This Thursday, April 19th, you’ll have the chance to catch another Ear/Splitters & CVLT Nation event! This one is happening at the M Bar in Hollywood, and features Axxonn, Author & Punisher, Mawdryn and Bear Baiting for what will be a truly apocalyptic evening. To celebrate, we are bringing you Part 1 of an artist to artist interview with AUTHOR & PUNISHER Vs. BEAR BAITING. Check the flyer below and the rest of the interview after the jump!
A&P: You guys play with a drum machine right? Having worked with a laptop and drum machines most of musical career as well, how do you feel about having a mechanical bull playing your beats onstage? Is it a matter of convenience, or do you prefer the sound of the machine drums?
Dennis – Well, yes and no. Our E.P. was conceived and recorded using Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 2.0, but we are playing with a drummer live. I labored over this decision for a while, weighing the pros and cons of each, and finally settled that having a live drummer was the way to go. Matt has a good friend and former bandmate who was available to help us out. I felt that we could put on a better show with live drums, and it leaves the option open to improvise here and there, whereas if we played using SD live, everything would have to be meticulously planned. I felt that to be a tad boring, personally. Plus, we would have to had to rely on whatever venue we played to have a decent PA so the drums would sound good. Given the nontraditional nature of the project, I don’t see us playing at a club with a nice big sound system to get that effect, and live drums can sound good with no PA at all, if necessary.
Can you talk a little bit about how you handle this live (ie. foot triggers, sequence, etc.)? Feel free to expand on software and any other geekage you want to throw in there. They sound great btw……
Dennis – We are using some sequencing for keyboards and samples live, and the setup is kind of laughable, but it works. I made stereo tracks with click on one channel, samples/keys on the other, and loaded it into my iPod. The click channel (with a touch of the samples for reference) is sent to the drummer and I via a wireless monitor system, and samples are sent to the house. We very well could have manually triggered samples and key parts, but chances are we would not be playing the perfect tempo when we hit that part of the song. Doing it this way alleviates having to drastically slow down or speed up to match the part, which would sound just plain dumb.
Are you a 2 beer, shot and beer, pint of whiskey, or clean live band? What brand? One of the things I like about playing along with a sequence is how I can tolerate a lot of alcohol and still play along with the sequence…it kind of holds you up for the set, so I am curious how other bands handle this.
Dennis – My pregame usually consists of a shot of Patrón, 2 beers, and a nice indica to take the edge off. Like you, I prefer to have a little buzz going into a set. We’ll have to get a drink on the 2nd.
Matt – I usually like to have a beer or two usually Budweiser or sometimes a shot of Jameson whiskey. It always loosens me up nothing to crazy before a show I still need to know what I’m doing.
Any painful memories of early musical career atrocities?
A: Dennis – Oh man, I have a few. I was probably 19 or so, playing in a female fronted hardcore band called Gadfly. (here’s a taste from a different show: http://youtu.be/Q_RoR6FDtMk). We were doing a gig in Santa Barbara, our first big show. At the top of the set, about a minute in to the first song, one of my cables came unplugged from a stompbox. It didn’t come all the way out, so I couldn’t immediately see why I was getting no signal out of my cab. Suddenly, as I’m scrambling to find the problem, the rest of the band stops the song. Don’t ask me why they stopped, I didn’t tell them to. I finally figure it out and am ready to go. Rather than playing it off and starting another song, the guitar player intros the song we stopped at a minute in. Fucking idiot, we’re starting over? It was the single most green, unprofessional, and embarrassing moment of my musical life. Rule #1, kids. If you fuck up, just keep going and try to make it look like you didn’t fuck up.
Matt – Yeah I have a painful memory of playing a show in Tucson, AZ with some guitarist I meet through the Tucson Weekly. We meet up for a one jam, and the following week he drops a show on us. I said yes, being younger and not knowing better. I show up, and the guitarist is already hammered. He couldn’t remember his songs and the drummer kept missing the beat. I was just wishing to get of this place. After the set I quit on stage told them I was done and that was that.
If you could cite an artistic influence (as a band or both individually) that is not a musician, what/who would that be and why?
Dennis – Wow, that’s a tough one. Non-musician? I’ve been listening to a lot of Doug Stanhope lately. And Louis C.K.
Matt – Yea, and Patton Oswalt and The Howard Stern Show.
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