Rothko - Rocket Science
About a year ago a good friend of mine introduced me to Rothko's music
by sending me a dub of their Truth Burns EP. After I reported him to the
proper authorities, I actually listened to the tape (or "evidence"), and I
was amazed by the beauty of the record and even more amazed by the fact that
it was created almost entirely by bass guitars. The three members of Rothko
create layer upon layer of soothing low-end soundscapes with beautifully
flowing bass guitar melodies moving in and out of the low end fog. Mark
and Crawford of Rothko were more than gracious in answering a few of my
questions about the band.
Related links:
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| fakejazz:How did you come up with your name? Are you fans of Mark Rothko's work?
Or, what other reasons made you chose that name for the band?
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| mark:He's my favorite painter. I was wary of using his name, I still am, but people have
said it suits us, and I'd like to think we've been quite respectful of his name. I'd just
like to point out that we would never use any of his images in anything we will ever do.
crawford:Mark came up with the name, I'm not much of a fan of Rothko, but I do admit that
it's a good band name and very apt. I much prefer Rene Magritte!
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| fakejazz:Please tell me a little bit about yourselves and how the band formed. |
mark:I am 36 years old and kicking harder than ever against the shit that's out there. I
originally joined Jon's group, Geiger Counter, but that stopped for a while, I gave up music
completely for some time and then was persuaded by some good friends of mine, Nick and Anet
from the group Cay, to try and record some stuff of my own, and Rothko came out of that. I
asked Jon if he'd help out and I placed an ad that Craw answered, and things just seemed to
work out. I only ever expected us to play a handful of gigs and then dissolve, but 3 years
later...
crawford:I was Born Feb 1972 in Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland. I am now resident in
London where he has been for nearly 8 years. I also play in Geiger Counter (Turing
Machine/Don Cab/American Heritage) and Ad Astra (argumentative Rachel's) and go solo as Santa
Dog. I work as a sound engineer for radio and TV when not playing bass or writing. Member
of Rothko that most resembles a polar bear.
We've been together for three and a half years now, me and Mark did a little recording
together, and Jon came in soon afterward, and we then started rehearsing and dealing with how
we were going to put our music across live. You can hear our earliest complete recording on
the new Invisible Soundtracks CD, Jon hadn't joined yet and I'm playing a sampler, not bass.
Only Mark is on it bass-wise, doing a scarily accurate Eberhard Weber impersonation. But we
felt that it was good enough to put out, it's possibly one of the most downright beautiful
things we've ever produced.
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| fakejazz:What equipment do you each use, and how do you get some of the sounds that you do
out of your bass guitars? |
| mark:Yamaha bb100s bass, customized fretless with EMG's, (one of the hardest sounding
basses I've heard) + Status Shark, both 4 string. The Shark also cuts like a well sharpened
knife. I use an SWR Workingmans 300 and SWR Workingmans 4 x 10, and a Korg AX30B
muti-effects unit. Jon uses my ampeg 1x15 fliptop combo, my other Korg unit and Crawford's
(original issue) Tokai jazz bass customised with passive EMGs.
Mainly, especially live, I just use the Korg units. They really are fantastic pedals, easy
to program, and easy to mess with the sounds, and really powerful. We also use good amps and
basses, so the sound is pretty hi-fi, and we've been known to blow up PA's and stuff so...
crawford:SWR Basic 350 head. SWR Goliath 4*10 cab. SWR Big Ben 1*18 cab (sort-of retired
now). MusicMan Stingray, sunburst, 3-band e.q. (not pre-ernie ball). G&L Lynx, Liquorice,
1986-ish, pokey. Korg AX30B multi fx. Line6 Delay/Looper pedal.
I use a lot of reverb and distortion combined with the natural stresses put on the amp by
using extreme highs and lows, and the distortion created from general abuse to the MusicMan.
It's a little bit difficult to describe, a lot of the sounds I like to create are often at
the limit of the amp or the bass, or both. Oh and a little bit of tremolo too, Mark likes
his tremolo effects.
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| fakejazz:How does your song writing process work? How do the songs get created? |
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mark:Intangibly. Some of it happens naturally, some are worked into shape and some
barely exist at all as "pieces". A lot of the songs we record can't be played live, as
they're not really "written", just recorded on the spot. Has that made any sense?
crawford:Usually Mark comes in with a few lines or a couple of complete parts which Jon and I
usually shoot through with lots of holes until they fit our playing style or intentions.
Sometimes long jams are edited down into short parts. These tunes tend to be the drone-y
ones. Occasionally a tune will appear, fully formed and not over-length from the air around
us, after which we fall to our knees and give thanks. Sometimes Mark hangs a microphone out
of his bedroom window and goes to sleep then tortures his effects pedals on top, and comes
out with some great tune or basis for a tune, dunno how he does it personally. Mark
germinates the seeds of most of the tunes, then we get to crop spray on top of them, usually
I'll have a go at arranging the dynamics too.
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| fakejazz:Does any recorded improvisation make it onto albums and other releases, or, do you
usually refine the ideas over time first? |
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mark:Some do, some ideas get polished into shape, but, to be honest, we rarely rehearse
at all, maybe 5 or 6 time a year, maybe less, so when we record tracks they are usually new
to us at the time, or we just get on with seeing what will happen when we press the record
button. We don't spend too long on one idea, we move on quickly to the next thing. I have to
say that overall, it has worked for us. After many years of me being in "conventional"
groups, I developed a hatred of the "rehearsal syndrome" and the "flogging a track til we
can play it note perfect syndrome." If there is an ethos to this music, it is this "JUST
FUCKING GET ON WITH IT" apologies for that outburst. I'm a simple guy with a dislike for
wasting time, any time, and this music has certainly not wasted any of my time so far.
crawford:Hmmm, there's a fair amount of improvisation on the first album,
3/4 of the Storm Cycle EP is improvised. A mixture of both approaches comes into play;
Rothko's music is very elastic, and it's born a number of ways.
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| fakejazz:Is recording a main part of the writing process, or are all the songs set out before
you record? |
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mark:...I would say about a third are set out, maybe less.
crawford:Sometimes recording can put a better spin on a track and improve it; editing is
really important for our remix work. We tend to use a lot of digital editing ideas for
remixing to give us a bit of extra scope, but it tends to take it away from bass, which I
think is possibly a good thing; we might use a lot of piano, or bass samples or weird
voices, shouting, telephones, TV-smashing sound effects, anything really...
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| fakejazz:How does your recording process work in the band? What equipment do you use to
record? Do you own it or do you record mainly in studios? |
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mark:It all depends on time. Sometimes I'll write and record an outline, sometimes we
record in rehearsals, but, to be honest, an increasing amount of our material is made up on
the spot in the studio. Apart from "Herbivore" on the Storm Cycle ep, the whole thing was
written and recorded in 3 hours by myself and Crawford. We've gone on to apply this method
to other things, and it certainly concentrates the mind.
I used to record most of the stuff on an old Fostex Porta 05 4 track. Brilliant machine, and
a lot of tracks recorded on that are on our two albums. But that's busted, and now I've just
started to use the basic Logic audio programme, which is ok, but I'm finding it a bit too
fussy, it's like things can't ever be "finished".
crawford:I work in a digital recording studio and a fair amount of what we do is recorded
there, a lot of the other songs are done by Mark on his own on 4-track which has recently
given up the ghost or on his computer. We have been recorded by a few other people, not
all of whom have really captured what we're about live, although Simon Raymonde has come as
close as you can get, I reckon, and there was a guy called Barry who recorded us for a radio
session for a Dutch station called V-RON. He got a really nice sound using close and ambient
mikes, (the ambient mikes were set up in a mid/side configuration, which gave it a lot of
depth). Also by the time you will have read this we will have recorded a John Peel session
at BBC Maida Vale; those guys have shitloads of vintage mics, and I'm looking forward to see
how they approach us.
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| fakejazz:Tell us more what it was like working with Simon Raymonde? How did you all meet? |
| mark:The man is, quite simply, the best. He is very open, and very normal. It's like
you've known him for years and years.
crawford:He is a brilliant chap, amazingly patient, willing to indulge our craziest whims,
also he's a great singer, pianist and engineer too! But he fitted in with the general
Rothko way of working right away; his general demeanor is very laid back, but with a sharp
ear and a lot of good ideas. We met through a friend of a friend, we sent him a package, and
he sent us a letter back saying how much he liked it, then he came to see us play, which was
important because that's a whole other side to the music. We were up for doing a local radio
session, and Simon agreed to record it at his studio for nothing, that's what the Truth Burns
EP turned into, it's basically a radio session. And at the start of the year we completed
a 7 track EP for his label Bella Union; it won't be out for a while, but it's pretty damn
great. I'm really glad that he digs our music, because Mark and I grew up listening to his
and to have mutual respect for/from a peer such as Simon is a good deal of what doing music
is about.
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| fakejazz:How has the writing and recording process evolved since you first started as a band? |
| mark:Well, we used to do a lot of jamming straight onto DAT, some of it was good, some of
it was total rubbish. We don't do so much of that anymore. I think the main difference is,
as far as writing is concerned, is we are more at home with each other's roles so we can
choose to either go with those roles or ignore them and mix it up a little bit. Before we
really got going as a band unit there was a bit of scrabbling around for sounds, note
choices, and dynamics, but nowadays we know each other's styles so well we can swim with or
against the tide.
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| fakejazz:Do you ever think the 3 "core" band members will start to regularly play instruments
other than bass in Rothko? |
| mark:There is bass, piano, guitars, vocals (I speak some shit on "us to become sound"),
and loads of other stuff in our music; it's just that people only "expect us" to use the
bass, the preconception is logged in their minds already. But it's the time thing again, we
do what we can with the time we have, and this usually means doing the simple thing of
working on the bass guitar. I can't get involved in music as rocket science.
crawford:Jon is actually a guitar player, and I'm learning piano (slowly) and am hoping to
involve that in our live situation soon.
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| fakejazz:Speaking of which, how does your live show vary from your recordings? |
| mark:The two things are pretty much separate: live we rock like mutha's and basically try
and blow the house down with sound and noise, whereas recording wise we tend to be a bit
more measured. But we don't agonize over recordings too much; we do them and they're done
more or less.
crawford:Live Show - First 4 Slayer albums playing at the same time.
On Record - First 4 Joni Mitchell albums playing at the same time.
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| fakejazz:You are adding more and more collaborators and guest musicians lately. Is this more
interesting to you than just shutting yourselves off and writing just as Jon, Mark, and
Crawford?
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mark:Absolutely most definitely, and we're hoping this will be expanded on continually.
If we stand still, it'll stop.
crawford:Yes, it's really interesting because we like co-writing and meeting other people,
and it's a real buzz when they add an extra dimension to the Rothko sound. Expect a few
more collaborations in the future.
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| fakejazz:Have you collaborated with any vocalists yet? Do you have any plans to? |
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mark:The first track "open" on the new album has a guy called S.T singing on it, and
Simon Raymonde sings on a track off the bella union 7 series, and craw has plans to get an
EP with singers off the ground. We don't have any rules at all, rules are out. If it sounds
right for us, it's right for us. We've done so many things that people are not aware of;
played with dj's, drummers, sea shanty singers, horn players, all sorts of stuff. Again,
it's only preconception that others, not us, are stuck on.
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| fakejazz:Which of your release and song is your favorite, and which ones do you feel most
accurately expresses the vision of the band? |
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mark:My personal favourite release is the Storm Cycle EP, it just works for me on every
level, and "us to become sound" on the new album is more or less a pretty accurate artifact
of what we do. As for the song, that has to be "us to become sound" on both levels.
crawford:The Pressurisation Unit No2 single perfectly reflects the early Rothko sounds, maybe
the Bella Union release reflects where we are at the moment, some of our remix work has
flashes of the future I think. Sorry, that wasn't very helpful seeing as you haven't heard
most of the stuff I was just on about. My favourite Rothko release so far though, is the
Storm Cycle EP because it's just perfect, and it just popped right out in front of us with
no stress or hassle. "Winter In The Oceans" is my favorite song.
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| fakejazz:What new releases can we expect? Tell us about them. |
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mark:A single on Greennote Records in the US "soften the lines/all avenues." This label is
run by a great guy called Danny Deuso. Then hopefully a 3-track CD single
here in the UK on a label called Day Release. Part of a singles club set of releases, ours
will be called "sharps box," and the three tracks are totally brand new and are noisy as
hell. Then, hopefully, a remix of an Acetate Zero track for French label Arbouse Records,
that is if the damn CDR ever arrives in France (we've sent three now and not one has got to
it's darn destination!) and then, in February of 2001 our contribution to the Bella union 7
series; seven tracks, recorded with Simon Raymonde, he actually sings, plays piano, drum
sounds and guitar on a lot of the tracks, and I think that's it, oh, there's alos a Lo
Recordings Versus Sub Rosa album, and we're remixing Bill Laswell (already done) and Morton
Feldman as our contributions. And that's it! And the third album (hope amongst hope!!!!) for
autumn next year.
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| fakejazz:What music inspired you growing up? |
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mark:Joy Division, Burning Spear, The John Peel Show, Simon and Garfunkel (who I still
absolutely adore)
crawford:All Paisley Underground bands, all the good SST bands, UK 80's indie, Jane's
Addiction, XTC, lots of prog rock, lots of other indie pop, Cabaret Voltaire, Echo,
Levitation, The Grapes Of Wrath, Pere Ubu, Beatles, AC-DC, Mike Oldfield, Marillion, IQ, It
Bites, REM, The Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack, Fugazi, Wire, anything jangly with 60's
harmonies, Sandkings, Bark Psychosis, Mike Watt in all forms...
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| fakejazz:What music inspires you currently? |
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mark:I love that Album Leaf record. Mainly I listen to double bassist's like Gary
Peacock, Eberhard Weber, but honestly, I don't listen to too much music at all.
crawford:John Zorn, Talk Talk, Monsoon Bassoon, Magma, Freddie Phillips, Fairport Convention,
Joni Mitchell, Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Coalesce, XTC (always), Bass Communion, Dark
Star. Please seek out Monsoon Bassoon records, America, you don't know what your missing!
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| fakejazz:I am sure you guys have gotten a lot of comparisons to Dianogah. Not because you
sound anything like them, but because they use two basses and (usually) no guitars. Could you kick their asses? If
so, why don't you? |
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mark:We can only kick our own.
crawford:Well their singer sounds a bit girly, but I've never seen a picture of them, are
they jocks? If so, then no.
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| fakejazz:And, my last question, do you think Coyote Ugly would be improved if it starred the
Spice Girls, or does it look perfect the way it is? |
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mark:I am a cultural desert and have absolutely no idea what this means.
crawford:I have no idea what Coyote Ugly is but if you add the Spice Girls to anything, I'm
sure it would improve it.
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