dan monick

Stream: We Are The World “Sweet Things Are So Hard”

[audio:http://larecord.com/audio/wearetheworld-sweetthings.mp3]

This summer We Are The World established a new order. They’re not a band—they’re a Sparks-guzzling manifestation of creativity with intricate dance moves and political costumes. Call them experimental at the very least, and call them exciting—exploring expectations by blowing them to smithereens. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

What was the first thing that came about in the concept of We Are The World?
Robbie Williams (music): Megan and I were in a band called Work. And these guys are still in Fingered. What do you call it?
Ryan Heffington (costumes/choreography): A monthly club that revolves around dance. Dance performance.
RW: And we collaborated on some of those club nights together and eventually Ryan and I talked about doing We Are The World. The first show was at one of his parties at his house. It was just us two with an instrumental track. And then we started to include everyone else.
Megan Gold (lyrics): And a whole year and change passed. That was your birthday which was in June so…the first We Are The World show was on April 21st of 2008 and that birthday party was June 2007. So Work broke up. One of those, ‘I don’t think we’re dating anymore.’ And last Christmas Robbie and I holed ourselves up and wrote the core­—probably—of our set.
RW: And then we asked Nina to be a part of it. Our first show was a big Fingered party. It was Fingered presents We Are The World. I think it was like 15 dancers. And then we did about a handful of shows with that many people. And then we put it down to us four. It got to be too much. Maybe someday we’ll make it big again but to really do it you need a small amount of people.
MG: We love all of them and in the right situation, the right venue and the right everything, but, like, every show is unpredictable. It’s too crazy. It gets lost and after the third person being like, ‘Why is she even singing? It’s a dance thing.’ Or ‘Why is he even playing?’ or whatever…it got to be­—ok, ok, this is too much. We knew we could shed that baby stage with four people.
RH: Which was our original idea. And it’s been perfect.
At Manimal Fest, my reaction was, ‘Wow, they got masks!’ But someone else was like, ‘What is this? Is this a band? Is this a performance?’
MG: What’s so interesting is like—why do they care? If it’s good, right? You have to fucking call it something or you’re mad. It’s so weird.
RW: Even to call us a band now is really awkward. I don’t feel like we’re a band.
MG: We’re more of an outfit.
RW: We’re interested in playing art galleries. Like MOCA. Taking it out of the club atmosphere. I think the way that it is gives us the ability to do what we want—whatever context we want do it in. We try to keep the music really track-oriented and not jam-oriented. And bringing in the whole other aspect, that’s really something new and not just this freak fest. It’s tight and choreographed.
RH: The same thing goes for us. We’re professional dancers based in contemporary dance. So we’re bringing that to a new genre. And a new experience in a club. We rehearse. We train. It’s technical dance—it’s not ‘everybody get on stage and have a good time!’ We do that as well but it’s really tight. And now Megan and Robbie are part of the dance part as well. And we recorded tap and dance as part of the music. So it’s really actually melding together, instead of keeping it so separate.
MG: I feel like we’re living what we want.
RH: So far we’ve obtained everything we wanted to obtain. We’ll be like, ‘Oh, let’s do this,’ and somehow we’ll figure it out.
RW: If we got out of having to play a fast set somewhere, we would come up with walls of sound and movement for ten minutes. I want to be really physical.
Why did you decide to focus on the drums?
RW: I think it’s the most physical thing to add. Instead of sitting behind a keyboard. The songs are all so physical. The drums add to that.
Do you choreograph the set as a whole or track by track?
RW: Track by track. We write something then give it to these guys.
MG: When we first started, we started with five tracks, and our first show was a concept essentially. Our first initial outfits were burqas with monochromatic faces and peasant outfits underneath. Basically fundamentalism. It was about Islamic fundamentalism and backwoods Christianity fundamentalism—there really isn’t a difference. And that’s the whole play on a lot of the lyrics. It’s all the same man—it’s all the same fucking day, man.
Nina McNeely (video/choreography): We have marching band outfits now. So it still has kind of that machine—the-machine-is-always-there kind of feel.
Do you all agree on these kinds of issues?
RW: It sort of happens and then we all agree when it happens.
MG: Someone will find an image that really expresses something. Like those first outfits. We were all on the same page and then I had this book from a MOCA show that had this designer who had done this amazing show. They had burqas that were floor-length but they went all the way up to above the crotch, with the exposed crotch. It was so amazing. It said so much and the face was still covered. Everything about it is sexy. It’s sexy and it’s about globalism.
Have there been any accidents with all the tap dancing and movement?
NM: Ooh, the glass-in-foot in New York.
NM: Ryan sat down and he just plucked it out.
RH: Well, I tried half a song to keep it in. I didn’t want to break character.
NM: We’ve bonked each other tons of times. Kick each other. Step on each other’s feet.
RH: For being barefoot in costumes you can’t see out of­—and with big sticks waving around on stage—I think we’ve done an amazing job.
RW: Being three-quarters drunk.
RH: Speak for yourself!
RW: Sparks. Sparks is our drink.
ALL: We want to be sponsored by Sparks.
I want to be sponsored by Sparks, as well.
RH: Join the band!
What do you like about Sparks?
MG: It will pull your ass out of the ground. If you’re tired and you have to practice, Sparks!
NM: Not really the cold-syrup flavor, but I like the can. Because it looks like a giant battery, so I can pretend it’s battery juice.
RW: I like when you open it and it just oozes that acidic nastiness, and you have to flip it off and pretend you’re getting a fresh sip.
NM: Toxic foam that looks like insulation.
RH: I just love the taste of it. It tastes so shitty, but for some reason I’m drawn to it.
MG: The thing that we all have in common is that we’re from really blue-collar places so there’s no judgment. We’re all from real weird towns. Robbie and I are from Tacoma, Washington.
RH: I’m from Yuba City, California.
NM: I was born in Ausin, Texas, but I grew up in Colorado, in Denver.
How long have you known each other?
MG: We’ve known each other since I was 16 and he was 21.
RW: 1992. We met these guys four years ago.
MG: We met at the Temple of the Bean…drinking coffee. It was the Northwest, it was 1992, we were all drinking coffee.
RW: And we had a crazy idea to get married, and it’s our seventh anniversary.
What song do you want playing as you experience the apocalypse?
MG: Dizzee Rascal, ‘Look Sharp.’ I can’t imagine a better—bombs falling, ‘Look Sharp.’
NM: ‘Helter Skelter’ for me because it never stops.
RW: ‘Rock On’ by Jackson and His Computer Band.
NM: Ryan wants to find out the secrets of the universe as ‘Dirty Diana’ is playing.
RW: I’m going to change mine. ‘Why So Serious?’ by Hanz Zimmer, the Joker theme in The Dark Knight.
RH: I thinking Roberta Flack. Maybe ‘Do What You Gotta Do.’
NM: I want to head bang during the apocalypse.
MG: I just want to dance. I want to die nasty.
RW: There’s a good chance of that happening.

WE ARE THE WORLD WITH VOICES VOICES AND PENELOPE FORTIER ON FRI., DEC. 5, AT TANGIER, 2138 HILLHURST AVE., LOS FELIZ. 8:45 PM / $10 / 21+. FOLDSILVERLAKE.COM. AND WITH DEATH TO ANDERS, VOXHAUL BROADCAST, LOCAL NATIVES AND LOVE GRENADES ON SAT., DEC. 6, AT THE ZERO FILM FEST CLOSING PARTY AT A LOCATION TBA. 10 PM / $10 / ALL AGES. COMPLETE INFO AT ZEROFILMFEST.COM OR LARECORD.COM. VISIT WE ARE THE WORLD AT MYSPACE.COM/WEARETHEWORLDTHECULT.