Download: Former Ghosts “Hold On”

(from Fleurs out now on Upset the Rhythm)

Thank technology for letting three musicians in three different parts of the country be a band together. Former Ghosts is Freddy Ruppert (This Song Is A Mess But So Am I), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus). It’s a bit goth, but in a sort of uplifting way that flourishes on the album Fleurs and Rupert bears his soul with Shakespearean style. Make their L.A. show your Halloween destination. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

What kind of factory would you like to work in?
Freddy Ruppert (vocals/synthesizers): Maybe a factory that manufactures cakes—a baking factory. I’d work on the cupcake line. As the cupcakes come down the conveyor belt, I’d have to pour the frosting on.
The sounds on ‘Us And Now’ remind me of a factory, which is why I asked.
Freddy Ruppert: We all grew up on a lot of ’80s goth and industrial stuff, so the weird sounds come from that influence. I guess it’s surprising that I’d say a cupcake factory, but I think the record kind of mixes the sweet with the dark.
What song reps the sweet?
Freddy Ruppert: Probably ‘Unfolding’ or ‘Us And Now.’ All the songs are kinda love songs aimed for a particular person I was insanely head over heels for. There wasn’t a plan to release them. They were written in a tumultuous time when things were going badly between us and given to her as presents while we were going through this rough stuff.
What made you decide to share them with a band and release them?
Freddy Ruppert: I quit my old band, This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, because I couldn’t handle it anymore. I didn’t do music for two years then I met her and started writing and put the songs on a blog and I’d take them down after she heard the songs. I can’t justify their existence, but this record label wanted to release them, so that’s how it came together. Me and Jamie had been friends for a long time. We were talking about starting something forever. Nika, I really like her voice so I asked her to sing and then asked her to join. But it’s hard for me to justify making it public. Other than hoping to relate to someone else, if that makes sense. I guess the girl was my muse at the time. Making it public is hoping that someone can relate to having that sort of depth and suffering and confusion.
Is there hope in it?
Freddy Ruppert: It’s hard to say. At the time of writing them, a lot of the songs were hopeful. It always felt like I was crazy—on the verge of blooming or withering. Now looking back on them they don’t seem so hopeful. They’re dark, but there’s some hope trapped in there for someone to find. I have a problem with making things too personal. But that’s how I am. I don’t have a gauge or barrier for that. And that is a problem but maybe it’s also a good thing? I think a lot of the songs have a sense of desperation. It was like, ‘I am holding on to this—why aren’t you holding on to this?’ Love is a crazy thing. It skews a lot of stuff. You get wrapped up in it. It almost takes over. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s hard to know—you know how you feel but the way someone else feels could be not as strong or stronger.
Do you compose songs structurally or organically?
Freddy Ruppert: Kinda structurally. I usually have an idea in my mind, but I approach it musically first. I set the music then I go lyrically. It’s compartmentalized. I put the structure and then I mail it to Jamie and Nika and they add in their parts. Lyrics and content stuff is more organic—based on feelings—but the piecing together of the sounds is more structural.
‘A white sheet descends over our bodies and I watch it from a distance.’ What’s that line about? Have you ever had an out-of-body experience?
Freddy Ruppert: Not so much out of body but a feeling of seeing yourself in a certain way—or in the future with someone else that you’re with in the present. Being in this moment where you are in love and captured by them and you can see yourself and this person out of your body, experiencing something else. Not necessarily floating above my body. I have a tendency to romanticize the future. That line is about from a distance seeing your relationship come apart and hoping it can be brought back to life. Like lifting a white sheet off a dead body. Seeing the relationship die.
Are you sad or do you connect with sad? Are you Etta James or Muddy Waters?
Freddy Ruppert: I would say Etta James. I think it kind of becomes a problem when I play live. It can be cathartic to a point but then it can be painful to relive. It’s a fine line. The songs are all personal expressions of my own life. So I am more Etta James. My main concern is surviving through the day.
Why the abrupt ending for ‘Choices’?
Freddy Ruppert: I guess that song is heavy. It was like I was waiting while she was sorting herself out—and I am just waiting and waiting. I feel like that crazy build at the ending—it’s this intense thing of hoping. It represents a thought process that builds up but cuts off. ‘I am waiting and going through all this stuff but you’re not realizing it.’ Then it’s just cut and that’s it. And then what do I do with that? What do I do when it’s gone?
When something can’t be put in words, does the music pick up where the lyrics can’t go?
Freddy Ruppert: Some people write crazy lyrics and the music might be happy. But music should also be representative of the emotion being expressed. When I write a song I know what the song is about. So the emotion and feeling I want to express is there and I need the music to express it. The medium is the message in a way. The emotion would be lost without the music conveying that. For me, they are intertwined.
How did you get Jamie and Nika’s contributions if they don’t live in L.A.?
Freddy Ruppert: I live in L.A., Nika lives in Madison, and Jamie lives in Durham. For ‘In Earth’s Palm’ and ‘Bull And Ram’ and ‘I Wave,’ I sent them music and Jamie did the lyrics for his and Nika did hers. For ‘I Wave,’ me and Jamie worked together. Then I sent the music to Nika and she put in her part. It worked out that their lyrics fit the theme of the record. We just seem to work together well. Nika is completely unbelievable. The first song I sent her was the last song, ‘This Is My Last Goodbye.’ When she sent it back I was like, ‘Please join the band!’ I am completely in love with her voice. She has these moments when it comes across vulnerable but when she lets loose, it’s this really powerful thing. I’m so excited to work in depth with them for the next album—in the same room. I hope she will sing more. Jamie is here now so we can practice though Nika can’t do the tour with us. Maybe we could set up a Powerbook and do a video conference with her projected on the wall so she could sing!
If someone unearthed Fleurs post-apocalypse, what vision of the past would it deliver?
Freddy Ruppert: My biggest fear is looking like a crazy pathetic person who obsessed over a girl. I would rather them see it as a romantic gesture rather than pathetic. Something that captures a past romance. In terms of music, I think the sounds are strange­—at times they are pop melodies but dissonant and off-putting in moments. If they never heard music before, maybe that would be unfortunate.

FORMER GHOSTS WITH THE L.A. LADIES’ CHOIR, POCAHAUNTED AND MORE ON SAT., OCT. 31, AT SYNCHRONICITY SPACE, 4306 MELROSE AVE., LOS ANGELES. 8 PM / COST TBA / ALL AGES. SYNCSPACELA.COM. FORMER GHOSTS’ FLEURS IS OUT NOW ON UPSET THE RHYTHM. VISIT FORMER GHOSTS AT FORMERGHOSTS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/FORMERGHOSTSSLEEP.

The early evening was broiling and the streets of Little Tokyo and the Artist District sloshed with bohos; the half-crocked vanguard of another giddy night downtown this recession-wracked summer. I talked a burner girl out of the blues by bidding her to a DoLab warehouse bash I would up missing, since the Upset the Rhythm label showcase was a rare old night at the Smell. I squeezed into a pre-packed sweatbox, with severalscore of the weekend hip milling between the front table and the Urxed, already cranking banshees under the control booth. I hadn’t heard this pre-High Spaces Rob Barber project in quite a while, but their set’s net effect is about the same- a solid tribal mass uncoiling in a droning ethereal Bristol Stomp. The applause hit like mortar blasts inside the tiny space and the crowd drained outside. Next was a long wait to KIT, who proceeded to wallop out short squealing bursts of designer sheet metal that made the walls vibrate. A feedback wail preceded Gowns, as the band lurched into a long trough of dainty work with sledgehammer and blowtorch. Erika Anderson’s impressive vocals are in the mold of Carla Bozulich’s, the high and vivid roar of a passing ghost. They howled to a climax at the midnight hour, with the madhouse percussion and yowl of Foot Village following. The ever-mutating Lucky Dragons—about the most notable band on the L.A. experimental scene these days—went on at about one a.m. and the room vibe at this point was as smeared my notepad. Most of the place looked ready for pajamas as I lit out for the Ultraluxx party on Mateo Street, as the Luckies closed it down.

—Ron Garmon

Upset the Rhythm is the independent London label that’s always taken good care of Los Angeles—they were one of the labels participating in that first burst of No Age vinyl in 2007 and also put out releases for L.A. bands like Soft Boiled Eggies and BARR and now Foot Village, who will be releasing their Anti-Magic on Upset The Rhythm this July. And they’re also helpful in other ways—right now they’re helping Sun Araw (Cameron from Magic Lantern) and Pocahaunted on their U.K. tour. Next month, L.A. will return the favor with a special Smell show gathering together Upset the Rhythm bands from coast to coast as one of three special U.S. shows. Full details from Foot Village’s Brian Miller below:

UPSET THE RHYTHM COMES TO THE US!
Upset the Rhythm is a London based record label / booking agency that specializes in introducing small, DIY, Smell-esque American bands to UK and EU audiences. Chris and Claire, who run the label, have been incredibly successful at cultivating a large and young audience for American bands in the UK. Often, they gather large audiences for bands that, in the US, would be happy to just see a dozen kids at a show! Despite being in the UK, they are one of the most enthusiastic patrons of US bands. They were the first to put out No Age on vinyl, book
large tours for bands at no profit to themselves, and have an incredible roster of bands that includes BARR, Lucky Dragons, Gowns, High Places, Former Ghosts, Death Sentence: PANDA!, KIT, Foot Village, and a ton more. Despite their importance to American bands, UTR is not very well known in the US.

Those of us in Foot Village were inspired to pay tribute to UTR in celebration of our first release on the label. So, this July, instead of just playing a typical record release show, we have organized a showcase of bands on Upset The Rhythm at the Smell. The response from the bands was so overwhelming that both a San Francisco and New York showcase have come together as well. Chris and Claire will be flying out for all of these.

PARTY NUMBER ONE: NEW YORK
Friday July 3rd @ MONSTER ISLAND BASEMENT
Ambergris
Lucky Dragons
Silk Flowers
Bird Names
Soft Circle
John Maus
Future Islands
Wet Hair (Shawn from Racoo-oo-oon)
128 River St @ Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy
8:30pm | all ages | $tba

PARTY NUMBER TWO: LOS ANGELES
Sat July 11th @ The Smell
Foot Village
Lucky Dragons
Gowns
Death Sentence: PANDA!
KIT
Softboiled Eggies
Former Ghosts
The Urxed (Rob from High Places)
No Age DJs
all ages / $8
247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles CA 90012
http://thesmell.org
http://www.last.fm/event/1041975

PARTY NUMBER THREE: SAN FRANCISCO
July 12th, Sunday, Club Sandwich presents Upset the Rhythm SF Showcase
@ The LAB
Foot Village
Gowns
Lucky Dragons
Death Sentence: Panda
TITS
KIT
The Urxed
Former Ghosts
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
5 pm $8 all ages
http://thelab.org
http://clubsandwichbayarea.com

Download: Foot Village “T.A.K.E.”

(from Anti-Magic out in July on Upset The Rhythm)

Via Brian Miller from Foot Village, who have rolled out a (very nice!) new website at footvillage.org that is loaded with free MP3s of other bands covering Foot Village that were all mashed together for a track on their album due out later this summer. Says Brian:

These were all made for an audio collage that will be at the end of our upcoming album, Anti-Magic, coming out in July on Upset the Rhythm. The library here has the complete unedited submissions from people like AIDS Wolf, Tussle, Jason Forrest, Death Sentence: PANDA! and tons more. We are also still looking for more submissions to complete unique cassette and iTunes versions of the collage!

Visit the MP3 library here and the Foot Village site here!