DJ: I think it’s great. The bigger pool you have to take from the more options you have. Which can slow you down, but given time. Or even not - in an improve situation when you’re jammin’ it makes it unique in the way that it’s not going to be the same as a group who studied at university because they have very similar study patterns and ideas of what they’re supposed to be playing. Whereas with this Miles [Seaton] and I never studied music at all so there’s a lot of trial and error. But even the errors… we embrace noise so it doesn’t have to be notes that fit it can be shapes and sounds that fit. You know what I mean?
BCR: Sure, some of the greatest inventions in the world have been mistakes.
DJ: Exactly! Exactly. I mean it’s all tied together with the pulse and the current pulse is… helpful.
BCR: I’ve read so many comparisons, like Animal Collective always crops up, but I’m not too sure so if you were to write your own review who would you compare yourselves to, contemporaries and/or historically?
DJ: Oh man… That’s tough. Contemporary? I don’t really know, a little bit, but I don’t really know what’s going on these days, only stuff we see at festivals which is very little. Because we’re always on the road we don’t get a chance to see too much live music, new live music that is. So contemporaries, in terms of personality, I’d like to say Deerhoof just because they’re all really sweet people and we’re all really sweet too, like-minded but musically not. In the past, we’re probably a lot like Led Zeppelin. I know this sounds really lofty and I’m not trying to pat my own back but in terms of the iconic bass player, the iconic guitar player – we all have such strong personalities. I feel that really shows through, at least in the live context. I’m going to regret this as soon as I read it I’ll be like “what the hell was I thinking?”
BCR: So it’s not the 40 minute jams?
DJ: That too!... And the [Grateful] Dead, I’d definitely compare us to the Dead. They were far out, really experimental, really a cutting edge band. I know they have a lot of baggage from their whole fan base, the whole hippy thing.
BCR: I think that’s the thing with the whole era…
DJ: Well, think about what was going on, man! That was shocking. That was way more shocking than when Goth came along, when piercings and tattoos were mainstream. That was nothing in comparison to the hippies. You were under the thumb of America’s 40’s and 50’s, you look at the advertisements and everything, Betty Crocker, make sure your shirt is all buttoned up and presentable, at least in America this is…
BCR: It was very similar here, there weren’t really any teenagers until the late 50’s, post war, no fathers left etc. Nothing like that complete rebellion against society…
DJ: Against everything, yeah, totally, you know. And then drugs came around and people were acting radical and getting nuts and stuff… It was a pretty far out thing.
BCR: Are drugs a factor in your music as well or…?
DJ: Well, yes, because we’ve all definitely had our fair share. Currently, not really. I’ll smoke herb every now and again but I don’t do it not even every week, not even every month. But, when I was in high school I was experimenting, so I’ve done my share of damage on my brain. Expansion, my fair share of expansion on my brain. But these days I don’t really have the energy for it. I’m trying to accomplish something and it’s kinda distracting, you know what I mean?
BCR: Yeah, for me my long dalliance with that particular world was because I wanted to know something about something I didn’t know anything about…
DJ: Yeah, exactly, exactly…and now I feel I can just have a party, I can just do that and know that it’s fine. I don’t really need a reckless abandonment right now. Because if I did, it would take a lot longer and be a lot tougher to get what I want.
BCR: You’d probably fall off the road…
DJ: Yeah, probably. Definitely. You hear a lot of horror stories about bands who have drug problems and start fighting all the time and getting real cranky. These people are my friends and I don’t want to be an asshole to them.
BCR: Did you name yourself Akron/Family after the “full service mental health practice Akron Family institute of experts in relationship counselling”?
DJ: Yes. Hahaa! No. It’s phonetically pleasing. Say it.
BCR: Akron Family.
DJ: See? Feels good right? Akron Family, mmm, that sounds nice!
BCR: Do you see yourselves as a family?
DJ: Sure, we’re completely dysfunctional like a family. We love each other. Yeah, these guys are like my brothers. We don’t say Akron Family in the way that… I don’t want to wear it on my sleeve but it’s the truth. Without being too over the top about it.
BCR: So I think we’re done, I can let you go now.
DJ: So you gonna stick around for the show? It’ll be an epic dance party…
BCR: So it’s not just concept albums its concept shows?
DJ: We used to do it with an immediate blast, we’d come out and be like, Gzzzzzh! This noise into a song. It really worked to open them up. Nowadays we do it with music we play before the show. Things like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the album. Everybody knows that album and they’ll smile… most people. Every now and then you’ll get a sound guy, like this guy in Los Angeles who works at the Troubadour, he’s got long curly hair that he wears in a pony tail, he’ll run up and turn it off and go “not that! I can’t believe you put that on my system!” I was, like “dude, what is your deal, man?” The next song, it wasn’t the album, it was a play list and the next song was Africa by Toto and he was fine with it. He doesn’t like Michael Jackson but he’s fine with Toto… That’s not the point, the point is to play stuff like Prince and open people up and get them moving and then take’em! Yank ‘em in!
And that’s where we leave Dana. The show is fantastic and the band is everything Dana promised them to be. They did indeed yank the London audience in with every howl and instrument swap leaving this jade journo quite breathless.
