Sonna - Constant Music
Sonna (pronounced "sauna") began in January 1998. After meeting each other at an art
institute, Jeremy DeVine, owner and operator of the label Temporary Residence
Limited, joined an already existing three-piece of Chris Mackie, Jim Redd, and Paul
Petersan. After playing shows in and around Baltimore and recording the These
Windows are Pistons EP, Paul moved to Austin, TX, and Drew Nelson
took his place in the band. Lineup stabilized, the band is fresh off the heals of a recording session with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio where they were
recording their debut album.
Related links:
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| fakejazz:Please tell me a little bit about each person in the band. |
Photo by Dianne Jones. Band members listed left to right below.
Jim: My name is Jim Redd, and I play drums, occasional Rhodes and guitar.
Chris: Chris Mackie, and I play guitar and occasionally sing.
Drew: Drew Nelson. I am a full time bass player, and I play fender Rhodes part time.
Jeremy: Jeremy DeVine. I play guitar, not just occasionally, but always.
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| fakejazz:Before Sonna, what other bands have you been in? Are any of you currently doing any
side projects? |
| Jim:As far as bands that released records, Drew was in Torn Apart, and I was in
Coalesce. Chris and I used to play with one of the guys in the 90 Day Men when we
all lived in KC, and Jeremy and I were in a band together when I first moved out
here. Jeremy was also in The Concord Anthology Process and By Water. As for side
projects, Chris and I both record ideas to four-track, but that's about it.
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| fakejazz:How does your song writing process work? How do the songs get created? |
| Sonna:We don't usually bring "parts" to practice. When we all just show up and
start playing, really good things happen. |
| fakejazz:For the most part it seems that Sonna is an instrumental band, but on a few songs
there is singing. When there is singing, who does it? What determines whether a
song has singing or not? Are you hoping to incorporate singing into more of your
songs? |
| Chris:We are mostly instrumental but vocals play apart on a few songs. Mostly, I
will choose to sing on songs that have melodies I feel could use another "voice."
The inspiration will come in the practice setting and will form into a solid
structure from that--no vocal pattern is thought of beforehand.
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| fakejazz:When you show up to the recording studio, do you always have the songs completed, or
do you like to try and work them out in the studio? |
| Sonna:Everything is worked out arrangement-wise before we record, but we always try
to have fun, try new things, and "put a dither on it" whenever we can.
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| fakejazz:I recently learned that you are releasing a split 12" with Tarentel. When will that
be available? |
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Sonna:Both songs were recorded last September, and the plan was to have it out by
this fall, so that we could tour behind it. It just never worked out. It is still
in the works--delayed, but still coming along. The album is most important at
this time and will be out in late Feburary to late March. Then we plan on doing a
possible cd single and another European 7". So, please stay tuned.
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| fakejazz:When you went in to record you upcoming full-length, what was it like working with
Steve Albini? In what ways did his involvement affect the songs? What can we expect
from the new album? |
| Chris:Steve Albini is a wonderful person and an incredible engineer. We couldn't be
happier with the results from our recording at Electrical. As far as his involvement
with our songs... he only reflected what Sonna wanted to accomplish with a recording,
and that is to "sound" the way we truly "sound". The album is very unrefined in
technical (studio trickiness) terms and that was our mentality going into the studio--to use only the structures and instrumentation that we use in "normal" live
situations. It, in comparison to our other recordings, is only a further extension
of our song writing and maturity as a band. I can only be more vague than that,
sorry.
Other than that, our studio experience was tremendous--the Electrical Audio
is an amazing compound, and I use compound literally. His money and sweat were well
worth it. Going in we had only heard about the studio and all its lavishness. A
little was untrue but a lot was well founded. If you're ever in the area it would be
worth it to tour the studio.
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| fakejazz:Which of your releases are your favorite, and which one do you feel most accurately
expresses the vision of the band? |
| Jim:I'm partial to the new 7", but I don't feel like any of them accurately
represent the band. We've released singles so far, and I look at them as such little
sketches or glimpses into what we can be. The full-length is definitive.
Drew:I feel like you have to look at the vision of a band in context. "The Eventual
Bow" represented us well in the time period of when it came out, as did the newest
7". Everything we have done, I feel, has been a good representation of the band. I
agree with Jim as well that a full-length is the most definitive, but as far as
representation goes, all of our releases have been decent representations of Sonna as
a whole.
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| fakejazz:As a band, do you have a unified goal or vision for your songs/releases, or do you
just write and record what you feel or what comes naturally? |
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Jim:We definitely have a solid idea of who we are and what we want to be. Writing
and recording what we feel and what comes naturally is part of it, but so is writing
what is awkward to play and what doesn't come naturally. We have theories about how
our songs could be and how our records should be. Artwork is very important to us,
so is patience. |
| fakejazz:How does your live show vary from recordings? |
| Sonna:For now, they're similar only because we haven't found a reason for them not to be.
In general, we try and have everything roll over into the next so that it becomes
constant music as opposed to: song tune/futs around song tune/futs around/tune song
futs around, etc.
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| fakejazz:What music inspired you growing up? |
Jim: Led Zeppelin, Fugazi. I tried to listen to everything.
Drew: The Cure, The Beatles, The Mamas and the Papas, The Clash, and Minor Threat.
Chris: The Police, Motley Crue, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, and Flock of Seagulls.
Jeremy: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Jim Croce, Christopher Cross, and Simon and Garfunkel.
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| fakejazz:What music inspires you currently? |
Jim: Ida, Stereolab, our practice tapes, and Papa M live December 1999.
Chris: Fridge, Directions in Music, Stars of the Lid, Gas, Electric Birds, and Steve Reich.
Drew: The Cure, The Beatles, The Mamas and the Papas, The Clash, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Red House Painters.
Jeremy: Most Hausmusik / Payola music (Tied and Tickled Trio, Village of Savoonga, Kammerflimmer Kollektief), Cerberus Shoal, and Gas.
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| fakejazz:Jeremy, since you are in the band and run Temporary Residence, does that make it
easier or harder to release your music? |
| Jeremy: Much easier, since it allows us as a band to maintain full control of our
records while having great distribution and international support.
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| fakejazz:When you are all taking a break from music, what other hobbies do you have? |
Jim: I silk-screen and letterpress posters, record jackets, artwork, etc.
Drew: Skateboarding, collecting old pop records, lately I have been trying to write some children stories, reading.
Chris: Recording music, found sounds, four track.
Jeremy: Running the label, all day and all night. Getting lots of headaches and little sleep.
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| fakejazz:Thanks a lot for taking time out to speak with us. |
