Bodyspace
interview by: André Gomes (12.26.2005)
How did it all get started for This is a Process of a Still Life?
JASON WARD: I moved to Missoula with Grier [Phillips]. She was going to school. Went back to Virginia tour with the band Ben and I were in. The band broke up before the tour so I went back to Missoula. Sent for Ben and we started writing again. Three years later, here we are.
BEN ROUNER: The previous band, Riders of the Mark, was very noisy and abstract, and had more electronic elements. We knew we wanted to continue writing instrumental music. The first songs we wrote were just Jason and I working ideas out, and they were fairly minimal -- just bass and guitar, or bass and keyboards. As a result of that, they were much more melody driven. The more complex the melody lines became, the more need there was for heavily structuring the songs.
SCOTT KENNEDY: I joined the band several months after they'd begun. They were trying out different guitarists and no one seemed to work. I got a phone call from one of the members asking if i wanted to rehearse with them. Things just fell into place. We all had a lot of the same musical interests and similar approaches to songwriting. It was as if it was suppose to happen.
BURKE JAM: Living in a small community in Montana and finding a group of people that were all interested in a similar concept, which was not that prevalent in Missoula at the time, we established a strong connection as friends and thus the music came very fluidly.
How did the direction for your first record come up? Did you have a concrete idea of what you wanted to do before entering the studio?
BEN ROUNER: For the most part, all the songs on the first record were written and structured pretty tightly before we went into the studio. Our time in the studio was very limited – if I remember correctly, we tracked everything in nine days. We had a few eighteen hour days at the end. We had only been a band for nine months when we went to record the first album, so I think that we were still developing an identity, musically speaking. I’m still very proud of that album, though.
SCOTT KENNEDY: When I joined the band, most of the songs were already there, but they were still being restructured. I joined about two months before recording the first record. We were trying to get the songs ready before going to record to save time in the studio. Most of the album was written in the practice space before venturing into the studio. There were a few things organically composed in the studio, but primarily we went in knowing what we wanted to achieve.
From your first to your second record, you have seemed to somehow hide your influences and create something more of your own. Do you agree with this?
BAINE CRAFT: Yes. I think this record is unique because each of us come from a different music scene. None of us really listen to instrumental music. We all have side projects. The result is a truly collaborative effort (i.e., something unique)
SCOTT KENNEDY: This is a tricky one because as far as influences for me... they're definitely aren't any influences from other instrumental bands. I honestly don't listen to instrumental music. I didn't before I joined the band, and I don't now. Most of my influences come from bands such as: My Bloody Valentine, Broken Social Scene, Air, Elliott Smith, the Stone Roses, Chapterhouse, etc. I would say that we've always had our own style or sound and that it has gotten stronger with the second record. Perhaps because we have matured in our songwriting and are a bit more comfortable with where we are musically. If any influence is hidden, it isn't intentional. Nothing's orchestrated about this band. We play what comes natural to our ears and what moves us.
BEN ROUNER: I do think that it feels like we have a stronger identity as a band now. I think that’s mainly just a function of time. I hope we continue to push our ideas further and further with time. We’ve been lucky that it’s happened very naturally so far.
JASON WARD: Yes.
BURKE JAM: Playing together both in the studio and on the road, and having a more time under our belt allowed us to jell and come together as a band, and instead of playing off of what we thought we should sound like, we became more comfortable playing the way we do sound as the group of musicians that we are. From there it was more about challenging and developing that sound which came to be very important to the recording of "Light."
This new record took six months to be written and recorded. How was that time sequestered in the recording studio?
BEN ROUNER: We had a lot more room to experiment this time around, which was really important for us. We worked piece by piece. There were things that we tried that didn’t work, and so we’d try something else. It’s a very considered record – where we really scrutinized every aspect.
JASON WARD: More time for detail. We had plenty of time to breathe with the material.
BURKE JAM: Chaotically and militaristically. It was great to be home and design our own schedule, but it also took more discipline to organize--between writing, rehearsing, and tracking. The end result gave us something that I feel to be more true to form as a result of those challenges and conveniences.
BAINE CRAFT: Like being chained in hell. Actually, it was like Thoreou in Walden. We were all able to escape our busy lives to meet in a place with no distractions, in the middle of winter. Solitude.
I read somewhere that 2005 was a bad year for you, a lot of things happened. What can you tell us about it?
JASON WARD: Magic & loss.
BEN ROUNER: Without getting too specific, it was simply a difficult year for a lot of us individually, and for a lot of people that we know outside the band. Part of being alive is being forced to deal with various tragedies, some minor, others major. Almost everyone had some combination of things hurting them, and it all seemed to happen at around the same point. It wasn’t just any one extreme thing. It was just a strange year.
BURKE JAM: The best and worst thing that happens as a band gains momentum is you become like family, as well as the people in your lives that are related to your work. Thus, when life happens we all feel it as a whole. The nature of the lifestyle involved in touring and recording music is not always comfortable and it can be al ot of work. So when you hit a rocky patch, such as the loss of a friend in our case, those life struggles become magnified. But I do have some belief in the idea that the night is always darkest just before the dawn.
BAINE CRAFT: Not for me really.
You had a five week tour through America recently. How was it?
BEN ROUNER: For the most part, it was really great. With the exception of the repairs we had to make on our van, which really hurt us financially, I feel it was really successful. Every time we’re on the road we end up meeting so many incredible people that become dear friends.
JASON WARD: Hot. Wonderful. Exhausting. Hazy. Lets do it again.
SCOTT KENNEDY: The tour was great! I love being on the road and getting to play every night. It is also a very rewarding feeling for people to come up after shows and express their gratitude for the music. I greatly appreciate the positive feedback we've gotten from people while on tour.
BAINE CRAFT: Freaking brilliant. I think about it everyday and how much I wish we were still cruising in our Ford Econoline through the great USA.
BURKE JAM: Don't know. I was jumping out of airplanes somewhere in western America.
Do you have plans to come and play in Europe?
BURKE JAM: I think that is a large priority for all of us. It is just right now more about working out the details and schedules for the band.
JASON WARD: It’s in the idea stage.
BAINE CRAFT: Please God, yes. And Japan.
BEN ROUNER: We very badly want to tour overseas, and it’s mainly a question of money and logistics. We’ve been getting a fair number of e-mails from folks in Europe who have liked our records and ask when we’re going to tour overseas. It’s so encouraging to read those messages. I wish I could give a specific timeframe.
SCOTT KENNEDY: Yes! Can you do a fund-raiser for us? Hell, all I need is a plane ticket and a guitar. Point me to the stage, any stage, we'll be on it.
Is there a relation between your music and Montana’s landscapes? Because it’s how sometimes it sounds.
BAINE CRAFT: I think so.
JASON WARD: I think it would be hard for it not to rub off on us. It’s hard to ignore.
BURKE JAM: Living in an open, beautiful and sometimes harsh environment that is so minimally populated as compared to an urban one, I feel we are more influenced by the space around us as opposed to a preexisting music scene.
BEN ROUNER: I moved to Montana three years ago, and have truly loved living here. It’s felt more like home than any other place I’ve lived. I think the music I’m involved with here has been influenced by that to some degree. I think I’ve felt more comfortable as an artist, and more free to explore a range of ideas here than I have anywhere else.
SCOTT KENNEDY: If there is, for me it's unconscious. I would imagine that our surroundings influence us whether or not we're aware. I think if I were living in south Mississippi, I'd still be creating the same music.
Would you consider yourself as a post-rock band? What do you think of bands like Explosions In the Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Mono and Mogwai?
BEN ROUNER: I’m not sure I’ve ever actually understood the term “post-rock.” I guess I’ve accepted that most people view us as a post-rock band, and that it’s the easiest label to slap on what we do. Personally, I think we’re writing pop records. Not the kind of pop music you find on Top 40 radio, certainly, but pop records nevertheless. That said, though, there are plenty of bands who are considered post-rock that I really do love, and others that I find to be kind of boring. I still just think it’s strange how many hugely diverse groups get lumped together in the same category.
SCOTT KENNEDY: I think they're all great, and they are all good at what they do. We should all do a big package tour together! I'm not sure the term post-rock is even valid anymore.
JASON WARD: Sure, I guess. If we have to be. I think they’re all great. I don’t listen to them a lot, but they rule.
BAINE CRAFT: I wouldn't. I don't listen to those people.
BURKE JAM: I think the term post-rock is antiquated and that term negates what is actually going on. Labeling seems to come from the struggle to understand and define what something is. I think it is much more interesting to let things breathe, let people respond to their own terms and foster the process of metamorphosis and evolution.
The post-rock coming from Constellation Records has a political message towards the United States of America. Do you share that vision or you don’t want to become political?
BEN ROUNER: I have a huge amount of respect for Constellation’s approach and their politics, but I definitely think that we’re approaching things from a much different direction. Speaking solely for myself, I’d rather be political in other areas of my life than music. Not that music can’t be effective in that arena – I think there are many examples of it being highly effective. But with this band, I’m more interested in creating something beautiful for the sake of being beautiful, rather than creating something with a political message.
BURKE JAM: I think politics for us are much more about our actions and lifestyles as opposed to using Process specifically as an instrument for political jargon.
In their last EP, Explosions in the Sky surprisingly use their voice in some tracks (they don’t sing actually but you can hear their voices). Did it ever cross your mind to use voices or voice samples?
BAINE CRAFT: Yes. If we had a freaking Korg synth I would want vocoder on every track. Ben, can I get an amen?
BEN ROUNER: Yeah, it’s something that I think about from time to time, just wondering what that might sound like. It would have to happen very organically. A vocoder could be great. The cartoonist Charles Adams, in talking about his work, said that his favorite cartoons were the ones where he was able to tell a whole story without dialog or captions explaining anything. Sometimes I feel that way about the music we’re creating, and the choices we’ve made so far to not have lyrics or vocals in our songs.
SCOTT KENNEDY: We've got some sampler stuff going on sometimes, more so in the live shows. Never really thought about using the voice. We'd probably be accused of ripping off Sigur Ros if we did. Hahaha.
BURKE JAM: We actually do use human voice on "Light" in the form of sampling. And I think one of the most fun aspects of Process as a band is that I don't feel we actually limit what we consider to be an instrument. Every element of noise has potential. It’s more a matter of when and where that helps us create the sounds.
Don’t you think that post-rock has reached a point of saturation especially for those bands using the explosions, big crescendos and big eruptions? You always seemed to be avoiding and running away from all that stuff.
JASON WARD: That’s not what we hear our music doing. I think its fine for bands to do whatever they want. It’s just not for us.
BAINE CRAFT: Because it is boring.
SCOTT KENNEDY: If anything, the explosions and big crescendos can become predictable and boring. I don't think we are trying to avoid that sort of thing though. I think it is the nature of our songwriting style. We try to make it interesting for ourselves. If we start getting bored at some point in the process of constructing a song, we know it's time to change. Sometimes it feels like our songs progress in similar fashion to what you might hear a band using lyrics would do. Perhaps that has something to do with having two singer/songwriters in the band.
BEN ROUNER: Post-rock certainly has reached a point where there are a lot of clichés, but I would also argue that all genres of music, and all forms of expression in general, have their clichés. Maybe the problem, in the case of post-rock, is that much of it is very heavy-handed, and takes itself so seriously. I’m not interested in making music that’s sad for the sake of being sad, and I want to explore a range of emotions. Also, our songwriting process is very analytical, and we’re very conscious of how the songs are put together. As a result, when we start hearing things in our songs that sound like something we’ve heard before, or something that feels cliché, it usually means that we’ve got to go back to work more on the song.
What’s the message implied in the band’s name? Someone wrote that your name was the most poetic name for a band in America.
BEN ROUNER: I don’t think there is a specific message, just as I would say that our individual songs don’t have a specific message. The band name, and more importantly the music itself, is very open to interpretation, and deliberately so. Probably the idea in the name that holds the most weight for us is the ‘process’ aspect; being open to evolution and development, as musicians and simply as human beings.
