Now, I’ve heard some heavy songs.

The first time I heard Metallica’s ‘One’ on headphones as a kid, I felt I was literally inVietnam, frenzied and overwhelmed.

In my first experience with The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy),’ I was nearly comatose in the absorption of apocalyptic drone and the fuzzed out march of death (though the brownies might have aided in that).

But as this decade comes to a close, I’ve got to say that Meshuggah’s track (and EP of the same name) ‘I’ takes the cake as not only the heaviest song ever recorded, but perhaps the heaviest song that can be recorded. If you haven’t heard it yet, throw on your headphones, hit the LaLa button above, and sit back. You’re in for a ride.

‘I’ is the sound of everything going haywire. It is a journey through the forthcoming era of machine dominance, when man transcends his own biology and merges with technology. And ‘I’ is when it all goes wrong.

Not only that, but the song is practically self-aware. Just when you think a section within it’s 21 minutes are getting slightly dull, it blindsides you over the head with a drop deeper into the chasm. The floor falls out from under you, and the 8 string guitar pummels you into a bouncing pit. ‘I’ knows your thoughts, and how to fuck directly with them.

The song is unquestionably a studio piece. There was never any intention of performing this behemoth live, and it likely wouldn’t even be possible. The sheer force of this thing lies in the production itself.

Now there are certainly other kinds of heavy. High on Fire, Electric Wizard, and Ufomammut come from a completely different world of heaviness, and are totally badass for doing so. But for my pick of heaviest song possible, I’m the technology of production in mind. Meshuggah know how to produce modern metal (few do, it seems…), created for the listener.

And for the observant listener, they stuck little easter eggs in the track too.

The intro is exactly 1:32 of pummeling drums and chugging riffs. Not 1:30. Not even 1:31. But 1:32. That’s the nature of the Swedish sense of ironic and absurd humor.
Look at your music players little ball to see that they placed the very heaviest riff at exactly halfway through the song.
The song is 21 minutes long. 20 would be too easy. 22 is right out.
Have a listen.

But just know that if you can’t make it all the way through, Meshuggah wins.

Share on Facebook

Maybe I’ve been too funked by to much funk.

But when I see a band completely killing it, throwing their all into their music, the sound actually moving, I need to move myself.

More salsa!

That’s why I was completely flummoxed to see the four guys in Baroness exude more energy than the entire crowd at last night’s Clutch / Baroness show at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco.

Granted, Baroness’ brand of progressive stoner metal (a bit of an oxymoron, yes) isn’t geared toward the uninitiated. Their syncopated grooves, shifting hits of time signature, and hoarse bellows from the more scenic areas of the underworld aren’t exactly crafted for your average rock and roll booze hound.

But it was still a shock to barely see any movement in the crowd for John Dyer Baizley’s poppy scented rock band, considering that Clutch’s terminally obsessed fans came out that night for big guitars, loud drums, and big balled howling.

Which, to be sure, Clutch later brought in spades. From the two vintage Marshall half stacks on the guitar side, to the giant kick drums and massive groove of Jean-Paul Gaster’s drum kit, Clutch screamed rock and roll, and the crowd adored their no nonsense jam.

I, on the other hand, need a bit of nonsense to keep my attention, which Clutch soon didn’t. I couldn’t help but thinking that if I owned my own bar, Clutch would be my perfect Saturday night house band. Or at least a good chunk of my jukebox would slosh in the beer soaked grooves they were throwing at the crowd.

But I’ve always had trouble sitting down to listen to a Clutch album. As good a singer as Neil Fallon is (and he most certainly is a fantastic wordsmith and howler), very rarely does he actually sing a real melody. And as good as a riff monster Tim Sult is (and he most certainly is a riff monster), he rarely plays anything that really piques my interest. He’s not a Tony or a Jimmy; he lays down a fat groove, but he doesn’t do it with the soul burning fire that a rock band this capable, this potent, should be secreting from every pore.

The mighty Baroness however, perhaps with that essential intensity of a young, talented upstart, threw out their all and probably won some new fans. But it’s going to take a little dulling of their musical razor if they want to really win over Clutch’s sycophantic obsessives.

Hopefully there’ll be an open bar at the next Clutch show.

Share on Facebook

Last night was their second show of their newest tour in support of The Yum Yum Tree, and while the crowd was notably sparser than their last stays in San Francisco, it was nonetheless a joyful one.  An encore was demanded by the crowd with a furor I haven’t heard in years.

Yeah, it's a little like that

While the band is led by the “man, the myth,” Ed Wynne, it is really Ed’s wife Brandi Wynne who, in managing the low end and sound spirals, is the head honcho (in poncho).  Her exuberant grins when the music spirals into infinity, and her jubilant jumping when drummer Ollie Seagle is on a roll (which he was at many times last night), fuel the fire and keep the music beaming.

Though it is still Ed that keeps the music ablaze.  With his unlabeled Marshall stack pointed directly at him, and his litany of keythings to his side, he is an unabashed musical control center, guiding his band through colors unimaginable, into worlds unknown.  The bits between the bits, indeed.

This is psychedelic, hallucinogenic music.  While the experience is certainly enhanced by the consumption of leafy greens, smelly fruits, or a chemical supplement, the music essentially provides this itself.  A great deal of audience members had their eyes closed and their heads tilted back while the Ozric Tentacles shredded their heads away.

dope

Many bands combine dub, electronic, techno, trance and psych (Younger Brother, EOTO, Shpongle, to name a few), but the Ozrics have always had the wild card of Ed Wynne’s complete mastery over the electric guitar.  Had Frank Zappa actually done drugs, he would have very likely come up with something like the Ozric Tentacles.  You can see the same smile of Ed’s face when everything is going to plan as Zappa had when his band was on a roll and it was time to take a blast into solo land.

I do need to point out one hilarious moment of the gig.  After snapping a string on his Ibanez JEM, he had to replace it for his trusty Artist at one point in the night.  However, later in the set, he went to pick up his guitar for the next song, and grabbing the JEM, forgetting what had happened.  It took about 20 seconds and a knowing glance from his wife before he noticed the guitar was crippled.  It was a hilarious moment for all, but just goes to show you that a quarter decade of living in the ether can take it’s toll.

This current group of the family Wynne and friends is certainly a psychdelic squad of the swirly, and, even after 26 albums, has no end in sight.  I raise a glass of soma, and toast the 25 anniversary of the Ozrics!

The Ozric Tentacles new album, The Yum Yum Tree, is now available.

Share on Facebook

Queue spooky sounds

 The real highlight though are the six original videos, edited by drummer extraordinaire Emil Amos. Basically a cross of 70’s cult cinema and cosmic imagery, these moving images provide the perfect accompaniment to Grails spacey sounds. I don’t know when Mr. Amos had the time to put this together, as the man is constantly involving himself in various duties. When not manning the drums for Grails, he’s behind the kit alongside Al Cisneros in ritual drone outfit Om. And since that’s not enough to keep a person busy, Emil also records solo projects under the moniker Holy Sons. Not a dud among all his works. 

But enough with the idol worship.  Medicate, check out the teaser below, and feed your brain Grails.

Share on Facebook

Fortunately for us, drummer Mario Duplantier and guitarist Christian Andreu surrendered an interview with downPICK before their first headlining tour Thursday night at Slim’s!  We discussed food, the French, why European metal fans are boring, and Gojira’s plans for world domination.

J’aime San Francisco au mois de Mai…

Cucumbers!

Enjoy!

Well first off, welcome to San Francisco!

Christian – We went to a very nice place today, the hippie place.

Haight Ashbury?

C – Yeah I think so, I don’t know.

Did you make it to Amoeba, the big record store?

C – No, just to take coffee, to stay in the sun, and walk around.

Mario – We took a coffee and came back.  We don’t have enough time to visit.   It’s very frustrating for us each time on tour.  We just have one day and the day afterwards is another city.  San Francisco is an amazing city.  We know from France, everybody talks of San Francisco.  It’s very famous.

We were upstairs and looking at your merch table, and you had lots of pamphlets for PETA, the whales, and vegetarianism.  Are you Vegetarians?

C – Joe is vegetarian.  The rest of the band is not, but we just eat meat sometimes.  It’s very important to be careful, but we are not Vegi.

M – We feel concerned.   Christian is very concerned.  He has garden, and works on his own vegetables.

What do you grow?

C – Everything, tomato, eggplant, squash, and, uhhh… concombre?  How do you say…

Cucumber?

C- Cucumber!

Who’s looking after your garden on tour?

C – Mum! (laughs) and my brother too.

Is it hard though, when you’re on the road?  It’s a lot of fast food, especially in the United States.

M – I know Christian is suffering a lot in US, because for us, we don’t have time to go to cool restaurants as we’re always on the road.   And in US the food in general is very bad unless you know some place.   In France, for example, there are lots of things on the road, very diverse and balanced.  You’re on the road and you can find anything.  In the US it’s very different, and sometimes we suffer.

C – I think we see in the USA a new movement, a good movement about knowing about food, organic and good food.

Recycle!

How have people reacted to your flyers on the tour, has it been positive?

M – People feel concerned and talk about it.  In general it’s very positive.  But we don’t pretend to be eco-warriors; we don’t want to impose anything.  The fact is that we’re on the road and have a stage and we have a table with merch, so…

C – We just want to share our ideas.

M – But not to impose. We are not extremists.

This is your first headlining tour in America.  How has that been different?

M – People come to see Gojira, so that is very new for us.  There is less people than the other the tour because we were opening for bigger bands.  But in general it’s a very very good tour.  It depends on the city.  For example in Vancouver, it was sold out, like 500 people.  It’s very very cool for our first time.

C – Seattle was amazing too.

Those are both North West cities.  Have you noticed a different response in different parts of the US?

M – In NY too, but sometimes in the middle of the USA, it’s a little weird.

Maybe it’s the food.

(laughs)

So tell us about tonight’s show.

M – This is our good occasion to create our own set.  We have video, we put a screen with image and video on it.  But tonight we have a big problem.  The technicians forgot the computer with all the image and video.  So tonight we tried to fix it with another computer but it would be one image and one video…

We noticed lots of paintings scattered around over here.

M – The last two shows, we didn’t receive our merchandise.  And for us it’s very bad, because each day is important to make money.   I did this painting in like 15 minutes to make some money tonight, cause we need money for the tour.   So we try to do our best to propose something original.  People can give $10 or $5, I don’t know.

C – Every band makes shirt and hoodie.  And we have shirts and hoodie too, but if Joe and Mario have an idea, then why not.  In Seattle, we drew on black shirts and spray painted logos, and it worked!

M – It worked because people wanted to help us!

C – And every T shirt sold!

M – But tonight we received the merch!

But no computer!

(laughs)

C – It was such a cool idea, so I decided to continue the concept, so today we have the merch, but I decided to continue the drawings.  Joe too.

How would you describe Gojira in 2009.

M – We try to make organic music, very massive. Today we feel like a strong band.  Very strong – we can adapt ourself everywhere.  10 years ago, for example, I was very superstitious.  I wanted just to play in the morning in the studio, cause in the afternoon I thought I had less energy.  But now we play everywhere, we play in Morocco, we play in Iceland.

Strange things happen at shows, sometimes we might not have a guitar, for example.  So we learned to adapt ourselves everywhere. I can see Gojira is now a stronger band than before.  We try to never complain.  We lost our computer, so we try to fix it.  We lost our merchandise, so we try to fix it.  We are a stronger band.

But on an artistic level, I think we are all a huge fan of death metal.   We are a DM band, but with a different way of thinking than some other bands.

Plastic bag in the sea

On the newest record, The Way of All Flesh, specifically on the track ‘A Sight to Behold’ which starts with a huge keyboard.  That’s new – do you think that’s going to take a new role in the next direction of the band.

M – Yeah, maybe.  We want to stay a rock and roll band -  we don’t want to have a lot of samples, but for example, on stage I play with a click on 4 tracks.  So now it’s a new rhythm for us, a new thing. I can play with click, so maybe if we want to put more keyboard on next album, it’d be possible.  But when we decided to compose this track, for example, we thought we wouldn’t play this track live, but we found a solution of putting a click in my ears.  So maybe we will experiment with new things on the next album.  But we want to keep the spirit of a rock and roll band, very simple.

So you don’t use click on every song.

M – No, just on four songs, just because there is keyboard.

You’re playing in Morocco, Iceland – are the crowds different from country to country?  Is there anything that’s funny, that crowds do or don’t do?

M – In USA, I think people are more spontaneous.  And it’s very specific to USA.  People have more open minds, so when we play there is less judgment.

C – They don’t care about the label and the ‘where do you come from’ and ‘blah blah blah’.  The listen to music.  If you like music then you go to the concert and it’s perfect.  Maybe in Europe, they need to know everything about the band, which label they’re on and where do they come from, and ahhh..

M – It’s not the same mentality.  I love to play in USA. In general people talk louder, and they’re bigger.

C – They’re not shy… you can scream, AHHHH!! … in Europe…

M – In Europe, when you have a hat, you’re an eccentric person.  Sometimes in France, we feel so closed in.  Everyone is kind of the same, same shirt, same haircut.

C – Lot of judgment..

Le Big Mac!

M – In Scandinavia, for example,  I saw big difference.  Metal music is common culture, so sometimes you have old person, or people in very nice clothes.  When we play in Norway, it was crazy to see normal person, not a kid, not a punk, but just a normal regular person who appreciates the music.  We have big success in Norway.

C – For example, in the UK, there is lots of young people, very fashion oriented.  In Germany we don’t have success at the moment.

M – They’re very old school in Germany.

I’d think they would like you there.  Your band is very rhythmic, and Germans like very rigid, rhythmic music.

C – Yeah, but for us we are too intellectual, too complex.  ‘Oh, straight to the point, straight to the point!’  They like Bolt Thrower, Rammstein…

M – Scorpions (laughs)

C – In Spain for example, they head bang, but they don’t make helicopter–windmills!  Because they love trash metal, and they love Sepultura.  Sepultura is the biggest band ever in Spain!  So when we play over there, it’s dirty guys with big beards..

Beneath the Remains!

C-Yeah, exactly. (laughs)

The first time I heard your band, it reminded me of Meshuggah, it sounds very simple on the surface, but it’s really very complex underneath.

M – Yeah, we like the mix between technique and simple things.  We don’t want to be only technique.  We try to play with dynamics; we love quiet before the storm.  Our music is always dynamic.

Do you have a typical a method for writing music?

M – It depends.  Most of the time it’s my brother Joe and I.  We’ve played together since we were children.  So, it’s very spontaneous – sometimes he plays a riff and it’s very logical.

C – He and Joe compose maybe…

M – 80% of it.

C- Sometimes, I come in, and say ‘hey, I have an idea!!’

M – But for the last one, Joe and I compose almost everything, except ‘Ouroboros’.  ‘The Art of Dying‘ was a drum exercise of mine.  I proposed it to the guys, and they put guitar on it.

Any thing you’d like to leave us with?

C – I would like to answer your question from before.  I think for Gojira, it’s the end of a period.  After 12 years or 13 years.

M – We spent a lot of time to be an international band because we come from France.  We were a French band for many years, and only for 3 years we are international.

C – I think it’s the end of a period for us.  It’s the end of a lot of work, and now we are ready to play everywhere and propose a new CD in the world, and go to the next level!

Let me ask you before we go…  On the original Godzilla demo ‘Possessed’, you had a very Death influenced sound.  I like Death a lot.

C – Oh, me too.

Wondering what your favorite Death album is?

C – For me it’s Individual Thought Patterns.

M – For me it’s Human or Symbolic.  Maybe, ehh, Symbolic.  They’re all so good.

So you heard it here first!  Mario Duplantier likes Symbolic!  Christian Andreu likes Individual Thought Patterns!  Suck it, Blabbermouth, WE got the scoop!

Share on Facebook

Fortunately for everyone involved, the party was legit, and we all raged like Paul Baloff would have wanted.

Mushrooms make you see things

The song that was blasting throughout my brain throughout was Ozric Tentacles’ trance masterpiece, ‘Waterfall Cities’. Goddamn, I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face listening to this one, blasting through town on my bike on my way up to the Panhandle to party.

The Ozric Tentacles are a unique band – they go from the most minimal ambient swirly psychedelic jams to the highest grade slammin dub blast party bombs you’ve ever wanted to hear, all in a live band. Forget vocals, the Ozrics don’t waste their time in providing exactly what your dome needs to hear. Waterfall Cities is one of the best comps they’ve brought to us in their 29 album career (and yes, they’re all good).

The title track on Waterfall Cities kicked my ass on my way to Bay to Breakers and kept my bouncing all day. It was an epic event this year for me, and I can imagine it was for you too. In fact, if it’s Sunday and you’re reading this, then you haven’t quite broken the bay yourself, haven’t you?

Check Ozric Tentacles new album “The Yum Yum Tree” out now, but really catch them at ‘The Independent’ in San Francisco on May 27th.

Share on Facebook

Malleus is the man

Roadburn 2009, curated by Neurosis, was a spectacle that I am still kicking myself for missing. If you are like me and were unable to make it over to Holland for the good times, fear not! Holland’s major media network  Vpro 3voor12, has started posting full live sets from Baroness, Ufomammut, Saviours, and Amon Duul to name a few. Plug in and tune out.

Share on Facebook

I’m going to skip all that nonsense for Velnias. The band has its roots firmly planted in black metal, but have evolved into something far greater. Their demo “Pacing The Cyclic” was pretty straight forward an uneventful; A satisfying listen that presented nothing new. The full length debut “Sovereign Nocturnal,” on God is myth records, is a different beast all together.

Escape to the forest

“Aside from an homage to the majesty of the all consuming nocturnal hours it is an outlook on the state of things. It is a personal feeling that the falling of night– the coming of dark times is inevitable and absolute. Our lives entrusted to this fragile way of being shall soon fall cold as things collapse. If it is not by physical destruction on some scale then it shall come through our fixation on this industrialized and globalized way of life. We lose sight of the things that matter, forget the struggles of our past, and spit in the face of the natural world for misguided goals and beliefs. We are left stabbing each other in the back, climbing over brother and sister, with complete disregard for true strength, honor, or virtue. The incestuous orgy of greed and corruption breeds corporate titans of calculated efficiency racing, full force towards inevitable death in the material wasteland we have created for ourselves.”

Amen. I had the privilege of catching the band live at the Hemlock Tavern with about 20 other people, and I was well impressed. Their set lasted around an hour, without pause or break. Much like the album the songs all intertwined and created something much greater. I am told the band will soon be moving from Chicago to Colorado, to be closer to nature. May they continue to draw strength from the forest and build off of this release.

P.S. In Slavic mythology, Velnias is the God of evil, and the brother of the creator God Dievas…

Share on Facebook

Why won't you look at me?

Today, Sol Faur and Hupogrammos issued their own statement, calling Negru’s actions “selfish and greedy.” Allegedly Negru was to start a new band named “Din Brad” while Sol Faur and Hupogrammos would continue to work together under a new name, to be determined later. Now it appears the Negru will continue to use the Negură Bunget moniker, yet with an entirely new cast. The statement concludes with “We, Sol Faur and Hupogrammos, who have composed nearly all music and written the lyrics of and for Negură Bunget herewith, declare that this band is dead. Any continuation of it just means a sham and a fake in our eyes.” Pretty strong.

Stay tuned for the next exchange of barbs. I for one am hoping this results in some gangsta rap style beef and we get some solid Romanian archaic black metal diss tracks…

Share on Facebook

Boo!

It’s been just under two years since SGM’s last record, In Glorious Times was released, and the band has just wrapped up their latest spring tour, finishing up with this hometown show.  For a band whose live show can only be described as a ’spectacle,’ this show was truly an extravaganza amongst spectacles, pulling out all the stops and playing at the top of their game.

Fortunately for the 6 and a half billion not in attendance, the evening was documented on film as the first official video evidence of the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum live experience.  But as the Museum regularly updates it’s collection, the next tour will likely be an entirely different exhibition of natural history.

Museum curators Michael Mellender [guitar, percussion, stuff], Dan Rathburn [bass, slide piano log, things], and Carla Kihlstedt [violin, stroh horn, trappings] gave up some of their precious pre-show preparation to chat with me about their musical philosophies, songwriting processes, listening habits, and plans for the next record and forthcoming film.

dP: You guys are really great at bringing out artists that most people haven’t really heard.  Last time here you brought along accordion extraordinaire Jason Webley and bass clarinet quartet Edmund Welles.

Michael: Ah Edmund Welles, we played with them on this tour.  Occasionally we’ll do an entire tour with one band, but that is not the norm.

How do you find these guys?

The goal ultimately is to play with bands we know and love and want to be on the road with.  There was one tour where we did a string of shows with Cheer-Accident from Chicago, our favorite band in the whole world.  And also we went out with Secret Chiefs 3, they’re incredible.  This time we went out with Dub Trio, we did a week of shows with them.  We try to line it up when we can, but it’s usually at the discretion of the venue or the promoter.  They really know what’s going on locally; we don’t really know the bands in Doylestown, PA.

I’m excited to see Fred Frith.  I was talking to Nils earlier, he used to the term mentor.

Yeah, mentor, influence, man about town.

What do you think he meant exactly by ‘mentor’?

If you listen to some of the Art Bears records or the Fred Frith solo albums, you’ll definitely hear similarities in the music, certain approaches.  Especially the Art Bears record, which had a huge impact on the way Sleepytime Gorilla Museum sounds.

Pure Class

They’ve influenced your musical philosophy.

Yeah, Art Bears have this really cool way of expressing this complicated idea musically, but with the most minimal delivery.  Everything that’s in there belongs in there – it’s just so effortlessly delivered, but it’s never technically flashy or anything like that, if you catch my drift.

It’s a vibe sort of thing.  Creating the sound and atmosphere you’re want to create without playing for playings sake.

There’s a lot of that where it’s like technically amazing, but, you know.

You have lots of personalities in your band, how have you learned to express musical intention to each other?

I think there’s a certain agreed upon aesthetic that we like, that it sort of comes out.  The In Glorious Times record is just completely diverse.  Every song is like a different band almost.  But I think within that there’s a through line that I couldn’t really begin to verbalize.

The writing process is different for everybody.  I mean, somebody brings in a certain amount of the song, be it, this is my guitar thing I can play and I have a verse and it gets thrown into the group mind.  Or it’s a completely scripted thing and here’s a drum fill in measure 87.  Within that, everyone kind of writes their own parts within that kind of spectrum, and everyone throws in their hat into the ring for a certain song.

And you guys have such a great vibe live, how do you recreate that on tape and keep that same feel?

That’s almost an impossibility.  That’s two different worlds, live and recording.  I like both, but definitely the performance aspect is really hard to capture on record.  I don’t have an objective enough opinion to know if we’ve pulled it off.

When you go about recording, is your intention to make a sonic statement unto itself, or are you trying to recreate what you do live?

No, it’s not a recreation of the live, but in the process of making – this has been true in everything I’ve done musically – in the process of making it, it’s sort of like the meaning is sort of revealed, you’re just sort of unearthing the music or any sort of through line on an album.  It sort of gradually becomes known to you just through the act of doing it.

Dan and Carla

Behold the Tortoise

Could you tell me a little about this film I’ve been hearing about?

Dan: A couple of years ago, we did a tour with our favorite ‘movement artist’ Shinichi Moma Koga of Inkboat, and we created the idea of The Last Human Being very quickly for that tour.  And since then, we’ve decided to make it into a movie.  So the movie is going to be called The Last Human Being, and it will star Shinichi Moma Koga as the last human being on Earth, and we have started to film it.

Are you all participating in the creation of it?

Some of us are staring in it.  We started a couple months ago; we did a few weeks of shooting, and now we’re finishing a tour.  Some more shooting will happen, some editing, and hopefully we’ll have an absurd and entertaining movie at the end of it all.  That’s what we’re shooting for.

And tonight you’re doing a different kind of film.

Tonight is really just a documentation of the live show.  Believe it or not, after all these years we still don’t have a great documented version of our live show.

Will this be the definitive Sleepytime experience – of this tour?

Carla: I don’t think there is a definitive Sleepytime Gorilla experience.

I’ve been wondering why we haven’t seen Sleepytime on vinyl?

No good reason. We’ve talked about it with the label and decided it would be a good idea, we just haven’t done it.  I can’t tell you why we haven’t gotten around to it.  The potential is exciting.  We have too many ideas as a band, so it’s really easy to not get around to things.

How do you guys like to listen to music?

Carla:  Underwater. Definitely underwater.

Dan: Some of my most profound music listening experiences have been on vinyl, but they were also 20 years ago, when I was a youngster.

There was a time when just the idea of recorded music was so new, it was like my world was being exploded constantly.  The more that I spend all my waking hours working on music in some form or any other, the more often I’ll come home and choose silence.

So I imagine most musicians have that experience once they surround themselves with music as a life’s work.  The amount of recreational music listening you can do – not that you’d ever give it up – but when music is the work of your day, sometimes the relaxation wants to be silence.

Either way, focus is the important thing.

Certainly I like to pay attention to music when I’m listening to it.

That seems to be the lament of many people, who are either musicians or interested in discovering or appreciating music.  The fact it’s becoming so disposable with the iPod generation and downloading and things like that.

It was disposable long before any of those things.  Before digital music was even available, there were already people making disposable pop hits that would last for a season and then be gone.  So I agree with you, but I wont blame it on digital music or downloading.

Do you feel a personal responsibility when you create to make music that is not necessarily timeless, but far more listenable and interesting and worthy of a listener’s time?

Carla:  I don’t think ‘listenable’ and ‘interesting’ always go together.

Dan:  When I’m writing or creating music, one of the questions I ask myself is ‘if I was listening to this on a CD, what would I like to hear next’?  Or ‘how would I like this to sound if I was the listener’?  I put myself in that position, which is totally subjective you know.  That’s just what I would like, but that’s the best I would do.  I can’t claim to know what anyone else wants, but I can know what I would like.  And I can do my absolute best to produce it.

Michael and I were noting that ‘In Glorious Times‘ is one of the band’s most diverse records, with each song was a little world unto itself.  Was that a conscious effort?

No, that’s just the way that it happened.  In my ideal world, the writing process is about following a muse, letting it take you where it’s going to take you.  You can have some ideas as you approach new songs and new albums, but ultimately it doesn’t always go there, and for us I think it’s really important to stay open to new ideas and allow it to go where it needs to go if it needs to go someplace else.

Which sometimes can be frustrating from a technical point of view, if you’ve worked a long time on an idea and invested a bunch of time into it and it becomes apparent that the song needs to do something different.  Sometimes you need to throw away a piece of music that you’ve written or a section of music you’ve written, or sometimes you need to go back and erase something you’ve recorded and record something new, and sometimes you’ve put a lot of effort into it and you’ve become very attached to it emotionally.

It

So, are you starting to conceptualize a new record now with the band?

We have some new songs that are written, or at least have started to be written.  So that might mean yes.  And we have decided that the album, the CD that will accompany the movie will have the same name.

So our next release will be called The Last Human Being, the same as the name of the movie.  It’ll be the soundtrack plus other songs.  What we don’t know is how the other songs will fit thematically in with the themes of The Last Human Being.

But we can definitely assume a thread within the songs.

You can assume a thread within a bunch of the songs.  I doubt that every single song will be… although though we have surprised ourselves in the past by putting together what we thought were a somewhat disparate set of songs, and then sort of came out sounding like a concept album.

Like Of Natural History.  We didn’t write it as a concept album.  We wrote it as a bunch of songs, some of which were related, and then as we put it together it sort of fell into place as a concept album.

So this album we’re working on now is starting out with more of a concept than any previous, so I guess you could say it has more of a chance as coming out as a concept album – but I don’t think we’re gonna know that for sure until it’s done.

There will definitely be a Last Human Being suite on this CD.  We’ve already written that and really recorded it  That’s the part of the CD that’s done.  We have recorded it.  We haven’t mixed it yet, but it’s been recorded.

Share on Facebook