On Song :: Dark Dark Dark

-

Dark Dark Dark’s recent album, The Snow Magic, (review here) is a beautiful, if jarring, mixture of influences. From Americana to British folk, it pulsates with an energy that rattles you to your very core. In an attempt to find out a bit more about them, we got Jonathan Kaiser (cello) and Nona Marie Invie (accordion and singing) and Todd Chandler (bass) to answer some questions. Marshall LaCount (banjo and singing) liked their answers so much he stands aside.

What was the first song that really caught your imagination?
JK:”Thriller” by Michael Jackson or “Jump” by Van Halen. I remember being fascinated with these songs when I would hear them on jukeboxes or on the radio when I was about four years old.
Nona: My Lovin (You’re Never Gonna Get It) by En Vogue.

What was the music your parents liked and do you think it’s influenced you?
JK: Yeah, I think I still have an emotional reaction to certain sounds because I heard them while I was growing up. I think my openness to folk music comes from the ’60s folk records my mom listened to when I was young. I don’t often listen to the specific music my parents like, but they got me into the Beatles, which has been a lasting interest. They also introduced me to a lot of the classical music and jazz that I still admire — Stravinsky, Debussy, Shostakovich, Mussourgsky / Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk….
Nona: My mom listened to a lot of music with female singers: Carole King, the Carpenters, Joni Mitchell. Music she could sing along to. We used to sing a lot in the car and while we were cleaning the house. I got a lot of practice making up harmonies and having fun singing with the radio.
Todd: Barry Manilow, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers. I think I first rebelled against it, turning to punk rock and hardcore. but now I’m getting back to the easy listening roots. My family likes the music I’m making now for the first time ever.

What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
JK: When I was a young kid I wasn’t interested in posters. As a teen I taped up tons of fliers from local shows I went to in Milwaukee.
Nona: Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Babes in Toyland
Todd: (circa 1983, 9 years old): Christy Brinkley, a Lamborghini, Michael Jackson,

Which songs or albums would you play at a party?
JK: Notorious BIG – Ready to Die or Bone Thugs N Harmony – E. 1999
Nona: Skoal Kodiak!
Todd: I don’t like parties.

Which songs remind you of a rainy day?
JK: Anything with enough reverb will do the trick.
Nona: Bon Iver stuff

Which album do you seek solace in when you are feeling sad?
JK: ” Trust” by Low if I want to wallow. “Illmatic” by Nas if I want to keep moving.
Nona: Antony & the Johnsons “Another World” EP.
Todd: The Dirty Three “Whatever You Love You Are”, Rites of Spring “For Want Of”.

Which album would you play when you wanted to get down to some lovin’?
JK: No time to switch on the music, gotta get busy…
Nona: “Misery is a Butterfly” by Blonde Redhead
Todd: Something instrumental…words are distracting.

What music was, or would be, the “first dance” at your wedding?
JK: “I only have eyes for you” by the Flamingos
Todd: I don’t believe in marriage.

What was the first gig you went to as a paying customer?
JK: a halloween show in milwaukee with a band called Fuckface and a band called the Little Blue Crunchy Things… terrible!
Nona: Silverchair
Todd: As a kid (my babysitter paid): The Monkees reunion tour 1986. As a kid old enough to go on my own: JFA / Youth of Today at T.T. The Bears in Cambridge, MA, 1988.

Name the one song you think everyone should hear.
JK: The idea of everyone hearing the same song sounds awfully ominous to me. I don’t expect everyone to have the same taste, so I’d hate to make them all listen to the same music. However, I think everyone should hear a song they wrote themselves, even if it’s just a one-line ditty, sung quietly to themselves as they stroll down the street.
Nona: “Wild Goose Chase” by Elephant Micah.
Todd: Elliot Smith covering The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset”.

Which one artist do you think not enough people know about?
JK: Time and Temperature (Valerie Glenn from Columbus Ohio is stunningly talented and surprisingly reclusive).
Nona: Lucha Reyes
Todd: My two friends with similar names: Nathan Salzburg (Louisville) (roothogordie.wordpress.com), Nate Denver (L.A.). (natedenver.com).

What’s the best thing you’ve heard recently?
JK: Bill Withers singing “I Can’t Write Left Handed” on his Live at Carnegie Hall recording.
Nona: The Carpscale Orchestra from Minneapolis
Todd: We just got back from France…so some French music: Catherine Ribeiro, Francoiz Breut, Top Montagne also, this record of folk songs from Greece called ‘Rembetica’.

Dead or alive, what 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
Nona: The Callers, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship, Shep and Me, Brute Heart.
Todd: Os Mutantes, Daniel Higgs, The Ex (with Getatchew Mekurya), Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship, Sam Cooke.

We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
Nona:
1. Roc Alpin- Catherine Ribeiro
2. Cross Bones Style – Cat Power
3. What I See – White Magic
4. Love me of Leave Me- Nina Simone
5. Katie Cruel – Karen Dalton

And finally, who would win in a fight: a stoat or a goat and why?
JK: A goat! Those cloven hooves are nothing to mess around with, especially when you’re a scurrying, short-legged mammal.
Nona: What’s a stoat?

Dark Dark Dark on Myspace