Interview: American Men > <

 

Bombarded by a never-ending flood of mediocre indie bands, one can quickly become disillusioned by skinny jeans-clad Hoxton hipsters fabricating weak and meek music. It is true that some may have bought a Moog synth with their Dad’s pocket money. Others might even wear shiny outfits on stage, but end up resembling a Nathan Barley extra rather than the rock star they pathetically aspired to be. For all you disheartened souls in search of inspiration, there is now a cure.

Meet American Men, a fresh signing to the Hudson Mohawke-associated label LuckyMe - a label that aims to f*ck with genre and sensibility. American Men add to this starry roster a unique trio of true musicians and sonic explorers. While listening to the songs on their upcoming LuckyMe release ‘Cool World’, Rivmixx fell in love with the layers, dynamics and different energies their sounds evokes - it’s not quite prog, it’s not quite electro, it’s not quite rock. They say it’s ‘music written by robots and played by humans’. Rivmixx couldn’t get hold of the robots, so we spoke to the guys instead.

Rivmixx: American Men, please introduce yourselves.

C: “I'm Claude Speeed. I play keyboards badly, and guitar passably, and do a lot of the electronics and production. I also sing a wee bit.”
P: “I'm Paul. You can call me Scottt Chevrolet. I do rhythms on a drum kit.”
A: “I'm Ali Lloyd, AKA Alilloyd. I also play keyboards and guitar, and provide a bit of geek-factor.”

R: What’s your history - how did you meet and when did you start working together?
 
C: “We all used to be in a futurist/math band called RUSSIA (started by me and longtime friend Tony Jaguar forever ago). It was fantastic, but I think we literally put too much effort, and hope, and energy into it, and it totally imploded. Later, Paul, Ali and I went to a music festival in Barcelona together and realised how much we missed being in a band, so decided we should start something as soon as we got back.”
P: “RUSSIA was one of those bands that was bursting with awesome potential but was just ahead of its time or something. I think we've managed to take some of that potential across to American Men.”
A: “Claude was one of the first people I met in Edinburgh who liked similar music to me. A short four or so years later, he gave me a copy of the first RUSSIA demos and they were amazing. Luckily they needed a bass player. Lucky me! I think we also clicked really quickly on a personal level too.”

R: You're a part of the LuckyMe collective, but your sound is distinctively different from other crew members like Rustie and Hudson Mohawke. How would you describe your music?
 
C: “As it's synths/computers and live drums I tend to see it as a clash of synthetic and man made; something dynamic, and bright and shining versus something monolithic and singular. It's meant to sound like lasers shining from a collapsing skyscraper.”
P: “I think it's a bit like music written by robots played by humans.”
C: “We should have stickers on the front of the record saying that.”
A: “I'd say math rock through an electronica filter. Our "four to the floor" bits tend to be more like 15/8 to the floor.”

R: Which artists would you say influenced you the most?

C: “In general there's a big crossover in what we like, but there are definitely some stark points of difference too. I guess, like most musicians, we have an enormous list of music we feel we're influenced by (far too many to get into!). Over the long term though, for me it's been largely instrumental rock bands like Eska and Laeto and their American influences, along with Warp Records/Rephlex electronica. I'm also quite sentimental, so pop music from my childhood and my friends various bands have always had a big impact. More recently, I've been knocked out by one or two drone records; particularly Emeralds 'The Overlook' and the Oneohtrixpointnever double album.”
P: “'90s indie rock is the basis for everything I do. If it wasn't for Sebadoh, Pavement and Guided By Voices, I probably wouldn't be in any bands. Electronic music is just as important though. I think the first time anyone hears Boards of Canada, you're going to be intrigued, right? I've been listening to a lot of Cornelius recently as well as Jim O'Rourke's minimal electro stuff. Beyond that, I'm also a sucker for obscure French and German late '70s new wave stuff. There's so much of it on the internet these days. It's awesome.”
A: “I feel like Steve Reich is most responsible for making me understand what qualities I look for in music, and so hopefully he is my main influence. The aforementioned Tony Jaguar has been a massive influence on me, both in RUSSIA and with his solo stuff. Plus a whole lot of math rock, post rock and electronica, especially Music Has The Right To Children, which was really something of an epiphany for me.”

R: ‘Cool World’, your debut release, is out on LuckyMe soon. Have you got any other release planned this year and can we expect any exciting remixes?
 
C: “Yeah I'm mega excited about ‘Cool World’, we're finalising artwork now so it feels really real now. To be honest I haven't given much thought to what comes next other than just getting out and playing shows. That said I think we probably have enough material to record another record straight away but we'll see what happens.”
P: “We're all really happy that it's coming out. I think when we started this band, it was more of a 'virtual' band but Claude took the bull by the horns and decided to move things forward a bit and I'm glad he did. It would be cool to bring something else out this year. There's a good chance we will, time permitting.”
A: “Everything with this band has been so different to any I've been in before, particularly the record being done before we've even played live. Doing gigs will potentially change our approach to writing and recording, so I wouldn't necessarily want to rush anything. I imagine exciting remixes are on the horizon though!”

R: Finally, you are all Scottish – so why call yourselves American Men?
 
C: “Well initially it was kind of meant as a joke. When we were in Barcelona we kept coming up with these really terrible band names; not even funny, just really really bad. American Men was a shop round the corner from the flat we were staying in, I remember the sign used this horrible art deco font, and it sold all these weird American style old man clothes, so it was a candidate. When we got back, I put together a few songs on my computer, and made a MySpace so the other two could hear it, and I think American Men was just the first of those names that jumped into my head, and it kind of stuck. If you think it sucks, bear in mind some of the alternatives were Ali You'd Make a Terrible Bisexual or Hottt Mom-body.”
P: “I've spent days looking for a photo of that shop window on the internet to no avail. I really like the name. It's ridiculous. Who calls a band American Men? Also, I think a small part of all of us really wishes we were living in a futurist New York or something, gliding about on hover boards and dressed entirely in mirrors.”
A: “It's such a bad idea in so many ways. We've made ourselves ‘ungoogleable’. And because we are not women, we don't even properly subvert the preconceptions that people may have from our name. We're subverting the subversion. Oh, and I should point out that I am only half-Scottish, and grew up in England. As Claude pointed out to me earlier, I do like cricket, after all. He's wrong though, I don't like cricket. I love it.”

Photographer: C. Kernohan

Written by: Maya M

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