:::::::::::::::: June 2009

The World/Inferno Friendship Society: More of a Wine Drinking Band

April 25^th of 2009 proved to be quite an excursion for Audio Magazine’s intrepid reporters, Laurel Kalman and Eszter Zimanyi. A three hour drive from the University of Delaware had finally brought them to their destination: a small club called Chubby’s in Red Bank, New Jersey. After a good ten minutes of searching for the discretely located club, our reporters found their way inside and sat down with The World/Inferno Friendship Society’s Singer/Lyricist Jack Terricloth and Bassist Sandra Malak to talk about music, fans, parents, and everything in between.

Laurel: So I have one really random question I have to ask.

Jack: Sure

Laurel: Growing up in Bridgewater, New Jersey, what did you do to entertain yourself, because I’m from there and growing up my friends and I would ask each other “do you want to go to the diner, or the mall?”

Jack: Well the mall wasn’t there when I grew up so it was the diner almost every night. A funny story about the mall, they were building it while I was in high school and we would always go there and move all the markers around. So I like to think we delayed the mall being built by at least a year. We also figured out how to hotwire the bulldozers and we would move those around as well, so yeah.

Laurel: I asked that because I was at your show “Addicted to Bad Ideas” at Webster Hall and some kid told me that I wasn’t from Bridgewater because I didn’t know there was more to do than go to the mall or a diner.

Jack: There used to be a quarry in Martinsville which we used to hang out in all the time. We squatted there pretty much, and part of it fell down and then they knocked the rest of it down, but it was a punk-rock crash pad.

Laurel: Ah, so if only I was like twenty years older.

Eszter: Way to make them feel old, Laurel!

Sandra: We are old. We’re a thousand years old.

Eszter: No, no. You’re only as old as you feel Sandra.

Sandra and Jack: We feel a thousand years old [laughs]

Laurel: So, what is the answer of the day for ‘what does The World/Inferno Friendship Society sound like’?

Jack: Oh oh, what does Inferno sound like today? Let’s see. I would say Louis Prima. Period.

Eszter: I know that you guys have had a lot of members come and go in the band, and I’m wondering: how much do the other members of the band contribute to the creative process?

Jack: Whoever shows up gets their say; whoever doesn’t show up doesn’t get their say.

Eszter: Lyrically, do you do all of it?

Jack: I do the majority of the lyrics. Occasionally someone will throw a line in or I will steal something from somebody. But yes for the most part I write all the lyrics.

Eszter: Do you ever wish you had a more constant line up?

Sandra: We do actually, we’ve had a pretty solid crew for several years now. We only have interchangeable members for certain tours that we do. Maybe somebody can’t make a couple weeks of the tour, so they’ll change out, you know, and we’ll have substitutes for people. So there is actually a solid crew; I think it’s becoming more of a myth that we have interchangeable members. They take turns, but they’re pretty consistent.

Jack: Yeah, I’d say there is a solid community of about fifteen people that play with us.

Laurel: Do you guys ever have trouble fitting on stages?

Sandra: We like each other…

Jack: It’s fun to be close to each other.

Laurel: I was at the Ottobar last night and all I could think was ‘I have no idea how they are all going to fit up there’.

Jack: Actually I was wishing Hess was there last night because sometimes when I can’t stand up I just lean on him, and he wasn’t there so I ended up falling over.

Sandra: I like when we’re tight on stage. It feels more cozy and we feel each other’s sweat.

Jack: Remember the night when the stage was too big and we actually—

Laurel: Mr. Small’s in Pittsburg? I actually heard about that from someone. He was like “they actually looked too small for the stage”.

Jack: I looked around like ‘where is everybody?’ [laughs]

Laurel: Was there a defining moment when you realized World/Inferno had become bigger than the band and had become its own scene or culture that it is now?

Jack: Very quickly actually. It took on its own life within six months of this happening. Very quickly I realized that I was not in charge anymore and I was just a band member, not a band leader, which is fine because I feel I don’t want to lead anybody. I think everyone should do their own thing. World/Inferno took on its own life probably three seven-inches in, so definitely before the first record.

Eszter: I absolutely didn’t know about you guys until I met Laurel and she sent me some videos of a documentary…

Jack: Oh which one? The one about the kids?

Laurel: Yes, the one that was very focused on the culture surrounding the band.

Eszter: Yeah, and I watched that but I actually was kind of like, terrified by the intensity of your fans and I was wondering if the intensity of your fans ever kind of scares you? I hear that they have a bunch of rules for what dances to do during certain songs…I was like ‘Oh God’.

Jack: They don’t frighten me, no. I know I’m afraid of knives, I’m afraid of needles, I’m afraid of snakes, I am not afraid of teenagers.

[all laugh]

Sandra: The dance rules are actually kind of cool. It reminds me of the 50’s where every dance had a title, like “now we’re doing the mashed potato!” or “now we’re doing the Saigon kick!”

Eszter: Yeah. They’re very involved, which is cool.

Sandra: I take it as a compliment, so it’s not frightening.

Jack: I encourage it, and will continue to.

Laurel: With a fan base as dedicated as yours, how does playing new songs on tour go, when they don’t know the words or what to expect? I feel like it’s very different from the songs in which everyone sings along.

Jack: That’s a good point. We have to keep playing new songs because we’re like a shark. If you don’t keep moving, you die. I think, actually, everyone has been very good about youtube-ing the new songs and learning the songs within a day of us playing them; which is often very funny because a lot of times the lyrics aren’t done yet and so the kids are singing different lyrics than the ones I’m singing because I’ve changed them.

At this point, Jimmy, a staff member at the club, interrupts the interview to ask what kind of beverages the band would like. He offers a list of different beers, and Sandra suggests that the band is more of a wine drinking band.

Eszter: Do you guys get that for free? Man, let’s start a band Laurel!

[all laugh]

Sandra: It’s not exactly free, I mean, we end up kind of paying for it in the end. It’s just that it appears to be free which is comforting.

Eszter: Yeah. I think, you know, the delusion of it being free is nice.

Jack: It does come out of our pay eventually.

Sandra: Which is why we’re paid so little, because we drink so much.

Eszter: In today’s age obviously a lot of people are downloading music, downloading music illegally. Records aren’t being sold as much since people are getting stuff on the internet. So I’m wondering how you define success as a band since so much of it depends on touring now, and also if you’re content with where you are right now as a band?

Jack: I am totally pro people downloading songs. I think information needs and wants to be free in order to better the culture.

Laurel: Weren’t all of your songs up on your website at one point as a free download?

Jack: They were actually, and we only stopped doing that because it was starting to cost us money to have all the data and info hosted on the website. So we didn’t take it off to sell more music, it was just because we were losing money giving stuff away. You know, I’m happy giving things away, but once it actually starts costing you money to give things away…anyway I don’t think there is such a thing as “illegal downloading”. I think we should let people get stuff out there, that’s totally cool, and it also brings more kids to the shows. And it also destroys the music industry, which I think should be destroyed! So kids get the music, come to the shows, we get the money from the shows, totally cool.

Eszter: So how is success defined for you then as a band?

Jack: Oh, just having a crowded room.

Jack: [to Sandra] Would you like to add anything to that?

Sandra: I think success is feeling happy on stage. It doesn’t always have to be crowded.

Eszter: Plus intimate crowds are nice actually.

Sandra: Yeah, we played a show for seven people last year somewhere in the middle of South or North Carolina, and it was one of the best shows we ever played.

—Jack, who has been sitting on a briefcase, loses his balance for a moment and almost falls over—

Eszter: You really can sit next to us on this couch you know, I feel bad.

Jack: I didn’t actually fall. I’m like a cat. I meant to do that.

Eszter: Alright. So the vast majority of songs today that are popular are about money, sex, drugs, etc. but a lot of your songs are based around historical events. So what is it about history that inspires you?

Jack: Well, I just want to know what myself and my friends are going to do next, so you kind of look to the past for antecedents of people who you think might be like you and make decisions about what you are going to do next. People such as Paul Robeson or Peter Lorre…whoever I write songs about. And they often made wrong mistakes, and you don’t have to make the same mistakes they did. So I look for people who I think had similar problems and similar ideals to what I have, and then I try to figure out what I should do next.

Laurel: Well speaking of Peter Lorre, again you’ve written about so many different people and historical events, why did you choose to expand on Peter Lorre?

Jack: I think it was a mix of, uh, he was like a childhood hero of mine. He was Bugs Bunny, and who doesn’t love Bugs Bunny? And he also had this other life in Germany where he worked with Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. And somehow he ingratiated himself into the culture so much that everyone knows who he is even though no one knows that much about him. If you want to look at the 20^th century from a punk-rock point of view, Peter Lorre is everywhere you want to be. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again for your readers. Born in Transylvania, you gotta love that. He moved to Vienna and worked with Fritz Lang, worked with Bertolt Brecht. Got kicked out of Germany because he was Jewish, moved to Hollywood, worked with Humphrey Bogart for Christ’s sakes. Then because he had communist leanings, he was yelled at by the House of Un-American Activities Committee and then he actually went back to Germany, which very few immigrants did, to direct his own movies. He just seemed to be everywhere you might want to be in the 20^th century. Plus he was high for 40 years straight, which is totally cool. He really didn’t seem to give a damn about much—really had his ideals, which were vague, but also seemed to have a good sense of humor about his place in the world. He could have really felt sorry for himself and he didn’t. He was like, “I’m working, I’ll take it, and I’ll do the best job I can. This is my life and this is what I do.”

Laurel: That’s great. Now you guys are doing a lot of regular touring and then also putting on your production, “Addicted to Bad Ideas”. Does that ever get confusing or exhausting?

Sandra: No it’s great. It makes it more interesting.

Jack: Yeah, it’s nice to mix it up. In December and January we’re doing a bunch of radio plays.

Laurel: Is that the ‘Prairie Home Companion’ thing?

Jack: Yeah. We should probably stop calling it that. That is a fine short-hand way of doing it, but I believe Mr. Keillor’s lawyers have already contacted us about that. It really is a straight-up radio play with the band starring as the characters, and music as part of the stories as well. It actually has more to do with um, well you’re probably familiar with Orson Welles, it has more to do with his radio series about The Third Man called “The Lives of Harry Lime”. Same character in kind of connected stories every week, but each story, you can listen to just one and it wouldn’t confuse you. I’m really looking forward to it.

Eszter: Well back to touring. Touring obviously is really exhausting, so—

Jack: But never boring!

Eszter: How much longer do you think you would keep touring though, is this something you want to keep going with until you literally drop?

Jack: Oh yeah, until I drop. I actually, yeah.

Sandra: I’m not comfortable NOT touring.

Eszter: Do you ever think about what you would do if you weren’t touring or recording?

Jack: No, I remember having day jobs. They sucked! I would like to tour until I die and fall dead on stage. It might happen tonight!

Eszter: That would be a really dramatic way to die.

Jack: What a way to go! [all laugh]

Laurel: So. I once saw Ted Leo, and he was explaining how somebody thought one of his songs, which was about alienation in the political process, was about a ghost trying to make toast. Does stuff like that happen to your songs? Do people completely misinterpret them ever?

Jack: Actually sometimes I get good lyrics from things people think I’m saying, and then I work them into songs. But there’s no good story about that. We try and put our lyrics out almost immediately. I send the lyrics out to the fans and put them on the internet on our widely used forum. I do like Ted Leo very much, we’re actually childhood friends.

Laurel: Really!

Jack: Yeah. His brother Chris once played the trombone in our band. Ted is a very nice man.

Laurel: Yeah, I’ve met him a few times. I think once he jokingly agreed to play my 21^st birthday party.

Jack: You got to learn to say no to those things. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked us to play at their wedding. I mean I’ll go, if I’m invited I’ll go, but we’re not a wedding band.

Laurel: Well you’re officially invited to my 21^st birthday party if you want to come!

Jack: Is there an open bar?

Laurel: Um no, it’s going to be down the shore…with lots of drunk college kids.

Jack: Well, I’ll send a telegram.

Laurel: That works!

Jack: But yeah, Ted Leo’s a good man. We just saw him open for Against Me! recently.

Laurel: Oh, was that back in October?

Jack: It might have been. It was at Webster Hall.

Laurel: Oh, I was completely at that show!

Eszter: Are you done?

Laurel: I’m done.

Eszter: Okay. Well, I have a bone to pick with you Jack.

Jack: No, okay. Are you from California?

Eszter: YES! And I want to know why you think I stink!

Sandra: It’s not you! It’s the state of California.

Eszter: But isn’t the song called “All of California and Everyone in it Stinks” ?

Sandra: Oh yeah.

Jack: Alright, democracy. Which means that you voted for Richard Nixon, you voted for Ronald Regan—

Eszter: I’m an immigrant to this country though, so my family wasn’t even here for all that!

Jack: Well if you believe in democracy then everyone has their say and you voted for Pete Wilson. Who is your governor now?!

Eszter: Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Jack: How embarrassing is that?

Sandra: And you voted against gay marriage!

Jack: And also, if you want to talk about Hollywood, come on. Brad Pitt makes me feel like I’m too fat.

Laurel: WHAT?

Eszter: You’re way thinner than Brad Pitt.

Jack: Exactly! And I’m not even going to get into the rest of it. Come on. You have a LOT to answer for California.

Eszter: But what about the nice weather, and the beaches, and the mountains?

Jack: Too hot.

Sandra: I don’t like the heat.

Jack: Alright, well do you have any other bones to pick?

Eszter: No, that was all. Is there anything you would like to add?

Jack: Nothing. We’re the World/Inferno Friendship Society, your friends from Brooklyn, New York. And really, I especially enjoy debating things with people who I disagree with because Lord knows I need to think as much as I can! You’re only as young as you make your brain work, so I try to make my brain work all the time.

Laurel: You should sit down with my parents, they would tear you apart.

Jack: Really? Then why aren’t they doing this interview?

Laurel: Ha, yeah. I wasn’t allowed to see you guys for like six years.

Sandra: Which made you want to see us more!

Jack: Thank you Mom and Dad!

Laurel: Remember a certain show at the Bridgewater Firehouse?

Jack: I do, I do. The ceiling got caved in. My sister was at that show.

Laurel: I was supposed to go to that show and then my parents decided I couldn’t. Then the next day, the Bridgewater Parent Hot Line talked about what happened. My parents were screaming at me like, “THERE WERE RIOTS AND AMBULANCES! LAUREL WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

Sandra: It was probably because you weren’t there that it happened. You could have prevented this Laurel. We need you!

Laurel: Yes, I could have prevented the ceiling from caving in.

Jack: It’s very funny, we’ve gotten to the point where people have started to Google us and go “oh no, no, no.” And then we show up and, lets face it, we’re middle aged people, and the club owners are like “so you’re the guys that are going to destroy our club?” Yeah, I know.

Eszter: You’ve got to stand for something.

Jack: Or represent something. [to Laurel] But what was it about us that offended your parents so much?

Laurel: I don’t know, it was probably everything.

Sandra: They probably secretly come to shows and don’t want you to know about it.

Laurel: No, no! My parents listen to Billy Joel

Sandra: That’s what they want you to think. Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they’re just a little weird.

Laurel: I was at your show last night and my friend and I saw some parents there, and I was like “could you EVER imagine my mom here?” and my friend was like “she would have to be 155% TRASHED.”

Jack: Our shows are actually very family friendly shows. In fact, a lady I went to high school with is bringing her 16 year old daughter to the show tonight. She was like “hey, I hate to ask you this but my daughter likes your band. Can you get us in?”

Sandra: My sister is coming tonight. My cousin that I hadn’t seen in 20 years came last night.

Eszter: Wow.

Laurel: [to Jack] Now, did you go to East or West [high school]?

Jack: I went to East.

Laurel: I went to Immaculata Catholic High School. I’m one of those.

Jack: Ah! I remember it very well. I remember you had to wear your costumes every day but Friday? Do you still have to do that?

Laurel: No, we didn’t get Friday off!

Eszter: Really? You didn’t have casual Fridays?

Jack: Back in the 80s they had casual Fridays.

Laurel: That is so not fair. They got worse my senior year too. They made it so that we had to wear our tights all year round.

Sandra: Wow. Someone probably ruined it for the rest of you by wearing her skirt too high.

Jack: Actually a former roadie of ours, who you might know—Mike Leonard—gave me an Immaculata sweater, which I use as pajamas.

Laurel: Really? Would you like more? I’ve got them at my house.

Sandra: Yeah! I could get one and we could match.

Jack: Sure, why not.

Eszter: You could have sleepovers in your matching Immaculata sweaters.

Jack: Okay, well, I need to go downstairs.

Laurel: Alright, thank you so much!

Check out more on The World/Inferno Friendship Society at their websites:
http://www.worldinferno.com

http://www.myspace.com/worldinferno

IMA ROBOT AT THE ROXY
January 28th 2009

It was two years ago in February that I first had the opportunity to see the Los Angeles based indie band Ima Robot. I had been a die-hard fan since 2003 when their debut album was released through Virgin Records, so when my best friend offered to buy me a ticket to a show, I immediately jumped at the chance. February 15^th of 2007 marked my first trip to The Roxy Club; I remember it being packed with the some of the strangest people imaginable, including Miley Cyrus, who was in attendance to see the then un-famous opening band of the night: Metro Station. Rest assured I won’t subject you to reading about that thirty minute set, if it can even be called such. That night Ima Robot took the stage with an infectious and out of control attitude; front-man Alex Ebert emerged in a nude leotard, throwing white feathers into a sea of fans who half-way through the show rushed the stage and spent an entire song dancing along side the band. The crowd was unmanageable, and I remember being swept from one side of the room to the other in a matter of minutes; we were packed so tightly that I was convinced I was going to asphyxiate and pass out at any moment. Youtube video of this event still exists, and I am proud to say I can still find myself in that turbulent crowd. It was one of the most exciting and unpredictable shows I have ever been to, and one that will always stay fresh in my memory.
Fast forward almost exactly two years, and you will find me gearing up to once again see Ima Robot at The Roxy. I was home in California for winter break and luckily stumbled upon a Myspace bulletin announcing Ima Robot would be playing a show that evening. After a fervent twenty minutes of texting every person I knew in search of transportation, I managed to procure a ride and $20 and set out with a friend for the hour drive into the city. The Roxy Club, for those of you who have never been out west, is located on Sunset Boulevard, one of the most famous streets in Los Angeles. Everything seems to happen on Sunset, and the feeling of excitement and action is tangible the minute you step out on the sidewalk. My friend and I arrived at The Roxy around 8:30 pm, and decided to skip the first two opening acts in exchange for grabbing a quick dinner. When we finally entered the club, I was amazed to find a completely different atmosphere from the last time I had seen Ima Robot. 2007 had comprised of a massive crowd, consisting of everything from fourteen year old girls to 20-something men dressed in superhero costumes. It was during the bands promotion of their second album, Monument to the Masses. Since that time Ima Robot has stayed relatively under the radar; they successfully terminated their contract with Virgin and have been working on releasing new material themselves, a process which has been relatively slow. Still, I was understandably surprised to find that 2009 drew a much smaller and calmer crowd, and one that easily allowed me to procure a spot directly in front of the stage without any pushing or shoving. By the time Ima Robot took the stage it was already past 11pm. They were an hour late to start, however the minute they stepped on stage I forgot all my exhaustion and was filled with excitement. Alex Ebert strolled up to the microphone wearing dirty and ripped white jeans, a white cardigan, and no shoes. His hair is long now and he sports a thick beard; I imagine he looks something like the lovechild of an emaciated Ryan Gosling and Jesus, but in the most attractive way possible. Before starting their set, Alex announced the band’s keyboardist, Lars, was stuck outside of the country and would be replaced that night by what he called L.A.R.S. (lifelike analog replacement situation). This replacement turned out to be a cleverly constructed manikin wearing a werewolf mask, complete with Christmas lights as eyes, which the band was committed to interacting with throughout the show. In reality however, it was guitarist Timmy Anderson who stepped up to the plate and managed to play both guitar and keyboards for the entire night. Ima Robot made the daring decision to play all new songs off of their forthcoming album, and the crowd spent much of the night in subdued awe. The new songs are completely different from Ima Robot’s older work; they are almost tribal in sound, and have a definite South American influence to them. Alex was impeccable both vocally and performance wise; he danced as if no one was watching and was so lost in his music that the experience seemed entirely spiritual for both the band and audience. It was an experience I still cannot fully put into words. I spent the entire evening in unblinking admiration for this band, which despite largely reinventing their sound has still remained true to themselves and their creative integrity. At the end of the set, Timmy pulled out a list of older songs to decide from for an encore, and after deliberating for a few minutes, the band decided on fan favorite 12=3. This song was one of 3 out of the 10 songs played that evening familiar to fans, and it was only during the encore of 12=3 that the crowd really let lose and went wild. I left The Roxy that evening filled with elation and awe. Although the experience was completely different from the first time I saw Ima Robot, the band still captivated me and solidified their placement as my second favorite band of all time. Their stage presence, musicality, and talent all shine through during their performance, and they are undoubtedly one of the greatest live bands around today. It is still unsure whether Ima Robot will tour outside of Southern California in the near future, however if you do get the chance to see this band, I highly recommend you go. They are a band that promises the unpredictable, and always delivers.

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Labels

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Could someone buy me a plane ticket to Massachusetts right now?!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Burning bridges shore to shore...

Monday, June 22, 2009

My Bird

The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Ima Robot

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Passive aggressive notes make me happy.

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