Crustcake Interviews Made Out Of Babies

by crustcake gerf (NYC)

A few weeks ago, I met up with Made Out Of Babies' vocalist Julie Christmas for a drink and a conversation about her background in music, MOoB's new album The Ruiner (out today via The End), our mutual love for Earth, and more.

Crustcake: I want to ask you about influences. For the band, and you personally. I hear Quicksand, personally. I don't know if you guys get that at all.

Julie Christmas: I don't think that's come up just yet. But I could see why, definitely on this last album.

Crustcake: It's more of a drum thing, for me. Because I'm a drummer, and that's what I hear. It's got sort of that 90's post-hardcore energy. But what would you say you're influenced by?

Julie Christmas: I think everybody in the band has different, separate influences, but there are some that we all share. And those are like Melvins, Jesus Lizard. For me it's the singers, so... But I don't think I'm influenced by any of the-- I mean, I'm influenced by how creative Shannon from The Cows was... and David Yow, but my influences-- I don't think I really have any. There are people I'd like to sound like. Or be able to do what they can do.

Crustcake: Do you have formal training?

Julie Christmas: Yeah, I have some. I started singing when I was really little, which is supposed to be-- if you start singing at a really young age you naturally sing properly. But I also come from a big Irish-American family, so I've been singing my whole life. I was always involved in music in elementary school, and then for college I went to Juilliard for a minute. So I have some classical formal training, which I use when I'm doing warm-ups before shows or before we record. Classical music is-- opera especially is an influence of mine, especially now that I'm starting to work with the music and Made Out Of Babies made a conscious effort to sort of slow down the tempo of some of the songs.

Crustcake: I want to ask about the album cover. Was that your idea or was that Seldon Hunt's idea?

Julie Christmas: That was all Seldon. [T]here had been some discussion about how the album art should maybe encapsulate the idea of predator and prey and he came up with a couple different ideas that were all pretty stellar. I thought it was hilarious. I didn't get what everybody else did which is that they're actually running from something huge--

Crustcake: Oh yeah, I didn't get that either.

Julie Christmas: I thought it was like cave disco... But he did an amazing job.

Crustcake: It seems like I've seen a lot of album covers using photos from the Museum of Natural History.

Julie Christmas: Really?

Crustcake: Maybe not a lot, but definitely a handful. Like, last year-- the Interpol record.

Julie Christmas: Yeah, that's the one I've heard.

Crustcake: And there's a couple others I've seen too, but... pretty interesting, it's almost like a trend.

Julie Christmas: Huh...

Crustcake: Probably not, but... cave man porn.

Julie Christmas: Yeah. Cave titties.

[laughter]

Crustcake: Was there anything specific that influenced or inspired you at a younger age to want to be in a rock band?

Julie Christmas: You can explore huge feelings in classical music or in any music form, but for me there were none that were really raw. I have a lot of feelings that way, so that's the kind of music I've been drawn to. Also, I've always been loud.

Crustcake: Were you listening to The Melvins or those bands when you were young, or when you were a teenager, or...

Julie Christmas: I didn't find The Melvins until-- I saw The Melvins in high school at Webster Hall but I didn't get into The Melvins maybe until college.

Crustcake: The last track on the new album-- the beginning and end of that make me think of Boris, who were directly descended from The Melvins too, so... Any new records that you've really been blown away by?

Julie Christmas: I don't really listen to that much new music. I'm sort of cycling through the same stuff I've been listening to my whole life and then I add a couple things in here and there. But on the way over here I was listening to Barry Adamson. He was one of the members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. But he does his own bluesy kind of stuff.

Crustcake: You like blues?

Julie Christmas: Love the blues.

Crustcake: Nothing new new, that you might have heard in the last few months?

Julie Christmas: The last Oxbow record was amazing. [T]here's this Belgian band Amenra whe were actually just playing here. They're awesome. And, I just heard Nadja for the first time and I really liked it.

Crustcake: They release like six albums a year.

Julie Christmas: I know! I looked at their discography and it was like 30 albums. [Also], the last Earth album.

Crustcake: Yeah.

Julie Christmas: It's good.

Crustcake: Did you see them when they were here a couple weeks ago?

Julie Christmas: Yeah.

Crustcake: You know what? I really wish they would have had visuals. You know, like Red Sparowes does. I love that music-- I put that one when I go to bed, it creates such a great mood. But that was the first time I'd seen them live, and it was great-- they play really well and they really have control of that music which is hard when you're playing that slow. But it's like, I want something to look at. It's so cinematic, you know?

Julie Christmas: I know. I do think Dylan Carlson-- well, he's amazing but he also-- to me he was pretty-- he held his own out there. He's very much the main focus point on the stage. I really was watching him very closely. Bands really fall flat when there isn't like a--

Crustcake: A focus point?

Julie Christmas: Yeah. If there isn't somebody that's got some presence on the stage, you might as well just pack it up and go home. Or back to the studio, you know?

Crustcake: Yeah.

Julie Christmas: But these guys... you know, Adrian too-- she's got it too.

Crustcake: Yeah I found myself paying more attention to her, just because I'm a drummer, but-- and again, I was blown away by how she was able to control those tempos. You know, the more space there is--

Julie Christmas: The harder it is.

Crustcake: The harder it is to be consistent, as a drummer. As a musician in general, but she was just so fluid. She laid it in there, you know?

Julie Christmas: She's really cool.

Crustcake: Who'd you guys work with in the studio for the new album?

Julie Christmas: We worked with Andrew Schnider from Translator Audio. He did an amazing job for us.

Crustcake: It sounds really good.

Julie Christmas: Oh man, he is fantastic. For anyone who doesn't know that much about recording, the engineer of producer of the album is as important as any instrument in the band. Andrew was really into it, he really gives tons of his own ideas. He works unbelievably hard, and he's also one of the best guys around.

Crustcake: He's New York based?

Julie Christmas: He's in New York, he's in Dumbo. Spectacular guy. He's really done some cool records-- he did the last Unsane record, he did some Cave In albums. And he's worked with Pelican.

Crustcake: How did that come about, working with him?

Julie Christmas: On Battle of Mice, another project I have with Josh Graham from Red Sparowes-- ex-Red Sparowes-- [Andrew] worked on that for a minute.

Crustcake: Did you guys do anything differently, consciously or sub-consciously, on the new album than on the two previous albums?

Julie Christmas: Everything was different, from start to finish. We rented an apartment that had a partially-formed recording studio in the basement. So we built the rest of the studio so we had a practice space, so we would spend a lot of time... The other two records, we were still writing-- or I was still writing parts of the lyrics while we were recording with Steve Albini in Chicago. It just didn't really-- everything for us has been really rushed.

So [guitarist] Brendon [Tobin] got the studio together and we all decided that we were really going to try and sink our teeth in. And we wrote the album in four months-- it's not like we spent a year on it, which would be nice at some point, but we all decided that we really wanted to try other ideas. See what worked, and not worry so much about making a specific kind of music or how we would be received or anything like that.

And what ended up happening was, because we had all this space to work with-- and time-- the boys started to work on the music-- [bassist] Cooper and [drummer] Matthew [Egan] and Brendan started working on the music during the week, and I would have what they made from week to week for a while, and be able to listen to it, which is how I've learned I write the best.

Crustcake: So it's not an active process with you and them? They write the songs and then you work off of that?

Julie Christmas: Yeah, usually. They map out the songs, and then when the vocals come in there's changes to the music. Because instrumentalists don't always think about how things go with vocals, so I would work on it and then me and Brendan would get together at a totally separate time and do vocals. So I almost didn't work with them at all. There were as many fights as ever about the music, but they were a different kind of fight. It was more ingrained into the music, not as much about who's gonna park while the other person writes the drum beats.

Crustcake: It definitely shows. It sounds like a progression from the last two albums. So, what are you guys up to now? The album comes out in June...

Julie Christmas: June 24th on The End Records. They've been amazing. And I should mention that Greg [Burns] from the Red Sparowes [is] on the album. And also Jason Watkins from Mouth of the Architect.

Crustcake: What songs are they on?

Julie Christmas: Greg is on-- you know, I don't know the names of the songs.

[laughter]

They tend to have working titles that stick in my head, and then it's very hard for me to learn the titles .

Crustcake: And you guys have a gig coming up soon...

Julie Christmas: Union Pool on the 24th, and then--

Crustcake: That's the record release party.

Julie Christmas: Yeah. Record release party with the Austerity Program and Dionogah. And we have a bunch of other gigs surrounding the record release, and then we're going to tour in August. And we'll do dates throughout the year.

Crustcake: Do you know who you're touring with yet? Want to spread any rumors?

Julie Christmas: I do want to spread rumors, but not about who we're playing with.

[laughter]

Crustcake: Fair enough.

Made Out Of Babies' record release party is tonight at Union Pool in Brooklyn. The Ruiner is out today via The End Records.

Continue Reading...

Crustcake Interviews No Age

interview by Bitterboxcar

All the hepcats seem to dig No Age. The band recently played a converted retail space down in SOHO here in NYC; it was quite the little hepcat gathering. After the gig, crustcake's own Bitterboxcar tracked down the dudes and made them answer all sorts of painful questions.

Check it-- Dean likes Black Sabbath, but loves Black Flag. He also like(d) Metallica, Iron Maiden, Obituary, Napalm Death, Infest, and Tragedy! So, natch, we like him!

Randy likes to salivate and bail on interviews, but we like him too!

Interview - No Age (5/13/08):



Make the jump for a "somewhat crappy" video of No Age playing "Here Should Be My Home" at the show earlier that same night that was, according to Randy, "bad news."

No Age - "Here Should Be My Home":



No Age's new album Nouns is out now on Sub Pop.

Download: No Age - "Eraser" [MP3]
Listen: No Age - [MySpace]
Buy: No Age - Nouns [Amazon]

Continue Reading...

Crustcake Interviews John Baizley (Baroness)

by crustcake gerf (NYC)

Portions of this interview originally featured in issue #53 of The FADER. Buy a hard copy or download a .PDF here.

Crustcake gerf: Tell us a little bit about yourself, and your background.

John Baizley: I'm from Lexington, Virginia. I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains... Lexington is a really small town. I've had what I consider a lifelong interest in art, meaning that I've always been as active as humanly possible. And, uh, I went to the Rhode Island School of Design for three years and eventually dropped out. And, I took a-- about a two year hiatus after I dropped out of school from making art of any kind and then uh, as soon as-- I think it was really as soon as [Baroness] started playing it kinda gave-- you know, a reason-- it kinda jump-started me into action and since then it's been seventy or eighty hours a week, every week-- it's all I do.

How/when did you get your start in visual art? Did you take lessons?

I think it was a natural inclination of mine when I was young that both of my parents sort of fostered and encouraged in many ways. I took-- never really anything too formal. When I was in, like, I'd say middle school I would, from time to time, go take lessons with a teacher and a number of students but I don't think that was anything that had any lasting effects on it. It was primarily self-motivated up until college.

You started doing visual art before music?

Yeah, I would say I've definitely always-- I've-- when I was younger I favored visual arts-- it was just more immediate and a little easier to grasp onto I didn't start actually having and actively participated interest in music until I was like nine or ten. But, I mean if you look through my parents' photo albums there's art that pre-dates that by many years, you know?

What got you started in music?

I think it was more of a personal choice that I made, as opposed to the art which, you know-- like I just mentioned my parents have a minor background in art-- they both took classes in college and things like that. My mother's always had an interest in it. So that was always something that the kind of, you know, kind of encouraged and pushed on me.

The music was something that I think they saw that I was independently interested in and, you know, I got a guitar when I was like nine and just started playing. So I mean, it's a fair assessment to say that I've always been, you know, I've always had sort of a creative impulse.

Were you in other bands before Baroness?

Yeah, I mean, I've been playing in bands of one sort or another since I was like eleven or twelve. Obviously better and worse, or, no-- mostly worse, I would say. But, you know, some form of music, if it was like cover bands or punk bands or hardcore bands-- things like that. It's just always been a part of my life, as has visual art.

What prompted the move to Savannah?

As I mentioned before, I dropped out of school a year prematurely and sort of did a-- I guess kind of like a hermit thing in Virginia for about a year, year and a half. And I was also essentially living on a river without a car or a television or a phone and at the end of that period when I decided to reemerge, and, you know, move somewhere with some people again, it was basically happenstance and essentially random, and I just moved down there and when I did, it was a rekindling of my interest in both art and music. So there wasn't any, like, con-- it wasn't some, like, conscious or pre-planned sort of thing, I just kinda did it.

How do your surroundings affect your work? I've noticed a lot of plant life in your illustrations-- is there a connection there?

There's a total connection. Everything that I do is sort of a reaction or an intuition based on, you know, like a present time situation. So, you know, if you've ever been to Savannah, you'd know-- it's a fairly lush environment compared to most cities. There's trees everywhere, and they're mostly a live oak, which means they're like deciduous trees that never lose their leaves and there's, you know, Spanish moss hanging from everything.

So there's like this intense sort of surrounding constantly-- no matter where you are, no matter how much of the city you're in you're entirely surrounded by the plant life and sort of this chaotic, organic growth constantly happening around you. And that's definitely-- not consciously-- but it's definitely had an effect that I'm able to see now in retrospect on a lot of the work that I do.

How do the rest of the guys in Baroness feel about the art? Do you have free reign to do what you want?

Yeah, I think the guys that I play with are-- they have a deeper understanding of what I'm doing visually and ultimately they trust almost across the board with whatever I'm trying to express visually. It almost, no, it always falls in line with what we're doing. I've been lucky in that regard-- we don't really have to talk about it too much. I'll run ideas by them and everything, but I think they've afforded me a lot of trust in that department.

I've heard that you do everything by hand, only bringing in a computer towards the end of the process...

Yeah, entirely. I was raised and have always had much more facility working in sort of the traditional techniques. Meaning, with a lot of stuff that you'll see, it's mostly pens, inks, watercolors, and ink washes and things like that. I'm also an active oil painter and acrylics and everything like that so, basically, the traditional media is where I'm the most at ease.

But that's not to say that it's 100% that, because I think, you know, considering my medium, considering the ease with which you can work on a computer-- I have had to incorporate a computer into some of the stuff I do, so, essentially I will work on something traditionally until it's at the point where it's ready to get sent to print and at that point I'll incorporate a computer and that's sort of been a trial by fire with me, where it's just been born completely out of necessity.

When I started to use a computer I didn't know any of the programs-- like the, you know, your photoshop, illustrator and stuff like that. I've had to teach myself as I go along with that-- no formal training whatsoever.

It's sort of a best of both worlds approach.

Yeah, yeah.

I like the traditional approach-- everything seems more 'warm', you know?

Yeah, and I think that's where I'm comfortable but I think that's also something that separates me from a lot of, you know, who I consider my contemporaries who have skills on computer with graphic design that I can only work towards at this point.

I'm looking at the Torche - In Return cover, and you can see the texture of the paper, you can see the stain of the watercolor.



Yeah, and you also-- if you look through enough of my work you can see that consistently there are technical errors. I tend to favor those errors over something that's a little sleeker looking, so, you know, when a paper grain will show through or when a slight smudge or mistake will happen that's just part of the piece for me. And I welcome-- I embrace that sort of thing that can happen randomly. And I think it lends something different to my work than a lot of other people's.

Do you see maybe like a parallel between that-- how when you're working in a more traditional medium versus working on a computer-- you know, when you're working on a computer you can sort of erase those, or eliminate any errors-- a parallel between that dichotomy and say, with regards to music, you know, bands that might use a beat detective or whatever you want to call it to kind of line up the beat and like you guys, who are more live in the studio?

That's the magic and the beauty of both mediums to me and I think the most impressive artists and the most impressive musicians are those who are able to make their craft more individual based on the riskiness, or the risk taking in that sort of approach. And I think that truly is where the heart and soul of what I'm doing lies.

Who are some of your influences as a visual artist?

As a visual artist-- I have more, I mean I would say there are more than I can even list. It's difficult for me to name specific people because it's like, you know, every day, every time I find a new book it's like, you know, there's potentially some new inspiration for me, but as a kid growing up in punk rock and metal obviously and, you know, this has definitely been brought to my attention before, and I won't deny it, but, you know, somebody like Pushead where when I was in middle school and just a total freak for Metallica and that's what, you know-- those were my favorite T-shirts and those were my favorite designs and illustrations.

So somebody like that and then somebody like Roger Dean who did all the Yes covers-- he was also one of my favorite album cover artists. So, that tradition in terms of music, but then traditional fine artists, you know, I can pretty much run the gamut. You know, everybody from master craftsmen like Caravaggio up to the present. A lot of contemporary artists too I'm constantly inspired and impressed by.

What about Art Nouveau, any connection there?

Yeah, there's definitely a connection there too-- that was something that I really got a lot of influence on, well I would say about a year and a half ago we we're touring Europe for two months and over here you have a lot more access to that type of stuff be it actual museums or the art books or what have you so I came back with a pretty extensive library of art books and magazines and, you know, we saw a few museums when we were over so that kind of stuff definitely rubs off on me and that's something-- again, I embrace that type of thing with open arms as well where, if I'm in a museum and something moves me or if I see something in a book that moves me that-- there's inspiration there and there's reference material for me.

What other things influence you? Books, literature, films... is there anything specific that you can name that maybe when you were a kid inspired you, like a movie that freaked you out, or...

Honestly, nothing really jumps to mind. Because I've always been so open with that, anything is great source material for me. So, when I was growing up if it was like the sci-fi stuff like some of the Star Wars or Indiana Jones-- that kind of stuff, like, you know, a lot of the Tim Burton movies-- when I was younger there was certainly an artistic influence from films.

And then, on the literature side of things, even though it's not a pictorial medium, the written word is chock full of visual imagery-- often times more so than I think something that is visual, you know, where the interpretation is open to the reader, something like that, and that type of stuff is critical to my process. Being able to immerse myself in a language of images or metaphors or icons-- something like that-- can only be to the betterment of my art.

Any specific literature? Lovecraft?

I'll definitely say that when I was young, when I was maybe twelve or thirteen I went through a huge phase of reading all the Lovecraft stuff and all the, you know, Edgar Allen Poe, things like that. And that stuff is so lush and chock full of disturbingly beautiful imagery that was just fodder, you know, fuel for my artistic fire when I was young. And that's remained with me to this day.

You don't have an official website as an artist, do you?

No.

It seems like you're still kind of under the radar even though you're obviously in very high demand.

Yeah, and I've intentionally kept it that way. I don't like to be extremely blatant on the promotional side of what I'm doing. I'm more interested in the day to day connections that I make personally as an artist so, you know, most of the people that I work for I've met. Most of the people that I work for I have a prior respect for. And I've been incredibly fortunate that I don't have to-- thus far I haven't had to advertise myself that much. I've had a lot of amazing people come to me and thus I've built those personal relationships with a lot of people I'm working with which, again, is sort of critical to my process which sort of, you know, begs for that.

How do you decide what bands you want to do cover art for? Do you listen to the music beforehand? How's that work?

That's happened almost-- I would say 99 out of 100 times that's the way it goes. Because, as an artist and as a musician, I have to feel passionately about what I'm doing or else there's no point for me, you know, to even get out of bed and pick up a pencil or a pen or anything like that. So, again, I feel incredibly fortunate because I've met people who aren't in that situation. As long as there are people who feel equally as invested in my art as I do in their craft then there's just an increased level of intimacy that I'm able to embed in the art that I'm making.

And in addition to that I grew up with the 'do it yourself' ethic of, you know, I started off playing music in the punk and hardcore community where everybody knows each other and it's all about helping each other out and, you know, you try not to involve the business so much. That sort of ethos eeked its way into my art, so I approach the business with that same mind frame.

What are you working on currently?

At this point I'm in between projects obviously because I'm on tour but as soon as I get back I'm gonna be working for a few bands actually. There's a local band in Savannah called Black Tusk that I've done a number of things for art-wise and I've actually put out some of their records and then, uh, doing some stuff for them, doing some stuff for a Dutch hardcore band called Vitamin X and I think immediately after that I have nothing on my plate. But, that's because I get so back logged with work sometimes that it gets a little overwhelming so when I get back, you know, I have to reassess that and it shouldn't be a problem at this point.

Do you work on the road at all?

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. For instance, last time we were touring Europe we were here for about two months and I was selling prints on the road and I was doing this like, these-- I came over with a number of black and white prints on watercolor paper and I would hand paint them individually each night to sell, you know, to individuals. And, occasionally I'll get backed up on a project that'll spill over onto the tour and I'll pretty much be pulling my hair out trying to get things done. But, it's difficult in a way that I can't really express, so, I tried on this tour, for instance, I'm selling silk screened prints that are already done so that I'm not a complete wreck.

Beyond the immediate future, do you have any specific goals? Any band's you'd like the opportunity to work with?

You know, I don't really think about it in terms of like 'who do I want to work for', because I've found that that often times sets me up for disappointment. Really, my goal as an artist is to maintain the same level of interest and to keep-- to continually have this sort of progress thing happening with myself where, you know, if something gets a little old or tired to me and becomes a little bit more academic than interesting then the tough thing for me and the work for me is to try and change gears and keep myself involved in a way that is a challenge to me. So I don't set out with specific goals, I set out with a sort of open-ended approach, and whatever comes my way becomes the challenge and the goal.

I wanted to ask you about the Baroness First and Second covers. They strike me as very different from most of your other work...



Yeah. When I first started making art full time essentially or around the time when [Baroness] was first coming up, I felt like it was important to have a real disparity between the other work that I was doing and the work that I was doing for [Baroness], so there was sort of an intentional difference-- stylistic difference between the Baroness artwork and then what I was doing for, you know, say, any other band. And, since then, the two have grown a little closer together as what I've done has progressed and become more refined. But, yeah, I just basically wanted to have our stuff look a little different than the other stuff I was doing to keep it separate.

Where did the inspiration for the First and Second covers come from?

I mean, there's-- the work that I do is all filled with deeply personal metaphors and iconography-- you know, like a set of images that have relevance to me that I don't discuss. But the more external sort of inspiration for those was just my interest at the time in a lot of the 70's-- a lot of the poster artwork coming out of the Bay Area and just a lot of the classic rock and psychedelic artwork that was inspirational to me. I've kind of set them up like that and then filled them with my own set of stuff, you know, set of images.

Alright, I'm just want to go through some of your pieces one by one and have you talk about them...


[Torche - In Return]

I have had a strong relationship with Torche for a while now. I began as a fan of the band and we turned into great friends and eventually tourmates. After a two-month tour with them in Europe, their singer Steve Brooks came up with the idea of including portraits of the band inside the LP jacket.


[Torche - In Return, detail]

The only real input beyond that was that they wanted a colorful space theme for their record, as their first EP had an earthy volcanic theme. The circular theme is a device I use often, for a variety of reasons, both personal and structural. The visuals of flowers, bees and space add up to a kind of revolving theme of life and love cycles, one which suits the band, lyrics and music. As I have a personal relationship with the band, I was able to go pretty deep with some of my visual metaphors. There is a ton of stuff hidden in there.


[Genghis Tron poster]

Those flowers, while they may look quite alien, are actually the rather common foxglove. They do have an exotic look to them, which is part of the reason I chose to use them. There is a print shop here in Savannah that has silk-screened a number of posters and shirt designs I’ve done, and the guys who run the shop have obviously noticed that I have a tendency to render skeletons. These guys all live out in the countryside surrounding Savannah, and whenever they find skeletal remains, they will save them for me. I think they all think I’m kind of loony for collecting all this decayed reference material, but what’s truly crazy is how much care they all take in finding and preparing these bones for me. This is some type of feline skull.


[Baroness - Third]

First off, the artwork for the Baroness/Unpersons Split, or Third, is inspired by T.S. Elliot’s "The Hollow Men." The poem itself lent itself to form a logical thematic bridge between myself and the Unpersons’ singer. We both found many points of synchronicity among our own music, art and lyrics within the poem. While your analysis works on one level, there are sub-floors and alternate interpretations aplenty in this piece. It is meant to be viewed and explained differently by different viewers. This, I feel, lends itself to the intrinsic nature of a split release, where there are, at the bare minimum, two distinctly different voices.



This was an album design I did for a recording by three finger style guitar players from Berkley in California. It is meant to have a pastoral feel to it, as the presentation of music leans more towards folk and Americana than anything else. The wheat has always been a symbol to me of creative harvest, and in this picture it double for the guitar strings themselves, being plucked by three hands.


[Baroness - The Red Album]

The women on the cover of The Red Album are the same totemic muses from all of our releases, whose particular meaning and origin I tend to eschew in favor of individual interpretation. When I started this album, I asked all the members of Baroness to give me one symbol, or idea from themselves. It had to be something relevant in time or inspiration to the writing or recording process of the record. I also asked that it be a symbol that came with some personal difficulty, and that the reason for the symbol not be explained fully to me.

This was to make the record both personal and inexplicable to the band itself, in hopes that something genuine and coherent would emerge. Thus, all elements in this picture are both detached and critically important to each other. The record itself was a combination of four personalities, and so is the artwork a mirror of that concept.



The "Skeletonwitch" is a kind of meta-morphing ethereal character, whose image represents the band, and is not resigned to one homogenized form. I have created this character a number of times, each with a distinctly different effect. This album title, Beyond the Permafrost, required an icy layout, but as always, I needed to include some form of life. In this case the flora and fauna includes ram skull flowers and the always-grim raven-crown. I enjoy working within pre-established structures of images and icons, distorting and subverting original intentions and creating multi-layered meaning.

Continue Reading...

Crustcake Interviews Boris

by crustcake gerf (NYC), video by Bitterboxcar

A couple days before Boris' recent NYC gig, we tracked down drummer Atsuo at his hotel on the upper west side for a brief interview. Check it out.

Interview - Atsuo of Boris (3/2/08):



You can find the official video and MP3 for "Statement" (the song in the interview) after the jump.

Boris - "Statement":



New album Smile is out April 29 on Southern Lord.

Download: Boris - "Statement" [MP3]
Buy: Smile [Amazon]

Continue Reading...

Crustcake Interviews Priestbird

by crustcake gerf (NYC):

There are many words that can describe Priestbird's music. Beautiful, epic, cinematic, dramatic, grandiose, monumental, introspective, sorrowful, and on and on... The songs on their debut, In Your Time, and the fantastic neo-classical art rock album they made as Tarantula AD, Book of Sand, evoke not only myriad descriptors, but also lush visual imagery. Songs like "Prelude to the Fall" and "The Century Trilogy" conjure up images of broad, sweeping landscapes, marching legions, and ancient cities.

Despite their music's solemn undertone (or maybe because of it), the members of Priestbird are surprisingly laid-back, funny dudes. I sat down with them before their gig at Union Pool in Brooklyn on Friday (leap day) for a chat about music, birds, naked sex parties, dancing, and other nonsense. Read the interview after the jump.

(The following, while lengthly, has in fact been edited to ensure your sanity. If you're a Priestbird uber-fan-- or just bored-- you can read the entire, uncut interview right here.)

Crustcake: I appreciate you guys talking to me, really appreciate that. Hope it doesn't bother you that I'm gonna ask you some questions about some of the older stuff too.

Danny Bensi: What older stuff?

Saunder Jurriaans: We don't talk about that.

Crustcake: [laughs] That other band, [Tarantula AD] maybe?

[laughter]

Crustcake: But, I guess we should start off with a little background, how you guys got started personally in music. Any formal training?

Saunder: I started playing the guitar when I was... two.

[laughter]

Saunder: Then I stopped, then I started again. I think that what made me want to play guitar was Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, the Scorpions. Those were all records my brother had and I loved all those bands a lot so I--

Gregory Rogove: He's a hick.

Saunder: [in hillbilly accent] I did, I was, I did-- I's a German hick and I like the Scorpions.

[laughter]

Saunder: My brother had an electric guitar. Never made it as a musician, so I took over. Had some lessons here and there.

Gregory: I had an older brother as well and we were supposed to have a band and I was gonna play guitar and sing-- be the front man. He was gonna play drums. Then he got the guitar first so I was relegated to drums, and never left it.

Danny: I started playing cello when I was like 12 years old. I don't remember what made me start. My mom doesn't remember either. Apparently she asked me, she said 'which instrument do you wanna play' and I said cello and I don't really remember why I made that decision. So I studied in high school and a little bit in college as well. The other instruments I've just picked up here and there.

Crustcake: How'd you guys meet?

Gregory: Friends of friends of friends of friends of friends.

Saunder: Naked sex parties.

Crustcake: Yeah, the usual.

Gregory: Drugs. Saunder was a dealer on McKibben street back in the day. We used to buy weed from him.

Saunder: Special K.

Crustcake: One thing leads to another...

Gregory: Yeah, you know. We started making out and we were like, 'ah, yeah, you're a good kisser, why don't we start a band?'

[laughter]

Saunder: No, it was friends of friends of friends of friends is the real truth. We owe it all to our friends.

Gregory: Yeah, it was this one guy Andrew Hughes and Robert Geller. Those two, they're like the links in our chain. They were like, 'the three of you have to get together, you'll love each other'. [Saunder and Danny] had met before, so they had been playing and then finally all three of us came together and it exploded.

Danny: My friend Andrew Hughes was like 'oh dude I got this sick drummer for you man. I went to school-- I grew up with him, he's the greatest. He's in India studying tabla and shit--

Crustcake: Is that true?

Gregory: It's true. Andrew told me, he's like 'I got this friend Danny who plays the cello and he's got this thing called the cello trick that he plays and all the girls flock towards him so he's got ladies every night...

Crustcake: That's when you loop things?

Danny: Yeah, yeah, I just keep it going.

Gregory: Yeah. Right.

Crustcake: Yeah.

Danny: And then your like, 'let's get into bed baby'.

[laughter]

Gregory: No hands.

Danny: The next phase of the cello trick.

[laughter]

Crustcake: As far as the music is concerned, it's very visually oriented, a lot of visual imagery, and it seems like you guys have maybe a lot of literary influences or film influences...

Gregory: Originally it's more just, that's like the direction of our personal aesthetic for music. It just happened to be kinda visual, but I think that we all, you know... Saunder went to art school, he's a visual artist. I sketch in a sketchbook now but never show anybody. Danny dances.

[laughter]

Gregory: So it's kinda like a whole theatrical circus and then when we come to music that's just what comes through.

Danny: I think what links those things together, what links our music together is some sort of narrative or that epic quality of going somewhere. The tune or melody or whatever. Something we're all very interested in, can't get away from no matter what we do.

Crustcake: It really seems like, some of the stuff more than others, seems like it's almost made to go with a picture, made to go in a film...

Saunder: We never did it, but we get that a lot.

Gregory: We did it once, we scored one indie film.

Saunder: It never came out though.

Gregory: Shown at Sundance, in, uh, the basement.

[laughter]

Crustcake: You did all original music for that?

Gregory: Yeah.

Saunder: Yeah, I have the music. It's all really weird. Actually, there's a version of one of our songs that we actually put on our album Atlantic, on that.

Gregory: Yeah there's like a doo-wop version of "Love Cherries." It's really great.

Saunder: Maybe we'll put out like a secret EP of it sometime. We'll let you know, for sure.

Crustcake: I have some vague memory of reading something when the Book of Sand album came out about how you guys recorded it in the woods, got some nature sounds in there. Some natural ambiance...

Gregory: We were on Orcas Island off the coast of basically Seattle. Washington state. And yeah, we had a little cabin there with the doors and windows open and we let the birds come and take part in the music as well. The seals, the otters. The smoking porpoise.

Danny: There's a lot of noise when you're in a wood cabin, you know? Like [unintelligible] and creaks and... keep them all, man.

Crustcake: It definitely comes through on [Book of Sand].

Danny: Yeah totally.

Gregory: Very airy.

Crustcake: Very airy, yeah. Where'd the idea for the main theme from "The Lost Waltz" come from? It seems like a very traditional waltz to me, I wondered if there was a specific inspiration for that.

Gregory: Yeah, there actually is. Funny you should ask, no one's ever asked us that question. You'll never believe this, but it is inspired by Rufus Wainwright and [Erik] Satie. When those two met they had a huge love affair and sent that melody to us.

Danny: 'Satie', sounds kinda like a rap artist.

Gregory: MC Satie.

Crustcake: What about "The Century Trilogy"? What's that inspired by, what's that about?

Saunder: "The Century Trilogy" was just a name we put to a trilogy of songs that use recurring themes, you know, like a symphony would or something. And the nature of the themes and the moods of the pieces were very much like war and, you know, that marching kind of feel.

Danny: The rise and fall of the Roman Empire, man!

Saunder: And then we started to attribute it to that, half tongue-in-cheek. And that's where the cover of the album comes from. A lot of people took it really seriously.

Gregory: Even "The Century Trilogy" was a joke. We're not that pompous, we're just having a good time man. And the thing is, well half of them-- we were writing those pieces and we'd bring all these things back and stuff like that-- we would tell the story of what was happening, you know, before we were singing we were able to talk and we'd make fun of ourselves while we played these beautiful parts. [in dramatic voice] "And then the sun rose and they marched onwards," you know, and like, do whatever we we could to make each other laugh.

Crustcake: That's cool.

Gregory: Yeah, those were the good old days.

Saunder: Those were the good old days. We don't do that anymore.

[laughter]

Crustcake: It's different now, huh?

Gregory: Now we make fun of each other's lyrics.

Crustcake: "Palo Borracho"? It's a very latin, jazzy feeling song. What's "Palo Borracho"?

Saunder: It means 'drunk stick'.

Gregory: It's a type of tree.

Saunder: It could also mean 'whisky dick'. No, it's a type of tree actually. My girlfriend is from Argentina and I had visited Buenos Aires a few times the Palo Borracho is this amazing tree that's almost pear shaped and it's a really silly looking plant but it's got thorns all over it. Really intense thorns.

Crustcake: Can you talk about the transition from the Tarantula AD days into Priestbird?

Danny: Well, we started working with our voices first of all. Started singing, adding our voices to the texture of the music in harmony. And knew we wanted to do that. And also, our music up until then had been so schizophrenic song-to-song. We were like 'let's try to calm down a bit and focus on a fast four minutes of, you know, regular song texture'. That's sort of the foundation of how we approached [the new] songs and it just grew from there.

Saunder: Well we actually quit. We quit as Tarantula AD. We finished the band.

Gregory: We were done.

Saunder: We came back together at a certain point as kind of a reincarnation of all these new ideas that had been brewing at the end of the Tarantula AD days. Same band, but it's different.

Crustcake: A fresh start.

Saunder: Same people but different.

Crustcake: Where'd you come up with the name Priestbird?

Gregory: It's from the lyric of a song that we were working on and it's the character that looks after the bird spirits in the afterlife. A great inspiration for us. We're always talking about birds and they're always talking about us.

Saunder: Yeah, we do have kind of a bird fetish in the band. It's weird. It could be something spiritual, it could be something sexual.

[laughter]

Gregory: Can't really tell, actually.

Gregory: Yeah, it was like either cloaca or priestbird? Do you know the word cloaca?

Crustcake: No. I do not...

Gregory: It's a bird hole where they shit and they piss and they have sex, all in the same hole. Yeah, they're much more efficient than humans.

[laughter]

Crustcake: Where'd you guys get the idea for the animated statues in the season of the sun video?

Saunder: Oh, that's Ron Winter. That video is actually, I don't know if you know, it's like six different artists.

Crustcake: No, I don't know much about it.

Saunder: [T]he video for "Season of the Sun" was six different artists doing a different clip for each part of the song. And [Ron Winter's] section-- we just let them do whatever they wanted-- so he interpreted that section as that.

Crustcake: It makes sense now, I didn't realize that [there were six artists involved]. There's a lot of different aesthetics there and--

Gregory: It's like an 'exquisite corpse' drawing. Here's a paper and it's folded into four or three sections. Someone draws the head and you don't see it and then you draw the shoulders and you get somebody else and they draw the midsection, somebody draws the legs. Then you open it up, and it's a beautiful monster.

Saunder: That's what we did.

Gregory: We did that with video.

Crustcake: That's very cool. Now you [Greg] were on tour with Devendra [Banhart]. How was that?

Gregory: Good. I mean, they're a bunch of pussies compared to Priestbird--

[laughter]

Crustcake: Of course, of course.

Gregory: I'm just kidding. No, I love those people.

Crustcake: Any good stories from the road or anything interesting to share?

Gregory: Well, Devendra just wanted to cover Priestbird songs the whole time--

[laughter]

Gregory: And I said 'I don't think that's a good idea for your career'.

Crustcake: And you guys have a new project going on?

Gregory: Oh yeah, yeah. He and I, we're writing some songs together, we got a band called Megapuss and we're recording it next month.

Crustcake: What's that like?

Gregory: Well, it started out kind of as a joke band. We were writing songs called, like, "Duck People Duck Man," "Dr. Beaver Mustard," "Rolls Royster," things like that and then we wrote two heartbreakingly beautiful tunes and we we're like 'shit, these are actually some good songs, some good lyrics, so let's keep going'. So we wrote-- we have like 15 songs. So we're gonna record them. So it's like, kinda half ridiculous and half really contemplative and beautiful.

Crustcake: What can you tell me about the new [Priestbird] album? Exclusive details...

Gregory Rogove: We've been up in Woodstock writing [it] the past month, holed up in this little cabin in the woods... snow... got some goats...

Crustcake: You locked yourselves in there?

Gregory: Yeah, we have. We've just been eating Indian food from a bag and rice, all day every day.

Crustcake: It's nice to get away like that sometimes.

Gregory: It is, it's great. I gotta say, the first two weeks were heavenly, now it's getting to the point where I can't be in that house anymore.

Crustcake: The songs seem a little more personal, a little more intimate.

Gregory: Yeah, definitely.

Crustcake: Do you have a name for the album?

Gregory: 'Moon Nuts'.

Crustcake: Really?

Gregory: Thinking about it.

Crustcake: Tossing it around...

Gregory: I dunno, what do you think?

Danny: I kinda like that, 'Moon Nuts', that's good.

[crosstalk]

Saunder: We don't know, we don't know.

Gregory. 'Underground Road', 'Rocky Road'-- 'Underground Rocky Road'...

Saunder: 'Underworld Road'.

Gregory: 'Underworld... Road Master'.

Saunder: 'Underworld Road Warrior'.

Crustcake: Some variation on that...

[laughter]

Gregory: At this point, it's mostly jokes.

Saunder: The album's kind of a joke at this point--

[crosstalk]

Crustcake: I gotta be honest, I didn't expect you guys to so jokey.

[laughter]

Gregory: Yeah. Right. The music seems so serious.

Saunder: And we hate that. We're trying to get away from that. Tell everybody that we're funny, please. We're not so serious, please!

Gregory: We're actually much more light-hearted than the music speaks.

Saunder: I think we've all been-- you know, all of our musical pasts have been gravitated towards really heartwrenchingly minor stuff. Sad, sad music. And I don't know why, but for me it's been that way, for Danny it's been that way. Greg, definitely at certain points it's been that way. And it definitely comes out in all of our music. We fight it, I think, with our humor which maybe--

Danny: Creates the Priestbird sound.

Saunder: Creates the Priestbird sound.

Gregory: So yeah, we're recording this record in April. Gonna do this crazy one week recording.

Crustcake: Who are you working with?

Gregory: We're recording in Seattle. The engineer is gonna be Beau Raymond Fletcher. He worked on the last Devendra record, and he just finished a record with Fabrizio Moretti and this guy Rodruigo Amarante, a Brazilian singer. He's gonna engineer our record and Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam is gonna produce it.

Saunder: It's gonna sound like Temple of the Dog, pretty much.

[laughter]

Crustcake: So do you guys have anything lined up label-wise?

Saunder: Well, we're technically on Kemado still. They haven't dropped us yet-- we could do another record with them, it's possible. But, we're gonna record the record and see what happens. You know, we want it to find its own home, kind of. This record has to be us, you know?

Download: Priestbird - "Season of the Sun" [MP3]
Download: Tarantula AD - "The Century Trilogy I: Conquest" [MP3]
Listen: Priestbird [MySpace]
Buy: Priestbird - In Your Time [Amazon]
Buy: Tarantula AD - Book of Sand [Amazon]

Continue Reading...

Crustcake Interviews Intronaut

Just days after the official announcement came that they had signed with Century Media, hometown heros Intronaut dropped into Relax Bar for an intimate gig with their most devoted fans and their best friends.

The friendly crowd welcomed back Sacha Dunable & Co. with open arms and a healthy dose of comedic heckling. Many in the crowd-- obviously familiar faces for the band-- offered up witty outbursts like "play the good one," "play the hit," or "did you spend the CM advance on that new button up shirt?", and Sacha and crew playfully heckled back.

As the night approached the bewitching hour, Intronaut, feeling very comfortable in front of the friendly crowd, decided to grace our ears with a new song that had only been completed four days prior. Oh my shit! It killed-- they had yet to put lyrics to it, but the wall of sound and intricate groove of the doom-ladened song left me wanting more. If this is what we can expect from Intronaut's much-anticipated Century Media debut, don't be surprised if said album ends up in my 'Top Albums of 2008' post 11 months from now.

Before all the mayhem began, Sacha and I discussed music, beer, Wesley Willis, planet pornography, and the best spots in LA to find his trademark 'ladykiller' button-ups.

Crustcake: According to your MySpace page, Intronaut sounds like "planets mating." Two questions: 1.) Have you actually heard (or seen) planets mating? 2.) Do you think there is a market for "planet porn"?

Sacha Dunable: 1. Yes, I have actually seen planets mating... What the fuck do you think, dude?

2. I'm sure there is a planet fetish site up somewhere on the web where you can watch videos of guys and girls rolling around in big planet costumes (like those fake sumo outfits) until they coat the inner lining with cum. [ed. note: a half-assed three second search was unable to locate such a glorious site]

What is your preferred format for consumption of recorded music (vinyl, CD, mp3, other) and why?

Honestly, CD. I have always bought vinyl as a collector, but rarely actually threw on records due to the severe inconvenience factor. CDs are easy and they sound good. On the real though, I listen to most of my music on iTunes here at home on the computer. I realize I am robbing myself of about 50% of the frequencies contained in the music, and it almost gives me a headache sometimes, but it's just too easy. I don't own an iPod, though that's more just 'cause I can't afford one.

What are the last five or so albums you purchased? What are the last five albums/songs/bands you listened to?

It's been a while since I've had money to spend on music, but a few months ago I went to Amoeba and bought the Best of TP Orchestre Polyrythmo, Freddie Hubbard - Black Angel, RJD2 - Third Hand, and Earth - Hibernaculum. Every day lately I listen to Andrew Bird, Torche, Do Make Say Think, and Baroness.

I've heard you are a Wesley Willis fan. What's your favorite Wesley Willis song?

We are all huge on Wesley Willis. To pick one song is tough, but some I can think of that come on in the van regularly are Outburst, Bolt Thrower, Fuck With Me And Find Out, and any of the ones where he's like "SUCK A CHEETAH'S DICK! SUCK A KANGAROO'S NASTY ASS BALLS!".

I am considering creating a series of "planet porn" videos. Would Intronaut be interested in recording the soundtrack for these?

Oh, I get it. A joke question. Boy, you sure are funny.

P.S. If you really do this, call me.

You have several shows scheduled with High On Fire, A Life Once Lost, and Saviours in the Midwest and on the west coast. Are you dissing the east coast on purpose?

Yes, they are stupid and talk funny out there so fuck them. No, actually we are only doing the last third of that tour or something, and they will have already hit the east coast with some opening band that isn't nearly as cool as us.

What's the last show you've seen (other than shows that you are on the bill of course) and how was it?

The last show I went to was Behold... The Arctopus with Between The Buried And Me and some band called August Burns Red. Behold... The Arctopus were amazing. I have never seen a band that technical sound exactly like the CD when playing live. One of the best bands on the planet right now for sure. The people I was with wanted to go to Jumbo's so we didn't stay for BTBAM, which I was a little bummed on. I've always wanted to see them. We did however catch August Burns Red's first song, and holy crap, the massive erection I had from seeing Behold was quickly shriveled into something resembling a spicy hot Cheeto. [ed. note: oh, snap!]

Which planet do you find most attractive?

Jupiter. It's all big and gassy, just how I like my women.

I've noticed Leon wearing a 'La Fin Du Monde' shirt in some of Intronaut's photos. I know he is no longer with you guys but I was still wondering, are the rest of you guys beer aficionados? What are each of your favorite beers? Least favorite?

We're not beer dorks if that's what you're asking. La Fin Du Monde is a cool name for a beer, but I don't really like all that heavy stuff. Maybe on a special occasion or something, but usually when I'm going out, I'll just go for a 24 oz Tecate in a can. It's like two bucks, doesn't have an offensive taste, and gets you drunk. Hell, stick a slice of lime in there and you've got yourself some gourmet shit.

In your experience, what is the difference between a European audience vs. American audience regarding heavy bands?

There are some minor differences I noticed, but really it's the same. Some people are into it, some people are jaded, some get drunk and spit while talking two inches from your face. Touring in Europe is much easier. They actually seem to care about taking care of bands out there.

You've recently signed to Century Media records, was it mainly for the pizza party they tend to throw for newly signed bands? Or what persuaded you? (I hope it's pizza)

Definitely not the pizza. Do they still always get Papa John's? Gross. Plus I recently learned that I'm lactose intolerant. We signed with them because in comparison to the other offers we had, theirs was fair and we think it will help us along best at this point in our... "career"?

How do you remedy the the "dude on tour" smell in the van?

You don't. It sucks but you get used to it.

I'm assuming there are some marijuana (aka weed) aficionados in the band. That being said, during your travels, has there been a particular place that has surprised you with amazing bud? Or does California reign supreme?

California really does have the craziest weed. Colorado has always come with it, same with anywhere on the west coast really. Other than that, its like, who has the least shitty weed. The funny part is that people don't know how bad their weed is. We'll be in like Michigan, or New Mexico, and someone will bust out a shopping bag full of brown crap with bugs crawling around in it, claiming it's the best shit in town. Let's just say I'd hate to see their worst.

What is your typical songwriting process like? (for example. Based on jamming; starts with riff, lyrical concept, beers and women)

It's not that interesting. Most songs start with us all jamming out a couple riffs together, then just building a song. For some songs I will write a basic skeleton for an entire song at home and then we iron it out together.

If Intronaut had the chance to set up a tour with any 3 bands (dead or alive), what would they be?

Yes circa 1972, Gorguts circa Obscura, and Meshuggah.

[MP3] Intronaut - "The Challenger"

Intronaut [MySpace] [MP3]
The Challenger [Amazon]

Continue Reading...