By Taylor Burgess
On one of the coldest nights in January, I bussed down to Albert Street to share a cup of tea with Kristel Jax and Mark Wohlgemuth, Alpha Couple and proprietors of Freud’s Bathhouse and Diner. Despite the splash they’ve made with the venue/gallery, and despite the fact that they’re soon leaving the space, they refused answering any questions about it. So instead, we talked about Stalingrad, an album that started when they lived in Toronto a year ago, named after the apartment they lived in that they had nicknamed.
Stylus: I haven’t heard much of the new album yet, but I really like “Subject Yup,” because it’s a story through the recordings, and it almost sounds like answering machine messages. Are you guys really interested in technology and communication or… what’s your trip?
Mark Wohlgemuth: We are definitely interested in communication, though there isn’t a focus necessarily on technology.
Kristel Jax: Moreso a focus on the state of being human, and being human within a certain relationship state, and that would encapsulate all sorts of things.
MW: Well if we’re talking about this album, and what it’s about, it’s about relationships mainly.
KJ: It’s about our relationship. [laughs]
MW: It’s about our relationship, it’s about a romantic relationship, it’s about a platonic relationship, it’s about the coming together of a relationship, and the coping of it, and the understanding of it, and continuing through many hardships, and the conflicts of the two individuals clashing against each other and uh… yeah, the ups and downs.
KJ: Kind of what our project is about, we’ve called it Alpha Couple, and in no way do we think ourselves to be emblematic of um… like a traditional alpha couple, which in my mind would by that fifties kinda ideal, but I mean we’re a heteronormative couple and I’m blonde and we’re middle class, so we have that going for us but it’s by no means easy or sane. The first year of our relationship was extremely messed up and I think I was particularly feeling really kind of confused and apologetic towards people who had been caught in the crossfire of the confusion that was going on between us. And I think part of the desire to write songs came out of trying to figure that out on a personal level, and a social level. I don’t know if that ended up coming through, because we didn’t end up releasing the songs when we thought we would, and our live shows started off pretty messy and indecipherable.
MW: The idea is to study our relationship and work on it through our relationship and have that specificity to be able to be drawn out from others and related in their own way, and their own relationships, obviously.
KJ: Cuz I know a lot of people are dealing with the same fucked up things that we are — you know, we don’t just get together [and be in a relationship], it’s just not like that.
Stylus: When was there this decision that the two of you would work together in a musical capacity, and what was the process of working together, strictly on a musical level?
MW: This idea just grew out of conversations that we had [when we were living at Stalingrad]. And when we moved back here, we already started in Toronto, but we got more things ready here.
KJ: Yeah, we had like, the beginnings of three songs recorded already.
Stylus: This is sort of an odd question, I’ve never asked this question before.
MW: Oooh yeah.
Stylus: How do you guys feel about the fact that this interview’s going to be printed in Stylus, and on StylusMagazine.ca, even though you’re doing a 50 CD-R release, by virtue of being friends with me, and me having seen your show? Because what you guys do might seem odd to a lot of people, but I absolutely love what you do, and I loved the last show I saw you play, and I felt so much from your last show.
KJ: I think we’re what this city and this country needs, and you’ve recognized that, and keep pushing that. That was my cocky asshole answer. [laughs]
MW: Well there hasn’t been a question yet, actually.
KJ: Oh right.
Stylus: Oh I guess not.
MW: I’m still waiting for it.
Stylus: Is this misrepresentation? Is this false idolization?
MW: What is?
Stylus: This interview.
KJ: Well it’s Stylus, you interview local bands all the time that aren’t on labels, I assume.
MW: Oh because you’re writing and we know each other and you are already a fan, is that what you’re saying? Is it misrepresented because of that?
KJ: I feel like a lot of the stuff I read in Stylus is because someone’s friends with someone else.
Stylus: That is kind of the nature of Stylus.
KJ: I’m booking our tour partially through Facebook, and just through people who have added me because they think our gallery is interesting, or they saw I was friends with someone I know, and they liked my profile picture, and I see that they know someone who knows someone. I think that’s very okay with me.
MW: As much as you like or expect all forms of media outlets to be objective, everything already has a subjective bend, no matter what, just look at the news. We all know that each newscast has their own angle coming, even if they’re trying to avoid it, it’s there, it’s innately there. So bringing that back to this, and especially local media and on music, always been – like kinda everyone knows everyone, for the most part, and if they don’t, they’ve heard something, so there’s that perspective already. I don’t like that just as it is, in that form, but if it’s used with strict sincerity, so when people are being subjective they’re not being influenced by their personal bias on big observations, but on direct experiences, then that is probably by far the best form of media.
KJ: Maybe you’re only friends with us because you like us, and if you weren’t friends with us you would still like us. I mean as artists.
Stylus: Kristel, could you talk about your initial fears of performing and how you’ve overcome them?
KJ: Yeah, I don’t know what it is that was so frightening. I had never sang in front of anyone other than mark for our first show. I’ve had shows where I was so nervous that I’ve almost thrown up before playing. I find it helps to warm up a lot because it just reassures me of how to sing. And just doing it more and thinking about artists I really like to see perform and what it was about them that made me feel connected and thinking of how to find that same thing inside myself. Because it’s something I definitely found myself wanting to do, so I might as well actually try.
Stylus: And Mark, how long have you been performing under Kram Ran, and what importance have you felt to keep on performing even if some people don’t appreciate everything you’re doing?
KJ: You don’t?
Stylus: I’m not saying I don’t personally.
MW: Yes, you’re right.
Stylus: No, I don’t — I like what you’re doing!
MW: Don’t worry, I perfectly understand what you’re saying. I’ve been performing five or six years, and I think I have consistently grown as a performer and as an artist — I like that word a lot better, but this is the performance part of art, so — I feel I’m very confident that in the last few years I’ve become much closer to what I want to do. And I’m quite happy with that. I’ve never been satisfied though, after a performance, and that is a good thing.
Stylus: Really, you think so?
MW: Well if I’m satisfied that means I… [sigh]
KJ: Just stab yourself in the chest and fall backwards onto a mattress and you’re out. It was perfect. You seen that movie?
MW: I’m always striving to do more, and that’s what I want to continue to do. I’ve grown and I’m very confident with what I’m doing and I know that my audience hasn’t grown really significantly at all…
KJ: Spiritually.
MW: And it hasn’t hurt my confidence at all, because I know my confidence has only risen. So you’d think it’d be the opposite, but I feel very good about what I’m doing and I know that I’ll continue to work hard and to push myself and I think I was much weaker at it in the beginning but there was definitely elements that I was achieving so — so, I get deterred, yeah, a lot. Doubts is an ongoing thing and without doubt then that means I’m not even questioning what I’m doing so that means there isn’t even a purpose to it. So at this point I don’t feel the need to stop yet, so I’m going to continue to do it. Until I’m done with it.
Alpha Couple will be on tour for a little while, but you can check them out at www.myspace.com/alphacoupleband or www.imtrying.net.
Photo credits:
Photo: Lisa Varga
Hair: Hanna Little
MUA: Lidia Najera
Accessories: Haberdashery