05.09.07
Interview with: NARCOTOURIST
By Stacy Sardelli
Editor in Chief

Experimental / Electronica / House

Narcotourist is: Cari Golden, John Tague, and Brandon Burnside.

Partial official description: "Narcotourist takes electronic, post-punk, new wave, pop, and trip hop influences and adds an original sound to create their own brand of Electonica that will rock any venue on the planet. Destined to play the best raves, venues and festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury, Narcotourist will soon be taking the world on."

Interview

Babble & Beat - When did Narcotourist form and how did you find each other?

Cari - John and I have known each other since high school drama class, and were in the best Grateful Dead cover band together, in all of Northern New Jersey in 1987, where we rocked many church and middle school multifunctional rooms. So, when we found each other again in LA nearly fifteen years later we knew the magic could be recaptured in an equally psychedelic, but drastically more sophisticated forum.

Babble & Beat - How I'd love to hear your voice, rather than Donna's, when my husband plays his Dead tapes...

John - It’s kind of embarrassing because Sunsplash was mostly a Grateful Dead cover band. We also covered other bands and artists like Janis Joplin, R.E.M., The Cure, and whatever else was popular at the time. I was 17 and I think Cari was 15. Even at that age Cari’s voice was incredible.

As goofy as it sounds we were actually pretty good and we played a lot of really cool clubs and venues in NYC even though we were only 17 and 15 years old. That band eventually fizzed out and everybody went his or her separate ways. I was in and out of a lot of crap bands too miserable to mention until I hooked up with Brandon in The Droves and ran into Cari in Los Angeles almost twenty years later.

Cari - Brandon and I were introduced by way of being drafted to serenade John’s wife Claire down the aisle at their wedding. We eventually all gravitated to the same street in North Hollywood and clung to each other for dear life, musically and socially. The electronic music thing came out of the desire to experiment and the lack of funds to hire musicians to play the parts we couldn’t. For me, I really wanted to work in a medium where the frequencies were really clean, no analog noise, and could be manipulated. Plus, the comfort level that we have with each other isn’t something you run across every day in the professional music world. We’re much more personal and familial.

John - We got together as the group Narcotourist about two years ago. 2005. Brandon and I were in that band called The Droves, which fell apart, and Cari, who I’ve known since High School moved into the apartment next door to me. Brandon and I wanted to continue working together after The Droves and I’ve wanted to work again with Cari for years. It was weird how it all came together but I couldn’t be happier.

Babble & Beat - The Universe was going to get its Narcotourist, and that was that. Meant to be.

Why did you name your band Narcotourist?

Cari - Brandon and I went to the Ecstacy exhibit here in LA after batting around a few ideas that all sounded like offshoots of Radio Shack or Crazy Gideons. The exhibit was amazing and super high concept in some of the installations, but the first exhibit was this framed piece of notebook paper entitled "Narcotourism". In chicken scratch it described the sensation of doing a different drug every day for a week for a minimum of 16 hours a day. It was interesting and frightening, and it was better than anything else we came up with, so Brandon and I lobbied for it and won.

Brandon - The name was derived from an experimental art piece by Francis Alys called Narcotourism. We saw it at the Ecstasy exhibit at the MOCA LA. We dug the symbolism behind the name and the concept of taking trips without traveling, or traveling to take trips. This has been a guiding principal behind the music we’ve made. We’ve attempted to paint a series of soundscapes that suck the listener into them.

John - That was Brandon and Cari’s idea. It has that Chemical Brothers / Crystal Method ring to it. Plus it looks cool on a T-shirt.

Babble & Beat - You are currently working on your first full-length album, ‘Moderate Stimulation’. Can you tell us a bit about it (the songs, the feel, the cover artwork, the status, guest musicians, etc.,...)?

Cari - For us, since we are new we’re really interested in the psychology of what makes people interested in this type of music and what kind of imagery goes along with what we’re creating aurally and spatially. We definitely are going for the cinematic, the somewhat provocative, moody style, even when we’re delivering a house beat with it.

Lyrically, we’re interested in psychological systems, what makes people follow, the drastic differences in how we conduct our lives from even a decade ago given the digital explosion. Vocally, I just like the fact that I get to change how I sound on each song and really craft different personalities in the music. That’s the most fun thing for me. No guest musicians so far, and we’re nearly done with it. A few more tracks are unfinished, but we’re in a nice creative flow at the moment, so I imagine those will be wrapped before the end of the summer.

John - At this point I think it’s safe to say that we are very close to finishing. We’ve been letting the songs marinate. We want the songs to really take the listener somewhere. We like to think of them as little universes. As far as feel goes we’ve been going for a futuristic, urban, dance, trip hop, new wave feel that incorporates early 90’s style guitar and bass with electronica / dance elements with intimate and soaring vocals. Very cinematic. As far as artwork goes we like the imagery and feel of Stanley Kubrick films and Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’. Very spacey and futuristic.

Brandon - This album is kind of eclectic. Each song has its own feel, but I think Cari’s vocals, as the common element, ties them all together nicely. The cover art for this album will be the image below. I was Google searching random images and I came across a few diagrams of a plane breaking the sound barrier. I liked the iconic simplicity of the images. I sent them to our web designer, John’s brother Andy Tague, and he cooked up the image you see below. Now it’s become our logo.

Babble & Beat - What studio have you been recording at? Do you find the recording process grueling or exciting?

Brandon - We’ve basically turned my apartment into a recording studio. I’m the weird guy passed out on the couch in the back. I like living in the studio. It’s always there waiting to capture the creativity whatever time of day it may be. I’m obsessed with the creation process. It never stops and the music is always evolving.

John - Yeah, we’ve been recording at Narcotourist Headquarters, otherwise known as Brandon’s apartment. We’ve spent the last two years building a studio there. The recording process has been a challenge to say the least. Massive learning curve as far as recording technique and software is concerned. Brandon is basically the engineer. He can wrap his brain around it faster than Cari and myself. Brandon is basically a space alien and understands technology whereas my patience is very limited.

The most exciting thing for me about the process is that we can dial in the feel and atmosphere of a song very quickly in the electronic realm. We’ve been having lots of fun using natural everyday sounds plus the drums are always dead on. We’ve also had a lot happy accidents that have turned into good songs. Lots of ball breaking and pot have also kept us in check.

Babble & Beat - Laughs.

Cari - I spend a lot of time in a small coat closet staring at my pal Douchebag The Monkey who hangs from a nail in there and is my audience when I record. It gets hot, but Brandon knows how to dial in my vocal sound better than any big shot producer I’ve ever worked with.

Recording is always exciting even when we’re having a tough time nailing something down. It took months to finalize 'Waiting', just because we knew there was an emotional lift that was missing somewhere and it took a while for it to become obvious to us. We’ve learned through this process that we don’t have to rush like most bands that pay for studio time. We can let things marinate more, we can stress less and we can be more inspired and completely in control of what is put out into the world. That’s huge.

Babble & Beat - What’s the L.A. music scene like in your experience so far?

Cari - We’ve only played one gig so far, but it was great! This isn’t so much a live music town from the perspective of folks getting into their cars and going to see bands play, really. You have to already be somewhat established here and even then, it’s just not the focus like it would be in a college town or in a pedestrian city like New York. So we know we need to branch out to the UK and Japan, want to try to get distribution in both places, and also play as the opening act for more established bands when they roll through town here.

John - I’ve never been really blown away by any of it. It’s very superficial. Although there is a great radio station out here in Los Angeles, KCRW, that has the best independent programming in the country. As far as shows go LA crowds can be kind of lame and jaded. We saw Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who put on a great show but the crowd gave nothing back to them. It was odd.

Brandon - I feel like there is something exciting happening with electronic music in LA right now, but most of it is occurring behind doors. It’s just beginning to emerge. Other than that I feel like the southern California music scene is pretty lame.

Babble & Beat - Well, you'll just have to get your tushies to Milwaukee sometime soon where the crowds are always ecstatic when great bands come to play this often passed-over state!

What are some venues (and their cities) you’d love to play?

Cari - I’ll name cities- New York, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Barcelona, Prague, Tokyo,... um yeah. I see music as a way to travel and play for people, not as the vehicle to get rich and famous.

John - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, Roseland Ballroom - NYC, and Earl Court - London.

Brandon - Hollywood Bowl of course. Coachella and Glastonbury would be cool. I would also like to be the first band to perform live in space. Richard Branson, get on it!

Babble & Beat - What have been two or three highlights so far for Narcotourist?

Cari - Finding each other, listening to our music together and realizing that not only do we not suck, but that we’re actually GOOD (and we’re just in our infancy, so the potential is pretty great to make some amazing music- which is all any of us wants to do anyway), playing live.

John - The amazing response from people on Myspace, our first gig, and the birth of my daughter.

Brandon - Successfully pulling this shit off live and getting a great response from the crowd.

Babble & Beat - Are you guys searching for a label? If so, any particular one you’d love to sign with?

Cari - I think that question deserves some consideration. Yes, we’d like a label to be able to represent what we’re doing, but I know that I speak for us all when I say that we want to maintain our creative freedom. I know those two ideas are directly juxtaposed, but we think that the product is good enough to merit some trust in what we’re doing.

I’d love access to really expensive equipment and the mixing and mastering resources available through a traditional big name label, however, ideally we really just need a distribution deal with a marketing arm and tour support. The rest of it we want to handle ourselves.

John - We’d love to get picked up by a label. I think Astralwerks would be a nice fit.

Brandon - The plan is to make enough noise so that the labels come to us. I wouldn’t mind being on a smaller electronic label like Thievery Corporation’s ESL Music.

Babble & Beat - What else is planned for 2007?

Cari - Total global domination. In Brandon’s case, it’s total Universe domination.

John & Brandon - Finish and release ‘Moderate Stimulation’, tour, and a shoot a video.

Babble & Beat - We LOVE your songs ‘Touch Me’, ‘Pleasure’, ‘Digital’, and ‘Waiting’. The song ‘Waiting’ has a little U2’s ‘Wide Awake’ influence in it and the result is a very powerful & gorgeous song!

What other bands would you love to pay tribute to in some way?

Cari - My vocal influences so far have been Jeff Buckley, Bono, Brandon, Annie Lennox, Debbie Harry, and Allison Goldfrapp. I mostly like men’s inflections, because the other references can feel so obvious. It’s been a really enlightening process to see what vocal personalities fit each song, because there’s been a whole lotta wrong sometimes before the "voice" emerges in a given song.

John - Thanks for saying that about those songs. There definitely is a U2 influence going on in ‘Waiting' as well as a little New Order too. I think bands like U2, New Order, Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, and Bjork have all been an influence on this album but Pink Floyd is the standard that we try to live up too. There is no one sonically better. Period.

Brandon - Underworld, New Order, Air, and the Pink Floyd of course.

Juicy Tidbits Section

This is where we ask personal questions for the fans. Yeah, they're often stupid questions. We like reading the answers though!

Babble & Beat - What is your favorite take-out in L.A.?

Cari - Duh. Win’s Thai.

John - Win’s Thai Cuisine in North Hollywood. Great pad Thai and spring rolls.

Brandon - Win’s Thai. It’s right next-door and I eat there at least 2 times a week. Pad Thai with chicken and a large Thai iced tea.

Babble & Beat - Wow, unanimous? It must be rather good!

Worst job you’ve ever had was: ____________.

Cari - All of them.

John - Shoveling horse shit on a farm in North Carolina while I was in college.

Brandon - Hawking TV show tickets to tourists on Hollywood Blvd.

Babble & Beat - I had sooo many jobs in my younger years but I would have to say that being a hotel maid in the Northwoods during hunting season was the worst. Some hunters would actually try to dress their deer in their rooms!

Your Friday night drink of choice is: ____________.

Brandon - Lately I’ve been drinking a lot of this microbrew from Humboldt, CA called Hemp Ale. It doesn’t get you stoned, but it’s a damn good ale.

Cari - What season? Winter? Martini or scotch. Summer? Beer or a margarita.

John - Asahi Beer.

Babble & Beat - Please name 3 cds you’ve got in your car or home stereo right now.

John - Duran Duran's ‘Duran Duran’, Massive Attack's ‘Mezzanine’, & Underworld's ‘Live Everything, Everything’.

Cari - ‘Silent Shout’ by The Knife, ‘LEF’ by , Ferry Corsten, & the Narcotourist ep.

Brandon - Underworld's ‘Beaucoup Fish’, The Knife's ‘Silent Shout’, and Bjork's ‘Vespertine’.

In Closing

Cari - Thanks Babble and Beat for wanting to get to know us! I’m confident that our musical journey will bring us to your neck of the woods at some point where you will have backstage passes and free swill all night long! Continued success to you!!!!

Babble & Beat - Well, you are very welcome but really, we thank you! Please let us know when you hit the Midwest - we're totally there!

John - It’s been a pleasure for us to have our first interview done by Babble and Beat. We dig your mag and we hope you guys have lots of success!

Babble & Beat - We're seriously thrilled that you like our magazine! We're honored to be given your first interview and we're certain that you will have lots of success w/ Narcotourist! Take good care and stay in touch!

Folks, make sure to make it over to their official website - it is VERY cool! Also, watch for their debut release, 'Moderate Stimulation' in the near future.

Links:
Official Narcotourist
Official MySpace