90 DAY MEN ///
INTERVIEW JACLYN MARINESE ///
PHOTOGRAPHER MARK WILLIAMS ///
DATE JANUARY 17, 2004 ///

Because no one can manage to categorize the type of music the Chicago-based 90 Day Men play, the group says they feel like they're on the right track. Since the 2000 release of their debut album titled [It (Is) It] Critical Band, Andy Lansangan (piano), Brian Case, (guitar), Robert Lowe (bass), Cayce Key (drums and vocals) have internalized and reconfigured their sound in an ongoing progression, which as it matures, manages to continually defy the notions of music genredom. Their sound simply does not fit into any one predetermined definitive label, and that just might be the point.

The addition of Lansangan in 2001 affirmed an important transition for the group, bringing them out of a more traditional definitive rock sound into a boundless landscape where running piano compositions became the underlying force in much of their sound. On their recently released album, Panda Park (Southern), the quartet went into the studio with producer John Congleton, of the pAper chase. The result is a compilation of songs that take the listener on an emotionally charged journey of peaks and valleys. Still, in other songs the sound can be very continuous, repetitive and somehow removed from conscious emotion, yet still powerful because it exaggerates a feeling of disconnect that breathes sadness. We are forced to listen with new ears to a journey of sound that mixes close-up and sometimes whispery, eerie vocals with expressive instrumental experimentation, and occasional off center, non-linear beat usage. Some call it exploratory rock. The 90-Day Men can't give a straight answer and don't really care if you can either.

What's the deal with your name?
Cayce: The name came from a book I read called Criminal Personality. The term is for criminals that plead not guilty by reason of insanity. They get an evaluation period of 90 days to decide if they are criminals or criminally insane.

What is the evolution of the 90 Day Men?
Brian: Cayce, Andy and myself are from St. Louis and Rob's from Kansas City, so we all knew each other growing up. Cayce moved up to Chicago to go to school in '95, and I moved up there too. That's when we started playing together. Our original bass player decided he didn't want to be in the band anymore so Rob started playing. Then Andy moved to Chicago in 2000. He wanted to come to practice to see what we were up to. We had a piano there. He sat there and stated playing it, and he joined the band.

Talk a bit about your mindset during the making of this album as compared with other two albums.
Rob: I think that there was a greater level of cohesion as far as our ideas individually. The songwriting process came together, and everything made a little more sense. We've been playing together for so long that everything became very natural. I think it is at its most natural point now, and was during the writing and recording of this record. It's an ongoing process that makes more sense every time around.

How was the studio experience with producer John Congleton? Is it weird going in to work with someone who's not part of the musical process from the beginning and having them manipulating your work?
Cayce: I find it refreshing more than anything to be honest.
Rob: Yeah, you have fresh ears and they're not necessarily part of the process of the writing of the compositions. To fine-tune them, it's nice to have that extra set of ears.
Cayce: He's also a musician as well so he always has an opinion one way or the other about what we're doing, for better or for worse. He's real straight-up with us and never short on ideas.
Brian: You know John Congleton is someone we all trust and admire and respect so when he says, "I have an idea, or what do you think of this," we're all definitely willing to listen. And it's really cool to have a filter before anything gets made permanent.
Cayce: Its almost kind of validating in a way 'cause otherwise it's only like, the four of us kinda thinking about what we've done. It's refreshing for him to come and put it in a perspective that works.

Because your songs are more like long compositions rather than short jams, how would you describe the differences between the recorded and the live sound of 90 Day Men?
Cayce: If you're recording, you should use all the tools that you want, because you can't do them live. But then at the same time, you can't get the same energy on the tape that you have when you play live. Up until very recently, every time we played, we would play the songs differently, depending on what our moods were like. We would change them up a little bit at our own leisure. But we don't do that anymore. We do it a little but not nearly as much as we used to. So on tape it's an example of what we sounded like that day in the moment and then we use some bells and whistles to make it interesting.
Brian: Yeah, I'm under the mindset that the live show should be different from the record because someone is going to see you. You know you don't want to go see someone play when you can sit home and listen to it and it's the exact same thing.
Rob: If you're on tour, it's a matter of circumstance and you're
gonna feel differently because of how you woke up that day or because the lettuce was wilted on your sandwich - it becomes
very circumstantial. So that circumstance coupled with the kinetic energy of the audience either works for or against what your doing at the a particular moment.
Cayce: We've been on tour and we've been playing these songs for a few weeks. In a way we become so intimate with the songs by playing them every night so the energy that we have among each other is gonna develop and give the audience this idea like, "Okay we know the songs but this is new, this is different. I recognize the tunes I recognize the melodies," but obviously there's gonna be a very different energy to it.

Any shows that stand out in your mind?
Cayce: It started out weird. The first tour we ever did we played on the Fourth of July in Winston Salem, NC. I played drums for the opening band with literally a one-handed guitar player, no shit. They were called The Prostitutes. It ended with us playing and then lighting off Roman Candles inside the club. It was probably the fourth gig we ever played.

Were The Prostitutes girls or boys?
Cayce: They were these young kids. The drummer got grounded so that's why they didn't have a drummer. So I banged it out for 'em.

Any major injuries on tour?
Rob: Lots of falls, this band takes a lot of spills.
Brian: Mostly alcohol induced.
Cayce: Brian's taken an enormous flight of stairs like a trooper.
Rob: Backwards.
Cayce: I don't know if you've ever been to Holland but they have these extraordinarily steep steps. Brian had a few too many and fell backwards about two flights.
Rob: Also in Holland, while not an alcohol induced slip, I was walking down the steps while brushing my teeth, and fell down a flight of stairs.
Brian: And in San Francisco we didn't have a place to stay. We got absolutely blind drunk and decided well we'd try to find Golden Gate Park and sleep there. We gave up after about 15 minutes of driving around, so me and Andy decide that the roof of the van is prime - I mean the weather's good. The next thing I know, I wake up and I'm five inches away from the concrete.
Rob: He rolled off of the roof in his sleep.
Brian: I still think I got pulled off, but yeah, I fell off the van onto my hands and knees in the middle of the street. I woke up and I climbed up on top of the van and I went back to sleep.
[Andy enters] Andy: You were fucked.

Your music has been described as "exploratory rock" because your sound is hard to associate with any one genre. What are your plans as far as helping people to overcome the need to immediately associate sounds with something familiar or comfortable?
Cayce: I think we all agree with the fact that by saying there's no description for it is sort of a compliment because that means they can't quite figure out what we're doing, yet they're still talking about it.
Rob: It's of no consequence to me personally, because regardless of what you do, people will always find a way to pigeonhole you in one way or another because it's human nature.
Cayce: There's no way around trying to get someone to not put you in a category that they'd like to. Apparently we seem to be in the category that's indefinable.

Is there any music out there that you guys absolutely hate right now?
Andy: If you turn on the radio - everything. Anything on the popular channels right now is terrible, with a few exceptional nuggets thrown in there. Like, little tiny nuggets. But man it's soo bad. You can't even believe how bad it is.

What if tomorrow they wanted to air you guys on the radio right next to all that shit you hate?
Andy: I'd probably be like, "Whatever, okay, that's cool." I wouldn't care.
Brian: I listen to a lot of the radio.
Andy: He is the radio king. It makes me furious. And he knows all the words too!
Rob: He does. He knows all the words to the bad songs.
Brian: I can sit through a lot of the new radio crap. I don't like it but I can drive and zone it out. But the thing I cannot understand, enjoy or even tolerate is that new country, like the "I'm gonna kick your ass I'm American," shit. You know what I'm talking about, like, "I'll put a bullet in your ass."
Andy: It's one of those things where like if you were living in Russia in 1973 where you just take what's going on, you just take it. You just drink the vodka. But that's kinda what's going on with the radio, you just gotta take it or something.

What jobs did you guys do before you were on tour?
Andy: Six years of delivering Pizza Hut.
Brian: I was a professional dog walker and I also delivered the Wall Street Journal for a while with Cayce. I am currently employed at a record store, which is...typical.
Andy: Typical dude. Failed rocker cancels tour and picks up extra shift at record store [Laughing].
Rob: I work at a bar that's a music venue. But I used to work at the largest science and engineering library in the country. I used to fax massive documents.
Cayce: I moderated teenagers over the internet in chat rooms. ///