BLURT'S BEST KEPT SECRET #2: Black Swan Green
Jan 06, 2009
Brooklyn indie band on living in hipsterville, on not having a "plan b," on female vampires and more.
BY FRED MILLS
The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have our latest pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Brooklyn's Black Swan Green, whose recently self-released album The Ruin Gaze is an utterly compelling miasma of psychedelia, shoegaze and pop.
Tune in to BLURT radio if you want to hear an MP3, "Waxwing," by the band - just click on the music player image on the right hand side of our homepage and scroll down for the song. Meanwhile, check out the band's MySpace page for more song samples, tour dates, details on getting the album, etc. And congratulations to Black Swan Green. They're one of the good ‘uns, trust us. The members: Hugh Crickmore, vocals/guitars; Loren Mash, keyboards/vocals/percussion; Kevin Kahawai, drums; Richard San Luis, guitar.
We talked to co-founder Crickmore about the band.
***
Your name: a reference to the 2006 novel of the same title by David Mitchell? Why that, and what about that name and the book itself appealed to you?
Yes, the name came from the novel. We all think the book is amazing and that Mitchell is a total genius. The title seemed like such a great band name; I kept walking by it in store windows and thinking, "I love the way that name looks." Graphically it's fun to work with, because the words themselves have such distinct meanings. I was hesitant at first to use Black Swan Green with the plethora of animal band names that saturate the scene. It seemed all the good ones were taken. Though officially it is a place name and not an animal but really who cares anyway.
Tell me a little about how the band came together, and also making the album.
The band began with Loren and myself exactly two years ago. She had just moved to New York from North Carolina and I had just left my first band. I was in a crisis; two weeks without a band and I wanted and needed to play something different than I was used to. For me it began with seeing Brian Jonestown Massacre and A Place to Bury Strangers at Webster Hall that November and, although we didn't know it at the time, Loren and our new guitarist all happened to coincidentally be there as well. The experience was overwhelming. Both bands were great. Up till then, I never understood the popularity of BJM - I went to the show out of curiosity more than for the music. I ended up being moved by the whole experience and all I wanted to do was start a new band in this beautiful noisy, psych and shoegaze vein. Now I am a rabid BJM fan. A Place to Bury Strangers have also become one of Brooklyn's best bands.
Anyway, I put an ad up on Craigslist and met Loren. Kevin Kahawai eventually joined and we've also definitely run through more than a few members. Richard San Luis, our newest member, is from the Houston scene and his band The White Papers were very popular there. He brings with him the Texas psych noise thing i.e. Ringo Deathstarr, Indian Jewelry, The Black Angels, etc... all that very rad stuff.
Honestly, I had a lucrative career until a year and a half ago. I was miserable. I was walking down the street and I ran into David Sitek's brother, Jason. We had worked together for before though we hadn't seen each other for a while. Not like I hang with TV on the Radio. But, I was talking to Jason about my new band and he was talking about his brother's success. I asked him, "How the fuck did he do it, really?" Jason said his brother always says, "Get rid of plan b, if you have a plan b then you will always choose it. Get rid of the safety net and you can't afford to fail." It stuck with me.
So I left my job, got rid of plan b, and now focus everything on the band as much as I can. That is how the record came about. I wrote a long and heartfelt letter to my old friend, Ravi Krishnaswami, who was working as a composer and commercial producer. I knew it was a long shot, but I asked him to help record, engineer, produce, help finance and collaborate on this album. He said yes and we spent months, hundreds of hours making this thing. He is a saint.
Shoegaze? Nü-gaze? You mention "noisegaze" on your site...
Noisegaze is a term I made up while making fun of our Craigslist ad for a bass player. I wanted to say something about shoegaze and noise pop and just put them together. Shoegaze is such a terrible term, but as much as it embarrasses me to use it to describe us, I do use it. I find our melodies to be more based in pop like The Cure and Afghan Whigs or Guided by Voices rather than My Bloody Valentine. Our live show definitely has the heavy delay and reverb that is prevalent in the new "shoegaze" or "nü-gaze" scene.
How do you fit into the Brooklyn music scene in general? Is it a positive or a negative to be associated with a hipper-than-thou milieu?
As a band, I think we really exist on the outside of the whole Williamsburg scene. None of us are social enough, we practice too much, and I'm not good with popular cool people. I was an outcast in school, I always feel I don't belong at the party even if it's my own. In Williamsburg, you walk down the street and everyone is cooler than you, better dressed and inaccessible. I feel like I'm in high school. Hipsters are like strutting jocks pretending to be the smoking section punks.
Brooklyn bands are rarely from Brooklyn and when they get enough money they often leave. I was born in New York and like everybody I say, "As soon as I can afford to leave, I will." Though I love Brooklyn. I love New York. I do sound like everyone when I say, "It's becoming a giant billboard for the rich."
I have a fantasy of moving the band to Kentucky, living in a barn and becoming friendly with Bonnie ‘Prince' Billy. We will have Sunday barbeques and eventually make a record together. I think he is one the greatest living songwriters on the planet.
Brooklyn Bands we love: The Liars, A Place to Bury Strangers, Gang Gang Dance, Blood on the Wall, Luff, Saint Vincent, and TV On the Radio.
What's next for the band?
We are rapidly writing and putting together songs for an EP this winter. Banjo or Freakout is doing a remix of one of our songs this January. He is an artist that is going to do some great things this coming year. We also are getting ready for SXSW.
Lastly, on your MySpace page you have several blog entries about vampire films. What's up with that?
About the vampire films - I have fetish for female vampires! Especially, lesbian female vampires. It's sick but true. I have come to terms with this lately and my therapist is very supportive. It started as kid: the first naked woman on film I saw was a vampire in Twins of Evil on an old videotape at some friend's house. I was blown away and disappointed why all women were less sexy without fangs... or 19th century tight dresses and giant breasts literally falling out of them. Yikes!
blog comments powered by Disqus
More Photos
