|
interviews
|
opinions were like kittens i was giving them away. -modest mouse
there's nothing as something as one. -e. e. cummings
|
Interviewer: Mark Horan
Just to get it done with and out of the way, I also grew up on Long Island (Babylon) and I’m just starting to get over it. I’ve been living in Denmark now for two years and I just feel so much more relaxed. You’ve split your time between England and New York over the last few years, and I was just wondering which one you prefer?
There are good and bad sides to both places. Living in Long Island has been the best for us creatively. Believe it or not when we lived in Levittown and Valley Stream for a few years we wrote the most songs. There’s nothing to do and nowhere to go so you stay in and do things. We now live in NYC and it’s definitely a lot harder to focus here. Being in London is pretty much the same, there’s always something going on it’s so hard to get bored.
Is there one place that’s more conducive to making music?
Wherever we have two separate rooms. We live in a studio apartment now so it’s tough. I basically write songs while Vinny is in the shower and he writes while I’m at the grocery store. For a few years now we’ve rented a house out east in Long Island during the winter months. We recorded most of American Whip out there. There were no houses around us so we could be as loud as we wanted at whatever time we wanted.
Do you feel like you’re part of any music scene in New York or London, or are you just happily doing your own thing?
We’re very happy doing our own thing. Scenes come and go.
How much does being from Long Island creep into your songwriting process?
For Vinny a lot. He was born in the same house that he lived in until he was in his early 20’s in East Meadow. He never really fit in with the general mentality there so he spent that whole time in his own world. Eventually he met some like minded people out there and formed bands but he still can never shake it. I’m sure every song he writes comes from there. I started living in Long Island when I was 10. before that I moved around all the time. My parents we kind of hippies so we’d just pack up and leave whenever we got bored. Most of my writing comes from the feelings I had from my mother and father, they were my home.
Regarding the song "Valley Stream": I won't pretend to know what you're getting at lyrically in the song, but I somehow understand it on an instinctive level. Is that more or less what you're striving for? To leave the lyrics open to interpretation?
This song is actually pretty literal. We had just gotten back from living in England for a few months and had to move into Vinny’s aunt’s basement. It was tough for us to be back in Long Island and in that kind of a situation after being in London. I had to get a job at a juice shop and Vinny didn’t know what to do so he just stayed in the basement and wrote all the time. One day this very interesting guy came into the juice shop, he was an older white hippie with a long beard, wearing a white robe and a turban. We started talking and he explained to me how he believed that the sun represents men and the moon represents women and that we need to follow our true natures in this respect. He started coming in everyday. I’d make him a carrot juice and we talk for hours. I told Vinny about him and then they met. He told wild stories about his past. Apparently he came from a very wealthy family, used to live in Los Angeles and was good friends with Michael Jackson. He told us that one night in the early eighties Michael tried out the moonwalk on him before he did it for the public. We only ever believed part of anything he said but it was interesting listening to his stories and the things that he thought about. He was totally encouraging to us and that’s all we needed at the time. The last time I ever saw him was when he offered me a ride home from work. I didn’t accept but I did walk him to his car that’s when I realized that he lived in it.
In my review of "American Whip" I wrote, "Joy Zipper's Lo-Fi atmospherics and sweet harmonies form a perfect backdrop for the suburban experience; seemingly normal on the surface but underneath the facade, a dark and somewhat menacing environment." Do you feel that accurately describes your music, or am I just showing people that I can use fancy words?
It’s perfect.
“33x” sounds like Burt Bacharach on acid. It’s both uplifting and a downer all at once, but either way it’s a beautiful track. Can you give a little background on the creative process, both lyrically and musically? The line, “I’m getting tired of life” just seems to hover over the bounciness of the music. The contrast is really magnificent.
Vinny was going though a lot of changes when he wrote that song. His former band had just broken up and he was starting to do his music alone. He was really bored with Long Island and the close mindedness around him. When we started working together we really wanted to change the way we thought about music and recording. We wanted it to be really open and creative. We recorded 33x with this frame of mind. That’s why there’s a contradiction in the lyrics and the recording. That’s probably the secret to our dark/light thing, one frame of mind when we’re writing the song and a totally different one while we’re producing it.
Much has been made of the dark/light aspect of your songs and the whole boy/girl vocal thing. I hear a distinct Pixies influence in your songwriting. Is that something you’d agree with or is it purely coincidence?
I think it’s a coincidence because we didn’t start listening to the Pixies until we had already established our sound. We don’t really have songwriting influences, I would say it’s more production influences. Our songs just come, we don’t try to write them.
Both you and Frank Black do share a love of Brian Wilson’s music, and there are some points on “American Whip” that are as perfect as Pet Sounds, in my opinion. Did you feel especially fragile emotionally at any time during the making of the album?
The whole time!! We are really protective of our songs and our label really wanted us to work with a producer. We don’t like giving up any control but we thought we should give it a try so we went to Glasgow to work with Tony Doogan. We spent two months there and got a lot of recording done but it just wasn’t working and luckily our label agreed. Tony did a great job but we just have our own really specific details that are important to us. We ended up coming back to NY with some of the recording we had done, the strings, horns and some basic tracks. Our label gave us the rest of the budget to buy our own equipment and rent a house to finish the album. We were really happy to have all of the control back but then had to start fresh. It put a lot of pressure on us to deliver but it worked out.
The song "Alzheimers" manages to be threatening, pretty, sad and funny all in the space of four minutes and thirty-two seconds. I find it amazing that you can elicit so many emotions or reactions in just one song.
Vinny wrote that song in the middle of the night, he was watching a documentary called “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter” on PBS. The film maker, Deborah Hoffman’s mother was suffering with the disease. Deborah and her girlfriend worked on the film together. The mother always disapproved of her daughters sexuality and of her relationship but as her Alzheimers progressed she didn’t have a problem with it and became very close with the girlfriend and even closer with her own daughter. As horrible as the disease was the mother almost seemed enlightened. This struck Vinny so he held a small tape recorder up to the television and recorded the sound. Right away he laid it down onto his 4 track and started playing the guitar and singing to it. I woke up in the morning and it was done.
Any touring plans for North America or Europe in the near future that you can share?
Yes, we’re doing an American tour in April with Phoenix and Dogs Die in Hot Cars. Pretty much all northern states from NY to LA. Then we head back to the UK for our new album’s release in May. We’ll probably be going back and forth a lot this year since we’re releasing our newest album so quickly after “American Whip” in the UK.
What are you both listening to lately?
We mostly listen to old stuff. David Holmes made us a mixed cd that didn’t leave our stereo for a few months. Some of the stuff on it was Skip Spence and Graham Parsons, it was mostly 60’s country. When I was really young my favorite album was Jimmy Cliff “The Harder They Come”, I played it for Vinny awhile ago and it’s now making a come back on our cd player. We were never big clash fans but we’ve started listening to them lately too. We did a cover version of “Hitsville UK” last year for Uncut magazine and I think that started it.
Here’s the inevitable “When’s the next album coming out?” question.
We actually just finished a new album. It probably won’t be out in the US until the fall but it’ll be released in the UK at the end of May…..
OK, so we’ve established that you come from Long Island. Any horror stories about being in a cover band and playing The Dublin pub or something similarly cringe-worthy?
Ha ha ha. No cover bands..thank God!! Vinny and I did meet while he was playing in a battle of the bands contest at Hot Rocks on Hempstead Tpk. His band was really good though- they won! Just reading those three words sent a chill up my spine…The Dublin Pub.
Maybe you can get The Touch to open up for you the next time you tour (inside Long Island joke. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Wow, you’re going way back. Stop, you’re scaring me…..this is turning into an EST interview. I’m going to have to go and reevaluate my whole life now. Thanks!
Thanks very much for talking with Onetimesone.com!
Thank you!
-Tabitha
-Mark Horan 02/22/05
|
|
