz Ansari is a comedian/actor who currently resides in Los Angeles CA. You can catch him on Parks & Recreation on NBC on Thursdays and on his website Aziz is Bored)
Interview with Passion Pit
So how would you handle popularity? Success? Fame? I’m not just talking about people liking you or what you do, I’m talking about your name becoming synonymous with the phrase “Best of the Year.” When you’re just happy that your friends in your college town like your work and then months later everyone with a laptop is Twittering how they’re listening to your song, where do you go next? If your Passion Pit you go further. Their EP “Chunk of Change” was 2008’s gem and their debut LP “Manners” is one of 2009’s crowning achievements. A pop disco mix flying high with dark lyrics popping in and out throughout one of the most satisfying debut albums I’ve ever listened to. They couldn’t just let their album be enough though. Their video for their single “The Reeling” is nominated for a VMA this year, which is one of those things you don’t expect when you’re singing into your laptop in your bedroom. Now they’re all over the world touring and becoming one of the better live acts around now. Letter to Jane caught up with drummer Nate Donmoyer on their European tour to talk about their tour, the album, and the band’s goals for the future.
Hello, So I’d like to start with talking about the tour. You’re in the UK right now, how’s the European tour going?
Good, we just played in Reading which was really great and now we’re heading to Copenhagen. We have a couple more shows in the UK then back to the States.
How much longer are you in Europe because I know you’re going to be here in Portland in a couple weeks?
Yeah we’re here till September 11th and then we head to Colorado to play Monolith then we’re going to take some time off then get back to touring again.
So before Passion Pit had any of you done a tour before?
Yeah, just in the States, nothing too big, just a lot of DIY shows and stuff like that, nothing like what we do now, much smaller.
It’s seems that the band’s success came as a surprise. So what were your goals or aspiration in life before the band, how did you see your life unfolding for the next couple of years if Passion Pit hadn’t happened?
Oh I’d probably still be in Boston making dance music and DJing, I don’t know what I’d be doing exactly but I know I’d still be making music. Yeah the amount of success that we’ve seen has been a bit of a surprise and we’re still getting used to that.
Speaking of success, your popularity has gone beyond people just liking you. Everywhere I went or what I read this year has had Passion Pit as the staple for what is cool in 2009. It’s been like skinny jeans, plaid shirts, and Passion Pit. When it gets to that level how does that not affect you?
Ha, thanks, well we are somewhat self aware but not too much. You can’t really think about that all the time. I mean you definitely feel it, but we’re just trying to improve our live show, trying to become a better band.
Passion Pit seems works so great as a live band, with recording “Manners” did you record as a live band?
Well it was kind of. We’d play like 8 bars then loop that and play some drums and so forth. So yes it was still samples but more organic with us playing them this time.
With the production of “Manners” what sort of discussions did the band have with the producer Chris Zane? What were some concerns and goals that each of you had going into this album?
Well I had met Chris Zane once and I had never met our engineer, Alex Aldi before. I had worked with other producers before but never in a setting like this, the whole experience went better than I ever could have expected. Zane became a mentor to us, not just musically but business wise too. We became a better band because of him. We’re more streamlined now and a better band now than we were before Manners.
I got to say the use of the children’s choir really surprised me with how organic it feels on this album. Usually you only hear a children’s choir in a really sappy piano number about making a difference or in some rap song where someone like Nas is talking about oppression and then kids start singing and it’s sort of ironic because you don’t expect a child to be singing about moral decay of modern society. What made you want to use a children’s choir and was there any fear of it sound too cliché ?
Thanks, yeah that was Mike’s idea, he really wanted to have a choir on some of the songs. We were having a lot of trouble finding one and then Chris found this children’s choir (PS 22) at the last minute on Youtube and they were covering all sorts of stuff like Tori Amos songs and we got them to come in and they really delivered.
“Manners” was your first big studio album, how did you like the studio?
The studios we recorded in were amazing; to go from a bedroom with a couple mics in it to Phillip Glass’ studio in Tribeca was amazing. The place was just massive, huge halls, grand pianos, giant mixing boards, it was completely different than what we had known before.
This has been a big year for you guys. You’ve been nominated for a VMA for breakthrough video of the year with your music video for “The Reeling.” What do you think are your chances of winning?
Ha, I have no idea; I’m still kind of amazed that we were even nominated. Humble produced the video and created all those cool effects and I just hope we win it for those guys because they really deserve it.
Real quick what’s in store for Passion Pit? Have you guys started talking about any new projects or follow-ups?
I think we just want to concentrate on becoming better as a live band. We have a lot of touring ahead and we just want to play off the album for a while before we take a long time to concentrate on recording new material, I think that might be 2 or 3 years away.
(Passion Pit is a pop band from Cambridge Massachusetts. You can find more from Passion Pit at their website and Myspace)
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Interview With Peter Bjorn and John
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So here I am in this small music hall in NE Portland waiting for Peter Bjorn and John to come on stage. I wasn’t sure what I was about to see. I had seen them perform on TV and Youtube, but that doesn’t really mean much, and no matter how good they looked on the screen, the fact is that they’re taking a break from their national tour with Depeche Mode to play for us in the Hawthorne District on a Tuesday, not the most inspired of nights. After a while they quietly walked on stage and performed one of the greatest shows I had ever seen. It was a wake up call to what I had been used to seeing at rock concerts. It’s rare these days to be able to see a band with this much polish and talent, so close and up front. This could have been one of those shows where they could just phone it in. After all this is a pretty small market for a band that became pop culture sensations with their hit “Young Folks” and have quite a vocal fan club of A-list celebrities including Kanye West, Drew Barrymore, The Ting Tings, and so on. Well I found out that night that Peter Bjorn and John isn’t a typical band and treated this night and all of us in the room as if we were all on the A-list. It was this same generosity and kindness that I found when I was talking with the band after the show. It was a real pleasure to photograph the band and to be able to discuss in depth with Peter Morèn about the tour, their music (that now fills up a decade), and what the future holds for Peter Bjorn and John.
Hello, I’d like to start out by asking how the tour is going? How has touring with Depeche Mode been so far?
It’s been really good and Depeche’s fans really seem to like us. They dance and cheer!
You guys have such an extensive catalogue now, how much of the lesser-known songs get exposure on tour. Does any material from Seaside Rock get played at shows?
During the opening slots for Depeche we don’t have time to play that many songs, so we focus on “Living Thing” and a couple of older ones. At our own shows obviously the set list is more extensive and eclectic. We play some songs from our first 2, not so well-known albums and quite a few from “Writers Block”, but “Seaside Rock” is hard, since the melodies are built on weird instruments like flutes, saxophones, steel drums and violins rather than vocals. We did one show in Stockholm were we only played “Seaside Rock”, but then we invited some extra musicians and a lot of kids from a local music school, to get the right naive-feel to the set, it shouldn’t be too professional or perfect since we ourselves on the album play stuff that we really can’t master. It was a night to remember! Some people said it was the best we’d ever done, some fans left angry!
Your fourth album Seaside Rock kind of went by the wayside here in the States, but I have to say it is still one of my favorite albums of the past couple years. Were you met with any resistance with releasing what is essentially an instrumental album after the huge pop success of the previous album Writer’s Block?
Thank you! That’s nice to hear. It’s definitively one of my absolute favorites of ours as well. I think a lot of people (including our labels) got confused by that album. But for us it was really important to show everyone that only knew us from “Young Folks” that we were a weird little band that you can’t really pin-point down. We like it like that! Having said that, I think the record is very accessible, listenable, and melodic. It just doesn’t have vocals (it has whistling though!) For us it was really good to get back in the studio after all the touring with “Writers Block” and do something spontaneous and experimental without a lot of expectations. Just playing around in the studio. It also was really influential on “Living Thing”, some of the more rhythmical reggae/funk things. Also we paid tribute to our hometowns by including narratives in local Swedish dialects that not even Stockholders can understand. On “Eriks Fishing Trip” my grandfather tells a fishing tale.
Living Thing really seems to showcase each individual’s tastes and influences on each track while still feeling cohesive. I read that you guys made mix tapes for each other at the beginning of production. How did that process help set the tone?
It was really helpful to create a frame around the songs and a cohesive feeling to the record. We all write separately and then get together to arrange and produce the songs, so a lot can change and happen with a song after that first draft. We make PBJ-songs rather than just a Peter-song or John-song. But as you said we have different styles and tastes. I was worried putting together these mix cds, thinking we would all clash and want to do different records, but we all put on things that fitted well together. There was a lot of 80’s music from our childhood, like some synth (Depeche was on there! OMD too!) And mainstream acts like Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac. So we really strayed towards something more hi-fi, sparkling champangy, retro-futuristic sci-fi and those effects they used at that time that made the music sound more glamorous. But there was also a lot of African percussion music, Brazilian 70’s pop, some rockabilly, reggae and funk and new wave and early hip-hop, and I think you can hear it all in there. It’s all about the sound and arrangement. Two of the songs we wrote during “Writers Block”. “I Want You” then sounded very much like The Shins and “It Don’t Move Me” like a mid-60’s Kinks song (like “Til The End Of The Day”), since we were in a more classic guitar pop-frame of mind then I reckon. At the same time it was the less-is-more approach of “Young Folks”, “The Chills” and “Amsterdam” that kind of set the minimalist direction for this album. They are all more drum and bass-driven than the rest of “Writers Block” and almost has no guitar. So it was just a continuation of that, which makes it weird when people say that “Living Thing” must be a chock to “Young Folks” fans, when actually its much closer to “Young Folks” then most of the “Writers Block” songs or the albums that came before. There is also a lot of guitar on “Living Thing” it’s just played in a more rhythmical, less conventional way; influenced by soul, funk and African guitar playing.
After all the years you guys have been together, the way you all communicate and collaborate between each other has to have gone through some changes. What are some of those changes and how have they changed the way you guys create?
The biggest change was when John started to write songs during “Writers Block”. That’s when the band became totally democratic. Before that, me and Bjorn wrote the songs, Bjorn produced, I sang, and John drummed. Now we all write, all sing (even though I still sing 80 %), and all produce and play all kinds of stuff. It makes for really unique music, but it can also be stressful and hard on relationships. That’s why we need our solo projects and that’s why we will hire an outside producer for our next album. But it’s great that we are not locked into a classic rock-band format. We are on stage, which is great, but in the studio it’s better to be playful and swap around instruments and ideas.
From listening to the very clever song, “Blue Period Picasso” I wondered what other mediums influenced the band’s music?
I’m glad you like it! Based on a true experience, (wink). Anything inspires us really, mostly relationships and everyday life’s pros and cons. But we all like a good art museum now and then. Movies. I used to study film earlier. Reading. Anything attached with words inspires me and makes me want to write. Walking in new places and cities. Checking out architecture. As you see, anything and everything!
Could you give us some idea of what the next couple of years hold in store for Peter Bjorn and John? Whether it is solo or group projects?
In the near future, at least 4 more shorter tours for “Living Thing” in the fall and spring, in Europe, the States and maybe Australia. Next year we will hopefully put out an ep with some great songs we started during “Living Thing” but didn’t finish, and we are talking about the next album as well. As I said, outside producer for the first time. It’s gonna be more punky, back to the power-pop roots, that’s the idea anyway, we’ll see what happens. I have a new project with some Swedish friends called Tutankamon. We will put out an album in October, but just in Scandinavia for now. I’m also working on my second solo album. It will be in Swedish, so it’s a very different project from everything else I’ve done so far, but I’m very excited by it. It sounds sometimes a bit folky, sometimes like vintage soul, Stax/Motown, very groovy! But in Swedish! I also have started to write some songs for and with other artists but nothing is released yet. Bjorn also writes for others and continues producing for other artists, like the next Lykke Li record. John has his solo project Hortlax Cobra and also plays with the very good band Holiday For Strings that have a new record coming soon I think.
Very quickly I wanted to ask you about the music videos for Living Thing. They are very unique and definitely fit the sense of humor that’s on the album. Could you give us some background on the thought process or early ideas that became these great videos?
We didn’t want to participate in the videos ourselves, and we wanted to incorporate weird dancing in all of them. “Lay It Down” is directed by our friend Sandra Fröberg and we wanted it to look like a high school disco in a basement in the 80’s, with a VHS-look to it. The creepy part is all the dancers are wearing masks of our faces with different make up and hair. That makes it both very creepy and funny. “Nothing To Worry About” was directed by Andreas Nilsson while on a trip to Tokyo. He saw these greaser-biker-gangs dancing to rockabilly in the parks during the weekend and thought it was a great idea to make a mini-documentary about them. “It Don’t Move Me” was also done by Andreas and follows Markus who is a 16-year-old Michael Jackson fan from Gothenburg, who dances like his idol. When we did the video we had no idea Michael would pass away so soon, so that’s a bit creepy. We brought Markus on stage with us for a Swedish festival and the crowd loved him.
(Peter Bjorn and John are a rock band from Stockholm Sweden. You can find out more about the band by checking out their website or Myspace)
Listen:
Peter Bjorn and John – It Don’t Move Me
Interview with Au Revoir Simone
I recently had the chance to interview Annie Hart, one of the members of the Indie-Pop band Au Revoir Simone. I first heard of Au Revoir Simone last year through a remix by The Teenagers of “Sad Song.” It was so cool I had to find the real album and once I got it I loved it a lot more than the remix. Their previous album, “The Bird of Music” was smooth and full of energy. With their recent release “Still Night, Still Light” the Brooklyn based group keeps the same feeling of wonderment but surrounded by a darker, more mature sound. The lyrics are real and sincere, not the normal love/hate lyrics known in pop. It is one of the few albums out right now that blend great melody and craft with a sense of humor and wit. With the group’s popularity rising on such a rapid pace these days I was very grateful to have Annie Hart take some time to discuss the new album.
Hello, I quickly took another listen to your latest album Still Night, Still Light and it has this amazing quality of feeling dark, and yet the vocals bring the songs back to this happy, dream like state. I guess I’d like to start off by asking, are you guys always so happy?
No. I tend to wallow in sadness when I get the chance and am alone.
What I love about Au Revoir Simone is the ability to have this air of whimsy and humor while being surrounded by a darker sound, it reminiscent of early punk bands such as Suicide or Talking Heads in a way. I was just wondering about in the early days, was there a discussion in the band about if you were going to be more pop or something a bit more raw?
We just ended up being what we were and following our instincts. We all have different musical tastes and the result of our sound is a compromise.
I’m interested in the early days of the band because finally taking that leap into a creative field can sometimes be scary and for some it just feels so natural. Were the early days more choppy or smooth?
I don’t really remember, but when we played music it all felt psychic and natural.
What is it about music that keeps you coming back? Where did that desire to put in all the work come from?
I don’t know. I just have to.
Now you are reaching new success and notoriety all the time and with that comes more work, travel, etc. What effect has this taken on your life such as family and friends? Is there still time for the career and a life outside of it?
I miss everyone in my life so deeply, but when I am not on the road I miss those friends in other towns I’ve made along the way, so everything is a compromise.
Were your family and friends a little more impressed when the band was featured on Grey’s Anatomy?
YES! IT definitely finally made me a legit musician and more relatable at family events.
The lyrics on the Still Night, Still Light have a real personal quality to them as if you were having a one on one conversation. Where does that come from? Are they taken from specific events or do you feel more like you’re creating a story?
Some of mine are like diary entries and others I still have no idea what I am trying to think of. They say you can find out a lot about yourself through your lyrics but I am still trying!
I feel there is much more intensity on Still Night, Still Light compared to The Bird of Music. What was inspiring you during the production, where did this new intensity come from?
We just tried to make the record sound on tape how it sounded in our heads when we were writing the songs.
What is some music that is in your rotation at the moment?
Uninhabitable Mansions, Peter Bjorn and John, Paper.
Between the band’s name referencing Pee Wee Herman and being friends with David Lynch, I’m led to assume that you have a unique perspective on popular culture. What would the perfect film be for you?
To watch? I like Rushmore, but I also enjoy lots more, I like Woody Allen movies.
Au Revoir Simone’s music has a very cinematic quality to it to begin with, is there any possibilities of some film collaborations in the future?
Please someone invite us to do this!
What can we expect from Au Revoir Simone in the future?
Your guess is as good as mine!
Well thank you very much for taking the time to talk, it was a pleasure.
(Au Revoir Simone is an Indie Pop band from Brooklyn NY. You can find out more about them by checking out their Myspace and Website)
Listen:
Interview With No Age
We all have the conversation with friends…who’s the better band. One person will argue how this person is more talented, and another will argue how nobody can play that instrument like they do. Then one person brings up the “it factor” and everyone shuts up. It ruins every debate, it can’t be fully described and it can’t be denied, some people just have “it.” The common misconception is that the ones where creativity comes easy, live life easy, where they sit around and let genius come to them while everyone else does the work. That may happen somewhere, but I’ve never heard of it. As Dean Spunt of No Age said it in the interview below, “The easier it gets, the harder we work,” and they do work hard. No Age’s fame has been skyrocketing since their release of their sophomore album, Nouns in 2008. Their beautiful blend of punk rock put them on top of every critic’s top lists, getting press from every top publication, and even a Grammy nomination for their amazing 68 page, full color booklet that came with the cd. With all that success the band still has the same DIY mindset they always had. They book the shows, they drive themselves, they make shirts, posters, etc. For all their success, it is only equal to the amount of work they put into their craft and it shows. Members Dean Spunt and Randy Randall are just as well known for their music as they are for their honesty about their views and their craft. Whether or not you like their music, they are a band where you cannot deny their “it factor.” Their work ethic and attitude is a model for all creative people to learn from which is why I was so grateful for Dean Spunt to be able to take some time away from their busy tour to do an interview.
Hello, Last I checked, you guys just finished playing in Japan, how were the shows? What kind of venues did you play?
The trip was epic. We played two shows one in Tokyo, and the other in Osaka. The venues were pretty normal rock type venues, but very cool. It seemed difficult to go the DIY route; it translates different over there.
You guys always seem to play at these great locations when you tour. For instance, whenever you come to Portland it seems that your show is at some really cool place that I didn’t know about and I’m from the area. How do you guys find these places, or decide where to play (like playing by rivers, bridges, etc)?
We try and do our research, ask around and see what the fun place is, or the unexplored. That whole process is more fun for us and we hope more fun for people in the audience. It is a balance of trying to keep pushing boundaries but also not being too exclusive so that the dude working in an office that likes us can see us play as well as the punker.
At shows you’re well known for your accessibility. Because of that I assume you must get more demo cd’s from fans than most bands. Do you have the time to listen to all of that music and are there any of those acts I should know about?
Wow, yeah I never thought why, but we do get a lot of demos and stuff. We try and listen to all of it, there is a lot of good stuff out there and I always encourage people to make demos. It is a long leap from making music to making a demo, so that is pretty awesome. Well, I got a WAVVES demo in my mailbox one day, a long time ago… a band MARIA was good… a lot of good stuff.
When I was younger I remember one of the biggest things about concerts was the build up and expectation of seeing a band. When you were a teenager, what were you hoping for when you went to a concert? Do you think you live up to that at your shows?
I would hope so, or even more. Like, we think about that stuff all the time, putting on a good show, it gets a little difficult with just two of us because there is so much we want to do, it gets a little hectic. But yeah, we try to live up to the image in our heads. When I was a kid I was just in awe of anyone on stage, or when I was 16 and went to The Smell for the first time, on the floor.
I know you know this but No Age has some of the best fans I’ve ever seen, the only reason I got into your music is because of your fans insisting that I needed to, and they were right. Weirdo Rippers was great and I think Nouns is a masterpiece. What are some of the grandest gestures your fans have shown you?
Thanks, that is great to hear. Fans are always coming up and telling us how our records are so good, and the shows, and actually people have turned vegan because of reading interviews we did… it is very flattering and we are still getting used to it. People have made us vegan cookies, let us sleep on their floors, got a pinata made for us etc.
Is there new music on the way?
Yes. Currently we are finishing mixing our new EP that will come out in September, and also recording for the new LP that will come out early 2010. I am so excited about the new songs. Also we are scoring a movie called “The Bear” at the Seattle International Film Festival and also at the ICA Museum in Boston, those will be primarily sample based live shows, but we are going to record it, so perhaps that will come out too. ALSO I had this other limited 12″ idea series, but I wont go too deep into that, but yes, more shit coming and more interesting ideas to push it all forward.
What are some things now that influence your music or your process that weren’t present before Nouns? Or has your mindset stayed relatively the same?
Um… I would say the mindset has been pretty similar. Always looking to make fun and interesting music. The main difference is that we are getting to be better musicians, for better or for worse… Trying to really conquer but stay simple.
Ok, to end the interview I want to change it up a little. One of the reasons I wanted to do this interview is because your attitude towards your art. Unlike a lot people who say one thing and do another, you guys have become famous for just saying what you do. You have found success by creating what you wanted and being honest with your fans. I wanted to ask you some questions from my position as a young artist, still making the transition from college to professional life. A lot of my readers (self included) are young, creative professionals who have to learn the ropes kind of on the fly without much access to advice. I want to stop asking you questions as No Age but just as guys who were able to make their work into a success.
Well, as an artist it is important to just make and create. So many times I meet people who ask us about making music or art and asking us how to get started in music and that should never be a question. You just start. Make as much as you can so you get good at your craft and just go from there and don’t stop. The avenues, whatever they are will open themselves up to you, but get out there and do your thing super hard. We ate slept and breathed No Age from the inception. I made art posters, text and silkscreened and shirts long before our first show, I had no money so I stole the photocopies and did as much stuff for free as I could and didn’t want money, because money is what makes us lazy. It is funny our first show we made our own shirts and sold them for $3. I was just proud of the design and wanted people to have them and gave them out, just exercising the ideas and creating and practicing. Our first thing was a DVD-R with video art kinda stuff, you know, we just kept running and making stuff and never questioned it. If we thought it was good, then it was good ya know? You have to believe in your thing more than anyone.
One of the biggest things I had to learn out of college was effective self-promotion, getting my product into the right hands. What kind of strategies did you have in the beginning? How much did having a community like The Smell help?
We used design strategies at first; text being so universal is essentially the best tool, and understanding the needs and wants of our audience. Like for instance, shirts are kind of whatever, ya know? Just cotton, BUT kids love them, fans love them. So we decided to flip it around and just use huge text, like an obvious NO – NO to most people IS self promotion, it can be easily misread as being desperate, but we used it to our advantage… it seemed fairly obvious to me because you buy a shirt from a band you love to show off that you like them, so it just made sense. Another thing was after the DVD we wanted to put out the 5 ep’s and the idea behind that was these songs, we recorded 20 or so, were too many as a record and didn’t work as one piece, but broken up into sections they were more powerful and a step further was getting five different labels to release them. This made a bigger impact because it was 5 small releases all over the world instead of one record in one part. So ideas are the most important thing, and then having good art to back it up, a win-win combo.
Half of my day is spent working with special needs children. One of the things I like about working with kids is that I don’t have to think about me or my career for a while, I kind of get to live life at their pace which is at a different rhythm from mine and it’s really taught me how to manage my time and not get caught up in things. Now that you are in the music business full time, how do you find your breaks? How do you find ways to manage your time and refresh?
Well, this is my life; I am here all day every day. I do take vacations and days without the computer and cell phone and stuff, but music and ideas are always there, I won’t take a vacation from them.
My younger brother is a special needs kid, and when I was younger I managed a baseball team for special kids, it is still one of the biggest accomplishments in my life, so kudos to you.
I’m approaching the point where I can be a full time artist and it’s very exciting but I’ve been cautious about it because I feel like the transition should feel more organic than it does. I know transitions are different for everyone, but I was wondering if you could describe that transition from having a day job to being able to make a life out of art and music?
Well, I definitely do more work now than I ever have before. When I had a job I just did music every moment I wasn’t working, now I run a label and do the band full time, and I am always working, but I love it, I love to work. It is awesome to get to do the stuff I love and make money at it, but Randy and I were talking about this just yesterday as we were driving home from the airport. The easier it gets, the harder we work, and we are at this point because we work hard; because we silk-screen the posters, book the tickets, drive ourselves to the airport, we manage ourselves ya know? We just try and work as hard as we can because we love to, and we work cheaper than anyone else we know, ha ha.
You are involved in a lot of other things besides music. You have your hands in fashion, art, design, etc. You get to see and work with a lot of different creative types. What do you think the great ones that you’re around and influence you have in common?
I have noticed that most people we really like to work with have a similar work ethic, and love for what they do. Like Brian Roettinger, who we collaborate on design stuff with, we can easily sit there for 12 hours messing with stuff, the ideas never stop ya know? Working with Altamont on catalogs and clothing stuff is fun for us as well; we get to exercise that part of our brain.
What mistakes do you often see people make when trying to find success?
Just that, trying to find success instead of trying to make mistakes, we like to make mistakes so we can learn how to fix them.
Ok well the last question is kind of random but right before I started this I heard that some old punk legends like John Doe from the band X has an album of country covers out and Iggy Pop is releasing an album of jazz covers. What American music tribute will you do when you get old?
Ha, well I can’t say for certain, maybe the American Noise Scene, that
Would be a fun concept record.
Well thank you for taking the time to do this and let me know the next time No Age is in Portland, I’d love to buy you guys a drink, some falafels, take some photos and enjoy your show.
Thanks man, keep it up.
(No Age is a rock band from Los Angeles California. You can find out more about them by checking out their Myspace page and their blog)
Listen to tracks from No Age:
