BEN Barnette talks it up with DOUG after REX plays a show opening for The Sea and Cake in Portland.
DOUG: We’ve been playing together, me and Curtis (the guitar player for Rex), for like seven years and actually Phil played with us for a while up in Maine, so we’ve known each other for a while. When we were rehearsing to do this tour I always noticed in practice that if I would have a brief mental lapse in practice, like have a miss-hit of something, almost every time that it would happen he would just kind of flub something--it was just so in sync that if someone would hit something bad someone else would inevitably hit something bad. The intuitive level has gotten to a kind of scary level. It’s good.
BEN: Playing with people and then having that kind of relationship where it’s--Being a lot younger I played in a few bands and whatnot, and there’s one kid that I played with a lot and it’s like that. Starting new bands without him involved, it seems like the relationship has to be there, the friendship has to be there.
DOUG: It’s a chemistry thing for sure. Like the first day I ever played with Curtis, we both played in the same rehearsal space up in Maine and we just happened to show up at the same time. He was in another band and their drummer didn’t show up, so I just sat in with him. We just jammed and we played for an hour and we just started laughing the whole time. It was this chemistry thing that hit it right from the start. You don’t find many people and when you do find people that you hit it with like that you’ve gotta stick around.
BEN: I don’t know if it’s a west coast/east coast thing--a lot of the bands I like--well a lot of the Chapel Hill stuff for a while, like Superchunk and Archers and all those bands and then I heard Codeine in high school. The west coast doesn’t have a lot of support for music that is ambient, it’s punk rock kinda stuff you know. I was exposed to East Bay punk rock a lot like Op Ivy and Samiam, but something strikes a chord more now with the bands that practice restraint. Dynamicly, it’s something that I’ve noticed as something you’ve done especially with June of 44, and Codeine is like the ultimate in restraint. You were the second drummer for Codeine?
DOUG: Actually, the third because they had another guy touring with them for a little while. I was the second full time drummer. [Played on Birch]
The Codeine thing really sort of opened me up to a lot of different sort of possibilities and I learned a lot from that even though it was kind of a frustrating situation. The whole restraint thing was cool and I had learned a lot from playing that way... It was a lot more dictative than I would have cared.
BEN: Once we heard June of 44 it sounded like you wanted to go more balls out. If I had just heard Codeine I would have never known.
DOUG: It wasn’t so much like desire to do it, but just this natural reaction to. Codeine had pretty much just broken up like three months earlier than the June of 44 thing started--I didn't know those guys. I knew Jeff barely. I had met Jeff a handful of times and he called me and asked me if I wanted to do this recording project [Engine Takes to the Water]. I had never met Craig. I had never met Sean and we met the first day we played together and we played for like a week and a half when we made that first record and then that was supposed to be it. That was the end of it. That’s what they brought to it. That put me on edge a little bit. It was so different. It was really kind of fresh. The rest of it has kinda evolved from there, there was no idea about it at all. The first Rex record was just a weekend jaunt. Phil [the bass player for Rex] didn’t even live in NY. We asked him to come down and we jammed for three days and recorded the whole thing. The first Rex record [S/T] was just a four track jam. We just recorded hours of shit on four track and then went through it and found good spots and made overdubs. We were starting to be labeled as doing this and doing that, it was four days of being together. That was it. And then we had to go learn this shit before we had to play it live.
BEN: But the kind of proficiency it would take to get together for a week-end and knock something out like that, I mean...
DOUG: Yeah, it was weird doing it, because we had just bought a four track and wanted to use it. That was a different thing, but that June of 44 thing was stuff we did for Rodan that never made it there and Jeff just wanted to get it out of his system basicly. So we had a bunch of stuff and Sean had a couple of things and we worked on it together and brought it to NY. It was pretty much there, we just arranged it. That whole band is so young still, because we only see each other two months a year. Last time we played together was November [seven months ago]. We’re going to see each other again in a month.
BEN: Is that when you recorded Anatomy of Sharks?
DOUG: In November we toured. The Anatomy of Sharks and Tropics & Meridians were one recording session.
BEN: That’s strange because there seems to be a big difference between the two.
DOUG: Well, the second piece [on Anatomy], we did that on four track. And the other two things were part of that whole session.
BEN: That stuff seems so much more crushing.
DOUG: It seemed like the natural way to split it up. Basicly, the only reason we did that is because we wanted to put Tropics & Meridians out on vinyl. If we had all that shit on there it would have been too long for vinyl.
BEN: So what else, what’s the Bundy Brown thing?
DOUG: Directions in Music. That’s a great record. I love that record. That’s Bundy and this guy James Warden had done some stuff together and they asked me to play on a few songs, so I went to Chicago and did it. One of the things we totally fucked up; so I had to go back out to do it and they were like, “why don’t you just play on this other shit.” He mixed the whole thing. We’re going to start another one in August I think... possibly. We [Directions in Music] might go to Europe with The Sea & Cake, which I just found out this afternoon is a possibility.
BEN: Are you able to support yourself doing all these different bands?
DOUG: I don’t have a job, but I’m broke. I’ve got ten dollars in my bank account, but just because I’m stubborn. I refuse to get a job. It frustrates me too much at this point, so I’d rather be broke. It’s getting a little bit better though as far as getting money from doing records. Sales are starting to get a little bit better, so the checks are coming... usually twice a year. I’m getting some checks this month, this is the end of the sixth month. Things usually get slim around the end of the fourth month. You struggle for a couple of them and then some money comes around. It’s not a lot of money.
BEN: Do you live with roommates or alone?
DOUG: I live with my girlfriend right now, but she’s probably going to be gone by the time I get home, because we’re not living together anymore. Which is going to make things a little difficult as far as paying the bills, but as far as living in NY I actually don’t pay to much. We have a good deal right now, it’s pretty under the table, but it’s a good deal. We’ve got a lot of space in a warehouse for not that much money. We can play there and make noise. That’s not easy to find. It could get sold out at any time and if that happens it could be difficult to find another place that affordable. I don’t know, I might move out of NY real soon. I’m doing a few other things in NY, trying to play with some other people.
BEN: On top of June of 44, on top of Rex, on top of Directions in Music, on top of Him, what else are you doing?
DOUG: There’s a thing I’m doing with this guy in San Francisco, Jeff Goldenring that I met when Rex played there with The Swans. He was playing bass with The Swans and we became really good friends and we made a record last May in SanFrancisco. That’s going to come out in September on SubRosa. It’s called Out In Worship. He came to NY about a month ago and we recorded about twelve, thirteen new basic tracks. So, we’re starting on the second one for that project. Then there’s a label in Brooklyn called Word Sounds that’s doing some sort of hip hop and dub style shit. We’re doing the next Him record with him. That’ll be out in August. I’m doing some other shit with them. They have sort of a collective of people. There’s a couple of other projects; this one with the old Rex cello player and this other cello player, they’re called Strings and Drums, a recording project that is pretty much done. We just need to find a home for it. And then this real roots to dub style thing with his bass player and Christian whose on Him records. Rex and Red Red Meat have a record as one called Mothus. We did a record last August and that’s supposed to come out this August. We’re supposed to tour too.
BEN: What is it?
DOUG: I don’t know. That’s supposed to go down, and if it does we’re supposed to go on tour. It’s a pretty whacked out record. We got together and picked groups out of the seven of us to go into a room and jam for ten minutes. We just improvised, put it into a computer and cut it together and made songs out of it. Then some of it is shit people wrote. It’s a crazy-ass record.
BEN: What bands do you listen to?
DOUG: Everything. Anything. Anything, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s real. As long as you get something out of it that feels honest, something that feels pure about any kind of music. Obviously there’s so much shit going on these days, so many records coming out, to me if there’s integrity there, if it sounds pure to me, not people being something that they’re not. Then I like it. Other than that I don’t care what kind of music it is. Real music.
BEN: Do you like Built to Spill?
DOUG: I haven’t listened to it at all. I know their name plenty, probably have heard a song here or there, but I could not tell about it. I don’t listen to a whole lot of bands. I don’t have a lot of rock music I guess. I don’t have the money to buy that kind of music. I would buy a lot of shit if I could. One day, if I have some money, I’m going to go out and buy a lot of records.
BEN: You don’t have to answer this, and it doesn’t have to go one the interview or anything, but I heard rumors about Codeine about substance abuse and things.
DOUG: Far from it. That was the most straight laced band I’ve ever been around. You’d be lucky to get Steve [the bassist] to drink. There was none of that.
BEN: That’s funny because I heard stories that you always recorded with the same guy because he was the only producer who would let them shoot smack in the studio.
DOUG: That’s so far from reality. That’s totally hysterical. Steve totally had a straight edge vibe.
BEN: That’s really cool for me to hear, but it’s also sad. It’s also sad that he was that sober and that sad. Does he really embody a lot of that?
DOUG: He’s not a happy guy a lot of times. I mean that was my problem with it, musically and in life, we just had this massive philosophical difference. The relationship I had with him was really strange. John was completely laid back, but Steve was not happy, yeah. That’s why I couldn’t hang with him. We just couldn’t deal with each other. We get along great now though.
BEN: Distance helps that.
DOUG: For sure. He’s a great guy. Super sweet guy. I don’t know why he’s like that. He takes things too seriously I guess.
BEN: Does June of 44 have anything on the horizon?
DOUG: Yeah, we’re getting together after this. Four days after I get home from this we’re going to tour the east coast, Louisville and Grand Rapid, then the midwest and the south and Chicago in August.
BEN: What’s the deal with the Nautical theme?
DOUG: Don’t ask me that. I can’t answer that question. I have nothing to do with that business, that’s Jeffrey and Sean. Jeff’s heavy into the ship thing; metaphoricly being the captain of his ship and sailing throughout life. That’s his whole philosophy. That’s cool. He’s a character, that guy.
BEN: It’s really good to meet you. In a lot of ways, not to get too over the top about it, there are mentors, the way someone listens to Charlie Parker and goes, “How did he pull that off?” Tonight there were points where I was laughing, going “Oh my God!”
DOUG: That’s cool. I was laughing too, going “Oh my God!”