Back from their european tour, I've asked some questions to Arlie Carstens, voice, guitar and lyrics of Juno. As I've seen at their live show, the band on DeSoto melts the DIY and the experimental way of Washington's scene with semplicity and honesty in human relationships. You can also find the italian version of this interview.
Sodapop: From the first 7" it seemed to me that Juno had a good musical background. Before Juno, what is your musical history?
Arlie: I grew up with my sister and father; moving about every six months to new schools and towns all over Washington state and Hawaii. My dad worked for the same terrible company for thirty-one years; we went wherever he could keep his job with the company. Growing up that way was terrible but it made me used to moving and dealing with new people and difficult situations. It made me interested in the world; everywhere seemed normal and I always felt out of place. I tried to become an observant person. I got into skateboarding because it looked like fun and everyone doing it seemed about as crazy and willing to die as I was. Skateboarding lead to punk rock. At about age twelve, I became totally obsessed with punk and other forms of underground music. When I started going to punk shows I met people in the music community all over Washington State. It made me increasingly interested in writing, photography, traveling and skateboarding/snowboarding. I realized that my community was everywhere.
At about 15, I tried playing in hardcore bands; nothing that ever toured or made an impact outside of the small scene we had here in Washington. But I got bored with conventional hardcore music; it never seemed willing to change or experiment with new ideas and lyrical themes. So I very slowly taught myself how to play guitar; making sure to avoid learning how to play guitar solos or "riffs" and anything else that was "the right way to play guitar". I've always liked guitar bands that use guitars in unconventional ways; bands like Nice Strong Arm, Fugazi, My Bloody Valentine, Lungfish, MC5, etc. It took playing with a lot of different people, going to a lot of shows, and thinking about what I wanted the music to sound like before Juno came together. I knew I wanted the music to sound a certain way (no "lead" guitarists or "classic rock" imitations). I wanted something that sounded massive and enveloping, something that would take over the listener's mind and send them on a journey both lyrically and instrumentally. I wanted to do something that melded my love for punk rock with my interest in ambient music and lyrical songwriters. And I wanted to do all this with people who were funny and nice and who were interested in touring a lot.
Our guitarist/keyboard/organ player, Gabe, grew up in Houston, Texas and Alaska. His parents were hippies from Texas. Today, they maintain our website. His mom, Gaynell takes responsibility for making him into a musician - she raised him on Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones. At age 9, he moved to a small town outside of Seattle called Burien. As a kid he grew up listening to metal (Judas Priest and Iron Maiden!) and got into punk rock while learning to play jazz guitar. These days he loves listening to avante-jazz and lots of pissed post-punk, (Drive Like Jehu, Fugazi, Hot Snakes, Chavez). Consequently, he likes to write a lot of angular, unconventional guitar parts for himself. Jason (our other guitar player) grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. He likes a lot of ambient and experimental guitar bands, anything swimming in reverb, delay and distortion. He grew up on bands like My Bloody Valentine, The Smiths and Swervedriver mostly but he also loved a lot of things like Minor Threat and The Dead Kennedys. He also listens to old country bands and bluegrass music. Our drummer Greg grew up in Seattle listening to a lot of hardcore and going to punk shows. These days he listens mainly to post-rock and ambient music, (Tarentel, Ganger, Talk Talk). We often play with our friends, the bass players Nick Harmer (Death Cab For Cutie), and Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters), and David Broecker (The Prom). They all have musical backgrounds in punk bands and avante-experimental music.
It's nice to hear that you think we must have a good musical background. I'd never thought about it until your question. All of us listen to so much different music and have radically different influences, both musically and in life in general. The songs are a product of experimenting with these differences and cultivating common ground; trying to create something that sounds hopefully unique and interesting.
S: Juno lyrics talk about people, stories and sentiments: is there more fantasy or real life inspiration?
A: The songs are rooted in the lives of real people. But I have a background in writing and literature so while I'm interested in telling stories about the things that happen to people in the world around me, I'm also interested in story telling. I think of the sung (or spoken) content of the songs more as "short stories" than as "lyrics". I want to tell stories sometimes using just the facts and sometimes creating fictions based in facts and quotes. But I also want to use songs as a way to make sense of the things that happen in my life and in the world around me. Often the songs are reflective of a number of specific events. Sometimes the lyrics are personal or political and social. Often these different elements all collide within the body of one song, as in Help Is On The Way, or Covered With Hair. Sometimes the stories become a foretelling of future personal and political (and even spiritual) events as shaped by past and present events, as in The French Letter. Other times the songs are a complex meditation on questions perhaps only the Universe could one day answer; as in We Slept In Rented Rooms. Embedded within the language of the songs are literary, historical and personal references that would make sense perhaps only to a select few others and myself. It's often like publicly speaking in secret code. But I think that for a lot of songwriters it's this way. In order to keep myself interested in writing songs I have to write about new things in different ways.
S: A Future Lived In Past Tense is more introspective and nocturnal than This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes, what's the future direction of your music?
A: I don't think anyone in our band can answer that, or would even want to speculate. We write songs very slowly. For every twenty ideas we finish perhaps three songs. Sometimes we're in the mood to write massively long songs that sort of swarm over the listener and take a long time to unfold (January Arms). Other times we want to write songs that explode quickly and end abruptly (Rodeo Programmers). There's no set "kind" of Juno song. We try to make each new song do different things from the last. We try to challenge our own (and other people's) notions of what a song can be.
The
vision that we have for our band is that we not define what we are or what we will be. Rather, we should write and play what inspires and challenges us, as we're moving forward in life. One day we could have a song with just vocals, tubular bells and French horn - it would still be a Juno song. We could write an entire album of ass-kicking, loud guitar songs. We could write songs with just two members playing instruments (as in the song, Up Through The Night). Or we could have ten members play on a song. Depending on what the song needs anything is welcome and appropriate.S: Juno seems to me a very good live band and I've got the impression that you like touring and meeting new people and places, is it true?
A: In a community sense I think touring is very important. Being in a band is a wonderful, unique opportunity to meet all sorts of people from different places and social, economic and political backgrounds. It's a good way to strengthen community and arts among creative people. I'd like to think that it has made me a wiser and more patient person; touring has helped me to understand so much more about the differences and similarities in people. Touring is a humbling experience in very good, beneficial ways. From a musical standpoint, touring is important because it tests the strength of the songs and the resolve of the people playing them. Sharing the music makes it's place in the world stronger and more relevant in people's lives. Playing well in front of different kinds of audiences is gratifying; knowing that we can hold an audience's interest is a rewarding feeling. Giving people something to enjoy and remember is beautiful thing to do in life. It sometimes inspires people to be more creative in their own lives.
S: What's Juno future? Would you like to continue the record/tour way of life?
A: You're asking this question at an interesting time. We've just been on tour for the last 7 months so now we're looking forward to having some time off from playing shows and writing new songs. Juno should continue. But I think all of us in the band would like to keep doing some of the additional things outside of the band that we haven't enough time for. Things like writing, photography and non-tour traveling. So for the next couple of months we're excited to work on other projects. But really, touring and writing music is what we always return to when needing to save us from ourselves.
S: DeSoto is a very good label and from outside seems more a set of friends than a record company, is it true? What are the DeSoto bands you like more? And outside?
A: DeSoto is a record label. Kim and Bill are the owners. They just had a baby recently and soon want to stop doing their label. They've made a good decision for themselves and their new son; they want to make more time for being new parents. All of the bands on the label are supportive of their decision. It's now up to the DeSoto bands to figure out where to go next. Hopefully the transition will be easy for everyone. I really like the first Burning Airlines album, Identikit. J. Robbins is an amazing guitarist! And I love some of the songs on the Dismemberment Plan's Emergency and I. I haven't heard much of the new Shiner album yet but I really like their album from a few years ago, Lula Divinia.
What other bands do I like? Oh, this could take a long time: Nina Simone, Black Flag, Lungfish, Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout, Neurosis, Fugazi, The Smiths, Crass, Shannon Wright, The Talking Heads, Les Savy Fav, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Pitchfork, Red House Painters, Mogwai, Tarentel, Minor Threat, Smart Went Crazy, Arab Strap, Morton Feldman, Swervedriver, (early) Corrosion of Conformity, The Most Secret Method, The Afghan Whigs, Rein Sanction, Cat Power, Vic Chesnutt, Johnny Cash, The Beauty Pill, Rites of Spring, One Last Wish, Nice Strong Arm (!!!), Shellac, Guided By Voices, John Coltrane, Chavez, Brian Eno, Blonde Redhead... The list can go on and on.
S: I've read with interest your page on Juno website about last 11 September; what do you think about New York and the war now?
A: As soon as we came home from this most recent European tour I returned to NYC for three weeks to visit friends. The city is still trying to recover from the attacks; I think it'll take many years. Many people will have residual stress and depression from it for a long time. The air quality of the city is still terrible; a fine dust of chemicals and building materials swirls around in the wind making visitors feel ill. New Yorkers have already gotten used to coughing and itching their eyes all the time. Missing persons photos are still all over the sides of buildings and phone booths. Many victims haven't been found or identified. But generally people are getting back to their lives, trying to do what they can to help each other and rebuild their city.
As for the war, I think it's disastrous. While I understand what motivated the U.S. into the action against Afghanistan, I don't support the military action in most regards. I recognize that when something like Sept.11th happens in a nation (any nation) - retaliatory violence is to be expected. While I'm not a pacifist, (because I do think some people should die), I'm not a warmonger either. I'm a great believer in "individuals" and "ideals" but I'm not a supporter of religions or governments. I think following leaders is painfully stupid and most often leads to no good. I've never been a patriot for the U.S. and I see no justification for becoming one now.
As a U.S. citizen I have to examine the historical facts and say to myself: to be historically accurate, it is true that the U.S. is a nation that at times has done a great deal of good in the world. True, it always does good on its own terms and for its greatest self-interest. As well, it certainly has done an amazing amount of bad in the world. So of course something like this was eventually going to happen.
In many ways I would examine the argument that many people have expressed (as heard on the streets domestically, within the international community, and within the U.S. Government) that the U.S. Government in large part has brought this event on itself and its citizens. Anyone who would choose to dismiss this argument is choosing to be blind to the actions of U.S. foreign policy vs. the needs of cultures and religions throughout the rest of the world. Many people, even while expressing their sorrow and unity with the U.S. have had to admit that they saw this coming for a long time. The political red flags and signposts have been available for all to see since the 1970's. Now they're no longer off to the side of the road. Now the signposts can't be ignored. Planes have fallen from the sky and two of the world's tallest buildings have turned to dust in downtown Manhattan.
Not that the U.S. (or any nation for that matter) should be terrorized and butchered, but the rest of the world experiences terrorism on a daily basis. Now perhaps the U.S. for the first time in its short history will understand more intimately what its like to live the way many others have to. And accordingly, perhaps that will force Americans to reevaluate what makes life worth living, and it will cause us to change our role in the world. I say "perhaps" because this is not likely; at least not any time soon.
Particularly right now with a jackass like George W. Bush as President, America will be an arrogant, violent nation. Thankfully though, someone other than G.W. Bush was around to make the very smart move of cultivating international support for its invasion of Afghanistan. The "war" has been conducted with a great deal more precision and attention to avoiding civilian casualties than in past conflicts.
But I have to admit that I've never been so embarrassed for a U.S. President as I have for G.W. Bush. He's barely qualified to run a McDonald's restaurant. He's bluffed and bullied his way through this crisis. On television we've all watched him get a very quick, public education on the history of U.S. foreign policy and the diversity of the world's cultures and religions. His comments about "The Axis of Evil" reveal how remarkably unskilled and childish he is. When you call entire countries part of "The Axis of Evil" you are basically accusing every citizen and governmental official of those countries of doing "evil," and therefore guilty in the eyes of America. People all over the world are saying, "But who is America to judge?" People are saying, "Who is America to call anyone "The Axis of Evil?"
This kind of talk from G.W. will only result in causing those citizens and governmental officials to turn hard against the efforts of the U.S. and its citizens; perpetuating an escalating cycle of mistrust and violence. It only serves to incite more people against the U.S. all over the world. And it will only cause U.S. citizens to fear cultures and religions they don't understand. It fosters isolationism. His ineptitude is beyond imagination; we couldn't invent a more terrifying and hilarious person to be president during a time like this.But neither do I think the terrorists did a noble thing. It was a monstrous act. It was wrong. From a religious standpoint, it goes against many very fundamental Muslim beliefs; it betrays the teachings of Allah. Even if you choose not to examine the spiritual and religious ramifications of the terrorist's acts - at the very least it was a crime against humanity. A cruelty so massive in scope it cannot be defended. So I don't cheer for the terrorists. I do not cheer for any side in this conflict. As a human being I feel sorrowful for my species and I mourn the lives lost. The vast majority of our world's citizens and leaders aren't progressive enough to respond in a peaceful fashion.
In no way do I condone the terrorist acts. Yet, if you were familiar with the late-20th Century history of Afghanistan (and U.S. support of its war with the Soviets), and if you were aware of the size of the U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia - then you undoubtedly would agree that an event like this was destined to take place. But I think a "War on Terrorism" is an absurd way to respond to the present situation.
When a small force wants to go to war with a larger foe the most valuable weapon they have is the element of surprise. The "surprise attack" is the smartest and most useful weapon that terrorist groups have. It will be impossible for the U.S. and other nations to wage a war against terrorists. The whole point of terrorism is "terror"; to strike without warning, to send immediate fear and panic into the targeted society. A terrorist cell can be many people or one person. Having the U.S. and its allies going to war with entire nations in an effort to crush "terrorism" won't be effective in making the world a safer, more rational place. It'll add to the already existing grievances many people in the world have with U.S. foreign policy and economic and military dominance. It may win the U.S. some new, short term allies (like Pakistan and Russia) but these nations will very soon want the U.S. to assist them in their own "terrorist" problems. We run the risk of seeing justifiable people's uprisings renamed "terrorist acts", as with the Chechen rebels in the former Soviet Republic of Chechnya. Russia may soon call upon the U.S. to assist in its fight against the Chechen's because Russia doesn't want it to become its own country. But the Chechen people have a right to fight for their sovereignty from Russia. This sort of thing could turn into a situation all over the world where people who rise up against their governments are called "terrorists". We need to be very concerned about how the term "terrorism" is applied.