pfriends on pfilm

way much more coming soon.



Jan 18 2008 9:00P SOTA Fairfax, Virginia
Jan 19 2008 8:30P The Watershed Lexington, South Carolina
Jan 20 2008 8:00P Village Tavern Charleston, South Carolina
Jan 21 2008 8:00P CJ’s Gallery Franklin, Tennessee
Jan 22 2008 8:00P Pour Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Jan 23 2008 8:00P Soundpony Tulsa, Oklahoma
Jan 24 2008 8:00P Front Porch Springfield, Missouri
Jan 25 2008 8:00P Blinks Ames, Iowa
Jan 26 2008 8:00P Uncle Freddy’s Gallery Highland, Indiana
Jan 27 2008 6:00P 3rd Floor Fredericksburg, Virginia
Feb 02 2008 7:00P Apple Store - Tysons Corner Mclean, Virginia

Part One: Dave Debiak Interview (New London Fire/Sleep Station)

Appearing in Patrol Magazine soon:




New London Fire is one of the smoothest undiscovered bands on the music scene today. Headed up by multi-tasking frontman Dave Debiak (Sleep Station) the band’s freshman release, I Sing the Body Holographic, is anything but disappointing. Lush, powerful, expansive and absolutely danceable, their single “Different” is one of the most impressive tracks and catchy tracks I’ve heard in a long time. The rest of the album isn’t perfect, but it’s a gorgeous effort nonetheless and worthy of far more than the limited press the band received.

Over the summer Debiak talked about his inspiration for the album, his vision for the future, the struggles of everyday life, and the state of the music business. Due to many technical difficulties and catastrophic circumstances (surrounding the death of a laptop) this interview was lost for publishing, until now. At least one of the unnamed albums Debiak refers to in the interview would end up being the Pride of Chester James, released with Sleep Station later this fall. NLF is apparently going to still release another album. Check out NLF at http://myspace.com/newlondonfire and Sleep Station at http://myspace.com/sleepstation .

(Note: I’m anything but a concise directed interviewer, so for the sake of conciseness, this interview has been condensed and rearranged some. Hopefully the flow still works).

NM- What made you decide to start a new band after your success with Sleep Station?

DD- I don’t know what happened, I think we were just doing a record and we started playing with some new guys and we started getting a new feel about stuff and we just decided, ‘You know what, let’s do this something else.’ Pretty simple train of thought, just didn’t feel very Sleep Station at the time.

NM- Needed to change things up?

DD- Yeah, the new guys we were playing with, just felt different, just going in a different direction, just thought we’d go with it.

NM- Where did this album come from?

DD- Once you start playing with a group of guys and you start getting a feel of something, you just go with something. I went out one night, this guy was having a bachelor party,
known him since I was a kid and we’ve been friends for years. We’re just not similar to each other, but we’ve been friends since kids. So I went to his bachelor party and he had a limousine that was just blasting techno music all night long. Then I got to the club and it was blasting techno and then it was a strip club and it’s really not my thing you know. Maybe it was just this particular place, or this particular night, but I was actually kind of disturbed. So I went home the next day and decided I wanted to write a techno song. But, it didn’t come out that way.
More or less, it’s just writing things that had little more of a beat, a little more experimental with some keyboard. A lot of the content lyrically is about that whole situation and there are a lot of songs in there about a man who is in love with a prostitute. There are so many angles to the whole record, but now that I’m done with that record, I’m done with that sound.

NM- It’s an interesting sound and you know Sleep Station had this weird folk sound to it, and NLF had more of a post-80’s feel.

DD- Yeah, and I got it out of my system and I’m ready to move on.

NM-Before we talk about the new album, lets talk about the Body Holographic, it’s a dark album, more inspiration.

DD- It was more from a dark perspective. I don’t really write well from a happy perspective. I guess that’s just the way it is, I’ve always had this back and forth thing that I was
writing about a prostitute and just trying to figure out how the emotion of love got lost on somebody that deeply, there’s a tremendous amount of things that would have to happen for a person to get to that point, and can they get back from something like that. Can that emotion still be found and nourished? That’s dark. It could be taken as something as
something more than that, it’s pretty beautiful.

NM- Can you tell me about the video Nadine, that’s a creepy video,

DD- Steve grew up in my house, best friends with my brother and has always been a tremendous artist, and he loved that song, I said to him, almost half-ass, you should do a video about that song, one of your videos. He said, “I’d love to” and showed up at my house with that thing one day.

NM- I still remember the first time I watched it, so powerful.

DD- Yeah and it’s unexpected, I didn’t not expect him to show up with it. I was pretty moved, I thought it was great.



NM- How hard was it going from the EP to the album, it took you awhile, what happened?

DD- There was a lot of hold ups. That’s a good observation I don’t think that most people were paying attention to that. There were just a lot of label things trying to figure out a
good time to drop the record, who would actually do the record. In retrospect I would love to see the record out and I would love to have another one out by now.

NM- When you go from writing concept albums to this more pop-ish type, how hard is that?

DD- I don’t think any of them are concept albums, I think that’s a term that when people think of concept albums, they are immediately thinking of different of what I’m doing. I’m
just writing from a vibe, or an emotion. It’s thematic, it’s coming from that perspective. If you listen to any record ever made, there’s something that everyone writes about. You
know maybe, protesting something or falling in and out of love with someone. Every record is thematic in a sense. That’s just all I was doing, it’s just a little more literal in it’s
presentation, because I write from a very cinematic perspective. When we release the album we want to release it from a cinematic perspective. It’s what it is.

NM- I remember how you wanted to make movies but you wrote songs.

DD-Well both, because I write the songs. That’s true. There was a desire to write stuff that was kind of catchy as a accessible as possible without losing integrity, there was no compromising on quality on our end, its just that kind of style on our end that we write with lends itself for that kind of song. That’s just the kind of way that record went.


NM- What is the Body Holographic?

DD- I don’t know you’ll have to ask my brother, he came up with the title, I think it’s some type of Walt Whitman thing.

NM- I was trying to figure it out, some mysterious unifying theme?

DD- Why not.



NM- Let’s talk about the new album, what’s going through your head, you seem like you have a lot of alternatives, what’s this new album going to be like?

DD- I wish I could. Right now, I have no idea. Like you were saying, I’ve got so many different things hanging around my head and its very difficult to decide what it’s going to be. I mean, there’s a lot of doo-wop songs that I want to do, and a lot of the new stuff is more Americana than anything else. None of it is the way the last record was, I’m in a decision
right now actually, I was up all night thinking about this, and thinking what exactly it is that we’re planning on doing and trying to figure out if its going to be beneficial to the band or what.

NM- I heard Blood of our Fathers and Julie, (two tracks released online)

….
DD- You can’t really listen to anything I do acoustically and determine how it’s going t be in the future. I’m finishing up a record right now where its very dark, acoustic, lots of
instrumentation to it and its pretty out there. Probably the most diverse and darkest thing I’ve ever done. I’m putting the finishing touches on it right now and trying to mix it.
There’s about ten songs there, and we’re doing some pretty interesting things for it, in how we’re going to present it, and the videos, the artwork. It’s all very exciting for me,
because I think its one of the more important things I’ve done in a long time, that’s something I’m trying to work on some closure on right now.


NM- Will that be released with NLF or a solo thing?

DD- It could be NLF, Sleep Station, I have no idea where it belongs. I’m going to finish the record. That’s the only goal I have, to finish the record and make the best record
imaginable that I can make and just put it out there. The same goes for anything that we work on, we want to make the best record we can and record the best songs we have. We aren’t trying to make it sound like anything in particular.

Part Two: Dave Debiak Interview (New London Fire/Sleep Station)

Appearing on PatrolMag.com soon:
On New Marketing and the Traditional Music Business Model


NM- You marketed this album pretty differently with the free EP being released far in advance, it doesn’t seem like you are afraid to give away music, can you talk about that, and how that’s worked with your label?

DD- Well it was their idea. I agreed with it, we weren’t going to get anyone to buy it so we might as well give it away.

NM- Good response?

DD- Tremendous response, I’ve got a lot of material so I can put out an EP and give it to people for free and then hopefully they’ll listen to things and buy them in the future
if things come up and if the opportunity comes up. I mean we gave so many of the Von Cosel’s away and then we would play a show and these people who loved the EP and then they would buy a t-shirt or pay to get into the venue. Eventually if its good and people like it, they’ll spend money on it, in some way shape or form. Record sales are not the way they used to be. I’ve never gotten paid for one record in my life.

NM- Never gotten paid?

DD- Not a dime, and I’ve done like 4-5 albums. I’ve never made a profit from one.

NM- The free EP is how you got me.

DD- I figured how else are you going to get people. You’re competing with so many different people and marketing angles that everyone’s trying to take to sell things, you figure, why not try this way? It doesn’t hurt to listen to something when it’s free.

….
DD-I’m strongly considering never putting anything to retail again. I want to just sell things online and have physical copies made but only available online. Retail is a dying breed
and its not going to be around much longer. People don’t buy records like they used to and most places you can’t find a good record store to go to, I mean you’ve got Best Buy. To get
your stuff into those stores you have to move units rather steadily and its just a huge pain in the ass to do retail....I’ve taken it on myself to record everything for free so I won’t be getting behind big recoups. Money I make back before I start making a profit. So now if I
sell 2,000 records and it cost me nothing to put the record to make a profit. If I sold 50,000 of the things, and if it cost me a couple hundred thousand to put it out, I don’t make anything.

DD- I don’t think it’s imperative for a band to have a record label, I think that if a band can have its stuff distributed anywhere you can go online. They can record it themselves,
promote it themselves, there’s not much more a lot of bands need. They could do a lot for themselves without going on a record label. I know that a lot of bands are holding on for
that hope that their going to get signed but I say “screw that, they don’t even need to bother trying.

Dave Debiak Interview (New London Fire/Sleep Station)

Appearing on PatrolMag soon:


Part Three- A Day in the Life.



NM- Day job?

DD- I own a store with my wife and we just kind of go there during the day, we own a line of makeup and massage, waxing stuff like that.

NM- How is that balancing those two things.

-Air Siren goes off in the background-

DD- Apparently like its 1945 and the fucking Germans are about to bomb my town. What the heck is that all about. Let me get somewhere where I can’t hear this.

NM- Is it a battle having to go back and forth between the band and the real world?

DD- I’m always working, I just got out of the studio last night. You talk about a day job, I’m still doing music as a day job. I spent the last two days in a recording studio.

NM- How was the album received? Did people know the stuff?

DD- It was ok, we had people there to see us some nights and were pretty excited, we were just going up there and playing our songs.

NM- Putting time in?

DD- We just thought we’d tour the country and see about the results, and I wasn’t thrilled with the way it came out, it’s hard to get a really good tour you’re happy to be on. We were
on a couple tours that it didn’t make too much sense to be on, even though we adored the people we were on tour with, the other bands. The tour wasn’t planned very good, we lost a ton of money, and I’m not sure how much more of that we can do.


NM- Y’all had your van destroyed?

DD- Yeah, it got destroyed by a tree and we don’t have insurance so we’re out 12,000 dollars. Getting another van, and getting out on the road is posing a huge problem. We’re
sitting around going, “how the hell are we supposed to do this anymore?” You have to have a van and be able to physically get on the road and go. And that’s money we’ll never get back, and that’s gone. We’ll be pretty hard pressed..

NM- What’s the process for you writing a song? Inspiration?

DD- Living, just life, just situations that come up in life that you go through. Sometime you’ll see something on television that touches you, or you’ll be walking down the
street, I don’t know depends where you’re at. There’s times in my life that I’ve been put through situations and then I’ve written from the feeling I’ve had at those times.

NM- How long have you been writing?

DD- I remember my mom had a piano and the first thing I did when I saw it, was run over to it and try to write my own song. I was never interested in learning how to play the piano
right, or technically, I just wanted to utilize it to write my songs.

NM- So a lot of it is telling stories?

DD- No I just wanted to create something. You know an artist wants to create, they want to paint their own painting. They don’t like to just paint what’s there, some of them want to
paint what’s in their head.

NM- So there was never a question of what you wanted to do when you grew up?

DD- Um no. It really took me a long time to figure out what that was. I knew what I was, there’s a part of me that thought I could never do that, I could never go through with that, I
wrote songs for myself and just never thought I would have the opportunity to share it. I never thought I would get to play with a good band.


NM- Music doesn’t seem like a side thing in your life, not just something you’re messing around with. What is music to you?

DD- It’s me. My whole life, it makes me a human being. It’s the only thing I’ve ever had in my whole life, it’s like breathing or drinking water. It’s just part of who you are, your chemistry, makeup. If you can picture yourself doing anything else, then you should do it- period.

NM- What is that you love most about, if music is being you, then what do you love most about being you? What do you love about music?

DD- The only time I’ve ever liked what I saw when I looked in the mirror was when I was holding a guitar, that’s pretty much it.

..
NM- Is it more important for you to put out good art rather art everyone appreciates?

DD- Its nice when someone can appreciate it and can see where you’re coming from, from the beginning of our conversation it’s been obvious that you appreciate music and
that’s a nice feeling because it’s good to know that you can spend all that time creating, and then that someone gets that connection. There’s people out there who I’ve never met, never
see, but could be listening to the record right now, that’s the kind of connection you want to have. Every record represents me personally and represents me as a human being and that’s the most important thing to me, to do something fulfilling and not necessarily have to be accepted by anyone.

NM- My brothers really dig you, just fyi.

DD- Really? Crazy, I hope we don’t weird them out too much with the next record.

arcade fire

:This is a letter I wrote to a member of the faculty of my school at the beginning of the summer and I kind of forgot about it. Honestly I think it describes somethings in it's overblown length rather well. so read if you want.

arcade fire's there too.

enjoy.


Dr. ____,

So I've actually been gone away from computers for the last
week, and just made my way back to a monitor, keyboard and
DSL access.

i was reading over some of your blog archives and started
laughing when i saw your comment about me messing with your
paradigm for listening to music.


I'm hoping that will end up being a good thing.

In that light, I think I'll pass on a band that takes a
little getting used to, but has provided one of the most
rewarding, real listening experiences that I've had in a
very long time.

This may freak your ears out a bit, but I have a feeling
that even if it may not be your style, you may still have
ears for one more season of American Idol.

(the more I write, the more I think you might run the risk
of damaged eyeballs and bored braincells from a rambly
writer than a stressed ear)



The band is The Arcade Fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_Fire

Something that I've been thinking about for awhile and
something that I'm trying to prepare a blog entry (and maybe
a video) on, is the idea that I think (deep down inside)
we're all looking for music that we can believe in.


It's not an original idea at all, because it translates
across all cultural and political facets of life.


But i think its become engrained in my mind how much of what
i love in music, stems from my ability to believe in the
artist putting the music out.

Dylan, Bono, even Sufjan


all these men (and many others that I could name)

i can believe in them as a true musical messenger that can
speak to my mind and my generation.

There's an honesty, there's a fervency, there's a passion

that somehow hasn't been overly tainted by the
commercialization and plasticization of our modern world.
They've got a message, and even if they mess up some, you
still believe that there's truth in it, and that people
should hear it. Even Bono, with his iPod circulating messiah
complex, I can still believe that the man genuinely believes
in what he's saying. Maybe that's because I remember
watching as a tousleheaded Irish boy danced in the rain of
Colorado, waving a white flag for the screaming masses. I've
got the images of ZooTV and Pop burned into my head, and no
matter what high priced over commercialized event that Bono
decides to endorse, somehow I'll still believe in him.


Right.

so back to The Arcade Fire.


This little Canadian band released an album a few years back
called "Funeral" that, partially through its quality and
partially through a devoted underground fan base, catapulted
this obscure group of musicians into a bigger light.
Speaking of Bono, U2 asked the band to tour with them and
used the track "Wake Up" to come out with.

The band just released a followup album, "Neon Bible" which
actually opened as #2 on the Billboard charts (for whatever
that means anymore)and is in the middle of playing a sold
out tour across the nation.


So.

what makes the band special?

I've only got a few more minutes before I need to hit the
bed and prepare to drive back with my family from Tampa Fla
to Mississippi,

but

lets see how much I can get out.


First:

The Lyrics.

The band writes some of the most captivating stories full of
darkness, light, anger, with strong spiritual overtones.

(Neighborhood #3- Power Out)

"i went out into the night, i went out to find some light.
kids are dyin' out in the snow, look at them go - look at
them go!
and the power's out in the heart of man, take it from your
heart put it in your hand. what's the plan? what's the plan?
is it a dream? is it a lie? i think i'll let you decide.
just light a candle for the kids, jesus christ don't keep it
hid."



I could pull example after example out, and if you really
want, I'll send you some more.



Second:
The Presence

This is where you really find the beauty of The Arcade Fire.
There's at least 10 people that comprise the Arcade Fire,
and when they take the stage, when they enter the studio,
it's the proverbial "orchestrated chaos."

This brand of indie/orchestral/folk experimental rock is
something completely different than I've heard in years. The
fact is, once you get over the weird factor, the music's
incredibly catchy.

When Lead singer Win Butler, and the rest of the strangely
dressed members, take the stage, there isn't one moment that
they don't act like they believe every word that they are
saying. They take the music that they're playing incredibly
seriously, and people buy into these modern musical prophets.

The stories that come out of their concerts are unlike
anything that you hear about any other band (except maybe
U2 ;)

People are awed, in shock, and describe the experience with
adjectives normally reserved for big tent revivals and acid
driven mountain top moments.



Somehow in an age of "we've seen everything" the Arcade Fire
have left people saying "we've never felt this"


______

So,

this is where I come into the equation. I've been listening
and believing in this band for the last two years, well
believing for the last year,


and “a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to see the band at
DAR Constitution Hall in D.C.


You've probably never been to DAR, so let me give you a
quick scoop on it.

The theaters a Greekish, magnificent looking theater whose
pretentious outside is only matched by the overbearing
expansive interior, with huge sound swallowing ceilings that is patrolled by no-nonsense no deviation from protocol security guards..It's not hard to see how this could be a problem for rock shows, and i've experienced the damping effect a number of
times.

The Arcade Fire were coming though,

and i didn't care if they were playing in an old wooden
shack in the middle of a train station, I was going to be
there. The diverse, expectant, old and young crowd packed into the
theater, somehow I managed to jump a few rows and end up in
an empty seat at the beginning of the orchestra rows)
and then the lights went dark.

A video of a screaming female televangelist was projected
onto the spotlight shaped screens, surrounding the pipe
organ and assortment of other instruments (did i mention
they play an organ?)

The band started filing onto the stage, red light poured across the arena, and I felt a little bit of the same feeling that I experienced when Dylan walked out in August at the little
baseball stadium, it's the feeling, that goes something like,
"i can't believe it's really them, they're actually here."

I've seen a ton of bands, but I’ve only seen a handful that
could give me anything of that sensation. maybe it's how the
kid's felt when the Beatles walked out in that new york
stadium,whatever it was, i felt it.


The band ran through most of Neon Bible, and much of Funeral, and honestly, I've very rarely heard songs that could be so accurately described as anthems, songs that are more of hymns than pop melodies, songs that are sung with a reverent rather than joyous inflection in your voice, and the kind of notes that makes even Presbyterians even
want to worship with their hands held oh so high,but this band did it.

The one thing that kept bugging me through the night, was
the fact that the ushers made people stay in their seats.
Even so, the people kept encroaching- dancing and moving all
across the arena.
I kept praying, God, just let me get a little closer
(and don't let the ushers find out that I don't belong in
this seat)
Maybe God didn't hear my prayer, but Win sure did...
because right before "Power Out"

Win looked at the crowd and said, "I know the ushers are
going to hate me, and I know they don't want me to say this,
but you can't dance in your seats, just come on down, come
on down."


I started running.

I didn't care if the ushers caught me, I didn't care if I
tripped and fell on the carpeted floor, I didnt care what
happened. I just knew that I had to get a little bit closer.
The floor emptied.
people rushed passed the outstretched arms of the ushers and
piled close to the stage, dancing, singing,
grey hair and blonde alike.
everyone was filling that small space.

The band played about 3 more songs, took an encore, played Intervention and then began walking off the stage. The crowd was screaming, Win looked out, stopped a few of his bandmates, talked to them for a few minutes, went backstage and brought the rest out, plugged back in, and started the "dun dun dun" guitar riff to "Wake Up."

The thing about Wake Up is that it has this absolutely
amazing opening that's meant for big arena choirs, a middle
that's meant for the depressed of spirit, and an ending
that's meant for the hopeful love starved child.

Listening to 6,000+ people sing and dance their way through
this song, is something I'll never forget, ever. When I walked out of that arena, I believed in The Arcade Fire.”

Old School Review/ Iron and Wine/Dave Bazan

this is an older review, that I found in my inbox that i forgot to stick up. so maybe enjoy?

It wasn’t just the beards which united the two performers taking the stage at Messiah College in Grantham, PA on Saturday night, as Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) both dealt heavily in a folk-style dark examination of love, family, and God.
Looking like two escapees from Abraham’s school of facial fashion, Beam and Bazan put on a powerful show for the packed basketball gym audience of Messiah College students, area couples, and fans from across America.
Emblematic of the evening, Bazan opened the night with a powerful rendition of “Hallelujah,” changing up the lyrics to the second half of the song and turning Leonard Cohen’s classic ballad of human relational tragedy into one reflecting Bazan’s own tumultuous struggle with the nature of the Divine.

As the front man for a cult-popular 90’s Christian folk-rock band, Bazan has never shied away from articulating his theological angst. However, that angst hasn’t resulted in any happy ending as Bazan has renounced his belief in God, unable to reconcile the character of God in relation to the problem of evil.
A newcomer to this struggle, it was surprisingly painful to listen to the songs of Bazan throughout the night, as a soul at unrest was put on display for the room to see.
Bazan’s stage chatter was quiet, cynical and almost heartbreaking in its sadness.
To listen to Bazan sing, “Sweet Jesus I still need you, forgive me this sin, not hookers or heroin, gamblin’ or gin… I need someone to help me help myself, (The Longer I Lay Here)” you felt like you weren’t watching a performance, but a wrestling match with the divine that had no sunrise in sight.
Bazan’s active unwillingness to accept the presence of a traditional deity was matched by Beams passive acceptance of some mystical deity working in the lives of men. Most famous for his cover of the Postal Service’s Such Great Heights on the Garden State soundtrack, Beam remains a master at painting warm folk scenes, heavily tinged with darkness.
Playing material from albums and EP’s, Beam also played eight songs off his yet to be released album, Shepherds Dog. The new ballads almost fit seamlessly with old material. Whether taking the form of a sympathetic viewing of traditionally reviled characters, (who's seen jezebel? /she was born to be the woman we could blame-Jezebel) or simply painting a simple love story facing death, (Naked as we Came)-Beam manages to create beautiful story tapestries of dark truth.
When he stands behind the microphone, begins sliding his fingers across the guitar, and opens up his mouth, a coffee rich atmosphere is created, that quiets all mouths. Though college gym was packed, it seemed only appropriate that Beam asked the standing crowd to sit on the floor. It wasn’t until the powerfully epic climax of “The Trapeze Swinger,” that a few souls found the strength to stand back up.
“Please, remember me/ finally/and all my uphill clawing/ my dear/ if I make the pearly gates/ do my best to make a drawing/ of God and Lucifer.”
Beam and Bazan have been making musical drawings for quite awhile, and regardless of what the final product may end up showing, the scratchings on the way have proven to be just as important to their fans and themselves.