Gene Corduroy stands in his cozy cluttery basement studio, gesturing to his longtime friend/longtime music-collaborator Nathaniel Burgundy IV, admitting how weird it was, initially, to sing in front of him, to sing in front of anybody even, ever. But self-displacement from past comfort zones was a needed step to “defining ourselves” for the heretofore often-strict guitarist, as he had to get used to singing over the last year with Computer Perfection -- the fuzzy-pop, prog-dashed, krautrock-revering musical project that the pair (both clad in sweaters with oxford collars peaking out) along with Corduroy's wife, Bem, started after their last project, Pas/Cal started its slow descent into ostensible oblivion.
The band fizzled away and the trio descended into the basement to see what they could make… to find new roles… to get "uncomfortable." The result is their debut LP (out recently on Le Grande Magistery) titled We Wish You Well On Your Way To Hell.
The trio invited me into their living room to share a wide array of “snacky-McSnackerton”-items, with cheeses, olives, deviled eggs, asparagus, and wine. Along with Bem/Corduroy's preschooler daughter Penny contributing occasional lip-flubbed fart noises, we discuss the faults of the movie adaptation of 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the bridge between catchy and cerebral, and how this record felt like “foreplay.”
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So, where do we start? How/when does Computer Perfection start?
Gene Corduroy: Bem and I lived in New York for about 4 years, for the majority of the time Pas/Cal were a band. We either came (to Detroit) for shows or whenever the band left to do shows, and for recording. When we decided to move back, because, we had this bundle of joy (flub-lipped fart noise on cue, as she sits in his lap), we needed our family around and we missed our friends; we missed our musical friends a lot. We got back and, nothing was going on (with Pas/Cal), and we were itching to do something additional at the time.
What was the state of Pas/Cal at that point, 2007-ish? Was it like, you were free to go?
Corduroy: When the three of us decided to get a place together here, we'd been playing together for a long time, but, didn't really know… where do we go from here? There was this thing (I Was Raised) waiting to happen, (Pas/Cal) had stopped performing by that time, we hadn't played a show, Burgundy had quit the band. Not to mince words, but there was no band. So we were ready to move on, but we didn't know what we were moving on to… I was working on a couple of songs before we moved back to Michigan and that was kind of the basis of what eventually became Computer Perfection. Bem and I were recording snippets of songs in our little flat in Brooklyn…
Bem: For commercials and stuff.
Corduroy: Like, jingles, for commercials – we just had dozens of 30-second songs but we didn't know what to do with any of it. We had a collection of musical fragments and we didn't know where we were going. However, we were, all of a sudden, living with Burgundy…
Burgundy: We weren't a band yet. We had no idea what we were gonna do with these songs. Any time we have an excuse to work on music, we'll do it. If it turns out to be for a record — great, and if it's just something that sits in the basement for the next 40 years, that's fine, too.
Corduroy: Sometimes (former Pas/Cal drummer and original Comp/Perf drummer) LTD and I would just sit on the porch, drink tons of wine, go downstairs and write songs about his cat… we really didn't have a direction.
So, bringing your demos to the basement, with the songs Bergundy had been writing… how did it evolve? Can you compare what the record became, back to its formative stages of collecting melodies…
Corduroy: I think what happened on (We Wish You Well) was, we kind of came into our own as musicians, vocalists, writers. We had previously…well, it's hard to do anything but compare yourself to your former self, but I was a guitarist, Bem was a vocalist, (Burgundy) played bass… LTD was always the drummer. And, our roles… the lines blurred completely. It wasn't even role reversals, it was just, there were no roles.
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"I'm sweating already."
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Let's talk about the songs – some of them have a very dreamy quality, with fantastic lyrics, fuzzy vocal effects, warm synths… sometimes even having a lullaby-esque feel, at points… still rhythmic, but ethereal.
Corduroy: We're trying to make something that is accessible but different. I don't know if we decided to do this or if it's just the way we moved into it… was, instead of making weirder, crazy structures for the music, we decided to go with understandable structures, and the repetition that a casual listener can appreciate, but using just strange… sounds.
Indeed – 30 seconds into Able Archer, after 8 measures or so, there's this computery blipped roar and a bit of a stumble, like a stop and look around moment, and then the melody comes back in…
Corduroy: Right, with Able Archer being the first song, it's kind of a, "Here's what you're in for with this record… " This isn't going to be just a straight through pop, or indie, or… we like making a break.
Burgundy: The artists we constantly go back to, The Beatles, Radiohead, Brian Eno, plenty of other really great bands that tons of other bands will reference, they have these crazy weird sounds but there's always…
Corduroy: …a comfort zone…
Burgundy: Exactly. You've gotta put that if you want people to care about it and listen to it. I just watched an interview with Brian Eno on YouTube and they asked him, like, why are you still working on music, essentially, after all these years, what is it you're striving for? And, he said something I've always felt – that we feel in Computer Perfection now, trying to marry as well as you can, sort of brainless catchy pop with totally cerebral, esoteric nonsense…
How about the songwriting? You both mentioned you had material, or ideas… but what about the actual preparation of what became We Wish You Well?
Burgundy: It was pretty 50-50… McCartley… , McCartley?? McCartney….. it was pretty McCartley/Mennon! (all chuckle) And Bem had a lot of input too, nobody wrote her parts for her. She's great at coming up with harmonies and melodies and even wrote some stuff with LTD. Having left what we'd done before (Pas/Cal), we were completely freed from our roles, we had no roles! We could do whatever.
Corduroy: We didn't know who the singer was (early on). There was no leader.
Bem: Nobody would ever have thought you would have been the singer, singing most of the songs. You're not like, frontman… microphone-swinging jackass.
Corduroy: If I tried to swing the microphone it would hit me in the balls.
With Pas/Cal's lingering, through 07,…and you all writing and wanting to still do music – did you feel pent up?
Burgundy: Definitely. I get, and I'm sure Gene and Bem and any musician get this way, I get… I'm trying to think of a better metaphor than Blue Balls… but, that's basically what it is. You start going crazy. Honestly, that's all I can think of…
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"It's hard to get into it (with a drum machine). We're used to being a rock band."
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Ah ha, so then, following the Blue Balls metaphor…
Burgundy: Let's do it.
If we have blue balls and you finally get this opportunity to let loose… uh, heh, do you explode? Or are you able to kinda take a cool shower, calm down and focus together?
Burgundy: Okay, if we're gonna go with this analogy… (turns to Penny), I'm sorry Penny, for when you're older… This record was kind of like foreplay. A lot of it was just developing and coming out, just kind of as we thought of it. I think, I know, Gene and I had talked a lot about what we want to do next, and how we want to get more aggressive and more on the dark side…
So, you played shows around Detroit through the summer, but eventually LTD announced he'd be leaving the band… and I understand you attempted a drum machine before finding a replacement…
Burgundy: It's hard to get into it (with a drum machine). We're used to being a rock band.
Bem: You feel naked.
Corduroy: We're used to having somebody pounding behind us…
Burgundy: So Gene called (Detroit-based drummer) Aaron (Quillen).
Corduroy: I was on his blog one day, it's called Emotional Drumming and I was thinking, I wonder if this guy's a drummer. He never talked about his bands, he used to be in Deastro, but he just reviewed music (on the blog).
And then, just in time for CMJ, you solidified the bass position…
Corduroy: With (Detroit based singer/songwriter) Stephen (McCauley), a longtime acquaintance; one of Pas/Cal's very early shows was with one of his early bands, In Coming Out.
What was CMJ like?
Burgundy: I'm still recovering…
Bem: It's just different. It's not like: "We're gonna go do CMJ! And there's gonna be a record label guy and we're gonna get flown on a private jet, with caviar and we're gonna get a record deal." No! It's just for fun… for the most part.
Corduroy: What about our trip home? We stopped at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, in Clearfield, Pennsylvania… home of, potentially the biggest burger in America…
Burgundy: Next time we go through, we're doing one of those challenges.
Corduroy: The challenge is only a 2lb burger… and you get a t-shirt and your picture on the wall. That's only 8 Whoppers'-worth.
Bem: Ewww. That sounds so horrible. I'm sweating already.
Burgundy: It's all mental!… says somebody whose never competed in a food challenge.
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"... We just had dozens of 30-second songs but we didn't know what to do with any of it."
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What's next? You guys mentioned getting darker? Darker directions?
Burgundy: I think that's gonna be the name of our new EP…
Bem: And there's dry ice that comes with every CD…
How does it feel, playing now, with a set band, as a quintet, and now, being past the foreplay?
Bem: We're just getting used to ourselves. It's a learning curve, trying to deal with our lives and doing music on the side, trying to make it as good as we can…
Burgundy: Hmmm… 2009…
Bem: 2010!
Burgundy: …the year we make contact… wait, we don't make contact in 2010, do we?
Corduroy: I never saw that movie.
Burgundy: I read the book and saw the movie, and…there was no more contact made then, than there was made in 2001…the movie (2010) is terrible! Anyway, the future of Computer Perfection is continuing to define ourselves.
Perhaps your plans should include, next year, in 2010, making good on that promise, to…actually “make contact… ”
Burgundy: Maybe make a concept album based around 2010 -- the film, in trying to improve it and getting closer to the book.
(Another fart noise)
Bem: We'll see… we'll see in 2010!
