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Plans for the Van?

Bran Van 3000 may be up on blocks right now, but we haven’t heard the last from James DiSalvio, the man behind the wheel

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Bran Van 3000 mastermind James DiSalvio matches Me Mom & Morgentaler—who, in an earlier life as a video director, he created a clip for—in making the Mirror cover three times in a decade. Bran Van got a lot of face time after their tune “Drinking in L.A.” blew up huge, particularly with people who were into drinking, in L.A. or otherwise. DiSalvio’s kept a pretty low profile since the collapse of the Beastie Boys’ label Grand Royal, to which BV3K were signed. Any wounds seem long since licked, however, as DiSalvio relates, over the phone from L.A.

Mirror: August, 1991, was your first Mirror cover appearance. You were doing videos at the time, and not yet music.

James DiSalvio: That’s right, [the interview] with Steve Kokker! I remember that it was Alain [Desrochers], Lyne [Charlebois] and I on the cover, and it was incredible what a rock ’n’ roll ride we were having, doing videos. This little production company we had, Cinoque Films, was having a blast. It was when videos were going to save the world (laughs), the new answer to everything. VideoFact was really generous with grants, and everybody saw videos as these little mini-features. That’s how I got to meet Me Mom & Morgentaler, Jean [Leloup] and Celine Dion, all these people. I think that it was through the videos that I actually got to do music. At one point—call it basic childishness—but I was like, “Damn, I’d love to make my own music.”

M: That takes us to ’98, when you were on the cover for the Best of Montreal issue [interview by Chris Yurkiw]. That was related to the ’97 release of Glee, your debut bow in the music-making arena.

JD: That was honestly one of the sweetest summers ever. Were you at the launch party, at the Windsor? That was such a great time, the whole city showed up, A-Trak played, the Mirror was giving us good coverage. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but it was a beautiful time, from Foufounes working up to Metropolis and seeing the world. And y’know, the Mirror was always there, I gotta say, to keep it on tap. We’d write postcards back home, through the Mirror, with little interviews.

Beasties, Boris and burnout

M: Let’s move forward to 2001, when I interviewed you for the cover story on the second album, Discosis. You still deserve a prize for getting Boris Vallejo to do the cover art.

JD: Yeah, right on (laughs)! Yeah—budget and the Beasties, that was that period. I remember that interview very well because it was done just before the label went bankrupt. (laughs) You’re ready to take on the world, and then—ah, mañana. The whole thing was, play with pop, then I think on some level pop played with me. Once you have the clout of getting help from the Beasties, and working with Boris and Curtis [Mayfield], all these people—I think there’s something interesting in that it was all set up and then it just kinda disappeared. Everything closed down, and not even through anyone’s decision. Through fate. It was kinda cool—it gave time to go back and recharge, and not force anything that wasn’t really meant to happen.

M: So what are you up to now? We haven’t heard too much from you in the last few years.

JD: Yeah, I’ve been really quiet. Just reconnecting, spending most of my time in Montreal. Got to travel a bit and do some side projects. Now I’m totally re-inspired to make music again. I have so much fun with iPods and turntables and everything, but I still have fun with the whole notion of an album, because an album is still essentially a long song anyway, so why not? Since Bran Van quieted down, EP [Bergen] and I have gone back to the roots of where we came from, the clubs, house and whatever. But just before the summer, we said, “Ah, fuck it, let’s make an album!” So I’ve been working on that, but only very recently. I’ll let you know what happens!