Interview with Dave from The Murder Chord.
Been around since?
Iv been around since I can remember, for Murderchord, I think we’r pushing a year old or so… although, some of the songs existed beforehand, as did some of the personality flaws.
Current line up?
Both current and only, is the illustrious Ryan Sykes on the Drums and in the spa, and me reminding people that piano is first and foremost a percussion instrument, and the voice was probibly developed for mateing and settling disputes.
Where are you based?
West AK is where its cheapest, and nearest the beaches, although I'm sick of getting home after the night is over and we’ve wasted some serious money on dial a driver.
How have you found the transition from drumming with Missing Teeth, to being center stage?
I don’t know how many people realize this, but drumming fucking hurts.
At the risk of sounding like a complete pussy, theres not too much about drumming that the human body was designed around…
so, in some ways the drums is a welcome good bye, we had a good ten years together, and now is as good a time as any to play something different. Iv already done the bass thing, and broken some guitar strings in my day, so I’ll keep playing the piano until I stop… all I care about is playing songs. The instrument is irrelivent.
What inspired you to helm the keys and create Murder Chord?
I have too many songs in my brain, and I needed to clear out some space, to make room for interesting facts, and memorys…
What was Murder Chord’s first gig?
In my bed room at a sweet party which went all night long, and we had a projector showing the movie ‘Zombie strippers’ on the cealing, and it was mean, and I got wasted, and my room stunk like boozed westies for 3 weeks. Ahhh, the memorys.
Murder Chord appears to have the knack to whip the crowd into a frenzy – what’s the craziest audience related incident to date?
I didn’t think we have a ‘knack to whip the crowd into a frenzy’ In my humble observation, I find most people are quite content and co-herent usually standing and watching, some have a little dance, while others crack onto members of the opposite sex, I think that frenzys are reserved for fast loud bands like how Missing Teeth was, and how Shit Ripper ARE. Craziest audience related incident? –does ‘no pants’ count?....
What are you listening to at the moment?
Listening to? This really good high pitched whistling noise, which sometimes causes other sound sources to distort… also, the constant rumble of traffic from great north road. Lastly, im in the process of mixing the Bildge Rats album… so, obviously I listen to that quite a lot!
What is your writing/recording process?
We jam out song ideas constantly, by far the majority of rehearsal is spent just jamming out these ideas. –because there’s just the two of us, and ryan can read my dirty little mind, we can write a whole song in one sitting, and then record it the next…. I usually have to have some sort of seed ready to go before we do that. –allthough the other week I went for a piss and ryan just started playing this crazy beat, and this song came into my head with my dick in my hand, and then rushed back into the room and away it went. –I washed my hands later…. The thing I enjoy doing the most is actually playing the songs, so we quite often play half finished songs at shows, just to see if having people watching is enough to invent a good ending… -sometimes it really is! Other times, it sucks hilariously Hahah. Ya never know what ya gonna get at a murderchord show…
Tell us about your new Album, how was it recorded and with who?
We recorded 29 drum tracks in two days, with live keys and vox. Of that, only 8 made it onto the blunt cut ep. Looking back over the sessions, there is at least another albums worth of stuff there, and since then we’v got about another 10ish written… so, I guess we’ll do the same again shortly… maybe it would be best to do a full length.
Oh, it was recorded at ‘the Dank’ (my house) by me. For free! Hahah, I probably should have charged myself, that guy fucking owes me. –jerk.
You run a recording studio in Glen Eden, tell us about that and the music scene out west...
I first recorded me and my dad playing a duet (he playes the accordion) on a cute little bright pink stereo at the tender age of about 9. since then, I have gradually become more and more into it. And I have made every mistake imaginable, some, many times over!… if anyone wants to profit from my many MANY mistakes, drop us a line, and I’ll feed your shit band through my musical wood chipper any day of the week.
The music scene out west is just the same as anywhere, -a LOT of bands, having fun. Doing whatever they are doing for whatever reason. And eventually needing to offload some of the songs onto tape, so there brains dong explode…. What els is there to say? –I don’t just wanna provide a list of everything iv done. Lists are fucking boring!
Of all the instruments you own, or have owned, what is your favorite?
I don’t have a favorite… they are all great at doing whatever it is that they do best. I have a nice little red acoustic guitar (brand name: Jason) which I like because I can carry it around and play it at strange places, I have an awsom old organ thing which can play tunes that my stage piano cant do… and vice versa, acoustic and electric bass… this is turning into a list… um, I like my triangle. Because its fucking annoying. Come round, I’ll show you.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learnt musically in the last year?
Ahh, finally, an easy question!
What I find most amazing, by far, is how our brain deals with sound in general. –like the fact that we can easily ‘tune into’ a voice talking in a noisy and crowded room, like how your brain registers only the average volume of sound, and dosnt generally notice severe peaks in volume if they are too short, -like the fact that delay times of under 40millaseconds are perceved as part of the original sound source, but any longer than that, it sounds seperate, allso in a normal room we hear mostly sounds which have been reflected by the walls at least twice, and only perhaps 30% of the original sound source… the hard part of this question is knowing when to shutup!
The other thing iv learnt, is that by wearing fingerless gloves when I play, I don’t have to take my piano in for repairs as often.
What has been your favorite show to date?
With the murderchord, I think it was probably the other week at cassette nine, opening for ‘uni and her ukulele’ -im not sure why, but everything just clicked together like crazy, and I felt like I could play anything ever written by anyone ever if I wanted to, and I could tell that ryan was on fire too. But honestly? iv been playing shows most weekends for 15 years… every single one I remember like most people remember alien abductions… -there was a lot of noise, flashing lights, I remember sweating heavily, I woke up in my room with a sore asshole, and post traumatic stress syndrome. Fuck I love em all.
If you could share the stage with anyone (band or person) who would it be?
Michael Jacksons corpse.
The future holds…
Good question, either everything is pre-determined, in which case, don’t worry about it. Or… we have free choice, in which case, GET TO WORK!
Either way, there’s a big long list of ‘things to do before I die’ and im just working my way through them. –I sence there will be a future full of humor, stress, anxiety, sadness, joy, love etc for everyone els, and nothing whatsoever like that for me, because I don’t have any emotions.
The state of music in NZ is…
People are trying to run music like a business. Gradually it has less and less to do with excellent songs, these days it is nearly indistinguishable from the marketing and porn industry.
Luckily, there are still people who treat it like the art that it is, and those guys get my attention.
I cant really say anything els about it, cause I have my head jammed up my own shit factory most of the time, but what I see on tv generally sucks a donky dick. And if I hear one more song with a auto-tuned lead vocal, I’ll fucking throw my beer through the the screen.
