Front Page Reviews & AIR

Suddenly someone is crushing up a wooden pallet to burn in this courtyard (perhaps "courtyard" is too elegant a term); we begin to gather and keep warm.  It's a Friday night in late October.  We are at Kilby’s Court in Salt Lake City, the second stop on Birds & Batteries Fall tour with Peter Wolf Crier.  “Unassuming” does not quite do this club justice; it’s more like “do-it-yourself”—not an employee or security man in sight.  Want to keep this small crew of gathered souls in line?  Do-it-yourself.  Stamp their hands?  Do-it-yourself.  The crowd for the show was small, but eager—which made all the difference; and the sound—d.i.y.—was perfect.  Peter Wolf Crier is taking the stage.  We are all outside.

Jill Heinke, Birds & Batteries’ bassist, is getting some quality time this evening with her best friend who lives in Salt Lake City, and I jump into their conversation about tomato canning and the making of yummy sauces for the coming winter.  Christopher Walsh, the band’s Telecaster playing guitarist, darts around, selling merch and trying to warm up.  Andrew Maguire has a head cold and is shivering and prefers one-word answers; he is the drummer.

Stepping away from the fire and alighting on an outdoor bench, I ask Birds & Batteries stalwart leader and singer Mike Sempert to introduce his vision for the four-year old San Francisco-based band.

 

 

Dharma: I wanted to ask you for insights into the name Birds & Batteries.

 

Mike: There once was a bird named Antonio who cried inconsolably.  His only respite from the blues was a little claw-held radio which played Elvis and Tupac Shakur, depending on the time of day.  Eventually, his radio ran out of batteries and he died of sadness.  There's a lesson in this.  

 

Dharma: Where did it all begin?

 

Mike: Birds & Batteries started as a duo with my friend Joel Cohen (bass).  As I got more into electronic music and home recording, it became more my thing, and we parted ways musically.  I recorded Nature vs. Nature that summer (Joel played bass, Drew Roach played drums) and then moved to SF.  I’ve played most of the instruments on the Birds & Batteries albums so far.  Drums for I'll Never Sleep Again, Panorama, and a couple of songs on Stray Light were played by Brian Michelson.  Jill Heinke has contributed bass to Panorama and Stray Light.  Christopher played guitar on parts of Up To No Good, Panorama and Stray Light.  The majority of tracking is still my own endeavor.

 

Dharma: Where are you from?  Was moving to California like coming home?

 

Mike: I'm from Massachusetts.  I'd dreamed of moving to California since I was a kid.

 

Dharma: Is that Fillmore St. apartment still a home base for music recording and rehearsal?  I like how you thanked the neighbors (for their tolerance?) in the liner notes.

 

Mike: I lived in that apartment for my first couple of years in SF.   Then I moved to the Tenderloin, the Mission and eventually Oakland.  Each apartment and space has had its own impact on the creative process. 

 

Dharma: Which clubs/venues have been most supportive in the San Francisco area?

 

Mike: Bottom of the Hill has been a great room for us, consistently packed. The Noise Pop Music Festival has also been really great for us the last couple of years.

 

Dharma: Does Panorama(2010) represent the latest studio work or is there something else in the pipeline?

 

Mike: Well, we have been in the studio again this year, and there’s a set of 14 songs that we’re really excited about.  It’s going to be released as a full length LP called Stray Light.  And we’ll have four other songs in a an EP tentatively titled "BATTS."

 

Dharma: Ahh, Stray Light.  That evokes the 70s jazz albums to me for some reason. Could it be the Keith Jarret’s 1970s albums In the Light and Luminessence?

 

Mike: Huh, well there is this Freddie Hubbard album called "Straight Life" and maybe "Stray Light" is some phonetic reflection of that.  "Stray Light" as an idea is that intangible thing, like inspiration and love.  Stray not because its lost, but because its unaccounted for, unquantifiable, and so its available to us.

 

Dharma: Hmmm, Freddie Hubbard, is that someone whose music you dug among all those fusion jazz artists?

 

Mike: Oh, yeah. Definitely, he’s one. Can't go wrong with Red Clay.

 

 

Dharma: Alright.  Let’s talk about your early formation as a musician.  Did you have any formal training?

 

Mike: Yes, I took piano lessons as a kid.  I ended up going to a music college and focused on arrangement and composition.  I grew a lot during that time.

 

Dharma: What did you listen to when you were younger, in your formative years?  You were going to school in Boston, is that right?

 

Mike: Yes, I went to school in Boston.  In high school I listened to a lot of hip hop like the Pharcyde and the Roots.  I also excavated my parents vinyl freshman year, so there was Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, The Clash, Huey Lewis, Squeeze, Thomas Mapfumo and lots of fusion stuff.

 

Dharma: So, Chick Corea? Return to Forever? Herbie Hancock?     

 

Mike: Yeah. Herbie’s 70s stuff, and Weather Report.

 

Dharma: So when did you reach a point where the 88 key piano was no longer sufficient to meet your musical needs—and you got involved in the electronic side?     

 

Mike: I always felt limited by the piano, and piano stopped being my entire musical universe early on.  I think synthesizers appeal to me for the same reason that pedal steel appeals to me, and the same reason that singing appeals to me: the ability to bend notes and slide phrases expressively.  I really enjoy the emotive nuance that those instruments and the human voice provide, which physically, a piano just can't.

 

Dharma: Are there some technologies that you like for the studio but that don’t come on the road with you?   

      

Mike: I don't worry too much about the live show and recordings being identical.  The recording process is where I write most of this music.  If a certain sound on the records seem important enough to use a sampler to create live, we'll do it.  Otherwise, we do plenty of adaptation from the recordings to the live show.  And we're a very detail-oriented band, but at a certain point, you've got to let the show be its own living thing. 

 

Dharma: Is your work with Birds & Batteries currently fulfilling your need for self-expression musically?

 

Mike: Yes.

 

Dharma: So your answer is a straight yes.

 

Mike: Yeah, it is.  Absolutely.

 

Dharma: How does the word ART interact with what you are trying to do in your music? 

       

Mike: Oh, yeah, in a lot of ways.  I mean, totally, it’s open to whatever listeners choose to hear as art.  Let me say this outside of the interview material:  um, art can be anything. And anyone could be considered an artist, as long as you put love and care into what you do.  Which is a why a chef is an artist and a mother is an artist.

 

Dharma: How is it playing with Peter Wolf Crier?  They’re a duo, right?

 

Mike: They’re actually a trio now. They came all the way from Minnesota. This is our first time hearing them live.  They sound great.

 

Dharma: So, I‘ve always wondered about bands that tour for extended times, assuming that the gigs don’t pay much more than to cover gas, equipment expenses, etc.—how does it work out to get time off from day jobs to go on the road?

 

Mike: Well, they’re flexible.  Christopher does web design, and that is something he can take with him on the road, so he actually gets work done on the road. Jill and I teach music lessons, and I do arrangement work for other people’s albums and lots of other music-related free-lance stuff.  Like I’m coaching a young band.

 

 

Dharma:  Do they do originals?

 

Mike: Yeah. Quite good ones. They’re thirteen years old.  They’re called Black Bones.  They have a facebook page.  They’re very creative.  I’m coaching them,helping them with writing and arranging and building a more complete live show.  They've all got so much personality and talent, its exciting to help them access that more through their music.

 

Dharma: What about Andrew?  What does he do? 

 

(Note:  The flaming pallet has burned out and Andrew, at this point, has succumbed to the chilly night air and taken his hooded head inside the venue – where he is holding his hands up in worship to a wall-mounted heater.)

 

Mike: Andrew is a professional musician.  He plays vibraphone, marimba, percussion and drums in a number of projects.  He’s a great musician all around. 

 

Dharma: You know, the way Christopher moves on stage and the way he makes his guitar sound reminded me right away of the guitarist from Radiohead.  

    

Mike: Oh, really?  Which one?

 

Dharma: Johnny Green…

 

Mike: Oh, Johnny Greenwood? Well, that’s a great compliment.  Cool.  Only he needs to grow that hair thing in front.  What’s that called?

 

Dharma: A forelock. 

 

Mike: A forelock? 

 

Dharma: Yes, a forelock. 

 

Mike: Forelock. 

 

 

Dharma: Christopher has joined the band a bit more recently.  What is the direction or additive that he brings?  Panorama features more noticeable guitar work, is that pretty true?

 

Mike: I definitely think there was more guitar-based riff work as a result of having two guitarists (including myself).   Christopher continues to bring a vast reserve of energy and optimism to the project and has encouraged me to take risks with the music in the spirit of "why not?"  He also brings a whole slew of intangibles, including being an exceptional guitarist.  He's pretty hard to just sum up.  I could go on and on, he's one of my best friends.

 

Dharma: So, nowadays, what would you listen to out cruising on the road? What do you like?

 

Mike: Honestly, NPR news and public radio.  On this trip, Salif Kieta, Talking Heads, Mississippi John Hurt, Feist's latest album.  I like to listen to music when I’m house cleaning or doing laundry.  I tune in RDIO on the web and it gives you kind of a variety of things.  Bands that I admire? I admire those bands and artists that continue to create and are prolific out of the joy of creating, the "lifers."  People like Paul McCartney, David Byrne, Bruce Springsteen, Randy Newman.  And of the younger artists, Bon Iver, Dirty Projectors, M83, Bjork, Efterklang, countless others.

 

Dharma: Sir Paul McCartney. Didn’t he do a symphonic orchestra recently?

 

Mike: Yes, he did!  And it’s not just his work with the Beatles either, but taken as a whole, his Wings time with Linda, and his other solo work, I always found it so interesting and adventurous, and kind of different. 

 

Dharma: Yes, “we’re so sorry, Uncle Albert,” that is so strange and so British.  So would you say that, without a doubt, Paul is your favorite Beatle?   

       

Mike: No, it’s been like these phases I would go through of really being into each one of them.  The John Lennon stuff, the Plastic Ono Band, and Mind Games, Walls and Bridges, Double Fantasy, all those records. So I was pretty heavily into that for a while, and then more recently I’ve been getting back into Wings.  Before that, I was really into All Things Must Pass, you know, the great George Harrison record.  So, interestingly, I went through each period, really concentrated on one Beatle at a time, you know, more so than the group as a whole, at least recently.  But the foundation for that was lots of Beatles albums as a kid. 

 

Dharma: That is an interesting way to approach the “Fab Four,” as individuals. I notice that Ringo’s solo career didn’t really do it for you.   

    

Mike: No, I’m afraid not.  I like his drumming a lot though.

 

Dharma: Do you get annoyed when people ask who you sound like?

 

Mike: I don’t know, I mean if you’re asking what we soundlike, maybe it’s just the ego of every band, something that makes us want to say, “Hey, we don’t sound like ANYBODY else!” But the truth is, if you listen to it, I'm sure you could lump us in to a spot somewhere.  Each record seems connected to a different set of influences.  For example, P Funk and Roxy Music seem to have influenced the EP Up to No Good.  But nothing quite matches, you know? Our music can take many forms, which is just what we’re trying to do.  I’m still learning, and growing, and finding out more about what I like, and moving on to the next adventure.

 

 

Dharma: Are there other bands that you know of we should be on the lookout for? How about ones that have shared the stage with you?

 

Mike: Well, we’re teaming up with these guys (motions to the swelling keyboard tones from inside the venue) Peter Wolf Crier, for the first time, and they’re really cool.  We played with Telegraph Canyon for several shows, and they’re out of Ft. Worth.  Then there was a band from Sweden called the Concretes, and we played a bunch of shows with them while they were on their North American tour.  But you know who is really bringing the funk in the Bay Area now, since you asked?  Shock.  Look them up and listen to it.  There is some awesome vamping, and it’s not that ramped up funk, you know, it’s more mellow, but you can really get into it.

 

Dharma: Speaking of Swedes and mellow funk, I’ve gotta mention Junip and Breakstra.  They use break beats and blend familiar funk samples like from James Brown or Herbie Hancock, and it’s really tight.  From Los Angeles.

 

Mike jots down these names on a piece of paper.

 

Mike: Breakstra.  I like that.  I just like the word stra.  I think it was the name of a beer we found when we were out in Denver.  Stra or Strah’s.  I’m gonna look it up.  Not a very great beer.  Oh yeah, here it is (iphone at fingertips)!

 

Dharma: Oh Stroh’s!  That is like a classic cheap American lager, like a PBR of the olden days.  A classic from Milwaukee.

 

Mike: No, it’s from Detroit.  It’s the classic Detroit beer. 

 

(Fact: a 1982 merger caused the Detroit based Stroh Brewery to take over the labels Old Milwaukee and Schlitz – the “Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous,” hence the confusion.  The Beermaster stands corrected).

 

Dharma: The video production of "Strange Kind of Mirror" - the film in the barber shop.  How did that come to be?

 

Mike:That was something I'd always wanted to do, try to sing a song over the course of one hair-cut.  It was my first time really driving a video idea forward and it was really hard actually.  The whole one-shot idea needs much more rehearsal, planning and help than we really had.  The end result is fun though; the spirit and idea are there.  

 

Dharma:We want to know your take on Love.  Our theme for the month on Mule is "Crazy Love"—so you could talk about the relation of love and/or Sanity in your music or life.

 

Mike:I've been singing more about love these days.  Maybe it's because I'm old enough not to care about whether it's cool or not.  I think love requires a certain leap that might be considered crazy.  And trying to make music your career certainly feels crazy at times.  So that's one sort of positive spin on "crazy."   But I cherish mental health.  Some people seem to think the artist needs to sit on some edge of existence and I disagree.  Feeling good makes it easier to create uninhibited music, more music-making creates more joy.   That's the cycle I hope to ride for a long time.

 

For videos and FREE downloads, check out Birds & Batteries Artist in Residence Page.