Other Lives - Visions of chamber pop

We meet Other Lives at Tunnel in Milan right after the soundcheck for their first-ever Italian show. Chatting with us is Jesse Tabish: calling him simply the “singer and leader” of the Stillwater, Oklahoma band would be both impossible and reductive, as becomes clear from the sheer meticulousness with which he moves around the venue, catching every nuance of sound coming from the stage, trying to make the live experience as good as possible for everyone about to fill the room.

We talk to him about music, film, current affairs, and the conversation immediately feels like three friends sitting on the couches of a club, discussing the things closest to their hearts – it takes just a few words, in fact, for everyone to feel at ease and for any awkwardness to melt away (something that, to our great pride, will earn us compliments from the band about the interview once the show is over). A flow, a continuous exchange of ideas and impressions, moving from the band's history right up to its future.

I'm curious about your beginnings under the name Kunek. Was it the same line-up as Other Lives? How did the band come together? Was that your first experience in a band?

I started in high school, in a punk band; then, nine years ago this very month [November, ed.], I formed an instrumental trio, which turned into Kunek, which included one more member, essentially a co-founder of the band. When our paths parted from his, we thought the best thing to do was to clear the slate and start over: find a different perspective on what we were doing, where we wanted to go and where we'd been; that's the real reason behind the name change - other than that, all the other members of Other Lives were already in Kunek.

I didn't know about this punk beginning, which reminds me of one of my favorite songwriters right now, Scott Matthew: he also started out in a punk band, and now his sound is rather sweet, delicate...

Punk music is powerful, especially when you're young, when you're fifteen and you want to let out your teenage anger. It's great, I wish I had more energy to express, but I'm not that angry anymore.

It's often said that you spent sixteen months in the studio writing and recording “Tamer Animals”. Did it take you just as long to put together the previous album and the Kunek one? Was “Tamer Animals” particular in this respect, in that it represents your true “creative leap”, your biggest attempt to forge your own musical identity?

The first record we made in an actual studio was done in the space of six weeks, so we had a pretty packed schedule; we had to finish certain things every day, sometimes things I would have preferred to leave aside or focus on more. That experience was good, definitely positive, I still love that record, but the fact is we wanted more control. Basically we bought enough instruments, microphones and amplifiers to record by ourselves, but, since it was the first time we were doing all this, we had no idea what we were doing; we kept trying, and trying, and trying until we found the right sound, or the right arrangement, or whatever it might be.

It's a self-produced, self-mixed record, and it took up a lot of our time, but we put so much love into it: every day we'd get up and work seven or eight hours a day, on things we'd taught ourselves. It was the best year and a half of my life. We worked with our own gear, our own equipment, our own way of doing things: we did it our way, and that created a sense of originality in the record. It's a very personal album, we felt we needed a refuge to make it.

Does the final result resemble what you had in mind from the start?

It's interesting, every time you record it's an unknown; but we started out by setting certain boundaries, giving ourselves goals to achieve: on one hand, moving away from traditional rock elements; on the other, making the lyrics and the vocal part less personal, even though the album is very intimate. I wanted the voice to sound very distant, like a bird's-eye view, looking down, narrating and observing rather than simply telling a story. So there were certain goals that interested us, but in the studio there's always some surprise that comes up.

My small criticism of the band, for what it's worth, is that the record really does communicate this huge intellectual effort, this intense creative drive. That's the album's main strength, in my opinion, but also its greatest weakness. Compared to your previous work, you naturally sense greater complexity, greater depth, but also a certain coldness that wasn't present on the two previous records and that you don't find in your live shows. Do you see this as something you'd like to improve on future records?

I definitely agree, there's certainly a more human touch in our live performances, there's more emotion. But, I'd say, vocally and lyrically, on "Tamer Animals" in particular I feel I achieved what I'd set out to do: I didn't want to be a lead vocalist, I wanted the voice to be something that coexisted with the music, and I can honestly understand that our critics have noticed that, I might even agree with you. But I wouldn't extend that to all the other records I've made, and I think there's room for other points of view, for different emotions conveyed by the voice.

How do you deal with the differences between playing live in a small club, a theater, or at a festival?

We don't necessarily have a different approach, but it's natural that things sound a bit different. Sometimes in a club you feel more like a rock band, you feel everything more on a physical level, it becomes a mostly physical performance. Sometimes, in a really big venue, like the one in Paris, it's a bit more like "OK, let's try to play like an ensemble" and things stay more contained within the group. But I love the differences, sometimes it's nice to have a calm, reserved mental attitude, other times it's fine to let go and take it in a more "neurotic" way.

You talk about Other Lives, and cinema comes to mind. Your passion for Philip Glass, the Morricone-esque epicness that fills your music, the tribute to Kubrick in the video for "For 12"... At least one of your songs ("Black Tables") has appeared in a TV series. "Tamer Animals" clearly has a central theme, Nature, its violence, contemplated from the point of view of a small man.

Well, it's a strange thing, because it's a bit of both. It's a return to that idea of having something within yourself, to who you are, to feelings you'd like to express, and, at the same time, to really trying to write music that evokes landscapes, a setting. I'm from Oklahoma, I'd like to compose music that paints what surrounds me, and also to consider, in the lyrics, themes that have to do with observing the landscape, the canyons, things related to the environment. These are issues that are somewhere in the back of my mind, and that filters into what I write, and I write, and I write, and I write. It's strange how these things seep through, because you're trying to stop them, to pin them down: it's a reaction of the unconscious and, together, of the subconscious. The hope is that this comes across from what one expresses in a way that makes it a coherent communication.

How does it feel to hear your songs on popular TV series like "Grey's Anatomy" or "Ugly Betty"?

I look at all of that as great opportunities from a financial point of view; I know that sounds a bit cold, but that's how bands make money: you know, bands like us don't make money from record sales. So, when they come up, these opportunities let us keep touring and get our music out to as many people as possible – because that's our real goal, not making money. Basically, it's a great opportunity to keep doing what we want to do.

Have you watched the episodes?

No. [laughs, ed.]

Just for fun, what kind of film could use your music as a soundtrack? You can make one up or pick an existing film.

I'd want a film where the music and the images coexist, where the music isn't just background. I like the idea of the visual and sonic aspects living together, I'd like to do something like that.

Like Philip Glass and Godfrey Reggio...

Yes, exactly. "Koyaanisqatsi" is a great film, it's truly a film that works together with the music. I'd love to see more films like that: for example, Kubrick does it beautifully. I just saw a film of that kind, "The Tree Of Life", it has moments like that, and they're truly precious: you're watching and listening at the same time, it's a fantastic combination.

Your songs seem to be written to go beyond a defined time. But, despite this timelessness, you can sense a kind of anxiety that perhaps comes from the present, from what is contingent. What's your perception of the future, for your country or, more generally, for the world?

I think a lot of people are worried, myself included. I think my job as an artist isn't to say what I think about politics or policies, but to observe and create something truthful, something that brings people to a place of positivity. That's my aspiration as a musician, but along with it come different responsibilities. I try not to judge too much, not to blame people for how they live. But I do have concerns, we're all too agitated; at the same time I believe that, given the chance, everyone would live the right way. I think that one day, I hope, people will realize they have more control than they think they do. That's my hope for the future.

I've read that you like reading Kurt Vonnegut. Someone I know used to host a radio show where he pretended to report phone conversations he'd had with Vonnegut after his death. If you could make one of those calls, what would you ask or say to Vonnegut?

I'd probably ask him the last thing you asked me: "Do you have any hope for the future?". I have a feeling I know what his answer would be. He was a wise man, he knew how to decode quite a few of the paranoias about the future and what we had become, and what we've always been, maybe.

You'll be opening for Radiohead on their upcoming tour across the US and UK. How do you feel about it? Are you fans of theirs?

It's amazing, we just found out... You know, if I said I'd never thought about it I'd be a huge liar. I mean, ever since we started it's been a kind of dream, we'd say to each other: "We'd be so happy to do that" and here we are! We're so happy and honored to be able to do this. They've had such an influence on us, we're such big fans of theirs... Also, I'm really eager to hear their new album live.

[Stefano, ed.]: I don't like it, I have to admit; I've liked every Radiohead album except this last one...

It's my favorite since - I think - "Amnesiac". You have to listen to it with headphones, it's that kind of record, because there's a real sense of space, and it's recorded perfectly. It's really a different place, I think it's a very intelligent album, a truly "produced" record. It's fantastic.

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