don’t worry, be healthy

thanks karen aragon & impose

If you like your tones filthy and your vocals interpretive then there’s really no need to look further than HEALTH. Los Angeles’ experimental dream team have picked up quite a bit of press over the past few years and on the cusp of releasing their second full length album we thought it’d be appropriate to check-in. I don’t intend for this to seem romantic, but a few weeks ago I had a sit down brunch with HEALTH, minus Jake, and Jake Friedman of Lovepump United. We met the day after the band played the Williamsburg Waterfront, when I wrote this, and the day before they took off for Europe. Previous to this I spent a few days with the dudes in Los Angeles assisting their shoot for “Die Slow” in our ol’ Out Of Asia warehouse putting us already a few Tecate and Kombucha deep into a lovely bromance story…

FMLY: What is Lovepump? I see it as a family.

HEALTH: Lovepump is family, that has always been the motto.

The fact that it’s music by musicians put forth as an effort from musicians is just the way to go about it rather than an industry dictating what music is. Jake, since it started with your band Glitter Pals are there any other labels or collectives that Lovepump works closely with?

[John] No. [pause&laughter] Actually, Cityslang. Starting tomorrow we’re hitting up Germany with them.

Speaking of dicks [told you I shouldn’t talk about it], who made the Lovepump logo?

[Jake] The Lovepump logo was made by SERIPOP who are a design team in Montreal and coincidentally two of the members in AIDS Wolf – one of the first bands we released on Lovepump. Yeah, I was the model but you know what, it’s not even about being a severed penis just as much as it’s not music for your mom and that’s kind of the way it should be. [John] I would have to agree with that statement. [BJ] I had no idea there was a dick bone.

So there was the initial s/t release and then a series of remix EPs. Now with Get Color you’ve earned the title of an LP-kinda band. Was that intentional?

We never put out that many 7”’s and only in the beginning did we release cassette tapes – we’ve always been an LP band with albums on the brain. The way we’ve always appreciated music is listening to albums and the way things are sequenced so we’ve always wanted to write that way as well. When we’re writing songs we also consider how they will work within the larger framework of the album…and I can’t make love to a 7”.

I don’t know about that, have you ever heard Joanna Newsom’s Milk-Eyed Mender on vinyl? But that’s a 12″, naturally.

[laughter]

So with your s/t the tracks and transitions are all very fluid into one another. Can I expect that same experience with Get Color?

I think that’s just how we sequence things, but in some of the reactions we’ve heard that with the first album it was just one gigantic and crazy song but with GC they feel every song really stopping and beginning. To us it’s the same.

One thing that might be true to the second statement is that these songs were written more as units, less interdependent than the first album.

We added a lot to the HEALTH vocabulary but yeah, we still use loud tones, ideas and the overall “HEALTH sound.” There have just been new sounds added to the arsenal that we did not have before.

When I talk to bands they usually don’t drop terms like atonal or names like Steve Reich. Were any of you formally trained?

We like the kooky shit, but we’re just guys who listen to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll. But I only listen to Chopin. I think most people would be surprised if they were hanging out with us in our room seeing what we listen to…that new R Kelly mixtape is on CONSTANT repeat. CONSTANTLY ON REPEAT. “Disrespect My Shorty” is going to be the JAM when his album comes out. With all these new guys making two second hits, Kels just hands their balls to them, like “here’s your dick.” So much respect for that man, he’s old and kicking ass!

HEALTH – Lost Time (Pictureplane RMX)
HEALTH – Die Slow (Tobacco remix)

Thinking about remixing artists?

The answer is yes, sort of, we need to decide by the end of today. Wait, are we under an oath of secrecy on this? We definitely do want to do remixes but we’re just trying to figure out how. At least with the first few we’re going to have to kind of find our footing. [talking about the No Age remixes of Holy Fuck, Fucked Up, making fuck puns]

Tell me about the new album, the way that it feels listening to and recording and about where it was recorded.

The album took a few weeks to record, but we weren’t in there all day everyday. No horror stories this time around, it was very uneventful compared to the first [when I interviewed HEALTH two years ago they talked about getting shit on quite literally at the Smell], just a studio with mics…I mean, the way an album is usually recorded. I think what we might do in the future is do the tracking on our own – in a better situation than the Smell – and then go somewhere very professional for a really great mixdown to get the sound that we want. [BJ] Like five days on the drums next time instead of three.

How does environment affect your music? I can rock out anywhere listening to your jams, but there’s a certain quality towards listening to it while driving in Los Angeles.

Oh no, now we sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Sublime! I don’t think that we have a sound that you would think of when ‘the LA sound comes up,’ We’re not too aware of one, but it’d be pretty cool if our sound is a part of it. People have come up to us and asked, “Oh, so are you going to sound more anthemic now because you’ve played with Nine Inch Nails?” No, we’re going to be HEALTH.

Trent Reznor is getting some cred for his quarrels with folks [Chris Cornell, Radiohead, etc], how was playing with him?

Really? Trent is like…the nicest guy. We like him. The amount of respect we have for him is incredible, his grateful attitude towards his fans is unparalleled.

Onstage you have a sweet vibe going on, very theatrical. Is it difficult when you play a show and the crowd isn’t matching your energy? This past Sunday at the Williamsburg Waterfront for example…

Well we saw you rocking out! [BJ: You were the one guy I was looking at going crazy!] It would be silly to complain because it’s way easier to get loosened up when it’s not 4 in the afternoon. Of course we love it the best when the crowd gets intense and into it, but there are no hard feelings when that line isn’t crossed. We hope for hitting that tipping point where a pulse is established between the audience and our selves, but at the end of the set we’re just fucking glad people didn’t walk away.

Well I guess the bar has been set unfairly high, that Ultimate Reality show a couple of years back was seriously one of the best shows I’ve ever hit up even to this day.

Yeah, we wish we could open for Dan Deacon all the time. Fuck, we were supposed to go on these dates in Europe with him but every time it gets cancelled because of passport shit or whatever. Baltimore has SO MUCH talent, the drummers from Videohippos and Ponytail are fucking amazing.

How do you officially spell HEALTH, HEALTH or Health?

ALWAYS ALL FUCKING CAPS. Funny story behind this actually, there was another Health with only one cap from North Carolina and we had to distinguish ourselves…plus all caps is awesome. No exclamation mark.

Not even after the “E,” on that Godspeed You! Black Emperor tip?

That word just does not look good unless it is in all caps, it’s not a band name unless it is in all caps. It just looks symmetrical in either Ariel or Helvetica font. That’s what you do, and then you put the logo.

Well you’re climbing up the Google search, like…#8 to being the top health search.

If we had thought about that a bit more, we probably shouldn’t have named the band HEALTH.

Music videos. Your old videos are cockteases, as it builds to the climax it just ends! You just filmed your “Die Slow” video with us and I just want to know what’s up with it, are my emotions going to be toyed with one more?

This video definitely has an arc but I definitely don’t think you have to wait till the end. You were there man, you got the meals for everybody. I [John] directed the video and wrote the treatment. The ideas kept changing, we should be finished with the video very soon.

Any crazy tour experience?

[BJ&Jupiter] I finally joined the fall asleep on the sidewalk club. [John] So you took a disco nap, that’s why we couldn’t reach you? That was like…three hours. The perfect nap is 27mins, any more than that and you’ll be a little groggy.

Rad. Seeing as how we both got home at 6am last night and it’s just after noon now lets put it to the test. Peace homies.

See ya in October.

HEALTH – Death+ (Daytrotter live session)
HEALTH – We Are Water (Daytrotter live session)

get color is out of the bag sept8. pre-order the album via insound or purchase it from your local indie record shop.