Bowlegs: So the debut album is in the can and ready for release – […]]]>

Fixers’ are gearing up for the imminent release of their debut album, We’ll Be The Moon; a record literally flooded with psychedelia, rock, dance and good vibes aplenty. These Oxford boys have generously doused their pop scribblings with heavy doses of euphoria – just imagine the Beach Boys heading to orbit. We had questions, lots of them, so we sent a crate-load over to frontman Jack Goldstein.

Bowlegs: So the debut album is in the can and ready for release – was it a long process? You already have a buzz on the web, was there a sense of pressure in the studio?

Jack: No real pressure in the studio, we just set about making whatever we wanted to make. Many of the tracks were learnt as we played them. Looking at the notes I made before we went into the studio, I can imagine a hundred other ways we could have recorded this album but i’m very proud of it as it is, we are already thinking and working on the next record though. We don’t waste anytime, its not that we want to instil a sense of urgency to our music, its simply that we like the idea of our audience hearing the music at almost the same rate it is recorded. Hopefully we can have a second record in the bag before the year is out.

Bowlegs: How do you go about deciding a track order? Most the songs have a big and vibrant sound – so what did you base it around? Were there arguments, last minute changes?

Jack: The tracklisting feels kinda like a journey of sorts, I don’t like to create too many pre-conceptions. I can safely say there were no arguments though, although we are all super passionate about shit, we very rarely argue.

Three tracks were cut from the final tracklisting. The tracks Black Gold, Who Says Boys and Bumblebees & Their Ways. Although I love all three, they didn’t add anything to the record that it didn’t already have. I can’t wait to release these tracks though.

Bowlegs: It’s hard to hear a specific influence in your sound, I sense psychedelic angles among the synths and guitars? Are there bands you listened to during the recording process?

Jack: So much of that late sixties, early seventies psych stuff is creepy and mediocre at best. However, it does have tremendous production and I think thats what draws us to it! Whats so exciting about Psych is that you get a real gem every now and then, great production and great songs.

I listened to a lot of Cocteau Twins, Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren and Chris Bell while we recorded the album. I think we got introduced to Death Grips around that time too.

Bowlegs: I really like the track Amsterdam, it opens like a big 80s ballad then launches into tribal/space overdrive and back again? How do you write tracks like that, surely not on a guitar?

Jack: Much of Amsterdam was written on an old organ I used to own and as for the breakdown in the middle, it literally came from a simple guitar line and roto tom thing I had. We wanted to put the entire mid-section through a eight track tape machine so we hooked up a old tascam and ran all the instruments through, thats why it has this great hiss and wobble to it.

Bowlegs: Really Great World is another favourite – what’s the song about, the title is a positive title to say the least? Do you write from personal experience, from the mood you are in at the time?

Jack: I guess there is some relevance in the use of the word ‘Guaranteed’ towards the end of the song, I guess its a ditty attempt at Randy Newman/Kurt Weill irony. That said, I love it on a completely linear level too – Its naïvety has a innocent childlike feel to it; like reading from Where The Wild Things Are.

Bowlegs: You are from Oxford – is there a good music scene there at the moment? Do you see other bands you knew from the unsigned circuit on the up?

Jack: Oxford has a lot of music bubbling away beneath its surface. I guess its more like a cluster of scenes, if you want to use that word. I don’t think we really fit into any fixed conglomerate and i’m proud of that, we still have lots of friends who are musicians.

I’m excited about Beta Blocker & The Body Clock and I can’t wait to hear the Totally Enourmous Extinct Dinosaurs album or the Chad Valley one. I just did some vocals for the Chad Valley one actually, I think its going to be great.

Bowlegs: Is the band a full time affair? How do you make the leap from full time employment to full time musician, must be a risk?

Jack: Its full time at the moment, touch wood. You just have to make sure you don’t get lazy, always stay on your toes, fill your hours with work. We rehearse like crazy.

Bowlegs: The record ends on the acoustic and harmonised Good Night – where did that come from considering the sonic adventure we’ve just been on? More acoustic moments to come?

Jack: I think its the most Brian Wilson-esque moment on the record, it reminds me of my favourite BB track, Can’t Wait To Long. I wanted something meditative to come down too, we recorded the whole thing on an old tape machine in our bedroom one evening.

Bowlegs: What recent records have you all agreed are awesome – or do you have vastly different tastes?

Jack: Black Dice – Mr.Impossible and Delicate Steve – Wondervisions.

Bowlegs: Finally once the album is released am guessing it’s time to tour relentlessly, is that something you enjoy?

Jack: I much prefer recording but if the venue is small and the show is sweaty then it can be lots of fun.

Bowlegs: So was this beautiful pop album really recorded all over Paris during a two-year period?

Mina: The two-year period is […]]]>

We can’t speak highly enough about Mina Tindle’s debut album Taranta. It really is a record lavishly dressed with passion, invention and downright catchy tunes. The French musician took two years to construct her form of perfected pop, but we can safely say it was time well spent. We caught up with Mina to find out how it all came together.

Bowlegs: So was this beautiful pop album really recorded all over Paris during a two-year period?

Mina: The two-year period is right. We recorded the album mostly in Ménilmontant, a Parisian neighbourhood, up on a hill. But we also brought our suitcases and a few mics to Normandy, in a small and beautiful church. Then we recorded at a friend’s house in Brooklyn – some trombones with Benjamin Hofer Lanz, a wonderful musician.

Bowlegs: With such a long process I imagine you were getting more and more proficient in the studios as you recorded – did you notice this at all? Did it result in scrapping any of those tracks from the start of the process?

Mina: It is true, when you have all this time in a studio you have the temptation to experiment many things. This freedom is rare. In the end I think I wrote half of the record during this time. So I wanted to include these new tracks and sometimes had to let other ‘older’ songs go.

Bowlegs: Each track has its own personality – it means I have a favourite new track every week! How did you go about arranging each track? Did the songs in their stripped down form suggest where and how they should develop and grow?

Mina: Thank you. Well, my friend and producer JP Nataf fell in love with some of my demos years ago, and I think he has always tried not to lose what he has liked about them. Then, as I said, we felt free to try new arrangements and bring the songs somewhere else. Not in order to change them, but to make them grow. But we did not always know where, when or how it will end. It was kind of scary.

Bowlegs: Would you say there is a constant thread throughout the record – a constant emotion, vibe, story that you wanted to send out with this album?

Mina: It is a hard question, I don’t know … I guess I am a wondering person. Each song of this record could be summarized as a question, an intuition, a feeling, a struggle. I guess writing a first record is like going on a quest. The thing is, you don’t always know which quest.

Bowlegs: Tell us about Too Loud – it’s got such a vibrant energy to it – what is it about? What instrument do you write these songs on?

Mina: I wrote this song on my vintage and cheap keyboard, with a really cheesy drum machine. Then I recorded it almost live with great musicians I worked with on this record: Maxime Chamoux (from the band (Please) Don’t Blame Mexico), Thomas Pirot (Nelson) and Guillaume Villadier. I think they brought the vibrant energy you talked about. We were in a great studio, near a river, it was sunny, we were eating barbecue ribs! The real life, in other words.

Bowlegs: When you start your next album is there anything you might do differently in the recording process?

Mina: Right now I could say everything! I think changes are good. But this is what I say now. Frankly I have not thought seriously about it yet.

Bowlegs: What female musicians do you take inspiration from?

Mina: I love Kate Bush, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Karen Dalton, Feist … there are many of them. Then I actually listen to male singers a lot, like Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Bill Callahan, or bands like the Dirty Projectors, Beach House. I can go on for a while…

Bowlegs: Do you think it’s a more difficult journey for a musician from France rather than America? Why sing in English? is that purely to get the songs to a wider audience, or does that come naturally to you?

Mina: I do not know about the difficulty. As far as singing in English, it has been natural at first. Because I came to music through an Anglo-Saxon angle. I had a band called The Limes, with some friends based in North Carolina, then I lived in the US for a while. Nevertheless, I feel more inclined to write in French or even in Spanish these days. Because, in a weird way, I find it less expected.

Bowlegs: Now the album is out there and garnering such great reviews, what do you have planned for the remainder of 2012?

Mina: Touring I guess, resting a bit when I can, travelling with friends.

Bowlegs: And if you’re coming to the UK, we really hope you’ll find time to pop by the Bowlegs studio and do a music session with us!

Mina: Well, invitation accepted!

Bowlegs: Bleed Bleed Bleed is, […]]]>

We think the latest Thieves Like Us album, Bleed Bleed Bleed, is their finest yet. In fact we scored it with an impressive 8.5/10 back in March, falling for its electro-retro-pop, the icy edge and a more political backbone. Being that we are still listening to the album on a daily basis we felt an interview was in order. Band member Andy Grier stepped up to the mark and told us what we wanted to know.

Bowlegs: Bleed Bleed Bleed is, in our opinion, your finest yet. Was there anything noticeably different in the creation process for this record?

Andy: Captured Tracks gave us a budget for recording, so we were able to take time from our other jobs and just focus on the record. So it was recorded in a much smaller time span (three months). Our last record, Again and Again, was one year in the making and our first record, Play Music, probably took two years.

I also think we are generally less interested in dance/club music. We were still catering to that with Again and Again. We actually never were good club people. I think in the beginning we thought we could do it. I suppose Drugs In My Body was almost a joke. Like how do we put the Durutti Column’s Sketch For Summer on the dance-floor. That was eight years ago. We have seen the club tastes drifting even further from aesthetics. So, we don’t even want to try that path.

I am surprised how many DJ types show up and ask us about new dance music. We have no idea about what’s happening now really. New rave and electro? We don’t even get it. (I bought a Hawkwind record today.) We were always into sort of spaced out pop music. So I think Bleed Bleed Bleed is just a more honest record. 

Bowlegs: You are now a five piece – how has that changed the dynamic? Are the newbies settling in okay?

Andy: I think it is good to switch things around. Like expanding your cast. I only have one singing voice with one monotonous range. It’s always deadpan. Martine has a huge range and way more emotion than me. We can cover a lot more song territory now. It’s completely different working with women. It’s great, really. We were all friends before, so it has been pretty easy.

Bowlegs: We read that with all the bad news in the world you just couldn’t write about heartbreak anymore – so instead we get the economy in meltdown and over-militarization?

Andy: Maybe I am paranoid. I don’t know. We do live in ridiculous times. I’ve just kind of watched the world change since September 11. The Internet’s omnipresence, so much security (especially in America). Data mining. Dwindling resources. Ever read Philip K. Dick? It’s all boiling up. Something has to happen. Anyways, I certainly see a lack of the political/hippie philosophy in new pop music. Just trying to educate the kids.

Bowlegs: I love the track Still Life – I get the sense it’s about the greed of some and the struggle for others in everyday life?

Andy: Ah, that was about my parents. They followed the American dream. Bought into the ruse. They worked hard. My father served in Vietnam. In spite of doing everything they were told to, they seem quite sad today.

Bowlegs: How’s life on Captured Tracks? Good place to be?

Andy: It’s amazing. They have been very supportive. They even re-released our instrumental record Berlin Alex. Mike (Sniper) and I just collaborated on a song with Patricia from Soft Metals. Hopefully there will be more collaborations to come.

Bowlegs: Why did you include two alternative versions of the title track? Is there a message in there?

Andy: Ha. The stories behind songs… Well, we had two versions and we thought they were very good. We knew the album was going to be called Bleed Bleed Bleed, but we didn’t have titles for those tunes yet. So, we slapped them on there. I guess overall the record is about the blood of the small people building the planet for the elite.

Bowlegs: Obviously the 80s are an influence on the band’s sound, what bands from that decade do you still listen to?

Andy: Well we have heavy synth use, so I guess that puts us under the 1980s influence realm. But I just went through some recent records. There’s not too much 80s stuff, mostly 60s and 70s music. I did see Alpha Blondy and the Gun Club in there though. I guess I still like all the Tones On Tails stuff too.

Bowlegs: What current records have you been listening to?

Andy: Oh, I got the last Blonde Redhead. That is pretty good. And of course releases on our label. Blouse, Dive and Blank Dogs!

Bowlegs: And what’s the plan for the rest of 2012?

Andy: In the Autumn we are going to do some European, Mexican, and South American touring in the autumn. But at the moment we are trying to write new songs.

Bowlegs: So Nick, do you try to swerve away from the baggage […]]]>

Nick Zammuto of experimental New York duo the Books has been releasing tracks since last summer with a new band Zammuto. With his eponymous new album we have another landmark addition to the post 2000 avant-pop oeuvre, in every way the equal of Sufjan Stevens’ Age of Adz, Fol Chen or Cornelius. This is bright, angular, literate and kaleidoscopic art music, but not of the dry and academic variety.

Bowlegs: So Nick, do you try to swerve away from the baggage that most listeners would equate with experimental music?

Nick: I love the word ‘swerve’ but I hate the word ‘experimental’, precisely because of the expectation that challenging music needs to sound unlistenable. I tend to steer towards music that has a tension of opposites. As much as it’s possible to be simultaneously simple and complex, dark and light, familiar and unfamiliar, smart and dumb… that’s what holds my personal interest and tends to come out of my studio process.

Bowlegs: There are some fantastic performances on this album. The players really make their instruments sing, and the editing process makes the listener double take as to what could be real and what isn’t. Performances are shredded, re-composed, hollowed out and turned upside down. Is it important to you to work with interesting performances, or do you leave it until the editing stage to find or even make the good performances?

Nick: I like working with fragments that are fundamentally strong, that can stand up to the abuse I subject them to while working with them. Generally speaking, the word ‘real’ or ‘genuine’ has been culturally assaulted and reappropriated so many times, that it became a great musical interest of mine to ride those fine lines as much as possible. It’s fertile ground for me, still. That process of creative destruction feels essential to get at the themes I’m interested in. The great thing is that the folks who have seen our show so far seem to agree that the live show is better than the record, which really makes me happy. Gene, Sean, and Mikey can take the shredded stuff I write and reinterpret it in a way that brings it to life on the stage. They make what I do with our record sessions much better, a lot of which is worked out in rehearsals, or night by night at shows.”

Bowlegs: Your lyrics are smart, like the “We could put an name on it but it’s not the real name”, from Idiom Wind. How do the lyrics play in to the composition process? And is that a reference to Baudrillard?

Nick: In that Baudrillard is referencing the first verse of the ‘Tao Te Ching’, yes! Thanks, I spend a lot of time on lyrics and they often come late in the process. I often sing gibberish over chords and rhythms to find melodies and the general tone of the delivery, and then replace those takes with lyrics once I find a unifying approach between the music and the words. I take inspiration from many sources, although not usually from literature. I tend to borrow from banal or colloquial sources or from ancient texts, with not much in between.

Bowlegs: It’s overcoming the challenge of keeping things that are incredibly complex sounding really simple and direct that impresses us. Is that something that you are aware of? Is that an aesthetic discipline or are you trying to make more direct the connection between you and the listener?

Nick:The Books never transcended our meta-band status. First on my mind with the new project was to make a live show that kills. I don’t want to be a museum piece anymore, I’d much rather engage people who are standing up and are free to express themselves in less controlled environment. Everything’s been recalibrated for that. For now, the directness of the writing translates to a more visceral show, and I try to pack as much detail into that as possible without it becoming fragile or inflexible.”

Bowlegs: So where do The Books leave off and Zammuto begin? What defined a Books song and now a Zammuto song? Is the a difference in the process? Or is it the content that makes the difference?

Nick: I’m working with almost the same exact team I had with The Books, and their loyalty has been a huge help in getting this new project off the ground. The biggest difference is working with a live timekeeper, which The Books precluded me from doing. I feel incredibly lucky to have found drummer Sean Dixon (by way of Gene Back, our multitalented guitarist/keyboardist/orchestrator). Working with Sean, along with learning how to properly record a drum kit in my home studio, has been a real game changer for me. Sean has a very unique approach to his discipline… he’s a real scientist, but always plays with a lot of heart, which is a rare gift. We’ve really connected over figuring out how to use polyrhthms effectively as a compositional trope.

Bowlegs: What new electronic/experimental artists do you feel are pushing the limits and making music you want to hear?

Nick: Well, I’m just coming out of a year of musical isolation so I don’t feel particularly well versed in whats going on now. In general I’m excited for music to open up spatially, and for younger writers to resist the urge to fill every second with a million sounds. I’m looking for longer, more open lines now, with clear and confident production. I’m hesitant to name names because there are so many people doing great work. While working on the last record my staples were mostly classics like The Police, Paul Simon, and Steve Reich.

-Interview by Julian Tardo-

Bowlegs: Is the album’s title directed at anyone in particular?

Adam: I Love You, It’s Cool was penned […]]]>

Bear in Heavens’ latest record, I Love You Man, It’s Cool, is a masterclass in pushing pop sideways, using its strengths to unearth new ground. With a crate-load of alternative anthems built with synths and rhythm it’s hard not to get lost in the group’s ever-growing musical universe. In fact we surrender, all we want now is answers, thankfully guitar man Adam Wills obliged.

Bowlegs: Is the album’s title directed at anyone in particular?

Adam: I Love You, It’s Cool was penned on a note and left for the band by our former band-mate Sadek Bazaraa. It wound up as the title of this new record because it seems so universal. We could say that to anyone, anywhere, and it would make sense. It’s directed at you as much as it’s directed at ourselves. It’s nice that way.

Bowlegs: The excellent Reflection of You is heavy on the synths – do all these songs start on a guitar and then get the synth treatment afterwards?

Adam: Every song starts differently, but rarely on a guitar. I think that’s allowed us to write some structures and chord progressions that are, I don’t know, ‘different’.

Bowlegs: Do you feel there is a shift in sound for this record? If so how, why – and was it pre-planned?

Adam: It was pre-planned in the sense that we never want to repeat ourselves. Outside of that, what came out of us and on to record was natural and was simply just the next step for us musically.

Bowlegs: You’ve said that you wanted a record people could dance to, but still have the need to take a pop song and ruin it. It seems a good way of describing the tunes here?

Adam: That quote is getting tossed around a lot. Basically, what I was trying to say there is that we’ll never shake the desire to toy with chord structures and progressions. We’ve changed a lot in eight years as a band. We may write songs that are in 4/4 and under four-minutes in length, but that song is probably in F# and has a punishing drone at the end. We are just having fun and being true to ourselves.

Bowlegs: The first Bear in Heaven release was back in 2003, do you still have as much enthusiasm as those early recordings? Any old, unused tracks you still have plans for?

Adam: A record is a document. We have hard proof of who we were as musicians and as a band from back then, that’s great. Very proud of every step we’ve made and it’s nice that we have the ability to listen back and be inspired.

Bowlegs: What’s the live set up for touring this new record? How is it coming across? Do you all still get excited about going on tour?

Adam: We still get very excited. Touring is a wild thing. It creates scenarios you’d never ever, ever experience at home. There’s a magical energy that is created when you wake up in a different city every day. The possibilities are endless. From the conversations you participate in to the food you eat, tour is always a life changer.

As far as live set up, we’re drums, keys, guitar and bass. This time we’ve got a pretty intense live show that feels like a fourth member.

Bowlegs: We’re loving Sinful Nature – who sings ‘Shitty Songs’? What’s the song about?

Adam: Uncreative people sing shitty songs. This song is for the shy girls out there that spend a lot of time thinking cool thoughts but don’t let other people know about them. I want them to let go; it’s a shame to keep those thoughts to yourself. Even if people suck sometimes.

Bowlegs: What records were you spinning on the build up and during the recording process? Are you constantly being inspired by new and old music? Name a couple of pivotal records that you always go back to?

Adam: Didn’t listen to anything during the making of the record, outside of drones/sacred chants and our own demos. Next time you see us in person, we’ll go on and on about records, it’s such a dense subject that my brain freezes up.

Bowlegs: Are you a fairly democratic band? I guess being a three-piece means if you vote there will always be a majority.

Adam: We are indeed a democratic band. We are, first and foremost, friends, and now family at the deepest level. We don’t make decisions without over talking it and often arguing, but the result is decisions that we can stand by. So, it’s worth it.

Bowlegs: What’s the plan for 2012?

Adam: Touring touring touring, welcoming Phasey to the world and writing a funk record.

Bowlegs: There seems to be a real consolidation of […]]]>

School of Seven Bells’ third album, Ghostory, is their finest yet. Among the dream-weaving audio are visions of a girl called Lafaye and the ghosts that inhabit her life. Every track throws vivid imagery into a mix of atmospheric sounds and pop-flowing bliss. We of course cornered singer Alejandra Deheza, asking her questions about the record, the inspiration, and if there is any chance someone will ever make Lafaye – The Movie.

Bowlegs: There seems to be a real consolidation of your sound on this album – it feels like all your previous strengths have come together to create a real sense of directness and urgency. Would you agree with this and, if so, was there a point in the writing or recording where it all clicked and you went with it?

Alejandra: I definitely agree with this. A lot of it has to do with when and how we wrote it. We wrote it coming off of tour and waiting to start tour again in the month that followed. We had all of the live energy from the shows we’d just done and the chance to channel it into something completely new. We just sat side by side for a month, bouncing ideas off of each other, pretty much writing nonstop, until we had the songs that would become Ghostory. 
 
Bowlegs: Youʼve said the concept behind Ghostory is that of feelings, people and experiences in your life following you like ghosts. Was the album a form of exorcism of these ghosts, or more to do with confronting them and learning to live with them?

Alejandra: I think it’s more along the lines of confronting them and learning how to deal with them. That kind of energy never goes away. Any kind of intense situation leaves an impression that becomes a part of you forever. The only way I’ve been able to use this energy is by getting to know it really well and that’s super tough. I avoided feeling these things because they’re painful, because they’re uncomfortable, and developing that habit definitely took its toll. It has been cathartic, but definitely an intense learning experience for me. Everything is influenced by those things you think are hidden. They want a voice too and they find a way to be heard, whether you like it or not.

 
Bowlegs: Thereʼs something very cinematic in both the narrative and the music here. Do you have leanings towards different medias? Might we see Lafaye – The Movie?

Alejandra: It’s funny because I’m probably the worst person to ask about frequencies in a kick drum eq (which is why I leave that to Ben to wrangle), but the best person to ask about what a sound looks like. That’s why I write vocals and lyrics. I hear things super visually. Making a film with that in mind would be amazing!
 
Bowlegs: Youʼve both been in other bands and School of Seven Bells was a three-piece before. Did you find the creative process easier between the two of you or were there times when another wall to bounce ideas off would have eased things along a little?

Alejandra: I think creatively this was a pretty natural evolution for us. We thrive on change. It’s the one thing that has remained a consistent factor in the life of our band. We wrote the majority of the record in between two tours that we did with Interpol. Benjamin and I first talked about doing School of Seven Bells on a tour with them 2004. In a way our experience as a band came full circle. And I think our vision for it definitely solidified with this record.

Bowlegs: The whole album is a great listening journey – you got the balance between movement and tension just right in my opinion. Did you have to put a lot of work into transferring this to the live arena? Have you had to change things around much to make it work in front of an audience? 

Alejandra: We have two amazing musicians on tour with us right now. We have Chris Colley on drums and Allie Alvarado on keys and vocals. Allie actually opened up the first SVIIB show ever. We’ve since then played on bills with her band Painted Face and just known that we wanted to work with her in some capacity. I jumped at the opportunity to ask her to play in the band.

 
Bowlegs: I talked earlier about a new cohesion to your sound – do you think the next album will be of a similar ilk or do you naturally shake things up a little and try different things? If so, have any new ideas started to manifest themselves yet?

Alejandra: I have some little ideas here and there, but I’m really just concentrating on Ghostory right now and giving these songs their due. That is, after all, what the record is about.
 
Bowlegs: Ghostory is perhaps quite a personal piece of work. Were there specific reasons for inventing the Lafaye character rather than go down the spill your guts route that some artists tend to do?
 
Alejandra: I built the story around Lafaye, because I couldn’t possibly claim these stories as just my own. Everyone feels these things. Everyone has these stories in their life.  
 
Bowlegs: With the changes to the band and the slight shift in musical delivery, were you worried before the record came out that people might not get it? What are your thoughts on the album being so well received?

Alejandra: It’s gotten so much love from the fans so far, and that means so much to me. The fans are the reason why we can keep doing this. I think the songs stand pretty tall on their own and the love is there. I knew that people would get that. I still can’t believe that I can travel and play songs for a living. I feel super super lucky.

-Interview by Steve Manser-Knight-

Bowlegs: Why start another […]]]>

Come Friday afternoon our soundtrack of choice is still the self-titled debut from Phèdre, its just got an impulsive vibe that we know will get us kickstarted for the weekend. In fact we’ve been bathing in its lo-fi glow and impulsive electronics since we heard it back in February. Obviously we felt impelled to hunt down those responsible for such infectious tunes – finally cornering one third of the band in the shape of April Aliermo.

Bowlegs: Why start another group when you’ve already got so many other projects on the go?

April: We like all kinds of things. People become really attached to bands sticking to the identities that the public is familiar with. We didn’t start anything new. We’re doing what we have always been doing – creating art and music and putting it out into the world. Hooded Fang, Phèdre, tonkapuma, Hut … it’s just us always making whatever we feel like at the moment. 

Bowlegs: Who’s the Greek mythologist in the band? Who came up with the name and was it in a long list of options?

April: None of us and all of us. Aren’t everyone’s lives filled with love, lust and drama? Greek myths. The soap operas of the ages – going on and on, until everybody dies. Petty human selfishness, matched with loving human tenderness. The myths encapsulate the petty dramas of the gods and the humans, so wrapped up in themselves that they live in oblivious self-centredness.  

Some velvet morning we all dreamt the same dream. We were all crying. A beautiful dark skinned woman with flowing black hair took us in her arms and brought us to her cosy den. Phèdre was the only option.

Bowlegs: In Decay is one of the best tracks I’ve heard in a long while – was it an obvious choice for a single?

April: Not at all. Watch out, more singles to come.

Bowlegs: And how did the awesome video come about? It looks like it was a fun shoot?

April: We’re all pretty enthused by life and all that you can imagine being true in it. When you’re driven by whatever excites you, you end up creating fun and awesomeness.

Bowlegs: How were the songs written? Did you set a period of time aside to dedicate to the project?

April: The songs were conceived over a few wine-filled days in an attic. With a no-looking back writing and recording policy, it is the result of highly independent-minded individuals somehow combining their egos onto a project of spontaneous trust and art. A slicked-up version of crass decadent spontaneity and recklessness. It combines aspects of everything we’ve ever worked on, be it sounds, visual art, life-provoking ideas of lust and disgust, or a fuck you to all seriousness and regulations. We laugh about it because it was so easy to make, and are so serious about it because it is true.  

Bowlegs: Did you have a clear idea on what you wanted the songs to sound like? Did you mix it up from what you normally play in the day jobs?

April: We didn’t actively choose any direction. We just let our excitement and artistic sensibilities direct our process.   

Bowlegs: How did you manage to sneak a bit if hip hop into Cold Sunday?

April: We just go with whatever excites us. It made the most sense. It just fit.

Bowlegs: What’s your favourite track on the record and why??

April: It depends on the moment. Cold Sunday when you’re getting ready to take over the world. Aphrodite when you want to dance. Dreams when you’re getting sexy. Love Ablaze when you want to dream. It depends on the moment.

Bowlegs: What’s the future for Phèdre? Tell us we’re going to get more!

April: Phèdre is a goddess. She’s immortal.

Any artist who has such an extreme effect on our senses can expect us to come a knocking, Mr Wexler is no exception […]]]>

Brooklyn’s Mike Wexler just released his sophomore record, Dispossession, on Mexican Summer – and we loved every minute of it. In fact we went so far as to say: “It’s atmospheric and washed-out, but deeply layered mescaline folk – as unsettling as it is hypnotic, with Wexler spinning song after song through your mind in a hazy blur”.

Any artist who has such an extreme effect on our senses can expect us to come a knocking, Mr Wexler is no exception – thankfully he was more than up for a chat.

Bowlegs: Dispossession was a while in the making – how did the songs evolve from first inception to what we hear on the record?

Mike: The songs on this record started out as amoeba-like organisms before evolving into higher animals, first with guitar and voice only, and then with the full band arrangements, and then further with overdubs. I always somehow wind up describing the process in organic terms, so ‘evolve’ is definitely the right word here. Songs seem to have a life and a will of their own. Half the battle is learning to allow them to develop according to their own DNA, without imposing some preconceived idea about how things should go.

Bowlegs: What kind of input did the people who collaborated on the record bring? What did they add to the songs?

Mike: Without the band, or with another band, it would have been a totally different affair. Part of the fun for me is hearing what other musicians choose to do with the raw material I bring them. I may make suggestions here and there, but ultimately it’s their contribution you hear. Andy Macleod, Ryan Sawyer, Brent Cordero, Matt Marinelli, Nate Wooley, Jessica Pavone, Yoed Nir, Shelley Burgon, Jordi Wheeler, Tianna Kennedy … did I forget anyone? 

Bowlegs: What influenced you while writing the tracks? Did you take on different influences when it came to recording?

Mike: Songs are words and music, so apart from listening to songwriters I’m always looking to what people do with just words and just music. And then the idea is to see if there’s a new way for the two worlds to meet. In the studio, I’m thinking about what works in a recording, which is different from what works when four people are playing in a room. Hearing the sound come from a set of speakers changes everything. So I guess, at that point, I’m more liable to be influenced by my record collection. 

Bowlegs: Spectrum is an eight-minute haunting epic – can you tell us what it’s about? 

Mike: Well, I can tell you that there’s a visual spectrum, and there’s a spectrum of light outside the visual spectrum, and then there’s the harmonic spectrum of overtones. I had the image of what happens in a prism, where white light is broken into its component colours, but reversed, so that the colours all fuse into one colour. Light has a lot to do with intelligence, seeing and understanding. So for me it’s an image of the history of consciousness, seen from this point in time. We may be on the verge of a major leap forward in terms of artificial intelligence – an amazing and somewhat disquieting thought. 

Bowlegs: Where did the title of the album originate from? What’s the story behind it?

Mike: A long time ago, around when I was making my first EP, I saw Maya Deren’s film Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti.

I was really taken with it. In the film you witness the phenomenon of possession, central to Haitian Voudoun, where the loa, or god, inhabits the body of the practitioner in order to interact directly with the community. It’s not like demonic possession, or maybe it is, but seen with the opposite valuation. In Voudoun, you want to be possessed: it’s part of religious life. So I’ve been thinking about this since that first record, which takes up some of the themes from the film. Dispossession came from that line of thinking, but it also inhabits many other contexts and connotations that appeal to me, notably the material sense of being cast out of house and home.

Bowlegs: The sound of Dispossession is a world away from the other stuff we hear emanating from Brooklyn – do you feel any affinity with your geographical peers? Do you feel part of a scene there?

Mike: There’s an amazing scene here, but the scene that I feel a part of is really diverse. It’s more about mutual appreciation and encouragement. I don’t know that the music I’m making has all that much in common with that of my peers. 

Bowlegs: How much thought did you put into the song order on the album? It seems to be front-loaded with the longer, more epic tracks, before bringing in three shorter numbers and then heading back into the nine-minute plus Liminal. Is there any reason for this?

Mike: I knew which songs would be first and last, otherwise I was just looking to fit everything onto two vinyl sides in a way that felt right in terms of flow.

Bowlegs: Are you planning to tour the album and, if so, how are the songs going to translate when you come to play them live? Are you going to bring a band with you or go it alone? 

Mike: It’s important to me when writing that a song can stand up in solo context, so these songs definitely have another hidden life. I still plan to do the occasional solo show, but when I tour it will be with the band.  

Bowlegs: What have you got planned for the rest of 2012? 

Mike: I’m well into writing a follow up to this record, so hopefully I can make some serious headway there. I think the next record will be a continuation or sequel to this one, very loosely speaking. Dispossession ends with something of a cliffhanger. If it can be said that there’s a story involved, it’s not finished.

-Interview by David Standen-