LETV: Thanks guys for taking the time to answer some questions about Protovulcan, and your new LP release, Stakes Is Low. Let’s start at the beginning if we can, and talk about how the project came together, as well as the creative impetus behind the debut record…
Deric: The project came around because my brother Will asked me if I wanted to play with him. Just him. He was going to play synths and vocoder vocals. And I thought, “I will give Will a practice because he’s my friend, and we have a history”. Then I showed up, and his songs were really great. Honestly, I was kinda taken aback. So I decided to play this thing out. And the tunes came really quick. Will writes all the music, but he gives me some say in cutting certain songs–or what does or doesn’t work.
The idea for Stakes is Low was Will showing me his songs, and me playing exactly how I like to play. I play with bands with guitars and bass and noise, and I sort of get buried in that; so with him, just like when I played with my friend Aleks, I get to play in the center of it all and be heard. There is a lot of freedom in Drumland when you are accompanying a keyboard player. And, hopefully, you see the payoff on Stakes Is Low. Like, in any band, the hope is that we will get better. And, considering how little effort we put into the first record, I’m absolutely sure we will. The next album will be Medium Stakes. Also, playing live, I think we are killing it now.
Will: We always had bands, long ago – The Filament Circus Sound, We Build Planets, which eventually morphed into Aleks and the Drummer. By the time they were doing that one, I was in Variety Lights.
We’ve known each other and worked together for years – so it’s all pretty easy. This album, we basically had most of the material after one rehearsal. Some were written awhile ago – some were jams that gelled into songs right away. A couple more rehearsals, to nail them down. Half a dozen rehearsals, tops.
We work fast.
The recordings are basically live, mostly first takes, with overdubs just doubling up live keys, and tripling/quadrupling up the Minimoog bass. And a couple Minimoog leads. Recorded by Velcro Lewis at Frogg Mountain studios – his band is playing with us for the release show.
The impetus behind this – fun.
LETV: So, sounds like some of the material on Stakes Is Low had been kicking around between you guys for awhile, but, as you mentioned everything was written pretty quickly. Is this a function of coming to rehearsals with some ideas in hand, or is this a result of having played together awhile? You mentioned using mostly first takes. Is that an aesthetic choice, or a practical one?
Deric: I didn’t know when Will had written any of the jams. As for taking first or second takes with Andy in the studio, that was definitely a choice. Stakes is Low was the mentality. I think we kind of overthought our music together every time we played together in the past, which sucked the joy out of it. We’ll probably always record this way, including on our double live record.
Will: A couple songs started from jams we did in another band years ago, that stuck in my head and worked themselves into songs, “Rolla Bolla“, “Infinite Bliss“. It had been about a decade since we played last, so they became songs somewhere in there.
Things like “Moon Esquilator” and “Big Bubbling Desire” are almost note-for-note as we jammed them out the first rehearsal. And sound how we naturally play together.
It’s easy playing with Deric, because he is an amazing drummer – in my mind, like Mitchell, Moon, Bonham, and Stubblefield all in one. He plays what he wants and – instant awesome!
Some things, I heard differently before we jammed. I imagined “What’s Your Colour” as a chillout. But, he played that raucous disco-and-thunder beat, and I realized, “Yes! He is absolutely right! It’s big now, the way it oughta be.”
First takes was an aesthetic. We are both huge fans of The Stooges, and wanted to do our version of Fun House and Raw Power. Just raw and alive.
LETV: Well, that live intensity definitely comes thru. Besides the first takes, there’s a raw immediacy to the recordings–a kind of punk quality. Is that something you wanted to develop in your sessions with Velcro Lewis, and if so, how did you guys go about that?
Deric: Andy Slater did a great job of setting up a recording situation that we dug both in terms of technology and intent. It was Sue Litz our lead singer who suggested we contact him to do the record. Sue, it must be said, also named the band. She just hasn’t made it to practice yet.
Will: Frogg Mountain is a funky place – I really dig it there. It’s up on the 4th floor in an old building west of the Chicago loop, right next to the Green Line ‘L’. Trains running by just outside the window. Sometimes, they have to stop sessions for it to pass, because you can hear the train.
But, we’re really loud, so we drowned out the trains.
The studio has a cool feel to it – old gear stacked outside. And other weird stuff, like old mopeds and restaurant signs. Great atmosphere for this album – a bit rough around the edges.
Velcro Lewis, a.k.a. Andy Slater, has a great ear, and we really dig the recording! He makes it easy.
And his band, the Velcro Lewis Group – psychedelic, funky naturals together! They are playing with us on our release show – and they’ve added Jose Bernal on drums, so Hawk Coleman, who is really a brilliant soulful vocalist, can share center stage with Velcro. They’re gonna be awesome!
Also playing with us – the scuzzsynthpsychpunks, Werewheels. They are great! Loud and fuzzy, like a warm washcloth on yer brain. Werewheels is Steven Krakow and Dawn Aquarius. And, they’re also in Plastic Crimewave Syndicate – with Jose Bernal. It’s great when circles meet.
Stakes is Low was mastered by Adam Stilson at Decade Music Studios. He mastered it loud, and perfect! I am psyched that, with Andy and Adam, we found two great sets of ears to help us out. Just saw Adam’s band, New Canyons, last night – and they are great live! I’d love to play a show with them.
LETV: Sounds like the perfect place to have recorded Stakes Is Low! I’m not surprised to hear you were able to drown out passing trains, as the Moog, Wurlitzer, and drums have a really aggressive sound. Several months back, when we first talked about the record, I told you I thought I was hearing a guitar on tracks like “Moon Esquilator (You Can Be the Fantasy)” and “Making Eyes“, but you set me straight. Talk about how you accomplished some of the sounds on the album, and how you choose instruments like the Moog and Wurlitzer. Are those your weapons of choice?
Deric: You got this one…
Will: Actually, the guitarey thing is a Wurlitzer 200E electric piano, and the Wurly is one of my faves!
One of the coolest things about the Wurly – it can make feedback, like a guitar. I was listening to Th’ Faith Healers and Quickspace – and thought, “Wow, Tom Cullinan plays insanely, pulverizingly loud guitar – always on the verge of feedback”. When he plays rhythm – it squeals between each and every strum, and the tension is intense.
It made me wanna play guitar. But instead, jamming with Deric one day long ago, I figured out that if you crank up the Wurlitzer enough, you get feedback. So I started trying to figure out how to play this keyboard instrument the way Quickspace plays guitars.
Live, I use a Moog Rogue, because it’s small enough to fit on top of the Wurlitzer, but as big as any bass you can find. But my fave synth is a Minimoog – so we added more layers and layers of bass with that, until the bass was so big it just gets in your head.
And I use the Korg VC-10 vocoder for vocals, because I can’t sing.
And it sounds like a robot. You can’t understand a word I’m vocoding through it, which is fine. There’s vocalists out there who are completely incoherent – and some people dig that. It’s weird.
LETV: Thanks for the tip on Quickspace and Th’ Faith Healers. I’ll check them out! I’m curious, you mention the vocoder, and the vocal parts of these tracks, are there lyrics or were the vocals a spontaneous addition at the time of recording. At times, it seems I can almost make them out, but, as you said, it’s weird and robotic, so hard to tell what I’m hearing…
Will: There are lyrics. Some are spontaneous. Some written later.
LETV: The songs on Stakes Is Low are all tightly structured jams, and like “traditional” rock songs, they seem to revolve around a verse/chorus/verse set-up. Is this just how they worked themselves out when you were putting them together, or is this a compositional approach you like to follow?
Will: Mostly, they kinda work themselves out. When you’re jamming on one thing, something else just makes sense. Sometimes, you let it sit around, until it finds another part that fits. We dig big, dumb pop. And big, dumb rock. We wanted big, dumb fun. We used to really work on things. But, we’ve streamlined.
LETV: Right on! OK, Deric, let’s talk about the drumming, as there are lot’s of interesting drum features to these songs. I’m not a drummer, so I’m having a bit of trouble identifying what it is exactly that makes your approach sound different. It seems to me that on tracks like “Rolla Bolla“, “Big Bubbling Desire“, “Making Eyes“, for example, you change between “leading” the beat to accenting the “off” beats. I want to use a word like “syncopated” for those sections, but don’t think that’s the right term. Can you tell me a bit about how you approached these songs, and help me understand better what I’m hearing on some of those tracks mentioned?
Deric: John, that’s a very thorough question about drumming. You are absolutely right, that’s syncopation. I think of it as “floppy”. I like when things sound like they’re about to fly off. But I don’t really want them to fly off. I just want it to get more hyper most of the time.
LETV: It seems like these songs would be quite the high-wire act to play live! Tell me about how you approach playing the songs live.
Will: They’re a blast to play live! Since most of them started as jams, it’s easy. I can’t play 4 bass synths at once – but the Moog Rogue is huge on it’s own. We skip a couple leads. But mostly, the songs are pretty much the same live and recorded – so there’s no trick to it.
And Deric is a monster drummer – so, that makes it easy.
LETV: What’s next for Protovulcan? Are you guys working on new material or headed back into the studio anytime soon?
Will: We’ve got enough raw material for the second album, and we’re planning on getting into the studio soon. Maybe with a couple more practices than last. Maybe a failed concept album. Concept albums mostly don’t work anyway. So if it succeeds – cool! And if it fails, we’ve succeeded!
LETV: Alright, I’ll keep my ears open and eyes out for that! Thanks again, guys, for taking the time to talk about Protovulcan and ‘Stakes Is Low’.
