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Flying Douglas
| SDP: Who's in
the band and what do they do? Matthew: So many people have been a part of creating this machine and making it work, if I fail to mention everyone I would be doing a huge disservice. But then again this question does pertain to the present tense so here we go: Matthew |  |
SDP: Briefly describe your music.
Matthew: When we record, our intentions are to create something immediate that moves people. Sometimes it moves their feet, sometimes their minds, sometimes memories, something needs to stir an upwelling of some kind or it is a useless "for the sake of" kind of thing. But as a band member you swallow songs in pieces rather than the whole, I can always only half listen to music, half feel it, because the other half is the knowledge at which it is created, the key, the pitch, the frequency, the effect. It is hard to still feel something when you are pulling the strings. So that is recording.
Live, we tend to focus more on energy, it is important to have positive energy, I think people tune into that. Like when a band is smiling and cheering each other on, even laughing. I hate all that pretentious serious nonsense that makes each band member not even look at each other during a performance, its like looking in the eyes of a sexual partner during coitus, it is a little awkward. Our sound is always dependent on money and time. The more money, the more time, usually the better the product. But we are all musicians working not working musicians.
SDP: What's your live show like?
Matthew: Lately we try not to have any down time (silence is not always golden, sometimes it loosens the momentum), we integrate ambient samples right when the song is done and try to correlate each sample to the key of the following song, thereby letting each sample run into each song and each song into a sample. But whether that is a good method I don't know. We've tried many different kinds, we even used to synchronize a movie to a song. We are extremely aware of the audience, their needs and concerns and our own. How to start a set strong to warm up the vocals and loosen the wrists. No more than one slow song a set. But then again how many people are listening to a live set to pick it apart for cracks, or for praise, or to learn from it; I always learn new things watching Dance DiMaster movement. Everyone is just trying to get drunk and laid at a bar anyways.
SDP: Why should people listen to your band?
Matthew: Because we are giving a real honest working class effort, there is no corporate sponsor telling people to listen to us, no ipod advert on the tele, this is music created from miles of time, reels of time, time we could of been at the beach, reading, or doing anything else normal
citizens do than sitting in the garage polishing up a harmony or guitar lead, melody or transition. This was done to create something people could enjoy and relate to, even learn from. I am a firm believer that music re-teaches each generation its own complexities, its own elasticity.
Being a musician should be a respectable occupation, even if you are not making any money, unfortunately the respect sometimes gets correlated to the money. People should listen to us because we listen to them, we adore each musician that has come, gone and stayed, and try to be a touchstone for some kind of relevance.
SDP: How long have you been a band
for?
Matthew: Three years.
SDP:
Where did you get your name from?
Matthew: A song by Blonde Redhead (they
too got their name, like others, from another band's song: DNA's "Blond Redhead")
SDP:
What makes Flying Douglas different from every other band out there?
Matthew:
Nothing. Everyone is doing their own thing, and thank God no one gives up. We
are genuine, maybe that makes us different. By different I don't want to ever
say better, everyone functions differently, pop is for these people or these days,
disco here and there, metal for this and that. Flying Douglas is just a band trying
to make something with a life span within its genre, refurbishing its rock/alternative/ambient
genre,
giving new blood to old forms. If people dig it we are fortunate, if
our audience was born in Iceland, or born ten years ago or ten years from now,
we are fucked. Its really a question of where and when. We are different in Bali,
but very much the same in San Francisco.
SDP:
Do you have a single song that has a special meaning to you?
Matthew: "Stucco
Jungle," which we have yet to record good enough to let people listen to
it. True story, except the personification. It is about this lion I saw at the
zoo, and he is all strung out on drugs to subdue him, his hair is matted and dreaded,
he doesn't look scary at all. So these kids come up and say "That's not a
lion, let's go find a tyger that is feeding". What people want from this
lion, brought up in the conditions of a poorly run zoo, he cannot offer. He is
not a lion. Lions always represent power and might; it was nice to subvert that
and make a comment about what about the natural world you really see in captivity,
what ocean you see playing at the shore, the wild can never be contained and if
you want to see it you have got to risk it etc. The lion could be a metaphor for
me I suppose, but I like it better as a comment on human beings tendency to harness
the wild, make it inoffensive yet bill it as the same.
SDP:
What bands, people, books, etc. have had the biggest influence on your band?
Matthew:
Jimi Hendrix and Max Roach opened me up to noise. Smashing Pumpkins and Bob Dylan
taught me that a song is elastic and can be played in many different forms, different
keys, different speeds etc. Parents who have supported me emotionally only so
much to not disillusion me. As for books: The poetry of Galway Kinnell, Shoerenburg's
Theory of Harmony, the fiction of Henry Miller and Lawrance Durrell, Robert Yates.
The plays of Shakespeare and Stoppard. Huge influences on me musically were Chopin's
nocturnes and Johnny Greenwood's Body Song. We are products of our influences,
and the bigger the sponge the more that comes out when you squeeze it. I could
write a book devoted to listing my influences.
SDP:
What about the band are you most proud of?
Matthew: The fact that the only
original members left are the drummer and myself, and we have stuck it out, weathered
some real shit storms and now are playing better than we ever have before, but
I suppose that is what every musician says. The old songs were once the new songs
too.
SDP: What is the biggest thing you want to improve?
Matthew:
We are trying to integrate a female keyboardist/harmonizer into the band. If this
goes as planned we will be doing beautiful harmonies together. Basically I want
to improve by adding vocal harmonies to our live set. I do vocal harmonies when
we record but live I cannot sing for two people. From a form and structure angle,
I would like to diversify. Be able to slow it down and not give a fuck or speed
it up and stay afloat. Same thing, are we witty enough, good enough, eager enough
to write new and different songs? Same battle has always been present.
SDP: What CDs are currently in your stereo?
Matthew:
itunes mix CD with a couple of songs from Tom Wait's Real Gone, Eliott Smith's
Basement, Manuok's self titled album.
SDP:
Do you have any closing comments?
Matthew: Music is the most dangerous
habit I have ever copt. It is healthy and on the surface appears manageable, but
will turn a man inside out and leave him broke burying huge dreams with a shovel
in his backyard when he is far to old to be doing such a task a twenty year old
should be doing.
Official Website: http://www.flyingdouglas.com/
mp3s: http://www.purevolume.com/flyingdouglas
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