artanker convoy
So you’re into a spot of gardening then? What’s your preference, the “natural” fertiliser or the manufactured stuff?
We sow the seed, nature grows the seed, then we eat the seed. Natch.
OK, so I know the band name originates from Artanker, your drummer, and I guess that the convoy is the rest of the band, or am I grossly misinformed there? Were there any more names flying around?
Yes, you’re right, Convoy is the band. A couple of us were in a band called Stratotanker some years back. Then I saw the film “Convoy” starring Kris Kristofferson film, and I decided that should be the name of the new band. Good metaphor I figured: a group of independent vehicles traveling in the same direction. Doug Pressman, the great Brooklyn session man, suggested that I include my name in the band’s title. Seemed like good advice.
These questions are quite dull so far, almost like a quiz on myspace or something, so who was your last phone call from?
Our UK tour manager and Heron Recordings kingpin Jarin Tabata just let us know that he posted a bunch of tour photos on an ftp site for us. That guy was the best. Speaking of myspace, look for some of our tour pics to show up there in the coming days. I think I also some video from our UK tour is up on youtube.
What can you tell me about you that I wouldn’t know from hearing (and seeing) Cozy Endings? In other words, do you have a mission statement of some sort?
We basically came into being because Maura Baiocchi, a controversial Brazilian choreographer who’s work was banned by the military dictatorship in the early 80s, asked me in 1999 to compose music for some new dance works. So our idea was always to create a kind of soundtrack that would be accompanied by a visual element that someone might provide. We started with Maura, her husband Wolfgang Panek and their company Taanteatro, we went on to work with the New York dance/video company MUX, and also the brilliant and sweet video producer Danny Ellen.
We also have this kind of open source idea with the music alone. We’re always pretty excited by producers and djs that have remixed our tracks. We’ve had a couple of great remixes by Inflagrante, Grand & Columbia, and Brenmar (Bill from These are Powers)
The Wire said you had “tinges of Miles Davis’s early groups, a nice comparison?
Any Miles Davis comparison is pretty wild, but the Wire actually said “Miles Davis’ early 70s groups,” which is way different, because we’re certainly not like any traditional jazz thing like his early early groups. But we are pretty big fans of his early 70s music, and real big fans of his wife from back then, Betty Davis. Her records are unbelievable, hot and nasty, and she was the one that introduced Miles to Sly & the Family Stone and got him thinking about going in the direction he ultimately took in the early 70s, that herky jerky punk jazz funk. Love his drummer from then too – Tony Williams, and his band the Tony Williams Lifetime.
I really enjoyed the MUX collaborations on the DVD, can you tell me a little bit about those guys, I gather from the website they have some fingers in some pies?
Yes, MUX has some amazing talents. They’ve got this mad genius Russian video trickster named Gene Trotsky who mastered this process called video feedback, which produces about the most unique projections I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure he’s a Bolshevik. And a Columbian video artist, Andres Libros, who is writing a soap opera about his childhood friend who’s father was a Cali Cartel head honcho, till the Cali Cartel was taken down. Nicole Wolcott is the choreographer and did most of the dancing as well; she’s also the Artist Director of Kegwin and Company, which is probably the most highly acclaimed downtown nyc dance co. on the scene today, I think they have a New York Times reporter on the payroll or something, their press is so good. Bruna De Araujo is a high powered producer with a discriminating palette. You best make your art sensational when you’re working with her, or she’ll have none of it. And Andy Personette kind of became the mastermind of the whole MUX/Convoy collaboration, integrating all of the personalities and approaches to visual performance. But he has taken time off to pursue another goal, which is to create a manufacturing/design company that will be totally environmentally responsible. If anyone can do it, he can. The Japanese modern dancer Naoko Kikuchi and New York dance executioner Tory Sparks have also lent their talents to MUX/Convoy collaborations.
Also, do you always play with them, is that a good experience? I guess the audience get a lot from it, and then you too?
Nah, it sucks. Those guys are egomaniacs. I’m kidding! We don’t always play with MUX, it’s actually pretty rare and special. I think the audience gets a lot out of it because these guys are all about creating a visual experience, which we would just don’t think about inside Convoy much. We’re just a band on a stage, but MUX creates a room filling dream world. It’s pretty amazing to hang with them while they are developing a project, they are like a band really, fighting with each other, everyone has a different way of moving forward, a visual gang. We dig it a lot on stage because we get into a feedback loop with them, where they are responding to the music, and we start responding to the dancer, and she’s responding to the music and triggering video feedback, and it just carries you away. Wish we could do it more, it’s been a long time since we did a show together. Also, sometimes MUX will use our music in independent productions like the video for "Backfires" on the DVD. In that case, they had a carefully choreographed light and dance piece that could not suffer the unpredictability of an Artanker Convoy live performance. That one knocked people out at the Dance Theater Workshop and Symphony Space in NYC.
Can you tell me something about instrumentation you use? I’m a bit geeky like that, synths especially.
Chris Seeds: Live and on recording I've been using a Fender Rhodes 73 and a 1980's vintage Korg CX3 for organ. I run both at times through wah, distortion, tape delay, and phaser effects.
Michael Tritter: Live I use an EMS Synthi A both as a sound generator and to process other instruments, as well as a modular system made up of primarily Plan B modules but also including Serge (Bananalogue) and Doepfer. The
modular is a sound generator (CV and gate from a ribbon controller) and also does processing on Artanker's drums (which also trigger other stuff like phase shifted white noise).
Sprecht ihr deutsch?
If you mean Amon Duul, word. If you mean the language, Wir Wünschen!
In a recent review I wrote I called you “Dope Funk”, do you have any problems with that?
As long as we’re getting reviewed we’re happy. I think you’ve got a pretty good sense of what’s going on.
Your label, The Social Registry, they treat you nice? What have you done so far with them?
The Social Registry is the best label ever. It really blew our minds when they proposed releasing Cozy Endings as a 2 disk (cd/dvd) combo at basically only normal "cd only" price. They were also very cool about helping us get to the UK for an 8 day, 8 show tour in January. They have some sweet bands too! These are our Social Registry releases:
The Ocean Parkway EP (12inch EP)
Mature Fantasy (cd)
Cozy Endings (cd/dvd combo)
Soon: The Classes (7in)
There’s also a free podcast that they put out, which I think you can find through iTunes?
Actually, what did you do so far in general?
In addition to the SR releases, we are experimented with exclusive download releases like the EP "Verboten" on dancetracksdigital - they specialize in high quality downloads for djs, hi-fi -ers, and anyone that wants above average sounding mp3s and wavs. I have also been told that you can find some video podcasts of our shows on punkcast.com. If someone knows the url for our stuff there, please send me a link.
Do you have a Wikipedia page?
I don’t think so.
Can you tell me a little about your composition process, is it an “all throw ideas in and see what happens” situation or something a bit more structured?
It’s kind of like you go out with your friends into the woods and find yourself a large interesting stone, and you all haul it back to the house. Then you start carving away at it, and a beautiful sculpture emerges. It might happen quickly or take years. Was the beauty in the rock or in our subconscious? We basically sit down and record everything we do. We mic everything now, it takes forever. We save the good stuff, do some editing and arranging in pro tools and then burn some CDs once we like a mix. Then we listen to the mixes we created and learn from what we did. But sometimes that very first time was the best, and sometimes those recordings make it on to a record.
The album artwork is quite striking, eye catching. Can you tell me something about why you chose that? Who’s Nicolle Wollcott?
Valentina Ackerman, the graphic designer who did the "Mature Fantasy" cover for us, came to practice one day with a vision for the Art Direction of "Cozy Endings".
She said: "I see... a woman's butt. In panties.
We said: "We're listening."
"Here's the thing, though," she said. "This is the most important part. You can see through the panties."
We said: "We're listening."
"Now, you can see through them, but you can see the tag. That's the key. You can see the tag on the panties through the panties!"
So we were thrilled to let Valentina execute her vision.
Nicole is the MUX choreographer and she has danced with Artanker Convoy live on many occasions. She dances around in her underwear all the time. She; our saxophone player, Jake, and Valentina ran the photo shoot that produced the images in and on "Cozy Endings".
And of course the obligatory questions, what’s the plans for the future?
There is a 7 inch coming out as part of the Social Registry’s “Social Club” series, and that will come with bonus tracks that will be available only through the Other Music online store (digital.othermusic.com). You can sign up for the Social Club at thesocialregistry.com, and you’ll get 7”s from lots of bands on the label for one low price.
We’re going to release another dancetracksdigital exclusive EP, this time just remixes, soon.
Artanker Convoy/Cozy Endings
