EIC's 10Q's w/ Bad Passion

"..oozing sleek, sexual, relaxing, and moody.."

 

Bad Passion

Apathetic Lust

Bad Pasion Bio:

 What if Low collaborated with Beach House to make an album of sultry super-slow R&B jams? Bad Passion's debut EP 'Doin' It Slow' answers that question, combining soulful vocal harmonies with hazy organ lines over synth bass and electronic drums. Equally indebted to Chillwave artists like Gayngs, Jj, and Nite Jewel, Bad Passion's music walks the line between tongue-in-cheek and dead seriousness. Their songs cover such subjects as stealing cars, lust in racquet sports, and how good they are at "getting results." There's also a saxophone, a Beach House cover, and an exploding sun in there. Bad Passion is Alt and Lesley, friends who recorded 'Doin' It Slow' in a bedroom in their house while they were living together in Toronto. Despite having only just begun in October 2011, Bad Passion has already made influential fans in the blogosphere, landing a coveted spot on tastemaking blog 20jazzfunkgreats' best of 2011 list. Alt also makes dark electronic pop as Digits in London, England.

 

Hello, how are you?
Hello. I am full of food and ready for bed.

What are you currently listening to?
Both Alt and I are really into the new Farragoes EP. Our friend Tom who plays in Gay is finally putting out his solo stuff and it is really great.

Is there a story behind the band name?
This song.

When and where did you guys meet/begin this project?
I think we met on Toronto Island when The Ghost Is Dancing were recording 'The Darkest Spark'. I joined that band and we spent a lot of time hanging out while on tour. When The Ghost is Dancing broke up, Alt moved into the house I was living in and we started talking about making some really slow jams. We spent a weekend in his bedroom and 'Doin' It Slow' resulted.

Who were/are your biggest influences when it came to sculpting your sound?
We had a lot. Alt got me into Low a few years ago and we starting sharing songs back and forth that we thought would be good songs to cover in a slowed down manner (like the Beach House cover we did). We liked the idea of mixing our voices but slowing things down and keeping them super sultry. I'd say we're equally influenced by folks like Gayngs, Jj, Nite Jewel and most things Chillwave.

Do you have a favorite song on your debut?
I think my favourite is "Your Ride". Alt sounds super sexy in it. I think Alt would say that his favourite is "Get Results". Next month you should expect to see a music video for Get Results featuring a pretty bad-ass bike gang.

If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing, whom would it be with and why?
(the duo decided to skip this one, we'll go ahead and assume it's with someone pretty awesome;)

Any side projects/collabs we should know about?
Bad Passion is technically a side-project. Alt makes dark electronic pop music full time as Digits in London, England and I am a member of the noisy Electropop group Powers out of Toronto.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I only need one song: Warren G's "Regulate" featuring Nate Dogg on repeat.

Are you living your dream?
Not yet, but I'm making it happen this year. Alt and I are going to continue making music together long distance with the plans of reuniting to record/play more live shows later on this year. It is going to be a really great time.


Thanx Lesley!


Bad Passion are currently working on a follow up to last years (somewhat under the radar/EIC's #26 album of 2011) 'Doin' It Slow'. On top of that the duo are also working hard on their other projects, busy-busy!...

EIC'S10Q'S w/Pan American

"..dreamy/gentle/misty guitars swimming and drowning in an ocean of static, white noises, slightly audible jazz style drumming, minimal synths, and "Slow-core/down tempo" vocals.."


Pan American
Lackadaisical Milieu

Pan American Bio:
A more beat-oriented solo project for guitarist/vocalist Mark Nelson of Labradford, Pan American debuted with a self-titled album on Chicago's Kranky Records in 1998. Nelson then recorded a track for the British experimentalist-electronic label Fat Cat's Split series, and also played live with pedal-steel genius B.J. Cole. His second Pan American LP, 360 Business/360 Bypass, appeared in early 2000 with collaborations from Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek and the members of Low. A series of split CDs followed, including 2001's Personal Settings: Preset 1, and Nelson returned to his full-length efforts with the stripped down 2002 effort The River Made No Sound. Released two years later, Quiet City brought back the textured layers of Pan American's earlier material, while White Bird Release appeared in 2008.


Hello, how are you?
Very well, thank you.

What are you currently listening to?
Some recent listens: Bill Frissell "Inline", Ran Blake "Driftwoods", Supersilent 5, Beach House "Teen Dream", Theo Parrish "First Floor"

Anything new coming up for Pan Am?
No, just laying low for now. Trying to figure out what I like and don't like mostly. So a period of re-evaluation and doing other things. This is probably the first time I haven't had a record in process (or a burning desire to have one going) in ten or fifteen years.

When you create you music is it all “mood based”? By that I mean “White Bird Release” was pretty melancholy and somewhat dark, whereas “360 Business/360 Bypass” was a little more mechanical and dub-y. What, if any, was your mood for these albums when you made them?
The music is not really reflective of my mood at the time of making it, it's reflective of maybe larger picture
things going on in my life, though. So good moods, "dark'" moods they come and go and ultimately settle into a musty puddle of low-level, unfocused discontent in other words, I'm like just about everyone else! but the records hopefully reflect the better angels of time and space, and aren't day to day reflections of how I'm feeling.

Out of all your release which one are you most proud of?
Second Labradford record, first Pan American. Both for personal reasons, not necessarily musical ones.

What are the chances of Labradford ever seeing the light of day again? Care to explain what happened?
Nothing happened except our lives moved in different directions. We're all still friends and talk often (although carter lives in Madrid and I haven't had much contact with him lately) but I probably talk or email with Bobby once or twice a week. the fun part of the band was being together in the same city and the music being a daily part of life. we tried the long distance thing and found it very unsatisfying. I'm pretty dubious about the idea of sending things back and forth and working more or less independently. Labradford was always a live band, I think when that stopped happening the band stopped making sense to us. But who knows, the future is unwritten, as they say.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I don't know if I can answer this. You might have to flesh out the scenario in which this circumstance has come to pass a bit more. If it's some sort of post-apocalypse living in a underground shelter thing- music would probably make the situation worse. If I were in solitary confinement on a prison island off the coast of Newfoundland, I'd probably be too busy wallowing in self pity to concentrate on a record.

Are you living your dream?
I'm pretty sure I'm awake.

Thanx Brian & Mark!

Pan American is currently (hopefully) working on a follow up to 2009's "White Bird Release" look for that in the near future...

EIC'S10Q'S w/Lovesliescrushing

"..the only thing disappointing about this band is the fact that they aren't immortal. I don't ever want this music to stop.."


Lovesliescrushing
Immersed Milieu

Lovesliescrushing Bio:
In the winter of 1991 Scott met Melissa, after she stalked him for a month. They went out on a date on suggestion of a mutual friend and became a couple immediately. Tired of borrowing everyone else's 4 track, Melissa bought Scott a 4 track, reverb, and a delay pedal. He helped her by convincing her to drop out of law school.

The early material consisted of instrumental guitar pieces, a continuation of early experiments Scott had been doing since '89. Melissa did not consider herself a strong vocalist, because of this she did not sing on the tracks. Scott had a few friends attempt to sing but was frustrated with the lackluster results. Melissa finally volunteered her services, she added one pass of vocals to a new song, the track was "Valerian", it was perfect. The band was born proper. Months later Melissa and Scott left the cold climes of Michigan and the burgeoning Space Rock scene to drive across the country in search of a home. they stopped once they got to the desert expanse of Tucson and started anew.

Debuted in April 93 at the beautiful noise festival, met Sam Rosenthal and signed to Projekt soon after.

The seminal debut album, "Bloweyelashwish", was recorded in a cramped Tucson apartment, a useless mini-fan blowing on a half naked body drenched in sweat. The music was a mix of polarities, delicate crystalline notes, light blurry swathes of sound, slathered in thick slabs of fuzzy distortion. guitars deconstructed to emulate tiny Chinese music boxes, and jet engine roar. Spinning swirls of melody, loops galore.
lovesliescrushing became notorious for crafting beautifully strange music using only a 4 track, voice, guitar and effects.

One of the largest misconceptions about Lovesliescrushing concerns their music itself. People mistakenly assume that they use keyboards or synthesizers to create their otherworldly sound, the music is created with just voice and guitar.

Scott uses a combination of techniques, both lo-fi and digital, to create a unique sonic palette. he is fond of mutating the guitar till it is barely recognizable, regarding it as a mere tone generator. He also utilizes various methods and materials for preparing the guitar. Scott has been known to abuse his guitars with chopsticks, rubber bands, nails, knives, forks, vibrators, paintbrushes, or metal rulers to bow strings,anything to change the timbrel quality. The digital methods are a recent development and are used primarily for arranging tracks and minor treatments, most of the sonic alterations occur before it is committed to the hard drive.


Hello again, how have you been?
I am doing well, this is a good year, off to a great start, working on several releases at once.

What are you currently listening to?
Natural Snow Buildings

You rarely do shows under the moniker Lovesliescrushing, but you recently did one at a smaller venue in Michigan. Why there? And how was that show?
We played the show because it was in Melissa's hometown, so easy for her to perform at. Logistics is the thing that sort of limits our touring ability sometimes because she has small children.
The venue was terrible in a musical sense, but great in a brewery, drink alcohol, sense. I think it would have been a better show if it was just us drinking beer, mic that and process it. We sounded good and there were 5 people there to see us play, so one of the worst places I have ever played, it would have been better to play in the subway. I am still glad we performed for those 5 though.

“Girl Echo Suns Veils”, your “b-sides/unreleased” LLC material has FINALLY seen the light of day. Was that a constant struggle to put that together?
Yes, it was a trial to get going, the idea for it has been around since 1999. The music has been done for years, but just couldn't seem to get the right things lined up to make it happen. That seems to be the problem with all Lovesliescrushing music, we have hours and hours of music but the releasing part, the getting it out there part, that is the problem. I will try the Aidan Baker approach and just get everything out, he is a music machine. I had the art done in 2007 and then that fell apart and I had to redo the artwork. it actually turned out better than I thought, the new artwork I mean.
The music is culled from old tapes, material that wouldn't fit on the past discs and needed a home. So most of it was recorded between 1991 and 1995, the most recent was 'Aviatrix' which was started in 1997 and then finished in 2000. So yes most of this material has been waiting years to finally come out. I like how contemporary it sounds, was rather surprised by that actually.
I am really happy with the musical climate now, I mean when llc started there were only a few labels that I was sending stuff too. Now there are tons of labels doing this sort of ambient music, I mean tons, I remember when punk broke, but when it did ambient/drone break through like a flood.
I sent a demo tape to SLUMBERLAND and PROJEKT records in 92, and I was going to send out more when PROJEKT responded, so I stopped sending out demos. I would have sent something to KRANKY if they had been around in 92 but they weren't, so that makes me sad. I hope to still get something out on them in the future because a lot of my friends and favorite bands our on there. Low, Bowery Electric, Lichens, Windy and Carl, Jessica Bailiff...

I love that the whole project was handmade, not only have you poured your heart into the music, but the artistic packaging as well. Why “birds”, visually what do those symbolize?
I am a visual artist first, drawings, paintings, collages, films and videos. I have been making large collages for some time now and I have been incorporating bird images into my own new works. The art on the CD was an extension of that. I can't pin down a singular meaning to the bird imagery because the birds are rich with many possible interpretations. But if i were to say one, I would go with their natural primal musical characteristics and how they suggest the spiritual as well, the soul.
I also liked them for the design aspects, they are a good analog for the music, simple, beautiful, minimal and then abstracted through process, classic.
Another thing, it is very different from anything we have done before and for PROJEKT as well, I wanted something that would set us apart and I think we accomplished that very well, although we are already pretty set apart. I am thankful to Sam for seeing the potential with that, he is very supportive of the craziest ideas.
The whole aesthetic of our style is lo-fi, handmade, not very polished, grown, collaged, noisy, dirty, and I think the art reflects that. The original art was lovely abstract photographs but that would have been the typical way for us to go. I am glad we went in this completely new direction.

What’s your favorite track on the album and why?
It would have to be a track that represents us the best, hmmm. At the moment "Crwth" and "Chorus" are my favorite because they are so iconoclastic within the whole LLC bliss canon. It doesn't remind me of anything else except for maybe Eno's "Music For Airports", or Jehn Cerron/Eyelight, she does lovely ambient voice stuff.

I heard a while ago that you were going to re-release “Chorus” through the label 12K, is that still happening?*
"Chorus" was re-released on 12k/LINE on March 15 and has been generating a great deal of positive buzz. I think people are finally getting us. They have almost sold out of it and I am happy with that too. Sad that it was finished in 2005 and took so long to come out, but it needed the right label for it. We needed to be seen in a new way and we achieved that thanks to Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree.
I have been a fan of that label for years, so when Richard Chartier contacted me asking for a copy of "Chorus", I freaked out. We then talked on the phone and I asked if he would like to release it domestically and he said yes. Awesome. This has turned out a lot better than I had expected, it gives LLC a credibility that it was lacking.
*Editors Note: "Chorus" was not out at the time this interview was conducted.

I have to know have, have you ever just sat alone in your living room with the lights out and watched a movie on mute while adding your on score/fx?
Yes, someone wants me to score a documentary soon, and I am also talking with someone about getting on a motion picture soundtrack.
I am also working on a project where I redo the soundtrack to David Lynch's "Dune", the Toto music is bullshit, worst thing I have ever heard. Brian Eno's parts are great of course, but TOTO? Please, who dropped that ball there?

What’s next for LLC?
Re-branding. I think the next step is better exposure for us, and the end to obscurity. We are sort of like dark matter, we are there hiding in the fabric of things and have had influence and pull despite the fact that we have been invisible for the two decades. I just hope we have left an impression on music, on other bands, I hope we have had some influence.
It is funny, because all the new music that I am releasing is being pulled from tapes that go further and further back, I am almost to the stuff I did in high school.
Well, I spoke to Melissa the other day and we both came to the conclusion that LLC was like outsider 'Shoegazey' Ambient/Drone. Things have made us invisible, we don't have a real website or strong Internet presence, we are obscure. People thinking we were GOTH really hurt us, it almost broke up the band and made us not release anything for years. there are a few people who said as much in reviews and I will punch them on sight. I think people have finally figured it out, which is why we are enjoying better critical praise now.
Back in 93 we didn't really fit in anywhere. Now, there are about 20 labels that I can think of that want to release our music. The terrain has changed, and I am really happy to be in these new lands, to be cartographers of dreamscapes. Sometimes I feel like LLC went on a intergalactic journey at light speed and when we returned two decades later music was more amicable to our ears but we hadn't really changed that much.

Thanx Scott & Melissa!

Lovesliescrushing are currently scoring films and possibly (hopefully) releasing a new album soon...

EIC'S10Q'S w/Dorias Baracca

"..equal parts Slowdive, Ride, Interpol, Mogwai, and any other project that derives it's sound from soaring guitar transmissions with layers (upon layers) of sustained metagalactic noise. The only difference between this group and previous mentioned groups is that those bands had years to develop their sound. I firmly believe that most people aren't born with the kind of ears it takes to develop these kind of "Rock" sounds. The unimaginable amounts of layers/filler noise/walls of sounds within this band's debut EP are more than enough to make any veteran rocker jealous. Which is, precisely why it's so important to keep mentioning these guys are only teenagers.."


Dorias Baracca
Blossoming Cosmonauts

Dorias Baracca Bio:
Hailing from Odense in Denmark, Dorias Baracca are almost too young to be making the intense, yet beautiful shoegazing music that they do.

Growing up on a diet of Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Cocteau Twins and Ride have given them a musical maturity that belies their 17 years. The EP manages to encompass the swathing walls of noise that Slowdive created with their early EPs, as well as the driving guitar wizardry of Ride and Swervedriver.

Following their debut London shows back in October, the Hands At Melting Point EP is their debut release, produced by Jonas Munk (Manual). On stage they are a blisteringly loud maelstrom of swirling feedback and melodic chaos that rivals other self-confessed noise masters like A Place To Bury Strangers.


Hello, how are you?
We’re fine, how about you?

What are you currently listening to?
Buster: Stars of the Lid
Aske: Slowdive
Jeppe: Cat Power
Simon: Ride

How long has your band been together?
Since Spring 2007 and Jeppe joined Spring 2009

Was there a particular band/album that inspired you to create the music
that you currently write?
"Loveless", "Isn’t Anything", "You Made Me Realise", "Souvlaki", a lot of fuckin’ Sonic Youth, some M83 and some Leonard Cohen and Mogwai and Loop and Lush and Low and Adorable and Dinosaur Jr. and Echo and the Bunnymen and Earth..

How did Club AC30 find you?
One of our good friends’ big brother is Jonas Munk (better known as Manual) and he mixed our EP and he later on sent it out to some different labels, where AC30 were one of them and he recommended us to go with Club AC30

Is there a title/tentative release date for your debut full length album?
Well we haven’t really talked about it, but we are soon ready to go to the studio once again, for a full length album

Any international tour dates in the works?
We’re trying to work out a tour through Hamburg, Berlin, France and the UK

If you could do the score to any existing movie out there which would you
chose?
Buster: Lost in Translation
Aske: Dead Man
Jeppe: The Crow
Simon: Pi

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life… which
album would it be?
Buster: "Henry's Dream"
Aske: "Just For A Day"
Jeppe: "Raw Power"
Simon: "Loveless"

Are you living your dream?
We are living the daydream nation

Thanx Robin!

Dorias Baracca are currently touring here and there in Europe, pray that they will one day visit the US...