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Sam: How did you guys
find each other and decide to make such wonderfully crazy
music?
Kris: "The band I had been playing in
broke up and I was looking to find new people to make music
with. I actually put up a craigslist ad that said I wanted
to make 'scream-o hardcore punk noise art music', whatever
that means. I listed Swingkids, Holy Molar, Gravity Records,
stuff like that as influences. One of the only responses I
got was from Josh and he basically wrote: 'I�m not into that
kind of music anymore but if you do like Yes, Neu! or the
Boredoms, cause I�m trying to start up something along those
lines and need a keyboard player. I�m big into all those bands.
So, I met up with him for coffee. That was how the two of us
got together, then Dan joined up shortly afterwards and we
started playing as La Otracina with Adam Kriney on drums.
After we parted ways with Adam, Dave stepped in on drums.
I�ve known Dave since college. I should mention that La
Otracina is still out there helmed by Adam making some
really great music.
Dan: "What Kris said. I�d just moved to
Brooklyn and Adam (La Otracina) found me at an �improv�
session he used to host and asked me to join Otracina.
A year later Titan was put together".
Dave: "I played in a band with kris and josh (Jose Plaza) and
a little while after that band stopped, they asked me to come
practice with them".
Sam: Why did you guys decide to go with
Tee Pee Records?
Josh: "My buddy Kip who used to be in
Panthers who now does Cloudland Canyon is bros with Tony
Presedo and sort of gave him the heads up about us. We
kinda figured it would make sense since we're into a lot
of the bands he releases and we seemed to fit right in the
roster of bands without actually sounding like any of them.
Plus Tony, David and everybody else at Teepee were all
great dudes and supportive of our ridiculous requests
through the whole process".
Kris: "Teepee definitely seemed like a good fit. We�d been
listening to the Sleep�s Dopesmoker and High on Fire before
any of this happened and we were into the label before being
on it, so we were psyched".
Sam: I'm hearing a variety of styles on
this album, far beyond what normally counts as "stoner rock",
what would you say your main musical influences are?
Josh: "It's funny because I don't think
any of us are really into 'stoner rock'. I can only speak for
myself here but I think 99% of "stoner rock" is a total
snooze fest, and I think Sleep takes up most of that 1%.
It's like there is a stoner rock rulebook that exists
somewhere that says� "take 'the Sabbath part' and run with it".
So I guess that statement makes sense. Personally I just get
bored unless I constantly have to pay attention to what
I and everybody else is doing at any given moment. Going as
far as my own influences though, just to name a fraction.
Steve Hillage, Manual Gottsching, John Mclaughlin, Greg Ginn,
Leigh Stephens. all the major dudes".
Kris: "Yeah, I feel the same way, I�m never conscious of
calling something I�m into 'stoner rock' it�s kind of a
useless tag to me. Like I mentioned early, we are all big
into bands like Yes, Uriah Heep, Klaus Schulze. I love
Growing out here in Brooklyn, I think they are doing
amazing stuff and there are elements of drone in some of
songs too. I know personally also I think there still is
an element of our sort of collective punk backgrounds in
the music too. Josh comes from the west coast, was around
for a lot of the 90�s hardcore stuff that was going on there.
I was big into San Diego/GSL/Gravity stuff and I think a
little of that is still there too.
Dan: "I�m the only one in the band that doesn�t have much of
a punk background, but I am stoned".
Dave: "I grew up playing in and listen to punk rock bands.
As time went on I started to get into other types of music
as well, which influenced the way I played. Instead of just
playing super fast, there were other things I could do that
made it more interesting for me. Now, I feel, we all push
each other to play passed our 'comfort zones' which helps
us progress individually and collectively as a band."
Sam: Who came up with the idea for the
artwork inside the album?
Kris: "The cool thing about the album
artwork is that I feel like it was really a collaborative
thing between all of us in the band and Jerry Fuchs. We all
had little ideas about the tone of the artwork, how we
wanted it to feel, the colors we wanted, the colors we
didn�t want. There were certain things all of us wanted to
get across in the artwork. So, we sat down with Jerry and
just poured out everything we could think of onto the table,
as far as concepts, thoughts, feelings we had. Josh also
had these really beautiful old sketches that he had done a
while back. Jerry took all of that stuff and put it together
into something cohesive".
Sam: You guys have some earlier material
that you released yourselves, is there any way to get ahold
of that stuff now?
Kris: "Uh, I think maybe. It�s kind of
all over the place at this point. We did a CDR called
'Pilzmarmelade' and burned like 50 copies with a silk-screened
digipack, but they sold out so we made 50 more and I think we
still have some left that we sell at shows. The first CDR we
did 'Terry Riley is Playing at My House' is completely gone,
but if you write us, which people have been doing, I�ve made
up extras and sent them out. So I guess just write to us and
I�ll dig a copy up for you".
Sam: Any touring plans outside of the
dates you've got lined up in the south in March?
Kris: "Yeah, we�re in the process of
lining up a west coast oriented tour for July. We�ll start
cracking on the booking when we get back from Texas."
Josh: "Prepare to get slayed, meeklings!"
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