Tale of a Whale

>> >> An attempt at harpooning Lateef Martin's polystylistic project

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Ordinarily, it's Mirror policy to make music writers interview themselves when they want a plug for their band (recall, please, the Cummins vs. Cummins fiasco). In the case of Lateef Martin's Beached Whale project, though, I just had to ask the questions myself. For the last year and a half, Martin's been on about this thing, alluding to it as a comic book, a band, a company, an art collective and who knows what else. Beached Whale has apparently gelled into a 14-member band, which Martin describes thusly: "If flip-hop had an orgy with outrock, neogothic-spacejungle and electrotribal-cyberfunk in a bloodbath of angst, Beached Whale would be the love child." On the eve of the band's debut performance and CD launch, at the Amalgastylee Massive party, I demand that this orgy be explained.

Mirror: So what exactly is Beached Whale, finally?

Lateef Martin: It started out as a comic book storyline, in which the main character and I have a lot of similarities--a different version in another reality. In the story, which follows him from age 15 to 45, he starts a band called Beached Whale. It goes through five stories, and we'll be doing an album per story.

M: The music's really improved since you first played me a ghetto-blaster recording of you single-fingering it on a Yamaha.

LM: I only really started writing music about a year or two ago. I'm a comic book artist first, I've been drawing all my life. Writing music is recent, but music's always been in my head. It's a matter of getting better equipment and having a lot of people help me out, people both supportive and reliable. Special props to James DiSalvio, who helped me out big-time, and to Zoobone. There's so many others, I can't even list them.

M: Thing is, music this polystylistic needs a central focus, a central persona, which it's really up to you to provide. Do you think you're up to that?

LM: Well, five albums of material, the five stories, are pretty much written up in one form or another, whether it be lyrically, musically or beatboxed on tape. I leave messages on my answering machine with the beatboxing first, then take that, put it all together and compose them. So the tracks are already done, it just comes down to interpretation by the rest of the band. Some things I'm really anal and specific about, others I'm more loose, so everyone can put their own flavour in. Before you know it, the track's written by Beached Whale. The central focus is always there, though.

M: What's up with releases?

LM: We'll have a disc for the show, and this summer we'll be working on new tracks--an irrelevant term, because new for everyone else is old for me, shit that's been in my head for years. We'll also be getting a Web site up with MP3s, and keep releasing stuff through the year, EPs and such, hints about what we're up to.

M: Beyond recordings, what are your plans after this show?

LM: This is the big one, so all the shows through the summer will be much smaller. Our next big, big show will be on Halloween night, because that's my favourite night of the year. I hope to God it's a full moon. :

With Willfully Obscure, Phonologic, Rhythm Mercenaries, Shadoboxerz and more at Cabaret on Friday, June 23, 9pm, $8