SM=Susie McMullan
JPL=Jordan Perkins Lewis
JM=Jamie McCathie
What have been your
musical epiphany moments?
SM: in 8th grade growing up sheltered, catholic with very
conservative family I discovered Danzig. It
was epiphanic. I was hooked on punk rock
from that point on. My next pivotal
point was lunachicks, genitorturers, bad brains, fugazi and the melvins. Then Wino or Spirit Caravan, Witchcraft, high
on fire and Earth. Now Pallbearer, Yob,
Wovenhand, Spelljammer and Lo-Pan.
JPL: John Zorn shook me up early on. I didn't know you could
do that kinda stuff with sound. That rabbit hole got real deep for me.
JM: When I was 9 years old, a Guns n Roses live in Paris show came on TV.
Mind, blown.
Talk to us about the
song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics?
How does it all fall into place?
SM: Jamie's riff bestows its terror down on us and we
obey. Then I obsess over it and sing
melodies or chant or scream animal sounds until it's right. Then add lows with
Bass. Then Jordan
makes us badass with drums.
JPL: They come to me with ideas and we jam it out until it
feels right. Then we refine, refine, refine.
Who has influenced
you the most?
SM: Dolly Parton and Danzig
JPL: John Cellelo.
JM: Kirk Windstein, Thom Yorke & Mike Scheidt
Where do you look for
continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
SM: Tribal music especially from Australia gets me going when I'm
looking for inspiration while writing a vocal melody. It makes feel wild and
barbaric. It's possible that the feeling it gives me is more of the inspiration
than the actual melody of chant. Heh. It reminds me of the times we had
bonfires by the levy and tried to recreate low rent crash worship shows in Baton Rouge.
JPL: Drum Corps International never fails to impress me.
JM: Really sad folk music. I love this song 'To leave something
behind' by Sean Rowe, it's been on constant rotation recently.
We're all a product
of our environment. Tell us about the band's hometown and how that reflects in
the music?
SM: I'm from Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, and
grew up listening to ill Whiskey, suplecs, four square, Dixie Witch,
Honkey. The dirty had been doing slow bluesy metal since the
90s. It wasn't intentional, it was just
how things went down in a town that has blues and jazz blaring at every party
or parade. I think they giggle when they
hear the term "doom". We just
called it, Metal. It wasn't until I moved to San Francisco until I heard the term
"doom" or "sludge".
I suppose we move slower by the Gulf of Mexico
than they do here, so what's normal to us is slow to everyone else.
JPL: SF is a magical place. We try to conjure a little magic
of our own.
JM: San Francisco
is a transplant city. A place full of different people from different places.
Brume is a band of different people coming together with different ideas.
Where'd the band name
come from?
SM: Jamie's brain. It's slow and foggy and even a bit misty.
Haha.
JPL: Europe.
You have one chance,
what movie are you going to write the soundtrack for?
SM: The jerk is the
best movie ever.
JPL: Metropolis.
You now write for a
music publication (The Ripple Effect?).
You're going to write a 1,000 word essay on one song. Which would it be
and why?
SM: Wovenhand song called King David. He delicately removes
your preconceived notion of musical genres. It's a little metal and little
country, some blues and a touch of space. I'm where that song is at in my life.
It's personal.
JPL: Billy The Mountain by Zappa & The Mothers - the
1971 live version from the Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. My dad was at that show.
Come on, share with us
a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
JPL: One time I was playing at show at the Roxy in Hollywood with a band
called H.O.O.D. and my singer fell and split his head open against the drum
riser. He finished the set with blood streaming down his back before going to
the hospital to get his scalp stapled together.
Tell us about playing
live and the live experience for you and for your fans?
SM: I love when
people are close to me when I play and the lucky second when you get to have a moment
with someone. A moment of eye contact that makes you feel not lonely, like you
both are feeling the same thing at the same time.
JPL: Shows are a labor of love. I'll keep doing as many as I
can.
JM: We are kinda an intimate band. Slow, repetitive and mood
driven. if people wanna lose themselves with us we are the band for you. If you
wanna party and jump around alot, there are a ton of other great bands out
there.
What makes a great
song?
SM: A song that make a numb person feel something.
JPL: A hundred terrible songs.
JM: Personally? Gut wrenching melody. Get's me every-time.
Tell us about the
first song you ever wrote?
SM: School of Hard
Knox. I have a lot of poetry about the working class, non-elite, you know, the
people who actually do shit. I studied engineering and grew up in the air
conditioning industry and always thought it was interesting and unfair that the
mechanics were a lot smarter than me and my engineering colleagues but the
pay-scale favored college graduate engineers.
I've spent years after college trying to know machines and just get my
head out of the clouds in general. There
is nothing more attractive than a nerdy gear-head to me.
JPL: It was not good.
JM: It sounded like a Crowbar cover song, it was with a band
I started when I was 15 called Softroom.
I was the singer/bass player and was desperately trying to
sound 55, overweight and from NOLA.
I was a 15YO, skinny boy from Bristol
in England.
What piece of your
music are particularly proud of?
SM: The part that gives someone the same feeling we had when
we first played it together.
JPL: I'm proud of the new album overall. It was a blast to
make.
JM: I'm with Jordan,
the new album i'm very proud of. We worked hard to write this record.
Who today, writes
great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
SM: Wovenhand, Pallbearer and Lo-Pan
JPL: I'm always intrigued by the stuff on Tzadik &
Ipecac. Swans at the Regency was probably the last thing I saw that really blew
me away.
JM: All them Witches are absolutely mind blowing. Incredible
songs, ridiculously talented and the live show is killer. I love that they give
zero shits about having 'a sound'. They just write whatever they want and
continue to evolve into this awesome rock band.
Vinyl, CD, or
digital? What's your format of choice?
SM: Digital. I'm so tickled to have any song ever at any
time. I like to loose myself in
Spotify. Next is live shows captured
through facebook.
JPL: I enjoy the experience of listening to vinyl but I
usually stream music for convenience.
JM: Vinyl for art, digital for listening.
Whiskey or beer? And defend your choice
SM: I love whiskey
JPL: Both and I'll defend them to the death.
JM: Beer, all day drinking.
We, at the Ripple
Effect, are constantly looking for new music. What's your home town, and when
we get there, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
SM: SF, CA, USA.
Aquarius - those guys taught me so
much. The store shut down, but those
people still exist. Go find them. I'm sure they have an epic private
collection.
JPL: I grew up in L.A.
and the last record store I went to is long gone. Now I live in S.F. and the
last record store I went to is long gone.
What's next for the
band?
SM: We head to Europe for a
tour with Gurt, we'll put out another album by end of year, we play Desert
Fest, we have an east coast tour with Body Void and lots of fun in the studio
to look forward too.
JPL: Margaritas.
Any final comments or
thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
JPL: Check out the new record and come see us live.
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