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Multi-headed magic
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Locals Black Feelings rose from the ashes of les Angles Morts a year and a half ago and have quickly solidified into one of Montreal’s most promising up-and-coming bands. Extending themselves sonically instead of merely playing the noise card, Black Feelings borrow quite heavily from pop music and traditional forms, with melodies emerging out of the din, but also manage to hit left of centre with some modern, driving psych mixed into their occasional noise squelch. With a record already in the can, a seven-inch slated for a U.K. release and a spring U.S. tour in the middle of being booked, Black Feelings are quickly gaining ground. But for the moment, they’ve completely switched gears and temporarily reinvented themselves as a power drone band called Ancient Spirit Overdrone. A piece of the same name is broken up into three parts and employs 13 additional musicians including three ex- members of AIDS Wolf and folks from Red Mass, Wax Attic, Preying Hands and more. The Mirror spoke to Black Feelings drummer Owain Lawson over the phone. Mirror: What I really like about Black Feelings is that there is an underlying pop element to the music, but its starting point seems to be noise and psychedelia. Owain Lawson: We are trying to write pop songs, but at the same time have the songs go through this filter we’ve set up that makes it impossible for us to write a standard pop song. For us, writing a pop song is more like a spectacular failure. M: How did the concept of Ancient Spirit Overdrone come about? OL: It’s something that we talked about for a long time. We really like minimalist composers like Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, and last summer, I was reading this book about Aleister Crowley. The two elements just seemed interesting. We really wanted to marry the elements of experimental music with the sex magic, drug rock ’n’ roll type of thing. Black magic was always associated with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and metal, but I think it’s time that it happens with a new kind of music and uses different channels. M: I would assume anything to do with the dark arts would work well with drone music because of its primal and emotionally assaulting qualities. OL: Definitely, and it definitely has a ritualistic, incantation type of feel that just lends well to chanting, which we use in the piece. I think it also has a sexual feel that just seems to come out in drone music. M: What are the differences you’ve noticed working with Ancient Spirit Overdrone, compared to playing in Black Feelings? OL: Black Feelings is really about getting these weird feelings out, and while this is kind of the same thing, Ancient Spirit Overdrone takes a completely different approach while trying to reach the same conclusions. I think this drone piece, though, has really influenced Black Feelings and made us think differently about how we approach songs now. I guess we’ll still have to wait to see just how much of an influence it will really have on us. M: Was organizing 16 people difficult, musically or otherwise? OL: (laughs) Oh yeah, it’s crazy. It’s working out though, because all of the personalities of the people involved are really focused and at the same time pretty relaxed. It’s definitely a lot more organization than any other band I’ve ever played in. WITH GRAND TRINE AND MILANO |
