*Noise Pop Special
James Reimer explains the beginning of this musical family
The unique Dallas symphonic pop group, the Polyphonic Spree, is less a band
than a happening, very much in the 1960s sense of the word. When the group
takes to the stage for a live performance, its two-dozen members are costumed in
flowing robes of snowy white, an appropriate backdrop for their happy and
uplifting musical message that's catchy as hell and minimally laced by gospel. They
have been compared to everything from The Beach Boys to The Flaming Lips.
Some people think they are a weird cult, but Texas has always been the home of
outrageous things.
The group boasts a ten-member choir, a pair of keyboardists, as well as a
percussionist, bassist, guitarist, flautist, trumpeter, trombonist, violist, a
French horn player, a theremin player, and an electronic effects wizard. Former
Tripping Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter holds the post of musical director and
contributes lead vocals. Their live show is in a word a "spectacle." They have
released one album called "The Beginning Stages of... (2001)." I spoke with
member James Reimer in the summer of 2003. Since then they have released a
second album. They will be playing at Noise Pop on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24th at
BimboÕs.
Polyphonic Spree, From Bubblegum to Sky / Feb 24th
Bimbo's 365 Club, 7/ 8 PM, $16/ $18 day of show, 18+
* * * * * *
AL: I may sound out of it. I just went to sleep about three hours ago.
James: My goodness. I just woke up here.
AL: I'll be okay.
James: I can mess with you the whole interview because of sleep deprivation.
AL: I'll just go right back to sleep right after this. (Laughter) Have you
been in Polyphonic Spree the whole time?
James: Actually I came into it about six months after they started. They were
forming at that time. The band started in July 2000. I was a fan of Tripping
Daisy and I liked them a lot, but I had never met Tim before. I knew his
friends and people around him. How I got in was through a friend of a friend. At
that time I didn't even know he was doing music again.
AL: Had you seen Tripping Daisy play before?
James: Yeah. I followed them since 1991. I saw them in the beginning when
they played to ten people. I watched their meteoric rise through Dallas. I
watched them take off during the early 1990s. That was pretty cool. It was weird. I
didn't know that he was doing anything musically again. Then a friend of mine
who worked at a local radio station introduced me to his new group. They had
just cut what would become "The Beginning Stages of...." He had a disc. He told
me that I should listen to it because it was pretty cool. So I did. Then a
few months later I wondered if they needed a trombone player. I emailed the
manager, Chris Penn. The very next day he wrote back. From then on I was in.
AL: Tim had already written all the songs already?
James: Oh yeah. The band started in July 1st, 2000. They rehearsed. They
played their first gig on July 15th. They recorded the album on the last three
days of October. So there are bunches of people in this band now who are not on
the record. All that happened really early on. That record was like a demo. The
demand for it has turned it into what it is now. There are a few versions of
it.
AL: The record and the website all reflect the expanded version of the band.
James: Right. The picture of us on the CD was taken last year at South by
Southwest. You'll find that all the pictures are always evolving. The group is
whenever you are at, at the time.
AL: The twenty-four members of the band now are a set number? Or can anyone
join up?
James: It's revolved around those numbers. We were going for a specific
sound. It took that many people and instruments to get that specific sound that Tim
was looking for. If that sound ever expands to fifty people, I think he would
do it. Right now it fluctuates between twenty-two and twenty-five people.
AL: Do you have honorary members? I know that Jarvis Cocker from Pulp joined
you at one show.
James: That happens from time to time. There was a guy who writes for The
London Guardian who flew into Dallas to perform with us. He did that so he could
write about the experience for his newspaper.
AL: Some of the British newspapers compared your band to a Christian cult, or
David Koresh and his followers. You don't all live in a commune together?
James: No. The thing is we are nothing like David Koresh and we don't have a
commune. In fact, when we are home in Dallas, we are all spread out over town.
We lead separate and various lives when we come back that have nothing to do
with the band. It's fun though to read a journalist's imagination run wild. I
can see that point of view. You have twenty people in robes who play uplifting
music. They seem too happy and euphoric. What is going on?
AL: When did you decide to wear white robes?
James: Back in the early days there was video footage that was shown
throughout the show. No one did any maniacal dancing back then. People just played
instruments. The robes being white just acted as the background video screen. It
was a human video screen. It was a stimulating visual and aural attack. That
is how it came about.
AL: Things sort of took off after the South by Southwest shows of 2002. Then
David Bowie invited you to the Meltdown.
James: Yeah. Things sort of blew up back then. Last year we kept getting
invited to the UK festivals. We played T in The Park, Reading, and Leeds. This
year we are going back to play those, plus Glastonbury, and more in Europe. We
just played an NME tour with The Datsuns, The Thrills, and Interpol. That was
really cool. They managed to get four bands who are in four different polar
lands from each other. It worked because everyone was nice and everyone had their
space to do their thing. You just have to do your best and have a good time
because you don't know what to expect. If you have a good time onstage, most of
the audience has a good time too. That is our general mantra
AL: Tim has a record store and record label in Dallas?
James: Yeah. It's called Good Records. In England, we have a partnership with
a label called 679. It's a small label but it's also a subsidiary of Warner
Brothers. It's run like an indie label but it has the backing of a major label.
AL: Your show right now is songs from the first album?
James: No. We have been incorporating songs from our next upcoming album into
the set. The new album will come out around Christmas I believe. We just
finished recording it. We will be mixing it soon, in between tours. We have been
playing songs from the new album for over a year. People have been asking us
when the new album is coming out. It's on the shelf and ready to go.
AL: It must have been a different recording process?
James: The first one was recorded in three days. This time we took two months
to record the album. We'll take another month to mix it. This will be a
proper record. The first one was done live. They did the normal things where they
cut and pasted things. The whole idea was that was the original set. This new
record was recorded like a regular band going into the studio, but we have
twenty-five people. We worked with a producer, Eric Drew Feldman, who was in
Captain Beefheart. He also produced a Tripping Daisy record, "Jesus Hits Like The
Atom Bomb." He did an amazing job on that record. It was a shame that no one
got a chance to hear that record. It was a good feeling in the studio the whole
two months.
AL: When you have all those people and voices onstage or in a room together,
it can get quite emotional?
James: It can. Music is for the most part an emotional experience. When
something that you wrote comes to life in that manner, it has to be an amazing
feeling. It is an amazing feeling when our songs come alive on their own. It has
caused everyone to get emotional at times because it evokes that.
AL: Besides Tripping Daisy and Captain Beefheart that we have already
mentioned, are there any bands that you like?
James: I like so many bands it's not funny. I have played with so many cool
bands already. I used to have a list of people who I wanted to meet, and now I
have met them all. It's like all right. The last SXSW we played with
Supergrass. We have played with them a few times now. It seems like a mismatch but I
don't think it is. It becomes very vibrant. We will come on and lift everyone up
and they will torch the place down. It's awesome. We played with them at
Wembley, in London. I like them and I had never seen them play. When I saw them,
it was like WOW!
AL: Do you read a lot of books?
James: Yeah. When I am on tour it's always my goal to read a book. I like to
keep mentally sharp. I just finished The Demon Hearted World by Carl Sagan. It
was pretty good. He tends to ramble on. It was about science and the culture
that is backwards. Culture stifles the progress of science. I don't agree with
all of it.
AL: Does the band Polyphonic Spree have a shared philosophy?
James: It matters on what you mean. There's an overtone to our shows. It's
for people to come and have fun and enjoy themselves. That is what we do. When
we are playing onstage, we enjoy ourselves. We hope that happens in the
audience too. I don't think people will pay good money to go to a show and not have a
good time. Other than that I don't think we have a shared philosophy.
AL: Do you do shows where people are standing there in shock, or are quiet
because they are silently deciding whether it's cool to like you or not?
James: I have two answers. The first show we played in London was the
Meltdown Festival that was curated by David Bowie. It was at the Royal Albert Hall.
It's the mother of all live venues, mainly for orchestral things. It's
absolutely beautiful. We were opening for The Divine Comedy which is the epitome of
that European class music. It's reserved and it's perfect basically. I enjoy
them. I thought it was incredible to open for that band. We were jet lagged. We
hadn't slept. We walk into the venue. We were getting ready to play. We noticed
that everyone was sitting down in chairs. We hadn't experienced that before.
We played our entire show and everyone was sitting down. We didn't realize at
the time that was the kind of venue it was. It was weird. We are used to
playing clubs with people dancing. This was a lecture at a college. People were
sitting there maybe thinking, "What is going on?" We were having enough problems
with being jet lagged and playing our songs, when the power gets cut off. We
blew a fuse. We are just standing there not knowing what to do. So Tim just
starts one of our newer songs. He just starts singing it. We have enough acoustic
instruments in the band to play that certain song. Right where there's a
really big crescendo, where it really goes for the power moment, the electric cuts
back in, and the whole place just loses it. It was an unbelievable moment.
Because the electricity cut in exactly at the right moment, everyone accuses us
of staging it. We would never do that. We were scared out of our minds. It's
fun to go to new places, to watch people's faces. For the first minutes, if
they haven't seen us before, they think "Oh, what a joke." You can read their
faces. It just seems like halfway through the show, things change, and they are
singing along and having a good time. They realize that it is not a joke.
AL: Can you play acoustic shows?
James: It would be difficult for the singers. We have electric guitars and
two drummers and that is too loud with the vocals. Don't be surprised if we do
acoustically things in the future though.
AL: How should people come prepared to see these shows in the summer?
James: I don't know if words can prepare you. It depends on were you are
coming from. Just be prepared to have a good time. Enjoy yourself and your
surroundings. If you are worried about if it is cool, you are worrying about the
wrong things.
By alexander laurence
