How has the response been thus far to Mutilate Us? I know reviews of Audiot went on and on gushing with complimentary words, and many fans and critics have been anxiously awaiting your full length release. How do you think the 2 releases compare and what is YOUR response to Mutilate Us?
(mike) I’ve only read a few reviews and they seem to be very positive. Yay!! I think the record came out really swell, we learned a lot since “Audiot”, and we're still learning.
(brian) Mutilate Us has more pieces. It’s a larger erector set of sorts. More twists and turns that we were able to explore.

 

How did you guys end up working with Polyvinyl? Has it been a good experience thus far? I know at one point you were going to do a split 8" with Pele, who are old Polyvinyl standbys, did they have anything to do with it? Did that split ever materialize?

(mike) Um, no that split never came about. I've never met that band so I guess, no, they didn't have anything to do with us working with them. Polyvinyl is the best goddamn label I've ever had the pleasure of working with.
(brian) Pele, never met ‘em. Polyvinyl, met ‘em. The split 8” is one of those things that just sort of fade out of site. You make plans and sometimes they just don’t fly, for whatever the reason may be.

 

Speaking of mystery releases whatever happened to that Insound tour support CD? Does AM/FM plan to do any touring. I know I have read quotes of you saying things like you would rather make music than go out and tour.
(mike) We will be touring in the fall of 2001. We're trying to play weekend shows here on the east coast as much as possible.
(brian) As far as the Insound ep, we weren’t touring at the time so it really didn’t make any sense. Remember how I was mentioning those “plans” in the previous question? Please make another mark in that column. For awhile, yes, the studio was all we really wanted to deal with, however, now we’re sort of accepting that it’s time to go out and play.

 

I hear there are talks about Polyvinyl re-issuing the Audiot EP.
(mike) I think there will be a few songs from audiot on the new record. But that is all I think.

 

I know on the Audiot EP you had said that these songs were really recorded by entering the studio with "frames of songs" rather than the finished product in mind, did you use this same process for Mutilate Us?
(mike) Yup. Brian would come in with a part or two, or an entire song just with the acoustic guitar and we would leave with almost all 24 tracks used up. We would go in completely cold, no rehearsal or anything like that.
(brian) The best laid plans are those that tend to fall out of the sky. Turn things on, hit it a few times and find out what it’s trying to say to you. That’s how some of the best music is made. You just listen.

 

This process reminds me of how say Japancakes say they all learn a basic melody and then go in to record without ever really practicing together. Why did AM/FM choose to record this way and how do you think it effects the outcome?
(mike) Well I guess cause it's really just me and brian doing it, and we went into record and thought... yeah drums here or bass there or keyboards or percussion. We're lucky enough to actually have a studio almost at our disposal so that makes it much easier. Our friend Terry, who is basically the third member of the band, runs the studio. It's a really neat way to put stuff together, you don't have Jason, Timmy, Jon, and Steven all arguing about how things should be... and there aren't all these loud instruments playing shit in your face. It's just Brian, Terry, and myself and we rarely seem to disagree. We seem to bounce ideas off each other really well. "Lets stick the microphone in the fish tank and record the guitar from inside there" "yeah let's do that but make sure you feed the fish first." You know, that kind of stuff.
(brian) I think like anything else, chemistry plays a large part. By trying, you find out what works. You find out what makes the most sense to you. Seems that our chemistry allows us to work best in the midst of a certain amount of chaos.

 

Do you think these stream of consciousness recording tactics have a lot to do with Mutilate Us taking over 6 months in the studio to create? Was that construed as a bad thing by you or by Polyvinyl or as an opportunity for you to fully indulge your creativity. Rome was not Built in a day I am told.
(mike) Um, I guess it just took a while. Polyvinyl had nothing to do with it. It wasn't like 6 months straight. There were all kinds of breaks. Rarely did we spend two or three days in a row... it was very spread out.
(brian) Like we were saying, chemistry. It just seemed to take the time it needed. You let it roll as long as you can until yr happy with the results you have ended up with. If it takes 3 days or 3 years, you should be happy at the end, if yr not, keep working. Luckily for us, Polyvinyl never argued and we neither did we.

 

Mutilate Us could almost be presented as a Philadelphia Music compilation. Yes, you wrote the songs, but members of Philly bands like Aspera Ad Astra, Ink and Dagger, Lenola and The Unfixers all contributed as well as bands you and Michael have been involved in like Science Of and Franklin. How did incorporating all these people change the dynamics of the sound? Did any one person bring something to the table that really stands out in your mind?
(mike) Um, we're just friendly guys.. you know, nice. And if we're doing something, it's fun to involve your friends. We hang out with so many extremely talented people. And it was cool to have everyone put a little of themselves on it.

 

How did you and Michael Parsell meet? Then, at what point did you decide to invite him to share AM/FM with you?

(brian) Mike and I met a long time ago and have just been friends for years. We have a lot of similar interests and ideas and when I was recording some of the early AMFM stuff to four-track, mike asked if he could play drums. Never really thinking we would do much with it anyway, I figured why not. This way I have someone to talk to about it. You know, someone to respond to. It’s just gone on from there.

 

Was it hard at the conception of AM/FM for you to share your 4 track work first with another person, Michael Parsell and now with the world? Out of curiosity are you a Tascam man or what?
(brian) Absolutely not. I don’t horde over music as a secret little fantasy world to pour myself over. Music is amazing and fun, and filled with life. It’s something to share and be happy about. It’s what makes people smile and interpret their life…nothing but music. Bringing mike into hear what I was doing was easy. Bringing others to hear is easy too, if they choose to listen. Ah, I just have a Tascam 4track and 8track. It’s very basic and nothing fancy. I’m horrible at home recording, no patience, so I use it to demo, not really to record something valuable.

 

Do you still typically start a song for AM/FM as an acoustic recording onto a 4 track and then present it to Michael? Or are songwriting duties more of a collaborative effort now?
(brian) Most of the songs come from me to start off with. Lyrics, melody, a guitar line. It really just depends. Mike has helped write two core parts to our songs, but for the most part, Mike’s real talent comes in after I have an idea or a song written on the guitar. Then we work from there.

Due to the obvious stylistic differences between Franklin and AM/FM, one could easily be lead to believe that AM/FM kind of started out as a way for you to get the pop music out of your system. Is this a fair statement or is this sound something you have kind of grown into more recently?
(brian) It’s always been there. I’ve been into all types of music forever. I’m always willing to hear new things and listen to the music that exists already before me. I’m just here for myself to try and hear it and interpret it into my life and reinsert my ideas on the common language. I would hope that’s anyone’s goal. Franklin was very diverse, AMFM is very diverse…it all is affected by yr ears at any given point.

 

So out of curiosity tell me about the Atom and His Package song entitled "Books, My Dog, Brian Sokel and Me. I am assuming you are the Brian Sokel.
(brian) I’m brian, atom is me, books is a dog, the box, I made. It’s fantastically absurd.

photos by: Stacy Shevlin

 

Read a review of AMFM's Mutilate Us here.

Read a review of The AM/FM's Getting Into Sinking here.

Read where the AMFM got their name from here.

Read where Polyvinyl got their name from here.

See pictures of the AMFM here.