Brian and Chris - Slowdown the Hoedown
Brian was in Tractor Hips. Chris was in Joby's Opinion.
Together they form Brian and Chris.
The duo was formed to compose soundtrack music for a film done by
Jonathan Parra. This music comprises their debut self-titled album,
available on their own imprint, This Record Label. The project has
since turned into a full-time group, with two new members, a 2nd album
set to be released this summer, and tour plans.
Brian of Brian & Chris was kind enough to answer a few questions on
the band and their debut album.
Related links:
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| fakejazz:So how do two guys from Chapel Hill end up forming a band in San Francisco? |
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Photo by Akim Aginsky |
brian:Chris and I met in Chapel Hill. We shared mutual friends who introduced us.
We became friends and eventually ended up living together in a house that
included a gurney extracted from the Duke Hospital Medical Refuse, a huge
rat, a full band set-up in the kitchen and lots of "artwork." Chris
recorded both Tractor Hips records and those of his own band. Chris & I
played in a band originally called the Electric Mung Experience (mung is
what you get on your sunglasses when you drop them under the bleachers at a
football game). We changed the name to shortwave and created a monthly forum
for improvised music. Chris moved out to San Francisco in Dec. 1996. I
moved out to San Francisco in Feb. 98 with the intention of composing music
for my friend Jonathan Parra's film. Asking Chris to help me with the
composition and recording seemed like the natural thing to do since we had
such a good working relationship in the past. We eventually ended up living
together again - in a basement - the gurney + more "artwork." |
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fakejazz:I've heard you are now using a different type of recording technique,
recording parts of music and then piecing them together
to form a song. How, technically, do you do
this? How much of this was done on computer, or was it all done with
tape manipulation?
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brian:The first record was recorded entirely on 2 ADAT 8 track machines and mixed
down onto a DAT. The structure of certain songs dictated that we first mix
certain parts onto a DAT tape and then dump them back onto the
ADAT.....finally mixing the final product back onto a DAT.
Our next record which will come out in early summer was largely recorded
using [the software] Cakewalk Pro Audio. We certainly had our fair share of problems with
it but I must admit that I've warmed to recording and mixing on a computer.
I still appreciate analog recording but we've had to make due with what
we've had access to. For us, making music at all takes precedent over
whether we recorded in the analog or digital domain.
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fakejazz:How are you preparing to play this material live when you tour this
summer and early fall? Is it any more or less natural to practice and
prepare it than music you made in a more traditional fashion with
Tractor Hips?
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brian:We recruited two other musicians, Jeff Van Earwage & Tom Petersen, to play
with us. We then selected about six songs from the record to play live and
have come up with a few new songs that we wrote together. It has been a
challenge to recreate these songs in a live setting. Most of the songs have
taken on a different character which I think is good - I know that I
appreciate it when bands do something other than just regurgitate songs from
their album in a live setting.
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fakejazz:There are a wide variety of styles on this album. Some songs even
draw from several different styles. For instance, "Undone Undine" seems
to move from a Fahey/Gastr-like picked guitar progression, to a fuller,
almost Mogwai-like part, then back down to a bluegrass hoedown. It is a
great song. Was combining different styles in the same song something
you had planned, or was it more an artifact of your songmaking process
and just what came out as you wrote the songs?
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brian:I would say that we wanted what we got as opposed to getting what we wanted
- most of the time. I'm glad that you mentioned this song. The parts are
not as different as they may seem. The acoustic guitar in the hoedown part
is the the same riff as the one in the Fahey-esque beginning - only played
much faster.
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fakejazz:There have been several (but not many) indie records over the past
couple years that used sax. However, I can't think of any that really
incorporates the sax as well into the songs as you do on your album
(that is, without stepping over the line into being a plain old jazz
band like Isotope 217). Did you go out looking for a saxophonist to use
on the album, or was it just a case of having talented friends and
deciding there was no reason not to use them? Will a saxophonist be
touring with you? If not, how or will these 3 songs on the album be
performed?
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brian:John Ingle studied at Mills College with our friend Bob Boster. Chris and I
went to his senior thesis concert and immediately knew that we wanted to
collaborate with him. There were a few songs that were missing something so
we asked John to come in to lay down some tracks. It's a testament to his
musical ability that we recorded the tracks for all 3 songs in about 3 hours
and he had not even heard the songs prior to this.
John will not be touring with us as he is involved with many of his own
projects including a great jazz quartet called Shinola. We're performing
"Cusp" sans saxophone. We're not averse to performing the other two songs
live but probably only for special occasions as none of us play saxophone.
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fakejazz:To release this album, you started your own record label, This Record
Label. Yet, you told me you're releasing your next album on another
label. Are releases in the works for This? When I think of bands from
San Francisco, your style(s) of music don't immediately come to mind.
Are there many like-minded musicians in the area?
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brian:We plan on releasing Jeff's solo project "Brown's my Favorite." Our haggard
state of economics dictates that the bands that we support would have to be
ones that we are really into.
Most people associate the Bay Area with groups like American Music Club and
Thinking Fellers. We've met a lot of talented musicians here most of whom
you've probably never heard of - folks from the Mills College graduate
program in Music (John Ingle & Ann Dentel who contributed some cello tracks
to our upcoming record), people we work with (Jeff Van Earwage who is now
playing with us and Jeffrey Stott who used to play in Stella Mara and
currently in Lumin - groups that mix traditional Turkish/eastern music with
modern electronica & Jen Tait who contributed vocals to our upcoming record)
and people we've met through mutual friends (jhno of Spool who contributed a
remix to our next record). Community and shared experiences have always
been important to us and I feel fortunate that we've had the opportunity to
meet so many talented people.
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| fakejazz:Thanks for your time. |
