Dutch courage

>> After almost three decades, Holland’s experimental art punks the Ex keep it
together by tearing it apart

ANARCHY IN THE EU: The Ex

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Subversive music legends the Ex, who chose their name specifically because it could be spray-painted on a wall quickly, originally formed out of the squatter scene in Holland in 1979, influenced by anarcho-punks Crass. Members drew straws to find out what instruments they would play and, in the punk spirit of the day, began releasing records on their own imprint. Quickly outgrowing its punk roots, their music soon became more challenging, with discordant guitars, inventive rhythms and instrumentation, and elements of Eastern European folk and other world music. The Mirror spoke to guitarist Andy Moor over the phone from his home in Amsterdam.

Mirror: You have influenced quite a lot of bands—musically, as well as in being early proponents of keeping your music independent. Do you see that influence in others?

Andy Moor: It’s actually harder for us to see it than when people point it out to us. It’s kind of like when you have a child and somebody tells you that he has some of your physical traits, but being the parent, it’s a lot harder to see.

M: The band has constantly evolved since its punk rock beginnings in 1979. Where do you see the band’s music now?

AM: The band has really changed somewhat radically, especially over the past five or 10 years. We were playing kind of guitar-oriented music in the past, and have now really been looking at music from Eastern Europe and other places, and let that come into our music.

M: Are you starting to see more people getting more interested in non-commercial music now?

AM: Yeah, I think we are living in a really exciting period right now. There is more free jazz, interesting DJs and world music being heard because the accessibility is just endless. Ten or 15 years ago, the [major] labels had all of this power, and now they don’t have it anymore, so obviously music that is not money-motivated is going to start surfacing more.

Out with the old

M: Members of the Ex have always had side projects and collaborations with a lot of artists from varied musical backgrounds. Has that been a contributing factor to your longevity and constant musical evolution?

AM: Yeah, I think playing with other musicians and being open to new ideas can only feed back into the life of the band. We don’t think in short term, and we know that this is our life and this is what we do, so when you go off to play with other people, you always come back with something more to add to the band. Also, we don’t really work song by song when we tour but come up with one whole set and, as soon as that set gets a little tired, we will throw out all the songs and start all over again with no repeated songs. The nice thing about that is that we feel like a new band because it feels like we are starting over again. It can be a somewhat fragile and scary situation, but it seems to work for us. With our old songs, we kind of leave them behind to the point we don’t remember how to play them anymore.

M: Do you guys have a set process for composing music?

AM: Most of the songs start off as improvisational moments, and then we start working them into a form in the rehearsal room. We’ll throw ideas in a pot and then start building. It’s a very organic process as we really don’t have any clue on what form songs will take until they are done.

M: Is there a challenge to capturing the band’s spirit in the studio?

AM: I think we have a harder time trying to translate our music on CD. When we go into the rehearsal space, we’re not thinking of making a CD, but more about creating a live set of music that we are going to play for people. When we record our records, we are just recording our live set, so for people who really want to figure out what the band is about, I would recommend they see the band live as opposed to just buying a CD. We really feed off an audience and that will affect the intensity that we approach a set with. If we were suddenly only playing to 10 people who didn’t really like what we were doing, I don’t think we would be doing this for very long. We’re stubborn but we’re not stupid.

With Rhythm Activism at la Sala Rossa
on Thursday and Friday, June 21–22, 9 p.m., $20