Ought: The Wavelength Interview
By Guest ~ Posted Wednesday, April 23rd 2014
Purveyors of: Plaintive yelps and looming - but stoppable - sonic glaciers.
File next to: The Mouthbreathers, Magik Markers (you’re welcome, Matt)
Playing: Thursday April 24 at Tattoo Queen West as part of the NICE festivities.
Ought are a Montreal-based four piece and are the newest additions to consistently wonderful label Constellation Records. The young band’s sound has been compared to legends Cap’n Jazz and even — gasp — Talking Heads. Their debut release More Than Any Other Day will be released upon an ill-prepared populace on April 29th. Dean Williams caught up with all four members and they discussed some heavy shit, brah.
Hey guys. Great record! So, what do you think happens when we die?
Tim K: As a child, I once got trapped in a deflating jumping castle at my Dad's corporate family Christmas party and I thought I was dead. It’s probably like that.
Tim B: We turn into whatever breed of dog/animal we were most like in life. If you have any say in that, I would like to be a horse. Or else something that lives in a warm climate.
Ben: Someone once said, “If you get shot by an arrow, is it more important to ask where the arrow came from and where was it going, or to remove the arrow?” That's a bit on how I feel about that question. There is an intimacy in the notion of one life to live that is important, but I think some interpretation of reincarnation has more didactic and edifying value.
Matt: Special Agent Dale Cooper will guide me into the light.
Who are Ought, what do you stand for and why do you exist?
Matt: I stand because playing the keyboard sitting down would look silly. I, however, don’t exist to play the keys, most likely.
Tim B: Ought is a band. Ben makes people dance, Matt makes people smile, Tim makes people's hearts race, and I do silly dances and get very sweaty. I think we try to be as conscientious and compassionate as possible.
Ben: We are four friends who just want this album to be a springboard for our career as a wedding cover band.
Tim K: Ought is an elaborate front for laundering extremely small sums of money. We have so far successfully laundered dozens of dollars.
The music of Ought: unstoppable, looming glacier or thunderous machinery of death?
Tim K: Yes.
Matt: I’ll take looming glacier because I like penguins a lot, and a lot more than being unable to stop, or causing, someone else’s demise.
What's a misconception regarding Ought you've read in the press and would like to clear up?
Matt: I really like a lot of bands we get compared to — shout-out to Graham at Constellation for putting Cap’n Jazz on peoples’ tongues! However, I don’t think we (or I, at least) look to or listen to Wire, or Gang of Four, or some other bands of that sort more so than, say, The Raincoats, Yo La Tengo, The Mouthbreathers, or Magik Markers, but we never get compared to them, much to my chagrin! Also, the rumour about Ben that’s been circulating lately is definitively not true.
Tim K: I agree with Matt, that thing about Ben has been totally exaggerated. Just because someone can breathe underwater for hours at a time doesn't make them legally a fish.
Which logical fallacies do you find the most infuriating?
Matt: Probably something about time travel or the expression “that's just the way it is” or anyone's claim to having objective truth or taste.
Ben: That the violence of the State is necessary to maintain peace.
Tim K:
What does your rehearsal space look like? How would you describe the energy of the place? So much of how a band turns out has to do with the character of the spaces they occupy, and I don't read much about people describing the spaces in which their songs are written and refined.
Matt: There’s a window overlooking the street, so for me it often tends to reflect whatever is going on outside. The space is a bit messy but mostly feels really warm and open. The lighting sometimes can be truly awful, but the natural light it gets during the day is great. Some days we sound more or less like the lighting.
Tim B: Our practice space is affordable and lots of sun comes in. It looks out on a playground, which I think is an important reminder when we play: to play. It can be political to shake your hips, especially in very large groups.
Ben: It's a messy loft with a nice history. One side is a forest of drums, the other is a forest of amps. The space has the energy of many bands who learn from each other and care for each other, so it feels good to play there. It also on a very special street in relation to how our band maps onto the geography of Montreal.
Tim K: Anyone who said that our jam space is “warm” or “sunny” has forgotten the dark days before we figured out how to turn the heating on. It is home to the second most drum kits per square foot in North America, losing out only to the back room of the Milwaukee Guitar Centre.
I wish someone would make eye contact with me on the train and tell me everything is going to be okay. Is everything going to be okay?
Matt: It probably depends on your astrological sign, and whether Mercury is in retrograde or not, if I can be totally real.
Tim B: I think people are doing this. Those lyrics started off as sardonic, sarcastic. Over a year of playing it, [they] became hopeful, totally of their own accord. This is part of why I love working on songs for so long, playing them live until they've lived and breathed a bit. Where you are one week isn't where you'll be the next. I love looking around the bus on a sunny day and making eye contact with a few people; I don't think anyone has to say it out loud. But, hey — we could. One time I was on crutches and was pretty foolishly trying to crutch my way a very long ways to work. My arms were hurting and I was thinking about hailing a cab when a man just appeared next to me and said “it is very hard now, but you will be strong tomorrow.” He walked with me for a while and told me about various times he had been on crutches. It made the blocks slide by. (I did get a cab for the last couple of blocks, a very steep hill.)
Ben: Yes, even if not.
Tim K: Where I come from if someone starts making eye contact with you on the train and says, "You're going to be okay,” they're probably going to beat you up, similar to the phrase "this won't hurt a bit", I think. (See: truth telling paradox, your question about logical fallacies.)