An email interview with John Davis of the DC band Q and Not U and of Held Like Sound zine fame. interview by ms. jennifer perkins and photographs by mr. shawn brackbill.

How did you guys all meet? Is this your first band together or were some of you in other bands and met there and then later you all came together as one giant force?

Chris Richards and I met in 1995 when a band I was in played on a radio show here in the D.C. area and he and his then-girlfriend heard us and liked it. She wrote to us and told us about herself and about Chris. Chris sent me a tape of his band and we became friends and played some shows together. When my band needed a guitar player for our last tour, we asked Chris to do it since his own band had broken up. We wound up scrapping the plans to do that last tour and started a new band called The Elusive. That was me, Chris, two guys from Corm (my old band) and another guy named Ian Chu. That band played only a handful of shows and put out an EP before breaking up within a year. Once that band was done, Chris and his friend Matt Borlik (they grew up together in Annapolis, MD) decided to start a band. I knew they needed a drummer and, although I'd only played drums a bit, offered to play with them while I was starting my own separate band. Not long after that, Chris invited Harris Klahr to come play with us. Neither Matt nor I knew Harris much at all and, honestly, neither did Chris, but we knew we'd like to try playing with someone else. Harris and I used to drive up to Annapolis together to practice and, let me tell you, we didn't have much to talk about at first. But all of us wound up becoming friends and realized we liked to make music together. I wound up not playing in any other bands and we all made Q and Not U our main thing.

So who are all those people on the cover of the record?

Those are people we know from the D.C.-area. We made a conscious effort to have it be young people who are involved. Almost everyone on that cover is under 25 and involved in the music scene here.

Do you guys have any other iron?s in the fire besides Q and Not U? Other bands, school, part time jobs as strippers? Inquiring minds want to know, where the hell is the next Held Like Sound?

We all have jobs at home, none of which are incredibly glamorous. Harris is a waiter, Chris works at an art gallery, I work as a publicist and Matt works at a newspaper. I know that most of us have worked on different musical projects along the way, though nothing that has superceded the work we do with Q And Not U. Harris and I both do a lot of 4-track work on our time, though not together. Matt has played with some different people from time to time and I know Chris has talked about doing the same thing. As for Held Like Sound, there is a new issue at the printer right now. I expect the next one won't be out for several months, since we're doing a lot of touring this first half of the year.

How did you guys get involved with Discord? Besides the obvious that you are from DC and that you are damn good?

I met Ian when I was in high school and was in my aformentioned band, Corm. Some shady dude had asked us to open a Fugazi show he was putting together. Naturally, we were excited, as Fugazi was one of our favorite bands, but it just seemed off. So, I looked up Dischord in the phone book and left a message for Ian telling him about the show and wondering if it was true. He called me back promptly to tell me there was no such show and he hadn't heard of the guy either. We wound up talking for a while, as I interrogated him about Fugazi, Minor Threat and everything else that came to mind. From that point on, we stayed in touch about music I was working on and he eventually wound up helping Corm get some records out, with one of our 7"s and our only full-length being split releases between Dischord and my old label, Shute Records. To make a long story short (too late), when we started playing out as Q And Not U we eventually decided that we wanted to make a recording. I was really impressed with Ian's production work on the latest Lungfish album at that point and it occurred to me that very few people were recording with him anymore. So, I asked him to record us. He came to one of our shows and liked what we were doing so, after a few months, we were able to get some time in the studio and we recorded a three song 7", "Hot and Informed." That came out as a split release between Dischord and DeSoto Records. When the time came to do the full-length, we asked Dischord to do it. Once it was finished, Ian agreed to put it out.

Why was your first 7"? a split label release? Who wouldn't want that, but in the sense that both labels could have financially easily released it on their own, why the decision to split the release?

The reason that happened was that Ian doesn't like to do full-on Dischord releases for 7"s anymore due to logistical reasons. I could go into it, but it's not that exciting. Anyway, he said he would like to split-release it with another label. I mentioned that to Kim at DeSoto, thinking she wouldn't be into doing a split release. But I stood corrected and we wound up doing the split release. Financially, it was essentially a Dischord release, but we were able to get the tremendous administrative and experiental help of DeSoto to push the record further. It was really amazing to work with both of those labels and friends.

How was recording with Ian Mackaye and at Inner Ear Studios in general?

It was really excellent. We didn't quite know what to expect. We've all known Ian for a while, but had never spent such a concentrated amount of time with him in one place. He was extremely easy-going and very adept at diffusing tension with a joke or wisecrack, as is his forté (Ian will tell you that my last word there, "forté," is pronounced "fort," not "for-tay." I disagree, as does the Oxford English Dictionary. Ask him about it and he'll give you his side -- extensively). Aside from being a good friend and advisor in the studio, both he and Don Zientara (who engineered and co-produced) possess an astounding amount of knowledge and intuition when it comes to recording a band. Plus, both guys know the room so well, so they are able to offer miniscule changes in mic position, amp position or tuning (among others) and would produce profound changes in the sound (see the booming floor tom that sounds like a timpani on the 7" version of "Washington Monument"). Both guys embrace the happy accident in the studio, which is something I (though not everyone in the band) embrace as well. So, it was my favorite recording experience to date.

Any future release plans? Will they be with Discord?

We expect to release another full-length in the future. Hopefully by the end of next year, at the latest. We talked about some other ideas within the band, about making some different recordings (percussion-only, etc.), so who knows what will happen. There are a few compilations we'd like to contribute tracks to as well.

Do you think being a band out of DC is a blessing or a curse, or maybe a combination of both? DC typically has a distinct sound that in some cases people automatically assume they are going to like something just because it is from DC, which could work in a band's favor. On the flip side some record reviewers are going to stereotype you and your sound based strictly on where you are from.

I feel that it's a blessing across the board. There is a really strong community of musicians, artists and people who just like music. There aren't quite as many good places to play and see music as I'd like, but there are still more than enough for things to get done. There are a lot of good, new bands (No Lie Relaxer, The Cassettes, Dead Meadow, The No-Go's, etc.), as well as a few more experienced bands (Fugazi, Dismemberment Plan, Burning Airlines, Faraquet etc.), so there's a pretty decent balance. Like most anything, there's room for improvement, but I'd say it's a very healthy scene. As for what reviewers or erstwhile cynics have to say about the D.C. scene, I don't give a damn. 95% of music writers out there are so lazy that they'll take whatever well-worn, default assumption is available and immediately adhere to it and apply it to the band. It's pretty disappointing how few credible and intelligent music writers there are out there. But I guess that's just the way it goes.

What is the scene like in DC right now? We have not heard much out of there as of late. Any new and exciting bands we need to all watch out for?

As I mentioned in the last answer, there are a number of smaller bands who have started o make music in the last year or two. Aside from the bands I mentioned in the last answer, you also have El Guapo, RaRaFra, Edie Sedgwick, Early Humans, Motorcycle Wars, Crispus Attucks, Dead Teenagers, Canyon, Bahzena, Virginia Black Lung, Diastemata, Calibos, Qui Vicino, Metropolitan, Caribbean and a whole lot more. I can't say whether any of the bands will or care to expand beyond D.C., but I do know that some of them will.

I know you guys are getting ready to go out on tour, is this your first 'big' tour together? Where are you guys going to go in April and May? Austin maybe?

We've toured a fair amount in the past. We are touring for five weeks in April and May, which is the longest tour we've done. We've done several one-week and two-week jaunts, as well as innumerable weekends. We are focusing on the midwest and the west on this spring tour and we are hoping to play Austin as well.