Tableau! | komentarze i plwociny

Bit of a vernacular change here at Tableau!. Below you can read an interview I've done with Condominium. They are a brilliant punk band from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Last month saw the release of their first LP called "Warm Home". Which gave me an idea of sending a few questions to the band over the old e-mailing system. Matt, the guitarist-vocalist of Condominium was nice enough to answer them. I beg the forgiveness of all Midwesterners for including North Carolina in their merry lot. Seems that geography is not my strongest suit.

Marek: Have there been any line-up changes in the history of the band? The singles have four names in the credits, but I've seen some footage of you playing live as a trio.

Matt: Yes, we started as a four-piece and I just sang. About two years ago our bass player Kim moved away, so I tarted playing bass in addition to singing. The "Warm Home" LP was the first recording of us as a trio.

Has the line-up change influenced the way you write your songs? How do you generally write a song - beginning from a riff, a lyric or just the general idea?

Not dramatically. In general we've been writing songs in a more collaborative way recently but I don't think it's because of the line-up change. When we first started the band I would usually have a whole finished song and then bring it to practice for everyone else to learn, but later when we started trying new things, we would spend more time working on songs all together and figuring out the best way to play something. Usually I have some general idea of how I want to structure a song, or some rhythm I want to use, and then work from there. I usually don't end up writing lyrics until after the music is all done.

How important are lyrics for you?

They are very important to me, otherwise I wouldn't sing. But the lyrics aren't the main impetus behind the band.

What is the main impetus, then?

We just want to write raging music that we will enjoy playing.

Would you describe your recording process? Is everything played in one take, do you use overdubs? Beginning from "Gag" there seem to be more tape-loops and playing with reversed sounds.

We usually record drums, bass, and guitar all together, then go back and overdub more guitar and vocals and whatever else we wanted to add. I think "Gag" was the only time we messed around with reversing sounds. That song was based around us adding lot of little details like that, but with most of our other stuff we are going for a slightly more live, natural sounding vibe.

Why did you decide to put 13 minute-long "Gag" single on seven-inch? It's my favourite of yours, but some people complained about the sound quality being sub-par.

When we were planning that record, we hadn't started thinking at all about putting out an LP of any kind yet, so none of us really considered it as an option. And I wouldn't want to put out a three song 12". It's true that the sound suffers a little bit from being squished onto a 7" like that, but at the same time those songs were supposed to sound blown out and distorted to begin with, so it doesn't sound wrong to me when I listen to it now. Also, it's a punk record!

I always found the photo on the cover of "Barricade" haunting. Where do you get the artwork for your records?

Most of our artwork has been stolen from books about performance art, like Fluxus, the Vienna Actionists, etc. Some of that stuff is okay but we got pretty lazy for a while. I am always worried that it comes off the wrong way to our audience, that people might take it too seriously. I prefer the collage stuff we've done.

My friend recently noted that some tracks on your LP sound like US Maple, would you agree with that? How did you end up recording such experimental stuff as "Why Be Something That You're Not" and the closing track?

I'm not really familiar with US Maple. I'm listening to them for the first time ever while writing this, so I can't tell if that's a reasonable comparison. Maybe a tiny bit. We all have fun trying new things. I'm guessing that a band like US Maple thinks of themselves as being very original and progressive, whereas we generally don't.

Whose laughter can be heard at the end of "Teeth"? Am I correct hearing subtle female vocals in the midst of "Under Glass"?

That laughter belongs to our friend Angie who helped us do some backup vocals on "Teeth" and "Life Is Amazing". She also plays bass with Joe in one of his other bands, Question. But the backup vocals in "Under Glass" are me, not her.

How did you end up releasing a cassette in a remote country of Poland?

Hubert from Blinded Records just sent us an email asking us if we'd be interested in releasing something with him. I think this happened shortly after recording the "Barricade" and "Gag" singles, and after all the studio magic we put on those records we thought it would be fun to do a live recording.

What are your plans for the future releases? Any chances for a singles collection?

We don't have any real plans yet, but we'll probably put out more 7"s sometime next year. We're just starting to work on writing new songs right now. I don't really like the idea of a singles collection, but who knows...

There seems to be a bigger number of Midwestern/Southern Canadian punk bands putting stuff out recently (you, Slices, Double Negative, the entire Vancouver scene). Would you see this as a new punk scene, or are we just living in interesting times?

I don't see it as anything new, no. Maybe there are more bands that are staying together longer and getting more international attention, but overall I don't think there are more bands now than at any other point. And it is all still based around the same punk scene that has existed for a long time. I'll also point out for accuracy's sake that Double Negative is not from the Midwest.

Would you recommend few albums that have been on heavy rotation for you?

Sure, here's what I've been listening to lately:
Limp Wrist - s/t LP
Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men
Dead Prez - Revolutionary But Gangsta
Nico - Chelsea Girl
S.D.S. - Digital Evil In Your Life
Pissed Jeans - Your Life Is Worth 7"

Is life really amazing?

Yes. That song title is not sarcastic.


End of the interview.