Jan 6, 2016
Punking out in the Bowery in NYC over Christmas
seen from Türkiye
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Punking out in the Bowery in NYC over Christmas
SXSW Interview: Bad Veins
Originally Posted at the Horn Publication
Interviewer : Lee Ackerley aka Slackerlee
Bad Veins returned to Austin to subject themselves to the musician meat market they call SXSW. I sat down with Cincinnati natives Jake Bonta and Benjamin Davis to discuss the band’s new lineup, their oddball stage antics, and the rollercoaster ride of a run they’ve had these last few years.
I heard you played a show at 1AM last night, are you guys wiped out? How is the SXSW experience so far?
Ben: Oh goodness. We got in on Tuesday and we drove through the night and were really disoriented, and kind of just chilled out for awhile, and came down on Wednesday for the first time. Jake has never been to a SXSW, I’ve been here once before with my old drummer, but this is the first time here with the new lineup.
So why did your drummer Sebastian quit? And how did you find Jake?
Ben: We had been a band for 3-4 years. It is hard to say exactly. For me Bad Veins is a way of life, I don’t feel that I am sacrificing to do it. I mean I can’t have a normal job. I haven’t had a normal job in like five years, with all the traveling and stuff. I think with him it was more of a sacrifice, I think he felt that he was missing out on other things. Being in a band is hard. If you have the idea that you are going to get huge quickly and you don’t, then you’ll be disappointed. Where if you are just like, this is the way it works, then you will be fine. We had different ideas.
So he expected a steeper trajectory?
Ben: Right, but even in the past year since Jake has joined, the trajectory has just been up. Our crowds have been better in every city and we’ve had better opportunities.
So how did Jake join?
Ben: As far as Jake joining, it is almost an embarrassing anecdote. Jake, under pressure from his father, put a video on Craigslist. So he thought it was a nerdy thing to do, to put something on Craigslist. I would never look on Craigslist because I would also think it was nerdy. My friend knew that I needed a drummer, so he went looking for me on Craigslist. He would send me these videos of these big heavyweight metal drummers, picking on me by sending all of these jokes. But then he sent me a video of Jake, and I almost didn’t look at it because I was tired of all of the jokes, but then I clicked on it and thought to myself “This guy is good. This guy is really good and, he kind of plays like Sebastian. He might even play better than Sebastian”
What has been you favorite part about travelling the world?
Ben: That’s an easy one. Touring with Two Door Cinema Club, good friends of ours from Ireland. They invited us to tour last fall along with St. Lucia . We would go out and play to thousands of kids every night. We’ve done four or five tours with them as they’re big fans of ours and we love them. It doesn’t get any better than that because they have such a young fan base, they are so enthusiastic and they want to love you before they even hear a note. It’s a very rewarding thing.
So with all these young fans, do you get a lot of attention from the female demographic? Or do you have girlfriends?
Ben: No comment on any of that (laughs)
Well I laid that trap and you just jumped right over it.
You have been on tour with a lot of big names, have you developed any mentors over these years?
Ben: Hmmm that’s a good question.
Jake: For me personally, I haven’t really connected with any of the bands that we have toured with but there are personal mentors from Cincinnati that I’ve known my whole life that I stay in touch with.
Ben: I really wish I did have some mentors. I mean we are pals with a lot of bands that are bigger and more successful than us and, we kind of watch what they do to be more professional, even logistical things, but as far as songwriting and the creative side, not at all really.
What does the Cincinnati scene look like these days?
Ben: I think that Cincinnati feels like Detroit. There is a lot of garage rock and, a lot of dirty hipster rock. We call them gypsters, a mixture of gypsies and hipsters. At the same time there are friends like Walk the Moon, hat are very similar to us. There are also a lot of different bands like Tweens and other outlier bands but no real collective sound. There are a lot of cool bands but no cohesiveness.
Jake: I would say that’s one of our biggest struggles when putting on shows in our hometown. Cincinnati is so up and down that you would have a pop band opening up for a metal band all the time.
You have a unique stage aesthetic that involves military garb, an old time reel projector named Irene, and a Bad Veins army that makes up your fan club. Was this all preconceived or did it just come together naturally?
Ben: It was definitely not preconceived. If anything, they were creative solutions to problems that we were encountering. For example, my dad gave the reel projectors, and I told him I had no use for it, but he said that I was a musician and that I could find a use for it. This was before Bad veins so I was playing solo stuff and would have to have backing tracks play but, with the projector, the pre-recorded sounds would at least be visually represented, so when people realized that I wasn’t playing all the instruments, they wouldn’t call shenanigans and, not focus on the music. I also had an old vintage megaphone that I gotten at a second hand store out of my love for Tom Waits and Sparklehorse. So I’m doing an old Tom Waits impression but I sound like Brandon Flowers. Nobody has ever said “Oh they’re trying for Tom Waits” about us, its always “Oh they’re trying to be the Strokes”. So the megaphone came out of that. All of our aesthetics have been based on random hand-me–downs.
You mentioned that Cincinnati is like Detroit. Kiss had the Kiss Army and now you have the Bad Veins Army. Where did that idea come from?
Ben: It is very hard to maintain connections while on their road. I would take a picture of a city and post it on social media and then some friend would comment it on the day after saying “What?!? You were in town?” So I realized we started building this network of people so when we came to cities, we could call upon all the fans that we know
Speaking of fans, are you fans of any other SXSW acts? Any bands that you are keen on seeing?
Ben: I feel like we are so busy with our own shows and people that we have to meet up with. Chromeo played last night and Charli XCX too, I love them both but there is just no time. I was here a few years ago when Metallica played for the Guitar Hero party or something but apparently it was the smallest show that they had played in twenty years. It was amazing!
You guys have been blessed to achieve relative success in a short amount of time, what has the momentum been like throughout these last few years?
Ben: We have had a rough time locking in a solid team that is right for the band. I feel like everyone on earth thinks they are the greatest band manager. It is difficult to navigate sometimes. When you’re a rookie trying to find your way, you are going to make mistakes, and we’ve done that plenty.
If you weren’t doing Bad Veins what would you be doing?
Jake: I would be posting on Craigslist. Just kidding. I have no idea.
Ben: I honestly don’t know. I’ve been doing commercials and stuff but that started because of Bad Veins. I feel like I could be good at graphic design but it is just hard to imagine doing anything else besides music with my time.
Interview: Boyfrndz
Boyfrndz is an Austin band with lofty aspirations and enough creativity under their wings to back it up. Soaring vocals meld with whirring guitars and expansive rhythms to create a dissonant sound that will have you hooked instantaneously. Whether you call them Shoegaze, Experimental, or just plain fucking awesome, Boyfrndz is definitely worth a listen. We sat down with lead singer and guitarist, Scott Martin, to discuss the band’s origin, inspirations, and upcoming album.
Interview by Lee Ackerley
Lee: I hear you’re quite the coffee fanatic, if Boyfrndz were a blend, how would it taste?
Scott: I imagine it would be pretty nutty…. and strong I guess.
Lee: You guys have been labeled as 'Shoegaze'. Do you embrace that terminology?
Scott: Honestly I don’t really know what that means. I remember reading once that it was just people staring at their shoes, like pedal stompers or something. Those kind of terms evolve and turn into new things, but sure, I guess it fits.
Lee: So what was the genesis of Boyfrndz, how did you guys meet?
Scott: Aaron, the drummer and I, have known each other since high school. He’s always been in bands and had this band awhile back that I auditioned for as lead singer. It turned out that I was pretty bad at singing, like real bad. So yeah, I tried that and it didn’t work out and they had another lead singer for a long time and I was supportive and was always really about it and always wanted to be in the band, but it never really stuck. He was in a really good band called Toronado. Toronado was starting to fizzle a little bit, so we ended up getting a place downtown with a buddy of his, about where Cenote is now on the East side. We were both unemployed coincidentally and started to play together and would improv all day. We would wake up in the morning, walk to Progress, get coffee, come back, smoke some weed, and just play for hours. It was so much fun. Joseph and I, the bass player, had been in a band called We the Grenada. We ended up quitting that band because we felt like we weren’t contributing in that band anymore and weren’t really doing anything with it. We just said ‘fuck it, lets do something different’. So we kind of put two and two together and made a new band.
Lee: Did you intend to create your complex/ experimental sound, or did it come from something more basic?
Scott: No, because We the Granada was an experimental prog type of band. We were kind of ridiculous as far as compositions are concerned. If you listen to the other guitarist from that band, he formed another band now called Feuding Fathers. So Feuding Fathers and Boyfrndz came out of the split of We the Granada, and if you listen to all three bands, you would understand better where the sound came from.
Lee: You said you were unemployed when you got the band going, what would be doing if Boyfrndz was not happening?
Scott: I was working at Uchiko here in town. I actually helped open that restaurant. I was working there and then I left around Christmas and that was when Aaron left his job, so it was just waiting tables, but I guess I’m still waiting tables now.
Lee: When do you think you will have a full-length album?
Scott: Next year. We go in the studio in the middle of September. We aren’t signed so we’re just going to record it ourselves. So far we haven’t had any trouble creating music, so we’re just going to keep on making it happen.
Lee: How do you think the city of Austin has influenced your band?
Scott: It is a lot easier to get your shit together here, because everybody has their shit together. It’s a lot of competition. It’s a lot of people working really hard, which is inspiring in of it’s self. There are certain cities where it seems like all of the popular bands come from like New York or Los Angeles. In Austin, bands seem to get ‘Austin Famous’. They are big here, they do big shows here, and then that’s about that. They forget to tour and really tend to not care about the rest of the world, because they are doing so well here.
Lee: Austin definitely has its own bubble, how do you see Boyfrndz breaking out of that?
Scott: It’s all a big fucking question mark. We don’t know what the best thing to do is. Especially with things like they are today, we don’t know what the best plan is. It’s just a big guess. Basically the best thing do is to write music and to go out and tour and just keep touring.
Lee: What is your favorite show that you have played so far?
Scott: We played the last show ever at Emo’s outside downtown. We were the only opener for Death From Above 1979. That was our first really big show and I think that was probably my favorite show so far.
Lee: What are some influences of yours?
Scott: All three of us listen to so much different stuff. I’ve always been a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan. We’ve always been big Mars Volta bands. We all love Tera Melos. I dunno, just a bunch of Sacramento bands in general like Raleigh Moncrief, and Teddy Brigg’s band. Aaron has been into a bunch of hip-hop lately and R&B stuff, like J-Dilla. I’m also an enormous Grizzly Bear fan.
Lee: Do you feel like you need to keep pushing your boundaries as far as experimentation, or are you satisfied with whatever feels good?
Scott: We are certainly always trying to push boundaries and experiment with different things. Its still something we are always trying to let come out during improve sessions, its not like I’m just sitting in my bedroom and trying to muscle this stuff out. We practice a lot too, we practice four times a week.
Lee: With all the external pressures that act on musicians during this ‘making it’ process, how do you stay sane?
Scott: Smoking weed. (Laughs) Just kidding. No it’s amazing that I don’t go insane. I do all the work as far as management and, I book all of our tours and do the local booking. Also, Joe and I both work 40 hours a week at Second Bar + Kitchen. I am a server and he is a back-wait. That in of it’s self is a great thing because it’s a home base and they are really understanding, and they understand that we are musicians and are respectful of it. This is going to be our fifth tour working while for that company, and it’s fine with them that we do it and are even giving us PTO. It’s pretty unheard for musicians. I mean I’ve lost so many fucking jobs trying to do it. It is just a whole other thing to worry about. That’s why a lot of bands don’t tour because, they have 9-5 jobs, or they work at a fucking sandwich shop and, can’t take the time off to tour. Music makes it easier but for the other stuff, I just put my head down and keep working, because I wouldn’t be happy otherwise.
Lee: Could you envision a life without making music in a band?
Scott: No, if I don’t play a show for a couple of weeks, there is this certain depression that I go through. I get bummed out. If we only practice once a week, like I feel it, it affects me and, it affects my relationships, it’s weird.
Lee: What is your intention going into each show with Boyfrndz?
Scott: I guess it would be to hope that they feel what we are feeling. Make you feel good, make you feel warm, make you feel exactly how we do.
It has been five years in the making, but a comprehensive album from local electro-wizards, Zorch, has finally arrived. Known for their experimental electronic sound and hyper-energetic shows, Zorch, have been playing electrifying shows in Austin for over half a decade before the scheduled release of their debut, Zzoorrcchh, on July 23rd. We sat down with Zac and Sam of Zorch, to discuss the band and their upcoming album.
Interview By: Lee Ackerley
Spin magazine wrote that your band ‘demonstrates how good weird can be’. Do you strive to make avant-garde music or is it just the way it comes out?
Zac: We both make music in a bunch of different ways. I think it evolved naturally between Sam and I through improvisation, as far as what direction we wanted to go and where influences meet. As far as being weird, well that all depends what you define weird as or how normal you might be.
Sam: It’s what kind of music you consume. It’s all relative. It’s all about perception.
You put on an intense live show. What is your intention going into each show?
Zac: To create an experience. You answer this (Laughs)
Sam: For me, my intention is to do something different than what everyone else is doing. So set myself apart but also kind of force you to be in the moment you know, not in a mean way though.
You have played SXSW for the past few years and are very familiar with it. Would you keep playing SXSW if you didn’t necessarily have too?
Zac: I would play it unofficially forever. As far as officially, it depends if the show is right, if we believe in that particular show. I’m not sure where the official SXSW is going but the unofficial side is something that I really support and will continue to do.
Zac you are from Canada,and Sam is from Wisconsin, but you met in Boston.? How did that happen?
Zac: We were in the same dorm at Berklee in our first year. There was another roommate who was there for only a few days before he left. He came back to Berklee a year later and we became friends but now he’s playing in a crazy free jazz band called, Whoarfrost, in Baltimore and they just freak out the whole time.
Awesome, did you guys see that the Locust are playing FFFest?
Zac: Yeah I’m super excited about that.
So where did the idea to move to Austin come from?
Sam: We had been here before to visit and we liked it immediately. Judging from the little we knew of the scene at the time, we looked around saw that there weren’t any bands doing this same thing as us. We moved down here and did our thing and in my opinion I think that we did fill a gap.
How has the Austin scene influenced your music?
Zac: I mean Austin has definitely shaped the person I am so I would say respectfully it has shaped the music I am creating. We are pretty good friends with everybody around here. I don’t know about directly feeling that one particular band has made me right write a certain way, but its only good vibes towards the city operating as a social being here.
What do you think about the Austin electronic scene?
Zac: I run a place that has Exploded Drawing every couple of months and they are really good friends of ours. They definitely have a good thing going for themselves, but I feel that we are cousins of that scene not necessarily part of it. That’s how I feel about a lot of pockets of music in Austin
What is Exploded Drawing?
Zac: It’s a monthly electronic event that they have. Its 20-minute sets of six electronic producers, and our buddies run it and it’s a centerpiece of the electronic scene.
Sam: I am touchy about performance art, whether its rap or electronic music. I just want to see people perform and engage with the audience. So when I see an act, regardless of genre, just kind of standing there pushing a bunch of buttons, I’m going to be bored, unless the music is extraordinary, which is rare for me.
So do you think Austin has a deficiency of interactive bands?
Sam: I’m not necessarily saying that. I’m saying that it probably takes a lot to get engaged foe any band. I hold people to the same standard that I hold myself. If I’m not entertaining, then I need to improve you know
How does it feel releasing five years of material?
Sam: We’ve been so DIY oriented, we’ve been doing everything we can that’s possible to make it work. The most anxiety that we both feel is to just wait and see and trust somebody else to do everything for us. We’ve basically been focusing on writing more stuff. I feel good about the material but it’s a collection of material that we’ve been working on forever. It feels good to work on future stuff as well.
How was the recording process for the new album?
Sam: The whole process took a long time and by the time it was done, I looked back and wondered how I could have done some things better. So I think the next time we make an album, my hope is that it will just be one month in a place with no interruptions, as opposed to taking a long time over many years
How did you guys sign with Sargent House?
Zac: We toured the South enough that different promoters and booking agents around here were recommending us to other Sargent house bands on tour. The first band was Tera Melos, we did four or five days with them and became good friends and I think they put in a good word for us. Then we did a couple of other tours with Sargent House related bands, then we sent Kathy an email and she came out and saw a show in LA. It was a pretty long and organic deal though.
Sam: Well I think the first thing that ever happened was a bunch of kids tweeted at Kathy and told her to sign our band now and demanded it, I cant be sure but I think it was one of the first things. It happened in 2010, it took a long time and lot of show playing and relationship developing , opening for bands on that label mad getting them to put in a good word for us.
What are some of your influences on the new record?
Sam: I think Steve Reich is an ongoing influence for me.
Zac: In terms of form and themes, I pull from composers. In terms of texture and tone, that’s where more of the modern stuff comes in. My favorite stuff is just on a song-by-song basis. The way I approach things is that we establish a pallet of sounds that we want to work with and then within that, we improvise in certain ways when we want to experiment with different colors and textures within the song.
What would you be doing if you weren’t doing music?
Zac: For me, once I got out of school, and well basically my whole life, and Sam’s whole life, we’ve been playing music, and just playing everyday. Once I got out of school, I had student loans, debt and all these things. For me, if this totally failed and I moved to a different city and I wasn’t playing music for my life then I would put that on the failure list, you know. I will always continue to do that. Its just my life at this point, I have to do it to be happy, and its just where all signs are pointing too and what I’ve been working for.
You guys have a psychedelic motif. Do you guys use any mood modifiers that go into making the music?
Zac and Sam: (Laughs) Yeah Hay-ron, and trainquilizers!
Any advice you would give to young Wisconsinite or Canadian who just got to Austin and are trying to make it in music?
Sam: How the fuck did you end up here? (Laughs)
Zac: Doing music, writing original songs, or being in a band as a career is a struggle and you have to keep at it. Only do it if you have to do it, like you are not going to be happy if you don’t, because its’ hard.
Sam: You are going to get fucked over a lot
Zac: If you love it and you have to do it, it’s really satisfying when things do work out
Sam: Its important not to get bitter. Stay positive and good things will happen.
Any more clichés you got for me?
Everclear Last Night at ACL Live
"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" - Beatles (Bassnectar Remix)
I caught this photo while watching Bassnectar at FPSF this past Sunday night. No photoshop is involved, it is just the show's lighting effects making it seem like the souls of the crowd are being sucked out by the trees.
Take My Bones Away - Baroness
Free Press Summer Festival Preview
Coming off a traumatizing bus crash in England that broke his left arm and left leg, while also injuring every other member of metal band Baroness, I spoke with frontman John Baizley to discuss the future of Baroness, as well their latest double album effort.
Lee Ackerley: Where are you right now? John Baizley: We are in Philadelphia preparing for the tour, its where we are based out of. We are kicking off in Philly and touring the Eastern half of the United States for the next month. Why the three year hiatus between the Blue Record andYellow and Green? We toured for three years on the Blue Record almost nonstop, so we had been on the road for 36 months, and then after that we took a full year off to write and record. I guess to the public it looks like a long time, but for us it’s been action nonstop. The band was involved in a bus last August, can you talk about the crash and the effect it has had on the band? I think we’re better. Unfortunately we had to go through a couple of lineup changes, but it's definitely something that we’ve been working on. It’s a challenge to go through an accident, recover, go through lineup changes, and come out stronger. We have definitely stuck to our guns since we were injured.We didn’t want to just come back to be back, you know, we want to improve and come back even better. Can you talk about the lineup changes in the band? Allen and Matt left, was that mutual? It was a mutual thing. It was a pretty rotten thing that we went through and all of us know that if we aren’t physically, mentally and spiritually able to tour and participate in everything that goes with that, then we understand it just isn’t going to happen. It was unfortunate, but nothing too dramatic, nobody was getting fired or anything. The latest double album, Yellow and Green, features your vocals a bit more heavily and is just more expansive as a whole. Was this your intention coming into the record? The intention has always been there. For the decade that we’ve existed, we’ve always wanted to become more expansive and broaden our sonic power. As you go on, you aren’t content with the same. You have to progress as musicians, you have to grow and change. We try not to seek the critical element and try to embrace growth and change wholeheartedly. Do you ever feel pressure from your fans or critics to produce purely ‘metal’ music? Have you run into any criticism? If we feel the pressure or are aware of the pressure, then we certainly don’t react to it. I think it is a complete mistake for us or a band like us to heed the dictation of our audience in terms of how we approach our music. When we started the band, we started with ideas and no fans, and through the years we’ve stuck to our guns in doing what is interesting to us and inspires us. Hopefully the audience will be there with us on that ride and feel the same way. It’s just the case that we are going to write music how we want and we are aware of the public reception of that, but that doesn’t mean that has to shape what we produce in any way, shape or form. Who are your non-metal influences? If you understand yourself to be a musician, for example, if you are a blues musician, your best influences are going to be non-blues influences. For us we have a lot of influences that don’t sound like Baroness; it s the decision to swim against it or alongside it that allows you to use the influence. Country, rock, hip-hop, electronic, whatever. If it's good music, then it is influential. It might show up in the backbeat or the atmosphere, in the textures or tones. It’s all the better and it's uncharted territory, and that’s interesting for us. It’s also important not to be a retro act above all else, so you have to adapt, and be influenced by what’s going around you to create refreshing music. It's as simple as that. You were just down here for SXSW, what is your take on the festival? I can’t even count how many times I’ve been to Austin but this was my second SXSW I’ve been too, and the first that I’ve performed as a solo artist. SXSW is what it is. It’s a promotional tool for artists, let's not call it a festival that’s about the music, let’s call it a festival that’s about marketing. I knew that when I went down there. I was down there trying to get myself back up on the horse, so to speak, after the accident. You don’t go there expecting that every show you play is going to be one hundred percent fans. The best-case scenario is a 50/50 split between fans and press, or labels, or whomever. I had no specific agenda accept to just play music, so it was kind of fun. I didn't have to sweat anything too much. How did you end up playing FPSF Fest? I don’t know too much about the fest’s history, but it’s certainly a time for us to go out, play, and figure out who we are circa 2013 lineup. I’m trying to feel comfortable playing again and get back into the groove of the touring lifestyle. We are doing a couple of other festivals and honestly, for a band like Baroness, the type of festival that Houston FPSF is great for us. If we are at a metal festival, we’re just another band, and are usually one of the lightest bands. When we play independent music fests or variety fests, then we’re the heaviest band there. Depending on the lineup, the hat we wear sort of changes. For me it's fun to be the odd band out, because then we can go out and see completely different bands on the same bill. I kind of know what to expect as far as metal bands, and occasionally I’m blown away, but more often than not I’ve kind of seen it. Any bands that you are keen on seeing while you are at the festival? As many times as the Stooges play, I’m down to see them. There is going to be a cap on how many times you can see them from this day forward, so I’m all about it. They are totally influential, and they are still kicking ass. Where do you see Baroness going in the next 5 years? Our goal is pretty simple. It may look trite on paper, but this is the truth, my real goal is to be excited and interested to play, as I am right now. I think you just want to remain invested and constantly challenged by what you do, and avoid it turning it into a job that you dread. I want to enjoy this as much as I do today in five years.
Catch Baroness at The Mohawk on Saturday, June 1 as part of Chaos in Tejas, and in Houston at Free Press Summer Fest on June 2
"Panamese Nights" - Infinite Apaches
Free Press Summer Festival Preview
My personal hometown pick for FPSF are Houston-based Infinite Apaches. This five-piece upstart group has a creative confidence that enables them to experiment with 60’s-era pop intertwined with primal garage rock and psychedelic tangents. Band founders Carl Von Rond and Stephen Burton have a youthful rebelliousness that brings favorable comparisons to other psych/garage groups like the Black Lips and The King Kahn BBQ Show. If the title of their soon to be released album, Suave Creation of the Monolithic Other, isn’t indicative of this band’s untethered experimental direction, then their frenetic and wanton live show will fill in the blanks. Houston, we seem to have our own garage-rock heroes! SATURN STAGE - SAT, JUNE 1, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
