Olivia Tremor Control - Circulatory System - Pop fluctuations amid cubist clouds

A continuous stream of sounds and visions: that's the definition one might give to the music of Olivia Tremor Control, standard-bearers of a surreal psych-pop that has always set them apart within Elephant 6, making them one of the most beloved bands in the American collective, alongside Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples In Stereo. After achieving popularity in the late '90s, the Athens band split up suddenly in 2000, leaving behind numerous extraordinary gems of pop psychedelia. Not long after the breakup, frontman Will Cullen Hart launched a new project, Circulatory System, who released their debut album as early as 2001, delving further into the more experimental side of Olivia. Away from the scene for a long stretch, partly due to some personal struggles of their leader, Circulatory System returned in 2009 with a new album, and Will granted us an interview in which he traces the history of Olivia and Circulatory System, sharing curious anecdotes and hinting at a possible Olivia Tremor Control reunion.

To trace Will Cullen Hart's musical path we need to jump back in time to the late '80s, when under the moniker Cranberry Lifecycle two kids from Louisiana (Will Cullen Hart and Jeff Mangum, the future leaders of Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel respectively) used their 4-track to record cassette tapes to give to friends. What memories do you have of that period?

Now those were the days... Well, these are too, to be clear. Anyway, they really were great times: we weren't thinking about what we were doing, we were just learning to play and having fun. We had total openness toward the world.

Then things got more serious, and you and Jeff started making a name for yourselves playing around the clubs of Athens. What was your first impression of performing live?

Our first show was at the Downstairs. It was a really fun and exciting experience. It was great to see that people were in tune with us, in a certain way. Those were the golden years of grunge, so we felt a bit out of place, but we clicked with people like Julian Koster (Chocolate USA, The Music Tapes, Neutral Milk Hotel), with whom we eventually ended up playing together. At one of our early shows we brought popsicles to hand out to the audience. We had bits of recordings and unpredictable noises, and we'd launch into those pieces whenever someone gave the cue - for instance repeating the slogan "Scandinavian headdress" three times, after someone in the band had asked the audience: "Do you want to hear some avant-garde?" After that, we'd go back to the song we were playing. Those were formative moments, and we still incorporate elements of that stuff into our music today.

Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider (future frontman of Apples In Stereo, ed.), together with Bill Doss (co-founder of Olivia Tremor Control, ed.), are the founders of one of the most famous musical collectives of the '90s. The first "meeting" of the three happened at a Cheap Trick concert held at Louisiana Tech University, when they were still kids. Can you tell me about that night? I've read somewhere about a guitar pick thrown from the stage that landed at your feet... a sign of fate?

Well, actually the guy at the concert threw tons of picks, so maybe it wasn't fate. Or maybe it was?

This is a question you've probably been asked a million times by now, but the curiosity is so strong I just can't help asking it myself too. I know the name "Elephant 6" is your own "creation", but the information floating around the web about it is pretty confused and contradictory. No one is better placed than you to help me settle this dilemma about the origin of the collective's name...

That name comes from a misunderstanding of the title of a Max Ernst painting, "The Elephant Celebes".

In the E6 manifesto, Robert Schneider wrote: "We believe in the use of home-made machinery, in ingenious ways of making things, and in writing songs that communicate with people. We want to make classic records that can survive their own time and be accessible to people of all ages".

In your view, what does a song need to have in order to communicate with people in a universal way?

To truly be able to communicate in a universal way, a song has to be real, it has to come from a real place.

Among the collective's "home-made machinery", special mention certainly goes to the 4-track, an element that has always accompanied your music. I've read somewhere that its use is also reflected in the final mood of your recordings, as if this machine allowed you to convey more intense emotions in the songs, "feeling" the music more. Is that so? What's your relationship with the 4-track?

There's something about recording to magnetic tape that carries a genuine spontaneity within itself. It's our only intermediary. There's something special about recording in your own room - you can go straight to the source, instead of trying to conjure it out of thin air six weeks later in a studio. But we appreciate all the options available to us nowadays. Right now we use the recording studio, both professional and home setups, alongside the 4-track.

Within a short time, the E6 collective defined an utterly unmistakable style and way of experiencing music (the so-called "Elephant 6 brand"), earning considerable acclaim and thereby drawing the attention of the media too. When did you really realize the scale of what you were creating?

I think back then we had a strong sense of what we'd always been doing. Slowly, over time, we started to realize that people were connecting with our music, and we were happy about that.

What did the concept of a (musical) collective mean to you, and what does it still mean today?

(Will launches into abstract, detuned guitar solos) Since a collective involves far more than just a couple of "souls," the name stays there and keeps making sense even if one or more of the projects involved in the collective might not be active at any given moment.

On to the Olivia Tremor Control chapter. Another question you've probably been asked countless times (though in this case I really couldn't find any information about it out there, so I hope you'll forgive me!): where did the band's name come from?

The name The Olivia Tremor Control was put together by Jeff Mangum, while I came up with the name Neutral Milk Hotel.

Sixties pop and psychedelia: the Olivia Tremor Control's blend of the two has inspired countless bands since the late 90s, and it's still winning over converts all over the globe today. Is there any band or musician from the current psych-pop scene that's particularly caught your attention?

I don't really keep up with modern music. I did enjoy Atlas Sound, Comets On Fire and SunnO))) at All Tomorrow's Parties.

Your music has always stood out for its strong experimental streak. What are the strangest sounds you've ever worked into your songs?

One is John walking down a dirt path on the 7” "Giant Day". And on "The Bark And Below It" we actually used a recording of our dog's stomach.

Black Swan Network is the name of the Olivia Tremor Control's mysterious, ambient-leaning side project. This outfit has just one album to its name, "The Late Music", which came about in a rather curious way. A year before its release, in fact, the booklet for "Music From The Unrealized Film Script, Dusk At Cubist Castle" carried this message: "The Black Swan Network: tell us your dreams – send a cassette taped details describing your favourite, most interesting dreams (real or otherwise) for a future project". How did this idea come about?

We were trying to build a deeper connection with the people listening to our music. The idea came from Zappa, who had decided to personally take charge of promoting the Mothers Of Invention's records, taking that job away from Metro Goldwyn Mayer and even running ads in comic books, so as to reach as many people as possible who might want to connect with his music. We were looking for something that could reveal a different world out there that people could relate to. If someone bought the album, we could find a different, broader way to connect with listeners.

What came of the invitation extended to the buyers of "Dusk At Cubist Castle"?

We got maybe fifty or so cassettes of dreams. We chopped them up and used some of them on the Black Swan Network/Olivia Tremor Control split.

A nonsensical palindrome and the head of a mannequin wearing a flowered hat: the Olivia's website boils down to a bare-bones web page with nothing interactive to click on and no submenus to browse. And yet a single sentence and a single image are enough to channel the visitor straight into the Olivia Tremor Control's mad genius. Is there some kind of meaning behind this non-site of a site?

It was Eric Harris who put that site together. Just for fun, back in the late 90s.

In 2000, Olivia Tremor Control disbanded. From the band's ashes came, on one side, Bill Doss's Sunshine Fix, and on the other, Will Cullen Hart and John Fernandes's Circulatory System, which explored the more experimental territories of Olivia while still retaining, on the side, a pop-inflected melodic component. Can you tell me how the Circulatory System project came about?

John and Jeff encouraged me to finish some songs I was working on. The first performance was at my house. I started composing at home and then took the mixed tracks to work on at Chris Bishop's place. People started dropping by and adding things to the songs, and after about a year we had a finished record. We toured with Peter Erchick on organ, Heather McIntosh on cello, John Fernandes on clarinet, violin and bass, Jeff Mangum and Hanna Jones on drums.

Is there a connection between the name "Circulatory System" and the concept of "floating", which runs through pretty much all of your music, starting with the lyrics, and which seems to hold a kind of symbolic meaning in your conception of art?

There must be a connection, but it came about spontaneously and wasn't intentional. John came up with the name Circulatory System, and it seemed to fit with the ideas we were expressing.

Speaking of art, I know you designed the E6 logo and created countless drawings for live event posters and cover art for albums by bands in the collective. You also love painting, you've handled the artwork for all the Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System releases, and in general you're as passionate about visual arts as you are about music. How would you define the relationship between your music and your art? Is there a painting or an artwork you feel particularly attached to?

The cover of the first Olivia Tremor Control album, and that of "Black Foliage" too, if I'm honest. Actually, I find it hard to say which of my works stands out above the others – for me it's all just history. I can only say that it's something I really enjoy doing.

Between the self-titled Circulatory System debut, from 2001, and last year's "Signal Morning", eight long years went by. What are the points of contact and the differences between the two?

A couple of songs on "Signal Morning" were originally meant to be on "Black Foliage". It's a kind of continuum. A Circulatory System? (laughs)

I read that the other former Olivia members also make an appearance on the album, and for the occasion the historic Hart-Doss duo reunited, who (quoting directly from Optical Atlas) "sing in harmony once again on the opening track 'Woodpecker Greeting Worker Ant'". Is this a prelude to a band reunion (I know there are two new tracks credited to OTC...) or maybe the groundwork for a new "extended family"?

Bill was actually here just yesterday. He asked me if I was ready to do more stuff together. I absolutely am, and I gave him a couple of cassette tapes from '93 – the ones that "Giant Day" came out of – plus some other material we could work on.

Alongside the Circulatory System project, you and John started a small label, Cloud Recordings, which, among other things, also offers some rarities in unique hand-finished copies, exclusive paintings of yours, and a wonderful gallery of sounds and images. How do you experience running your own label?

We simply enjoy doing it. We like being able to bring more personal things directly to the people who are interested.

Last year, together with other members of Elephant 6, you took part in the Holiday Surprise Tour, a traveling celebration of the collective's music, which kicked off on the release day of Julian Koster's delightful Christmas album, "The Singing Saw At Christmas Time", and wrapped up on Jeff Mangum's birthday. Anyone lucky enough to catch one of the shows you played around the United States describes it as a memorable event. How was it for you?

We didn't know what to expect because it had been a long time. But we enjoyed it a lot, and we had fun together. It seemed like there were new people interested in our music, people who'd never had the chance to see us live back when we were touring in the late '90s.

Is there any hope of a "European Surprise Tour" happening in the near future?

It would be great if there were the interest and the money to make it happen. Circulatory System are supposed to be coming to Europe for the Primavera Sound Festival and for a few other shows in late spring this year.

(20/01/2010)

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