terrorbird
Event, et al.
Famous Class Records
Okay now... Famous Class? Record label, art collective--what is it exactly?
A lot of people have been asking us that… I would be content to call it a team. we started out so naturally that to call it one or the other seems forced. We were all working on our individual projects in 2003, my brother Perry and his friends at LASSO doing gallery shows, my buddy Johnny doing video art, and myself with the Huxtables. We were all helping each other out with different aspects of different projects and when we all noticed how much we were doing together it just made sense to call it a collaboration. We all got involved in each other's projects, the books and cds and stuff were born out of that. To me the whole point of Famous Class is that we're not just releasing CD's.
Tell us a little bit about the upstate NY scene. Seems like such a huge stylistic difference between Boogie Boarder and say, The Kamikaze Hearts. How does everything co-exist up there?
I really love it here, there's something to be said for being a little isolated when you're creating. It's allowed us to fart around a little, figure out what we wanted to be doing and just work on that. Being here lets us focus, our house is a factory, we practice in my room and silk-screen in the living room. Our bathroom doubles as a darkroom for coating our screens with photo emulsion. If we lived in a place with more distractions we might have only half of our material. On top of that everyone here is so fucking supportive of the scene, every show is packed and the crowd is wild. I don't really know how all the styles work but they really do… people here are really open to different things you know, I remember during my first week at school the Kamikaze Hearts played on my friend's WSPN radio show and I went to the studio to hear them play. I never really listened to anything like that before but it was fantastic. Last year we played a couple gigs with a country band, it sounds weird but it somehow made sense.
The art side clearly takes a front seat with your records. Explain the art side of Famous Class and why it plays such a key role in your whole aesthetic.
The way we do things, the comics with CD's and DVD's was born out of the idea that we really wouldn't be making all that many. We recorded the Huxtables album and wanted to give our friends something that represented all of our creative efforts. They were put together as gifts first, and they were all pretty personalized. When we realized that we had made something that we wanted to share with a larger audience we knew we couldn't change the format at all, it was the whole point, so everything is still made by hand and that's still our basic aesthetic. the only idea idea behind our approach is that the music comes from the point of view defined by the drawings and the drawings represent the world that the music was written for. that's not a big idea but it's what we're working with and people seem to really respond to it. If you think those books are easy to put together though you're fucking crazy, a lot of time goes into it but we do it out of love and we wanted to make something that shows how much we enjoy what we do. We don't think about the music as an object that just needs some container in order to be sent out into the world. I mean the digital distribution of music probably does lead us as much as everyone else to think in those terms but, still, we're trying to do something different and something that's worthwhile not just because it's different.
Tell us about some of your influences. When we hear & look at your releases, early Troubleman, Load Records, etc. comes to mind. Is that far off?
I would always read these things were bands would be asked what their influences were and they would give some bullshit answer like they don't have any or they only listen to R Kelly or something. I guess we were really into the DEVO aesthetic and took that pretty far at times but we've slowly grown into our own thing. And from the beginning it was deerhoof and load and a lot of things like cass mccombs that in a general way sound like the music we make. But maybe that was just me... it's a hard thing to really say you know, Mark is really into The Dead, Willie is always playing jazz lines, Sam is listening to Bjork every time I go into his room. The music is interesting because we're all into different things. But then there's everything else and that's harder to describe but I know it has something to do with Tommy Boy and pizza.
College radio--I know Famous Class is somewhat tied into WSPN. Why do you think college and non-commercial radio continues to play such a key role, and why you find it valuable?
Almost everyone involved in Famous Class is or has some point been a DJ on WSPN… Its like in Wayne's World when Benjamin is trying to convince Mr. Vanderhoff that he wants to sponsor the show, he's like "Mr. Vanderhoff, this is your audience, I mean look at them, they're the same kids that line up at Noah's arcade every weekend," …or something like that, you know
Snakes Say Hisss! and Boogie Boarder are currently at radio now. Tell us a little bit about both of those bands, and tell us what's on the horizon for Famous Class.
It's funny when we were forming Boogie Boarder 3 years ago both Sam and Jamie from Snakes Say Hisss! "tried out"…we played with Sam in some on campus janitor's closet and Jamie drunkenly crashed a practice and tried to take Paul's keyboard. having two bands has resolved this tension to some degree.
Our next release is the Huxtables, which oddly is the first record we recorded. It's really my baby, the idea that we started the whole thing with. We're remixing it and its going for radio adds in early 2007. We should have a whole new wave of records out this fall, we're working hard and I think the bands have been evolving in an exciting direction. Snakes is going to record a little 4 song album this winter right now we are thinking an Egyptian theme, something about british tomb explorers, tan shorts and white socks, but who knows. Boogie Boarder is writing songs for the next album, we're going to start recording it soon. The Huxtables are nearly done with the follow up to A Touch Of Wonder, I am really excited for this album, we've played a few new songs at our shows and people really responded well. We're designing new shirts that we are going to print up in the next month along with some posters. We have about 4 hours of fantastic video work that I want to release sometime soon…maybe in the next book.
Thanks for your time Cyrus. Last question--many stations have asked when Famous Class might be coming to their town. Any plans for a tour any time soon?!?!?!
I'm working on that, right now that's my number one priority, setting something up for the summer for all the bands. Patience, I promise we'll have a better answer soon. In the meantime write me an email, we're always looking for something to do on the weekend.
A lot of people have been asking us that… I would be content to call it a team. we started out so naturally that to call it one or the other seems forced. We were all working on our individual projects in 2003, my brother Perry and his friends at LASSO doing gallery shows, my buddy Johnny doing video art, and myself with the Huxtables. We were all helping each other out with different aspects of different projects and when we all noticed how much we were doing together it just made sense to call it a collaboration. We all got involved in each other's projects, the books and cds and stuff were born out of that. To me the whole point of Famous Class is that we're not just releasing CD's.
Tell us a little bit about the upstate NY scene. Seems like such a huge stylistic difference between Boogie Boarder and say, The Kamikaze Hearts. How does everything co-exist up there?
I really love it here, there's something to be said for being a little isolated when you're creating. It's allowed us to fart around a little, figure out what we wanted to be doing and just work on that. Being here lets us focus, our house is a factory, we practice in my room and silk-screen in the living room. Our bathroom doubles as a darkroom for coating our screens with photo emulsion. If we lived in a place with more distractions we might have only half of our material. On top of that everyone here is so fucking supportive of the scene, every show is packed and the crowd is wild. I don't really know how all the styles work but they really do… people here are really open to different things you know, I remember during my first week at school the Kamikaze Hearts played on my friend's WSPN radio show and I went to the studio to hear them play. I never really listened to anything like that before but it was fantastic. Last year we played a couple gigs with a country band, it sounds weird but it somehow made sense.
The art side clearly takes a front seat with your records. Explain the art side of Famous Class and why it plays such a key role in your whole aesthetic.
The way we do things, the comics with CD's and DVD's was born out of the idea that we really wouldn't be making all that many. We recorded the Huxtables album and wanted to give our friends something that represented all of our creative efforts. They were put together as gifts first, and they were all pretty personalized. When we realized that we had made something that we wanted to share with a larger audience we knew we couldn't change the format at all, it was the whole point, so everything is still made by hand and that's still our basic aesthetic. the only idea idea behind our approach is that the music comes from the point of view defined by the drawings and the drawings represent the world that the music was written for. that's not a big idea but it's what we're working with and people seem to really respond to it. If you think those books are easy to put together though you're fucking crazy, a lot of time goes into it but we do it out of love and we wanted to make something that shows how much we enjoy what we do. We don't think about the music as an object that just needs some container in order to be sent out into the world. I mean the digital distribution of music probably does lead us as much as everyone else to think in those terms but, still, we're trying to do something different and something that's worthwhile not just because it's different.
Tell us about some of your influences. When we hear & look at your releases, early Troubleman, Load Records, etc. comes to mind. Is that far off?
I would always read these things were bands would be asked what their influences were and they would give some bullshit answer like they don't have any or they only listen to R Kelly or something. I guess we were really into the DEVO aesthetic and took that pretty far at times but we've slowly grown into our own thing. And from the beginning it was deerhoof and load and a lot of things like cass mccombs that in a general way sound like the music we make. But maybe that was just me... it's a hard thing to really say you know, Mark is really into The Dead, Willie is always playing jazz lines, Sam is listening to Bjork every time I go into his room. The music is interesting because we're all into different things. But then there's everything else and that's harder to describe but I know it has something to do with Tommy Boy and pizza.
College radio--I know Famous Class is somewhat tied into WSPN. Why do you think college and non-commercial radio continues to play such a key role, and why you find it valuable?
Almost everyone involved in Famous Class is or has some point been a DJ on WSPN… Its like in Wayne's World when Benjamin is trying to convince Mr. Vanderhoff that he wants to sponsor the show, he's like "Mr. Vanderhoff, this is your audience, I mean look at them, they're the same kids that line up at Noah's arcade every weekend," …or something like that, you know
Snakes Say Hisss! and Boogie Boarder are currently at radio now. Tell us a little bit about both of those bands, and tell us what's on the horizon for Famous Class.
It's funny when we were forming Boogie Boarder 3 years ago both Sam and Jamie from Snakes Say Hisss! "tried out"…we played with Sam in some on campus janitor's closet and Jamie drunkenly crashed a practice and tried to take Paul's keyboard. having two bands has resolved this tension to some degree.
Our next release is the Huxtables, which oddly is the first record we recorded. It's really my baby, the idea that we started the whole thing with. We're remixing it and its going for radio adds in early 2007. We should have a whole new wave of records out this fall, we're working hard and I think the bands have been evolving in an exciting direction. Snakes is going to record a little 4 song album this winter right now we are thinking an Egyptian theme, something about british tomb explorers, tan shorts and white socks, but who knows. Boogie Boarder is writing songs for the next album, we're going to start recording it soon. The Huxtables are nearly done with the follow up to A Touch Of Wonder, I am really excited for this album, we've played a few new songs at our shows and people really responded well. We're designing new shirts that we are going to print up in the next month along with some posters. We have about 4 hours of fantastic video work that I want to release sometime soon…maybe in the next book.
Thanks for your time Cyrus. Last question--many stations have asked when Famous Class might be coming to their town. Any plans for a tour any time soon?!?!?!
I'm working on that, right now that's my number one priority, setting something up for the summer for all the bands. Patience, I promise we'll have a better answer soon. In the meantime write me an email, we're always looking for something to do on the weekend.
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