Long-View Interview

Long-View Interview
By alexander laurence

Long-View is a new band with enough advance warning. Their debut record has
been out a while, July 2003, in the UK. British music lovers here in the USA
have been hearing good things about this Manchester band for a long time, and
probably downloaded many of the tunes. Even though they have been playing for
over three years now, only now are they having an American release. It’s been
worth the wait. The first song “Further” introduces their brand of universal
rock to our shores. With Coldplay and Snow Patrol doing well here, it’s no
wonder that Long-View have been thrust upon the crowded scene. They are played SXSW
and impressed just about everyone. I saw them at the Viper Room during their
first LA show and they were amazing.

The band are Rob McVey (vocal/guitar), Matt Dabbs (drums), Doug Morch
(guitar), and Aidan Banks (bass guitar). They are all over England but met up in
Manchester in 2001.

Some of the songs like “When You Sleep” and “In A Dream” have a more
aggressive sound that suggest some of the shoegazer bands. “Still” is an amazing
song that sends shivers through my body. It promises, “Good times are coming.”
This band definitely has what it takes to find an audience. It sounds sincere.
They may be for this year what bands like Snow Patrol and Keane were last
year. This may be one of the great records that we are still talking about in six
months. They seem concerned with making a mark in America. There has already
been one successful tour in March and April 2005. They are returning in June
with the band Embrace. I spoke to Rob McVey recently.

Long-View performs in Los Angeles with Embrace on June 22 at The
Troubadour.

****
AL: How did you meet the rest of the guys in the band Long-View?
Rob: When I was 19 I moved from the south of England to the north, to
Manchester to start a band. I went on me own. I had that romantic vision of starting
a band there. It worked. I met Matt who was studying at Music College there.
And Aidan and Doug were hanging around. I was doing a music degree as well. In
England, you get a little money from the government. That is how I removed
myself from suburban southern England. I was pretending to be studying music, but
what I really wanted to do was meet musicians and start a band. Manchester is
a good place for that.

AL: Did you move to Manchester because it was “Manchester” or was that just
where you were accepted to college?
Rob: Yeah, I moved there because it was “Manchester.” There are so many
bands from there. Bands like Joy Division, New Order, Oasis, Doves, Elbow, so many
band that I loved. I wanted to go to Manchester because of that history, but
I also wanted to get away from the south as far as I could. Manchester was
very northwest.

AL: You didn’t like suburban England?
Rob: It’s not so much that I didn’t like it. It was because you have to be
surrounded by musicians and venues if you want to start a band. Suburban
England doesn’t have that. You have to venture to the bigger cities. When you write
music you find so many interesting things to write about in the suburbs. There
is a sense of hope out there in the suburban dreariness. Half of Britain
lives like that. You have those sorts of people. You have a McDonalds and a
Woolworths and shops and schools. But there are no venues. It’s very typical and
comfortable. I am very uncomfortable with comfort. I grew up an hour outside
London.

AL: When did the band start to happen?
Rob: We were playing around Manchester as a three-piece. We were playing tons
of shows. We had residencies. We were trying to make money. Matt and I would
get 25 pounds for playing in a club till two in the morning on a Wednesday. We
would play just anything. All the time I was writing songs. I was going
around putting up posters for extra members. A person, Ben Durling, spotted us from
Nude Records. I was 21 years old at the time. We were signed to Nude Records
and then the record company went bust. He became our manager. A year later we
got the final member in the band, Doug. Then we started to gel. We did four
shows and then we were signed again.

AL: You played with Elbow a lot in the early days?
Rob: Yeah. Guy from Elbow was at a lot of our first shows when we were a
three-piece. I didn’t know who he was. But Manchester is a very small place and
you bump into people all the time. Elbow was unsigned at that time too. I
actually met Doug, from Long-View, at an Elbow video shoot. Elbow had all their
friends down for the video shoot. That is how I met Doug. You find liked minded
people there in Manchester.

AL: The first single “Further" came out in the UK three years ago.
Rob: That’s right. We released it as a demo. When we got the fourth member we
had a bunch of songs, so we decided to spend some money to make a demo. That
first version of “Further” was the demo that we were signed on. It was a
four-song demo that had “Further” and “falling For You” and two other songs.
When we got signed we thought it would be cool to put out the demo, because we
had recorded it ourselves.

AL: The album came out a whole ago in the UK. It’s only coming out now in
America.
Rob: It’s been out in the UK for a year and a half. The story with America is
that we were playing a show with Elbow in Manchester. Matt Pinfield from
Columbia Records came to the show. We were having coffee with him the next
morning. When you are in a band that is how it works. You never know when these
albums are going to come out elsewhere. You never think about going Transatlantic.
It just took that long for America to catch on. We didn’t have to play one
show in America. Matt Pinfield found us and signed us up. That was more real than
playing a showcase to a bunch of corporate types.

AL: Matt Pinfield is known in America for being a host on MTV. Now he is like
an A&R guy. He can fit in over there in the UK because he looks like a
football hooligan.
Rob: Yeah, I didn’t know who he was. He should be wearing a Celtic shirt.
He’s a good guy. He was a fan of the band. It took a year for the American deal
to go through.

AL: Your band started at the same time bands like The Strokes, The White
Stripes, and The Libertines were getting a lot of attention in the media. What do
you think about them?
Rob: That’s a good question. We weren’t really part of that. I think that
The Strokes have some good songs, but many of the spin-off bands from that were
just rubbish. It was just all style. It was weird to get signed at that period
because all the record labels were trying to hunt down all the new Libertines
or the new Strokes. We were against that. We wanted to write songs that were
real to us. And “NYC Cops” was not real to us. The Strokes are great
songwriters. Many of the bands that were part of that scene weren’t. When we got
signed we wanted to not record an album in that sort of fashion. The White Stripes
recorded their album at Toe Rag Studios in London. It was all about trashy
sounds. Although they did it well, most bands did it badly. The whole trend went
that way. We decided to go to Seattle to do our album. We wanted to sound like
something that was akin to a scene. We wanted to transcend the scene by using
the best sounds we could get.

AL: How do you write the songs in the band? How does the process go?
Rob: Where do songs come from? Sometimes they fall in your lap. You think
“God, that is a real song.” The songs usually start with an acoustic guitar and
an idea of a sentiment. A good songwriter captures a sentiment. That’s the art
of it. The talent is spotting when a feeling happens and trying to reflect on
things you see around you. A song starts with me on acoustic guitar. Then I
take it to the band and we exaggerate it, to emphasize the point of the song.
It’s important to create something that you are connected to.

AL: What are you songs about? Are they about your life or catching general
feelings that are in the air?
Rob: You try to be inspired by what is around you. I like how John Lennon
tried to put into words what everyone was thinking. It’s a talent to translate
what everyone felt. I can’t say that we do that successfully. But what we do is
find a sentiment and nail it down. Whatever that may be: nostalgia or hope.
But to do that with things we know about, like with suburban England, or that
sense of nostalgia when the seasons change, or with the feeling of loss. I think
that music and art should deal with sentiments. That is what we are trying to
do. Hopefully it will be something inspired. We are not trying to invent
ourselves with a gimmick. We are not a novelty band.

AL: What is a good example of that?
Rob: I read an article recently that said the Kaiser Chiefs were searching
for inspiration in their shallow lives. Like most other bands they were creating
something new. I didn’t agree with that at all. I think that you have to
write about what you got and what is inspired. It might be boring but at least
it’s inspired. It’s far shallower to create some scenario to write some music
about. Bob Dylan once said “The world doesn’t need anymore songs, unless you
have something to say.”

AL: Will your next record be different?
Rob: I am really proud of the first album. I wrote Mercury during a certain
part of my life. I was 19 years old when I started and 22 years old when it was
done. I had a lot of hope. I was young and naïve. I wanted that naivety to
come across in the record. There is a kind of beauty in the passing of those
late teenage years. For the next record I would like to be inspired by what is
happening in my life now. I have traveled around the world. I know so much more
now than when I wrote Mercury. I want to write about whatever pain that I feel
now. I think that the record will be darker. One song we have done is called
“Coming Down.” It was something that we worked on in the rehearsal room. We ha
ve just started thinking about the next record.

AL: How has the first tour of America been?
Rob: It’s been amazing. It’s a young country. We have seen so much.
Everything from seeing a person get run over by a car to having our gear stolen. We
had our crew locked up in prison. It was amazing going to these places like New
Orleans and Dallas. There is certain similarities with England and parts of
America. It’s been a new experience. We had all guitars stolen in Dallas. There
is a buzz in the air.

AL: How did the remixes happen?
Rob: That happened naturally. A guy named Ulrich Schnauss made it. It was by
friends of the band.

AL: And Depeche Mode?
Rob: We did a cover of the song “Stripped.” We thought that we could add
something to that song. We put it out as a limited edition. It was funny. One of
the papers didn’t realize that it was a Depeche Mode song and slagged us off
completely. They said something like “McVey’s lyrics have slipped tremendously
on this song.” I had a good laugh. It was a vehicle for our second album. The
sound change was good to put it through a cover version rather than one of
our own songs, and being laid bare. By doing that song, it let us move towards
how we see our direction going. We could do that without giving away the crown
jewels.

AL: What do you think of people putting on Long-View records as come down
music after a big night out?
Rob: When I used to come home from parties I used to put on shoegazer stuff
like Ride or Slowdive or Verve. These are albums that I love. Whatever people
want to use my songs for I am into it, as long as it’s not for a doormat.

AL: What is this summer going to be like?
Rob: We are going to be touring America. We might play some shows with
Idlewild. We played Glastonbury last year. We are going to concentrate on America
for a while.

Upcoming June 2005 shows:
Thu 06/16/05 Seattle, WA Crocodile Cafe
Fri 06/17/05 Portland, OR Douglas Fir Lounge
Sat 06/18/05 Reno, NV Satellite Bar
Sun 06/19/05 Sacramento, CA Harlow's
Mon 06/20/05 San Francisco, CA The Independent
Wed 06/22/05 Hollywood, CA The Troubadour
Thu 06/23/05 San Diego, CA Epicentre
Fri 06/24/05 Tempe, AZ The Clubhouse
Sun 06/26/05 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
Mon 06/27/05 Lawrence, KS The Bottleneck
Tue 06/28/05 Minneapolis, MN Ascot Room @ Quest Club
Thu 06/30/05 Chicago, IL Double Door
Fri 07/01/05 Detroit, MI The Shelter
Sun 07/03/05 Nashville, TN 3rd & Lindsley
Tue 07/05/05 N. Charleston, SC Centre Stage @ The Plex

Website: www.longviewmusic.com

Inara George Interview

"All Rise" takes the Heart in tow and drifts through an x-ray nebula of emotion, punctured by hope, love and illuminated by California sunshine. Much like Inara herself; Small, sprite and full of life, she heaves a giant vintage hollow body epiphone to get her thoughts across. The music of "All Rise" ranges from indie, folk, vintage pop and what sounds like mutations of eerie country western lounge acts. All of it is approachable yet sometimes coy. Some would argue that "All Rise" is too dreamy and unassuming to affect the listener. I would say that these are the same jerks that need a wall of noise to overload their senses to feel anything. "All Rise" is a beautifully woven album carried by a wonderful voice that gives room for the listener.

KM: Inara is an interesting name. It sounds Japanese. How did you get that name?
Inara: It is actually Latvian. My mother and father had a friend named Inara and they liked the name.

JDD: How did a sense of place influence your songs?
Inara: Not quite sure what you mean...Did my surroundings influence my writing? I suppose so, but I think I write more about what's going on in my life, rather than where I am physically.

JDD: Were you writing diaries and poetry when you were younger?
Inara: Here and there. I have never been very good about keeping a diary. And I have never been much of a poet. I would say I am a songwriter that is sometimes poetic.

KM: How has the theatre affected your music?
Inara: I think it has affected it quite a bit. Not only in how I perform or interpret songs, but my writing. To be exposed to such incredible writers, like Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams... I'd say could only help me.

KM: You were raised in a family ingrained in music. What was it like growing up in a situation like that?
Inara: My father died when I was just 5, so my upbringing could have been a lot musical if he had been around. But my mother still encouraged all of us to play music, write, act, dance etc. And she took us to see the music of my father's peers. So I still had a pretty arty upbringing.

KM: Did you ever have any formal music training or was it always just a part of your life?
Inara: Like almost all kids I took piano lessons and I was also in the school choir, but I would never say that I'm very skilled in any traditional sense. I've had moments of being able to read music more fluently than other times, but I suppose it doesn't apply to what I'm doing, so I forget very quickly. It's just like any language, you have to keep using it. Does that answer your question?

JDD: When did you start thinking about making music and being in a band?
Inara: I don't know if I ever started thinking about it, I just fell into it. When I was 19 I started a band with some friends as a joke and it kind of snowballed. It took me a couple of years to actually feel comfortable with the idea of playing music professionally. But I feel pretty lucky that this is where I ended up.. I'm having a lot of fun.

KM: Can you describe your creative process?
Inara: There is not much to it. I just sit down with a guitar and hope that something good comes out. Usually I begin with the music, but sometimes I have a word or phrase that gets me started. I wish there was something more magical about it. At the risk os sounding a little cheesy, I guess when I can finally play a new song from start to finish is when it feels kind of magical. Nice to feel like you finished something...made something new.

KM: How long do you work, typically on a song, before you feel its has realized complete fruition?
Inara: Every song is different. Some songs take a month, some songs take a day.

KM: You seem very connected with the guitar. Is this true? How many do you have?
Inara: I have quite a few, but I am not a gear head like many of the musicians I play with. Mike Andrews, who produced the record, is a complete equipment fiend. I am quite content with a few great guitars.

JDD: Did you ever do any collaborations and how did that go?
Inara: Mike Andrews helped me write most of the songs for this record. I love to collaborate with people. It's the best feeling to share a song with someone else. I tend to enjoy the song so much more.

JDD: Who did the album cover?
Inara: Geoff McFetridge, who is this incredible graphic designer and old friend of my boyfriend. I am so thrilled by how the artwork came out.

JDD: Who do you play with and how did you find these musicians?
Inara: Mike gathered together this amazing group of guys for the record and almost all of them are still playing with me.

JDD: When did you start recording music?
Inara: I suppose when I started playing in a band. Around 19.

JDD: What are some of your songs about?
Inara: That's a hard question. What do you think they're about?

KM: Is there an underlying string or idea that you are trying to express through your music?
Inara: I wish I was more conceptual than I am. I just write songs and hope they're good songs.

KM: If you could distill your drive to create music in one word, what would that word be?
Inara: Fun.

KM: Jackson Browne sings on one of the tracks of "All Rise". How did this come about?
Inara: He is an old friend of the family and when we were finishing up the record Mike suggested that we have Jackson come in and sing on "A Day". It seemed fitting somehow.

KM: We spoke briefly at Noisepop last February. You said that some journalist had fabricated a story about how your father had died on stage during a set. How do you feel artists like yourself are impacted by hackneyed journalism and press?
Inara: I do think that a lot of people believe everything they read...I know that I tend to. So I think that a journalist has quite a bit of power over an artist, a politician, etc. And I figure if you're going to say nasty things about my music or record( btw I do believe that everyone is entitled to their opinions) at least get your facts right.
JDD: Do you think that it is important to have a lot of emotion in your voice, as a singer?
Inara: Definitely. But I think that everyone's definition of emotion is different. I think the better thing to know is what is the intention behind the voice.

KM: Have you toured outside of the states yet?
Inara: Not with this record. But I hope to soon.

KM: Are there any events that you recall from your tours that are particularly memorable?
Inara: We had a heckler the other night. A very drunk heckler at that. That was pretty memorable. She wanted us to play rock and it was just me and Mike with acoustic guitars. I think if we had a less attentive audience that night it would've probably been really depressing.

JDD: Any advice to your young fans who may want to do music one day? Inara: I'm not very good about giving advice. But if I were to say one thing just have fun. That is all you can control.

An interview with Inara George By Keith Martin & Jesús Don Diablo

Adult. Interview

Adult. Interview

by Alexander Laurence

The mysterious duo behind Adult. started releasing records 1998 under the pseudonym Plasma Co. They became known quickly for their integration of vocals into analog synths and drum-machine electro. By 2000, it was clear that Adult. had already developed a style based around their new electro sounds and the almost punk, robotic vocals and the confident and strange lyrics. For years the identity of Adult. was unknown. The word is now out that the band consists of Adam Lee Miller (formerly of Le Car) and visual artist Nicola Kuperus.

Adult. were initially best known for their remixes of other bands. They released five singles and were included on many compilations. At the same time many people saw them for the first time live. They travelled to Europe to do many festivals. I saw them play with THe Faint and I Am Spoonbender for the first time a year ago at Noise Pop. They definitely made an impact. I was searching the stores for their records.

The duo released Resuscitation (2001), a full-length album consisting of reworkings of previously released tracks. By this time it was obvious Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus were responsible for a resurgeance in electronic music and were a big influence on many bands. Adult. toured with Trans Am in 2002. Nicola Kuperus did the lead vocals of a Death In Vegas track. The duo's cynical satirization of mainstream life continued on with the new record, Anxiety Always, which was released in April 2003. In May 2003, Adult. embarked on its first headlining tour of America. They have since released the D.U.M.E. ep.

Adult. will be performing in LA at The Echo on May 13th.

Photos: Keith Martin

*****

AL: Have you done a lot of tours?

Adam: No. The most we have ever done is nine shows with Trans Am. This is our first headline tour and our longest tour ever. It's twenty shows

AL: When did you stop doing Le Car?

Adam: Le Car ended in 1997. We put out a 12-inch on a German label under the name Plasma Co. In 1998, Le Car was asked to play a show with Kraftwerk in Barcelona. It was the Sonar Festival. We got back together just for that one show.

AL: The Resuscitation CD is mainly just a collection of all the early singles and EPs. Why did you release that?

Adam: People kept saying that we should release these records on CD because people would like that. People would say: "I don't have a record player. I would really like to get your stuff on CD." So that's what we did. But many of the times, we didn't like the way the songs were recorded originally. Most of the songs were remastered or re-recorded. Songs like "Dispassionate Furniture" were completely redone. That is why the album is called "Resuscitation."

AL: You released all those songs as singles before?

Adam: All of them eventually were. There was a song "Mouth To Mouth" was an original song. But then a Dutch label put it out on a "Hand To Phone" remix EP. Everything on Resuscitation is on vinyl, but not in the same version. Many of these records are hard to find now. The first Adult. 12-inch single is out of print. The Plasma Co. record is out of print. All the singles are becoming rare.

AL: Was Nicola Kuperus always the visual component of Adult.?

Adam: I did the graphic design. There was a compilation that first had a photograph of hers. We started to use more and more of them. I think it was the "Hand To Phone" picture disc that created a buzz. That was a year before Resuscitation. That was the moment that solidified her photography with Adult.

AL: Did you ever DJ as Adult. or were you a studio group?

Adam: No, I never DJed. I have only DJed at three or four events in my life. Those were just casual events. I was just having fun with friends. I don't mix or match beats. Adult. was totally a studio project at the beginning. It was a big surprise that we got invited to play shows. We thought it was funny.

AL: Why did you think it was funny?

Adam: We never thought of ourselves as doing any of that. It was 1997. We were doing harder electronic music with vocals. Absolutely nobody else was doing that, except Kitbuilders. People were just getting into it.

AL: Why do you think that music caught on with people like Ladytron and The Faint?

Adam: I know a lot of these bands: Ladytron, The Faint, Kitbuilders, Miss Kitten and The Hackers. I think that you had all these people who were super passionate about what they were doing. It's one of those things. You can have a great business team or put out music that you believe in. I spoke to a lot of these people. There were a bunch of Techno DJs who were totally burned out and going through the motions. It just becomes a job.

AL: Paul Oakenfold has been doing the same thing for fifteen years now.

Adam: Exactly. There was a time between 1990 and 1995, when Techno music was still really weird. Now when you go to a Banana Republic and they are playing that music. It's on bank commercials. It's not weird nor new music anymore.

AL: You have a few songs which are ironic comments on techno music and consumerism.

Adam: Yeah. In the song "Pressure Suit" we are talking about that. It's quite funny to have a crowd of people chanting "I want to spend my money on entertainment." Yeah, you just did. We have been playing a lot of small clubs that hold about 500 people. People usually want to be there. I couldn't imagine that happening at a big festival where people are so burned out on drugs that they couldn't care less who is on stage. Obviously you can tell that I don't have a good opinion of festivals.

AL: What did you think of being part of the first Electroclash Festival?

Adam: At the time, it was just the name of a festival then. I don't think that we fit in that at all. We recently played a festival in Greece called Fire Fighters. No one started calling us Fire Fighter music. If we knew what Electroclash was going to mean in the future, we would have never done it, because we don't want to be genre-fied.

AL: Do you collect a lot of old Arps and Moogs?

Adam: On this whole trip, we have been driving around the country and seeing pawn shops. We think maybe we should look around and see if they have anything. We never really have any time. We want to stop and look around in these small towns. Right now I am in Flagstaff, Arizona. We are near the Grand Canyon. If you could find some old pawn shop, you could probably find some old Korg. You could plug it in and make it sound really stupid. They would probably give it to you for twenty bucks. I like gear. I am not a hardcore collector. We are more into pedals right now.

AL: Do you have old keyboards?

Adam: Yeah. We don't tour with the really fragile stuff. We have a Juno 106. If one of them breaks, we have a second backup one.

AL: Could you talk about the label Ersatz Audio?

Adam: We started it about eight years ago. We evolved over time. We don't sound like we did eight years ago. There was a time when it became Adult.-centric. We didn't want that. We wanted to have a family again. We have Magas now. It's naturally happened. Now it's like the Manson Family. We had a lot of labels who wanted to put out the new Adult. record, but we are very content to do it ourselves.

AL: When did you record the new album, Anxiety Always?

Adam: It started in September 2002 and we finished up in December. Most of the songs have been written in the past year. One song "Nothing of The Kind" had been around a little longer. We wrote it so we could do it live on the Trans Am tour last June. We hadn't recorded it yet.

AL: It seems like the vocals are really advanced on this record, compared to the early stuff.

Adam: Nicola is asleep in the back right now. I don't like to answer for her. We played so many live shows between Resuscitation and the new record. That allowed her to develop from one record to the next. On stage we used to be static. Now, she has total control over the audience, and it's awesome.

AL: Some of the bass guitar on the new record reminds me of Joy Division and The Cure.

Adam: Oh yeah. I love those bands. I played bass guitar in some punk rock bands before this too. In the show I play a lot of bass guitar and keyboards. Many of the early songs are mechanical and many of the parts are impossible to play live. One of the ideas with this album was that we wanted to write songs that we would enjoy playing live. We wanted to give out more energy to the crowd.

AL: When I think of some of the songs like "Glue Your Eyelids Together" and "Nausea" it reminds me of Existentialism. Do you like those writers, like Sartre and Camus?

Adam: Yeah. I have actually. People have asked us before about our lyrics. Most things work on a subconscious level. When it is written, nothing is about this one thing. Our songs are not about anything specifically. They are a non-didactic, or non-narrative approach. Then over time, the songs begin to have meaning to us. But we always enjoy what people think the lyrics mean. "The Wages of Fear" is my favorite French film.

AL: You have remixed tracks by The Faint, Tuxudeomoon ,and Erase Errata. Do you think that you will release a remix album at some point?

Adam: I don't know. It's a double edged sword. It's totally out of control. We have just put out Anxiety Always. Then people think "So when are you going to do a remix album?" When did that become a standard? I don't know if we will or we won't. Shouldn't you put out a real record, and see if it does well, before you do a remix record. I find that really funny. We have cut down on doing remixes. We have done about twenty-three remixes in the past few years. That is ridiculous. We could have done two new albums in that same time. If you concentrate on that, you stop developing your own music.

AL: What other bands do you like?

Adam: The Faint.

AL: When I first heard "Pressure Suit" it made me think of John Foxx "Metamatic." Were you familiar with John Foxx and the stuff he did with Ultravox!?

Adam: Oh yeah. My old band, Le Car, was very John Foxx-centric. It was on a label called Monoplaza, which referred to a song of his called "Plaza." The sticker for our band had a burning car on it which referred to his song "Burning Car." The bands that we like the most were Throbbing Gristle and Sonic Youth. They are an influence because they are massively independent. They had their own labels and they always did exactly what they want to do.

AL: Do you see yourself as a futuristic band?

Adam: Yeah, except phones still don't work everywhere in the future. We have never thought of ourselves as futuristic music. Lyrically, we think of what we are doing as social commentary. It's about anxiety and social disorder. I know that John Foxx and Tubeaway Army are the first records that I bought that put me on this path that I am still on sixteen years later.

AL: What do you think of people who put your music on the internet and do filesharing?

Adam: There's a good chance that all that will kill the industry. We had a lot of problems with Anxiety Always being uploaded on the web. This is how we live. We are just two people. We are not a corporation. We have no money coming in, except through playing live and putting out our CDs and selling them. Now that we have released it, there are journalists who sell them back, and people who buy them used and put them on Ebay. There are massive amounts of lost revenues. We had to go after this one company. They put the whole album up on this corporation website. It was the webmaster for this corporation. We had to tell the corporation that we were going to sue them, because this webmaster would take it down. They had to lock him out and close the website down. It's okay to have one or two MP3's to hear what you sound like. But if you give it all away for free, nobody can do it for a living.

website: http://www.ersatzaudio.com/

WIRE INTERVIEW: a chat with Colin Newman

photo by Angel Ceballos



Blast from the Past: part two
An Interview with Colin Newman
by Alexander Laurence

WIRE are one of the most distinctive bands of our time. Colin Newman (guitar/vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), Graham Lewis (bass/vocals), and Robert Gotobed (drums) make up this enduring band that emerged at the time of the punk explosion in London in the late seventies. They released three amazing albums during this period which are still considered to be classics: Pink Flag (1977), Chairs Missing (1978), and 154 (1979).

In the early eighties, the band members pursued several solo projects, but soon after reformed as a group (now subtitled "The Beat Combo") and produced five more albums. The most distinct were The Ideal Copy (1996) and The Drill (1991). Many of the albums were heavily produced and were not well received. They soon moved on to other projects and didn't perform together for a decade.

WIRE surprisingly came back to the USA in May 2000 and played to audiences who were often too young to have ever seen them play live in the seventies or eighties. With this third version of the band (WIRE mark III), they started to play material from all their albums. Later they started releasing some singles and EPs, marking a new period for the band. This new material is faster and heavier than anything they have done in the past. People are getting into them for the first time or, like me, getting excited about a band they have loved since the late 1970s. I spoke to Colin Newman three years ago. They have toured and released Send (2003) since then.

*******

AL: I am guessing that WIRE reformed because either Graham Lewis moved back
to England or because you were being asked to do many festivals like All Tomorrow's
Parties. How did it happen exactly?
Colin: No, Graham still lives in Sweden. You cannot divorce WIRE, especially
WIRE mark III, working again from a notion of appropriate timing. WIRE is a
creature of whatever time it is being conducted in. If you go back to say
1995 it would be hard to imagine how WIRE as a specific unit could have
operated at that time, the individuals are multi-modal, they are always happy
to operate with culturally appropriate artistic currency. But it would have
been hard (although not impossible) to construct a model of WIRE that could
have operated at that time (for a start it would have had to be totally
instrumental).
AL: You reunited at the Meltdown around 1998, right?

Colin: Yeah. By the late 1990's things had moved on. Both Bruce and I (who are London residents) independently developed the sense that there could be a WIRE construction for that period. A specific invite came to play a show at Daniel Miller's "mini meltdown" in 1998. In the end it came to nothing, but the seeds were sown. The next year an invite came that it would have been unwise to ignore in the shape of an offer to curate an evening and headline at the Royal Festival Hall (with a reasonably sized check attached!!) This was actually a bigger show than WIRE had ever played in their own right! A 3,500 capacity, which we sold out! In order to do the show we had to tool up the band from a more or less cold start.

AL: WIRE hadn't played for about ten years.
Colin: In preparation for it we made the decision that it would have been giving ourselves too much of a mountain to climb to try to make entirely new material for this one show, as the band had been effectively dormant for 10 years. So we worked through a huge list of back catalogue material to try to find -

A- the items that we could easily remember how to play and
B- items that were not so totally dependent on the "atmosphere" of the studio versions that they could sustain a new life. At this time we were really not sure if what we were doing was going to last any more than one very well paid gig.

The approach was quite simple and could be described as a stripping away, not only of extraneous musical information but also of approaches and formalities belonging to another age.
AL: How did the gigs go?

Colin: The Royal Festival Hall gig went well and we were offered to play the first, Mogwai curated, All Tomorrow's Parties. There, seeds for much more were unearthed. Whereas the RFH gig, for all it's trappings, was a "museum piece" a chance for the belated and curious to see it and add it to the checklist - ATP was something else, a young audience of music fans there to watch whoever might take their fancy from the assortment on show. Their response, especially to WIRE in full flight with the accelerator on was enlightening.

ATP that year could be described as a "festival of slowness," a lot of Tortoise derived bands exploring the spaces in between the notes. So it was surprising that the effect of WIRE's fastness was visceral. Not something measured in applause and outbreaks of mad frenzy, just a sense that, to put it simply and presciently "fast is on it's way." At that point (April 2000) I personally knew that WIRE had to make new, fast material. It was just something you could feel in the room.

By that time we were also committed to a US tour. No time to develop new material but a space to hammer the museum piece into contemporary currency. WIRE were discovering a directness and urgency it had never had before.
AL: You lived in Israel off and on for the past 16 years. Was it a real
influence on you, Wire, and your solo records?
Colin: I haven't lived there, just visited. Probably not a big influence.
AL: What was the biggest WIRE single or album that charted?
Colin: No idea. I don't have any comparative sales figures plus the 70's stuff didn't sell much at the time but kept selling (and still continues to do so)
AL: What do you think of Graham Lewis' solo stuff?
Colin: You can't ask people in group's what they think of their co-members solo work!
AL: There are many references to Berlin and Germany in many WIRE songs. What is the fascination with Berlin?
Colin: WIRE made two albums in Berlin in the 1980's: The Ideal Copy, and A Bell Is A Cup. Berlin is a fascinating place.
AL: During that American tour you played a new song "The Art of Persistence." What
happened to that song?
Colin: Not a lot really. We don't play it any more. At one point I made a much darker version of it which we may revisit at some time in the future.
AL: Do you still wish to collaborate with others, new groups, musically and
producing them, or is it limited to WIRE and Malka Spigel/Immersion?
Colin: Of course. I just did a mix for a Belgian band Dead Man Ray. In fact, since "Read & Burn 01" has started to be heard, I'm starting to get more people approaching me about mixing or production.
AL: I was always wondering about the WIRE/WIR gigs around 1989/1991. What was it like performing songs off of albums like Manscape or The First Letter which were more studio based albums? And what was it like without Robert Gotobed?

Colin: In a way this was a different band dealing with a different set of circumstances. In general WIRE had very little appropriate support during the 1980's and fared rather badly under it's own advice. WIRE is never short of good ideas, however care always needs to be taken to be selective about which paths will yield well for the long term. 1980's WIRE is bitty. It is the band's least favorite version. I feel we have a much more intelligently curated strategy now.
AL: Some people think "Read & Burn 01" is much better than the last few WIRE
albums.
Colin: Absolutely. The aim of mk III WIRE is to produce items which have the power of our best work but centered in now rather than then.
AL: "Read & Burn 01" is one of the first releases on Pinkflag. Is there a plan to do any further albums or EPs?
Colin: That little 01 in the corner there should tell you what you need to know about pinkflag's future. The label started by releasing two albums in 2000 "The Third Day" (PF 1) & "It's all in the Brochure" (PF2). The former is a record of the first rehearsal for the RFH thing and the latter is a document of the show. These items were only available either at shows or through mail-order at www.posteverything.com/pinkflag. They are now out of print. We followed up with a seven inch single "twelve times you" (VPF3) based on audio recorded at the Garage in 2000. Although "Read & Burn 01" has been put into conventional distribution, it's follow up "Read & Burn 02" will not be. It will be available at the US shows. Pinkflag started as a "fan" imprint but now it becomes a record company.
AL: Could you comment on some more obscure WIRE tracks like "Harry Houdini," "Stepping Off Too Quick," "Oh No Not So (save the bullet)," or "It's the Motive?"
Colin: They are obscure. If they were any good they'd be less so...
AL: You are touring America this September. After that in Europe. What should people expect?
Colin: The live show features stuff from "Read & Burn 01" & "Read & Burn 02" as well as some as yet unscheduled pieces. We did the "museum piece" show in 2000, now it's time for new stuff. We have played this set a few times in the UK and have received the strongest positive feedback we have ever received for Wire live.
AL: Many British bands refuse to tour the USA because even if they have a
high profile in the UK they are like an indie band here. Any comments?
Colin: It's quite hard to make money on the road in USA so you'd better have an audience or someone to subsidize you. You can easily get sunk by the costs. WIRE have an audience (no one subsidizes us) but we have to be pretty careful otherwise we'd end up losing money and that comes out of our pockets directly! I can see therefore why someone might not want to do it.
AL: What advice do you have for younger people who want to play music?
Colin: How young are we talking here? Not young but younger, if young is teen then younger is pre-teen? I have a 13-year old son who makes his own tracks under the name of Bumpy. We have released a few of these on swim. He also recently started picking up bass guitar. We never really encouraged him but if he's interested we can help. I'm going to buy him a bass soon. Wanting isn't enough, it's about doing it. If you are interested you'll find a way to do it.

AL: What qualities do you like about music?
Colin: I can't believe anyone would ask such a question! I've spent most of my adult life being involved with what might loosely be described as "music." It's qualities are many and various and life is way to short to list them all here.

More WIRE info: www.pinkflag.com
www.posteverything.com/pinkflag

-- Alexander Laurence

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Har Mar Superstar Interview

by Alexander Laurence

Sometimes when an election doesn't go your way, you need a sexy diversion. Har Mar Superstar (Sean Tillman) is a chubby white man from Minnesota who sings R&B tunes while dancing frantically. His live shows, sung to the backing track from a boom box, usually culminate in stripping down to his underwear. He has been around for years and has been busy. He has tour extensively and has penned songs for Jennifer Lopez and Kelly Osborne. He opened shows for The Strokes and Incubus. These are only some of the highlights of the real story.

He first emerged as a recording artist in the St. Paul, MN, band Calvin Krime in the late '90s. His self-titled Har Mar Superstar (2000), launched his libidinous, sometimes B-boy prone, R&B persona. The follow up, You Can Feel Me (2002), turned out to be a more fully realized, well produced, and downright funky release. Rolling Stone Magazine mentioned him as one of the new faces of 2002. After moving to England for a year, Har Mar Superstar is back with his third album, The Handler (2004). His album got a lousy rating from Pitchfork Media, but it is as good as anything Har Mar has done.

Har Mar will be at The Troubadour on May 6th.

*******

AL: How long have you been playing music?

Har Mar: I have been playing instruments since I was five. I have been writing songs since I was twelve. I started a band when I was thirteen. Some of that early stuff probably showed up on a record in bits and pieces.

AL: Did you grow up in a musical family?

Har Mar: Definitely. I grew up with an older brother and an older sister. My sister was always into playing piano and singing. She is an opera singer now. My parents are art teachers. My family comes to my shows very often.

AL: How has being from Minnesota influenced your music?

Har Mar: There is an obvious Prince influence. Being from Minnesota has influenced my work ethic. Bands like The Replacements and Husker Du had to tour their asses off just to get noticed. Babes in Toyland were another band. All those bands did things in their own way but the one thing that was common to them was hard work. There are so many good bands from the area in the past fifteen years.

AL: When did you start making the new album, The Handler?

Har Mar: In January 2004. I actually started a year ago in November. But there were some hold ups and I trashed it all and started new.

AL: How do you work in the studio? Did you have some ideas already?

Har Mar: Yeah, I had some vocal hooks and guitar lines. The first time I was in the studio with the producer I was just checking out the studio. We did three songs that day. We just shot ideas off each other and put them on tape. At the end of the day we trashed what sucked and kept what was good. I would take the instrumental tracks and listen to them in my car while I was driving around. I would think of vocal hooks and melodies and lyrics. I would piece it all together. We would make more music and I would record more vocals.

AL: You work very fast?

Har Mar: Yeah. We did this album in two or three months. I left for a few weeks to do some shows and play in England. We did most of it in one month and then came back and fine-tuned the rest. We mixed the album for a month.

AL: How is the music scene different in America and the UK?

Har Mar: I am not sure. I haven’t played in the United States in a long time. In the UK people are more fanatical. They like to jump on something. A lot of people in the USA are cynical. In the UK people are more willing to like everything, and not have their one thing. I lived in the UK for a year. I have been in the UK all the time for the past two years. After I did the American tour with Kelly Osborne I moved to the UK for a year. I was on TV all the time.

AL: What is Ibiza like?

Har Mar: I did a residency there. It’s open during the summer. It’s a 24-hour party from June to September, and the rest of the time it’s an empty island. People come there from all over Europe. It’s one of those places where you go out on Monday night and get home on Thursday morning and don’t know what happened. I did a residency at Club Manumission. Ten thousand people would come every Monday night. I would perform at five in the morning.

AL: How did you get some of these people to play on your record?

Har Mar: Nick and Karen (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) were around and they are my friends. They came in the studio and we figured out if there was something that they could do. Nick Zinner came in and developed a few songs. He is very good at producing. Karen and I have been talking about doing something that was unrelated to her band for a long time. I gave her the freedom to do whatever she wanted. That was one day of writing and recording. The whole song was done. I was hanging out with Holly Valence and we were talking about doing something. I had a part for her to do.

AL: Holly Valence is known more in the UK.

Har Mar: Yeah. She will be a huge movie star one day.

AL: How did the song with Northern State go down?

Har Mar: We have the same manager. I have always been into their shit but had never met them. When we met we hung out for a few days in LA. They were still working on their album. We worked on one song for their album. I sang the chorus and wrote all the vocals. I had a verse in a song that I wanted someone to guest on and they just rolled it the most.

AL: How was the collaboration with Jennifer Lopez?

Har Mar: That wasn’t really collaboration. They wanted me to be a ghostwriter on her album. I was given a week to do a song in the last week of the production of her album. It sucked. It was one of the hardest things ever to do. I sent one song over. It was like trying to write in the voice of a person that you don’t care about and don’t understand. I don’t think that she cares about anything, so how can you write a lyric for someone like that?

AL: On the last album you had songs like “E Z Pass” and “Power Lunch.” Do you think that you have any songs on this album that can become code words or catch phrases?

Har Mar: Hopefully. I like to open common phrases and make them take a whole new form.

AL: What is the new show like?

Har Mar: I have a bass player and a drummer with me now. It’s more realized. I like the minimalism of a bare stage, a boom box, and me. But now it is time to kick it up a little bit.

AL: Is the new show raunchier?

Har Mar: I just care about making it an awesome show. It has to be undeniable. If people want to hate it, they can’t.

AL: I have seen you a lot in LA. You seem to show up at (www.polaroidscene.com). You jumped onstage with The Libertines a few months ago.

Har Mar: Yeah. I go see my friends play. But I can’t go out as much. I can’t be a fan in the crowd. I can be backstage.

AL: Do you have any hobbies?

Har Mar: I like to watch DVDs.

AL: What made you want to do the song “Alone Again?”

Har Mar: It’s my favorite song of all time.

AL: Any advice to people who want to do music?

Har Mar: You should not sample shit. Write your own music. Don’t be a dick.

Website: www.harmarsuperstar.com

Maria Taylor (Azure Ray)

Azure Ray
Interview with Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink
by Alexander Laurence

The Southern duo of Azure Ray formed in 2001 when former Bright Eyes members Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor joined Eric Bachmann to create something musically enchanting. More stripped down than Bright Eyes and their previous outfit, Little Red Rocket, Fink and Taylor shaped a delicate, folky soundscape for their 2001 critically acclaimed self-titled debut.

The next winter, Azure Ray issued an EP on Saddle Creek, which featured collaborative work with Now It's Overhead. In the meantime they moved to Omaha, Nebraska. Since then they have created another great album, Burn & Shiver. They also worked recently with Moby on the song "Great Escape." I caught them on their recent tour with Her Space Holiday.

Maria Taylor will be releasing a solo album this month. She is also playing with Har Mar Superstar at The Troubadour on May 6th.

******

AL: How was the tour with Moby?
Orenda: We didn't play the Area 2 shows. He did a number of shows in early summer by himself and we opened up for him. It was smaller venues than Area 2 but they were pretty big places. Too big for us I think. It is better for us to play in a more intimate setting.

AL: What bands are you in now?
Maria: Little Red Rocket has been defunct for about two years. Now It's Overhead is a band that we are in and we are playing tonight as well as Azure Ray. In Azure Ray we write all the songs and sing them. Now It's Overhead another guy writes the songs and sings them. We play keyboards and bass.

AL: What was Little Red Rocket like?
Orenda: It was a sugary pop band. It was fun and upbeat. Azure Ray is sad and depressing, so it wouldn't make any sense to play any old songs from the previous band. As Azure Ray we have done two CDs and one EP. Burn and Shiver is the latest one.

AL: Why did you shift from lighter material to this deeper material?
Maria: We just saw the light one day. We found meaning in our lives and we decided to put it in our music.

AL: How do you write songs in this band?
Maria: We each write songs and present them to the other. We have the songs mixed up on the album. Our voices are so similar and our songwriting is similar that people have a hard time telling the difference. We like the same music. If Orenda likes a certain song, even though I may not like it at first, I know that I am going to like it because we have similar tastes.
Orenda: We write stuff individually but we try to keep it cohesive. Some people can't tell that there are different people writing and that's the way we want to keep it. We don't want to separate anything that we are doing. We write together sometimes.

AL: Do you write lyrics first?
Maria: It depends on the song. It could start with a melody or some lyrics and we just build off it.
Orenda: I like to sing in the shower or sing a car.

AL: Do you tape stuff on a four-track?
Orenda: Until a year ago we both had a four-track. Now we both use Pro Tools.

AL: How did you do the tracks with Moby?
Orenda: He sent us music with no lyrics or melodies on top of it. It was just music. We wrote lyrics and sang on top of it and sent it back to him. He liked it and he used it on his new album. We both sang on two tracks. "The Great Escape" was on the album and "Landing" was a B-side.

AL: Why did you move to Nebraska?
Maria: Our boyfriends live there. The label Saddle Creek is there. We put out an EP with them. There are a lot of great people. It's a great music community.

AL: For much of us, like myself, who have only lived in LA and New York City, would we like it in Omaha, Nebraska?
Maria: You would probably hate it. You make your own fun. There is nothing going on. You are nowhere near water and it feels claustrophobic sometimes. I love it though.

AL: What bands do you like?
Maria: I like Leonard Cohen. I like some new stuff like Lucinda Williams and Ryan Adams. I like the new Wilco album. We both like Nina Simone and The Zombies. We like to dance and we like some techno music. But we are not stoners.
Orenda: We listen to Brian Eno. But we don't listen to that much music honestly. We are not huge music collectors. We both just have things that we like and that's it. That's what we listen to all the time.

AL: Besides music what other hobbies do you have?
Orenda: Our hobbies are playing in other bands. We like to write, read, party, dance, hang out. Watch movies. Travel. We like to travel.
Maria: I just like to analyze people and watch people. I like people. I have enough strange friends that I can just sit around and watch them and analyze them and wonder what their childhood must have been like. I am a wine connoisseur. That is one of my hobbies: finding new kinds of wines. That is favorite thing to do.
Orenda: She is just a drunk.
Maria: No, I just like wine.

AL: It's a noble profession. Are there any good books that you have read that you care to mention?
Orenda: I just read Michael Moore's new book, Stupid White Men. We both read it and it's really awesome. Right now I am reading The Serpent and The Rainbow by Wade Davis. It's an interesting book because it's nothing like the film. It's about Haiti and Voodoo and religion. It is a long history lesson.

AL: What about you Maria? Are there any Blockbusters in Omaha?
Maria: Yeah. What did I watch last? I hadn't seen The Royal Tannebaums. I just watched that and loved it. I read the Michael Moore book. I love the short stories of Raymond Carver. Now I am just reading a cheesy love story because I don't have television right now. So I need something. We want a television so we can watch Six Feet Under when it comes on. It's the best show ever.

AL: What is it about music that makes you want to play it, be involved in it, and listen to it?
Orenda: When something that I write musically affects someone else in a positive way, that makes me the happiest. It could be something sad that they relate to. Or it could be something that makes them happy. These are the main reasons why I do music. Sometimes I have to ask myself that question. It's cheaper for us to do rather than going to a psychiatrist.
Maria: It's one of the only universal things. Everyone loves music and everyone gets something out of music different. I find confront in that. It's fun. I feel so lucky. As much as we like to bitch and complain, we get paid to see the world and play our music. It's our passion.

AL: You have played with Bright Eyes, Crooked Fingers, and Moby. What bands would you like to play with?
Maria: Elliot Smith would be good. Aimee Mann. Pedro The Lion. We would love to tour with our friend, Mark Eitzel. He's so great and funny. He's very self-deprecating. He wanted to open up for us. We said "We can open up for you, but you are not going to open up for us."

AL: The CMJ festival is coming up. Have you played it before?
Orenda: A few times. This time we are going to have the most fun we ever had. It's going to be a Saddle Creek showcase. All of our friends and all these bands are going to be there. We love playing in New York. We always have fun. CMJ is the festival that always treats artists the best. We support it.

AL: What do you think of Williamsburg?
Maria: We love it there. It's cool and trendy. We lived in Athens, Georgia for four years. So when you go to Williamsburg, it feels like Athens. It is like a bunch of hip young people.

AL: What is an Azure Ray show like?
Orenda: It's pretty raw dog.
Maria: It depends on whether our equipment works right. It also depends on how much we have partied the previous night.

AL: What is the song "Displaced" about?
Orenda: When we wrote these first three records, we were going through some rough times. Some of the major themes were isolation and loss and trying to find your way in the world. Try to figure out what you are doing and why you are here. It's not about physical movement or traveling, but being displaced mentally and in your heart.
Maria: It's just self-realizations. Understanding yourself, other people, relationships, life, and everything.

AL: If people judge you by your music, they might think that you are depressed and lonely people all the time.
Orenda: I don't know. It might be surprising to meet us because we are just basically manic. We party hard and we have so much fun for a while and then we hit a rock bottom point.
Maria: We know each other better than anyone. We can just look at each other and not say anything.

AL: So you want to tap into those low points in life, while there's a whole other life going on that's not reflected in the music?
Maria: It's a direct reflection of our lives and who we are.
Orenda: What we write about is true and it lives in the hearts of everyone. We don't want to walk around living that way. We don't want to be depressed and sad and have fears and harbor dark feelings, and yet they are there. Music is a good way to release these feelings and show people that someone else feels this way.

AL: Do you have any advice for young girls who may want to start a band?
Orenda: It's hard for me to give advice about this because we have devoted ten years of our lives.
Maria: When we first started we were fearless. Maybe we were naive?

AL: You have to have some confidence in yourself just to present anything.
Orenda: You do. What I am saying is that I don't know if I would wish this upon anyone. We are stuck in it right now. At this point this is all Maria and I do and we have no choice. I don't want to deny anyone.
Maria: If we stopped this for whatever reason we would be fucked. It's true. We have friends who wonder why we can do music for a living and they can't get anywhere. We literally gave up everything. We forfeited relationships and school. We gave up everything to concentrate on doing music.

AL: How do you see Azure Ray ten years down the road?
Orenda: We have no idea. I could be in the gutter. We could be talking about the downfall of Azure Ray.

AL: Are you working on new songs?
Orenda: We have been thinking about things. We have been so busy touring. Since March we have been touring or getting ready for a tour. After the European tour we are going to take some time off and try to write and think about where we want to go with the next record.

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--Alexander Laurence