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Menomena is a band who initially garnered my interest due to the unconventional way in which they write their music. As I wrote in my previous article, Menomena's Deeler, they utilize a computer program called DLR (pronounced Deeler), which is an acronym for Digital Looping Recorder, to assist in their writing process. The band consists of three members. Brent Knopf, who plays the piano, is the one who developed the program. Justin Harris plays bass. Danny Seim plays drums and percussion. In addition to their principal instruments, they show a limitless ability to play various additional instruments during their recording sessions. All three of them act as lead vocalist at different times as well. Although their unique approach to writing music is what initially attracted me to this band, their excellent albums are what have kept me coming back for repeated listens.

Their first album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster, was moderately successful despite the fact they had no label or manager at the time it was recorded and released. They packed and shipped every CD by hand, at first, until the demand forced them to get help. They released another album, Under an Hour, a year later, which included three instrumental tracks. These tracks originally accompanied a 2004 modern dance performance in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. Shortly after that release, they signed with the independent label Barsuk. Their first Barsuk release is Friend & Foe. In support of that album, they are launching a nationwide tour starting March 9, 2007. Luckily, they will be making their way through Austin during SXSW on March 15-17, 2007.

Q: Congratulations on the new album. It just blew me away. And every time I hear it gets a little bit better each time.

• Cool. On the 77th time it gets worse. Then on the 99th time it gets better again, though.

Q: Well, I'll just have to skip the 77th time. I'll be asleep while I am listening to it. First off, the whole DLR thing just baffles me. I actually work as an engineer most of the time. I noticed that you said you always felt you could possibly be an engineer or were headed in that direction. When I first heard about you guys, DLR is what first brought me to listen to Fun Blame Monster because I thought it was such an innovative idea.

• The scheme worked. Ha, Ha, Ha!

Q: So have any other bands expressed interest in picking your brain or using the program on their own?

• A couple, but uh... I suppose a few people emailed us and I offered it to some other folks but so far no one else has really used it that I am aware of.

Q: That's interesting. So you are open to people using it, it's just a matter of not having the time to help them out.

• I was tempted. I tried at first to see... I went to a software company. I said "This version I made... it's good but it's not great. Do you want to work on it with me?" They weren't interested. I thought of putting it out open source... kind of a GPL (General Public License) thing on it. I am still entertaining that notion in the back of my mind.

Q: So more to come I guess. With the whole songwriting and the innovative process... The Seattle Weekly article you did with Janna Chen, that was the one of the first articles I read on you guys. It's funny when you read someone else's interview you always think of questions you would like to ask if you had been the interviewer. So one of those things was, "Are there certain members of the band that bring certain interests or musical tastes that cause the whole creative process to move along democratically?

• We definitely each have strong opinions and each of us have had precious ideas which were squandered and stomped on by some of the bandmates. None of us are immune to having a bunch of favorite ideas looked down on. In fact the song "Wet and Rusting", initially, boy, that song got such a cold reception. I pretty much had to beg them to keep listening to it and maybe add ideas to it ‘cause there was a rhythm track on there that they didn't really like.

Q: So, you kind of had to sell that one to every one else. That's interesting.

• I had to like, "Come on guys this is really worth it. Dive into it."

Q: That is funny because that was the first track which stuck out to me. I was like... "This is an awesome song."

• Well, thanks.

Q: I noticed you guys aren't afraid to experiment with various... I guess you could say they are unusual instruments. I noticed you play toy piano and stuff like that on some of the songs. Is there an instrument that you've tried that never sounds right?

• I don't know. There are definitely things that we've tried that haven't worked. But I wouldn't say there is an instrument that has always failed we've tried to implement. Usually, instruments that we don't think are going to work are the ones that end up working the best. Huh? Can we get back to that one? I will keep brainstorming on that.

Q: Sure not a problem. The other thing is lyrically... The lyrics are kind of abstract in places but they all seem to have a general theme. How do you determine which member of the band writes each song? Is it kind of an election process or does somebody volunteer? Or does somebody say, "This is the song I am going to sing. So I am going to write the lyrics to it."

• Basically that's how it works. I mean it's not premeditated. Imagine a deck of 52 cards and then somebody walks up and says, "I'm going to work on the ace of spades." And sometimes they won't let us know that and they work on it. And someone else will grab that "ace of spades" and they'll work on it as well. But usually, somebody just picks a DLR session and chooses to arrange it. And at that point usually that's when the lyrics and melody are added. Because of that, usually they're the one that does the lyrics of the song and the singing. Occasionally, when "Oops. I've been working on the same song as he has been working on." We'll try to find a way to meld them together. "Rotten Hell" is an example of that where Danny sings the first half and Justin sings the second half. Because they both...

Q: Worked on it.

• You know kind of separately at the same time and were both kind of really bummed. But I think it ended up making the song stronger.

Q: I really like it when you guys switch off singers like that. I mean, it adds a little bit of diversity, but it's still kind of the same theme.

• Yeah. Totally. Yeah. It's funny the things that end up working well together.

Q: Well it's a luxury that must be very nice to have. With Fun Blame Monster you guys got to kind of skip the whole middle management process with not having a label or manager or anything. I am sure you guys get asked about this all the time. So your artistic vision was pretty much unobstructed between... you guys even sent out the actual CDs and packaged ‘em yourself and everything. So, how did that change for this album? I know the label had to have something to do with it. So, do you feel like it obstructed your vision at all?

• Um, No. No, I don't. To be clear. To recap. When we finished Fun Blame Monster, Danny sent it out to everybody. To Merge and Touch and Go, to Matador and Barsuk, Sub-Pop and it was just rejected. So we just released it on our own and people dug it. I guess we were kind of surprised because we didn't think people would really like it. So we sold the first batch ourselves. Just kind of online through orders with stores ourselves. Then we started working through this small Portland label called Film Guerrero. There's a real nice guy who runs that label. I went on a hike with him today. But anyways, we actually did work with him on our second album Under an Hour. He was just super awesome. He was friends with Josh who runs Barsuk. I guess Josh was interested in signing us and he talked to John. John talked to us. We all ended up talking together. We figured out a way to keep everybody involved and so basically this is more...We were looking for a way to have a label support us and try to basically move on to a bigger trampoline. I guess is the best analogy. Barsuk is our trampoline. No, we felt zero artistic interference from them, if anything a lot of support and openness to our creative ideas. I mean obviously they aren't going to try to skin us to the tooth like maybe cut something excessive for the packaging or something like that. They probably would have stopped us had it been prohibitively excessive. But, they've been very wonderful to work with and fantastic. I haven't felt any sort of artistic imposing of their will at all. That's the reason we chose Barsuk because we developed such a good mutually trusting relationship with Josh.

Q: That's really great. One of the things that's really cool about your packaging; it probably wouldn't have been able to be that way if you had gone with a major label to begin with. But now, they kind of have to accept it. I guess.

• That was another puzzle that we went through. We released Fun Blame on our own and it wasn't until it got attention that they got interested. They would take us out for coffee and they'd be like, "Okay. Love the record. We want to release but we can't do the flipbook. Nope." We were like, "Okay. We'll talk to you later I guess."

Q: (Laughing) That was a done deal at that point.

• They just assumed that it was impossible and it wasn't really that much more expensive.

Q: It's really cool that it was a make or break deal with you guys.

• The other thing they wanted us to do was add a song on the album. They were like "We want to release this but you can't do the flipbook and you have to add a song on to it."

Q: Because they wanted everyone to rebuy it of course, right?

• Right. And I just thought that was so insulting.

Q: From someone who buys a lot of albums, I appreciate that.

• C'mon, that is just so cruel to people that are supporting you.

Q: Absolutely. Thanks.

• Buy a whole album because we wrote out one more song. It's ridiculous.

Q: I noticed you guys use, or maybe you particularly, use a lot of references to water on some of the songs.

• Huh. I never thought about that.

Q: As a general theme, you know: "Wet and Rusting," in "The Pelican" you talk about the tide and, of course, there's "Oahu" which is, of course, about "Oahu".

• I never thought about...Oh and then there's Ghostship which is about...Right.

Q: So that's completely unintentional?

• I have never thought about it before, however, I am recalling just a couple of days ago a friend saying, "I like the fact on this artwork there's lots of sea-faring references." There's a ship and there's water which is really cool ‘cause there's a lot of water on this record." I was like, "There is?" I never really thought about it.

Q: Well with people who share the same musical tastes as I do, that's one of the things which I always discuss with them, if they can pick out a common theme on each album. That [Water] was one of the things. Is there anything else that seems to crop up? If you didn't already know about the water thing, then does it seem like any of the other guys, when they're writing lyrics or something like that, there's something that commonly keeps coming up?

• Let's see. I'm not sure. There's a thing, which I would say, but I don't think that Danny and Justin would agree with me. I might say... lyrically... What's going on, on this record? I think there's a lot going on with trust, basically asking questions of trust. I think in my opinion, a theme lyrically, but everyone is going to read the record differently. I would expect someone to disagree with me.

Q: No. I understand. It's great that you have an opinion on that. Because the trust thing is a common thing we should all try to subscribe to.

• I mean a lot of it is asking questions of trust, like, "Can I trust you?" basically. I don't know. There are certainly lots of themes to the record. That's one that sticks out to me. I am really intrigued by the water thing. I am glad that you mentioned that. I never thought...

Q: That's cool. You're welcome. The other thing I thought about, too, is what process you guys must go through when trying to arrange everything live. I am sure that's a big challenge.

• It is... totally is a challenge... because you decide what you are humanly able to play. What you're able to play well. Sometimes you have to let certain layers of a song be left out. That's tough because you want it to be full. You want it to sound true to the song. It can be a challenge to make good decisions and an enormous amount of work to relearn the song and to feel confident playing it. There's still a couple of songs on the record we are still trying to figure out how we are going to do them. We are still working on that. It is a challenge.

Q: I am really anxious to see you guys. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to see you yet.

• Oh, Ok. Well we don't... One thing is... Some bands are playing to tracks. They'll have a track playing while playing on top of it. We haven't done that yet and maybe we will someday but since we don't do that, that means that what you're hearing is what we're playing. Yes, it can be challenging.

Q: You guys are high on my priority list for SXSW. When I saw you guys on the list I was like, "This is going to be a cool concert." I had not heard Friend and Foe at that time. When I heard Friend and Foe, I was like, "Okay. This is going to be really interesting."

• Hope so.

Q: There is so much going on and it fits together so well. It was just really surprising.

• Well, thanks.

Q: How are you guys going to pull that off?

• Hopefully, well.

Quirkee.com: I'm sure you guys do a really great job. I was in a blues band in high school and something I always found interesting when I would meet another band is everybody always has there own favorite song that they enjoy playing live. Maybe it's like tour specific... or specific to a particular evening. When I was playing, I was always kind of looking forward to a particular song in our set list. Is there a particular song that you guys are excited about playing every night?

• That's a good question. We definitely haven't talked about it. So, I can't speak for Danny and Justin on this one. A song that is really fun for me is "Rotten Hell." I think that might be tied with "Evil Bee." For our CD release party we played with a 25-person volunteer choir.

Q: That's cool. That's really cool!

• In fact, those two songs were so fun. Because they just belted out all these harmonies and these melodies behind us and supported us. It was just an amazing experience. Especially... I guess those would be my two favorites right now not because they're... Yeah those are my two favorites. I am sure that'll change.

Q: Are there any dream producers that you guys would like to work with eventually?

• Sure, it's the same, you know, its all of the all-stars. It's like... I don't know if a producer would like to work with us, but it's definitely... When you start noticing, "Well all my favorite records are made by or produced by so and so or so and so." Then you start to think, "Man I wonder what our music would sound like if they were in to working with us. We're at such a small scale now; it would almost be ridiculous to list off all the huge-name producers. It's just so far gone.

Q: I understand. You definitely don't want to upset anyone, too. I saw the "Cough Coughing" video. I thought that was a really cool idea. I don't know who edited it. I was commenting to someone the other day how cool it is that somehow you never really see anybody's hands in that costume. They did a good job of editing so you're kind of iffy as to whether or not its actually a person dressed up in that outfit. But anyway, so do you have any videos planned for Friend and Foe or maybe I just missed them?

• Oh yeah. We do. The editing by the way for the Cough Coughing video is by the director Johnny Ross. He directed and edited it. Very musical job editing, I really like the way he synched it up with everything that relates. He did a great job! We just got done filming a video for "Wet and Rusting." But, I don't know when it will be finished. In fact, that same song, there's an unofficial video to that on YouTube that a filmmaker in Boston just decided, "You know what I am just going to go make a video. I'm gonna make a video to "Wet and Rusting." by a guy named Eli. He made it. He sent us a link to it. So there's also an unofficial video, as well.

Q: That's cool. I'll have to check that out.

• It's on YouTube. I felt really lucky. Man there is this stranger over in Boston...

Q: That is really cool. I know it's a time consuming process.

• And expensive, yeah. Time consuming and expensive and he got so many people to be involved. Boy, yeah. We're trying to get some music videos going and maybe will only do one. Maybe we will do two. I don't know. There's no shortage of ideas, but there is a shortage of time and money. We'll figure that out someway.

Q: Well I'm looking forward to it. What inspires you? You can make it short if you like. That could be a whole conversation.

• Yeah, it could. Lots of things. I know, yeah. I actually know exactly what inspires me. What inspires me are people who somehow take something bad and turn it into something good. That's incredible. To me that's the most incredible mystery of people who have a bad experience, or a bad life, or bad circumstance, and they somehow turn it into something good and wonderful. That's the thing that inspires me more than anything else. That's generally speaking. Then I could talk more specifically about certain people or certain ideas.

Q: What would you consider the perfect day?

• Do you mean in my life or in a general person's life?

Q: Just in your life.

• For me a perfect day would be: eating lots of chocolate, going on a hike with my sweetheart, and doing a few DLR sessions either by myself or with a bandmate. Then, getting together with friends and hanging out and just talking; going to the beach, or on a hike to a waterfall or other good things.

Q: What is your philosophy to live by?

• Eat lots of chocolate.

Q: Where do you find new music? What are you listening to currently?

• I mostly find new music through friends. Actually Danny... boy, he's just always researching new music and discovering new bands and actually, probably, Danny is the person from whom I get most of my new music; like Animal Collective or Deerhoof or whatever.

Q: That's the way my brother is for me, I call him about once a week. He's always telling me about new bands he's discovered. That's great. It's great to have somebody like that.

• What was the second part to that question?

Q: Who are you listening to currently?

• Yesterday, I was listening to The National. Do you know that band?

Q: No. I am not familiar.

• They're so amazing. They're called The National. Their most recent album, I think is called Alligator.

Q: I'll have to check that out.

• It grows on you. At first it sounds... I don't mean to... I definitely don't want to be quoted as saying anything negative on it, because I love it so much now. It was slow to grow on me but now that it has grown on me its one of my favorite albums. I love that band.

Q: Sometimes when an album like that is slow to grow on you, you almost appreciate it more.

• Yeah, it's not super-experimental. It's not like Deerhoof. It's not like Animal Collective. It's not like super-experimental. It's definitely a rock band. It's just beautiful. I just love listening to it.

Q: What's the best cure for a hangover?

• (Laughing) Not drinking in the first place.

Q: If you were trapped on a desert island, what three things would you bring? What three things would you need to survive?

• (Laughing) A perpetual motion machine, a lifetime supply of chocolate, and probably a piano.

Q: If you were reincarnated, what would you come back as?

• What would I come back as?

Q: You could answer as a "who," if there is somebody you have in mind.

• I'd come back as Anna Nicole Smith's daughter.

Q: Are you a spiritual person?

• I'm just like everybody else... I'm not dogmatic. I don't know. We'd have to define spiritual. Then we'd have to talk for an hour. Then I'll have to get back to that one. So put me down as I am both spiritual and non-spiritual.

Q: What band would you most like to tour with?

• Oh god. The National. Then the other bands that just blow me away that are amazing. There's so many I don't know where to begin. I am impressed with a band called The Helio Sequence. I'd like to tour with those guys. I love those guys. Actually, I'd like to tour with the Beatles (laughing).

Q: That's a good answer. However, they stopped playing live a long time ago so...

• They stopped being alive, too.

Q: What does the future hold for Menomena?

• I have no idea. But I hope somewhere in there are more records that are great.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

• Some people think that DLR writes the song for us and it doesn't. It's just a tool that helps us capture ideas which we later piece into songs. That's probably the biggest true misconception. I have a serious answer to that one.

Q: Did you think about the question of the instrument that doesn't ever seem to work?

• Probably the kazoo.

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