Great new single coming out via the most intelligent dudes in clubland
Hi dudes. Great single coming out on June 29th ‘Dressed To Digress’. I remember an article two years ago in Newsweek – it made the cover. It was basically a feature written by a journalist who was writing about the failing standards amongst young men – partly attributed to the education system – they coined it “Boy Crisis”. You saw a window of opportunity back then and thought ‘what a great name for a group’. What did you think about that feature?
Victor: “Actually we thought of the name a couple of weeks or months I think before that article came out and when it did it was just a weird coincidence. For a while we were Google-fighting with The Boy Crisis in American Education’ but we finally won. It was a few months of ignoring those articles and editorials every time I Googled us before I actually read up on the Boy Crisis and from what I gather it’s bullshit. Disparities in education have less to do with gender than they have to do with economics. The biggest disparity in academic performance is, and always has been, between public schools with less funding (historically/statistically known to be more heavily populated with black and latino kids) and private schools and public schools in affluent areas (historically/statistically known to be more heavily populated with white kids). The whole gender thing is the type of fluffy navel-gazing journalism that is less confrontational and therefore an easier sell. The Washington Post had a good response piece to that Newsweek article (strangely enough the Washington Post owns Newsweek) called ‘The Myth of the Boy Crisis’ that talks about the first instance of a “boy crisis” back around the beginning of the 20th century in the US when some senator said that the American education system was too feminine and boys were being ruined by being around the influence of so many female teachers. This actually led to the founding of the American Boy Scouts.”
So five guys from Brooklyn – most people would immediately assume that Boy Crisis would consist of a group of guys who grew up on the street going to block parties, fighting. But instead you all attended the same prestigious hall of learning, Connecticut’s Wesleyan Art College where you first met. What were you all doing at the college?
Victor: “English Literature”
Tal: “Art with a focus in Painting”
Alex: “Art with a focus in Sculpture”
Lee: “Science in Society with a focus in Physics and Ethics”
Owen: “English Literature”
How has Brooklyn changed since you were kids to today?
Victor: “I’m from Alameda, California. But there are more fresh-out-of-college type gentrifiers like myself in Brooklyn now than ever before. Which is why they’ve been building condos now in places that have been known as ghettos for years. First it’s artist/Bohemian types, followed by professionals/yuppies. This will drive up the property value and encourage rent-raising, which will drive out poor people. Gentrification wouldn’t be bad if the new affluence the neighbourhood could be shared by the people who actually have lived there all their lives, and shit like fixed rent and subsidized housing and co-ops are some solutions (Lee grew up in a co-op in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and could probably speak on that better than me), but there’s often not enough systemic support for these types of things to turn the tide. Even people who (like myself) didn’t grow up wealthy but through Federal aid, scholarships and loans, reaped the benefits of an elite private college (and are in massive debt because of it) are part of the problem. We’re always part of a number of problems that we often feel as if we have very little power to help solve or simply don’t know how to go about solving. I’m trying to figure out how to be less of a problem but I’m also trying to milk this pop music thing and see if I can get my money right first. Maybe this is a flawed way of operating but I’ve yet to find a means of operating that isn’t flawed in some way or another.”
So you met, and formed a band making originally, a sound of late 70s punk-funk and a mid 80s pop groove. Who were your musical influences growing up – we hear anything from Prince to Chic…?
Victor: “I always dug Prince alright but didn’t get really into him until late high school and more and more throughout college. I definitely dug Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Otis Redding, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye as a kid via the influence of my parents. I was familiar with Chic and Rick James but didn’t get into them until college. In middle school and high school I liked Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Talking Heads also via the influence of my parents. I was pretty much into Michael Jackson, Madonna and Janet Jackson as a kid too. In high school I got into the Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Fear, Minor Threat, The Damned, The Dead Boys, The Stooges, Bad Brains, Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Dio, Iron Maiden, other various punk, hardcore and metal and was also listening to various “conscious” 90s rap sprinkled with some Wu, Biggie, Kool Keith, The Coup, Tribe, Outkast, Pun, various commercial rap. Via my sister, David Bowie, Bjork, Pulp, The Smiths, The Cure, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington, Shuggie Otis. In college, Animal Collective, MIA, MF Doom, J Dilla, TV on the Radio, Deerhoof, Captain Beefheart, Gang of Four, Television, Zapp (and Roger), Can, other shit. I also liked a lot of shit when I was a kid that I don’t really care for now like Sublime, Rage Against the Machine, Primus, Wyclef, Beck. I mean I still dig a lot of Beck. And if Rage Against the Machine came on the radio I wouldn’t turn it off. And shit, Wyclef is OK. Shit, I don’t know.”
Tell us about the new single ‘Dressed To Digress’ coming out at the end of June…what can we expect?
Victor: “Teenage girls rioting at record stores.”
So the album, no release date yet and many majors fighting over it…a real buzz on the track 1981 – describe the song to us.
Victor: “We signed to B-Unique at the end of last year. We spent a few months finishing the album and it’s coming out at the end of the summer at some point, or so we’re told. 1981 started as a remix to a song by Cake on Cake, a Swedish one-woman band (Helena Sundin is her name), but we ended up rewriting it and writing our own lyrics to it and we call it our song but it was basically co-written by Helena.”
What is the best album ever made?
Victor: “Sign O’ the Times?”
Some interesting lyrics on the album; “let me love you like you’re the shit girl” – so we have Lee on guitar, Tal on Vocals/Keys, Victor on vocals, Alex on bass and Owen on drums – who is responsible for writing duties or do you just all pile in?
Victor: “Alex does most of the production, writes a lot of the synth lines and most of the bass lines and programs most of the drums and Lee writes most of the guitar parts but whatever isn’t one of them is either me or Tal. But there are some songs where the demo was written by one person. Like Lee wrote the demo and the first few lyrics of Ganglion of Lightnings, I wrote the demo for Indian Summer, with production help from Tal. Tal did the demo for a track called Bang Bang Bang that’s on the album, etc. Owen writes some of the drum stuff and adapts it for the live show and he also weighs in on various production song writing ideas. I write most of the lyrics with help from Lee and Tal, who also help with the vocal melodies. A lot of shit is sort of done by committee. Which is why it took months to finish the album.”
Some great comparisons made about you; the best electronic band to come out of America since MGMT – the sound of The Scissor Scissors when they were underground, similar to Fischerspooner, what The Strokes would have sounded like if they would have been an electroclash band – thoughts on quotes like that and which bracket do you want to be placed in?
Victor: “They’re all OK. I don’t know which bracket I’d want us to be placed in.”
You’ve been in Britain a while promoting ‘Dressed To Digress’, supporting the likes of Friendly Fires, Chairlift and The Sunshine Underground – what is the best and worst think about the UK?
Victor: The drinks are significantly weaker in the bars. But the countryside is pretty.”
What comes next from you guys when the album comes out?
Victor: A lot of touring I guess. And we’re working on a remix album right now. And I have another project that’s starting to take off so I’m going to have to juggle the both of them.”
The single ‘Dressed To Digress’ is out on June 29th
