Loner rock

>> Slo, solitary stylee with Idaho's Jeff Martin

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Nine years on and seven albums in, L.A.'s Idaho is one of the only remaining bands born of the '90s slo-core movement, what some would call the softer side of indie rock. Thing is, Idaho is technically a one-man band, with all the songs on their (his?) latest album Levitate written, recorded and played by founding member Jeff Martin (with a little help from a new friend, but more on that later).

"I've generally had a collaborator hovering about in the past, and it was nice to have somebody with some objectivity there all the time," says Martin of his less solitary recording days. "It's not hard for me to write music and it doesn't take very long to come up with ideas, but this time I really had no idea what I was doing. The first time anybody heard it was when I played the completed songs to John [Berry] and Dale [Stewart]. I was worried, but it really moved John and he expressed that to me, so I thought, 'Oh, thank God.'"

Berry, the other half of Idaho's founding team and still Martin's sidekick on stage, now runs Idaho Music with his girlfriend Stewart. Although the label deals exclusively with all things Idaho, Martin doesn't rule out expansion.

"We'll see, maybe if this record does okay we'll be able to work with other artists. It's exciting because all the bases are covered, we do everything that a major label does. It's a lot of work, though, with no staff at all, it's ageing everybody. Still, I'd much rather do it this way than work with some big corporation."

Being no stranger to playing the underdog in the massive, messy music industry, Martin decided to help out fellow musician (and Idaho Fan) Alex Kimmel, a recent USC grad who accompanies Martin's piano and discordant guitars on Levitate, marking the young drummer's first recording.

"I'm all for getting new blood in, and I knew drummers but they were all too expensive or too busy," says Martin. "He sounded really eager and it was fun because I knew that he already loved Idaho. When I don't get that feeling that musicians have a real connection to the music, I don't find it very conducive to making an inspired contribution."

Martin has also enlisted help from scenester musicians in the past, such as REM/Beck drummer Joey Waronker and his buddy Melissa Auf Der Maur, with whom he plans to write and produce her impending solo album.

One-off collaborations aside, Martin has always considered making music for film as an alternate path for the future, having scored the 1998 indie film How to Make the Cruelest Month. But Martin found the reality of scoring fiction to be less than tempting.

"I think that the best films have very little music in them, and I don't know enough people in the film industry to find work that would appeal to me. It sounded like a good idea, but it seems I'm just destined to make these Idaho records every year, which is fine."

With Animaltown at la Sala Rossa on Thursday, Oct. 11, 9pm, $10