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*News
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Interview
Email interview with Rob WyniaA Sun, Sky, Stone exclusive Q) The new album "Alter" has received considerable praise from the fans so far. Can you discuss any general themes about the album, or any particular messages the album is trying to put across? Rob: The focus of the album is on changes and the stories that they make. Hence the name. At the heart of everything we are and everything we will be is some kind of change or series of changes that led up to and created us. Alter deals with changes on a broad and varied level. Where they come from and where they take you. Q) What was the recording process like for "Alter"? Splendid. Absolutely the best yet. We recorded in a rebuilt barn way out in the country with nobody around for miles. Only the forest. We camped out. The woods at night had a lot of effect on this record. We worked by our selves or with our road crew and no new faces or strangers and it was incredibly relaxed and creative. Making a record without the presence of "suits" is the only way to go. Q) Why did you decide to once again include samples on the new album? Did we make a record without samples? I'm not sure. I don't really think about it on a conscious level. It's just telling a story and making it move the way it feels like it should move to say what it needs to say. In the past we've had records or songs with loads of samples and stuff with none. It just depends on how it feels and what it's saying. Some people love those sonic interludes and some people can't stand 'em. Can't please everybody, eh? Q) Are the samples created by the band this time, or externally acquired? They have always been a bit of both. On this record there is almost nothing that was from a movie or some outside source. Basically everything was created in the studio or on my computer with microphones, synthesizers and effects. That has more to do with what kind of equipment is available and what you have at your disposal to use. In the past we've been forced to use a portable tape deck and a delay pedal. Now we have multi-tracking, sound effects, keyboards, actors and more studio time to use. Q) Is "Alter" a concept album? (i.e. does it tend to tell a story throughout), or should it be taken as separate songs, each with their own meaning? Yes. Q) What type of flower is that on the album artwork? New Day Tulip Q) Can you tell us anything about the change from Elemental to Pantheon Records? Same good people, new name. I think it primarily had to do with old catalogue stuff, so they decided to keep the old catalogue (other bands and stuff from the distant past) on Elemental and create a new label for Floater. Q) Does Floater have any long-term goals, other than conquering the Northwest? More specifically, does the band desire to ever achieve national fame, or are you content with your regional popularity? Generally speaking the band just wants to play and play often. If we keep making records and playing for fifty more years it would still end too soon. Floater never has had a goal of fame or national recognition or a major label contract, just to make music. The sad reality is that most often without those things it tends to fall apart because the money is just not enough to live on. The time and money required to put together what we do is enormous and (believe it or not) the money is pretty much nonexistent. I'd say if we had a goal at all, besides just making music, it would be to get some kind of a break that in some way insured our future. There is a terrible misconception that we have lots of guitars, or make lots of cash, when in fact we have frighteningly little gear (ever notice how the show stops when an amp goes out? No replacements.) and pay out pretty close to what we take in. The upside of this is that we have a freak-out of a good time doing it and exorcise our demons regularly. None of us would have it any other way. Q) Rumor has it that Floater has turned down offers from major labels in the past, in order to maintain creative musical control. Can you elaborate on this? Well, that's kind of oversimplifying it, but basically yes, that's true. Major labels as a rule don't want any variation in the sound that a band makes. They want folk songs or heavy metal or country or what have you. They NEED it to fit squarely in a tiny box. Otherwise it's not worth their time trying to explain what it should be marketed as. This is why there is so staggeringly little experimentation in popular music. We don't "refuse" to fit in a stylistic box, we just simply don't. It's not something you try to do or fight to keep doing, it just is. It's like being tall and people asking if you'd be willing to be short for enough money. There's no choice in the matter. There was a time when artists were expected to show all the colors of being human. Writers wrote comedies, tragedies, dramas, adventure stories and that was a sign that they were connected with life. Now artists are expected to have a single voice, a single theme and not to explore at all. To be easy to market. If you write mysteries, that's what you must write and keep on writing. Sad, really. This is the corporatizing of humanity. Q) Would you be happy if you never had to play "Danny Boy" or "Cinema" ever again? Oh, God no. I love those songs! I mean, I never expected other people to like them so much (or in some cases liking ONLY those songs) but people are people and that's that. To me it's like if you had a really funny joke and you told it and everybody laughed, that's cool. But it's a bit strange when everywhere you go people say "tell that one again!", so you do and then they want you to tell it again. Strange, but who knows where that comes from? Q) Ever thought of covering Tool? Nope. Not really our kind of thing to do. Q) How does the band feel about fans recording live shows? Are there any stipulations you'd like to address? That's such a mixed bag that it's hard to tackle here. Let's just say that for a myriad of reasons I'm not entirely for it or entirely against it. There are great things about it and terrible things as well. Making bad recordings and playing them for people is stupid and damaging. Making recordings and selling them is stealing from us, plain and simple. Hard core fans will want live recordings and albums as well, but they are in the great minority. Most people out there just get a recording and it's good enough for them, then why should they buy the record? Even if the record's better, they won't buy it when it costs them fifteen bucks and the bootleg is free. On the other hand, not everybody can get to shows and they'd like to hear a show (or every show) and it sucks to keep a recording from them. Sticky situation. Let's just say that it's something that seems like it should be simple, but unfortunately there are a lot of bad people out there and they make it complicated for the rest of us. Q) What are the near-future plans for Floater? There has been talk of an acoustic album... What can we expect from the band in the next couple of years? We'd like very much to do an acoustic album and tour acoustically, playing
very small venues. You may see us down on Hawthorne with our guitar cases
open on the street. Feel free to bring your pocket recorders and some change.
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