FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THEO'S 'WAITING ON A VISION' SITE
I forget the date of this interview but it's obviously between Angels in the Flesh and Burning Sosobra. I'm guessing it was 1999 after The Great Release came out.

Okay, here we go…. Floater Interview Set of questions # 2


Hello! These questions kind of bounce around so bare with me.

1. Now that you have left behind your old management, has there been any changes as to how you go about touring or playing your shows?

We have essentially stopped touring. For many reasons, most of them financial, we are sticking to the northwest area nowadays. There is talk of touring when our next album comes out, which may or may not be this summer. I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Having our new management has made a lot of things better for us and allowed us to continue to make music, which, previously was in doubt.

2. Will there ever be a version of “Watched over by Crows” either played live or released as a B-side? Can we look forward to a live cover of “American Woman?” by The Guess Who?

“Watched over by Crows” will be on the next record. “American Woman” most likely will vanish into obscurity. It’s a Lenny Kravitz song now. We are not a band that is very at home playing covers anyway.

3. Do you have any hopes of being on any future compilations?

Who knows? No great offers yet. Compilations are tough to make for a record label.

4. What do you think about the future of the Eugene/Springfield music scene and its potential?

I think that if the OLCC has it’s way (which, with its Gestapo tactics, it most likely will) there will be no all ages music scene at all. The youth will go insane and become indignant and out of control for lack of anything being allowed to them and the 21+ crowd will never be the source of a real music scene. Bars don’t make a music scene in a town, they’re just bars. I think Eugene / Springfield is headed downhill without somebody doing something and people standing up for themselves. A scene is only created by energetic people creating it. If people don’t go out, if laws are allowed to pass by apathetic public banning shows, if clubs shut down for lack of a crowd, there can be no music scene. Many people seem to be turning to television and the internet for entertainment. Being out in a public place and actually interacting with people becomes more and more uncomfortable and awkward for a lot of people and the music becomes an entirely electronic entity. Eugene, and the world, needs more bonfire parties.

5. Have you ever thought about releasing a Floater poster? And what happened to the tapestry idea?

Expensive. Posters may happen. To be honest, we just don’t think of ourselves as that great that anyone would want a poster, or whatever. The people at Alien Intelligence and Elemental do that stuff based on what people ask for. I think it’s really flattering, surprising and wild that people want memorabilia and I hope they like the stuff. Sometimes I design T-shirt ideas, sticker designs, etc., but sometimes not.

6. Can you possibly make up a theory as to why Floater has received hardly any attention in the mainstream press? Or at the very least why the local Oregon press (especially the Rocket) has been so cruel to you? Do you think that Paula Vail ( ex-manager ) had anything to do with your status quo back then?

I have no idea. The only thing I can figure as far as press goes is that our fans are
really hyper-active and emotional people and that’s really “uncool” to them. In Seattle we get these looks from club owners, sound-guys, press people and the like, that are so strange. It’s as if they can’t figure out what is wrong with our audience, they’re acting so weird and, well, “into it” that they must be uncool. Therefor, we become unfashionable and get no coverage, or just some bad coverage. Screw that all anyway, if the press went wild over us and thought we were the best thing since sliced bread, we’d just be nothing a week later. Better to be ignored and stay alive. As for Paula’s involvement, I have no idea. I tried to stay way out of it.

7. Will fans of Floater be greeted with new samples and effects on the untitled fourth album due to be released next year? What was the reasoning for the absence of samples on Angels in the Flesh and Devils in the Bone? Is it too soon to ask about the title of the upcoming fourth studio album?

Title, etc. is still cooking. Lack of sampling on Angles… was basically due to
wanting to create a different feeling around the songs. There’s a lot of sadness and resolve in that album and the sample work was not jiving with it. Plus, we didn’t want to cut songs out to make room for samples and it’s a long album. Yes, the next album will have samples and effects in it. Most likely not to the degree of , say, Sink, but they’ll be there. It’s part of what we do.

8. How do you pick them movies you sample from?

Nowadays, I sample movies a lot less. Angels… had a couple of movies samples in it, but very little. I choose them by watching them and finding moments which fit. Most sample material we used to use was drawn out of films and manipulated in the studio. After Glyph, I started creating my own at home on a digital 8 track studio and stopped almost entirely, using films at all. It’s better to just create my own original ones.

9. Back in the earlier part of your career as Floater, it was said that some of you handed-out hemp legalization pamphlets. Would you care to comment on your current views of hemp and marijuana?

I would love to see hemp and marijuana separated. I think hemp is an incredible, untapped resource which could solve a huge number of problems world-wide. The industry of big cotton has successfully destroyed hemp in favor of cotton by linking it to marijuana. The mistake these idiotic fucking pot head activists make is in trying to continually maintain the association between hemp and smoking bowls. To politicians, and to the public, the desire to utilize hemp, to legalize its growth and use, is equal to wanting to get stoned. This is just infuriating to me and it’s killing the hemp issue year after year. I don’t have any problem with smoking pot and I think it should be legalized, however, if I had a choice between seeing hemp utilized and seeing pot use legalized, I’d certainly choose hemp.

10. What are your thoughts on Mpegs and their relationship to the future of rock bands?

I’m not terribly computer literate. I don’t completely understand MP3’s, etc. I get scared because bands like us are surviving on a couple of hundred dollars a month and praying for our records to sell. When people put our shit on the internet and anybody who wants it can get it for free, it means we’re through. No record sales, no money, no money, no future, no future, no Floater. I hope it stays under control and people are adults about it, but people so seldom are that way about anything.

11. Rob, how did you start singing? Did you take classes or practice at home? To those would-be singers out there, do you have any advice?

I believe there is no such thing as a would-be singer. Either you use your voice to express yourself or you’re afraid to. If you want to sing, sing. I have not had lessons, or whatever, I just have always loved the feeling and it is a valve for me to blow off steam. Fear will destroy you long before a bad voice will. Plenty of terrible voices are out there enjoying themselves to death in front of huge audiences. More power to ‘em.

12. Since you’ve toured quite extensively on the west coast, you’ve probably seen many opener bands, and have been an opener for other acts. Some of the notables in that list probably have had more success than you (System of a Down, VAST), which is unfortunate. Do you think there’s any chance that any of these bands would invite you to go on tour with them? It was said a while back that one of the guitarists from Korn heard you and liked you, any comment on that?

I’ve never met anyone from Korn. I’ve heard the same thing, but who knows? Bands have so little say in who tours with them, who opens, etc. that I doubt any of our past experiences will come back to us in the form of favors. Who knows?

13. Do you have any new cities that you would like to tour more often on the West Coast?

Seattle. It’s fun to watch the people up there try to figure it out. That’s a big city, full of people who’ve never heard of us.

14. Is there any advice you can give to new bands that don’t have any fanbase, as to how they might obtain better equipment, tour, or just comment on the art of working together as a band?

Oooooh, man. I don’t know what the secret ingredient is. I don’t think we have it, really, so how would I know? We fight and make up. I guess a lot of bands fight and break up instead. People really just want to hear music with feeling and a lot of bands try to pretend feeling something that isn’t there. They want it to be there, but it isn’t. I’d go against that. If you’re pissed off, write angry music from your heart. If your just writing it because you think Korn is cool, you’re fucked because the people can tell. If you like pop, write pop. If you like it all, write it all. As long as you love what you’re doing, people will be able to tell and you’ll be loving what you play.

15. And last, is it possible to provide a list of all the movies you sampled from?

I can try. Oh boy. Apocalypse Now, Urotsukidoji (legend of the demon womb), Akira, Naked Lunch, Network, Pi, THX-1138, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Shining, Final Approach, Vampire Hunter D, Blue Velvet, Dreams (Kurosawa), Closetland and some others I can’t remember right now.