Akron/Family will be playing the Appel Commons on Cornell’s north campus tonight, Feb. 8. They’ll take the stage with The Winks at 9pm. Read the article that appeared in this week’s Ithaca Times here. Find out more about Akron/Family here. And listen to “Meek Warrior” on mySpace.
Popcorn Youth: So, your show at Cornell is your first date for this tour.
Dana Janssen: Yes, it’s our our first show, first date, the “work out all the bugs” show. Nah, just kidding. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: So coming back to Ithaca will be familiar to you…
Dana Janssen: Yes, I lived in Ithaca for a while.
Popcorn Youth: And some other guys are from the area as well?
Dana Janssen: Yeah, Ryan [Vanderhoof, the singer/multi-instrumentalist] is from Union Springs which is just north of Ithaca. I grew up in Pennsylvania, a couple of hours south in Williamsport.
Popcorn Youth: So how did you end up in Ithaca?
Dana Janssen: Well, actually, a girl I was dating went to college over in Geneva, at Hobart and Smith Colleges 45 mins away. A friend of ours was subletting a place in Ithaca, and I figured I’d give a shot, and I liked it, so I stuck around for a while.
Popcorn Youth: And you played the drums in a jazz rock band here in Ithaca?
Dana Janssen: Yeah, in a band called Gentleman Jones.
Popcorn Youth: Was Ryan in that band?
Dana Janssen: No, but Seth was.
Popcorn Youth: Wow, Seth lived in Ithaca too?
Dana Janssen: You know, he lived in Williamsport at the time, and it was only a two hour drive, so he would just go back and forth for shows and stuff.
Popcorn Youth: The kind of music that Akron/Family does now, was that something you wanted to do then in Ithaca at the time. Do you think there would have been a scene for it then, in Ithaca?
Dana Janssen: No, I didn’t … no, not really. I didn’t have anything in mind like that. Things like Akron/Family just happen. I don’t think it was really intentional to be specific about what we sound like, you know what I mean? Specifically hippie or rock or whatever. It was a really organic process. And when we moved to Brooklyn, we got Seth and Miles together and started recording, and then I moved up and started recording as well, it just kind of happened organically. It wasn’t a specific intent to be A, B, or C.
Popcorn Youth: Right, what I meant was more like, if while you were in Ithaca you recognized that were other people doing taking a similar approach as Akron/Family now.
Dana Janssen: Not really. When I was there, I listened to The Mofos. Are they still around, do they still play? I was listening to that kind of music. My buddies were in a band called Cletus and the Barn Burners, they’re friends of ours. When I listened to music in Ithaca, I just listened to those guys, and that was pretty much all I knew. I just hung out with them. It’s funny actually because the Barn Burners moved down to Brooklyn and I see them quite a bit, and they also have this other band, Butane Variations. They very well might be playing with us in Ithaca with that show. Not positive, but they might.
Popcorn Youth: Well, Akron/Family has been lumped in with whatever you want to call it, “New Weird America,” free folk, whatever. How do you envision your approach to percussion as being “freak folk” in nature or not at all — or, how you think about how you fit in with the band?
Dana Janssen: Well, it’s not really the role of percussion, per se. It’s more the role of musician, the role of influence. Because we all play a tons of instruments. On some days, I’ll be sitting behind the drums all night, but as far as recording goes, it’s no holds barred, nobody specifically does all the guitar parts or all the drum parts. I mean we all play guitar and we all play bass and things like that. It’s just a contribution factor. Whatever you can contribute, please do! As opposed to, “You’re the guitarist” or “You’re the percussionist” or “You’re the lead singer.” So that’s that.
Popcorn Youth: How would you explain or classify Akron/Family as fitting into the continuum of free folk, freak folk, free improv, psych-folk — whatever you want to call it.
Dana Janssen: Well, I mean, I guess the way we fit into that, or the way that people see us fitting into that, is that, you know, we have acoustic guitars sometimes you know? (Laughs) And we all sing. (Laughs) And we do harmonies which are kinda folky, but it’s definitely got a large improvisational element to our music. So when you put those together with the noise rock thing it’s a little bit different.
And we’re not necessarily concerned with image at all, you know? We look frumpy, not like your average band these days, that goes for a certain image or whatever. Like clothing and the fact that we dress like bums and look like normal people, you know? Maybe that’s where they get the “freaky” from? I don’t know. (Laughs) I think that “freak folk” comes from Devendra [Banhart]. People always reference Devendra about that. I think that he’s got a very flamboyantly hippy-dippy style going on. I suppose that’s where it comes from, I don’t know.
But as far as where we fit in, I don’t even know where we fit and why people consider us that. I think that we got lumped into that thing was that we came out on Young God [records], and Devendra came out on Young God too. The same label, and our first album was quieter, a little more subdued, not as rockish. Not as noisy. So I think that first impression is where most of that comes from. That’s what it was at the time. But where it is now, it’s nothing like that at all. If you’ve heard “Meek Warrior” it’s like quite a departure, especially the first track.
Popcorn Youth: Besides being label mates with Devendra, do you see any other resemblance musically?
Dana Janssen: I don’t think we’re the same musically, at all. I think mostly because Michael [Gira, owner of Young God Records] discovered us, and people were like “Oh, look at that!” But I have no idea. I really pay no attention to labels.
Popcorn Youth: Do you see a connection with Akron/Family and the noise scene? Especially with the influence of Michael Gira being a pioneer with the noisy industrial sound. Do you see a relationship with other bands in the noise scene?
Dana Janssen: Oh yeah, totally. There’s moments in our live shows where we just go specifically to that place. Like, a Wolf Eyes-type thing. Maybe not as muscular as Wolf Eyes, or aggressive as Wolf Eyes, but we go there quite a bit. And I definitely see the relation. With noise, I mean, it’s an acquired taste, so you really have to know or be at least familiar with things to distinguish between different noise rock bands. But what we do is so much more different than what Wolf Eyes does; we definitely do similar things at certain times, but we’re not Wolf Eyes because they’re only that, and we’re not all that, we’re just certain elements.
Popcorn Youth: How would you characterize your approach to improvisation in relationship to folk music? How improv plays a role whether live or in the studio?
Dann Janssen: The improvisation aspect live is definitely more prevalent live. A lot of improvisation is being in the moment, the spontaneity of it all. So when we play live, it’s definitely more obvious and played with a lot more. Recording too as well, like we’ll just jam for a while, and we’ll have something beautiful and we’ll jam for an hour and cut and paste, or just use it as it is, just ideas that are fresh and have them to play with and put on a recording. Improv plays a big role in both situations.
Popcorn Youth: How does that cut and paste process work?
Dana Janssen: We’ve done that before. Sometimes we jam and then just what we come up with, we use that as it was and have a recorded improv. But we do a lot of different things, too.
Popcorn Youth: You’ve recorded with Hamid Drake. Has his approach to percussion influenced you at all?
Dana Janssen: Oh my god, yes, totally. It’s funny, because he’s regarded as being lumped into jazz, free music, things like that, but somehow I learned how to play rock music [for Akron/Family] by watching him. It’s funny to say that because I’ve been playing music for a long time, and I’ve played rock music for years, but it was amzing how in two ten-hour days when we were recording with him, just sitting next to him and playing with him, seeing the way he plays, I learned a lot about all types of drumming. But specifically there was this thing we did, there was a rock section, and there was this thing that I noticed, I started to try to do myself after the sessions were over, and it really made what I was doing think more you know what I mean? Like, better. I learned a lot. Not just that but a lot about hand drums, watching him play and playing with him, just giving it a shot, because I had never really played hand drums. And you think a lot differently when you only have one skin to beat on as opposed to five, you know what I mean? I learned a tremendous amount in two days from playing with that guy.
Popcorn Youth: Only two days?
Dana Janssen: Two ten-hour days. But it was amazing because as a person he is completely compassionate and generous and warm and loving and just an awesome person to be around. And his playing, he’s a master drummer, and it’s just incredible that we had a chance to do that.
Popcorn Youth: Did he already come into the collaboration knowing what parts he wanted to play?
Dana Janssen: No, no. Not at all. He just came in and we just went for it. We played and tried to see what we had.
Popcorn Youth: How does spirituality factor into your music?
Dana Janssen: Yes. Well. (Pauses) I mean, spirituality is kind of different for everyone. For us, we’re not all of the same mindset. There are similarities of course, but we’re not … I don’t know. I don’t know how to phrase that because it’s kind of personal. (Pauses) Yeah, obviously we’re spiritual — the whole “Meek Warrior” has this spiritual theme. Some of the guys are Buddhist. Not all of us, but some. I don’t know. It’s kind of personal.
Popcorn Youth: Many regional niche scenes are really flourishing lately. Is there a lot of communication between these regional scenes and what is your approach to collaboration?
Dana Janssen: I don’t know … I really don’t know much about the “scenes” necessarily. All I know is that for us in particular, we try to play with as many people as possible. We don’t care where they’re from, we just play with them as much as possible. There’s this band up in Canada, Do Make Say Think, and we’re friends with those guys. And Hamid in Chicago. Pretty much everywhere we go we try to invite people up on stage to play with us. As far as we’re concerned, we don’t care where you’re from, we just like to play, and if you like to play, then let’s play together.
Popcorn Youth: Is there something similar happening in the UK?
Dana Janssen: We were just part of this article in Mojo Magazine based in England, called “The Quiet Revolution.” I don’t know if all the bands were American, or where they were from, but I guess some were from England, I don’t know that for sure. As far as other places, I don’t know. I have to say, I don’t really pay attention these days to what’s going on.
Popcorn Youth: Some music critics say that the “free folk” label is really just indie rock with acoustic instruments.
Dana Janssen: Right.
Popcorn Youth: And then there’s the other camp of critics that say it’s just hippie revivalism.
Dana Janssen: Right.
Popcorn Youth: What would you tell those people?
Dana Janssen: I mean everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so whatever you feel comfortable calling it, then go right ahead. To each his own.
Popcorn Youth: How much of Akron/Family draws upon traditions of folk music?
Dana Janssen: Folk music? I don’t know. The stuff we listen to that we’re influenced by is The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young. Things like that. Not things that I would consider “folk.” When I think of folk, I think more along the lines of Joni Mitchell and [Bob] Dylan.. but not Dylan. In my eyes, Dylan is more punk rock. Yeah. Things like that. The Band. That’s not folk music. Not really, that’s where we get most of our influence, you know what I mean? Stuff like that.
Popcorn Youth: Can you talk a little bit about your approach to vocals? Singing in unison, the harmonies?
Dana Janssen: I always just recognized it as being happy. It just happened. Music is definitely more about soundscaping than anything else.
Popcorn Youth: What were the major differences between playing in Akron/Family and playing with Michael Gira in Angels of Light?
Dana Janssen: Well, when we played with Michael it was very much Michael’s music. And his music is very much not “improv music.” We just played the tunes as they were every night. And he looked at it more like a play. You perform the same play every night, and it juts gets better as you go along, in theory. And it did. So it was definitely very much different. Very much his tunes with us serving as his band. It wasn’t really about us, at all, and we were just happy to be there. And it worked very well at the time.
Popcorn Youth: Do you do collaborative things in other media?
Dana Janssen: We’ve done some things at the over at the Anthology Film Archive. We’ve done shitloads over there. People who do video art behind us while we improv, and that was a lot of fun.
Popcorn Youth: What else are you inspired by?
Dana Janssen: (Pauses) I don’t know. Just like everybody I guess. Movies are cool. I like photographer Richard Mizrak, I think he’s pretty cool. I like poetry. I like Bob Dylan a lot.
Popcorn Youth: Did you like his record from last year?
Dana Janssen: I actually didn’t have a chance to listen to it that much. I’ve heard a few things and it sounded pretty good.
Popcorn Youth: Where do you see Akron/Family headed in the future?
Dana Janssen: I see us as kind of getting away from that label of free folk and just being our own thing. Because I’ve always thought that we were. I don’t think we fit into this freak folk thing or any specific thing. Someone said to me once, “As soon as you’re apart of a scene, the scene is already dead.” It’s true. Because at that point you just start getting bad regurgitation and that’s just pointless. That’s not where music is supposed to go, and that’s not what music is supposed to do. I don’t know. But anyway, as far as were concerned, we’re just going to keep playing music. It’s pointless to hope that people will stop labeling us, but on the other hand, when someone doesn’t know you, you can say, “Oh, it’s kind of like this, and then there’s this” familiarity that you hear, and that would pique your interest to check it out. So it’s good and it’s bad. I don’t think that we are freak folk and hope that people would recognize that.
Popcorn Youth: What bands in the Brooklyn area are you listening to lately?
Dana Janssen: I don’t really know any bands from New York. I don’t think we’re specifically friends with any bands from New York. I mean, we know the guys from Grizzly Bear, those guys are nice. We played with them once at a Katrina benefit at the Bowery a coupe of years ago and they were good.
Popcorn Youth: Are you looking forward to coming back to Ithaca?
Dana Janssen: Yeah, it’s going to be nice. It’s been a long time. It’ll be nice to get back.
Popcorn Youth: Any venues for music that were your favorite?
Dana Janssen: I always went to the Nines. Definitely a bar but I thought it was cool. We played the Nines, we played Castaways. It was all good fun.