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Pauze Festival: Wooden Shjips
I really dig the Bay Area. Though, I have to admit I have never been there. I have no clue what it looks like. It's just an adolescent dream of mine. Listening to The Doors, Airplane and The Holding Company too much when I was a teenager, growing my hair, dressing up like a hippy. Ten years later not much has changed. People still think I dress like a hippy, and I still dance to psychedelic rock when nobody watches me. I picture something similar for at least half of the Wooden Shjips crew. When I discovered their Shrinking Moon for You 10" and Dance California 7" two years ago, for at least some weeks a third summer of love took place in my living room. That's how I fell in love with this brain-melting combo. Enough reasons to send Ripley Johnson an e-mail to confess my hippy love and ask him out about the band.
It started with a manifesto, which I have unfortunately misplaced. Some of the principles included not having more than one chord in a song, which is a bit extreme, and that the music must be danceable. Being a dance band was very important. There were some others. I gathered a group of friends who had never played in a band, and had little or no musical experience, and we jammed for almost two years. Eventually that imploded, I took a break, then reformed with other friends who were "musicians", meaning that they owned instruments and had some conventional ability to play them. Except for Nash, our organ player. He's a holdover from the first lineup.
No, but it often felt like.
I wasn't doing much with music before the Shjips formed. I had been in bands before but had taken some time away from the whole process. The forming of the Shjips came after I had become excited about music again. Really after a period of getting into free jazz, simply as a listener and enthusiast. People like Arthur Doyle, Sonny Sharrock, Noah Howard, Cecil Taylor, Joe McPhee, Sam Rivers, and so many others. The energy and creativity, the interplay, inspired me to want to play with other folks again.
No. But my great-grandparents lived in Berkeley after emigrating from Sweden. I grew up on the East Coast, which is generally uptight, so I always had a very romantic idea of San Francisco and the sixties scene here.
Not at all. My brother played the drums for a little while when we were kids but didn't take it very far.
It's not really anyone's cup of tea, but they're happy that we're doing what we love.
It was our first tour anywhere, so the whole experience was really fun. Just getting in the van, playing somewhere different every night, meeting lots of cool people. Even the lowlight was amusing, when we played ahead of a bunch of "School of Rock" kids, opening for the Butthole Surfers in Amsterdam. That was a little annoying, but we were in Amsterdam so who can complain.
No vinyl. I had too much gear to drag home. I did buy two great CDs in Berlin: Von Limo “Red Transister” and Twink “The Never Never Land”/”Think Pink Demos”, both of which I had been looking for for some time.
Only 3?! I'll go with a Klaus Schulze trifecta:
Walter Wegmüller “Tarot”
Tangerine Dream “Electronic Meditation”
Ash Ra Tempel “Ash Ra Tempel”
German Oak “s/t”
Sergius Golowin “Lord Krishna von Goloka”
Agitation Free “Malesch”
Usually from reading obsessively about music: books, magazines, the Aquarius Records newsletter, Byron Coley and Thurston Moore's column in Arthur, the Wire, Dusted.com, the Volcanic Tongue newsletter, a great zine called Z Gun, etc...
I only have a handful, and most of them are Velvet Underground bootlegs. Some Stones outtakes. I prefer to own music in a physical manifestation. I think it comes from being a vinyl person for most of my life. I don't even like to buy CD-Rs. Too ephemeral. Plus I like to listen to music on a proper stereo, away from the computer.
There are a bunch. Off the top of my head, I would say "96 Tears" by ? and the Mysterians. It's one of many records I swiped from my Dad's record collection, but probably my favorite.
I think it's great. I believe I'm the only the one in the band who's even heard Spacemen 3, and I bought my first Doors album after we had recorded the album. So it's very interesting to ponder. I have great respect for both bands. I've actually been turned on to bands in reviews of our records. Loop and F/I come to mind.
I do like to cut the rug in the living room! Though, technically we don't have a rug. Just some furniture, turntable, records, lamps, lots of plants.
I use an Echoplex EP4 tape delay and an Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.
Only if you count peace, love and positive vibes.
It was a Zeppelin record. I think IV. My first girlfriend was a huge Zep fan.
I've never owned one. I guess “Off the Wall”.
Be true to yourself. Be kind.
Thanks.
This interview is conducted in conjunction with the upcoming PAUZE festival in The Netherlands & Belgium organized by (K-RAA-K), November 13-15. More information HERE.
-- Steve Marreyt (16 September, 2008)
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