Cyberpunk racers, dead TV channels, amped-out brains, metallic avant-pop; this is the sonic machinery of duo Brian Case and Jeremy Lemos. Case is the lead singer and guitarist for Disappears (ex-90 Day Men, The Ponys), and Jeremy Lemos; a live sound engineer for Sonic Youth, The Shins and Iron & Wine. What happened when the two got together in a home studio one day was nothing short of accidental…or brilliant.
Experimenting with form and tantalizing electronics, Acteurs' debut EP, Cloud Generating, is driven by meditative cluster tones, frazzled factory keys and mechanical funk. But what exactly happened on that day when the record button was pushed during an unrehearsed studio session? One-half Acteurs, Jeremy Lemos, discusses how their new project was fueled on eggs and a decent amount of 'corrected' Italian coffees.
Using the term ‘electronic’ almost seems too generic to describe all the undercurrents and sub-genres amalgamated by Acteurs. How would you describe your music?
It’s the music that happens after two friends eat pancakes and maybe have a few corrected* coffees. Our music is noisy, but with choruses. Experimental, but it gets stuck in your head. That is what I would like to think it is.
I have been listening to so many bands like Powell, Factory Floor, Raime, Emptyset, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Andy Stott lately. It’s been such an exciting year for music - the list goes on and on. I haven’t been this excited about new music in a long time, just inspired. I’ve been making ‘dark’ music for a long time with White/Light so this was the logical next step for me. My favourite band of all time is Throbbing Gristle, so there will always be that in there, whether I know it or not. It all really goes back there, doesn’t it? I don’t think Brian would agree though!
* Caffè corretto, an Italian beverage, consists of a shot of espresso with a shot of liquor [1] usually grappa, and sometimes sambuca [2] or brandy [3].It is also known (outside of Italy) as an "espresso corretto". The Italian word 'corretto' corresponds to the English word 'correct' in the sense of 'proper'.
Discuss the recording process when you both got in the same room together. It sounded like quite an intuitive and improvised process.
Brian and I have been friends for a long time and we have worked together on a few projects indirectly. There is a cafe by my house that I am in way too much, and we would see each other there all the time. Brian is into a lot of strange music that his other band might not have indulged, and we would just be talking about it over breakfast. He knew how much I was into synths and electronics, and one day he came over to check them out. A few hours later we accidentally had a song. I’m really into playing with new gear, so I’d show Brian what they could do and he would really quickly edit me into a mindset that was more musical. We never ‘worked’ on making this record, we would just wait until both of us had a morning off and would eat eggs and then go back to my place and start programming drum machines. I’m a coffee snob, and Brian sometimes tends bar so the mornings would be me making coffee while recording and as the day crept on Brian would start making cocktails. We took the backwards approach to Hemingway’s rule of “write drunk and edit sober".
There seems to be an amazing live and aesthetic component that needs to be attached to the mechanics of the music. Are you working on a live show?
We made this record with lots of tricks and synths in my house, so some of it was quite accidental. Now that the record is done, the hardest part has been going back and figuring out how to play it all at once! We have been doing the same process now, but just picking apart the songs instead of building them. Just two days ago we ran through our set, four songs from the LP and one new one, and I was surprised how well it went! My Eurorack synth was not made to be played live as it’s very finicky and never really plays the same thing twice, but I think we have it down now.
You both have an extensive CV of touring credits and established profiles in the U.S. alternative scene. What are your best combined attributes for an act/project such as this?
Brian has been playing in bands since I met him 15 years ago, and I’ve been on tour doing sound for almost that long. I’m usually coming from a technical angle, while Brian knows just enough about it to know when to stop tweaking and hit record. Often I’ll patch something up and start exploring and he will say, “Wait, STOP! Go back and hit record right now". If I was by myself I would just turn knobs for an hour until it disintegrated into nothing, but with Brian as the editor he keeps it simple. If it was just up to me, I would still be working on song number two trying to get everything synced with MIDI. He is the one that just says, “That’s great! Stop right there and get me a mic so I can sing vocals on it".
Which bands have influenced you both across your careers?
The only person that I can really talk about in the same sentence about my career is Jim O’Rourke. We used to live together when I was 22 and there is no one more responsible for where I am now than him. I used to work in a recording studio working on horrible sessions for 16 hours a day and would come home exhausted. I would open the door ready to crash and Jim would jump up and start shaking me saying, “I’ve been waiting for you to come home all day!” and would sit me down in a chair in front of the stereo. All I wanted to do was get some sleep and he would blow my mind with whatever record he was playing and it would almost always turn into the best album I had never heard. It happened all the time. I always worked hard, but he always worked harder and always knew more. He inspired me every day, and was the gateway to me working on a lot of great records, and with Sonic Youth.
If the sound of Acteurs (according to Public Information) is a future primitive world with black glass buildings, dead TV channels, amped out brains, sodium streetlights and grey smoke, how would the world appear to those listening to commercial music?
That description works both ways. People that would be interested in that sort of thing would check it out, and those who would find that description unappetizing probably wouldn't like the record.
Famous last words...
No, no, listen to me. I’m certain you pull the red wire first.
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