"Issue No.4
on stands now"

fielding phone calls, and looking out over his metal dominion, with a furrowed brow, staring deep off into the glow of his computer monitor). Well, here at Wide-Eyed we got ahold of the Lord right around the time that Boris was to go off on a European tour in support of their latest offering, “Smile.” Our questions had to go through a translator (they’re Japanese, remember?) who emailed them back to us. Eventually, it all came together splendidly, and I got a nice long email from Atsuo, their drummer.

Atsuo, Takeshi (bass guitar/rhythm guitar/vocals) and Wata (guitar) broke big in the US market with their last full length Pink, loved by fans and critics — it blurred the lines of their previous releases, incorporating some full throttle get-a-leg-up rawk, with shoegazer drone and dynamic metal chops. It is an excellent place to start from if you’re unfamiliar with the band, but Boris is by no means a band that has just one particular sound. Smile finds the band with even more tendrils flailing about — pulling in a myriad of influences, with really surprisingly cohesive results.

Each song has its own kind of “world view” and, taken as a whole, an album has its own similar ‘world view’, and as a band releases material, the sum of its work becomes the band’s overall ‘world view.’ Once we’ve written a particular type of song it gets boring to write the same type of song, so we’re pulled in a new direction by a new “world view” and end up writing different types of songs. It’s a little hard to explain, but when we fill in the details of a particular song, we add to the general feeling of the whole album, and in return the general mood of the album influences how we detail each song. On Smile, we were especially influenced by our previous releases. We had already released an instrumental version of “KA RE HA TE TA SA KI,” and “Smile” partly appeared on an album called Vein. In that sense, I think we did things that, when most people make an album, are considered taboo. I don’t think of Boris as a band anymore, or even as music, and along those same lines, incorporating these sorts of normally frowned upon methods feels new, and kind of thrilling. ‘OK’ sounds are surely already out there somewhere - they’ve already been turned into music - so we felt it was necessary to abandon music for the sake of a new experience.

Part of what led the band to have this ‘new experience’ were some unusual sources of inspiration — cheesy Japanese pop music, 80s metal, and animae tunes.

When I was a kid I listened to that kind of music in a very non-judgmental, pure way, and its still in my bones. And after lots of recording and touring, when we got tired of trying to make “cool” music, cheesy music suddenly sounded very fresh. Right off the bat, it’s a kind of “anti-music.” It’s not there as music, but instead as recorded sound for a television program, or a highly “designed” commodity, and at no point does it pretend to be real “music.” I thought that was really fresh and new. In the context of most other music, it’s almost like an “accident.” So its been ignored by mainstream rock and other musical histories, and no matter which country you go to, the heavy metal genre is a minor, subcultural thing. I think stuff that grates on the ears especially, as pure “sound,” has a real power. I think that’s maybe why we needed to stop making “music.” But the ridiculous sound of the 80s has become very symbolic of that era of music, and superficially at least, I guess Smile will sound like music to most listeners.

With the amount of success Pink brought them, they “managed to get out of tepid Japan a bit and see lots of the world.” I was curious to find out what he thought of the US and our seemingly endless war.

Where’s “culture” these days? Is there no “cultural” phenomenon that can overcome the trauma of terrorism? We’ve had lots of opportunities to reflect on ‘terrorism and expression’ since 9-11. I think the world has really changed since then, hasn’t it? But does the world need an act of terrorism to change it? Is expression incapable of changing the world? As an artist, I think it’s important to always be conscious of these sorts of questions when creating. Atsuo also added I think America is one of the most dynamic countries in that there’s such a wide spectrum of stuff from the ridiculous to the truly great.

Boris have been touring pretty heavily and to the uninitiated, they have a seriously deep catalogue — there’s the proper albums, then their collaborations (with Sunn O))) and Merzbow and others), then they pile on all these limited edition runs of completely different recordings. It’s a pretty intimidating pace. I wondered how they kept so prolific.

Daily life is what inspires us to keep creating. Touring, recording…all of our experiences, really. And leaving Japan for a while, then coming back to it, feeling out of sorts at times on tour, picking up on attitudes abroad that differ from your average Japanese way of thinking, all of these are experiences we’ve frequently had. I always resent coming back to Japan from tour and feeling how kind of lukewarm Japan is. But being bored influences us as well. We try to let all of the things that influence us resonate or “feedback” in a positive way. We’re positive machines. Automatically positive.

Atsuo had a very refreshing take on the multiplicity of their output. “Boris’ works are like documents of our daily lives. They are like the blogs or diaries that flood the world.” But he also added that “It’s very expensive to produce expressions of our ideas with limited releases.”

Boris packaging is always an exceptional delight — their first run of their CD Amplifier Worship had a gummy worm in the spine, they released a version of the soundtrack to “Mabuta No Ura” in a box with dried flower petals and pictures, the insert to Pink was perforated to look like acid tabs, and on and on and on. I found out Atsuo’s philosophy towards “music” extended to “art” as well.

I hate the word “art.” In the same way Boris no longer makes ‘music’, the word ‘art’ has lost all meaning for me. I wonder if this is a typically cynical Japanese sensibility? In Japan, people always question whether art has any social or education purpose. So I have a very suspicious attitude towards “art.”

Unless you speak Japanese, you’re not going to understand the lyrics to their songs. That doesn’t matter at all. With their limited editions, various versions of releases, and hectic schedule their cult following is ferocious. The recent vinyl release of Smile was limited to 500 copies and has been seen on eBay for upwards of $200. It’s easy to hear why they have a universal appeal. Something about their music has an ancient thundering quality and a sense of raw nerve exhaustion.

I think music is fundamentally “tribal” on a certain level. I think the exhausted element comes a lot from Wata. As a woman, she has less physical strength than a man, and you can hear this exhaustion in the way she strums a chord. And since she tunes her guitar way down, she uses really thick strings. But I think in the way she bends strings, and in some of the other elements of her playing, she does things that men can’t do.

I asked Atsuo if they still got the release from doing this now that they got when they named themselves after a Melvins’ song years back or if its changed.

We are constantly grappling with new, chaotic situations. We did find a good tour manager, though, so things have become a bit less stressful. Right now we’re in Belgium, and this tour has been the longest yet - six weeks. It’s six AM, and even though I’m exhausted, I can’t sleep. My whole body hurts. We’ve got nine more shows to play. But we all press on, because you never experience the same thing twice. Even though the set list is the nearly the same every night and we can get sick of it, we keep going. Right now I’m wondering what kind of scenery the Ramones saw.

Atsuo’s email was inspiring. I really wish I could have talked to him further. He has a very refreshing philosophy of what Boris is all about, which makes me want to listen to them even more. Their sound is enormous and glacial, roaring and magnetic. Listen for yourself.

Realize the virtual digital persona and then blur the lines that define reality. Escape time and space to a place where alter egos become fact and the one truth is ever present.

Wide-Eyed: Bobby, you’ve been in hiding for awhile. We haven’t seen a whole lot from you in the past few years, but now you’re coming back with Digi Snacks. Why the layoff? Did you catch a virus? Or were you reincarnating your system, expanding your network?

Bobby Digital: The Raven had me trapped, so I couldn’t enter into our world. But now The Raven has been located, identified, and I’m out to get him.

WE: How does that plan come about? Where are you going to confront The Raven? How can you attack?

BD: First of all, I have good people working with me. I’ve got Kinetic, I’ve got Barbara Peppers, and so I sent them out to scout first. What happened was The Raven thought he could slip back into the ‘70s era, into the pimp and exploitation era. He went there so that he could suck off the souls of women and regenerate his own self. But I sent Barbara Peppers in first. The Raven captured her and he thought she was a regular hooker bitch, but she wasn’t, she was a spy. When The Raven captured her, he took her to his lair and she signaled Kinetic. Kinetic signaled me and we came through to get rid of The Raven.

WE: Is this part of your master plan, Bobby, or is this just you reacting to the situation? Is it a matter of you recognizing the opportunity and seizing it?

BD: I have to perform certain feats to get myself out of this place I’m trapped in. They got me trapped here. I’m struggling to get out, to go over to the good side. I want to be totally pure. I want to be a clean signal. They keep sending static and I keep getting stuck in this world. But time after time, I keep working to prove my worthiness, proving that I can be a pure signal. Just because I’m digital 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1… you don’t recognize that the space between the 0 and the 1 is also infinite. Recognize the space within the 0 itself is infinite. So I just want to make a clear signal so they know that I want to be solid.

WE: Absolute, and pure…

BD: Clean, a pure signal.

WE: Do you think that we as a collective are moving in a direction where we can communicate and understand at this level of purity? Or is this a pipe dream?

BD: Well, first of all I try and divide the Digital Bullet. Even if the average person gets stuck with the Digital Bullet, he’ll be able to see clear, and then travel through a clear signal. I don’t think it’s a dream. I think it’s possible for me to rise up and have a pure signal. I think it is possible for all of us to have a pure signal, we just have to look out for those that are trying to jam us up, especially, The Raven and his four birds of prowl: The Falcon and The Hawk, The Eagle and The Crane.

WE: How do you see the current state of the world as it is and the opportunity for change on that level? Can this movement, this paradigm shift, be reflected in the systems that operate and govern economic, social systems? Can this goal for purity be realized in those capacities? Or will it only be found in the digital?

BD: I’ll quote from Ason Unique. He said, “When you look on a piece of paper, people always put one dot, and then they write the rest.” He wants to know, “What’s that black dot? What’s in that black dot?” Similar to the yin and yang with the black dot in the white, and the white dot in the black… What is in those two dots? If we are able to figure that out, or inject that dot. Instead of 0, 1, 0, 1… it’s 0, dot, 1… That dot, that one dot, that one change can make everything for the better. But are we willing to make that one change? Are we willing to accept that change? Are we willing to put that black dot there?

WE: So is this new album, Digi Snacks, you establishing yourself in that purity and growing out of what existed before?

BD: Unfortunately, no. That’s why it’s Digi Snacks. It’s just another attempt. I will probably have to bring it visually along with the audio. But I still think it can open a lot of minds. The first song that comes on is “Long Time Coming.” And that particular song, it’s really like I’m at the end and I’m about to lose it all. And sometimes when you’re at the end about to lose it all, it can burst into a whole new world. And the way to do that is to seek mental clarity, change your polarity. Can you change your own polarity? I think you can. I think everybody can.

WE: Yes… It’s an opportunity to change interpretation…

BD: You can change your interpretation, but will you still be able to visualize the one truth?

WE: If you open yourself to it…

BD: Visualize the all. Everything else was a forced interpretation.

WE: Escape interpretation…

BD: Exactly, and then you become the real. The problem with the 0 and the 1 is that the 1 loses itself inside the 0.

WE: Huh?

BD: I’ll give you a binary thing. Look at the 0 itself. We use the number system 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… when we get to 10, then what do we have to do? Put the 1 back behind the 0! And we’re back now, all the way back where we started, because all numbers are just a fraction of that 0. The 0 is the only 1, everything else is just a fraction of it. Do you understand that?

WE: In expanding your performance and actualizing your digital persona, how are you going to develop your expression? How are you going to develop that beyond the audio and video? Is there ultimately some sort of self-actualization that comes out of being Bobby Digital?

BD: Of course. The audio and video are just expressions of the self. The audio and the video is actually the reflection of the self. If you enjoy the audio and video, you’re going to love the self.

WE: Right.

BD: One thing we can agree with, no matter what world we exist - digital, analog… It all springs out from a source. Become the source, man.

WE: Wow…

BD: If we were talking in terms of the layman, we would say spirit, right?

WE: Spirit, soul…Be the one, be the whole…Be the universe, be the entirety…

BD: Be it all.

WE: Be the all. Be the element…

BD: Drown yourself in the ocean. When you see a body drown in the ocean and you see the body floating, he’s not moving, the ocean is moving. When he’s alive and not drowning and you see him splashing and moving around, he hasn’t let himself go, he’s trying to do everything. And once he drowns himself into it, then he moves. He becomes a part of the ocean. He becomes the ocean itself.

WE: Do you think this world of amplified digital technologies and increased opportunities for communication, and all of these lines and platforms for this expression… Does this allow us to access the whole more readily, or is it the jam in the frequency? Or is it just something that we are adapting with?

BD: Nah. My personal opinion, my personal knowledge of it… It is allowing us access. It’s opening it for us. If you take your cell phone, I could be in Europe, you could be in America, and then in one second we’re talking to each other on a very small battery charge. Why not just take the phone off our ears and go ahead call me, baby? What’s the frequency, really? What’s really the frequency? You mean to tell me that microchip is what’s really doing all that? What’s really doing it?

WE: Do you think these opportunities for this digital connection, are at the same time platforms to put forward any sort of image of ourselves that we might want? We can formulate or create a facade, or create a MySpace page that represents what… our ideals of our self, or our actual self?… Or a new self that we aspire to?

BD: In reality, whether it’s digital or analog, any self you emit from your self, is your self. So you look on somebody’s MySpace page and it could be a skinny girl, but she has a fat picture. Inwardly, she is fat. Her heart is fat. If scientists could take a picture and photograph her aura, they would probably notice her aura is bigger than her physical. She probably has a fat aura. If she’s a fat woman that puts up a skinny picture of her self designed to be skinny, inwardly she is skinny. If you want me to get technical with you, I’ll get technical with you, because you’re being technical with me…

WE: {laughs}

BD: From when the simple sperm cell that starts off as almost inanimate matter traveling into this little egg cell. This one little cell from the moment they connect. From moment of the spark in the father when he caught the electrical charge in his brain, that set off his spine, and went down and forced his penis to ejaculate the semen with the sperm, caused by the rapid breathing of air and thoughts, put this cell into this woman. And from that one second right there, for all time, on and on, forever into eternity, that same one second is constantly growing and changing. But it’s still that same one second. Think on that.

WE: The moment of creation… The moment of poetics... that bang, the big bang…

BD: That Big Bang, yeah. Think on that.

WE: How can we access that eternity? Every moment is on that, every moment is that…?

BD: Well, the RZA said, “Every second is the present, every second is the past, every second is the future, how long will it last?”

WE: Wow… Is RZA around today?

BD: Yeah, you want to speak with him?

WE: Can I talk to him? {pause}

RZA: Bong Bong!

WE: Hey, RZA. How are you? I’ve been talking with Bobby Digital trying to break down this moment in time, this moment of creation that allows us to be, and allows us to grow. You guys have an uncanny resemblance. How did you two meet?

RZA: Bobby is my student.

WE: Ah… How did that come about?

RZA: Actually, what happened with Bobby... {pause} He doesn’t want me to tell you that.

WE: What’s going on with the Wu Empire? One of the great hip hop empires to land on this planet.

RZA: I think the Wu Empire has become the true meaning of itself. And what I mean by that, if you look at the word Wu, like Wu-Chi means ‘no extremities’. I think that the Wu Empire is one of the only empires of the people, honestly. It started long ago, I think ’95 or ‘96 it really started when people from different parts of the world became part of the Wu Empire and took it upon themselves to represent Wu, with or without the Wu-Tang Clan. Wu-Tang Clan is the family that brought it to us, but Wu became one of the first true world empires. You watch a movie like Ironman, which is definitely a comic created by Marvel and Stan Lee, but never sold a million comic books. Somebody like Ghost Rider, didn’t even make it past two hundred issues, now makes 100s of millions of dollars because of a guy named Johnny Blaze from the Wu-Tang Empire. We sparked that, when you can go to a Blockbuster and find a copy of Five Deadly Venoms on the shelf.

WE: It’s true. The way that Wu supported and invigorated so many other brands, the way that it was connected to so many awesome icons, themes, and metaphors, and the way it interlaced not only music, but film and art and other media with wealth…

RZA: I’m proud and blessed and humbled, you know, as The Abbott of the Wu-Tang Clan, to see that our thoughts and our words and our love have inspired a generation, and flushed an economy, actually. It’s immeasurable. I’ll say as the RZA, before Wu-Tang Clan passes away physically, or whatever, whatever… I think the World Government should bless us with a big building. Like, hook us up with something like a Justice League operation.

WE: A monument that stands...

RZA: We helped a lot of people, a lot of families, influenced ideas, and caused the growth of a lot of things in this world. Bong Bong!

WE: We at Wide-Eyed model a lot of what we do in terms of what we stand for and how we operate based upon what we learned growing up with Wu. We believe whole-heartedly in that spirit of collectivism and the opportunity to grow something bigger beyond the self, and then to grow the self through that, and to ultimately enjoy that exchange, and the opportunity to collaborate to build something from nothing. We thank you.

RZA: I thank you all for supporting us. And not only supporting, but accepting it. People can yell ‘fire’ in a burning building, but people will stand around getting burned. I think it says in the bible that, “He who has an ear, listens.” I’m just glad that people… I’m just glad, I’m not even gonna front… I’m just glad that I can go down the street to Blockbuster and pick up Five Fingers of Death. {laughs} Before I had to go travel train rides through different hoods, it was impossible. There’s a movie called Shaolin Invisible Sticks - it took me about six months to find a copy of it back in the day. Six fucking months! I had to go to so many different stores, and one fucking guy had one scuffed up copy that had the beginning chopped off, and I was happy to get it - one shitty-ass copy. But now I just go right down to Amoeba. My life has been made easier because of my work. I love it.

WE: I asked Bobby Digital about this briefly, the world as it is, the changing political climate, the Presidential election coming up. What are your feelings?

RZA: If we here in America, actually take this opportunity to activate the principles that our forefathers have written. The word is the word, and the word becomes flesh. In the book of John it says, “In the beginning there was the word and the word was with god and the word became flesh.” Can we take the principles that they put into those writings and live them? This is a chance for us to do that, yo! Out of all the chances we’ve had, this is the chance for us to do that. If we do it, it’s going to resonate around the world. And what would really make it resonate more… and I’m not I’m not really a political dude, because I do too many things - party, drink, smoke, and whatever, whatever - so they keep me out of that shit, you know. But, if you look at Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama together, and you show this to the world with what is written in the Constitution and in the Declaration, we would change the face of this world and this whole world will resonate. I’ll be very surprised to see that happen in my lifetime. I would be blessed and honored to see that in my lifetime if we can make that change. If not, baby, get ready for President McCain. {laughs}

WE: Oh, fuck…

RZA: And get ready for another war.

WE: Nah. We at Wide-Eyed are ready to scrap for hope now with Obama on our back cover.

RZA: I’m not getting real political, but this is the funny shit for me. I do watch the news. We’re going to be out there for 100 years. How long was the crusade war? {laughs}

WE: Frightening.

RZA: We’ll see. We’ll see if we’re ready. This is a test. We might not be ready, yo. If we’re ready, then the whole world will resonate in a whole different way. We’re in a very serious situation.

WE: Change is coming one way or another. It’s a pivot point.

RZA: But here’s a slogan for you, and I got this from Bobby Digital: If you’re not having a good time, you’re wasting your time, so have a good time. Peace.

After a barrage of transcontinental phone calls, Damien finally got ahold of Seun, who was sitting down to dinner with his girlfriend. As hard as he tried to understand Seun over a busted satellite phone with a shitty connection, Damien couldn’t make out a word. Fortunately Seun agreed to answer some questions via email, and Damien fired them off before rushing his wife to the hospital. Seun’s responses and Damien’s daughter were both delivered the next morning.

Wide-Eyed: You’ve been performing in Egypt 80 since you were 9 years old. Did you ever imagine that you would grow up to be it’s front man?

Seun Kuti: I used to always think of the name I will give to my band when I grow up because I never thought I’d be the front man. Nobody thought my dad would die when he did.

WE: It’s amazing to think that the band has endured so much and is still together.

SK: We are still together because we believe in the music and my father’s ideology, because sometimes when I think about all we went through its incredible really how we kept going.

WE: Those were some pretty big shoes to fill. What was it like to take the reins of your father’s band?

SK: It was easy for me because I didn’t take the job wanting to fill my fathers shoes. I took it to keep the music going because my dad used to say his band was the most important thing to him.

WE: You even chose to wear the original costumes.

SK: That’s how I was taught to dress when you perform afro-beat {laughs}. I have my own. They are not my dads {laughing}.

WE: Your half-brother Femi chose what I would interpret as a more progressive path musically, whereas your style seems more traditional. Did you feel that it was your mission to continue Fela’s legacy?

SK: What do you mean more progressive? I feel we both interpret the music the way we feel. I don’t think my style is traditional. It’s original. I believe other genres should try to sound like afro-beat, not the other way around. Fela’s legacy is not my mission alone. It’s the mission of the whole world, peace, justice, and equality. I am just lucky to be his son.

WE: For a long time you only played Fela’s songs, but now you’re stepping out with your own material. How does it feel to be doing your own thing?

SK: Although the album is new we’ve been doing our own material for a while now. I still play my dad’s tracks at my shows as a sign of respect.

WE: You once said “I want to make Afro-beat for my generation. Instead of ‘get up and fight,’ it’s going to be ‘get up and think’.” Do you think that this generation is getting the message?

SK: I just released the message, and it’s just the beginning. I don’t expect instant change, but that is my primary mission. I can’t let my generation look up to only our selfish rulers for inspiration.

WE: In the song African Problems you say that there’s “too much to think about, too much to shout about.” With so much corruption, fighting, and disease in Africa do you have any hope for the continent?

SK: Not with the way its going. This is a dead end, but now that we are at the dead end we need to go back to the beginning and plot a new path because clearly this one has lead us to hell.

WE: What will it take to turn things around?

SK: New leadership with the right ideology and justice… a lot of injustice has been perpetuated in Africa, and until the people get justice there can be no peace of mind.

WE: Last summer you had some help from Barack Obama in getting your visas, allowing you to tour the US. Is there any question as to who would get your vote if you were an American citizen?

SK: That question is a joke, right? Some sort of trick question? Hmmmm let me see (one second of thought later); BARACK OBAMA! Are you gonna vote for McCain?

WE: Your father started his own political party and even tried to run for president of Nigeria. Do you have any political aspirations?

SK: After music my next job is definitely politics. We need power to make change.

WE: You say you are highly influenced by early hip hop artists such as Dr. Dre and Notorious BIG. I don’t hear a lot of their style in your music. So is it more about attitude?

SK: My only musical inspiration for afro-beat is Fela, but I also have a hip hop group back home.

WE: Anything else you’re listening to currently?

SK: A lot of jazz at the moment. It’s a phase I guess…

write entirely new songs all in a matter of weeks. Joining forces with friend and fellow songwriter Dan Boeckner, the former vocalist/guitarist of Atlas Strategic, the duo shared lead vocal and songwriting duties. They also shared a background in the Victoria, British Columbia music scene where they both began. Demoing to a drum machine before drafting drummer Arlon Thompson, who they both knew from their Victoria days, they rehearsed as Wolf Parade for only one day before their now fabled first show.

The reality of the band’s rock ‘n’ roll formation isn’t quite as fanciful, despite what their subsequent ‘zine acclaim and blogosphere buzz might imply, but it was just as frantic as their keyboard-dizzied ditties would make one believe. Oh, and that first show with The Arcade Fire wasn’t quite the starlit, life-changing moment those same fans might fantasize about either.

“We were both actually opening for a band from Belgium called Melon Galia, that’s like Stereolab-lite,” Boeckner said, recalling that night back in 2003 with a laugh. “So just our friends showed up, and it was just like any other show; we played, maybe poorly, I don’t know {laughs}. There was no sense of a fucking happening there.”

Boeckner hadn’t even met The Arcade Fire until that night. The two bands didn’t start hanging out until weeks later after Wolf Parade officially relocated to Montreal and moved their then mostly borrowed equipment into The Arcade Fire’s practice space.

They’ve since continued to follow that band’s jaunt around greater Montreal, recording their latest, At Mount Zoomer, at Petite Église, the church owned by The Arcade Fire located in nearby Farnham, Quebec, and famously used for the recording last year’s Neon Bible.

“In Canada, you either live in Vancouver, you live in Toronto or you live in Montreal, pretty much,” Boeckner said when asked by Wide-Eyed if he moved to Montreal to immerse himself in the inclusive music and art scene there. “Those are like the three cities that really appeal to me and everybody else, really, in terms of culture. Not to shit on Winnipeg or Halifax or Calgary, but if you want to live in a major metropolitan area it’s either fake-France, yuppie paradise in Vancouver, or Toronto, which is basically downtown Canada with all the elements of L.A. and New York, but washed out Canadian style.”

Touring those Canadian cities and more, the trio also self-recorded and self-released their first self-titled EP, aka 2003’s “4-Song” EP. By 2004 they added laptop sound manipulator/keyboardist Hadji Bakara to their lineup and independently recorded and released another eponymous disc, aka the “6-Song” EP.

Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock then signed Wolf Parade through his sideline job as an A&R rep for Seattle’s legendary indie label, Sub Pop, where they released their first officially self-titled EP in 2005. Later that year Brock produced the band’s debut full-length, Apologies To The Queen Mary. The album completely captured the dynamic collaboration of Krug and Boeckner within its songs.

“Originally he was going to support me on a solo thing and I was going to support him on a solo thing and it was going to be like two bands, but we just mooshed it into one thing,” Boeckner said about Wolf Parade’s beginnings. “And now we both have solo projects that neither of us are involved in because we spend too much time together during the year and we want to stay friends.”

While touring extensively in support of Apologies for nearly two years, and adding touring guitarist Dante DeCaro, formerly of fellow Canadian breakout Hot Hot Heat, Wolf Parade’s members made sure to maintain their own individualities. Krug started Sunset Rubdown as a solo project that he has developed into a full band over three LPs and one EP in the past three years. In 2006 he also rejoined his former frontman from Frog Eyes, Carey Mercer, for Swan Lake, something of an indie supergroup also featuring Dan Bejar of Destroyer and The New Pornographers. The trio released its first full-length, Beast Moans, later that year, and earlier this year reassembled to record another.

Boeckner meanwhile has worked with his wife, short story writer Alexei Perry in his own side project Handsome Furs. The band’s debut, Plague Park, came out on Sub Pop last year, with their next set to follow later this year.

Boeckner mentioned how he and Krug have talked about how now, in the digital recording age, musicians can really write songs anywhere.

“If you have a laptop and a guitar and a midi-keyboard or anything, it’s a portable job, right?” he explained. “With the technology now, you don’t need a big studio and a fucking enormous amp and stuff, at least not with the stuff we write, so it’s completely portable. I’d love to move to Helsinki and write and live there on an arts grant, but I can’t because Wolf Parade exists.”

While returning to Montreal to work together once again, Wolf Parade’s recording sessions inside Petite Église captured that spirit of unconventionally modern recording. Their renewed need for mutual collaboration came out in long improv sessions inside the church, which Thompson recorded and later engineered without hardly any additional studio effects.

“It’s really the other people, Arlen and Hadji, who blend everything seamlessly,” Boeckner said about Wolf Parade’s songs. “And because we’ve worked together for years, my songwriting’s gotten more complex and Spencer’s has gotten a little less obtuse.

There’s a natural coming together. But it’s really Arlen and Hadji giving a certain continuity to the songs. There was a certain point a couple of years ago, if it had been up to me, we would have written three- or four-chord fucking freedom rock songs and Spencer would have wrote 18-chord songs in seven-eighths that were like six and a half minutes long, so now we’ve kind of balanced that.”

Nowhere does that balance become clearer than on At Mount Zoomer’s epic, eleven-minute closing track, “Kissing The Beehive,” co-written by both Boeckner and Krug and tentatively leaked online as the album’s intended title track before a caution of copyright-infringement crossed the band’s path due to an existing book by the same name. In a year’s worth of anticipation, they also toyed with titling the disc Pardon My Blues, before deciding to name it At Mount Zoomer after Thompson’s studio.

Boeckner has publicly announced that during the early stages of their recording they had informed Sub Pop that the disc would have “no singles,” but the significantly shorter, bluesy piano-pounder “Call It A Ritual” has emerged a lead-off track worthy of Wolf Parade’s legend. “California Dreamer’” meanwhile, marvelously marks the album’s midway point, as Krug sings with strong statement: “I think I might have heard you on the radio / But the radio waves were like snow.”

“We’re not going to sign to a major label,” Boeckner said about the band’s continuing success outside of the commercial mainstream. “That’s not something that’s in the cards for Wolf Parade. Ever. Not even for political reasons, just for sheer practical ones.”

Wolf Parade will live out something of their own California dream when they play a two-night stand at the Henry Ford Theater in Los Angles July 18-19.

Wide Eyed: So you got a new album out…

King Buzzo: Wait wait wait. How old are you?

WE: How old am I? I’m 31.

KB: 31.And what’s your favorite band in the whole world?

WE: My Favorite band in the whole world? Shit.

KB: Present company excluded of course.

WE: Goddamnit. I’ve got loads of favorite bands, man. Seriously.

KB: OK — give me three.

WE: 3. Ummm…

KB: 3 favorites.

WE: OK… Damn dude… you can’t --

KB: Think think think.

WE: Umm.

KB: Oh, I’ll give you 3 — I like the Beatles, The Who, and the Sex Pistols.

WE: Ok, I like Califone, I like David Bowie, and I like Mastadon.

KB: OK.

WE: Does that work?

KB: Cool. Ok, now that we got that out of the way.

WE: Those are in the top 20. Somewhere in there. So, Nude with Boots… how did you end up doing the last two albums with Big Business?

KB: Well, we were looking for a new bass player cuz of problems with our last one and we ended up actually hiring two guys new. We like the band Big Business and it was a 2 piece and we went for it.

WE: Cool. The new album rules.

KB: Oh thank you, I’m glad you like it.

WE: You seem to be big fan of collaborations. You’re also in Fantomas, you’ve done stuff with Jello Biafra — why do you like collaborating so much?

KB: Well, I don’t know (pause). It seems like a good thing to do, you know? We’re friends and we’ve done a lot of records, we’ve had a long history, it just seems like it’s not really too crazy for us to think along those lines.

WE: Yeah — you’ve got to keep it fresh. You guys have been together for twenty —

KB: Twenty four years.

WE: Motherfucker. That’s awesome.

KB: Yeah. So far so good.

WE: With that kind of work ethic — you’re prolific as shit. What’s the hardest thing about keeping at that?

KB: None of it’s that hard. Don’t listen to people that tell you it’s too hard. Cuz they’re lying to you. Mostly. I would imagine anyway. It’s a good thing to do. We make music for a living. That’s what we do. And I’m a firm believer that when you make music for a living then you should work on it and you should do a lot of stuff. Dale (Crover — the longtime Melvins drummer) always says I never have writers block. I don’t know what writers block would be.

WE: How long did you know that was what you wanted to be?

KB: Well, I knew I was interested in guitars about the time I got out of high school. Then within about 18 months after starting playing guitar, we were playing shows.

WE: So you basically got out of high school, started plying guitar, and the Melvins became your job.

KB: I worked shit jobs for a long time to make ends meet. I haven’t had to have another job since ‘89. We started in ‘83 — 6 years of making nothing and then when we finally started making a living at it we weren’t really making that much, just barely getting by. It’s easier now than it was, but we still have to work. I can’t retire, you know? I’m not, by any means independently wealthy. I wish. Not gonna happen. Maybe a secret trust fund will kick in finally. {laughs}

WE: So you’re a perfect example of the do it yourself working class rock star — did you ever aspire for mainstream success? Did you ever hope to break big?

KB: No, I never thought that was gonna happen. Never ever. Our music is too weird for that. Always. I got interested in music and as a teenager just listening to music, then I discovered punk rock, Sex Pistols and stuff like that in about ‘78 — I was in about 8th grade — it just kinda went from there. Once I discovered punk and this whole new attitude, started going to shows and started realizing that all this stuff — that that kind of attitude and those kind of things — those kinds of places to play and that kind of intimate atmosphere — that was what I wanted to do. I knew that right way. That’s the kind of music I liked. Arena rock drove me to punk rock and I’ve never looked back. I still would go to arena rock shows every so often and we’ve done a lot of that kind of stuff, but my heart will never be out of the whole punk rock ethic. And I don’t mean new punk rock. None of that horse shit. Warped Tour punk rock or something. That shit to me is just people not using their head and putting on the uniform of all that shit and they have no concept of what we’re talking about and then when they listen to us they view us as something other than what we are. I’m not into that shit.

WE: Good for you.

KB: Some people are. I’m not. The problem I have with that kind of Hot Topic punk rock is that there’s too many rules, you know? It’s stupid to me. It’s as silly as watching a Madonna video.

WE: It’s branded and MTV ready.

KB: I’m not interested.

WE: Major labels are crumbling right now. And you’ve been on a lot of labels over the years. Are you happy with the state of independent music lately versus mainstream music now, or do you think there’s always a struggle and mainstream crap will always be crap and it’s gonna keep being crap?

KB: Yeah, it’s probably gonna always be crap. Every once in a while things slip through the cracks and you’re like “Oh yeah, I agree with the mainstream about why this record’s big” but usually I don’t. Independent record labels by and large — most of ‘em you can’t trust. They’re just gonna rip you off. It’s a hard road to travel.

WE: Did you have any sense of trust when you signed on to Atlantic?

KB: Atlantic I never worried about trusting. They did exactly what they said they were gonna do. They always paid their bills. Indie labels are the ones that bothered us the most. They just out and out do not pay you. Zero. Atlantic’s checks never bounced.

WE: So how did your relationship with Ipecac start?

KB: Ipecac started with a strange situation. What happened was we were looking for a label to put out the Fantomas project — which is me, Dave Lombardo, Trevor Dunn, and Mike Patton. This is ten years ago. We were having a LOT of trouble finding someone to put that out simply because to a lot of these underground labels it was something that was yesterdays news — a bunch of old hacks — who the fuck would wanna listen to any of this shit? We had one indie label that will remain anonymous who basically said that they would have to hear demos to see what the stuff sounded like before they put it out, and then they said we don’t have any interest in putting it out at all. And then Greg Werckman, who was the manager, said “Jesus Christ, I’m thinking about just putting this out myself” and I was like, “Well Greg, if you start a label the Melvins will do records on it as well.” So using Fantomas — this big Mike Patton side project — and the Melvins, he got a big distribution deal pretty easily and needless to say, the indie label that didn’t want to do it have basically said it was the biggest mistake they ever made. Essentially I agree. How could you be that fuckin’g stupid? And now I’m ten years older and we do fine. I never had any doubt. I’m not worried cuz we make good music. If people don’t wanna listen to good music or think we’re too old to do that kind of stuff, so be it. They were telling me I was too old to do this in the fuckin’’ mid ‘90s, so… I’m not an ageist.

WE: Age is nothing.

KB: I just saw the Sex Pistols play with a friend of mine in Vegas and we were agreeing that this is better than most young bands we see and these dudes are in their mid ‘50s!

WE: They were really good live? (disbelief)

KB: They were fuckin’ great. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be playing music at all. They changed my attitude about everything. Johnny Rotten was amazing, they played great songs — no doubt about it. I loved it. It was the show of a lifetime for me considering how much they meant to me. How much my attitude’s changed. I don’t care about that (age). If someone wants to pretend that has something to do with why they listen to music then I just don’t understand them at all. My favorite bands when I started listening to music were bands like Hendrix, the Who, Cream — those bands were by no means kids — all those bands are way older — Hendrix was dead — I didn’t have any problem liking it. I still like it. I wasn’t wrong when I was a teenager. That stuff is good and it’s still good.

WE: It is still good. You’re right.

KB: I don’t discount any era of music. There’s always good stuff from every era. There’s no golden era. That’s what we really like to play. That’s what we like to do and we’re better now than we’ve ever been at this point in our career, which to me is really weird. We’ve got a raging band now and I’m really happy about it. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do.

WE: The new album’s really awesome. It really is.

KB: Thank you. I think it’s better than the last one and I really liked the last one a lot.

WE: I wanted to talk to you about film. You’re a fan obviously, with the Fantomas “Directors Cut” and there’s a song on Nude With Boots called “Dies Iraea” (I completely butcher the pronunciation of this title).

KB: Diarrhea? {laughter} It’s a cover. It’s in at least 3 movies that I know of. Ken Russell’s “The Devils,” John Houston’s “The Bible,” and the opening credits of “The Shining.”

WE: So you’re a big fan of film.

KB: Oh yeah. Absolutely.

WE: Is there any film score composers that you’re really into?

KB: Just buy the soundtrack to “West Side Story.” That’ll cover it all.

WE: {Laughter} You’re kidding.

KB: I’m not kidding. By far the weirdest soundtrack there is. I love it. That soundtrack’s awesome. I listen to it all the time. The other one is “Lawrence Of Arabia,” that soundtrack’s really good. Those are great. Awesome.

WE: Ennio Morricone?

KB: Oh of course. He’s easy to like. My favorite

stuff of his is the soundtrack to “The Thing.”

WE: Seen the movie. It’s pretty synthed out — from the ‘80s.

KB: It’s awesome. John Carpenter.

WE: Roman Polanski?

KB: Of course. “The Tenant,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” all that shit. Yeah, Polanski’s one of the good guys. Aside from the statutory rape charge.

WE: I didn’t know that.

KB: That’s why he can’t come back to the US. I think he anally raped a 14 year girl.

WE: Wow.

KB: Then he ran from the country. Look it up on Wikipedia — it’ll tell you all about it. He’s had a weird life. The Manson Family butchered his wife. He’s had a very strange existence.

• Side note: I did look it up. She was actually only 13.

KB: John Houston’s my favorite though. John Houston’s the shit. Greatest director of all time.

WE: What has he done?

KB: “The Treasure Of Sierra Madre” — it’s an all time number one perfect film. He did “Key Largo,” “The Misfits,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” on and on and on. I love his work ethic. He didn’t start making movies till his late thirties and he made movies until he was in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank. And never stopped. I love it. “The Treasure Of Sierra Madre” I think is the greatest film ever made. Humphrey Bogart, it’s made in the ‘40s. You have to see it. Classic.

WE: Easy to find?

KB: Oh Yeah. Classic. A close second right behind that is “Lawrence Of Arabia.”

WE: Good, but long?

KB: There’s no movie that is better than those 2 movies.

WE: That’s a bold statement.

KB: I’ll happily make it. Nothing is better than those movies.

WE: Back to music. I read somewhere online that you said The Latin Playboys’ Dose was one of your top 5 albums of all time. I love that album and not enough people know about it.

KB: It has everything I like about music.

WE: Tell the people at home what it is you like about it?

KB: It is an absolute purity. You can tell top to bottom that they mean it. It’s their execution. It’s their sensibility. It’s their musical ability. It’s their selection of what they do. It’s how they do it. It’s their attitude. It’s everything. It’s modernizing Latin music in some way. And it’s pure genius. I think. You listen to it and it’s just… absolute. It’s so clever and well thought out and well executed and just… it’s fuckin’ awesome. They’re such smart guys. They’re unbelievable. They’re everything I love about music. I wish I could make a record that would inspire somebody the way that record inspires me.

WE: I think you have.

KB: Well, I don’t know about that. I’m too close to my own music to make that kind of all encompassing statement about it. As a musical fan, I listen to that and say, “That’s what I wanna do. I wanna make music that’s like that.” Not a copy but with that in mind. I wanna make music that makes people want to make music. We make albums that we would like as fans. Even though we can’t really listen to our own albums, I wanna make records that I would like if I was buying a record. It’s too creepy to listen to your own stuff. That’s like reading your own books. Fuck that. It’s too strange of a situation. But that’s what we do. That’s what we’ve always done. Now it doesn’t always work out and sometimes later you go “What was I thinking?” but generally speaking I stand behind everything we’ve done and I apologize for none of it. I think it’s all perfect. People should realize that we’ve been at this for a long time and we have good sensibilities. We’re not wrong.

“Everybody, they want to smoke with you,” Doughty told Wide-Eyed. “Once you get down the line smoking with so many people in a row you’re, like, so baked you can’t even see straight. But then they came all that way just to blaze with you, so you’ve got to smoke with them anyway.”

“Sometimes it gets to the point were you’re so baked you can’t even talk.”

Doughty called during a cleaning break at an Arizona home he rents out. He recently had to evict a tenant, which he said he did only after giving them every possible chance to make good on rent. He doesn’t need to argue much that he’d be a pretty cool landlord; anyone who’s seen a show or partied with the band knows he’s as laid back as a well-worn Lay-Z-Boy.

Slightly Stoopid is known as much for their easy rock-reggae rhythms and jams as they are for their casual attitudes about stardom and fame. Doughty said he and the others — Kyle McDonald, Ryan Moran, C-Money, DeLa and Oguer Ocon — don’t see much difference between themselves and their fans, so socializing afterward isn’t part of the job. It’s part of the fun after the job is done. Most fans get that, but some are still anxious to get near the guy that was just on stage.

“It’s funny when they say, ‘Oh MY God!’ It’s like, ‘Shut up,’” Doughty said, laughing. “‘Let’s just hang out and have a beer.’”

The irony is in their work ethic, which is unrivaled. They’ve played near 200 shows a year for the last six or seven years, Doughty said. They’ve been together for nearly 15 years despite a rotating cast of drummers, and made it through the valleys by doing what they do best: writing music and touring (the Acoustic Roots album in 2001 came after a long period of doubt for Doughty, but he said after recording that he knew the band would grow again). They also own their own record label and have plenty of side work to keep busy during breaks.

“We’ve done what a million and one people told us we couldn’t do,” Doughty said. “The fans don’t lie — they come to the shows, and a lot of people come out every night.”

Slightly Stoopid’s summer tour officially kicks off in Las Vegas this August but they’re playing a number of warm-up dates to shake the rust off. Their July 5 show at the Rothbury Festival is only their second after two months off. Doughty said he was itching to get back on the bus after three weeks, but understands how important an extended break is to the life of the band.

“For us it’s a chance to play in front of a different crowd, you know what I mean,” he said about Rothbury and the other July dates in New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “Doing those festivals in those areas, we’re going to be playing in front of crowds that we wouldn’t normally draw on our own. The Stoopid fans will be there, but there will be all these other cats for these other bands.”

The 21 tracks on their “bits and pieces” album will be new to those people only. Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast will be available July 22. It’s a collection of songs they play live but have never recorded, tracks that never made previous albums, and popular SS covers. “False Rhythms” and “Sensimilla” are two tracks that will make the most devoted Stoopid Heads smile.

“Making ‘False Rhythms’ and ‘Sensimilla’ in the studio was cool, because it only took a few takes of playing live, and the songs were done,” Doughty said, during a band press release. “We got to keep the flavor of the live show in it. That whole vibe in South Florida (where they recorded), we were able to capture it and put it into those jams.”

The album is going to be released on Slightly Stoopid Records, and Doughty acknowledged they won’t sell as many copies as perhaps they would with a national label. It doesn’t matter. SS has long championed free music file sharing sites, and a strong internet presence. To maintain a long career the live show is what’s important — and most labels won’t acknowledge that, Doughty argued.

“I’ve seen bands that are multi-platinum artists but can’t sell a thousand tickets to a show,” he said. “I’d rather sell three thousand tickets and sell a hundred thousand records, but I know three thousand [ticket-purchasing] people are going to be in every town I go to.”

How long the San Diego-based band can maintain their pace is a question they get often, and Doughty acknowledges that the longing for his own bed comes earlier with each tour the band does. But he’s still only 31, and it’s still fun to smoke until you’re speechless. Look for more tour dates and information at www.myspace.com/slightlystoopid.

They will perform every date of the Warp Tour and the guys are completely ready to hit the road, sombreros in full effect. We meet them at their studio in Van Nuys, CA for an afternoon of brews, crusty bandana’s, a ride in Jorma’s Black Caddie, and a special rehearsal session that still has the film crew dazed by the glory of rock.

Wide-Eyed: You guys were signed to Def Jam after only performing twelve shows. How long have you guys been playing together before that point? Were there other bands that you were playing in before?

Joby J. Ford: Matt and I had played in other bands together, the old bass player and I had played in bands before that and that is how we met Jorma. I think Matt and I had been playing in different bands together for about five years.

Matt Caughthran: (Claps) I love you man.

JF: Yeah it was kind of a fluke thing.

Jorma Vik: Everything happened super quick.

JF: I think we were pretty lucky, I guess if you would call that lucky to have an opportunity to sign on to a record deal so early on in this bands career. This wasn’t the first time we picked up instruments and started a band. It was like the fifth or sixth.

MC: But it was the best one by far.

WE: What were some of the other bands that you guys were in before?

JF: Let’s start with the earliest bands, those are my favorite. Jorma?

JV: I had a band in high school call the Stench Mob. It was like street punk.

WE: What part of LA are you (Jorma) from?

JV: I’m actually from Seattle. So I have been here about ten years now.

MC: I was in a band called PFI that didn’t stand for anything (laughs). We couldn’t come together as a band, it should have been the first sign that it wasn’t going to work. But, then I was in a band called Brotherhood of Death. Then me and Joby had a band called the Drips and after that The Bronx got started and that was that.

WE: So then with Brad and Ken, did you guys play in other outfits before The Bronx?

Ken Horne: I played in a band from San Diego called The Dragons.

JV: Was that your only band?

KH: I was in a band called M80 (everyone in the room bursts into laughter for reasons unknown, he is referring to a San Diego punk band from the early ‘90s.)

Brad Magers: I was in a band called the Christiansen for almost ten years. Other than that I have had this small stint in another band called The Exit.

WE: Was Christiansen an Evangelical Christian punk band {jokingly}?

BM: No we were a stoner rock band.

CH: They were stoners {laughs}.

JV: They were just stoned.

WE: Is there any reason why you guys don’t have a title to any of your albums? What is the deal with that?

MC: Laziness!

WE: Not for purity or continuity, it’s just strait up laziness?

JF: Yeah, I would say so. It is interesting because we don’t title our records so all of the things in iTunes are backwards or they will have a different line up, it’s funny to look at the catalog, and be like “Wait that was our old record.”

WE: This new album that you are working on there is a mariachi record and a punk record. Are they the same record with a different feel?

MC: No they are completely different. It is like they are two different bands almost, but it is awesome. I’m super excited about it. We finished the mariachi record about two weeks ago and then we finished this record and then we are leaving for tour. So, it feels good because we have been home for awhile, working and working and writing so now that the end of the rainbow is in site, it feels good to look back and know that we are going to have two records and they are both going to be great, so I’m excited.

WE: When you tour are you going to play as both bands?

CH: Yeah I imagine we’ll probably mix a set up. Some times we will play as El Bronx completely and sometimes we’ll play as The Bronx. I imagine a lot will be pending on if we are hung over or not. It’s kind of cool, it’s an exciting time to be in the band, having the whole other outlet (mariachi) is really exciting.

WE: The song “LA Lady” is that about a particular lady?

MC: Steve Aoki (aka DJ Kid Millionaire)

JV: (busts into hysterical laughter followed by everyone in the room) Bravo!

MC: No that’s just a song, it’s no one in particular really.

JF: It’s a generalization.

MC: Everything starts out specific and then kind of ends general. I don’t want to be a specific finger pointer when it comes to lyrics.

WE: So it’s more an ode to the “Prom Queens” from all over the US that come here?

MC: Yeah you know, there are nasty women from everywhere and god bless ‘em {laughs}.

WE: You are headlining Warp Tour, what are your thoughts on the tour say over the last five to seven years?

MC: I don’t know, we steered away from it for a long time because it seemed like the music that was on there wasn’t really something that we were interested in. Now we have an opportunity to do it and I am actually really glad we waited because now we are playing on a really good stage with a lot of good friends. You know it is what it is, any where you go whether it’s a festival or a club or whatever, there is going to be good bands and bad bands. I’m just excited to get in front of some people who haven’t seen us before. We’ll play our half hour of power and it’s going to be great. It’s going to be summer time, the sun is gonna be out, it will be hot out, the music is going to be loud. The site and the thought of young kids showing up to Warp Tour and seeing us in mariachi outfits {breaks out in laughter} and playing acoustic instruments is just going to be amazing.

WE: What are some of the bands that you are looking forward to touring with?

MC: There are some bands there. We did a tour with Circle Jerks and GBH. I know that GBH will be doing part of the tour, those are dudes that we see when we go over periodically to England, but to actually be able to play with them again and get to hang out with them, it’s going to be great.

WE: No one is going to the hospital this time?

MC: It’s going to get real nasty, I can feel it. It kind of makes me nervous, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.

WE: What are some of your favorite experiences touring with our bands?

JV: I think one of the coolest things is when we took 400 Blows over to Europe with us. That was really cool. That’s a band that we really love and we had a blast with them.

JF: There’s Ghostface Killah. Talk about just the most diverse crowd ever. People were like…(Joby throws a Wu sign)

MC: We were playin’ and people were throwing up Wu-Tang symbols. It was fuckin’ great.

JF: The amount of pot that those dudes smoke is amazing. It was a pretty fun experience.

WE: Future collaboration with Ghostface?

MC: It would be great!

JF: For a lot of the bands we toured with there has been some that I haven’t liked at all, but I think in general music is so subjective. People have different opinions and tastes. For some people it’s good for them, but its bad to me. There are only good bands and bad bands.

WE: So when are you planning to release the record?

MC: Well it’s a real loose (in a sarcastic tone) schedule. Right now anyway. We have our casual Fridays.

JF: We still have work to do. We just got to make sure we get everything done. We have some mixing and mastering to do yet..

MC: But we don’t have to worry about titling them.

JV: One less thing to do.

MC: We think ahead.

WE: Are you guys going to be putting this out on White Drugs again?

JF: In other parts of the world...it is a White Drugs release, but it will be licensed to different distribution.

MC: Yes! Like that whole thing is kind of up in the air right now, our main goal is finish what we have to finish and we’ll figure all of that stuff out.

WE: Did you ever think of doing a digital release?

MC: Yeah… you know digital is great, but you can’t grab digital you can’t touch digital. Sounds like a cool song right. {Breaks into singing} You can’t touch digital!

JV: Sounds like Tom Petty’s next record.

JF: What is it? You can’t touch it because it’s so good, or you can’t touch it?

MC: No you can’t touch it.

JV: No it’s not tangible.

MC: We’re putting out both records on one vinyl.

JF: Double vinyl.

JV: Split cover double vinyl.

MC: That you can hold and touch.

WE: Do you create your own art within the group?

MC: I do everything.

JF: Matt (pointing at Matt).

MC: I do all of the artwork. No {laughing} Joby does it, he is the graphic design master mind. That is the majority of the real reason why we don’t title albums, so that they can be distinguished by their art and the cover so to speak…

JV: And laziness.

MC: And laziness, so he does merch, he does record covers, he does all that stuff.

WE: Everything is DIY, you produce your own record that way, you do the art that way, do you make your own website too then?

JF & MC: Yep.

JF: I wouldn’t call it DIY, I would call it...control freak maybe. I don’t wan’t anyone else doing it. Definitely would call ourselves DIY.

WE: NOE! No one else.

JV: {laughs}

MC: This is what happens when you give other people control (Matt gets up and walks to the other end of the room to return with a stiff and crusty bandana with The Bronx’s name all over it. It looks like some shitty winning from a bean bag toss at a county fair) you get stuff like this. This is our limited edition, major label Bronx rock and roll bandana! {Everyone breaks into laughter}.

JF: What the fuck is all over this (holding it by a corner).

MC: I think it might be jazzma.

JF: (Putting it around his neck, cowboy style). I think it goes like...

WE: I think it gives you that look.

JF: What look would you call this?

JF: I think you are going to say one thing, and I’m going to tell you that I think I’m actually covered in sperm right now. {Everyone breaks into laughter}.

MC: It’s pretty stiff (grabbing the scarf).

WE: You guys are in Van Hays.

JF: There used to be a gay porn..

JV: Gay porn ghost house.

MC: Ha! Great song title

JF: It was a gay porn duplicating house next door over there, it sounded like animals dying.

Make sure to check out The Bronx or maybe El Bronx as they will be one of the headliners for this years’ Van’s Warp Tour.

of most popular contemporary music. The Friendly Skies, a new instrumental duo from Portland, OR, believes in taking a more organic approach to songwriting, breaking away from the laptop-dependent cut-and-paste artists of today.

The two-man band consists of drummer, Jason Drost, and multi-instrumentalist, David Breese—two extremely talented musicians with a penchant for injecting the music scene with quality compositions. Tired of the egos of guitarists and singers, Breese came up with the idea for The Friendly Skies while scooping ice cream and finishing grad school in Pittsburgh. One summer, he abandoned the bass for a baritone guitar and began writing material for what would eventually become the duo’s first release. When Drost and Breese teamed up in March 2008, they decided to avoid the trappings of current instrumental artists, creating music that showcases their vision and musicianship without destroying the organization of the music itself.

When it comes to recording, The Friendly Skies take the punk rock approach, taking quality over quantity and stressing simplicity of process. “We love how all those punk bands from the eighties would release records and put in the liner notes that it was recorded for $300!” explains Drost.

With only two days in the studio, they knew they couldn’t spend lots of time experimenting with ideas. They went into Soundhouse Studios in Seattle, guided by engineer, David Dressel, and knocked out the songs quickly so they’d have plenty of time to mix. “It seems like every band thinks all you have to do is put a bunch of delay over a guitar line and it’s a masterpiece,” says Breese. “We try to develop songs around melodies rather than using giant pedal boards of effects to create mood.” He then wryly adds, “No matter how great your equipment is, you can’t polish a turd.” Clearly, the crew delegated their time wisely and worked their equipment well, producing six solid songs to be placed on their first self-titled EP. The EP itself spans fifteen minutes, but provides the band with a concise, stimulating intro onto the music scene and firm footing for later development.

The Friendly Skies demo combines a steady, lulling drumbeat and meandering, hypnotic baritone guitar riffs, looping haunting keyboard melodies and guitar to add chilling layering to the music. The Friendly Skies use real-time loops and buck the current trend of laptop-dependent artists with their utterly real performances. Drost and Breese compare their music to an ice cream sundae (an unsurprising analogy, considering Breese spent summers in Pittsburgh scooping the stuff for pocket change). Drost’s drumming is like the scoops that lay the foundation for the sound, solid and steady. Breese’s rolling baritone lines are like a layer of thick hot fudge. Loops of keyboard and guitar melodies are sprinkled on top like nuts and jimmies. It is an audibly-intriguing combination, but some find the missing standards of popular music (like bass and vocals) disconcerting. “I think of our music almost like pop songs without the vocals,” Drost comments. “We actually had a guy come up to the stage the other night after our first song and say, ‘you guys are good… but do you have a singer?”

But The Friendly Skies is quite content with their current set up and has no plans on changing. “We keep getting MySpace messages from people asking if we want to add another guitarist to the group. I always reply, ‘we’re a happily married duo,’” says Breese. “We like the simple approach… Jason and I are pretty laid back so songwriting comes easy. I go into practice with three or four riffs, and Jason helps me arrange them into songs. Then, once we have the structure of the song figured out, I come up with the guitar and the keyboard melodies.”

Despite their move to Portland, The Friendly Skies still maintains ties to their origins in Pittsburgh. Their new 7” was released on former band mate, Sean Finn’s label, Polar Recordings. Drost and Breese will be out in late June to tour in support of their new release. The duo has two LA shows scheduled for their summer tour—the first is at Mr. T’s Bowl on June 18th. The second is an all-ages show at The Smell on June 20th, where the group plans to have an ice cream social before they take the stage (to keep with the band’s ice cream motif). They plan to release a full-length follow up to their EP in mid 2009.

The Friendly Skies are off to a solid start, presenting a new face and quality to contemporary instrumental music.

They could be slow and pretty, they could be brash and dissonant, but their shows were always a balance of unrestricted vaudeville and straight-up rock ‘n roll. In May, the Dolls gave us a third album, No, Virginia, containing b-sides and tracks composed in seasonal sessions. Wide-Eyed’s Juliet Bennett-Rylah caught a moment with Brian Viglione to discuss not only the new album, but also what exactly Viglione’s been up to lately. From recording with Nine Inch Nails and preparing to tour with The World/Inferno Friendship Society, Viglione’s been keeping busy and never losing his spark for imaginative and inclusive performance.

Wide-Eyed: So, I think we’re gonna ask you a little bit about the new album? It’s coming out on May 20th, and contains B-sides and songs from other recording sessions that didn’t make it on Yes, Virginia-

Brian Viglione: Well, no, I wouldn’t say it exactly like that. {laughs} Yeah, kind of, I mean, to word it is sort of a delicate thing because it’s not like, “Well, these are just like the songs we didn’t like and, well, god, I guess since we have to put them out…” It’s basically that when we made the first record and Yes, Virginia, we chose the songs that we felt worked best together as a full album. We deliberately recorded 17 songs when we did Yes, Virginia, and said “Well, at least we’ve got great recordings of these particular tunes,” and then took another opportunity after the tour this past January to basically arrange and finish songs that we had worked on ages ago that we had always wanted to release. And that’s really what No, Virginia is; it’s basically the companion album to Yes, Virginia. We didn’t want to make, like, a twenty-song record. So, this is basically the second volume of material now that we finally have the time, money, and form to release these songs.

WE: Now, I’ve seen you and Amanda play live several times, and the last time I saw you live was the True Colors tour.

BV: Yeeeah, the best tour ever!

WE: What made you guys decide to be on that tour. I mean, obviously it was a human rights tour. Is that the primary reason?

BV: Well, I think we felt really honored to be involved with that group of people for that cause and we had heard that a lot of other bands that they had asked had denied, or not denied, but refused to join because they were afraid of what it might result in.

WE: That’s too bad.

BV: Yeah, we were like, “No way, this is something we totally believe in,” and to go on tour with Debbie Harry and Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, and all of those great people -- it wound up being the most wonderful combination of people and personality and fun and beautiful venues and, you know, a wonderful cause to raise money and awareness for.

WE: So, you and Amanda have been involved in individual projects for a while now. You were on tour with HUMANWINE, yes?

BV: Yeah, that was ages ago. Actually, what I’m doing now, I haven’t been this excited about a project in a long time. I’m going to be touring with a band from New York City called the World/Inferno Friendship Society.

WE:Yes I’ve read about that. What exactly is that?

BV: They are basically a punk-rock swing band. Old dear friends of the Dresden Dolls who we met and sort of recognized as kindred spirits back in 2004 when we were booking our own shows and trying to meet other crazy bands that were just kind of out there on the fringe. We found that we definitely had a shared sense of spirit and vision with World/Inferno. Recently, I got a message from Jack, the singer, and he said, “You know, we’re going off for this five-week tour in Europe and we’d love to play with you if you’re available.” And I was like {exclaims}, “Perfect! This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for!” The music is just like really energetic and creative and they’re great musicians. I’ve never seen an audience a slam dance, swing dance and waltz all in the same show and that’s something that World/Inferno is definitely good for.

WE: Excellent, that seems like it fits in very well, seeing as how you and Amanda are very ‘performance artist’ even in your music.

BV: Yeah, absolutely. It feels like that wonderful network for friends and performers that you share a similar kind of vision where, you know, it’s not your standard cookie-cutter trendy band but it’s people out there really playing real music doing what they believe in sort of against all the odds. You know, it’s very difficult to keep a ten-piece band touring around the world but they manage to do it and have a wonderful time at it so I’m really happy to be a part of it.

WE: After all that’s done, I know that the Dresden Dolls are going on a little Spring tour. Is there going to be another extensive tour after World Inferno and all that?

BV: Eventually, yeah. We’re still sort of on the general hiatus. Amanda is going to go tour on her solo record for a while, basically about a year. I think she and I will probably regroup sometime in late 2009 and sort of reassess the situation and start working on some new songs and do some more touring. But this period of time off for us has been very healthy, very good for rekindling the creative spirit, to work with other people. It’s made it all that much more enjoyable to come back and do Dresden Dolls, to work around that, because you’re sort of able to come up for air once in while instead of drowning under this insane schedule.

WE: Are you going to do a solo album of your own?

BV: I do not have a solo album planned as I’ve never really considered myself a songwriter, but I’ve been collaborating with a number of different people on writing projects, which I love, and I’ve even been doing a little bit of producing for some of them too. I generally find that my muse strikes when I hear a raw song, in its kind of nascent stages, and it’s sort of only then when I have something concrete to go off on does my mind really start turning. I’ve done a lot of work out of New York with different friends and some stuff here in Boston, just different recording session and things like that. So, I’m kind of popping up all over the place on different recordings. And then I got to do the Nine Inch Nails thing in December which was a real treat.

WE: Right, I heard about that too.

BV: Yeah, that was really great. So, no, it’s not gonna be like when Kiss released all their solo albums. {laughs}

WE: Although you both wear makeup, so it could be similar.

BV: Right, we’re halfway there!

WE: Is there anything else (The Dresden Dolls) are working on?

BV: The Dresden Dolls are about to release our new song book, 384-page Viginia companion, which is basically the sheet music, stories, picture, and strong instruction from both me and Amanda, for the last two albums. It’s going to be beautiful. It looks amazing so everyone should keep their eyes peeled for that.

WE: Would you say No, Virginia… is a lot like Yes, Virginia, or would you say it’s a little different?

BV: I would say it’s a little bit different than Yes, Virginia. I feel it’s more short and to the point. I think the songs are tighter, punchier. Just by random coincidence, this collection of songs is more poppy