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The title 'Trap' is quite funny. It conjures up images of people
being caught in a trap. Effective pop music - in my mind - hooks people, lures them
into a trap.
"Hmm, also yourself, the public, and the songs... But it is
also the Dutch word for staircase, because originally the cover was going to
be full of staircases. Now it will only be on the inside sleeve. It is also a
staircase going up, down... even a kick in the face. A trap in every sense
of the word. But as you put it, that¹s interesting as well (The Dutch word "trap" has several meanings, among them "staircase" and "to kick". - ed.)"
When I compare 'Trap' with your solo record, I don't hear much
difference.
"Hmm, 'Trap' is a bit darker. If I would express the sound in colour,
this record would be blue, black and dirty green. I think the solo record
has a red sound, more orange. For me there's a lot of difference. But then I
am more on it, more involved."
How much influence do the other Dead Man Ray members have?
"100% (laughs). It is music that you make with five people. No-one is replaceable. There are no songs written in advance, it is all done as a group. There are no things introduced that one of the members wouldn't
approve of. They all have veto rights (laughs some more)."
Isn't the drummer leaving the band? What is he going to do?
"Mauro (ex-Evil Superstars). He could have combined the two but he
feared the agendas would overlap. He couldn't guarantee that he could
participate with everything that came up. Which is annoying when it comes to
the live thing, you need to practice doubly with two drummers."
Who is going to be the drummer?
"Karel De Backer. A young jazz drummer who's a friend of Elko
Blijweert. He has already played a lot with Elko. A very good drummer but
totally different. Herman is a solid rock drummer. Karel is a rhythmic
jazz drummer, which will make a difference. It will only clearly show up on
the next record."
The Dead Man Ray sound is sometimes described as urban music.
Which isn't that surprising since the title of the debut is Berchem (the
city where the band lives). In what way does the city influence your music?
"In a big way. The absence of green, trees and rabbits is
everywhere on the record. The first song 'Woods' may deal with forests.
But, no, a city is pure chaos. A city is an exercise to make you feel at ease amidst all kinds of dirt and garbage. Too many things to read and hear, coming from all sides. The chaos, which the band produces, closely connects to that, lyrically as well as the nervosity that is present in the music."
On one song there seem to be background noises.
"That was on 'Tunnels'. It begins with tractors that were breaking
down factory buildings right in front of my house. That ended up on the
vocal track. The microphone was kind of sensitive. It had a lot of
compression. That happens a lot. There¹s also a doorbell on it somewhere.
Usually, though, that gets lost during the mixing."
You are sometimes compared to Beck, which isn't that weird since
you also seem to mix and recycle.
"Hmm, more for my solo stuff, less when it comes to Dead Man Ray.
It's more a way of working, a lot of silly and simple things you do on the
guitar. Then cutting that up in a trippy way and make a certain groove or be
repititive. Certainly the older Beck, the first record. To be at the same
time very modern and also very oldfashioned. Also to mix up different styles
of music."
Hasn't band member Herman Gillis put something new on the market?
Was that used on the record?
"No, at that time it wasn't yet finished. It will only be
available in two months. I did play with it once at the festival De Nachten
together with Herman. It's sort of the luxury version of the filterband. A
quadruple, over-the-top version of the filterband. The Americans love
that. Everything that is big (laughs)!"
You used to be a graphic designer. Usually it is the other way
around, people giving up rock music and getting a 'regular' job. You did it
vice versa, giving up your regular work for music.
"That's just luck. If I hadn't started working at the age of 23
or 24 and hadn't been making music for five years... I would have probably
accepted a job somewhere. But because I started working at such a young age
and worked much too hard, I realized at the right time what I really wanted
to do. Also, applying the experience of working on musicmaking. We don't
sell a lot of records but I can live off my music. Whereas, there are a lot
of groups that sell loads of records but can't live off their music. So
working has protected me against the naivity that many musicians have and
also against the business side."
Isn't the insecurity difficult to live with at times?
"Oh, but a lot of people don't do it for themselves but for their
wife or their children or whatever. Ah no, in Belgium you can't really go
horribly wrong. It isn't Spain or Portugal. You will eventually land on your
feet. Well, maybe not when you are fifty... (laughs). I have worked. I know I
can do that. And I could fall back on that if I wanted to. But I won't. The
music is much more interesting and fascinating."
In the past you were on Heavenhotel. Now you are also with
Virgin. Do you feel any pressure?
"But you need a little bit of pressure. Whether it's you who are
the cause of that pressure or someone else... Anyway, at a certain point in
time your record has to be finished, the song has to be written. Virgin
doesn¹t put pressure on us. They just follow the band like a sixth member
and observe how everything evolves."
Will there be any other changes? What about distribution?
"We mainly signed for that reason. It is very difficult to work
with distribution abroad. It is very hard to motivate them. I hope our
records do get distributed abroad, even if it's small-scale. And Virgin has
good couriers (laughs)."
I noticed there is a website. Did you collaborate?
"The drummer of my soloproject has a friend, Yves, who put that
site together. It is still a demo version. He was a graphic designer, so
talking with him was easy. I gave him a free hand as long as he used loads
of black and white."
Will you be making video clips?
"We already did one for 'Toothpaste'. We put it together in our
typical way, it looks pretty naive. I think we'll be collaborating with a
few people. The problem is that, at the moment, I don't have the right
computer to edit. Otherwise I would have been busy with that. That's
something for the future..."
You covered the Sparks' 'Hospitality on Parade' for the tribute
record 'Glittering copyright'. Are there any other influences?
"There are less and less influences when it comes to Dead Man
Ray. Nonetheless, there are a lot of things that come up when people listen
to our music. It's our way of working that causes that... But we don't talk
much about influences because they differ too much. We are almost quiet when
it comes to influences. Nevertheless, people keep on mentioning the eighties
sound Dead Man Ray has. That is our way of working, the instruments we use.
Probably also the roots of the music fan or musician... We don¹t want to give
it an eighties touch, quite the opposite. It is the result of all the
methods we use."
Is there a correlation between the songs on 'Trap'?
"It is all seperate. There were forty songs, so it might as well
have been fifteen other songs on the record. The only constant is our way of
working togther and that they were first made for image. So they have a
certain spacy and filmic character. They weren¹t made in the same period,
nor written as a whole. Only at the end did they come together by accident
because they fit together best."
How do you write the lyrics? 'Ham' is just like a day out of
your life.
"No, five minutes (laughs)! I write the lyrics very quickly. 'Ham'
was a working title. At a certain point you need to save it on the computer
and we were so used to the title. But there still weren't lyrics at that
stage. I thought the title was beautiful. Also the image, a piece of ham. So
I fantasized about that for five minutes, a piece of ham..."
So in essence there isn't much meaning to the lyrics?
"Hmm, metaphorical meaning. Everything stands for something. But
not longer than one sentence. I jump from one thing to the next. And finally
I am completely in the lyrics. Everything is written for a reason. It is
written automatically. I only understand what the meaning could be after I
have written it."
Tunnels seems to have a lot of meaning though...
"That's actually the opposite of 'Brenner'. 'Brenner' refers to the
pass between Switzerland and Italy... I think. You have two ways to cross
the mountain-metaphor, to get past an obstacle. You can either go over it or
under it. So 'Tunnels' and 'Brenner' are brother and sister."
'Slow Indian', wasn¹t that an instrumental?
"At first it was. Now there's parlando on it. It is actually a
pleonasm, 'Slow Indian'. The idea you usually have is that indians are rather
slow. There are not a lot of speedy indians..."
How did you make 'Dover'?
"It sort of plays with the two speakers. A lot of these jams are
first recorded on tape with stereo microphones. And in 'Dover' we took away
the left channel and then the right channel, so that you could
hear which microphones did what, with the piano as an agent. Every time the
piano comes in the picture, 'Dover' crosses to the other speaker."
Do you consciously leave mistakes in?
"A lot of bad cuts. At a certain point when cutting up the jams,
you make a lot of mistakes. Or you accidently copy a wrong piece to
something else. But after listening to it five times, you get used to it. That
way you get crazy structures or weird sounds. Also things that sound false.
Sometimes you get addicted to the way they are false, so you don't correct them. Also, a lot of mistakes happen when you are searching, when you jam
together. And sometimes the search is more interesting than the result. Then
we make samples out of those. A lot of unwanted noises, for example when you
kick against the microphone or change a string. The most simple things, like
bad contacts in your microphone. For example in Slow Indian we tried to
record an organ. But the connection of the organ was broken, which you can
hear..."
Last question: Will you be touring abroad?
"I would love to play in France. It depends where the records gets
released. But touring like other groups do, no, we won't be doing that...
That is much too labour-intensive. Then you're working for the record.
You've got to make the record work for you."
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/dead-man-ray/dead-man-ray/371/
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