Get your own Free Home PageGet this. They're a four piece band with an unconventional line up. We've got hdk on electric and acoustic drums, jev on organs, e-bow and theremin, rgm on low mono, samples and broadcast and rnv on high poly, samples and edit. They're called Salaryman and they hail from Illinois. Their music is a mix of samples, live rhythm, drum loops, guitars and TV broadcasts and they've trademarked it as Basement Music. Their self-titled debut album is out now on City Slang and is a good deal more thrilling (and human, or soulful, or whateveryou want to call it) than you would have imagined. Which is why I took the chance to interview them. I spoke to 'rnv' (happily, he's a real human being called Rick) to find out a bit more about this odd bunch.
OK, so the press blurb states that you were formed when "somebody famous requested an unusual backing band". What's the full story?
"Jenny Twomey of Tsunami was on a solo tour, and she was asking musicians in each town on the tour to back her up - to do something, interesting, different, whatever. The four of us got together and learned a couple of her songs and whenever she came to our town (Champaign, Illinois) we found out that we were supposed to play our own set, so we wrote some songs of our own and it worked out."
Did you all now each other prior to this?
"We had all played together in a band - a more traditional guitar/ bass/ drums set up - but this is a totally different thing now. It worked out in a live situation, so we wrote the songs, recorded them, and we're taking it from there."
So how did the unusual mix of sounds and samples come about?
"The mix really came about because of the equipment we had at home, we had synthesisers lying around that over the years we had been stockpiling them. We bought these little pocket samplers - battery operated, for about $200. I got one, and then everyone got one, and it was like 'oh wow, these are amazing'. We went from there, the equipment was really the inspiration. It's our biggest influence - if a piece of equipment sounds good we'll use it."
Is each live performance as unique as has been claimed?
"Yeah, we just have a loose structure, the songs just sort of come together wbile we're rehearsing and we write down our settings for each one and that's about it so there's always a little give and take, nobody has a set pattern that they do, although after a time you sort of feel it out, so as the songs get older they tend to progress along the same path. We wrote a lot of new songs to keep it fresh. It's not just a case of trotting out our album - I think we do about half of that stuff in the set."
I believe there are remixes of the album on the way?
"Yes, we're doing some of those ourselves and I think instead of getting someone who is a real remix name, we're going to get people who are more like -'Hey, can I try this?' Let's see what happens, we're happy to throw caution to the wind and let people mess around."
You describe your music as Basement Music. Why?
"Well, that's really what it is. We go down in the basement and just start playing together and working out, we're just trying to find a way of describing what we do. There are a lot of 'bedroom' bands if you like - a couple of guys with sequencers and four tracks or whatever- and those are cool, but we knew this was a little different so we had to find a way to describe it. It's four people in a basement sort of playing off each other - less regimented, not sequenced at all, so basement music seemed like a good way of describing it."
And you often mix in real-time TV broadcasts?
"That adds to every show being unique because whatever is on air when we're playing is what is used. Rose (rgm) loves the sound of a TV in the background of music, that's like her favourite riff. When we first started it was like 'Wait! I have to get the TV' so she just went upstairs, grabbed the TV and came back down."
What about touring - you're playing the Rough Trade Shop - that's a basemetn!
"That's fun because we can play the way our rehearsals are - the set is just four people with their amps - there's no real need for vocals, we're a lot more portable, we can just set up places. We still need power that's the only thing, we're not completely battery operated, that would be a great feat if we could do that - set up on street corners - but we're not quite there yet!"
How have people reacted to your music so far?
"The reactions are always pretty good, so far. It's different from playing a normal guitar rock show where get clapping after every song. That's eliminated with our structure, so we never know until the very end and that's exciting. In a way it eliminates the audience but it also makes you think about them more, cos you're not getting constant feedback every three minutes - it's 40 or 50 minutes before they can respond. We've played with rock bands and also in elctronic set ups with DJs and we're happy with both. We're also not restricted by electronics because we can play live anyway."
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