Usually flamboyant, musically extravagant—that in a nutshell is New York quintet NAKED SUN, who have their debut self-titled album out on the Noise International label. I mean, throw in a little Zeppelin, a progressive/classical flourish or two, a Gothic touch here and there, and let's not forget some "heads down" rock n' roll.
"If you listen to the record, it's not a dance record," says vocalist Max Vanderwolf (who incidentally writes the band's lyrics and music). "But if you try dancing to it, it causes chromosomal damage which will actually further the race and make the world a better place or round."
Careful, careful guys, that could be misconstrued as having fascist connotations.
Max: "Yes, it can, especially when you say 'world domination' and we're all sitting in Europe!"
Apparently the chromosome damage incurred diversifies the race as opposed to purifying it… Hmm, nuts or what!
So how did you guys meet?
Max: "We met during group therapy."
Sorry, was that during group sex you said?
"No, no, we don't like each other enough to have group sex...but we are working on it."
Max goes to the john. Time to get TB Quagmire (drums) to sit in. He seems more sensible. What was their approach like in the studio?
"We tried to do the record in the vein of records that we loved... get a really lavish sound, a big production but without losing the real vibe off the music; without getting it to sound mechanical. So we got into the studio and we played live and tried to get the drums in one take, edit things together, whatever. But, like, y’know, there's a lot of Records out today—actually most records by big bands—where the drums are punched like every bar. So you get these guys who are not very good drummers but they sound amazing on the records. But you don't get the real vibe that music is supposed to sound like. When LED ZEPPELIN made a record, what was so great about the drumming is the fact that Bonham's feel was great."
One thing I noticed about their music is the restless nature of the songs, i.e. sudden abrupt changes in style and structure within a song.
"We are very fidgety, we have short attention spans, we are very stupid and we're from the TV generation," says Max who has returned from the john. "Seriously, anything that goes on for more than two or three minutes, I'm like ‘alright, now what happens? OK, let's do something else."
Naked son hope to bring their unique live shows to the UK sometime in '92. Why unique?
Mad Max: "Our show will include some things that people have not seen in a rock show before, and I think we're really gonna lure some people in. We've got these rotating blades that fly through the audience lopping off heads.”
Shock tactics, eh? You could literally kill off the interest of the audience. If we print this, Max, some people might really believe you.
"Then they'll come, and if their heads don't get lopped off, they will be very disappointed."
Yes, they might even get legless at the bar.
Finally, gentlemen, what are you trying to achieve with NAKED SUN?
TB: "We're trying to be filthy rich and on the cover of People magazine every two weeks."
Max: "I wanna be on the cover of the Daily Mirror with some slutty mistress.”
Stranger things have happened.
Mark Liddell
Riff Raff
March, 1992
0 comments:
Post a Comment