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Fires? Death threats? Police shutting down shows? A Place To Bury Strangers guide us through life on the road, as we prepare our ears before 'The loudest band in New York' head to British shores. “We didn’t say that, but whatever. I don’t even know if that’s true,” protests Oliver Ackermann, front man, guitar maestro and one-third of APTBS, as he laughs at the above statement, which was reportedly self-proclaimed.
It's 3pm in the afternoon and APTBS are presently en-route to the next stop on their US tour, a tour that has seen the Brooklyn based trio already suffer a set back, when their vehicle caught fire, resulting in the band having to cancel shows. Oliver explains: “People were waving at us to pull over, and we were just driving along thinking, ‘ah, no big deal’. Then we saw smoke, so we pulled over and there was fire shooting out of the bottom of it [the RV]. We were in the middle of nowhere, in Arizona, in the desert.”
The band and RV survived, and although this situation had the potential to be catastrophic, Oliver seems calm in his recollection of the event, “It was ok, it could have been way worse. No injuries, everyone’s alright.”
This apparently blasé attitude is a contrast to the band’s musical character - a multi-layered racket, courtesy of Oliver’s self built guitar pedals. APTBS’ noise-mongering stage presence has seen their reminiscently shoegaze sound compared with the likes of Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails, and My Bloody Valentine, among others. “I don’t really care, anything anyone wants to say is fine,” says Oliver with an air of indifference as he reflects on the many comparisons. “I mean, I like those bands, I think they’re good but it’s not any conscious decision to sound like those bands”.
Reactions from crowds at their live shows have been equally mixed, including particularly memorable scenes from the band’s London shows earlier in the year where people just stood and stared, either in awe or shock. How do these reactions fair with the band? “I like it when people are going nuts and jumping around, it’s a little more intimate. I think that playing in proper clubs, warrants that kind of behaviour where people stand around and looked shocked. It’s kind of nice too though, as long as people aren’t running out of the room in fear!”
Never mind the audiences at shows, do APTBS receive complaints from the neighbours, when Oliver, bassist Jono Mofo and drummer, Jay Space get together to practise? “We have a place in New York where it’s just businesses around us. We’ve built a cement wall surrounding the entire thing. I always try to live in a warehouse where there’s nobody around, so then we can build our own studio inside and have our own practise space which is also where I live. I’ve realised that I need that for me to be able to live, to have a space where I can make as much noise as possible.”
APTBS’ music can certainly be described as noise, and an attack of some sort; 'To Fix The Gash In Your Head', a track featured on the band’s forthcoming UK debut (released this month) is especially brutal. But when faced with Oliver’s humbleness and the seemingly ordinary appearance of these three on stage (in the quiet before the live onslaughts), it’s hard to imagine where the more hostile elements of their music come from. Is this the true essence of the band, or, is it simply cathartic release? “Yeah it’s some kind of release. Sometimes, you have that feeling where you want to stab a pencil in someone’s eye or something, but we’re generally happy-go-lucky people.”
This “happy-go-lucky” approach is even present when asked about low points in APTBS existence: “Nothing too bad has happened, I’ve had my life threatened multiple times and stuff.” Wait, what? Was this through the band? “Yeah, not from other members of the band,” laughing he adds, “but from venues and what not, and we’ve had people shut down the power.”
The origins of the death threats he refers to are unclear, however a year before Oliver uttered these above words, the band were forced to end a performance prematurely when policemen attended their Loisaida show, in New York (on October 18) in response to noise complaints from the locals. The gig was shut down only three songs into the set. So, it’s not just the fans who will need to brace themselves (in anticipation) then when these boys hit the UK to with their tour later this month.
As if mirroring the force in their music, APTBS literally exploded onto the scene amid frothy-mouthed reports that surfaced among the UK’s music press after their live triumph at SXSW earlier in the year. Yet the three-piece have been around for a lot longer- just with a subtler presence over here, after the release of their self-titled debut in the US back in 2007. Previously only this US edition was available to UK fans as an import, but the UK release now features five additional tracks.
APTBS began after Oliver left his home in Virginia and his previous project, Skywave and moved to New York. How does life in APTBS compare then? “I guess this is more my band…This band has been really good, I think that has something to do with timing and living in a real city, which helps a band and makes so much more possible.”
Is it a democracy, or do you have more of a part to play?
“It is still definitely a democracy, but I’m bringing songs to the table. But definitely that’s what keeps a band strong, the people that tell you it’s crap when it’s crap. It’s good to have others with feedback when it’s someone that you trust, because sometimes when you are playing in a band, it seems that doesn’t happen and that can be a downfall for a lot of bands, and yet they have everyone around them telling them that they’re wonderful and everything’s so great, then they just don’t even care anymore.” So, going back a bit life before Skywave, what made Oliver first get into music? “It was just being bored in Virginia. I was really getting into music a lot back when I was at high school and I had one friend and we used to hang and listen to music all the time (that was Paul from Skywave). Then I started playing the guitar. Once you plug a guitar in and pick up the amp and hear all that feedback you sort of fall in love.”
Was there a moment of realisation for you that a ‘normal 9-5 job’ was not the only option for you? “I don’t think so, I think you just grow into that. We were always creating music just because we wanted to hear music. I mean we tried back in Virginia to really make it happen, you know, booked tours and do all these things, ran our own record label. It didn’t seem like it would be possible to have any real/another career. I’d given up on doing that sort of thing even when I moved to New York a couple of years later, it seemed like that was impossible and it was still going to be creating music and playing shows, and I love doing that.”
It’s this desire to create music that led Oliver to custom building his guitar effects pedals, a project that later expanded and became established as Death By Audio. How did you get into this? “That’s almost a bit of fluke as well. I really liked to create sounds and make things that I wanted to listen to, and like, bend the envelope of sound. I started because I needed some money, I had this idea for a pedal nobody else had come out with so I marketed that and ever since then people have been really interested, and it’s just built and built…”
Are there any of these requests, that you are particularly proud of then? “Definitely, Kevin Shields, Lightening Bolt, Trent Reznor, all sorts of people I can’t even believe it. Then I get all these emails from these people saying they saw some band and what they had on stage. It’s just mind blowing, you know, that people that could be your idols would be interested in something that you’re creating.”
So back to the tour then, you are heading over here to play some dates with MGMT later this month and will then headline your own tour, what do you think of our crowds? “I think the response is great, you know when you get to smaller towns there’s different kinds of people and you almost get, British hillbillies, like the hillbillies in the US.”
Do you get to explore any of the cities you play, or really experience the local environment, or is it all just monotonous, i.e, get to the venue, sound check, gig, and back to the tour bus? “I try to do as much stuff as we possibly can and hang out with the local people, I don’t see how you can have that much fun if you keep to yourself.”
Well that sounds like a plan, and an extended invitation to us all….
