Jason Noble
Another Layer
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NATN: There hasn't been a new Rachel's album since 1999, but I'd heard you guys were working on something. What can you tell me about that? How far along is it? Have any of the pieces been performed live?
Jason Noble: Okay - I'll try to be concise but this story is a little ramble-y. Two years ago we started working with some excellent folks in a theater group called The SITI Co. This happened after a while of getting to be friends/courting each other. Since then we've conspired together in several cities (Louisville, Logan, Utah at USU; NYC and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) to work on a new piece of theater/music called "systems/layers."
The LP is not the exact soundtrack. We're just now gathering the funding to complete the theater project and talking with people that may want to present it -- but we hope it will be played live in 2004. Most of the music has been performed in the rehearsals and/or remade and edited to fit the scenes. Some of it has been played at our regular shows (however few in the last while). Every part of the music changed or originated because of working with the live theater rehearsals, and many of the students/interns that are involved with the SITI Co. added their personalities to it as well.
Art and stuff is on the table. Primarily it's work by Harvey Wang, a photographer we got know recently.
NATN: Selenography had some new elements on it (the spoken word, some electronic bits). Are you far enough along to characterize the new material in any way? Any new personnel on the disc?
JN: I have to joke and say the lack of objectivity is fairly high since we're in the final stage. It might sound like ICP, but this record is not like others we've made. There are some guests that we're really excited about: Shannon Wright (one of our favorite humans ever) sings one song with us, and several Louisville Orchestra musicians have graciously been involved. There's also many field recordings from friends/band mailing list folks that were awesome and sent us sounds of things in their everyday lives. These home recordings are stitched throughout the album.
NATN: Are there any plans at all to play shows or do a tour?
JN: The bosses at Clear Channel told us we need to have more lyrics before we can tour again.
NATN: What is happening in the Shipping News camp? Any plans for a new full-length?
JN: Thanks for asking. Well, we just toured with a new band member (Todd Cook) and we're writing things together as a four-piece now, which has been really fun. We'll tour with our friends, Three Second Kiss, in September for about a week and then get back to the songwriting stuff. Recording will be in the beginning of next year (we hope).
NATN: The last time we spoke, we got into a side conversation about the pros/cons of living and working in a smaller city such as Louisville. What are your thoughts on this subject?
JN: I'm feeling really thankful. We have room to breathe and a place/studio to work in that we can actually sustain (especially financially). Traveling to play or record in other cities helps us when we need to get outside of our more - I guess - comfortable working places (and just gets you out of habitual head-space, which is important). Ultimately, I love this place and the dog is very fond of the yard.
I was troubled by some of the loud conservative political reactions in our seemingly kind-hearted town during the recent (and continuing) war in Iraq. But, many people here didn't buy into the madness. Even with the big differences in camps there was usually some common ground to be found.
NATN: Further to that, what new bands are you enjoying from the area? My Morning Jacket and VHS Or Beta seem to be getting a lot of publicity.
JN: I like a lot of things in our town these days. Seluah (a band [Rachel's member] Edward Grimes plays drums and sings in), Second Story Man, Strike City, Catherine Irwin, Parlour, Irina and Elliott. There's also a great music/art collective called The Squallis Puppeteers. Man, I'm generally moist for Louisville bands.
NATN: The fan in me was curious: do you feel like there is any unfinished business in any way with Rodan? Is there anything in the proverbial "vault" that you'd like to see released one day? What have you thought of the recent work from your Rodan bandmates?
JN: Well, I love those folks and we're from the same musical-lizard egg, so their music is close to my heart. Jeff [Mueller] -- y'know -- it's hard to summarize because I spend a lot of my musical life with him. Kevin [Coultas] and I just saw "X-Men 2" together and it ruled. He helped us out with the current Rachel's project as well because he's doing a lot of recording these days. Tara [Jane O'Neil] and I can bond about the song "If I Was Yr Girlfriend" and the whole Parade album. In many ways we all have weird Prince-like aspirations.
[There are] no releases planned. I copy bootlegs for people and nice people send us show recordings that I never knew about. I'm lame also cause I owe many people tapes and discs as we speak and for that, I want to publicly apologize. I'm just disorganized. Yawlp!
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"