'Sup Magazine » Issue 18

Hello: M.O.N.O. 4

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:01:55 +0000

M.O.N.O 4
Words by Lolo Chambovet
We’ve tried to get words from M.O.N.O 4 but nothing came as exiting as their energy on stage. This band is FUN. When we saw them in their hometown of Sao Paulo a few months ago, we were in front of the stage… we almost started a pogo… sweating like crazy! Julie the singer has a really sweet voice. She raps, and she sings. She’s so cool. They sound like an electro-pop rock group, but with a Brazilian twist. It’s still very lo-fi. They are a very young band and have been together for less than a year. Their identity shines through their music, but also through design, photography and fashion. We met them randomly, but in a few minutes felt like part of a family. M.O.N.O.4 is like a small collective of people all working together towards a bright and fun future. They said: “Between many plans we are looking forward to recording an album, doing great shows, playing big stages and always making people have fun together with us. This is the best thing we know how to do.”
From: Sao Paulo
Website: myspace.com/monofour

Hello: Lime Headed Dog

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:58:46 +0000

LIME HEADED DOG
he was a Boy just with no spine of any sort,
growling and loose like jelly, his Tracksuit hung on him like a necklace,
the women who he had dressed up in sketched tuxedos were the first to
scream as he
hobbled by
forcing their faces in to a stretch,
so their stubble scraped against the Pavement
mostly he would be scratching with a copper Penny,
the Weeds that grew in between the pavement stones
and where Bicep roots of the trees would uproot the roots of Parking meters,
he would leave those to do their work,
And back to work with the copper penny
on the Weeds that grew in between the pavement stones
his Knees and Palms,
Tongue out
Leaning and Squeezing, he would start to rise and rock
and Lava would ease its way up through the vein he had gasped away,
bright Bluely at first, bulging and spitting,
and then that lava would turn a Blood Red, like paint mixing and
every time the crowd looked at it with their Eyes
it would be shooting blinking Blue Lines in to their eyelids
all from looking at it too hard
while saying “the hottest flame feels like ice at first”
because they could see this Lava soak in to the Knees of his worn out Trousers
and the rising Red would raise up whole paving stones, and Streets
and bricks would give way and the ground would swell like
a Pregnant Hump
until, like a Whale in the ocean, a Mountain in motion, it picked him up
and carried him away.
From: London
Website: myspace.com/joelcox,
myspace.com/limeheadeddog

Hello: Kimono Kops

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:57:00 +0000

KIMONO KOPS
Dreaming of Miami, I got me two tacky plastic flamingos some months ago, an incident that marked the beginningof Kimono Kops, where the flamboyant world of remix edits has made my heart glow and my fingers itch. Moved by the scratch culture and bored by the ballast of rock-music-as-an-attitude since forever, I have tried out my idea of a decent song on various tunes. Reworks include Sally Shapiro’s “HoldMe So tight”, M.I.A.’s “Boyz” and Logan Lynn’s “Feed Me to the Wolves”. Important for me is to like, or even love, the original but nevertheless take it to a different destination.
Living in Bremen, Germany, that could mean Rimini, Rio or someplace else. Because a bird never flew on one wing, I also produce my own tracks. This, of course, is great fun too. It allows me to be more rigorous in my dancepop fantasies – a most satisfying sublimation.
From: Bremen
Website: myspace.com/kimonokops

Hello: Isa GT

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:26:46 +0000

ISA GT
Hi my name is Isa GT (DJ, MC, Producer). So far I’ve been writing and singing my songs in Paisa (Antioquia’s dialect) and I use lots of slang, words that only people from Medellin, Colombia will totally get. I love that way of talking. It reminds me of my childhood and days when I used to hang in my city smoking weed, chilling with friends and listening to gangsta rap. Medellin is a gangsta city and was even more so in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I’m not proud of that. Maybe that’s the reason why I wrote “Pela’o”, seeing all those dudes in London trying to look so gangsta. Here in Medellin you don’t know who’s gangsta. Gangsta is everywhere and can be anyone. There’s no uniform for it. Not that I am biggin’ up gangsta culture, I personally think is silly the way lots of young kids glorify it. 2007 was a very busy year. Me and some of my girlfriends started a night called *GIRLCORE* in February and its been a hit (I’m the resident DJ there). I wrote “Pela’o” last year and I sent it to some friends to make some beats. Soon after I sent it to some remixers to see if they would like do something to it. At the time I was really into what Crookers from Milano were doing so I sent the track to them and a week later I got this crazy remix! In 2008, I’ll release an EP, there are more collaborations with Crookers and Edu K. I’m working with Good and Evil’s producer Christian Castagno in New York and there are lots of other bits and pieces – like my first live appearance at the Bird’s Eye View festival in London.
From: Medellin / London
Website: myspace.com/isagt,
Image by Brett

Hello: High Places

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:24:13 +0000

HIGH PLACES
Image by Rob Barber
Mary Pearson: It’s December 2005 and I am visiting New York from Michigan. I’m standing in a club, and watching in horror as this guy on stage smashes a glass candleholder into his head. As blood pours down his face, I catch the horrified expression on someone I’d met just minutes before; this guy Rob Barber.
Fast forward five months and I’m living in New York with my new roommate: Rob the candle-smasher. I listen to a recording of one of Rob’s solo songs on his computer. I start singing one of my own songs and realize the two fit perfectly. I show Rob, and we call the song “Sandy Feat” – our first collaborative output under the name High Places.
Rob Barber: I’m kind of a late bloomer with music. I’ve done a couple projects with some friends, and I’ve done tons of home recording, but this is my first band. I had just started playing solo here and there, but hid it from friends when I suddenly had this realization that here was this person that saw my fundamental motivation for making music. It was about traveling and camping and swimming and hanging out with friends in different towns. We were creating a whole world and way of life through scrap-booked sounds we were making. Meeting my friend Mary made everything I was thinking about (music and dreams) make sense.
Seventeen months have passed. We’ve played 120 shows, done multiple tours of the States and Mexico and even assemblies at an elementary school. We’ve done a demo, two 7-inches and a split with Aa, Xiu Xiu and Soft Circle. A full-length album is in the works and due out in early 2008. And of course, there’ll be lots more traveling.
From: Brooklyn
Website: myspace.com/hellohighplaces

Hello: Artefacts for Space Travel

Sup Magazine — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:19:47 +0000

ARTEFACTS FOR SPACE TRAVEL
The band took many forms through ’07 but now we’ve settled as a solid three-piece (phew) Joe, Sam, and Alex. We’re three young men from South London but we don’t incorporate much daily life type stuff into our music. Social commentary is extremely boring. I would say our songs are surreal, yet highly meaningful. We love escaping into our imaginations. We feel we have a firm grasp of the pop form. We use our instincts when writing tunes, playing around with familiar sounding song structures while bending them into something new and exciting (to us at least). We’ve been called dystopianist, which is cool in a sci-fi kind of way, but there’s a lot of fun and happiness to us as well. We are influenced by individual songs rather than particular bands. We have a lot of respect for prolific artists such as Billy Childish, Mark E. Smith, Robert Pollard, and anyone who has the talent to evolve and remain interesting. Our lyrics are important to us and are written with true feeling and a sense of permanence. We care about music and don’t just want to party, but we really do love partying lots – every single night. We rehearse in our bedrooms. We are a bedroom rock band and we make songs quickly and simply to capture the energy. If something takes too long it ends up sounding tired. Impatience is a virtue. That’s how we like it. We play our guitars extra loud and whack the drums extra hard. Themes in our songs so far have included death, space, sea creatures, romance, a spider trapped in a dolls house, childhood memories, apocalypse, animals, suburban life and love. Highlights of our short career so far have included getting signed to Stolen Recordings, supporting Sunburned Hand of the Man, playing at the ’Sup party, making new friends and releasing our single “Lucy”.
Thanks!
Joe
From: London
Website: myspace.com/artefactsforspacetravel

Dirty Projectors

Sup Magazine — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:54:59 +0000

DIRTY PROJECTORS
Interview by Marisa Brickman
Images by Andreas Kohler
A rock opera dedicated to Don Henly (Getty Address). A concept album based on Black Flag’s Damaged recreated from memory (Rise Above). A student at Yale. A resident of Portland, Providence, Baltimore and now Brooklyn. A big fan of Black Dice.
I have to say, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to meet David Longstreth (the man who is Dirty Projectors), but I had some pretty strong preconceptions. Clever. Talented. Inventive. Check. Ironic. Hmm, maybe a little. Pretentious. Well, no, not really. Serious. Yes, but in a good way. Vegan. Not sure but quite likely. Funny. It actually wasn’t on the initial list, but yeah.
Dirty Projectors make music that is occasionally a bit hard on the ear, but only because the song structures,
harmonies and compositions are not what most are probably used to hearing. David never writes on a computer and often uses several layers of instruments and vocals to create his tracks – fancying himself more a classical composer than an indie musician.
We met up before a gig at Cargo club in London and I noticed he’d swapped out the lumberjack shirt and moustache from 2005 for a red hoodie and clean-shaven face. After breaking the ice a bit and bro-ing down about Brooklyn, he let his guard down enough to have a real exchange, but he definitely didn’t seem to be that bothered.

I have a real interest in composing and orchestras – we just went to go see an orchestra last Friday conducted by Glenn Branca.
Which one was it? Hallucination City?
Yeah, the one with 100 electric guitars.
I was actually in the original recording of that, well the aborted recording.

You have written pieces of music that was more along the lines of classical composing.
Well, I taught myself how to orchestrate.
How does that work? Can you tell me how you do that?
How to orchestrate?

Well, how you compose work for an orchestra. I mean it’s not like you sit at a computer and write each part and then layer them over each other to hear what it sounds like do you? You’d think that good composers just hear all the instruments playing in their head?
Yeah, that’s kind of true. I write everything on the guitar for the most part and then I just kind of elaborate it and figure out how I want to color it. The only way to learn about colors is to look at the past and see how people did it before. For a little while, I was super into doing that. I just kind of absorbed it. You can do it on
a computer. That happens. There is software. A lot of kids my age who are super into new music and that kind of bullshit–that’s what they do. They just sit in front of a computer and write. I’ve tried it, but I just find that compositions that way have this stiffness and this feeling of –
Cleanliness maybe?
Yeah, cleanliness and it doesn’t sound like inspiration. When something’s real and something’s felt and you
can tell the person was thinking about it as they made it – you can hear that. I think a lot of that computer-notated music doesn’t sound like that.
How do you go about recording?
Recording is a different thing. That’s kind of a funny question. I love to get super involved in recording and think about recording just as its own thing completely divorced from any kind of live sound. That’s a different thing, you kind of have to listen and respond. That’s kind of like painting.
A lot of your projects have had a visual component – like your film project Getty Address? I read about it on some blog and it was saying that a series of animations turned into a film project. Do you approach making music like making art?
That’s one of the things about music is how variegated it is. You can think about music as art or you can think of it as text or as science.

Do you look at what you do as an entire package with its own aesthetic?
More or less. I think depending on which set of songs and which work it is, its different. Getty Address was very, very visual. It was very much about the interaction of these certain emblems with this plotline. Absent a formal staging, I really thought of that as an opera in making it. Rise Above is kind of less so. If there’s an apparatus there, it’s more of a concept.

Rise Above is definitely the most tuneful and most um, songlike than the other stuff you recorded.
Right on. That’s good.
The most accessible.
That’s awesome that you see it that way. That’s good.
I know well, now that I don’t live in NYC, I feel like I’m losing touch with what’s going on there. So I got online and starting downloading and –
[Laughing] Getting on the blogs and shit.
Totally. And after hearing a bunch of your music – Rise Above is definitely the most accessible. Some of your stuff is just weird!
[Laughing] With that, I was listening to a lot of FM radio and getting inspired.

Do you believe in guilty pleasures?
Not really, I, uh, don’t think pleasures should come with guilt [laughs].
If you look at some of the stuff you put on your list for Pitchfork or the idea that Getty Address is an ode to Don Henley–
What was on that list? Oh, you talkin’ ‘bout Beyonce? That’s just real.

[Laughing] Can you tell me how you feel about Beyonce? People are a bit divided on how they feel about her. I mean, do you like her? Do you think she’s talented?
Beyonce’s music is amazing. I love her persona. I don’t know how much of it is a construction or how much of it is really her, but I’m inclined to think that it really is her because it resonates so deeply and truly; this character of a woman who is alienated by her excellence.

And the only man who is right for her is Jay-Z.
See, I don’t believe that. I think you listen to B’Day and I think you think this is not what she needs.
[Laughing] She doesn’t need the Jiggaman.
[Laughs] That’s the thing. I don’t know if she does. I’m thinking about a song, “Me Myself And I”. A lot of it is her being indignant at her man for mistreating her; blah, blah, blah but I think the deeper thing with her is the woman who is such a good singer and so creative and so prolific and so beautiful; all of these things. But she has no friends. In “Me Myself And I” she’s singing to herself, ‘Ladies if you feel me, can you sing it out?’ And you just imagine a silent room when she says that. But you know, it’s kind of like this odd perfection.
In listening to a lot of FM Radio –
What I mean by that; that would imply some level of disdain for the pleasure of FM Radio. I didn’t mean that. I meant structurally Rise Above, for me is the thing that would be most in the step of direction to accessibility from the older stuff that I made because it is verse chorus verse chorus. It’s definitely the closest thing to being sing-a-long than anything else we’ve done.

artist=Dirty Projectors
interviewer=Marisa Brickman

Map of Africa

Sup Magazine — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:52:59 +0000

MAP OF AFRICA
Interview by Jaclyn Marinese
Images by MC Gaff E
Map Of Africa is a band featuring the legendary DJ and musician Harvey Bassett and production genius Thom Bullock of the Rub ‘n’ Tug DJ crew. The two grew up together in eastern England and have been making music together since they were old enough to play. Out on Whatever We Want Records, this self-titled album might be their first official album together as a group, but these musicians have layers of experience behind them, forming the foundation on which this album was built.
As a teen, Harvey began playing in bands and progressed into the DJ world after a trip to New York City
in the ‘80s sparked and furthered his interest in graffiti and sounds like hip-hop, electro, disco, house and garage. As part of the Tonka Hi Fi Soundsystem, he and Bullock,among others, are largely credited with bringing some of those sounds to England as a part of weekend-long “rave” parties in their native Cambridge as well as Brighton, London and on the festival circuit.
Additionally Harvey’s own event called Moist at the Gardening Club introduced names like Larry Levan, François Kevorkian and Kenny Carpenter to the British audience. He was the first British DJ invited to play at the Ministry of Sound and later became resident on both Friday and Saturday. This resulted in the release of his first compilation mix, Late Night Sessions.
After Tonka, Thom Bullock headed out to San Francisco as part of the Wicked crew, a DJ collective known for purveying the West Coast psychedelic house sound. He produced down-tempo music as Mammel,
a psychedelic album under the name Supergroup with Charles Uzzell Edwards and in 1996 moved to New York to start the band A.R.E. Weapons – though he no longer plays with them today. These days, aside from Map of Africa, Bullock is the producer behind other What Ever We Want releases like the group Bobbie Marie, Otterman Empire, Laughing Lights and Wedo. His gigs and remixes as part of New York City’s kings of sleeze, Rub ‘N” Tug, along with partner Eric Duncan, have ascended him to cult-like status among dirty disco lovers worldwide.
Together the two musicians enter into this Map of Africa album with heavy history and experience behind them. Having been described by party-goers as “God-like”, today Harvey has a strong following from New York to Japan, where there is a record store named after his “Black Cock” record releases (releases which were partially responsible for the current re-edit phenomenon). He has released tracks under various pseudonyms and has produced and remixed tracks for Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies, Stereo MCs, Electronic and The Police, among many others.
Map of Africa is an album of sleazy, psychedelic rock that has an underlying sound of funk and blues emerging through the bottom of the music, unlike anything that’s been released in recent years. Recorded mostly in Bullock’s secluded upstate New York get away in the woods, the record embodies a sound and a direction all its own. The songs, and sonic stories told through them, are clearly the meeting of two like-minded friends who have journeyed together for some time through parties, through music and through life in general. This album is the result of much of that shared experience. ‘Sup caught up with the guys while they were upstate at Bullock’s secluded get away finishing the recording of the second Map of Africa album.

Is this the first time you guys have done a band-like project together?
Thom: No we’ve been doing this before most of your readers were born [laughs].
I mean as an album though.
Thom: We’ve been doing minor collaborations over many years but this is the most serious of those meetings. I mean we’ve DJ’d together and stuff but the Map of Africa is the most serious meetings of our minds thus far.
What do you think it is that brought you to this point to do the project?
Thom: We’ve been making music together for years here and there, but we’re not infamous go-getters. You know we’re just doing it. We’ve been making it together all this time. Then I’d go here and Harvey would go there. We finally end up in the same country together and we decided why not make some more music together. And we came up with the name on the spot, Map of Africa. Our friend, Carlos Arias, who runs the record label What Ever We Want Records, is a big fan and jumped at the chance to give us a ton of money so we could be doing what we want to do and that helped too. So that’s kind of why the record as a product came about. I mean me andHarv have been making music together for 20 years but there’s actually a product now. It’s become realized. It has a realization date.
Does it feel different to work this way as opposed to how you’ve done it in the past?
Harvey: Totally yeah. To actually have an advance on sales that allowed us to take the time and the facilities that it required to make this – and thanks to Carlos and his mind. But yes it was very different. And it’s not like being under a regular record label. We have complete freedom to indulge ourselves musically and emotionally through that recording medium as it were.

What does Map of Africa mean?
Thom: Map of Africa means what it means to your mind. We love it cause it reminds us of explorers and like the fuckin’ heart of the jungle. You know what I mean. But actually it’s really about sex.
You live now on separate coasts. Harvey in California, and Thom on the East Coast. Do you find that more difficult as far as collaborating creatively or does it give you a stronger inspiration when you do see each other?
Thom: It’s not an issue because we are both gypsies. I keep my record collection here in upstate New York.
Harvey keeps his there in Los Angeles. But other than that the life is a gypsy life. We’re around each other when we need to be.
Do you do most of the recording in New York?
Thom: We do a lot of it there.
Harvey: The second album that we’re working on at the moment has been a bi-costal recording process.
Thom: [laughing] Yeah we’re bi.
Harvey: [laughing] He said that.

I hear you have an interesting studio upstate in New York in the country. Does that make a difference in how you record – sort of isolating yourself from other people?
Thom: Yeah, totally. Like at first all the music we’ve done involved synthesizers and beatboxes. And when we started to get the band together I think I still lived in the city. But then I bought this place in the country here in the middle of nowhere, on two acres of land, by the river and this 150-year-old barn. We thought what better than here to start making a record? That made a difference on how the record sounded. We got in drum kits and amps and guitars and that’s why the record went that way.
What is your opinion about recording digitally versus the more analog style you tend to use? What is the difference for you?
Harvey: Well the difference is the sound isn’t it? If the music’s good it’s good. And I love it all. I love a bunch
of digital crap and I love smooth analog. But I prefer to hit something. And make the sound by hitting it. You know what I mean? I like the sound to move through the air before it gets to the machine and becomes digital.

Harvey, you first started by playing drums?
Harvey: I suppose so, yeah. A long time ago. I was playing drums in bands and in caves [laughs]. I’ve been playing drums all my life, really. Yeah, just bands and even through my DJ wave I’d often play drums on different projects or remixes I’d be doing.

Are you playing all the drums on this album pretty much? What about other instruments?
Harvey: The drums are pretty much all me. And T’s on some shakers and clappers and stuff. We kinda share the jobs. Guitar is me. Keyboards and bass is Thom. Vocals are predominately me. Yeah and it works very well. What one of us can’t manage to do, the other one usually can so we get it done. And Thom is a master in the studio so he engineers the projects and makes sure the sound gets done nice. Um, he can’t sing particularly well, but I wouldn’t say I could either so… [laughs]. We write the lyrics together so it’s
a 50/50 endeavor.
Thom: Yeah, we auditioned each other for vocalists in the band and it was Harv.

Was this album stuff you had from years of playing together or did you create it solely for this project or was it a combination of the two?
Harvey: When we decided to go on the mission of Map of Africa, everything was written from that point on. I didn’t have any books of lyrics or chord progressions or whatever. We did it all from scratch as Map.
Thom: Yeah most of the songs were all written up in one day actually. Day started there was nothing there. End of the day a new song was made. Then we’d sit there finish a bottle and listen to it over and over.
So you’ve begun the second album?
Harvey: Yeah that’s what we’re up to right now. Completing the second Map Of Africa album. It’s recorded. It hasn’t been mixed or mastered but recording is only half of getting the album out really. On top of artwork and all that other fun stuff.
Did you encounter anything different during the making of this as opposed to the last album?
Harvey: We’re a bit better now at doing what it was we were doing songs so its actually flowing a little easier than before. We have more experience on how to structure, play and produce. I think you’ll enjoy the results.

Harvey I know you have a son who is in his teenage years. Do you ever talk to him about music? What is
it that he’s into? Is he into your stuff? Do you get any inspiration off of what he’s listening to?
Harvey: The last little hang out we had he made me a doo-wop CD. He likes doo-wop. He likes real hip-hop. He likes real rock music. And yeah, I definitely listen to his opinion. When I ask him what’s happening he plays me a new record and that’s good. We share music all the time. I don’t know if he particularly appreciates any of my disco or the soft rock sounds but I think that you get into that when you’re a little older maybe. But he’s totally got a head for music and has thousands and thousands of tunes on his hard drive. I don’t know if he likes Map of Africa. He’s never commented on it.
Thom: My daughter does.

How old is your daughter Thomas?
Thom: Six.
And she likes the album?
Thom: She loves it. She has her own names for each of the songs. She doesn’t know what they’re called.
She takes a couple of words from the lyrics and calls it that and often they aren’t the actual words to the song. A cute one is the Darth Vader Song which is “Gonna Ride” on the album. The words say “The ol’ cross fader” and she’s says, “Oh Darth Vader!”
What else do you guys do besides this music thing?
Harvey: [Lets out a funny menacing yet playful laugh] We laugh like Scooby Doo. We lead incredible lifestyles. We eat well. We love cooking. We like splashing around in water. We like water. Actually we’re close to getting a movie funded. A short film as a sort of wishful vision of our lifestyles. It’s actually going to be a documentary [again both burst out laughing]. We’re gonna make a short documentary about our lifestyles.
You guys were instrumental in raves that were happening in England as part of the Tonka Sound System.
When was that?
Thom: There’s a rave in my living room right now [laughing]. Raving has not stopped. It’s a national pastime in England and in fact in most of Europe.
Thom: Well ’88 was when clubs were invented.
Both: [Laughing madly again].
Thom: 1988. I mean what people would now call raving though raving is never something I used to describe what I do.
Harvey: I mean we used to say it, ‘Where you going raving?’ And that was before the big raves, all those mega raves. And now I’m very happy to say that I can use that word again. I do go raving again. I’m happy
to get dressed up, get loaded and jump about all night.
For those that don’t know, what was the Tonka Sound System?
Thom: The Tonka Sound System was a huge collective of DJs and musicians. There were a bunch of buddies that wanted to have an identity like a Jamaica sound system. ‘Cause it takes a hell of a lot more than one person to play a record. There are people that carry the boxes and people that do the whole thing and make the party happen. So Tonka was a way of making a group identity for a family of party people. And we played with Tonka during the ‘90s and it was great. It was so great and I think we left a fun little old rave legacy.

Where were they taking place?
Thom: Pretty much in the south of England between London and Brighton. The guy that owned the sound system also owned a marquee so we could find an empty field somewhere and set up – on the beach, in a field, warehouse in a nightclub. We pretty much partied wherever we wanted. We were a mobile crew. We could party anywhere.
Guess that doesn’t happen as much anymore.
Thom: There was a law. It’s called the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994. Because some foolish people who thought violence was a way to have a good time, fought the police and basically ruined it for everybody. No one ever complained about a Tonka party. The cops never came and if they did come they realized that we weren’t a threat. The law changed and it made raves and warehouse parties a lot more difficult to put on. That’s why it doesn’t happen so much in Europe anymore. I’m sure that there are locations where people don’t complain and that’s the best way to do it.

Harvey – I know you play a residency at Love in New York City but not many other venues here. Why that decision?
Harvey: Love is a good spot for me. My friends can come down there and have a nice time. If someone made an offer somewhere else I might do it. I occasionally play the No Ordinary Monkey party and used to tag along with Thomas and Eric [Duncan] at the Passerby which is a wonderful, legendary moment in New York City club history. I do things here and there. I don’t like to work too much. A week is plenty. I visit New York about every three weeks. I need to go to Hawaii to get over the week I spend in New York.
Tell us about your place in Hawaii.
Harvey: Well I’m a partner in a multimedia space over there. It’s basically a disco pleasure palace.
It’s called Thirty Nine Hotel because it’s on 39 Hotel Street, Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii. It’s wonderful there.
It’s a really yin and yang, ya see. It’s a big, sad, lonely, drugs, drinks, disgusting, exploited, overweight,
smelly little town in the middle of paradise. I try to go every month. We have a new artist on the first Friday of every month and I try to go DJ that. It’s called First Fridays. I’ll often play the following Saturday which is Double Joint Disco.

Have there been any “stand out” moments for you guys together over the years?
Harvey: I think hilarious things happen with us all the time. We spend most of the time together laughing. I don’t know. It’s pretty hard to say one. OK – for example yesterday we tried on buffalo skin robes. We went to see a Native American and tried on buffalo hide robes. It was just incredible
to have a whole buffalo skin around you. It’s just starting to get cold out here and you can basically be in the snow naked with one of those things around you and you’d be sweating. We were basically just trying the thing out. It weighs about 40 or 50 pounds. It’s an incredible thing. It’s not something you wear lightly or even take on lightly because it carries heavy voodoo. It’s a special Native American artifact in a way. That’s just one epic thing that just happened to us and something happens every day.
Is there any advice you’d suggest to kids just starting out with their bands or who find themselves in music somehow?
Harvey: It’s totally worth being a musician even if you’re an out of work, broke bar musician. It’s totally worth the trip because you can always save your life with your own music. You can also save someone else’s life with the music. I’d advise them to go out and buy the Map Of Africa album, and copy it or something [both break out in roaring laughter]. Get inspired and see what happens. The path of a musician is an honorable one. I’d advise anyone that’s considering it to sort of do it, you know. You can be a musician and be
in a band and be cool! And that counts for a hell of a lot.
Thom: I say do it in your spare time. Save the whales. Make music on the weekends!
Harvey: Yeah, get a job in the city, make a fucking fortune, buy yourself a nightclub, and save some whales.
Thom: Yeah save the whales. That’s my answer to that question.

artist=Map of Africa
interviewer=Jaclyn Marinese

Lightspeed Champion

Sup Magazine — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:51:59 +0000

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION
Interview by Thomas Sussman
Images by Marius W. Hansen
Lightspeed Champion is Devonte Hynes: though the touring band has featured Florence from Florence and the Machine, Mike Siddell from Hope of the States, Ryan Barkataki from Snow White and Emmy the Great. Dev is their driver, binder and reason.
Most people came to know of Mr. Hynes via his role in the short-lived punk band Test Icicles. Their fanbase was tremendous; an army galvanised by molten obsession. Moreover, the nation’s critics were denied their most treasured pleasure: green-eyed, sardonic catharsis. While the group’s achingly hip image had journalists tremulous for the opportunity to condescend and bitch, few retained the motivation. The majority had their minds forcibly cleared by the trio’s white noise tonic. The resultant reviews were wonderful. Test Icicles, however, lost interest in what they were doing and then eventually in each other. It is well reported that interviews became increasingly difficult, with the threesome’s responses eventually consisting of short rebuttals humphed from behind fringes. It soon became clear that the project was an in-joke gone sour. In February 2006, the fun dried up and the fans were left thoroughly confused and disappointed.
Two years have now passed and some of the dust has settled. Dev has begun a new “alternative folk” musical venture; moreover, two singles “Galaxy of the Lost” and “Midnight Surprise”, a full tour last Autumn and his album release earlier this year (Falling off the Lavender Bridge / Domino Records) suggest commitment.
In the fall of 2007, we meet in a pub. As Dev bobs towards my table, I take in his awesome appearance. He is a rock ‘n’ roll tarantula – two, long shrink-wrapped legs topped by a massive, jet-black barnet. My amazement, however, is soon replaced by curiosity. I want to know if he is more content and if he has found creative resolve. Most important of all, I am desperate to find out if Devonte Hynes is ready to be Lightspeed Champion. Initially, there are no obvious clues. Our eye contact is obstructed by the glare of his spectacles and his nervous jitters are confused by a confident handshake.
So I plunge in.
How are you?
Okay, yeah. I bought a new album. I’ve never owned Is This It by the Strokes. [He fishes a small brown paper bag from his pocket and pulls out the CD]. A new Rough Trade shop opened. I don’t buy CDs and I don’t buy music often, so I thought I would go to the Rough Trade shop and for my first purchase I bought Is This It.
Is that the indiest thing you have ever done?
I don’t think you could actually get more indie.
Let me start properly by asking: is it true that if you weren’t called Lightspeed Champion, you would be called Apple Cue [i.e. the quit everything command on Macs]?
It was going to be Dev and the Apple Cues.

Well I suppose Steve Jobs will be happier with Lightspeed Champion.
Yeah. I like that name though!
Maybe there is room for it in the album’s sleeve notes?
I haven’t done the notes for the album yet, so I might actually play on it. I like that idea. It’s like Elvis Costello
and The Attractions.
At this point I have to say, congratulations for two fantastic singles. I especially liked “Galaxy Of The Lost”.
[The interviewee’s eyes widen and he leans forward] Oh, thank you! I went looking for it in Rough Trade and they didn’t have it! I don’t know anything about it actually. Literally, I forgot the single had come out until my violinist reminded me. He said, ‘What happed with the single?’ and I was like ‘Shit! It came out?’

Well I can tell you that it got to Nº. 21 in the independent charts.
No way! Wow! I didn’t know that. Wow! God! That’s amazing.
So you recorded the single and just stood back?
Yes. It’s really bad, but I’m happy recording. Then, when someone cares enough to put it out that’s amazing to me. I don’t really think about that stuff. That is cool though!

Your forthcoming album was produced by Mike Mogis [who sometimes plays with and produces Bright Eyes]. How did that happen?
He was given my demos, but I didn’t know. So, I was in my kitchen and got a phone call from Laurence [Bell, founder of Domino Records]. He said, ‘I’m going to pass you over to Mike Mogis’. I was like ‘What? What! What are you telling me here?’
What was it like to work with him?
It was cool actually. We spoke on the phone for about five months leading up to eventually me flying to Omaha. So it was cool. But the surreality didn’t really hit until after. I mean, I knew Tilly and the Wall anyway and I’d talked to Mike for ages, but Conor [Oberst of Bright Eyes] sort of drifted in and out.
Is Conor a nice guy? His music is quite intense. Does he reflect that?
Yeah, he’s an amazing, amazing guy. I mean he is like that, but if I’m completely honest he’s the most outgoing and open person. You probably expect him to brood, but he’s actually one of those people that’s naturally loud. In fact, he should probably hold more stuff in.

Do you see any of yourself in him?
I should definitely hold more stuff in!

I mean it seems that you both make dark and direct records, but in person both of you are gregarious.
Yeah, that’s probably why we got on so well, actually. [Whilst recording in Nebraska] I got my own house, but when Conor was at the studio I would stay at his house and at like six in the morning I’d walk back to mine.
You were born in Houston, now live in London and recorded in Nebraska. Where do you feel that you belong?
I don’t know. It’s weird actually, because lately I’ve been feeling really English. I don’t know what it is. It is something that has happened. Or European maybe. It’s weird. When I got back from Omaha, I went straight to Paris, because I felt weird in lots of ways. I needed an escape so I went to Paris and stayed a while. I had a list of certain artists, musically, that I wanted to look up and indulge in. So I spent a lot of time just searching around. A lot of that is still in me, I think. I’m trying to experiment musically, writing songs in the style of these weird French Jazz composers from the late ’50s and ’70s. The main guy I was looking for was Alain Goraguer, who composed a soundtrack for the animated film, Fantastic Planet, or La Planète Sauvage. I was just really obsessive in trying to find all of the stuff that he did. So I’ve been experimenting and maybe that’s something to do with this newly felt European identity. But it’s weird.

Whose idea was your recent Big Brother’s Big Mouth appearance?
Mine. Peaches [Geldof] was presenting and I’ve been good friends with her for a really long time. I was homeless and she gave me a place to stay. One night, we all went out and I said ‘You should get me to come on and play!’ She didn’t mention it again, but then the next week I got a phone call from the show’s producer who said ‘I really like your single, will you do the show?’ I was like ‘That’s really funny, but I’ll do it because it’ll be awesome!’ So I did it. It was really fun – it was actually one of the most fun days I’ve had this year.

You seem like a happy-go-lucky guy, but also most comfortable writing dark songs. Is it catharsis?
Wow. It’s weird. I suffer from pretty horrible mood swings. It’s either like that [raises his hand to signify high] or like that [drops his hand down low], so that’s probably coming up. I dunno really though, it varies. Lately, I’ve been writing really uplifting songs. And it’s a shame, because I guess no one’s going to hear them ‘til 2009 or something.

Does writing help you to rationalise?
Well last night, I think I wrote the darkest song I’ve ever written, which is weird since I’ve been working on really uplifting songs lately. But this song last night is really odd and I don’t know what to do with it. It just happened. I was talking to a friend of mine in New York; I love her to death but in this conversation she was just hitting different parts of me and pressing the right buttons. I got really cold to her. In the end I couldn’t even talk to her. She reminded me of things that I had completely forgotten about. I just had to get it all out. It was really dark. I re-read it this morning and was like, ‘Errrrrr!’
What’ll happen to it?
I’m going to demo it. I try to record two songs a day. I’m going to do one tonight, but I decided I’m going to do it all with my voice, just to make it different. I’m going to do all the sounds vocally.

Generally, are you happy writing music at the moment?
It’s something that I love doing. I’ve also been playing with different people, like guitar for Florence and The Machine. That’s so fun!
Recently, I heard that you were involved in a gun-related tussle in Dalston. Is that right?
Yeah, it was about four more stops that way [he points north, up the road].
What were you doing wrestling with gun-toting youths?
I dunno. That was actually two days before I flew to Omaha. Some kids tried to jump me, so I beat one of them up. He sucker punched me in the face, so I started beating him up. Meanwhile his friends were standing there like, ‘Oh shit! That’s not meant to happen!’ Then this guy was like [he makes a pistol shape with his fingers] ‘Do you want your life to end right now?’ and I just went for him. I guess what my subconscious was thinking was ‘If you’re going to shoot someone, you’re going to shoot someone’. That was odd though. Stuff like that happens a lot. It actually lasted a lot longer. It was a recurring thing with the same group of people. Then it just died down.

Aren’t you scared?
Not really. No, I just find it more annoying. It kind of grates on my soul, rather than scares me.
More disappointing?
Yeah, more like a [makes a sighing gesture with his shoulders]. Death does scare me but it’s going to happen, so that sort of thing has never bothered me in my mind.

You would make an excellent gun-fighter.
Yeah.
Dev and I both smile at this weird but neat ending to the interview and I turn off the Dictaphone. We then sit and chat for a further 30 minutes. We witter on about our favourite comic book illustrators (he plans to release his own publication in early 2008), our guitars and music that we are meant to like but cannot. Then, still prattling, we leave for the bus-stop. Outside, it is raining hard and we are 50 metres from our halting 29. We run to catch the bendy behemoth, but as we dash I become aware of something: Lightspeed Champion is laughing.

artist=Lightspeed Champion
interviewer=Thomas Sussman

Frankmusik

Sup Magazine — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:51:59 +0000

FRANKMUSIK
Interview by Karley Sciortino
Images by Marius W. Hansen
If everyone in the world were as driven as Vincent Frank, we’d all be living in some hyper-intelligent future universe where everyone could fly and people’s houses were made out of rainbows. In describing this ardent, sexy-voiced 22-year-old, as “motivated”’ just isn’t strong enough a word.
You can tell a lot about a person by how eloquently they speak. Vincent Frank (more commonly known as Frankmusik) just happens to be one of the most articulate and enthusiastic artists I have ever met. Desperately passionate about music, Vincent is one of those people that was just born to do do do, and could happily talk to you about all of his many endeavours for hours on end. Not in a self-centred way, but more in a ‘Let’s share our creative ideas and become best friends’ kind of way. It’s all very charming. You get the feeling this is one music freak that is headed for superstardom whether people like it or not.
Heavily inspired by ’80s dance pop, Frankmusik’s lovesick songs are loaded with sweet melodies and big choruses that make for some serious synth pop perfection. Having released his debut EP, Frankisum, in mid-2007, Vince has been spending his time recently setting up his own record label, doing remixes for Chromeo, DJing around LA, and wowing audiences with his heartfelt performances. He just signed a worldwide deal with Universal / Island Records and has started work on his debut album.
At the moment, though, he’s in Shoreditch eating a roast dinner with a look in his eyes that says, “Please don’t ask me about when I used to beatbox”.

I heard that you were a beatboxing champion when you were younger. Is that true?
Oh God! How did you find out about that?
You seem embarrassed.
I’m not embarrassed. It’s just something I’ve kind of forgotten about. Beatboxing was fun, but it’s a bit of a gimmick. The UK hip-hop scene is weird. Its like you’re in it or you’re not. I was a bit of an outsider as I guess I didn’t look ‘hip-hop’ enough or talk ‘hip-hop’ enough. My private school accent was a dead give-away [laughs]. But I was never really accepted into that world.

Is that why you decided to give it up?
Kind of. I felt the whole scene was one big contradiction. I was idealistic and looked at hip-hop as a powerful and unified form of urban themed creativity. Unfortunately, as with most British sub-cultures, the people involved in the hip-hop scene are very jealous and possessive over what they think is theirs. They don’t allow people on the outside to look in, and because of that I think the whole movement kind of falls flat on its face. So because of that I just got fed up and left. But it was good because when I left I got more into producing, which led me more in the direction of where I wanted to be, and where I am now.
You seem like you were really motivated from a young age. Did you have your parents behind you pushing you to be creative?
My parents always told me I could do anything I wanted to do. My mother sent me to dance school [ballet!] when I was really young and started me off learning piano and quite a few other musical instruments too. It was kind of a case of them preparing me for the future they wanted me to have by teaching me about music and art. I’ve always had confidence in what I do creatively, and when I was young I was driven by the idea of reaching people on a huge scale. That vision has never gone.
And what about growing up in Croydon? It’s not exactly the epicentre of creativity.
I know. It’s horrific! I love it though. It gives you something to rebel against, you know? It’s weird there because it’s like a city in itself, with high-rises and it’s own city centre, so it feels very isolated. If anything I think living in Croydon growing up made me more motivated, because I knew I didn’t want to end up like the people I was surrounded by. I still live there now, and I still like it. If I lived in East London among lots of other young, creative people I think what I do would get over-saturated. Its nice to get away from everything trendy, for lack of a better word, and just be able to be by myself and write.

Your parents also sent you to boarding school, right? What was that like?
Well, you know all the stories you heard about boarding school? They’re true [laughs]. Boarding is funny as fuck. It’s survive or die really. I did really badly at boarding school, but it kind of turned around towards the end. I learned how to take something positive out of every situation – even the really bad ones. I try and use those same methods when I’m making music.

Do you think growing up in that environment had an impact on who you are today?
Definitely. It taught me a lot about relationships and respect. It taught me to be focused. But on the other hand I feel now that I have trouble letting my guard down. Growing up in boarding school you’re constantly being treated like shit, and it’s hard to get yourself out of that defensive mind-set. It’s like I’m always waiting for someone to fuck me over. Still, if I had the chance to go back and change anything, I wouldn’t. It was one of the best times in my life. It’s weird – the real world seems slightly grey after going there.
When did you start making music under the name Frankmusik?
It was about a year ago. I had been doing the producing thing but I wanted to start making some music of my own. With Frankmusik I want to make music that is nostalgic, but with a future vision. I like the idea of taking what made you who you are today, and then dragging it up to date. My mom brought me up on ’80s synth pop. I’m trying to use that but make it sound like it was created today. I want to make people revel in how much they love me, or revel in how much they hate me.

And what about your lyrics? Most of your songs seem to be about girls.
Yeah, basically all of my songs are about girls. Both fortunately and unfortunately for me I have had a lot
of fucked up relationships. You know how people have a back catalogue of records? Well I have a back catalogue of women who have fucked me over, or that I’ve fucked over, or both. We all write our hateful letters to our exes. I just make them rhyme. I probably have a good couple of albums worth of material inside me already.

Tell us about your record label.
It’s called Apparent Records. I set it up together with a producer called David Norland. It’s still young but we’re getting there. My reason for wanting to start a record label in the first place was because ultimately I want to work with new, exciting, and creative young artists. This seemed like the perfect way to do it. I release my own music on Apparent and we have a couple of new artists on our roster as well – Sisely and BBo$$. Both amazing.

You definitely have your fingers in a lot of pies.
I know! It feels good being able to be a solo artist and a producer and have the label. In the current climate of the music industry I think it gives me more clout and a longer shelf life. I want to be successful, and I think
to achieve that, it’s important to be focused and do as many different things as you can.

You’re still really young. Are you intimidated by the music industry at all?
Not really. Luckily for me I have never really been alone. I met David a couple years ago through my first manager, and he’s kind of been by my side the whole way up until this point. He was like my life mentor,
or guru, or something like that. He’s helped me through a lot of shit. I don’t think I would have gotten very far without his expertise helping me along. I just make sure that I surround myself with people that I trust and love, and I don’t really think about it too much.

And what are your goals for the future? Both musically and personally.
I want to make music that I love. I want to go into acting and directing as well. I want to read more books.
I want to meet more people. But most of all I guess I want to make people happy. I want to get people
excited about music again, ya know? Because there’s too much crap out there.

artist=Frankmusik
interviewer=Karley Sciortino