BCR: It certainly doesn’t sound the same…
John Famiglietti: Nothing we wanted – we didn’t want you to like this band cos it’s a niche band, cos you’re supposed to like it, we don’t want it to be cool cos that’s cool. Everything with this sound, we’re trying to evolve it. We want it to be gratifying and we just want it to be special and unique and be relevant new music that’s of this kind or whatever the fuck. But you’re not supposed to be scratching your chin “this is cool cos I’m smart”. It’s supposed to be just music you know?
BCR: So don’t dig too deep?
John Famiglietti: No! Dig all you want that’s up to you but I’m saying that you shouldn’t have to dig deep for it to be good. Then that sucks. If something’s good, then you dig deep, then it’s better. If it’s the only way its good is if you dig deep then you’ve got a fucking turd. Usually, usually. Dig deep in anything, something’s brilliant.
BCR: So is there one progenitor, one spur?
John Famiglietti: No, no this is definitely a team effort.
BCR: I’m assuming you all still like each other after this long.
John Famiglietti: Well, obviously, yeah – we spend every fucking tour and every fucking day together. Every second. I live with Beeg (Benjamin Jared Miller) and then we all live a block away from each other and then we’re on tour every fucking month! Not every month but nine months a year or eight months or whatever. Or more… I don’t know. I think this year is going to be less… We’re with each other every fucking day, every second. At this point it’s like being married to someone. You know all their mannerisms, their mood cycles and you know all their stuff way too well. Oh, you didn’t eat this morning? He’s going to be really cranky… We work together really well because we all have the same goal and no one’s ego overrides the goal. We’re always working towards that. We’re all really good at dropping the ego factor, the bullshit factor to be like “is this more gratifying if we cut this out, is it better shorter or is it better and less indulgent if we cut this out” We’re good at that.
BCR: So how did you end up in LA? Most of you are all from different cities…
John Famiglietti: Two of us are from LA – Jake came from Seattle and then I moved up when I was eighteen to go to prep school. I met Jake working in fucking Guitar Centre. And BJ we met on Craig’s List. AIDS transmission has fucking skyrocketed because of Craig’s List.
BCR: What? Really?
John Famiglietti: Casual Encounters…
BCR: You were asking him for a Casual Encounter?
John Famiglietti: Yeah “looking for a big hairy dude”… he showed up and after we were done he started playing drums and we were like “this guys really good!” Apparently though, in this article I was reading a long time ago, because of Casual Encounters it’s so easy to get laid on Craig’s List... That plus Crystal Meth - AIDS has just gone through the roof.
BCR: That’s an equation I never thought I’d hear – Craig’s List… and Crystal Meth.
John Famiglietti: Yeah, you send an email, then you just get fucking high and then it’s just all fucking night.
BCR: Who does all the artwork for the T-shirts and covers?
John Famiglietti: Me. I do that.
BCR: That jagged crystal design just seems so fitting…
John Famiglietti: What happened is, we always planned to get really good art so we were going to get someone to do art and in the meantime I was doing all the art and people really liked the art so we just stuck with.
BCR: Was that your first discipline?
John Famiglietti: No, I’ve never done anything graphic really. That’s why it’s so simple. None of us are artists. We were trying to work with stuff that looks cool, that looks good. All the sort of things we wanted and it turned into something real. The best thing is that all the T-shirts and album covers – it’s all the same palate, all monochromatic.
BCR: Yeah, everything’s identifiable, everything is distinct.
John Famiglietti: It’s its own, it’s special. The dream with HEALTH is that we’re making relevant music for kids where you own this, this is your deal.
BCR: Is that what the tape cassette thing was about [HEALTH’s first release was on TDK cassette]:
John Famiglietti: There were a lot labels at the time in LA, tonnes of these boutique labels putting out cassettes or hilariously packaged CDRs and mittens or a 10” record in a cardboard box filled with shit. It was pretty ridiculous. It was kinda fun. So we did that as sort of saying that we’re part of that. DNT really wanted us to do something and we were still working on the album and the cassette was something that we could release. But then Jack from The Mae Shi , Mae Shi did a single which was one mp3 on a floppy disc and no one has a floppy any more. And then Deathbombs were doing an eight track series and they wanted us to do a track on the eight track but no one has a fucking eight track so… You’d beat everyone if you recorded something onto an Edison Cylinder or something…
Get Color is release on September 8th on Lovepump United
HEALTH on Myspace
HEALTH official site
