07/23/09
Text: Nik Mercer
DFA is unabashedly a label worth the sum of its parts. James Murphy may be the New York staple's reining king, but the company is just as much its roster members' as it is Murph's. We spoke with three of our favorite DFA artists―Nicholas Millhiser (Holy Ghost!), Jacques Renault (Runaway, J&J), and Marcos Cabal (Runaway)―immediately following their Diesel:U:Music DJ set at the Italian company's flagship 5th Avenue store. (Keep up-to-date on all things Diesel:U:Music Radio right here.)
Being the audiophiles we are, we came to talk music, but we'll certainly be coming back to the three-story shop for a pair or two of jeans. Anyway, here's what the three had to say...
Tell me a little about some of the stuff you played for the past two hours. Anything in particular stick out to you? Any new finds in there?
J.R.: We played a lot of disco... we played a lot of new stuff... and a few unreleased things.
Like what?
J.R.: We played the new Still Going release called "Spaghetti Circus"; a [new] remix of [the Juan MacLean's] "Happy House"; but we didn't get a chance to play the new Holy Ghost! single! I thought I'd brought it.
N.M.: Yeah, I thought I brought it too. I'm out of copies, though.
J.R.: We played a new Runaway remix... and a whole bunch of old, classic house.
Have you three ever DJ'd together? As a trio, that is?
J.R.: Mm, I think we've been up together before, but nothing like this.
Yeah, it seems like it might be a little tough... alternating between three people instead of just two.
Okay, so Nick―you and Alex Frankel just released "I Will Come Back" on Green Label Sound. It's really fuckin' good. I'm curious as to where it came from―it has a different feel than most of your previous recordings.
N.M.: That song went through a lot of different version. It started as this thing that Alex started and was based upon all these old disco record samples. Then it turned into a [different] sort of disco thing. We worked on it for so long and it just never felt right. We were playing one of our synths, though, and listening to this old song, and [from it] we made the bass line ... our own bastardized version of it. Then the whole song changed again. The version you hear now is, like, the third version.
J.R.: Yeah, I heard it when it was unfinished, and there a lot of horns and stuff in it. More disco.
The music video for "I Will Come Back" is really great too. It doesn't sound like New Order's "Confusion," but it has some sort of innate aesthetic parallel to it. Did you deliberately choose to make it for that reason or was it arbitrary? [Editor's Note: the Holy Ghost! video is a scene-by-scene recreation of the "Confusion" video from 1983.]
N.M.: We were playing this really bad DJ set in London... well, actually it was okay... but there was this one girl who wasn't very cute or anything, but she was just, like, dancing by herself, and Alex and I said, Man, we should make a video with that―a girl dancing by herself. And then we were like, Oh, like the New Order video! That's what makes it cool―there's this awesome girl just dancing by herself! Alex just put our song to the video and we thought it'd be so easy to remake.
The last thing was that James [Murphy] was going to play Arthur Baker, and... well, we actually kind of know him and we ran into him at a bar and told him about the video. He asked who was going to play him, and we were like, James! "No, man," he said. "I want to play myself." I kind of turned to James and was like, Is that cool? He was like, You can't really say "no" to Arthur Baker... (shrugs).
You should've told Arthur that he could only do it if he gained back the weight he lost since then.
N.M.: Hah, it's true! He's in better shape now. Somehow he's in better shape than he was in then.
Yeah, and Nancy Whang is totally a better pizza girl than New Orders... she's such a rad, like, future space dancer.
N.M.: Yeah, she was really cool [about filming]. Put up with a lot.
Out of curiosity, when do you think the debut album's coming out?
N.M.: We're still working on it. Maybe spring.
Random one: I heard a rumor yesterday that Michael McDonald is singing on the record.
N.M.: It's true.
Where did that one come from!?
N.M.: We had this song, but Alex wrote the hook out of his range. We always knew we wanted someone else to sing it, but [we didn't know who]. We brought the demo over to James, and said, "Why not Michael McDonald?" James―and he does this a lot―is really unhelpful sometimes because he [supports] crazy ideas. He was, like, Fuck yeah! Just get Michael McDonald! We happen to know this girl whose father was the bass player in Kenny Loggins' band. So Alex called her and was like, I know this is a long shot, but is there any way you can ask your dad to ask Michael McDonald to do our vocals? She was like, My dad's having dinner with him tomorrow―give me the song and I'll see what I can do.
She gave him the song and he did it.
I like the sound of Holy Ghost!, featuring Michael McDonald.
N.M.: We should get him in the video.
We wrote out all the charts for him, but he totally did it in, like, five minutes. You can almost hear him eating a sandwich in the background.
He asked us what we wanted him to do, and we were like, You know, do some falsettos, some ad libs, some harmonizing... and he literally did a seven-part harmony. We didn't use it, but...
So, Jacques and Marcos―Cosmo Vitelli of I'm A Cliché sent me the Moments Of A Crisis two-disc compilation that you two are on it as Runaway. What songs got on? I can't remember if there was a newbie.
J.R.: "Your League" is the new one; "Putting In Overtime" and "Dead Dog Farm" had already been released.
How'd you hook up with Cosmo?
J.R.: We met him through MySpace, right after [our] first Wurst record. We just reached out and we've been friends with him ever since.
I love the three records you put out on Cliché so far. How do you record? What's the process for you two? Like... are there live instruments...
J.R.: It's very mutual. We definitely work off of each other. I was raised playing the piano and violin, and while I never really recorded anything... I mean, basically, the story is, I bought a new program and Marcos and I had been friends in New York, and I said, Hey, maybe he can show me a few tricks. We made a few tracks, and we said, Hey, let's make some more.
M.C.: We usually just sit down and listen to records, get excited about records...
Are you guys going to just keep putting out 12"s and the like or...
J.R.: Yeah, we're working on another one for DFA; we're doing one for Cliché... and we just started our own label. It comes out next week and is called On the Prowl.
Who's on that? Just you for now?
J.R.: Yeah, but we'll be featuring friends. Like, we're doing remixes―
M.C.: We've got a TBD remix on the second release―
J.R.: Which is Lee Douglas and Justin [Vandervolgen] of !!!. So they're on the second release.
Is there anything you're doing outside of Runaway and your DJ identities?
J.R.: I'm producing a band called the Hundred In the Hands (formerly the Boggs). They have an album coming out and I'm producing half of it. It's a really cool Brooklyn band.
Marcos is doing an art project...
M.C.: Yeah, I'm doing the music for, like, this art show that's based off of feedback... and, yeah, it's coming up.
How'd you get involved with this Diesel thing?
Well, I met [one of the Diesel:U:Music people] in London, and she brought it up, and we were like, Yeah, sure, sounds cool! Then all of a sudden it felt like all of our friends were part of it. It came out pretty cool, I think...
