Scott: I guess my first question is what have you guys been doing since your last tour? Carla: We’ve been collecting our thoughts and resetting our souls, trying to write, and writing. Preparing to make another record.
Scott: That’s good, so have you actually gone into the studio?
Carla: No that’s in about a week.
Scott: Ok, do you have any thoughts on a producer or just doing it yourselves this time?
Carla: We’re co-producing it with John Goodmanson. He did a lot of Blonde Redhead records and others. A great engineer and good guy.
Scott: Is he located in Los Angeles or do you have to go somewhere else?
Carla: He’s going to come here, he’s located in Brooklyn. Greg does he live in Brooklyn?
Greg: Yeah, He lives in Brooklyn or in The Bronx, or maybe Seattle. He keeps going back to Seattle.
Scott: So from all the touring you guys did was there ever like a point where you start making or discovering sounds on stage and think to yourself, “Wow it would be different to sort of record more this way”, because you found different sounds or, “let’s try this approach because we can get this kind of sound?"
Carla: I think…I don’t know if it was just based on touring, I think we’ve always been thinking like that.
Greg: Yeah, generally when you tour you’re lucky if the sound is listenable and you can hear each other well enough. We were opening for Nine Inch Nails and didn’t have a lot of time to sound check or really experiment.
Carla: We had one sound check on that whole tour.
Scott: It seems like you guys have a lot of particular gear and that it would make a difference.
Greg: It’s fine because you get into a pattern and that’s good. But there’s really no time to experiment.
Carla: That was fine and we just got used to it.
Scott: I guess I was thinking along the lines of like when you’re playing and you do the same song over and over and then all of the sudden you start hearing it a little bit differently and doing it and think, “Ohh that’s cool maybe we should try that on a new song."
Greg: We would play certain parts of songs differently every night, it’s pretty free. I mean we toured for almost a year; it’s weird because you start off and feel kind of rusty and then you get into a rhythm and I think you have your best shows and then you just…kind of get lazy no matter what. I mean we’re playing the same songs every night; we only had like a 30 minute set.
Scott: That’s not long at all because you guys have 4 to 5 minutes songs.
Carla: That was just on that one tour.
Greg: Yeah, on the Nine Inch Nails tour.
Carla: We also toured in a bus. But last year we toured all year, went to Europe a few times. We toured all year driving and that takes a lot out of you.
Greg: We drove around all of North America three times.
Scott: Were there any special places or memories that you were surprised that you enjoyed or maybe you didn’t think you’d like it compared to when you got there?
Carla: Athens, Georgia I really liked.
Greg: Yeah Athens. LR: They have quite a good music scene there right?
Carla: Yeah it’s just really great. I’m from the South and I had never been there, I really liked it. I liked England. We played All Tomorrow’s Parties and that was incredible.
Scott: It’s too bad because they used to do that here about two miles from where I live and I just don’t think they were making enough money that second time so they just abandoned it, now it’s primarily a UK festival. I really miss that good vibe with random bands that aren’t necessarily money-making acts that I love, like Deerhoof.
Greg: We saw Deerhoof opening for Radiohead.
Scott: Yeah, I was there and that was great.
Carla: We talked about doing a tour with them, a west coast tour. We’re in a race to see whose record gets finished first.
Scott: Those guys crank out like one record a year.
Greg: Yeah we like to do one a decade.
Scott: Just like Kevin Shields, he doesn’t do records anymore.
Carla: You’re just in constant turmoil.
Greg: If you do one a decade it’s easier to have a life long career in music. Six records, I think that’s how many the Beatles made.
Scott: So for the next album are there any older songs from the "silver demo" days that you still have lying around?
Greg: Let’s see what’s left, ‘Future Perfect’ and ’Under Orbit’.
Scott: Would you guys consider going back to re-record them using a different approach?
Carla: No, we’re just on a different path. Once you’ve done something you don’t want to go back and keep re-doing it. It’s out there enough for people to find it.
Scott: What’s sort of the..I don’t want to get too specific, but the idea or thoughts of the next album? Do you think you want it to have certain sounds or ideas?
Carla: We can’t even talk about, only because we can’t even talk about that with ourselves. It’s not that we don’t want to talk about it. When we go and record I think no matter what our thoughts are in our heads at the moment, or the preconceived notions, it will be totally different when we are actually recording and we will be on some crazy path right in the middle of it. I don’t know…just going in thinking about drums I can be saying I want everything sounding really tiny and small, but still loud and then it will turn out opposite and be huge, we’re constantly changing our minds a little bit on that. It’s hard to talk about exactly what you want a record to sound like.
Scott: Right, or maybe you know you don’t want it to be a certain way or like this and maybe you just let it happen?
Greg: I mean we always have a lot of ideas and conceptual parameters and things going in.
Carla: Well, the one thing I do know that is at the top of our list is that we always want to have great songs. Songs are the most important thing, otherwise it comes over as just a bunch of noise and sounds. A great song could be anything. It doesn’t mean it has to be everybody’s idea of a great chorus or a commercial rock chorus. Maybe we’re just trying to reinvent what a good song is or something I don’t know.
Scott: Right, ya know I usually go see lots of these bands and some of them have these big sounds and effects. And there are also these indie bands where it’s just about the effects and there’s absolutely no melody, but the bass sounds good and there’s rhythm sounding good, there has to be a song or it’s boring.
Carla: Yeah and that’s where we all come from first, that’s the main thing. Substance is just not about putting effects on guitars or vocals. Greg’s is going to be singing more on this record.
Scott: Are you going to be singing more?
Carla: Yes.
Scott: Very cool, ever considered doing some three-part harmonies.
Carla: Well we are going to do harmony stuff between the three of us, more background vocals and the touring has made us more confident.
Scott: So in your mind how did you think the album did? Regardless of sales you kept going around and touring and you definitely had a crowd.
Carla: I didn’t really focus on how it did or how it was doing we were just always looking ahead. There were things about it we weren’t crazy about. We just wanted to keep playing shows and play live because we love playing together. I don’t really know how it did. We’re so out of touch with that I think. We all want to have a career and make some money but not at the expense of doing things we don’t want to do. Our last record, considering it wasn’t promoted at all really, I feel that word-of-mouth and people coming to see us live helped. I think we were surprised that a lot of kids and people found out about it.
Scott: Yeah or the internet…blogs…etc., people love your record.
Carla: Yeah it’s great. We have a lot of people who support our music.
Scott: As a band I would think it would be better to be like a Velvet Underground-influential type of a band you know? Where more people are coming to you instead of pushing a single on people over and over again.
Carla: Yeah that’s how it is, we all just want to make music we love. All of us individually are always trying to do something we haven’t heard before on some level, so it’s hard and difficult because there’s so much great underground music going on and now we’re in an era where it’s like…what haven’t you heard? But sometimes I think I know the answer to that.
Scott: So as far as the L.A music scene goes when you’re not touring is there stuff you like that you’re really into?
Carla: I’m not sure I know what that is. We’ve been gone for a long time and don’t know what scene there is.
Greg: I’m kind of like really retarded in that way, we don’t go out and see too much music.
Carla: We buy records and when a band comes to town we love we will all go see that band, like Deerhoof and Radiohead, you can’t beat that.
Greg: And also after a certain amount of disappointments you just kind of give up.
Scott: Yeah, like someone will tell something is good and you’re like uhhhh???
Greg: There’s this band that rehearses right next to us and they’re really good, just absolutely brutal and truly intense called 400 Blows.
Scott: I’ve seen them a few times and they’re just awesome.
Carla: In the grand scheme of scenes I don’t even think there is, in my opinion, a scene in L.A.
Scott: No, you’re right. I’m thinking I guess there are certain places where you can go to for music and there are these people that are familiar and you see them at places, at least I do. Ok, I just have a few more questions. Was going to a major label everything you thought it would be because you were saying that they didn’t really promote the record and that seems to be everything these days.
Greg: We really didn’t go to a major label, it was DMZ. We were under the Cohen Brothers and protected under this umbrella of T-Bone, even though it was all the resources of Sony being used.
Carla: It was under DMZ. What happened was he started the label, wanted to sign us, and signed us. Because his deal was with Sony we technically had signed to Sony under DMZ. And then for whatever reason they finally heard our music after they signed us and they probably didn’t know where we fit in and T-Bone’s label…he just wanted to sign music he liked and I think they were expecting his label to meet it’s quota and that label ended. Luckily at Epic there was a younger A & R guy who actually really loves our band and he’s going to stay out of the way and let us do our thing. He’s totally supportive and we’re really lucky with that.
Greg: When people let us do our thing it means there are apparently people having nervous breakdowns in their house. Fearing for their jobs or not.
Carla: Whatever the case is he’s allowing us to do our thing. So we’ll see what happens with this record. We’re just going to make a record we love.
Greg: I mean we really are striving to try and make a record that's not just a sequel. We want it to have its own complete and different identity.
Carla: I think it’s easy because we’re in such a good place now. I don’t even think it’s hard, I just hear silence from my end…I don’t even want to play drums on it.
Greg: We’ll be playing music and Carla’s like, “I don’t know if there should be drums on it” and then, “I’m not sure if there should be any guitars either”. (Laughter)
Carla: It’s going to be a record of silence and sounds of the wind.
Scott: Maybe a little bit of feedback? Kind of like a Sonic Boom record, “eeeeeeeeee”. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about?
Carla: You should read John Fante Do you know him? LR: No I don’t. I need to read more.
Greg: He was like a forerunner of Bukowski, he wrote very simply and directly. You can read it in a night.
Carla: If you live in L.A. this book puts you in a place…it feels like downtown L.A.
Greg: Well since we’re recommending authors, W.G. Sebald. Have you read him? He has a book called Rings of Saturn, it’s great.
Scott: No, like I said I really haven’t read a single page in the last year. I’ve been so swamped with music, reviewing shows, and writing reviews. I really need to be reading more it’s so sad.
Carla: What about if we talked about the reassignment of planets? LR: Yeah Pluto.
Greg: Pluto’s not even a planet anymore.
Carla: I’m glad, I never really liked it. Pluto’s a scam.
Scott: It’s on the b-squad now. I think they were debating Pluto for years and finally did something about it.
Greg: They thought they had found another planet beyond it right?
Carla: They did its called UB313.
-Scott McDonald
Well, well, well. After being tricked by the folks who love Rick Astley gags comes some real Radiohead news from the band's own DeadAirSpace:
