{"id":9819,"date":"2015-01-19T13:32:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T13:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9819"},"modified":"2015-01-19T13:32:03","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T13:32:03","slug":"operators-embracing-the-human-in-electronic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2015\/01\/19\/operators-embracing-the-human-in-electronic\/","title":{"rendered":"Operators :: Embracing the Human in Electronic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Operators_WECC_650-620x350\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Devin King<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Operators first broke onto the scene, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the band. With only a few live shows played, word quickly spread about the group comprised of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks) and Devjoka. The mystery now is beginning to fade as the band makes themselves available across Canada for a tour following the release of their latest EP.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: Operators is one of many notable bands you\u2019ve been in. How is Operators different than those other bands?<\/strong>
\nSam Brown<\/strong>: Like every band you\u2019re in, it\u2019s different than any other band you\u2019ve been in, even if it\u2019s in the same genre. This band is exceptionally different in that it\u2019s different from a lot of bands I\u2019ve played in before that have been punk or straight-up rock and roll. This band has a lot of electronic stuff in it so it\u2019s a totally different variant.\u00a0Playing in a lot of different bands, you learn from all the different people your play with, and with this band it feels like a natural evolution in my playing.<\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: How has your drumming evolved?<\/strong>
\nSB<\/strong>: It\u2019s a lot more controlled now. When you\u2019re young you have a tendency to overplay and song vibe be damned, you have something to say. A lot of young drummers don\u2019t realize that they\u2019re playing the loudest instrument on the stage and they\u2019re still trying to push through the music and prove to other drummers that they\u2019re good. When you get older you grow out of that. You start to really appreciate drummers like Phil Rudd and Charlie Watt.<\/p>\n

The band I was in before this, Divine Fits, was a lot more like zen-based drumming. You\u2019d play the same beat for three minutes, and when I\u2019d hit the cymbal it\u2019d be a big event. That\u2019s a whole other way of playing. It\u2019s kind of fun to try to play the same beat exactly the same for four minutes. I think it takes a lot more patience and skill to do that than just flail around and play solos when some of them are great and some of them aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This band, there\u2019s a lot of dance grooves, a lot of four on the floor going on. It\u2019s the most songs in a row with a four on the floor kick pattern that I\u2019ve ever played. There\u2019s a lot of double-time hi-hat stuff going on.<\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: How does recording electronic music work when you know you\u2019ll be playing it live with live instruments?
\n<\/strong>SB<\/strong>: Sometimes you treat the drums to make it sound closer to electronic. For some songs that are slower the drums should sound more acoustic and live, and other songs where the drums are basically playing what the drum machine plays. But there\u2019s still a human element to playing these repetitive 16 pattern on a hi-hat, there\u2019s still some huge variation in there. It gives it a unique melody which is what we\u2019re going for.<\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: Is the human element something unique in Operators?
\n<\/strong>SB<\/strong>: Oh, for sure. Not all the songs are clocked in to machines. At this point, 80 per cent of the songs, especially live, there\u2019s a lot of arpeggiation and things that need to be clocked in. There\u2019s parts that can\u2019t be played by a human as perfectly as we need them to be played. That\u2019s why people use arpeggiators and that type of stuff. But then there\u2019s some songs that we have where I\u2019m the clock and everyone\u2019s playing to me and Devojka is playing keyboard parts over the drums that I\u2019m playing and Dan is playing lead keyboard parts and guitar parts over it. It really varies.<\/p>\n

The farther down the road we get with our songwriting and performing the looser it\u2019s becoming. When we made the EP we had really only played two shows. We were recording, but what we captured is not entirely sterilized but compared to what we\u2019re doing live now is pretty sterilized. That can be a little frustrating when you\u2019re trying to present something to people live. The record should embody what your band is about. And so now the live shows are way more unhinged and punked out and there\u2019s a lot more random energy that goes into it. Dan and I are both shoot from the hip players and even though I\u2019m playing to a machine I play different fills every night and the songs take on a different intensity at the live shows, and Dan\u2019s the same way. He\u2019ll sing different melodies here and there and the guitar parts are different in the same way that the drum fills can be. The shows are definitely a different experience, and every night is a different experience.<\/p>\n

We played this run of shows in Toronto at the Silver Dollar and we got off the stage the first night that we played and looked at each other and were like, \u00a0\u201cOkay. This is the band that we are.\u201d Something different happened when we got into a room full of people.<\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: In other interviews Dan has talked about how you all want to \u201creverse the Internet-centric and digital heavy production out of music today.\u201d Why is that important?
\n<\/strong>SB<\/strong>: There have been so many records that have come out in the last five years that just sound so perfect. And even though they can be chaotic and they use maximalism, at the same time in that maximalism there\u2019s a purpose. What you get is just this perfectly clocked in thing where everything is really tight. What we\u2019d like to capture is a more human element of what\u2019s going on, especially because we have a live drummer and most of the elements of our show are live.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re trying to go for something that\u2019s a little more human and a little less quantized. But at the same time it\u2019s clocked in and you can shake your ass to it.<\/p>\n

One thing I really like is that Nenah Cherry record. Those tracks are great because it\u2019s live percussive instruments as if it\u2019s a drum machine instead of an artificial drum machine. I think the D\u2019Angelo record is the highest profile version of this and it\u2019s going to kick of a new movement in production heavy, slightly electronic dancey type music. I think people are going to take that lead and try to get less perfect in their music. That\u2019s the reason that album is so great, you can tell it\u2019s a guy playing that drum for four minutes. That\u2019s what we\u2019re aiming for.<\/p>\n

Stylus: I read someone say that there\u2019s a \u201cSense of dislocation to the songs but a joyfulness in playing them.\u201d How does that tension work?<\/strong>
\nSB<\/strong>: When you have a band, everybody\u2019s personality comes out in different ways. In a band the music is driven by the drummer, so you have that personality. And then you have the personality of the person adding the melodic elements and arrangements. And the icing on the top is the feelings of the person who\u2019s singing. I think that\u2019s how sometimes you end up with something where the vibe contrasts with the music. I think the Smiths is a good example. The three guys wrote the songs together, and Morrissey didn\u2019t really pay attention to the music they were writing. They said one of the things they enjoyed the most was going into the studio and listen to what Morrissey was going to sing over top of it. So it\u2019s a bit hard to ask me or anyone in a band who didn\u2019t write the lyrics to ask about what direction they were going in or why the mood is the way it is. I think Dan was thinking about his childhood and his time growing up in this tiny town on Vancouver Island. I think he was in a reflective mood, and that came out in the lyrics. He\u2019s also a huge sci-fi nerd, so that came out in the lyrics too.<\/p>\n

Stylus: So far you\u2019ve released one EP. Are there plans for more?
\n<\/strong>SB<\/strong>: In the spring we\u2019re going back into the studio to record four or five songs and we\u2019re aiming to capture what we\u2019re doing live and what we feel like we\u2019re about now. We\u2019re hoping to have the second EP out by summer and then get an LP out by fall.<\/p>\n

Stylus<\/strong>: Why the EPs and then the LP is such close proximity?
\n<\/strong>SB<\/strong>: We were playing some shows in Montreal and we wanted to pick a handful of songs to get some music out. We\u2019ve since decided that we want to take another stab at capturing some of the songs we\u2019ve already recorded. I think we have a better idea of what we want out of our recordings. I think we would be better served to go back to give it another stab. We\u2019ve only been a band for a year and a half, and we recorded all that stuff having only been a band for six months.\u00a0 We were excited about the fact that we had so many songs that we had already written and we wanted to catch them while they were fresh and while we were excited about them, but I think we caught them when they were a little too fresh and we might want to catch them the way they are now.<\/p>\n

Catch Operators at the WECC on Thursday, January 29 at the Big Fun Festival, with locals Hana Lu Lu and Will to Power.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Devin King When Operators first broke onto the scene, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the band. With only a few live shows played, word quickly spread about the group comprised of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks) and Devjoka. The mystery now is beginning to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[103,697],"class_list":["post-9819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-big-fun-2015","tag-operators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}