So Is The Tongue - Ron Varod

I feel that progressive metal, like a lot of sub-genres, gets brushed under the contextual carpet far too often. Especially living in a country like South Africa, where it seems there isn't even room for sub-genres; let alone independent classification. Few bands these days push these boundaries, adding an array of musical influences into one exotic, uncharted sound, So is The Tongue was an experimental progressive metal band from New Jersey, formed in the fall of 2005.

Ron Varod was essentially the glue that held So Is The Tongue together, along with help from friends Matt Nolan, Justin Thouret, Alex Levey and Greg Meisenberg along the way. Releasing 2 full-length records; 'Torpid & Blight' in 2007 (with a vinyl reissue in 2009), and 'A Child Of Divorce' in 2012, -just before proceeding onto an "indefinite hiatus", So Is The Tongue got to tour their home country a handful of times before potentially calling it quits.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Ron about the interesting history behind So Is The Tongue, and his recent venture into the epic avant-metal world of Kayo Dot.

1) Crafted with great artistry and wrath, So is the Tongue's music is as intense as it is ardent. How did So Is The Tongue get together? And what is the meaning behind it's puzzling name?

Ron Varod: Post high-school, I spent about 2 years jamming with lots of random people from the internet around New Jersey. I actually had the basis of the first 2 tracks off of our first record brewing in my brain, and my goal was to find a band to help me flesh those ideas out.

The first line-up on these 2 songs consisted of our original bassist Matt Nolan, and a drummer named Phil. We jammed with Phil for a summer before he got too busy and I found our original drummer Justin Thouret on a new jersey musician message board.

When the band started I was really into These Arms Are Snakes, and did a lot of googling to find an equally long obnoxious artsy band name. “So is the Tongue” is from a passage from the new testament, I was more into the way it looked on paper and the way it sounded then what it meant. I still have people that make fun of it and say we’re a Christian band.



2) Would it be safe to assume that you are So is the Tongue's primary song writer? How does writing usually play out during a typical rehearsal?

RV: Yes, the band started with me coming in with 2 song skeletons with some meat on them. There were a few times in the early days where Matt or Justin had an idea for a riff or something that we would jam on. Most of those didn’t really have a direction, just a cool melodic Idea. I was inspired and writing all the time so it was just more productive for me to bring song skeletons into rehearsal, everyone mostly wrote their own parts and we all worked on the fine details together.


3) Your debut LP titled 'Torpid & Blight' was released in 2007, flourishing a fine blend of avant-garde, progressive rock and even metal influence. Thinking back, can you tell me about the recording process? How long did it all take to polish?

RV: Torpid & Blight was tinkered with for about 2 years taking a lot of breaks. We did all the drums at the jam room in Howell, New Jersey, then did everything else with our friend “Asian” Steve Ryan mostly at his house. None of us had ever recorded a record before, Steve included.

We spent a lot of time detailing the mix, and adding weird effects before a lot of instruments and vocals were even tracked. Lots of re-tracking guitars and vocals during the mixing process as well. We would spend hours on mixing something, then come back and decide we wanted to do some other weird overdub and put it an octave down and reverse it, and it would change the whole mix!

Steve got the gig of assistant engineer on The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ire Works, so we decided we needed to finish Torpid & Blight before he left to do their record, otherwise we probably would have tweaked it for another 2 years.

4) When writing lyrics, did you find that there were frequently visited subjects or did you tend to branch out in topic more often? What did those subjects typically deal with?

RV: I don’t consider myself a very good lyricist and it’s always been a struggle for me, even ever since my first band when I was 13. It could be seen as the lazy path, but I usually come up with a vocal melody (or a rhythm for yelling stuff) first and then fit words into that.

I intend most of the songs to be about something from my personal life but the vocal melodies usually call for other consonants and vowels that don’t have to do with the subject matter, so each song will have a couple of lines that don’t usually make sense to me but I think fit really well musically.

5) As a guitarist and song writer, would you care to list some of your early influences on So is the Tongue, compared to what influences you today?

RV: I think one band that really made me shift gears was Cleric. Their old band 3rd Rail was more of a really typical heavy band but when they shedded one of their guitarists, they changed their name to Cleric and started to go off into the deep end. I thought that only certain musicians were allowed to make music like that, so it was super inspiring to see my friends make really mind bending creative music.

At the time, I was still really into Glassjaw and a lot of other music from high school. Lots of Khanate too. I was obsessed with Kayo Dot after seeing them open for The Dillinger Escape Plan and Colin Marston’s old band, Infidel ? / Castro! (which Keith, now of Kayo Dot, played drums for).

I still love most of that music, but I might have become an old man since then, and listen to less and less aggressive music in my off time, like Anna Calvi and Telefon Tel Aviv and as I have my whole music listening life - massive amounts of Pink Floyd.

6) Top 5 favourite albums of 2012?

• Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel
• Dysrhythmia – Test of Submission
• Scott Walker – Bish Bosch
• Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind
• Emily Peal - Fine Fur Coat

7) A Child Of Divorce was released in early 2012. It saw a step in progression, as well some grooming when compared to it's predecessor. Was this in any way a conceptual release? What were you trying to achieve differently with this record?


RV: I found ‘Torpid & Blight’ to be a little bit too eclectic. Each song was jam packed with 100 different ideas that never really got the chance to breathe. Also, most of that album was first conceived with a much larger grandiose ensemble in mind. I thought I was going have a band with keys and electronics, but instead I ended up with a standard rock trio. There was supposed to be a B-Side alternate version of “After the Peel” that was more like my original idea for the band, lots of weird sampling and effects.




With 'A Child of Divorce', I became comfortable with having a rock trio setup and wrote specifically for that, and especially with Justin’s drumming style in mind. Alex Levey, our 2nd bassist came in with a very different and more aggressive, yet clean and technical approach, and then things really started to come together like they were sounding in my head.

Again the lyrics for this album were about vague personal things, but musically I put a lot of effort into the flow and arc of the record, whereas the first album was just a collection of songs we had at the time. The 3 instrumental-interlude tracks also have similar motifs that I think helped tie everything together as well.



8) As a new addition to the Kayo Dot sect, could you tell me about how that began? And how did you feel about the transition in song writing from So Is The Tongue to Kayo Dot?

RV: Kayo Dot had been by far my favorite band for years before joining, I’m pretty much like Marky Mark right now in that movie where he joins that band with Zakk Wylde. Anyway.

I subbed for a Kayo Dot show back in 2006, then another in 2010, and then a winter tour in 2011. I always thought I was just a sub, and I was happy to do so cause I love the guys and the music. After that winter tour, the show/tour offers kept rolling in, and I don’t think it clicked in my head that I was a member of Kayo Dot until fall 2012 when we started talking about making a new record.

Toby Driver is the main song writer in the band but I was surprised how democratic it was, not too much unlike So is the Tongue where we all worked on the arrangements together. Terran, Dan, Tim and Toby are assigned horn arrangements on a per song basis. I mostly learned and interpreted guitar parts that Toby wrote, and I helped arrange rhythm section stuff with Keith and Toby. I actually wrote all of the guitar parts for this long piano ballad off the new record that I'm super proud of.

9) On your facebook page, the latest status update reads as follows: "Right now we're on a little bit of a hiatus until further notice or until Coachella offers us fat stacks of money to re-unite". What initiated the hiatus? Was it partially due to your recent input to Kayo Dot, or was it due to a drifting apart in differences within members?

RV: In 2012 alone, the lineup for So Is The Tongue changed twice. After Justin was fired from the band I was left as the only original member and the only person who wrote the songs to any extent. The vibe of rehearsals and shows was not a positive one. We had an extremely unsuccessful (financially and otherwise) week-long southern tour in August that I think really killed it for me personally.

Nobody seemed to have the same excitement and commitment for the project, or the same goals. I think if I didn’t have Kayo Dot to fall back onto I might’ve pushed So Is The Tongue for a little longer, to try and keep the band together. But between Kayo Dot, and the solo gigs I was doing as Zvi, I realized I didn’t really need to have So is the Tongue to stay musically active, so I decided to put it to rest for now.

10) As for the last question, and besides the aforementioned Coachella proposal, would you ever consider reuniting So Is The Tongue? Or, what are the possibilities of a new release at some stage?

RV: I actually had a lot of ideas for a high energy So Is The Tongue EP that I wanted to work on, but the vibe with the last line-up just wasn’t there, so I never tried to work on those songs with them. I think if I found people that would be into working on that, and if there was funding for a recording somehow - I’d be really into revisiting those ideas again.

For now, I’m pretty content with the amazing Kayo Dot record we've just recorded, and I'm also working on a solo record of stuff I’ve been playing around town since I moved to Brooklyn last September. But actually, doing this interview has made me wanna futz around with some of those raw ideas I never got to  finish, so maybe you sparked something there, and I'll bring So Is The Tongue back from the dead - just with new organs.

Thanks to Ron for answering my questions, and thanks to anyone reading!

Catch up with So is the Tongue here, and stream or purchase their albums here.

Ron has also just recorded a new 3xLP with Kayo Dot, which is planned to drop in autumn 2013. You can preview the album here, and pre-order "HUBARDO" here.

Pirouette - Scotty Leitch

Formed in Coatesville, PA in late 2006, Pirouette is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Scotty Leitch. Starting out with a series of acoustic songs, Pirouette quickly expanded onto their much loved stirring sound, borrowing talent from close friends. Exploring the realms of genres like indie-rock and math-rock, Scotty has released numerous demos and EPs throughout Pirouette's lifespan. Their live performances were reportedly nothing short of excitement and thrill, including dance/sing-a-long sections and crowds strung in anxious awe. Unfortunately, Pirouette dissolved in late 2010, but also marked the birth of the cleverly named Little Pirouettes (featuring members of Little Kingdoms), fortunately, with the helpful aid of the internet, Pirouette will always exist, and Scotty will continue to impressively whisk us away with his noodly-twinkly goodness!

I was able to speak with Scotty on the fall of Pirouette, to the triumphs of Little Pirouettes:

1) What was the significance behind choosing the name Pirouette, and how did it all start?

Scotty Leitch: My ex-girlfriend Megan came up with the name Pirouette. We wrote songs together, and then we broke up. I liked the name, so I continued to use it.


2) 'Thinking In Subtitles' EP was released in 2007, was it recorded by yourself
completely, or did you have any outside help? Could you tell me a little bit
about the recording process too?



SL: I did it all myself, my brother sang on the song 'Revive'. Most of those songs were just drum tracks that I wrote music over. I used an Ibanez Ice Man and MG100FX.


3) Amanda Matyas seems to make a recurring appearance throughout your back
catalogue, how did the 2 of you meet, and how did you start making music
together?

SL: I stalked Amanda when she worked at the Exton Barnes and Noble. She came to my 21st birthday party/show. I freaked out, and worked up the courage to introduce myself. I moved in with her and her mother a month later. She sang to classical music, and it fit my songs perfectly. She doesn't sing anything now though, and that makes me sad.


4) Not long after the release of your first EP, 'Sometimes Sad Isn't Funny' was
born, which showcases even more tantrum fused indie pop than it's predecessor. Was it ever a conscious decision to follow the path of this genre, or did it naturally fall into place?

SL: At the time, there seemed to be 10,000 bands emulating the jangly-noodly-pop sound, and I wanted to separate myself from that scene. Also, the drummer who played on 'Sometimes Sad Isn't Funny' is the most talented I have ever worked with. A lot of the off-kilter ideas on the EP are a result of him and I just toying with song structure, meter, tempo, etc. It was definitely a conscious effort on my part to progress my song writing and expand on the ideas I already had. I've always enjoyed the odd parts of pop music.

5) What is your process for writing lyrics? "You're the world to me, and earth is just a place where we sit" is just one fragment of heartfelt lyricism heard in your writing.

SL: I work well with extremities. I would write best the day after I won the lottery, or maybe right after my pet cat died.


6) Being a multi-instrumentalist can only mean that you take influence from a
wide variety of genres and artists, would you care to share some with us?

SL: The band Allison Ranger changed my life. I saw their last show when I was a junior in High School. My english teacher was in a band with their guitar player. I'm also influenced by my Father, Rob Crowe, Wesley Willis, Zappa, Isaac Brock, Pavement, Tim Kinsella, Bowie, McCartney, Lil B, John Cage, and some others too.



7) What were your top 5 albums of 2012?

• Meshuggah - Koloss
• Deftones - Koi No Yokan 
• Alex G - Trick 
• Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory 
• mtthwrck - Pile High

8) After it's demise, Pirouette cleverly changed names to "Little Pirouettes",
featuring a member of Little Kingdoms and Pierce Jordan, and turned into a full time band. How would you say your writing has changed since this step? How do you feel about working closely with new members added to the line-up?

SL: Little Pirouettes is the product of myself, Jake from Little Kingdoms, and Pierce Jordan. It doesn't sound like Pirouette. It sounds like noodle-music, but it's earnest.

9) From an outsider's perspective, it seems that Pirouette dissolved quite
unexpectedly, what was the reason behind the step from the more 'solo-centered'
work, to the full-time band?

SL: We broke up because our drummer and bass player wanted to focus on their own band. That band is doing very well now.


10) Would you ever consider putting out future Pirouette material? Or will Little
Pirouettes continue to take over this role?

I want to put out one last Pirouette record. I have a bunch of songs that I'd like to show someone one day. I'd also like to yell things!

Thanks so much to Scotty for answering these questions.

/ / / / /

If you would like to download the entire Pirouette discography, go here.

If you would like to follow Scotty's work further, he has numerous projects you can find below:

• Little Pirouettes
• Ikey Heyman
• Rosie

/ / / / / 

Thanks for reading!

Double Handsome Dragons - Phil Mitchell

"Moondust sprinkled over a hive of vicious, flying insects who are engaged in a centuries old battle 
with the ancient beasts of folklore over possession of the best dance move in the universe."

This is what influenced Double Handsome Dragons. So wake up to a world of celestial harmony,
entomology and more bright blinking sky lights we've often brushed off ignorantly as earthly.

Double Handsome Dragons were an experimental 4-piece post-rock band from Peterburough, UK. Formed in 2007, their cross-hatching of genres range from electronica to screamo, and even a touch of indie-rock thrown in, all blended up together for all-the-more of an enjoyable listen. To date they have released 2 EPs, and 2 mini-albums, catching up on more progression than pioneers like Genesis and King Crimson would dare to admit.

It has been said that daily, they fought with potted plants and lawnmowers to get to their instruments, and sometimes they were even attacked. They have scars, and they feel safe and warm in their bedrooms. They also liked to travel to far away lands to play for decent, handsome people.

Unfortunately, Double Handsome Dragons disbanded in 2011, for reasons still unclear; the cloudy departure of a certain member, and an inspired effort at starting over fresh. Luckily, to clear some air, I got the opportunity to speak with guitarist Phil Mitchell on electronics, the advantages of home recordings and why red guitars are just better than the rest.

***

1) Double Handsome Dragons seemed to be quite an imaginative bunch. How did it all come together? Roots are always important.

Phil Mitchell - James and I are brothers and we started our first band when we were at school, with a friend on bass. We’ve played in a band together ever since. Our first band was called Tic, and we made experimental punk rock stuff – it was music to have epileptic fits to. One of our friends once said: “Tic were the best band and the worst band; often at the same gig; often in the same song” – that sums it up perfectly. Dan joined Tic as a dancer and backing singer. He used to strip to his underpants, paint himself purple, and jump about the stage on a spacehopper. Tic had several different members – we had Mark doing samplers, Dave on bass, and at times we had Joe playing bongos, and Will scratching on decks and playing a small guitar. Tic split up when a certain member starting turning up at band practice with a crack dealer in tow – bad times.

Simon was in a pop punk band called Coaster at the same time as Tic, and when that folded he was in a band with James called Superstar Hospital, which sounded a bit like Weezer. I joined a band called Sidearm (who took a lot of influence from At the Drive-in and Trail of Dead) and when our bass player left to move to London, we asked Simon to step in. Sidearm started to do less and less gigs so we decided to start another band – Double Handsome Dragons.

It took us a long time to come up with DHD’s sound. We wanted it to be instrumental because none of us could sing, and I really liked Mogwai’s song "Glasgow Megasnake". After about a year we had 5-6 songs which we recorded ourselves. They sound really basic compared to what we did later, but we’re still proud of them because we did it ourselves. We then went out and started playing gigs. And it turns out that people seemed to like it. So we carried on.


2) Growing up in Peterborough, how would you describe it's local live music scene? What were/are some of your favourite places to play? Is it somewhere you would encourage other bands to stop past on tour?

PM: Peterborough doesn’t really have a music scene anymore, but there were periods when it did. About 14-15 years ago, The Crown Pub was the centre of the scene. The Park was a good venue when it hosted the 'Club With No Name'. And most recently, The Glass Onion had amazing gigs. But these have all since closed now.

We put on gigs at The Glass Onion. It was a pub/community centre run by an arty crowd. The venue was small, and we couldn’t charge money at the door, but because the atmosphere and crowd were so great, bands didn’t mind playing for free. The best Dragons gigs were played here.

Now there’s only one venue and I haven’t seen a decent band play there in a long time. They’re not keen on having bands there unless they can guarantee a crowd which means you don’t get the less well known touring bands – certainly not bands I’m interested in. DHD refused to play there.


3) After releasing a few EPs and demos, Double Handsome Dragons released the mini-album titled "Lions & Tigers and HOLY SHIT WHAT WAS THAT!!??", swimming with delicious texture and a shattering, yet notable use of electronics. Was it ever a mutual decision to incorporate electronics into your music?

PM: In Tic, we used a lot of samples, so it was nothing new. We saw 65daysofstatic using computer backing tracks, and were intrigued with how they did that. Once we figured it out, we soon realized that it could make our sound huge; almost orchestral. There weren’t many bands using electronics in that way, and there still aren't that many today, but we loved it.  Creating the backing tracks meant using way more imagination than if we just played our drums and guitars. We all took turns playing the keyboard, or glockenspiel, or stylophone – whatever was lying around. We just wanted to sound a bit different from everyone else – every band does – and electronics were a good way to do so.

4) For the record, what was REALLY amongst all those lions and tigers? It's always kind of worried me a bit.

PM: If you read the description of such a beast, your eyes would swell up and burst. To speak it's name would tear your eardrums to shreds and make your brain implode - And for that reason I shall never say.


5) Your releases seem to stick to recurring subjects; Insects, animals and outer space. Where did the inspiration behind all of this come from?

PM: I guess we were influenced by our dad's generation's prog-rock concept albums. The ideas usually came from us just chatting between playing songs at practice. When we wrote songs they didn’t typically have names. Once we named one, the others would follow in a similar theme. Coming up with songs names was good fun. Some were really stupid though e.g. "A Swarm of Bears With Sparrows Wings"


6) Double Handsome Dragons released their self-tilted mini-album in 2010, which I thought was of remarkable quality. Again, a fine display of both involved instrumentation, and a sophisticated use of electronics. Could you tell me how this record fell into place? How long did it take to write and record? Where was it recorded?

PM: The songs were written in our practice space over a year. We always wrote the songs as a band without the electronics. We never wrote songs in the studio. The electronics always came afterwards. It usually took a while to write songs because we often made them too complicated for ourselves – although it’s a good way of improving your playing. It could get quite frustrating; especially if we were practicing after work and we’d all had a hard day. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have a fresh sound.

The songs were recorded in my spare bedroom, my living room, and James’s bedroom. We did it all ourselves. We figured that we could spend hundreds of pounds in a studio, and get something we weren’t happy with, or we could spend a few hundred on decent microphones and monitors, and spend as much time as we liked recording to get something we all loved. James is the one who puts in all the hard work with recording and mixing – he likes doing that kind of thing – I don’t have the right temperament. So thanks for saying it sounds high quality – he spent a lot of time on it. It seemed to take forever and I’m not actually sure how long it took to record in the end.


7) On your facebook page, you're listed as handling "Red guitars", what do you have against other colours? But seriously, What guitar do you play on?

PM: Red cars go faster. Red guitars just sound better.

I use a Gibson SG faded cherry red guitar. My Grandad gave me the money for it just before he died so it has a lot of sentimental value. It’s an awesome guitar, but it’s looking a bit worse for wear as I tend to play it pretty hard. I have a Fender Telecaster as back up too.

8) As a guitarist, would you care to name some of your personal influences while writing music? And which artists would the four of you agree on?

PM: Personally I took a lot of influence from At the Drive-in and The Mars Volta – they have some very nice sounding, urgent chords. I like the wall of noise that ..And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead produce. And then I like the epic loud endings of a lot of noisy post-rock bands like Mogwai and Russian Circles. The Japanese band Envy are one of my favourites – mixing hardcore and post-rock. I listen to a lot of music – I love discovering new sounds – so I take a lot of influence from all sorts of artists.

DHD didn’t really agree on much music. James and I have similar musical tastes, but he likes his hip-hop and drum & bass more than the rest of us. Dan likes classic rock and Primus. Simon likes Radiohead and Weezer. I think our different musical tastes helped formed the DHD sound. If a band all like different things, then you don’t fall into the trap of trying to sound like someone you all like.


9) Personally speaking, what are your top 5 albums of 2012?

• Cloud Nothings -  Attack on Memory
• Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
• ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Lost Songs
• The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
• Deftones - Koi No Yokan

10) Double Handsome Dragons went on to form a new project, There Are Ghosts, which is also coincidentally the title of a Double Handsome Dragons song. How does this new project differ to what you had been previously doing? How would you describe There Are Ghosts?

PM: There Are Ghosts is a little bit darker. And there’s a crazy man screaming over it. James and I are in the band along with Jay who played bass for DHD when Simon wouldn’t tour Ireland with us, and Shaun who sings. Jay was a big DHD fan and became a good friend, so when DHD split he was well up for starting a new band. We wrote some instrumental songs, but we all came to the conclusion that we wanted to have some singing – we had done the instrumental thing for too long – so along came Shaun, who we knew from some crazy local bands (Frisco Farr and Aotea). He’s also a wrestler. There are a lot of DHD fans who have bought into the new band's sound. We’re like a hardcore version of DHD.



11) What were the reasons behind the break-up? Was it more to do with relocation? Or did you all feel that your tastes had changed too much to continue under the same name?

PM: Double Handsome Dragons came to quite a sudden end, and it’s still a bit of a mystery as to why it all happened, but Dan decided to leave. We were having problems writing new songs and Dan stopped talking to us – literally stopped talking. We think he felt he wasn’t being listened to, but we couldn’t say anything right to him – whatever we said seemed to annoy him. He doesn’t talk to us at all now. He never even told us he wanted to leave; he just did.

We thought about continuing under the DHD name with Jay on guitar, but Simon wasn’t into it as much as he had been, so he took the opportunity to leave. That gave us the chance to do something different and now we’re loving the new band.


12) Would Double Handsome Dragons ever consider putting out any further releases in the future? What are your thoughts on bands keeping a "studio-only" ethic?

PM: I can say with almost certainty that DHD won’t be putting anything else out. DHD was the product of all four of us; it wouldn’t work without us all working on it and with Dan’s lack-of-speaking-to-us, that isn’t going to happen.

If a band has a studio only ethic then they’re not a real band. Real bands play live. If you don’t play live together you can’t bond together and studio ideas remain bland and uninspired – that’s my thought on it anyhow.

***

The UFO's and wasps may have left this planet, but for now There Are Ghosts are here to haunt!

Thanks so much to Phil for answering my questions!

"Killing and killing and KFC"