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By: Martyn Coppack
With the new Thee Oh Sees album, A Weird Exits, just released and the band over in the UK playing a series of blistering shows, we sent Martyn Coppack to have a chat with main man John Dwyer.
(((o))): How’s life treating you these days?
John Dywer: All is well. Very busy and wound as tight as a spring these days.
(((o))): With A Weird Exits being your third album since 2013 when rumours were abound of a hiatus, and the second with the new line-up, where does the inspiration continue to come from?
JD: Funnily enough i never said that about a hiatus. That was our old booker who has been quoted as me saying that ever since but once something goes to print everybody latches on and there is no hope in making it go away. so i just let it flow on its own. The reality is I have no job other than this, and all I think about when it comes time to make rather than consume is usually music.
I write every day. I love it.
(((o))): It’s a remarkable album and forms a great companion piece to Mutilator Defeated At Last. What were the recording sessions like? It’s an unusual line-up for a band to have two drummers?
JD: It was recorded at the Dock in Sacramento with Chris Woodhouse. As always we worked together like oil and water until it was done, and I’m very happy with the final product. I love that studio, I love Sacramento.
We had two drummers on a few of the older records; Mike Shoun and Lars Finberg were together in the band for Carrion Crawler/The Dream. Putrifiers Two has some double drummers on it as well.. I love double drums. All encompassing.
(((o))): I remember a quote where you stated that you would like to move away from a synth sound. I find a lot of A Weird Exits has a “synth” sound. It’s a very measured and metronomic album?
JD: I definitely never said that …?!
(((o))): Tell me about the songs. Are they all your own creations or do the band have input too?
This LP was written mostly in practices, the band have their hand in every song. We wrote as a conglomerate beast. I missed jamming with friends from when I was a teen, that was how music started for me , so in a way I want to get back to the basic of my song writing.
(((o))): What inspirations surround A Weird Exits? It has a great early post-punk feel to it but also krautrock too?
I’d say both of those are spot on. We’re pretty on-the-sleeve with what inspires us. I obviously love Teutonic psych and experimental music, no other parts of the world have that machine-on-the-verge-of-life quality in their songs like the Germans do.
(((o))): You have a lot of interests outside the band too. How do you find time to run a record label as well as the band? You seem to have a bigger work rate than Ty Segall? Do you find yourselves pushing each other?
Well to be honest, my partner, Matt Jones (Male Gaze) does all the heavy lifting. He’s a work horse with a bigger brain than me. I travel around and get turned onto good music, that’s my job.and maybe half the creative control but really without Matt there would be no label.
Ty is in the same boat as me, this is his work. I think we support each other rather than push. I’ts really very casual. I’ve known that dude for quite awhile now, he makes strong art.
(((o))): You and Ty have become figureheads (of sorts) for the US psych and garage scene. How do you find it differs from the UK scene for example? The genre has seen an explosion in recent years, why is this?
I’m not sure really. I’m not super knowledgeable about the uk psych scene. I need y’all to teach me!
(((o))): You collaborate and work with a lot of different artists. Is there a community feel to everything you do or is that simply a construct imagined by fans and music journalists? Over here in the UK, there are pockets of people who all band together to help each other out…recording, gigs, art work. Is the US scene like this?
I record live shows with bands I like with people I like working with. I will very rarely work on someone else’s record. I think though, that people inspire each other and things naturally bounce off each other over here yeah.
(((o))): Where do you see all this heading? What does the future hold for Thee Oh Sees? The band have solidified for now but is this likely to change?
I’m not changing anything for the foreseeable future, write , record, tour and that’s that. Maybe I can start painting again and in the famous words of Brian Chippendale “if I go deaf, ill just read more…”
(((o))): As well as the future of Thee Oh Sees, who else should we be looking out for? Everyday a new band pops up, who are you listening to?
ORB from Australia.
Blank Square from the Bay Area.
Sunwatchers will be touring again soon as well.
So much good contemporary music now its hard to list without feeling like I’ve forgotten all of them.
