Brooklyn is a place that seems to be constantly breeding creativity, you have some of the most creative music, artwork and god only knows what else flying the flag for seemingly one of the most creative places on the planet at the moment.
One of the bands at the forefront of this craze of amazing bands are A Place To Bury Strangers, dubbed as New York’s loudest band these guys have gained a rapidly growing fanbase for their DIY approach and intense live performances.
I met the modest lead singer and guitarist Oliver Ackermann and bassist Jono ‘MOFO’ Smith, two thirds of the band in a reasonably overpriced bar as the rain ploughed down outside for a sizeable pint and chat about how they got to where they are today in a very short space of time, soundguys wanting to kill them, a few guilty pleasures and I even get a few exclusive bits of info that will only be found in this interview so read on and find out why this fantastic band deserves all the credit.
MB: So from selling cd-r’s and booking your own tours to the first album (out in 2007) and in 2009 signing to Mute and releasing one of the most talked about albums of last year. How have the last few years been for you?
OA: They’ve been great, I mean it’s been fantastic we’ve had the chance to travel to amazing places and play with amazing bands, had the chance to afford what we’ve needed to afford and do whatever we want, I mean it’s been fantastic.
JS: It’s been a hard road as well, non-stop touring and trying to do as much as we can as fast as possible but it’s been great.
MB: How did you guys end up signing to Mute?
OA: It all started pretty much with Mute US, they had come to a whole bunch of our shows and approached us saying they wanted to sign us as a band and we hung out with those guys a few times, Andrew Miller who worked in Mute US at the time we hung out with him and then we played a show in the UK and Josh and some of the people from Mute UK were there and everyone just seemed really cool people, it seemed like the right thing to do, they’re all music lovers and there are so many great people on the label we were obviously great fans of their whole back catalogue so it seemed the right choice.
MB: So was it a label you always wanted to sign with?
OA: Sure, I mean as far as any of those sort of big labels go Mute was definitely one that we all thought were amazing so we’re all really happy about it.
MB: Ok so let’s talk about the whole ‘New York’s Loudest Band’ term that seems to be banded about when anyone ever mentions your name, I mean I guess you’re hearing that quite a lot at the moment.
OA: That’s what people are saying yeah.
JS: It was in a review once and people jumped on it and it kept getting repeated ending up with the guy that put out our first record wanted to put it on as a sticker on the front of the first 500 copies of the release.
OA: I mean people say that all the time and I don’t know if it’s true or not, I mean I’ve never seen one of our shows so all I know is there are a lot of other crazy bands out there as well so who knows?
MB: Was it always the idea to really blow your fans away with being ‘ultra’ loud?
OA: It’s all about dynamics and playing with a volume that seems appropriate and I guess for what we’re doing it’s very loud so it just seems appropriate.
JS: Y’know you hear the music and sort of lose track of what’s going on and where you are at and to achieve that it requires a little bit of volume sometimes. It’s not just volume for the sake of volume, it’s part of the whole sound.
MB: With Skywave (Oliver’s old band) you had a lot of guys, sound engineers wanting to kick you out of your own shows. Is that sort of thing still happening now?
OA: Not so much, I mean people are still pissed off and what not but it’s like I think since the band has been doing ok the sound guys can’t be too pissed if there’s people at the shows, y’know they might be kinda pissed off but they’re usually ok with being pissed off which is a really weird thing but people really like this band so I’m kinda psyched about it but it makes things really different for me, I mean we were playing almost pointless tours countless times and I just had all these people wanting to kill me and people who just seemed to hate music and hate what was going on to having it all switched around with people loving it and kinds going nuts at shows and stuff, it’s cool.
MB: It’s funny how it’s all happened with yourselves and the whole ‘Shoegaze’ craze that seems to be going around at the moment, is that a category you guys would say you fall under?
OA: I don’t really think we’d say that, I mea n I don’t really think of it in any sort of genre, it seems to me like even with the shoegaze music the boundaries are blurred so maybe there were bands that defined that back in the day and there are some bands now where it’s obvious that they are trying to emulate the shoegaze thing but what we’re doing is writing pop songs with crazy, fucked up noise.
I can see where someone would draw parallels between us and shoegaze but it’s not really that kind of thing. I feel we’re trying to do something that’s different as well as embracing the past.
MB: It can be all too easy to ‘label’ a band
OA: Sure, I mean that can even help people out to get an idea of what a band’s all about
JS: Also in America I think bands ideas are more blurred than in this country, like in America bands like Jesus and Mary Chain are labelled shoegaze whereas here, to me it’s much more defined by a pop kind of thing.
MB: With some inspiring bands coming from Brooklyn at the moment is that scene a factor in you guys deciding to move there?
OA: It wasn’t really the sole reason, it’s also that you can see shows all over the place but we really wanted to go for the art scene, it’s a real inspiration to see so many people working really hard and creating this amazing art, so music falls into that category but it’s just the way that there’s the drive with the kids that are really excited and pour their hearts and souls into everything they do, it’s very passionate. You go to these warehouses and it’s floor to ceiling sculpture and everything. It reminded me of the way Providence, Road Island used to be with this awesome art scene and a group of really good kids who were really nice and were all about being creative. New York is one of those places where you can make that happen. It’s awesome.
JS: In Williamsburg and Green Point, two areas next to each other, a lot of people moved there originally because they could no longer afford to live in Manhattan so it’s literally the first stop off the train so they gradually spread from the first stop which is Bedford Avenue, there’s a concentration of people there who wanted to be in NY any way they could and ended up in Brooklyn.
OA: Lot’s of time people who are really into their work aren’t too concerned about their environment being safe or what not so they live in places that are dirty or fucked up or whatever just to be able to have some space and the spot to do something that they’re really passionate about.
MB: Which brings me on to a very good point, I was going to ask you about your experiences in Bushwick
JS: Crazy!
OA: Yeah it was wild, I found a dead dog in a trash bag once,
MB: Wow, that’s nice!
OA: Yeah that was nice, I found a bullet hole in my van, people would slash the tyres and smash the windows out and one time I had someone tag my windshield so I was driving around for a few weeks where you couldn’t see out of it, that was pretty fun.
JS: And his van got stolen and when he got it back there were parts of a chopped up car in the back of it. We told the cops but they were like ‘we don’t care, it’s not our problem.’
MB: You could have sold it, maybe make some money out of it.
OA: We left it in the street, I thought we could get something for it, it was a Suburban or an SUV well basically the body for it.
MB: That would’ve been a nice surprise.
OA: It was a nice surprise but then you had to start the engine with a screwdriver all the time
MB: Does that sort of environment shape the way you are? Do you feel it builds you as a person?
OA: It did to some degree as it was really hard to live there at the time. I’d saved 3,000 dollars and on top of the deposit I had to pay for the flat that 3,000 went in a week or two partying and then it’s like fuck! Reality hits you and then it was like a struggle for a year or so to be able to survive and do what you want to do so you take this crappy job and do very weird stuff like eat a lot of instant mashed potato and rum and noodles and then it builds you as a character, I think it’s one of the good things in NY as it kicks you in the face and so you can either take the kick and persevere and do what you want to do or you can get the fuck out of there, so if you can’t handle it, you leave. It sorts out the riff raff from the people who actually want to be there.
MB: So talking about random jobs, what’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
OA: It doesn’t sound that bad probably but it was building the inside of windows for Polo, Ralph Lauren, doing the window displays and it was so demoralising because it’s like these art directors had no fucking good ideas whatsoever and they’re telling you all this stupid shit like folding a sweater and re-positioning it in some window and you’re just running around all day doing this stupid job with the worst ideas ever. It was so bad I didn’t even bother picking up my cheque.
JS: Jesus!
MB: Oh come on, isn’t that the point?
OA: It was like, I can’t even be bothered, I don’t even want this money and that’s when I was roughing it as well.
JS: I’ve had loads of shitty jobs but the worst jobs are like working in an office or something, you’re chained to this desk and this job you hate. It’s the worst thing ever.
MB: With the death by Audio (Oliver’s company that makes pedals including a lot of the ones they use) is the technical side of actually making your own equipment something you’ve always been interested in?
OA: Yeah I just wanted to get involved in every single aspect from recording to creating it, working on our own album covers and starting our own labels to do everything you can to push forward the most important thing which is the music.
So if you can build something that can aid creating more beautiful songs, I’m all about it.
MB: So do you have a favourite pedal?
OA: I don’t really care (laughs) I guess my favourite would be the Harmonic Transformer. It’s one of the pedals we made.
MB: Haha well I’m not going to ask you why.
OA: Well I’ll tell you, there’s a secret setting on the pedal where if you don’t plug the guitar in completely it makes these wild and crazy noises that you wouldn’t believe and this is the first time anyone will hear about it!
MB: So with your recent showstopping performance at ATP, how did that all come about?
OA: We were asked by My Bloody Valentine and we told them no (laughs.) They’re a fucking amazing band and we’ve played with them before, I mean they’re mind blowing so it was quite an honour. When I saw them in LA they were so loud a light fell from the ceiling.
MB: Who have you guys been into recently?
OA: Where we live we have this venue practically in our house so I get to see a bunch of upcoming acts, ‘Jeff The Brotherhood’ are amazing, Coat hangers and Flaming Eyeballs are fantastic bands
JS: These Are Powers, All The Saints and Sian Alice Group are all cool people. A wide range of music.
MB: So talking about music you’re into do you have any guilty pleasures?
JS: Oh loads, whenever we go on tour we listen to Britney Spears, our last tour in the US we couldn’t get our Ipods to work so we ended up listening to the radio and the radio in the US is so bad, they get hooked on these terrible songs and we would almost look forward to these songs, I wouldn’t say it was a guilty pleasure but it’s something we endure and I am guilty by it.
OA: I really like Au Revoir Simone, it’s good when you’re going to sleep.
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