A great deal of discipline

I looked around and everybody was laying around the stage, while Ken Stringfellow proceeded with an hypnotizing rant. As strange as it sounds, that is exactly what it happened last week in Tampere at The Disciplines show, the singer’s latest project. The band, formed with members of Norwegian pop rock group Briskeby, presented their debut album Smoking Kills.

Ken Stringfellow is the ‘hardest working man in show business” -type of artist. He made himself a name with his band The Posies in the nineties and since then he has been all over, producing many albums, playing for R.E.M. and the reunited Big Star, in addition to launching a solo career and playing occasionally with his partner in crime Jon Auer and The Posies. But nowadays, The Disciplines are his calling card and first priority. The band is loud, with ripping guitars, growling vocals and good bunch of tough quick rocking songs.

I meet Ken to talk about the project at the backstage a bit before the show. He works hard for this band. He is the band manager and the spokesman in tens of interviews. “It takes an enormous effort to push something through the world, to push a concept into anyone’s consciousness, knowing that the world is like a glacier of millions and millions of things”, he admits, speaking calmly, sipping an expresso. Indeed off stage he seems to abandon his crazed charisma. On stage he is a great entertainer. He would jump, spit, walk around the crowd and improvise new lyrics for AC/DC’s Sin City when the band was out of songs.

How did The Disciplines project start?

Along with Finland, Spain and a few other places, Norway has been one of the most receptive places to The Posies and the things I do through the years. In that sense, it was just a matter of time until I dealt deeper with the local music. In Spain, my role has been more of a producer, but in Norway I connected to the band, Briskeby. The singer Lisa was a fan of my music, especially of one of my solo albums. She tracked me down and I got to know her and the band. I really liked their music. That lead to the duet we did on their last album, the song Joe Dallesandro. After that, they invited me to go on tour with them to be the opening act and to sing with them this song each night. The guys learned some of my songs and we had a great time playing together so we thought we should do something more. It was meant to be a side project, but at that time Briskeby came to an end and Lisa went to do her own thing. We played together more and we thought, wow this is better than a side project! Soon it moved forward to the thing we are doing now. In many ways, without turning my back to the other things I do The Disciplines is the project I present as what I am doing right now.

The band’s sound is pretty direct and raw, different from what you did recently and what Briskeby were about. Did you want to have this approach since the very beginning?

Yeah, pretty much. The first song we wrote was Best Mistake. That’s just us, day one. But on our first rehearsal we tried some other songs too. They were softer and gentler. In the first show that we ever played at the end of 2006 we had many different songs. Some of them made it to the album, but some other were very different. We also looked different. We did not have it together yet at that time. After playing live we realized that the more subtle and dreamy songs sounded too much like we had done before, but we really wanted to do something different. Knowing what was working, we wrote more songs and it clicked. Everything started to move and our songs were efficient, simple and fun. These songs leave a lot of empty spaces while my career has been usually about filling spaces with lots of chords and lots of words. But with The Disciplines leaving space is a great trick to learn.

Did you play many shows before hitting the studio?

Not many. During the first year we played a couple of shows in Oslo. We also went to London for a few times, where we were invited by Snow Patrol to open for them. We played a show in Berlin, other in Paris. It was not very strategic. We just went to player where it sounded fun. Then we did the album and between the album being done and being released last year we played a few shows that went quite good. Finally the album was out in Norway last summer and we played some festivals. It was then when the live show went to a whole new level. The band matured into what it is now. We got ready.

It seems that it is taking a long time to distribute the album.

Yes, it is not fully distributed yet. In America it is coming in April and I am still working on deals to release the album in Australia, Germany, Japan… There are a lot of holes that have to be filled yet. It is analogous to the AC/DC history. They release their first album in Australia and then next year it got released everywhere else, when the second album was ready in Australia. That rhythm remain for a few years. In theory nowadays the Internet makes every phenomena a global phenomena but that it is not exactly true. In any case, I always thought this project would require a long strategy. We do not want to be hasty. We prefer to be effective and not impatient.

Is that the experience talking?

If I were younger, I would have no idea. Fifteen years ago I would have put all the management in somebody else’s hands. That’s the difference. I would have preferred to have a manager and things like that.

And now you don’t?

I prefer to do it myself. I don’t have to wait for someone to give me an answer. I can get the answers myself. If someone would come along that could teach me something and really put the energy, I might consider it. But even then, I would not be sure. There were a few offers to manage The Disciplines, but something in my gut told me that wasn’t the right way to go.

Did you have many disappointments with the industry already?

No, it is not like that. I think I graduated to another level. The Posies had decent managers at different times. They all have their specialties and their special relationships with different record companies, I guess. Some were good for certain times. I studied what they could teach me. Without me knowing at the time, I learned all I could and I got to a point where I knew as much as they did.

Why did you name the album Smoking Kills?

I just liked it. In a sense the motif for this band is making garage music. When making this type of music in Scandinavia, there is a danger to be filed under ‘Scandirock’, like The Hives, The Hellacopters, Turbonegro, etc. People might think they have heard all of that already. It is not what we are at all. We do garage, but it is not part of that tradition. Our music is much more playful. That’s also why our album cover is so colorful. We don’t want people to think our music was similar to those bands with tattoos and all the classic bikers punk rock world. Smoking Kills puts aside one more rock and roll cliché. And our guitar player is at medical school!

The song that brings the band’s softer side is Oslo. What is the story behind this song?

It is just a story, not an autobiography or anything. Our guitar player generates much of the lyrics and then I adapt them, rewrite them and add stuff. Oslo is about a guy who blames other people for his problems, he blames the circumstances.

Why did you name the band The Disciplines?

I thought it was a cool sounding name that it has not been used. I like the double meaning. There is the S&M kind of thing, but also the academic / scientific disciplines. It has a naughty versus nerd appeal. Also just to make a band from the scratch and get things accomplished for me it has taken a great deal of discipline. I have to preserve my body, my voice, my mental attention and stay focus and keep everybody focus. When there are problems and crisis I need to be strong and get the band through it.

Over the years, you have developed a good relation with Finland. Do you remember the first time you came here?

It was a shock. The Posies came in 1996 to present Amazing Disgrace, and at the time I had hardly made any interviews for the Finnish press. I don’t remember any. So I wasn’t aware of any kind of buzz happening here, although the album was doing very well in Sweden, charting high, and other places like Spain and Australia. There were plenty of interviews to be done for those regions, but not for Finland. We were out of the radar. I did not know if our music meant anything here. When we got the tour dates, I thought it was cool to play in Finland. I realized too that we were getting an extraordinary amount of money for the show. It was the most money we’ve ever being paid for a show. I thought that was strange and interesting. We came and we had some TV to do which was cool. Then it came the show and that was the real shock. Thanks to the effort of the band Lemonator, which was big at the time and agreed to be the support act and helped the show happen, there was a mysterious buzz about our band. The show was totally packed at Tavastia and everybody knew every word of the shows. We thought what in the world? How come this microcosmos of Posies fans could be developed without our knowledge? Nowadays, it would be easier to have some evidences with MySpace adds and things like that, but back then it was a mystery. There were other places like that and it took me years to discover. With Finland it just happened that we could come here to play once and after that we kept coming back and strengthening our relation.

It must be very rewarding to discover groups of fans in remote places.

Absolutely. Much later I went to Serbia with R.E.M and I was invited to a legendary alternative radio station. I found out that they had played The Posies all through the nineties. That station and the playlist they selected was important for the people who were on the left and antiwar. Our music was associated with that period in a good way. There were many fans there. There might be still places like that out there. When I used to receive statements from our record company, I saw that there have been a few hundreds of sales in Philippines and other remote places. There could be Americans living there but I don’t know for sure.

Do you listen to Finnish music?

I worked with a few, like Lemonator and the Latebirds. I am also a real fan of Nieminen and Litmanen. They are fucking amazing! I became friends with with Jonna Tervomaa and then I found her music. There are many more.

How was the recording of the album?

At one point we thought about going to a big studio, but then we wondered ourselves why? That’s not what our band is like. Our band needed to be done down and dirty. So we knew a very good engineer, who has worked with many international and Norwegian records. We called him and ask to place some gear at our rehearsal place. We recorded there and  that was perfect. I think the record sounds exactly as it should. We didn’t labor it too hard. With this band, if the music sounds like it is working, it is working. It does not need to be endlessly tweak. Usually a song takes a couple of hours to write and it is ready. Sometimes there is a temptation to think that something is not good if it is not labored it over and difficult. But if the energy is flowing, things work out easily.

This approach must be very different than working with R.E.M.

Yes, when I worked with them in Around the Sun, it took two years in the studio. Most of people in, around and outside the band were critical of the results. The band thought it was hard and reviews were not good. After two years how can you know which direction you are going? It is overcooked in a way. As an artist, you can be your own worst enemy. I’m good at not second-guessing myself. I have schooled my band mates pretty hard in that sense. When they start to worry, I tell them that they are just inventing work to themselves. The work has been done, it was on the first take. It’s finished.

You live in France and in the recent years you have mostly worked in Europe. What does Europe offer that America cannot?

What it offers is a bunch of distinct cultures in close proximity. Each of them with their agendas and little twists and variations. I live in France so if I travel a couple of hours I can be in London, Barcelona, Hamburg… All of those places are different and speak a different language. The fact that all these cultures are packed on the continent makes people be used that around the corner there is someone different. But in America we are innocent to that idea. Americans live in the idea that they are isolated and that isolation is good. But I think that being exposed to different point of views and having other legit ideas around you is much healthier. That’s how most of the world lives.

What are the near future plans for the band?

First things is to release the album in more markets. I’m negotiating different territories and I plan to promote it the best I can. Spain is the priority. The buzz is pretty good there. We have some shows. Then I’m going on my own to tour in South America for seven shows there in March and April. It was not financially feasible for everyone to go now. I hope it will pay off and we will be able to return as a band. After that who knows? My goal is to get the band in as many festivals as possible. I really want to get the record out in Germany.

Are you already writing new songs?

Yeah, that too. We have new songs. It is hard to get time for doing everything, though. My band mates have jobs and Bjørn is at medical school. I have to balance this activity with all the other things that I do. We have to be selective and strategic, but we always find time to write songs. Last time we got together for a weekend and we came up with three great songs. It does not take long for us to write now.