Interview by Ron Blow. Image provided by Tartufi.
Lynne Angel and Brian Gorman make up the San Francisco two-piece post-rock outfit Tartufi. Using a complex system of loop and pedal effects, Tartufi creates a wash of noise and harmony that is in a constant dialogue with its own echoes. Lynn sings, plays electric bass and guitar, and manipulates a beastly array of complicated-looking electronic equipment. She also has a killer wolf face tattooed on her arm. Brian plays drums and other percussion instruments while linked into his own set of electronic gadgetry. The range of styles and musical ideas the band utilizes makes them difficult to categorize, but their spirit of inclusive experimentation challenges listeners to ignore any genre expectations and offers solid rewards for their effort. I talked to them after their show at John’s Alley last week.
Ron Blow: You played with a lot of different styles in that set, and it seemed that with every one of them you could have just done just that. Instead you rock an idea for about two minutes and then it’s on to the next thing.
Brian: We believe in dynamics. (Laughs)
RB: An amazing amount of shit going on. And a whole lot of gear.
Lynne: That’s because the way we play music–with the pedals and the loop stations–you create something that you have to figure out how to get out of without just turning it off. So we find creative ways of getting ourselves out of the situations that we build. It’s part on part on part–what are we going to do now? And usually that involves adding another piece of gear.
Brian: It’s like we’ve gone this far, and now the only way to get out might be to add a glockenspiel with reverb and delay on it and dance like ponies.
RB: So it’s a constant struggle with what you’ve already created?
Lynne: Absolutely.
RB: I haven’t seen too many shows as reliant on looping as you guys.
Lynn: This guy is amazing (points at Brian). Being able to stick to a beat like that, on a metronome loop like that, makes it nearly impossible to play music with any real feeling in it, because you want to go faster and fluctuate with the time signature. But we can, and it took a while to learn it.
RB: It must have taken a lot of time to be able to put that sound out in a live performance.
Lynne: Oh yeah. Every night it changes: each room, the tones, the different crazy feedback situations.
Brian: Our caffeine level is different.
RB: Yeah, I saw you drinking some energy drink that wasn’t even a Red Bull–it was something even grosser.
Brian: That was another experiment–the first time I tried an energy drink on stage, and it backfired on me. I almost killed someone by the time I got off because I was so jacked up on stage.
RB: Those things are always a bad idea. Was it alcohol infused?
Brain: No, pure energy.
Lynne: His jaw was grinding circles.
RB: This actually goes back to your music. It takes incredible concentration. The memory involved and the technical aspect…everything has to be perfect.
Brian: That’s why we don’t drink before we play. Well, Lynn’s doing it a little bit.
Lynne: I’m experimenting with something called alcohol.
RB: I heard they did that in the sixties.
Brian: And look what happened to them.
Lynne: It was going so well, and then…
Brian: They became pants.
Lynne: They became pants?
Brian: Pants.
Lynne: I wish we could get drunk and play, but we can’t. We’d miss the timing. We’ve had experiments in the studio and it doesn’t work. If we were fucked up it’d be a bad show, and who would want to pay for that?
Brian: Other people don’t get to drink at work, so why should we?
RB: That’s not a very rock star stance. That’s actually a very mature stance.
Lynne: Well, we’re approaching our 70’s.
RB: I think that attitude is becoming a lot more common in the music scene. People who are serious about their music don’t tend to use drugs or alcohol as part of their stage show, and that’s a huge change from the rock that came out of the 60’s.
Lynne: That used to be the stage show.
RB: You guys into Battles? Not that you guys are a Battles rip-off, but you do use some of the same techniques.
Lynne: Yeah, we do. Especially EP-C, that was amazing. But they’re more trance-y than us. We like to use as many styles as we can, while they seem to find one and then ride it all the way out. While we find a way out of it, they’re locking in.
Brian: We’re more manic. I have a very short attention span, and if we‘re in a part for more than two minutes I have to change it.
RB: That’s the odd thing. You have so many different styles going on at once that it lends itself to short attention spans, but then you bridge them together in a way that requires great amounts of concentration.
Lynne: Right. We can never relax, and we‘d like to change that. If we look up or get distracted it’s done. We don’t get to engage the audience as much as we like because if we forget something or make a mistake, the whole thing falls down. It’s not arrogance.
Brian: We want to make elaborate music, but we also want to be more flexible and find more ways to reach out and get the audience to interact.
RB: That seems like it would be very challenging with your style of music.
Lynne: It’s a huge challenge. It’s the opposite from where we started. We want to go back to basic rock values.
RB: It seems like in the last couple of years there have been all these bands building huge credibility and they decide to reach out to a larger audience or expand their sound in a more pop-oriented way, and they end up making something that is just a pop album. It’s not that it’s pure shit, but they end up losing something.
Lynne: Oh yeah, it’s terrifying. I mean, we want to find ways to really engage the audience, but we can’t do simple pop tricks. They’re these simple little things that make the music more approachable, and we can’t do them because of the technology we use. We can’t have the loop stations move up a half step or change time signatures. The album we’re working on right now is working on that that.
RB: Are you doing things in the studio you can’t do live?
Brian: Yes, but then we’ll figure out how to do it live. It usually involves buying more shit.
Lynne: Being in the studio is like running around in a playground, and we’re really excited. It’s a good time to experiment and take risks. Our new album will bring other musicians in. We’re going to record in a different studio and with a different engineer.
Brian: Let’s say we might have sleigh bells and six part harmonies. A Bing Crosby experiment.
RB: All that gear can not be cheap, and you guys are clearly not financially backed.
Lynne: What’s the tip-off? Is it our shoes? Is it because Brian doesn’t have pants on?
RB: It might have been the beanie. But this gear isn’t cheap, right? Or do you make it yourself?
Lynne: No, we don’t make it, and it isn’t cheap. We purchase it with American dollars. We are really good at shopping.
Brian: Too bad the credit crunch happened, we were just about to buy some things.
RB: I heard the government is about to subsidize looped, experimental rock music.
Brian: Oh yeah?
RB: No, I made that up.
Lynne: We’ve made just enough money to keep doing what we do. I don’t feel any pressure in the studio. I trust what we’re going to make is going to be good. It could be a three minute pop song, or a thirty minute math-rock song. We don’t feel that kind of pressure. We just want to make something we’re happy with.
RB: You’ve been making music for 8 years. That in itself is very positive.
Lynne: It’s rough. Not easy, You put everything on the line when you put your heart and soul into something, and that’s why we’ve remained a duo. You put other egos into it and things go wrong. We’ve found a way to work together.
KUOI Blog 