Interview: The Slats

Hailing from parts of Iowa and Minnesota, The Slats are a 3-piece who explore themes of heroes and supervillians, mythology, and politics through experimental rock that borrows from almost every genre of music, to create a satisfyingly schizophrenic sound that one must experience to appreciate. I had the opportunity to discuss music and politics with dueling guitarists Brian Cox and Jon Hansen of The Slats before they unleash their boisterous barrage of twin guitar at the SubT this Friday, when they headline Bandwidth.

So, the band is stationed in both Iowa City and Minneapolis? Who stays where? How has this dual residency affected your music and subsequently your recording?

Brian: I'm in MPLS, Jon is in Iowa City and Mark is in Des Moines. There are pros and cons to this...the biggest challenge is being able to get together and write new stuff. And unfortunately, we can't just go play a show in MPLS or Iowa City at the drop of a hat...we have to schedule everything we do a month or three in advance. The upside, is that we're really productive and focused when we get together!

Jon: I think that the challenges of geography have, in part, inspired the other-worldliness of Slat music and rhetoric. We were talking like this and writing music like this even before we all moved to different cities, but now, more than ever, the entity known as The Slats doesn't really exist in any one place. It's more like a mythical space that comes into being only when we're all in the same room of a studio, or in the van on tour. The Slats is in reality not a band in any traditional sense of that word; rather, The Slats is a series of conditions that, when met, open up a gateway to an alternate reality. Like the light bridge to Asgaard or something.

Where does most of your songwriting take place? How do you approach the process of creating music?

Brian: One effect the dual-residency has had on our songwriting is that either Jon or myself bring whole, near-completed songs to the table, rather than coming up with stuff altogether. I'll do a demo and send it to the guys. Then Mark will record the drums onto my 16-track machine. Then Jon and I will experiment with guitar sounds and variations on the guitar lines. I like the effect this process had on Boom Patrol...the songs end up sounding more "song-y" and solid, with less instrumental wanking. Sometimes, you can play a song together for months before recording it and think that it's working. I think doing it this way gives you a more honest look in the mirror.

Jon: I originally joined the band as a co-producer of 'The Great Plains of San Francisco', and in many ways I still see that as my primary role. Brian writes songs that I help to arrange and present to the world. And sometimes I bring in a song that I think Brian would like, or that I want a B. Cox guitar solo on, and Brian does his tweaking to my stuff. We call this arranging and tweaking process 'The Slat Machine.' Songs that Brian wrote or songs that I wrote go into it and Slats songs come out the other side. There are some songs that arise spontaneously out of all of us playing together, but those have been even fewer in number since we've all moved to separate cities. I like those kind of songs, but I also think that the set-up we have definitely forces us to focus on creating solid songs, not just making fun noises.

Do you have any major influences on your sound?

Brian: Influence-wise, we're kind of all over the board. I'd have to go song by song. The single biggest influences on me for Boom Patrol were a tape by NS Eliot and the Kool Keith Diesel Truckers record.

Jon: There's a lot of different influences in the album. People often try to compare us to other bands, and we get all kinds of comparisons. Apparently there about 60 bands that we sound like, none of which sound at all like each other. I think you can hear all those things in the music...but they're not really influences as much as they are cultural reference points. And those references come from all over the map, from the Ramones to Rick Springfield.

That being said, I've been influenced by a lot of the great Midwest bands that I've known personally, or that I've met at shows. They've influenced me personally and professionally, even more so than musically. They helped me realize that you don't have to live in LA or New York to have something valid to contribute, and that all you really have to do is get on the road and start taking it around the country.  Bands like House of Large Sizes, Tripmaster Monkey, Cursive, Mousetrap, Mercy Rule, Opium Taylor, Simon Joyner, Brainiac, Frontier Trust.

I can't stop listening to the track "Iron Man" on your new album 'Boom Patrol', what's the attraction do you suppose?

Brian: Thanks. It's pretty anthemic, I think. It's catchy. It has some balls. Listening to it and doing some fist pumping may make one feel like their own balls are bigger...

Jon: I love how much people don't say anything about Black Sabbath! People seem completely fine calling this song Ironman, as if it's just brushed aside all that has come before it. Ozzy, your crazy and I love ya, but I'm sorry, you just no longer own Ironman.

It's a combat song. I think a lot of people, especially in the US, think of their day-to-day life as a struggle, on some level or another. It's just you against the world, right? Lord knows that's how I feel half the time. So I like songs that make me feel like I'm getting ready for battle, and all obstacles are going to succumb to my will. I realize how militaristic that sounds, but there's actually a lot of joy and fun in that kind of song, too. I think Ironman says all that. It's goofy and all, but it's also declaration of one's intentions not to be stopped, and it feels good to exercise that kind of position.

On the 2004 release "Pick It Up", you have a politically charged song "I Believe Timothy McVeigh", if you had to write a new song about someone in today's political climate, who would it be?

Brian: It would be about G-Dub and the 06" Midterm elections. It would be called "Took U to the Woodshed." Stylistically, it'd have to be alot like "Somebody Get Me A Doctor" off of Van Halen II.

Jon: Well, "Ignatius" is kind of a political song. It's sort of an amalgamation of several political personalities, comic book villains, and aspects of myself. It's the answer to the question: what if Karl Rove was an anarchist?

There's been a lot of misunderstanding about "I Believe Timothy McVeigh", and in some ways I regret ever calling the song that. The government has even taken notice of it, and I'm probably on some terrorist watch list now -- which is ironic, since that's exactly what inspired the song. I had just written my congressman to protest the administration's systematic dismantling of the constitution, and all of the signals in the media were telling me that doing this would somehow make me un-American. I mean, Rumsfeld (good riddance) came out and said it; political speech itself was being called a terrorist act. And this was right around the time that they were getting ready to execute Timothy McVeigh, and I just felt that he was being used as a scapegoat, a boogey-man. Yes, he did do something evil...but it's also true that he's not a person with any kind of power beyond the crime that he committed. His trial and execution was in many ways used to insulate other people in power from negative attention. I don't think Timothy McVeigh was a great guy or anything, and I'm certainly not a white supremacist, but just because he's guilty doesn't make him not a scapegoat, you know? At that time, saying anything other than "kill, kill" regarding this human being was somehow the most unsettling thing you could do. And the most unsettling thing you can think to do is usually good material for rock songs, right?

The problem is that as time moves on, the subtleties of the political climate at any one moment tend to fade, and now all that's left are the words and the title and the name 'Timothy McVeigh' and people interpret that in light of what we know now, which has changed a lot since the **** trial.

The lesson from this is maybe I wouldn't write a song about a political personage now, because it's hard to anticipate how other people will react to those names, or what other meanings those names will accumulate after they've been used in your song.  I thought about this when writing Ignatius, and tried to make it about techniques of power, rather than about the real individuals that use those techniques.

Now, I rap about politics at just about every show. Most of these verses never get recorded, unless someone happens to have a camera in the audience. So they're always up-to-the-minute and they never get old, cause it's new all the time. That's one of the great things about hip hop, is its ability to be both critical and immediate. I don't have to throw out whole songs because Rummy's out.I just freestyle about the next putz that they're going to try to put in his place, instead.

By the way, did I mention that I, for one, am still mad about the Iran-Contra affair?

It's important to stand behind your beliefs and raise questions about happens in our world, I appreciate you keeping your voice on the matter so strong. In other news, the Slats were named a recent Spin.com Band of The Day. Congratulations. How has the response been so far?

Brian: That's been great. There's a place on that SPIN site where people could leave comments about us. Lots of people were really good to us on there and said nice things. There was only one A-hole. I appreciate it!

Jon: It's great that the folks at Spin seem to really get what we're doing. It came out of the blue for us, but we're really appreciative of the attention. And our fans have been really behind it, too. Initially, I was paranoid that it might actually backfire somehow and offend people, but I guess that our fans just understand that we've been working our asses off for a few years now, so there's no way this could be any kind of sell-out.

What can the Bandwidth audience expect from your set on Friday?

Brian: We will descend upon the Subterranean with extreme prejudice. We'll crawl up into the Subterranean, into it's innards, and bathe it like a hot magma enema with a twin guitar bazooka assault. Grills will be rocked.

Jon: Our lungs have become accustomed to the thin mountain air, thereby infusing us with preternatural strength when we breathe in the oxygen-rich air that most mortals take for granted. Thus, with a force commensurate to that which forged the great canyons of the American West, shall we strike together steel and magnet, resonating violently through both flesh and bone. It should take about 45 minutes.

You've been through Chicago before, do you have any favorite parts of the city?

Brian: We typically stay in Roscoe Village. There's a great little danish shop across the street from where we stay thats really cheap and good. There's also the Village discount, where I usually pick up 6-8 $.60 t-shirts. I love Village Discount!

Jon: Roscoe village is our Mt.-Olympus-away-from-Mt.-Olympus.

Finally, who have you been listening to these days?

Jon: The new Aceyalone and RJD2. Also, this MC from Iowa City named Animosity. A band from Iowa City called Lipstick Homicide. A band from Ohio called Statutory Ape. The Miracles of God. The Tanks. I'd say most of the music that I listen to is live. Fortunately, we've been playing with some great bands lately, so I've been listening to really great music.

Brian: I've been listening to Gene Defcon's 2005 release "Throw Up & Die." That's awesome...it's 46 songs and they're almost all good. Also been listening to the newer Wax Cannon double cd..."Someone In Wisconsin is Praying for You" (and it's not me).

Thanks so much for your time, guys! Definitely looking forward to your set on Friday!

Download:The Slats - "Ignatius" - (MP3)

Download:The Slats - "Teena" - (MP3)