Mysterious alt-folk noodlers Akron/Family came together in 2002. Signing to Young God Records the following year, their eponymous debut followed in 2005. At some point during the recording of third LP ‘Love Is Simple’ in 2007, original member Ryan Vanderhoof quit the band to devote himself to the Buddhist faith (yes, really), leaving Dana Janssen, Seth Olinsky and Miles Seatonto to forge on as a trio.
The band’s fourth album, ‘Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT’, is out next week. Written, as legend has it, beside an active volcano on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, it was recorded in a derelict Detroit train station with much sought-after producer/engineer Chris Koltay (Liars, Deerhunter, No Age).
Ahead of that release, and some UK tour dates in late May, we approached multi-instrumentalist member Seth, hoping to determine the method behind the Akron/Family madness with our tried and true Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Well… it happened to us. We were picked at age eleven to go into training for the space program to be the first psychedelic musicians sent into space. Space camp was very dictatorial though, and so one night we snuck out, ran away and went to a basketball camp in northern Florida.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Driving a bulldozer through a wall. Various attempts at blowing things up. New Age. No Age. Fluorescent Duct Tape. Deep sea life. Explosive things – volcanoes (obviously).
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
We create miniature feature length films for each song before recording. By miniature I mean we shoot them on microscopic film – it is like a 16mm camera, but miniature: about 1mm long, and we make 75-100 min films that are very small for each song. We then watch the films with binoculars duct taped (fluorescent, of course) to our heads and play the song over and over and over again. It’s laborious.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Pharoah Sanders. Susan Sze. Toumani Diabate. Leadbelly. Fugazi. Robert Smithson. Pete Seeger. Kurt Vonnegut. R Kelly.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Thanks. You are very good looking. Imagine yourself on a tropical island, smiling. Or alternately, eating a very delicious bowl of ice cream. Believe in yourself.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Well, we used to think a lot about being the greatest/most important rock band ever. We’ve started to move beyond that though and are considering ways to grow beyond the bounds of recording and touring and find new ways to infiltrate the world and people’s hearts by spreading joyous sonic expressions in many new directions.
MORE>> www.akronfamily.com
Sections: Q&A A | Tags: Akron/Family
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