Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, World/Inferno) and the great Jack Terricloth were generous enough to share their time and thoughts with Sarah Stapperfenne before coming to Ithaca, NY this Sunday for their show at Castaways. To view the full interview check out the inaugural issue of FREE! (An Ithaca Underground Zine).
Brian Viglione Interview:
Sarah: For the people out there reading this who know nothing about your band, maybe you can explain World/Inferno a little bit, let them know what you think would be important for them to understand?
Brian: World/Inferno is basically a collective of anywhere from six to ten musicians, heavily inspired by jazz, punk rock, and circus music, hell-bent on getting the crowd dancing and stage diving and essentially having the time of their lives.
How do you keep a band like World/Inferno fresh throughout the years, as far as keeping the fans interested without compromising what makes World/Inferno, World/Inferno.
I think it’s mostly the individuals who comprise the band itself and their vision. There’re a lot of beautifully strong personalities in the band and wide range of influences and eclectic musical tastes. All of those things kind of work themselves into the fiber of World/Inferno and that in itself keeps things fresh. You’ve got people constantly juxtaposing ideas and approaches, but also they’re kindred spirits. It’s been proven that it takes a certain kind of person to be in World/Inferno. I think a certain ability to throw caution to the wind and just go for it for the love of doing it. I think that’s what really keeps it fresh. The music is exciting and the communication and relationship between the audience and the band is engaging and exciting for both parties.
Can you explain the differences between seeing a regular Inferno show and then seeing an Addicted to Bad Ideas performance?
The Addicted to Bad Ideas shows came together because World/Inferno had amassed a certain amount of songs over their past three records or so that were directly or loosely related to the life of Peter Lorre. There was a guy from the production company here who got the idea of doing an actual show based around this collection of songs on the album. So different vignettes and theatrical interludes have been placed in-between the songs in the show to try to give insights in to Lorre’s life with his escape from Nazi Germany to the United States and Hollywood with Kurt Weill in the 1930s and 40s. I wouldn’t say it’s a play with a strong plot and a beginning and middle and end. It just has more theatrical moments that give a glimpse into this character’s life and the people around him and the situations surrounding him- with his drug addiction and his creative life. The audience reaction is very much the same- there’s still dancing and singing along to the songs. It’s funny because usually there’s a group of quiet theater going people sitting in the back watching the band and this group of crazed punk rock kids singing along down in the front. That’s essentially the main difference.
As a performer do you personally feel different when you’re playing the two different shows or is it about the same feel cause you still have the people in the crowd responding, for the most part, the way they normally would?
From a crowd perspective and performance perspective it’s very much the same. The Peter Lorre shows are fun in a way cause we get to do some acting. The band gets to do some set changes and moving things around. It’s fun cause you get to step out from behind your instrument and assume another role. The World/Inferno band is a great, charismatic group of people, too, and it’s great to watch them act and come out and interact with the audience in that kind of way. For us being on stage is very much the same, even if the circumstances might change.
I was at Hallowmas this year, and it was my first Hallowmas. I’m assuming it was your first Hallowmas playing with Inferno?
This was actually my New York debut. I played Hallowmas with them with the Dresden Dolls in 2003 and then, here I am, 5 years later, actual playing with the group. I think it was their largest New York audience to date, there were about 1,100 people there, which is a pretty fantastic landmark for the band and the audience was absolutely incredible. The group of people that came together to make this happen- from the kids who designed the banner and marched with us in the parade and the lighting and the projection and who videotaped and photographed the whole thing. Not to mention the incredible audience that went there with their energy and diving abilities. I think it was one of the best shows I’ve ever done with them, absolutely.
What brings you to Ithaca after being in Europe and Brooklyn and Cambridge? How did Ithaca get added to your tour?
Inferno’s done some traveling and shows up in New York State and it just kind of worked with where we were going. You try to plan shows where you can get them in whatever particular region and this just came through and we thought, “Why the hell not?” We have kids from small towns that write us all the time and say, “Come over here and come to Mexico and California and Zimbabwe!” and all these kinds of things. You try to get to different regions and you can’t. It’s tough because we’ve wanted to get to the west coast for the past few months but it’s difficult with travel and expenses. Flights are expensive and the price of gas is what it is. We try to get to as many places as we can during the year.
Why do you usually open with Tattoos Fade? I feel like I should know the answer to this, but I don’t. Is it tradition?
I guess it’s sort of a general, ceremonial beginning. It has been and always will be a great call to arms. It’s interesting to just play something that’s been ingrained in kids’ brains and it just gets the blood pumping and it’s a way of setting the night off. Having things like that gets everyone in a good frame and has people singing along and pounding away. It’s worked. If it’s not broke don’t fix it.
Exactly. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
After this next round of shows we’ll be going into rehearsal space to work on the new record. That’s gonna be a lot of fun, we have a ton of songs to rehearse and start working on. We’re going to be doing another run of shows in March and then hopefully put the new record out in the spring. We’ll also be editing down the video footage from Hallowmas and hopefully be getting that released to everybody. Essentially, if people have any other booking requests, they can reach us through our MySpace page. If people want to write in for the, “What would Jack do?” Column with a question they can do that through the MySpace. We’ve been amassing those for the past couple of months. Everyone should just bring their dancing shoes and get ready to have a good time.
Is there anything you can tell us about the new material you’re recording? Or are you kind of keeping that under wraps tat the moment?
Well it’s sort of being determined. There are fortunately a lot of songwriters in the band. I think there’s somewhere around 15 songs that people have so it’s probably going to be pretty varied. This album might be a little more moody and a little darker than what people may be expecting. That’s going to be really fun. It should be a really dynamic record, if anything.
So it’ll be less conceptual or thematic than something like The True Stories of the Bridgewater Astral League or Addicted to Bad Ideas?
The way it’s looking now, yeah, but who knows? A lot of things can change. The course can veer drastically once you actually start working on things. I think people are going to be pretty excited about the record when it’s all ready.
Jack Terricloth Interview
Sarah: I asked Brian the majority of the questions, but I thought maybe I would have you expand on certain things. One of the things I asked him was talking about the differences between playing shows like Addicted to Bad Ideas and then playing regular shows and I thought maybe you could talk about some of the differences in recording albums that are more conceptual like Bridgewater Astral League and Addicted to Bad Ideas and talk about how those compare to recording things like Red-Eyed Soul? Do you come up with the concept first or do you just let things flow?
For Just the Best Party, that has the trilogy of “Just the Best Party,” “Go with it Girl”, “The Naughty Little Rat Makes Friends” is that something that comes with writing or is that something that you plan beforehand?
Well, those three songs are all just one long poem. I don’t think musically we tried to make them sound similar. But I got lucky and wrote those lyrics all at once and it lasted me three songs. The thing is, sometimes, writing is hard, other times it just pours out of your wrist. Depends on the day.
For people who aren’t familiar with World/Inferno, maybe you can talk a little bit about how the band did form after your split with Sticks and Stones.
Well, I moved out of New Jersey, which I encourage everybody to do. You don’t want to hang around too long; you get a little ripe on the vine. I wasn’t playing in a band; I was bartending, which is kind of bad for the soul. Even worse, I was bartending at a rock and roll club, hearing awful, awful bands every night. Everyone I knew seemed to be either barflies or bartenders and we started talking about music at three in the morning after hearing some idiot cover Iggy Pop for the umpteenth time. We came up with this plan to play fun, fast, political music and that did not sound like rock music. And that’s it. We started rehearsing after our bar shifts and some of our first rehearsals took place as early as three or four in the morning in an abandoned car garage. And we recorded a couple records before we started playing out and since then it’s been a whirlwind.
Can you talk about your perspective of Hallowmas since you’ve been there for all of them? Explain to people who don’t know what it is, can you tell why it’s such an important part of the band?
Benjamin Kotch and I first tried to form a band in Halloween of 1995, I think. Since then, every year, it’s kind of been our anniversary. It’s a three-day festival of the dead; it just ended yesterday. You come out and you don’t have to listen to adults, you break things, you beg for candy, you dress up like ghouls- it’s a perfect free spirit holiday. Nobody feels guilty about anything. You’re even happy about people who’ve died in the past. You’re all there at one giant party. It is the most punk rock of holidays. No guilt. No authority. Lots of candy.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Well, you asked about the difference between the stage plays and the punk rock gigs. And I’ll go on record saying that these plays are much, much too much work. You have to stand in certain places and say certain things. Punk rock gigs are just- I get to do whatever I want. The plays are very gratifying, especially taking it to the next level. It’s more challenging. That’s the problem- why are things that are more gratifying more challenging. Why can’t everything be easy?
For more, after you all come out Nov 9th to the Cobra Skulls show at The Haunt, come down with us to Castaways for World/Inferno. To purchase tickets and for more information, go here: http://www.castawaysithaca.com/
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