11 Questions for Belong
Posted: November 6, 2006
Compiled by Ross Simonini
Listen to Belong on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/belongmusic
1. What three words would you use to describe your own
music?
TURK: I wouldn't use three words to describe it.
MIKE: Nobody wants to answer this question...but here's a pair:
"blaring introversion."
2. What would you say has been the most interesting change
in music over the last 50 years?
TURK: I feel that the advancement of technology and the tools used
to produce and record music has lead to the most interesting change.
Anybody, with just a little money saved, can produce and record
a quality album in their bedroom. This has lead to an extreme amount
of crap, but it also has allowed other people with great ideas to
realize them on their own without having to spend a ton of money.
This couldn't be done 50 years ago.
3. How have your feelings about music changed since you
were a child?
TURK: Unfortunately, I am way more critical of music now, but it
does still elicit a range of emotions like it did when I was younger.
Sometimes I really wish I could listen to music without the critical
ear.
MIKE: I'm not scared to listen to Slayer anymore.... I just choose
not to.
4. Do you think anyone has ever reacted to your music in
the same way you react to it?
MIKE: I hope nobody is as critical as I am.
TURK: Maybe... maybe not...
5. What has been one the most important non-musical influences
for you as an artist?
TURK: I'm sure this is the most common answer, but I am really
influenced by film and my surroundings.
MIKE: Yeah ..... Where I live.
6. Where do you draw the line between music and non-music?
MIKE: After I consider the motives behind it being made......
TURK: I don't draw that line...
7. If people used music as currency, what would a large
pizza cost?
MIKE: Al Johnson's "Carnival Time" would buy you a time
machine.
8. What is your most productive time of day for writing
music?
TURK: For us, it is usually late at night. Before then my brain
is
usually mush.
9. What percentage of your musical ideas would you say
end up coming to fruition?
TURK: A small percentage .... maybe 20-30%....If we could fully
realize all our ideas, I don't think music would be fun anymore...The
"try and fail" aspect of making records is what keeps
things
interesting.
MIKE: Judging by the amount of abandoned songs we have, ...less
than half for sure.
10. What is the ideal circumstance for someone to hear
your music?
MIKE: I'm not sure there is one ideal circumstance
TURK: Here are two circumstances (among many) that I think work
well:
1. In your bedroom..lights off...eyes closed... blasting out of
your
Hi-Fi or under a really nice pair of headphones...listening to the
record from start to finish as one piece.
2. Played super quietly in the background whilst trying to go to
sleep.
11. Would you say that your most recent music represents
more of a new direction for you, or a continued development of the
same general aesthetic?
TURK: I think the stuff that we have been doing for the last three
years has been a slow development/evolution of the same general
aesthetic. I don't think you'll ever see us making a record like
October Language one day and then a funk record the next.
MIKE: A continued development of the same aesthetic. We haven't
made a decision to move in a new direction..... I don't really have
an interest in newness, or reinventing ourselves. Any movement in
our sound will occur gradually as our tastes and interests shift.
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