NEPTUNE

NEPTUNE is the best discovery for me this year. NOISE à la THE EX, punk à la HEADBUTT, black & metallic sounds à la NEUBAUTEN or some special moods à la SONIC YOUTH, yes, there is no time to loose, just LISTEN TO NEPTUNE. (erwan) - Francais

age, social origin, yr beginning in music.

- John Manson 33, carpenter/artist, 1980 started piano lessons

- Daniel Paul Boucher, Percussion - 29, jobless rocker, drums since age 3 though my drumming technique ceased to progress after age 5

Jason Sidney Sanford, I'm Thirty-Four. I got my first guitar when I was sixteen. I didn't really like it until I gave up the idea of learning scales and started to make up my own chords and new tuning systems. Then at the University of Massachusetts I studied sculpture and began to make my own guitars.

Mark William Pearson = basse, chante, booty machine. 31 years old. Social origin = white trash, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Hearing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five at the age of 11 not only was a gift to my ears but also lead me to search for music beyond the radio. I made ambient noise with tape splices through a mixing board shortly thereafter which lead me to keyboards which lead me to play guitar although I hate guitar solos.

How many people is the kernel of NEPTUNE ? it seems like you play with a lot of musicians (???).

four, although there have been a lot of changes in the lineup over the years, this past 3 years has been the solid kernal that is recorded on Intimate Lightning. We hope it does not pop too soon.

Membership in the band shifted over the years and finally seems to have solidified. The sound has changed with the members but something in the idea and the approach has remained fixed. I am very happy with the current line-up; Mark and John and Dan are very mighty.

You seems to be really interested in sculpture & in the art in general. You built yr own instruments, why ?

This is JAson's idea. He is the founding member, instrument builder of the band. He think he was trying to make rock more dangerous and awkward to carry around. The rest of us have just learned to play these things the best we can and it has been very fun to try and come up with new sounds to fit them.

I build instruments to find sounds that are not "off the shelf." Also, it is a goal to combine the realms of sculpture, music, and performance.

You put yourself in a "case" when you said "neptune plays loud noisy art punk that you can almost dance to" on yr website.... Do you know the NIHILIST SPASM BAND & the way they abord the music http://www3.sympatico.ca/pratten/NSB/ ? what do you think of them ?

it sounds awesome! i'd love to go see them. thanks for bringing it to our attention. they are a little braver than us in that they are completely improv. We have the same restrictions as far as not being able to play the precise notes one would get from a traditional instrument becasue they get lost on the instruments but we still write our own disjointed tunes and try to repeat them using the particular sounds that we can get.

I had heard of them but didn't know much about them. Interesting. When touring we've bumped into small pockets of people who build thier own instruments or are Harry Parch enthusiasts or macrotonal musicians -- they tend to look a lot like the Nihilist Spasm Band members...Hmmm.

HEADBUTT, THE EX, EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN, BASTARD (french band ? do you know ?), what do you think of the influences those musics have had on the music of NEPTUNE ?

The EX is a huge influence on our percussionist DAN. Probably his favorite band. We are going to Amsterdam for their 25th anniversary show in Nov.

i love the EX. they changed the way i think about music. a good friend turned me on to them 10 years ago aand i've been a big fan ever since. not so familiar with Neubauten, but i like everything i've heard from them.

I like the Ex a lot, an inspiring live band and collective. I have an immense fondness for Neubauten. There was a point in time when I only listened to Neubauten, Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, NON etc. I probably wasn't a very nice person to talk to then.

Can you talk of MISTER RECORDS ? What relations with the band ??? Possible to talk of the new projects of MR ?

I actually run Mister Records and play drums in Neptune so our relationship is pretty messy. like sleeping with your cousin. At Mister we working on our next compilation right now which will have some new Boston music we are really excited about like UV Protection http://www.uvprotectyou.com/ , Big Digits http://www.bigdigits.org and we have an ongoing series of short run split 7" records. There is a Neptune/Can't one in the works and a HOAg/Laughing Light and Devil Music/USAISAMONSTER. Also there will be a release with Tarantula of some of the Faux's last work in memory of our friend Kirsten Malone, their keyboard player. there'll be updates at our site http://www.misterrecords.com

John asked me a few years back what he should name his label and I said Mr Records because I thought it was funny how many businesses/restaurants were called Mr Beef or Mr Donut or Mr Happiness or something. I really didn't think John would use the name for his label.

Are you interested in Electronic engine? why ? Could you include Electronic in NEPTUNE ? What do you think of usual Electronic band, djs etc... do you listen to some ???... etc...

i don't really understand this question. Jason makes some electronics like his weird keyboardy thing but we haven't recorded with it yet. I like some electronic stuff but i am not very well versed in the DJ/electronic genre. i have a drum machine from the 80's that i play in our other band the YOung Sexy Assassins and that's about it.

Electronics offer some interesting possibilities. But they are dangerous in that they can tend to divorce a performer from the kinesthetic aspect of music. The relationship between sound and the gesture that produces the sound is very important. Do the chords that Pete Townsend play sound better because he does that ridiculous and amazing windmill? I think so.

Dan listens to a lot of electronic music and I like it too. We both loved industrial music when we were adolescents. Front 242 etc. I loved Skinny Puppy. We have some songs that use electronics and hopefully we'll record them soon.

Can you talk about the way you approach the "art" in BOSTON ? What do you think of people usually in the circles ?

Boston is really overflowing with creative poeple/musicians. It becomes a little stiffling. There is too much to follow and bands break up before you know they exist. Most of the performace spaces are based on more traditional rock music commercial ventures so the weird stuff gets unseen and then disappears but it keeps coming if you keep looking for it. That's a big part of why we started the label to try andcapture soem more of the ignored music in our city. Poeple here are very nice once you get beyond their grimacing front.

Why did you canceled the european tour ? Can you talk of the new projects of NEPTUNE & maybe yours if you play in other bands (or the others...) ?

The last tour was cut short because of a family emergency. We had to return to the US unexpectedly. It was a wonderful week though. We are planning our next tour now for OCT 12 - NOV 22 and will be doing several shows in France. MArk and Dan and I are also in a band called Young Sexy Assassins which according to SPlendid e-zine "reeks of pregrunge antirock." Our last show featured a cheerleader and a cheeramid. We have a record on Mister (of course) also. It hasn't fallen too far from the Neptune tree but we all play different instruments so it is a great balance to be in both bands. http://www.misterrecords.com/ysa

the last one, what do you prefer... to be the planet NEPTUNE or the god of the sea ?

the god of the sea has a lot better visual connotations for me. We've used his image many times on posters, cds, tattoos but it seems that the planet has never come up.

The god of the sea. He's much cooler than a really cold blue planet. his beard is pretty sweet and he always carries a three-pronged fork.

I like the ideas of both the planet and the god in tension with each other. When I think of the planet I think of things that belong to a mysterious, scientific future, and when I think of the god I think of things that belong to a mysterious, mythological past.

Planet Neptune, no person can step on you without being harmed.

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