No Age

Dean Spunt talks to ClashMusic

Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t all rosy back in the old days.

Take the 80s for example – widespread economic problems sowed the seeds for an epidemic of drug use, while racist groups such as the National Front stalked the streets. In the United States, meanwhile, Reagonomics were letting the rich get richer while those beneath them were struggling to get by.

However the result of all this turmoil and doubt was the creation of a strong sense of community. Looking back to this sense of pride in crafting something personal, California’s No Age recall the spirit of punk labels such as SST whilst retaining their own unique sound.

With the band’s stunning new EP out now, ClashMusic had a quick chat with drummer Dean Spunt about their new material and the success of last year’s debut album ‘Nouns’.

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No Age took their name from an SST cassette, what inspires about that era of rock music?

Pretty much everything. I mean, SST was a way of life, it took “punk” to a whole new level. The bands that they ended up putting out were so radical and different from each other which is always great.

Just the two of you, why did you stick to the dual line up?

It is still working for us and it was the original plan, why change it if it’s not broken? We never really had a goal in mind about members, we originally wanted it open ended with collaborators and what not, and we may add people live if we ever needed to, but for right now it’s awesome and works.

With all the digital technology available to you why take the decision to keep things very lo-fo and DIY?

It actually isn’t intentional really. I think when you write a song you need to think about the relation to the recording as well. Some things sound great loud and bright and in your face, and some things sound better under muck and scratchy. Each song sort of tells us by them time it is time to record what the production type should be, and most take the real shape in mixing where we often change complete parts and insert other parts and flip everything around until it sounds right. But I guess in general, most pop music today has horrible production.

You often release singles to accompany tours, is this to mark a sense of community? How important is this to you?

The sense of community is important, it is something we had to work hard to make with our friends out here in LA, it was pretty rough before. I like to think of tours as an event and what can we do to make things special and different, it makes it fun for us and it makes people excited when they come to see you if they are a fan.

This summer you went on the ‘No Deachunter’ tour with Deerhunter and Dan Deacon, how was this?

It was great, playing a show like that is really fun and weird, one song then you stop, actually we ended up playing three songs in a row to most of their one song since ours our pretty short. I had a really great time hanging with Deerhunter, we have known them for a long time, since we were in the band Wives, so it was great to tour with our pals again.

No Age got involved in the ‘Free Yr Radio’ compilation recently, do you feel a kin ship with independent radio? What role has this played in supporting your music?

Independent radio is awesome. College radio too. I used to get these live compilations that KXLU used to make when i was a teenager and I learned about a lot of great music through them.

No Age have released many different EPs and singles, do you prefer to record things in small bursts?

Not necessarily, but it is sort of how we have worked mostly at this point. I love EP’s, some of my favorite records are EP’s like Disco Inferno’s “The Last Dance” or like, Minor Threat’s “Out Of Step” sometimes smaller bursts have a greater impact since they are so short. As an artist getting to think in different shapes and sizes seems important.

Do you plan to collect these at some point?

Yeah probably, I don’t know. That is always the idea I guess, to look back and collect the things together, see how they correlate at some point. ‘Weirdo Rippers’ collected about half the songs that we released on those initial EP’s, there is still half that are only on the out of print vinyl so I think those would come out together at some point.

‘Nouns’ was a huge success, gaining attention across the world. How did you react to this?

It was exciting and weird. I think the songs on there are good, some moments pretty great but if people really loved that, i think our new stuff is already way more precise to what we want things to sound like. I am definitely interested in making stuff crazy, just to go deeper.

While ‘Nouns’ was recorded across America and the UK, ‘Losing Feeling’ was recorded in Infrasonic. Was this a reaction to ‘Nouns’? How closely are the band attached to their roots?

We recorded it there because we know the studio and wanted to get these songs done in a comfortable place, especially since we were trying some newer ideas and experimenting. I loved recording at Southern, we tracked some of our best stuff there, Eraser, Sleeperhold etc.. Also recording at home gives us a chance to use all this weird equipment we have gathered along the way.

Lyrically, the EP is quite paranoid with songs such as ‘Aim At The Airport’ and ‘You’re A Target’ where has this come from?

‘You’re a Target’ is a love song. Pretty straight up I thought, but I guess I have learned what I think is straight forward doesn’t ever come across that way. Randy titled ‘Aim At The Airport’ since he compiled it of field recording and samples we made, so I am not sure what he was thinking, but maybe we are paranoid? I don’t know of what if we are.

You’re about to return to the UK, any surprises up your sleeves? After recording ‘Nouns’ in Britain is there something you relate to in the UK?

I really love London and the UK, especially since Upset The Rhythm is there. Those guys know how to do things right. We always got something up there, it’s going to be awesome.

No Age – Eraser

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