BATTLES - March 2007

Originally published in: Chord Magazine

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Random thoughts: Talking to John Stanier from Battles was awesome. Mostly because he used to drum in Helmet, but also because he was a smart, funny guy. Love his quote about the hard times in his previous band.

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BATTLES

By Jason Schreurs

Describing New York quartet Battles to an unsuspecting fan of “average” music is almost impossible. Between the blips and bleeps, syncopated poly-rhythms, and high crescendo vocal emissions, this sentence might as well be written in Swahili. Listening to Battles’ latest, Mirrored, it’s hard not to wonder what the hell is going on. One thing’s for certain, they aren’t an “average” band.
“In a nutshell, we’re trying to have fun and do something new,” explains drummer John Stanier. “The cool thing about Battles is it literally was started with a 100 percent genuine blank slate. There were no preconceptions on what was going to happen or what we wanted to do. It was truly something from the absolute bottom up.”
Battles were formed by guitarist Ian Williams (ex-Don Caballero) and Tyondai Braxton (an avant-jazz solo musician who has worked with Prefuse 73), and were joined by bassist Dave Konopka (ex-Lynx), and Stanier (ex-Helmet, currently in Tomahawk).
Within a few years, Battles have astounded with heralded EPs and an undisputed live show. When Prefuse took them on tour recently they had already turned enough heads to get signed to the same record label—Warp Records—and it’s been a great pairing.
“Warp is the absolute perfect match for us,” says Stanier. “I could not be happier; it just makes so much sense. As a label they totally stick to their guns, even if it’s obviously, blatantly non-commercial stuff.”
As for the band’s evolution, it’s from a noteworthy recipe. “It was four different people from different backgrounds and age groups, and from different parts of the country, getting together and throwing all their ideas into this big pot,” says Stanier. “I use the words ‘musical economy’ a lot. It’s almost as hard to arrange the songs as it is to write them. We exercise control very well and we all realized it early on.”
Musical economy? The next stage of math rock? Like, taking mathematical musical ideas and instead of trying to punch them into constricted formulas, looking at the production, distribution, and consumption of those musical ideas? Or perhaps Stanier has a more straightforward explanation.
“Economy is just knowing what to play, when, and when not to play something,” he obliges. “Like when to stop painting, you know? That whole theory. Think about all the bands with four really good players, but it just sounds like a total wank-fest jam band. We all respect each other so much, so we’re all more interested in the end result, and every song has a life of its own. We all understood those credos from day one.”
Mirrored is their first full-length and they sound in perfect synch on its 11 tracks. But they weren’t always a well-honed machine. According to Stanier, when Williams and Braxton approached him, Battles were “very loose and unfocused.”
“It took weeks to even start tossing ideas back and forth, and then slowly and surely it started to gel. At first it didn’t seem like a real band, then the next thing you know we’re touring and releasing records,” recalls Stanier.
Hard to believe such a self-indulgent band could garner such adoration. Wait, back up… self-indulgent? “You seriously think it’s self-indulgent?” asks Stanier, leaving an awkward silence to hang in the balance. Well, these guys are out to please themselves first, and that’s what they set out to do. Just saying…
“Yeah, no, I know. You’re kind of right,” says Stanier. “I don’t know if it’s self-indulgence, but you can’t be concerned with who’s going to like your stuff. Luckily, we have elements of so many different kinds of music that we’ve been able to reach out to a wide array of people, and you can’t ask for anything better than that. That’s the ultimate goal, right there.”
A desire to create something interesting, new, and, let’s say, self-rewarding was the impetus for Battles, and Mirrored marks the apex of their work to date. After Stanier’s time in Helmet and Williams’ in Don Caballero, a collaborative and rewarding band was a necessity.
“To be honest, both Ian and I had pretty bad experiences in our past bands and I certainly don’t want to dwell on that, but everyone really wanted to do something totally new,” says Stanier.
For now Battles are stepping back to really look at the album they’ve created, and how they’ve progressed into something Stanier says “constantly amazes him every day.”
“And it’s not in a pretentious way, at all,” he’s quick to point out. “We’re not trying to do this new kind of music, or make it ‘progressive rock.’ We’re just doing what we do, we’re having fun doing it, and we hope people like it… And I know that’s a vague, stupid comment to make, but it’s true.”

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For more info, go to: www.bttls.com

HELMET - SEPTEMBER 2004

Originally published in: Chord Magazine

Album: Size Matters (Interscope)

Random thoughts: If there was ever a time when I was nervous for an interview, this was one of those times. I mean, it was Page Hamilton of fucking Helmet. One of my all-time favorite bands. I quickly realized, however, that Hamilton had a lot of dirt to spill and seemed quite full of himself. Still, one of my all-time favorite interviews and stories. I just absolutely love the part where he starts singing a Helmet riff. Watch for it.

Helmet
Page Hamilton thickens his skin, again

By Jason Schreurs

For every Helmet fan teeming with ecstasy at the news of Page Hamilton’s groundbreaking riff-rock band making their return, handfuls more are complaining about the band’s new incarnation. Message boards are littered with diatribes about the new album being too wimpy (it rocks!), Hamilton not including the original members (they declined!), and even some shots at the recycled material on Size Matters, the product of a six-year Helmet hiatus.
In 1991, the then New York-based Helmet revolutionized heavy music with their jaw-dropping debut, Strap It On, and have since been met with constant criticism, their albums only being heralded years later. Just as everyone was disappointed in 1992’s Meantime (and Betty in ’94, and Aftertaste in ’96…), the new album is currently taking a lot of heat. So as the band’s founder, principal songwriter, and only remaining original member, what is Hamilton doing to deflect all of this negative energy?
“You just wake up and sort of naively write your songs and play the guitar and do what you love to do,” says Hamilton from his home in Los Angeles. “So you have to kind of take it with a grain of salt. If I sat around and thought about what everyone else thought about all of the albums, I would never make albums. It’s not why I do music.”
His almost round-the-clock topic of defense is the band’s new lineup, which includes Hamilton and mid-era Helmet guitarist Chris Traynor, as well as ex-Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and skin-basher John Tempesta (White Zombie, Testament), but none of the other original members. Ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier (Tomahawk, Battles) and bassist Henry Bogdan were approached to make the record but declined. Hamilton was then forced to borrow money from Interscope to buy rights to the Helmet name. Despite the new-look lineup, Size Matters is undeniably Helmet.
“Helmet is arrangement-based music. Meaning I’m not going in with a G and C chord and a melody and saying, ‘Here guys, I got this song. Let’s arrange it.’ It was arranged when I came in,” insists Hamilton about the early years. “Obviously, you know, [singing] ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da. We didn’t jam that! I came in with it. So it’s my prerogative. No one’s going to tell me whether or not I can have my band.”
Another little tidbit that has Helmet fans in a tizzy is some songs on Size Matters were recorded in Hamilton’s former project, Gandhi, a gathering of New York buddies that, according to him, was never a serious band.
“Gandhi was a group of four dear friends of mine and they’re great musicians. So I was like, ‘Let’s go play some shows.’ We recorded a couple of songs together. We didn’t have a band,” he says incredulously. “I just knew I was putting an album together. I didn’t know if it was going to be Helmet or what it was going to be. I feel like I should be able to play any song I write at any time.”
Luckily, Hamilton is used to criticism and takes it in stride. Like all groundbreaking musicians, he has learned to ignore outside influences and focus on writing good songs. Judging by Size Matters, he’s not forgetting the importance of concentration.
“To be a writer of music you have to be kind of thick-skinned. It’s something I’ve been through from day one. We had been underground New York darlings for two years, we could do no wrong. We signed to a major label and then we kind of opened ourselves up to a wider audience and greater criticism. So if everyone thinks you’re wonderful, they’re just waiting for an opportunity to break your kneecaps.”

For more info, go to: www.helmetmusic.com

METAL UP YOUR BUM - Metal Column 2003/2004

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