Armed with an absurd “saxophone” made of washing-machine tubes, an affinity for experimentation and notable inspiration, FamilyBattleSnake make full use of their unconventional arsenal and drive their, partly organic, partly electronic, reptilian into sonic territories of brooding power, pounding low-end pulse, hypnotic vibrations and occasional outbursts of fury. Read more about this versatile duet and their "late night, monster, psych" musical journeys.
- Who are you?
+ We are Devo.
- When did FamilyBattleSnake come into the world and what was it that generated this birth?
+ Christmas 2005, a sense that we shared a common taste in music and some telepathy. The very first time we ever played together though was back in 2003. We performed as a trio with Damo Suzuki (Can) at club Bios in Athens . Sounds exciting but it wasn't...
- What does FamilyBattleSnake specialize at (music/art/concept-wise)?
+ Sounds that generate excitement. At least to us. Basically it has to do with music but music includes loads of other stuff such as art, life aesthetics in general.
- What makes that “late night monster psych jive” worth striving for?
+ Ha! This blog is the shit isn’t it? Sorry for the slightly pompous style. I just like the “monster psych” phrase. It is actually a late night thing and we do “strive” for it in the sense that we try to looose ourselves in it.
- What’s so special about denying traditional verse-chorus song-structures and the use of physical instrumentation?
+ More freedom in what you play and the excitement when everything falls together. We do use traditional instruments though, it’s a combination between organic and electronic sound.
- What’s that strange “instrument” you use onstage that looks like a stove with pipes?
+ It’s a handmade instrument I made instead of a saxophone. There are two tubes (from a washing machine) with saxophone reeds on top of it and on the other side it goes to a microphone and then through all my pedals.
- If “extreme music demands extreme reactions”, then what does FamilyBattleSnake’s music “demand” from the listener?
+ Total submission!
- Is blasting off “noise” the creative alibi for the ones who don’t actually know how to play an instrument or can it be something more than that?
+ Sometimes it is. But this kind of music doesn’t have to do with "musicians".
- Is your snake true-bred or cross-bred?
+ Don’t know really… bastardized feelings...
- If your snake could bite someone, who would that person be and why?
+ Rats because they are filthy and they rat on you… Rats are not only the animals we all know though…
- What’s the story with all these noise acts (wolf eyes etc.) releasing countless recordings in various formats over short periods of time? Is this due to an incontrollable creative urge on their behalf, a hasty cursoriness or a greedy need to provide more products for the consumers?
+ There are some artists, bands, etc. who do that cause they wanna be all over the place, if you know what I’m saying… but all of those releases are super limited, so, sometimes it helps some people find some of your works. For example, we've released a couple of tapes, CDrs on many different labels in Europe and in the States. There were many people who had no idea about us and just got in touch with our music cause for example their friend from Denmark released our tape and blah blah. It goes like this.
- When playing live do you reproduce your studio works or just go on improvising?
+ We go on and on and on…. We've never played something we did before. There’s no point…
- You have some European shows lined up for you. How difficult was it to arrange this?
+ D.I.Y. united forces. No need to say more. It was always like this and it’s gonna be like this in the future.
- If you were making me a mix-tape, what would you include band-wise?
+ Start with "That’s how I escaped my certain fate" by Mission of Burma, and after that some tracks from Alan Silva, Sparks, Ludo Mich, Robbie Basho, Fear of God, Royal Trux, Family Underground with Rauhan Orkesteri, Rudimentary Peni, Les Rallizes Denudes, Smegma, Harry Pussy, EyeHateGod, Monks, International Harvester, Aaron Dilloway, Godflesh, The Fall, Maja Ratke, Borbetomagus, Blood stereo, Devo, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Corsano/Yey/Flagherty, Reynols, Grace Jones, Conrad Schnitzler, Husker Du and in the end 'By This River' by Brian Eno/Neu!.
- Huge inspirations?
+ Velvets, The Stooges, Butthole Surfers, Sun Ra, Black Flag, Taj Mahal Travelers, Wire, Coil, Sonic Youth, Roxy Music, Crass, Popol Vuh, Black Sabbath, 60s-70s electronic music.
- Future plans?
+ To cook something for my dinner...
- Thanks guys!
Check out the band's webiste here: FamilyBattleSnake