[Text by Olivia Rebert; this article appears in the Ithaca Times]
During a 12-hour drive from Atlanta to their home in Cherry Hill, N.J., Adam Nash and David Rosen dreamt up a planet unlike their own, where cogs made the world turn and technology ruled. Their dreams became reality as these friends coordinated with five others two years ago and formed the band Igor’s Egg.
Since the band was created, the group put together an epic tale, adding to the story the two friends made. The group decided it didn’t just want to play music; it wanted to tell a story. The final product was the band’s debut album, The Ultimate Tuh, which tells the beginning of a story about a man named Phil and his band, the Horsechips. As Igor’s Egg’s story progresses, we learn that Phil and his band members unintentionally destroy their world by selling out and playing bad music.
This weekend, Igor’s Egg is returning to its home base Ithaca to play sci-fi, epic rock to the people who love it most. We had a chance to sit down with David Rosen, the band’s vocalist, and Adam Nash, the keyboardist, to talk about their debut album and to untangle the epic The Ultimate Tuh.
Ithaca Times: What inspired you to write this album about Phil and the Horsechips?
Adam Nash: The word “horsechips” literally means bullsh*t. The band is an aspect of music and especially the music industry. It represents what’s often involved with music, fans, success and losing touch with what music really means. It’s a band driven for all the wrong reasons. So when they sign a record deal they end up destroying the entire world [of Amaris.]
IT: The first track, Amaris, is named after the imaginary planet in your story. However, the track has no lyrics, which is an on-going theme in your album. Do you hope this music evokes listeners’ imaginations so they think about what Amaris may have looked like before it had been destroyed?
Nash: Amaris is made of clockwork — it’s literally a machine interconnected with metal and has a complete lack of natural life — they don’t have trees or a sky — it’s just a bleak world. But there are amazing things happening within that world that will change it all and I think that’s where the romantic, exciting aspects of the song come in. The whole album is really a soundtrack.
IT: When a person first opens the cover of your album, he’s met by a letter written by Dr. Sagemore, one of the characters you’ve created. The letter describes what happened to the world of Amaris — how it was destroyed and who destroyed it. What gave you the idea to include this in the album?
Dave Rosen: The letter was one way for us to hint at the larger world we are creating and that all of this music is going to be telling a big story. So when we release more music in the future you can be sure it will be a continuation of the same characters, themes and plots.
IT: Where do you get the album’s name, “The Ultimate Tuh”?
Rosen: “The Ultimate Tuh” is the name of our album but it’s also in the world.
Nash: The Ultimate Tuh is the anything, it’s the Holy Grail. It doesn’t have any physical meaning but it’s the thing that saves the day.
IT: So how do Phil and his band get involved with The Ultimate Tuh?
Rosen: HogsPogs, the villain, creates a monster with the music of Horsechips, unbeknownst to them, to take over the world. They play their music to bring the monster to life but when it does come alive, HogsPogs realizes it’s out of his control and the prototype destroys him. With his final words, he tells Horsechips that finding The Ultimate Tuh is the only way they can destroy the prototype monster. They go on a quest for The Ultimate Tuh by searching Amaris but then they ended up on Dimension 2xsquared and met the Energy Shadows, the race who lives there. The Horsechips think they experience The Ultimate Tuh and go back [to Amaris] thinking they’ll be heroes, but many years have passed by then and the world is already destroyed. Their efforts were to no avail.
IT: Who is Igor and what is his egg? Does it have anything to do with your album or is it just a name you created for yourself?
Nash: Igor and his eggs are part of Amaris. Igor is a man who decides he must compile all the knowledge in all of Amaris so that it may be left behind for any generations after Amaris’ civilization has fallen. So he creates these little eggs and compiles knowledge into them. At the end of the album, Phil finds one of the eggs after Amaris has fallen and that’s where the next album will go.
IT: The album has 99 tracks. The first few are full-length songs, but the rest are blank or contain some random small songs or voices. How do you want your fans to listen to this album?
Rosen: It’s like a soundtrack to us. But you can listen to the album for the story or the music. A person can sit down, close his eyes and listen to the entire epic from beginning to end or he can listen to it as an album of songs.
IT: Who and what were some of your influences for creating “The Ultimate Tuh”?
Rosen: For me, I’d say Phish, Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles. Music across the spectrum. I’ll listen to anything. But everyone in the band has a very well-versed background across the board. The blend of the sound makes the album what it is.
Nash: My influences, including the above mentioned by Dave, are Squarepusher, John Williams and especially The Lord of the Rings. But I’m also influenced by a lot of non-musical things too, especially video games.
IT: Who did your album’s art? Does it coincide with your musical ideas and the world you hoped to create?
Nash: Kyle Confuhr did our artwork and he’s amazing. Dave and I had a very clear image of what Amaris would look like. We started interviewing artists and we met Kyle. He brought his notebook, opened it up, and his pictures had the look of Amaris before we ever told him about it. It was a magical experience.
IT: What do you do when you’re not with Igor’s Egg?
Rosen: I live in Philly and teach 4th and 5th graders. I’m part of a jazz group and do a lot of funk and jam music too. I’m a part-time student, a teacher and a musician and that’s my life.
Nash: I’m at grad school at NYU right now so I make a lot of video games and weird projects and I’m going to build the physical Igor’s Egg soon.
IT: What keeps you turned on to music? What keeps you from straying?
Rosen: I think we all do stray — that’s a huge part of it.
Nash: I’m totally straying.
Rosen: We’re not all about getting gigs. We want to play a huge, story-telling, multi-media experience. We want there to be other aspects. It’s not all about the music. The music is a key part of it, music tangles throughout it, but I think we do stray.
Nash: Trust me, you won’t see an Igor’s Egg tour anytime soon.
Igor’s Egg will perform at Castaways this Saturday, Feb. 2. Admission is $5 and includes a copy of The Ultimate Tuh. For more information, call 607-272-1370 or go to their website.