a roman scandal

interviewed by Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element

You’ve been asked to contribute to a charity covers album. Which three cover versions are you going to do?

It would need to be something challenging that would be difficult to construct on a laptop, like segments from an entertainment news broadcast, a Japanese noise cassette, or ‘sounds of nature’ disc. This would probably have the unfortunate effect of diminishing monies for the charity, however.

What’s the worst song by your favourite band?

Too many to choose from.

What’s the best noise you’ve ever heard?

Too many to choose from, the most recent might be a performance by USA Is A Monster at a warehouse in Oakland where the flat surfaces and concrete and wood made a huge smashed reverb that was very tightly in sync with the band and added very nicely to the death metal to droning transition.

What’s the best ‘bad pun’ band name?

The Dooks of Hazard

As a group, what is your favourite packaging for any recording ever?

OMD Dazzle Ships?

Is the American underground music scene getting better or worse?

It probably depends on what region you are in. The underground music I have seen in the bay area is interesting and amorphous - large angular pillows of noise (generated by analog or digital means, yet strangely enough sounding very similar) that are apt to be folded into something cohesive, but intentionally remain slightly unpalatable if carefully constructed.

Are you an abstinent band, a drug band, an alcohol band or a food band?

I have been married for three years, so my days of abstinence are over. Jason and Tyler still wait in chastity for the right woman to come along.

Which are the bands that have had least influence on your music?

The ones I haven’t heard?

What does your family think of your music?

Probably they are glad we are not making a career of this.

Has the fact that you’ve got a member of a considerably more well-known band (i.e. Trail of Dead) in your band helped A Roman Scandal, or hindered you?

It certainly hasn’t hurt, but we are hardly functioning in any kind of manner to take advantage of this.

A Roman Scandal is ‘malleable’ - how does this affect how you write, and how you perform live? Sub-question: is a Roman Scandal principally a studio project or a live band?

We are malleable in that the band has had a varying line-up of live players but the same studio cast, and in that the bulk of ARS material is re-edits of the same bit of core material, all dating from about 5 years ago. ARS was a live band for about 2.5 years, the second half of which without me (since I had moved to California). Then Tyler (Denim and Diamonds) moved to New York (we were in Austin before hand...). Since then this has mostly been a studio project based on remixes of remixes of around 12 songs we recorded for an unreleased album in 1999.

Sing us a song.

homepage.mac.com/evanbaumgardner/iMovieTheater6.html

If you could buy Sunnyvale something for Christmas, what would it be?

The rights to above song.