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Interview with
Geffen Recording Artist:
DROWN
by Lexie

Eighteen months have passed since last I perched on the comfy white couch in 1605, the most legendary musical residence in Huntington Beach if not the world, for an on-the-record conversation with the gentlemen of DROWN. Though I inadvertently arrived in the middle of their dinner, DrownÕs LAUREN BOQUETTE and MARCO FORCONE declined to be interviewed with their mouths full. Instead they settled me (and my dinner - sharers, those Drown guys) in front of the TV to enjoy a retrospective video of DrownÕs career.

As dramatic clips of past victories flashed by, I reflected on the career of my talented hosts, spanning from the late Ō80Õs as L.A.Õs alternative innovators YesterdayÕs Tear, to early-90Õs Elektra artists Drown, to mid-90Õs as just a bunch of guys who never lost faith. Now 1996 finds them GEFFEN RECORDING ARTISTS DROWN.

Munching completed, we adjourned to 1605Õs studio for an intensive discussion that went like this:

RCN: Congratulations on your Geffen deal! How did it come about?

LB: Michael Alago, the only A&R guy on the planet with a clue, had signed us to Elektra four years ago. When he left Elektra and we left Elektra, we stayed really good friends. When Marco and I started writing songs, we sent them to him as a friend and a fan. He wasnÕt even working anywhere. He just loved what we did. We stayed in touch, kept giving him music and kept hanging out with him. He was going to hook us up with this indie deal, one of his friends runs the Medicine label. We were going to put out a record through them. Then Geffen and he hooked up.

RCN: You are his first signing with Geffen?

LB: Yes. HeÕs signing the Misfits, too.

RCN: Was Drown part of the deal when he agreed to go to Geffen?

LB: He pretty much said Ņif you want me, you get Drown, too!Ó ThatÕs what they got. We had friends of ours shopping tapes in between, but all the A&R people hearing it, said, ŅWhereÕs the song that sounds like White Zombie? WhereÕs the song that sounds like Nine Inch Nails?Ó We said we were doing that before those bands. Why would be have a song that sounds like them? Only Michael understood what weÕre doing.

RCN: ItÕs been a long period of transition between Hold On To The Hollow and now.

LB: Not by choice!

RCN: What is the same, and what is different, about your approach to the music now?

LB: The same - itÕs still made by us! MF: The approach is completely nothing of the ordinary. WeÕre experimenting with everything, with every aspect of it. In the new sense, the new form, pure visions and In Unison: vibes

MF: . . .that we have together.

LB: Marco and I looked at (the industry setbacks) as just another hurdle to get over. We started working together and started to write songs to impress each other! (laughter) Marco and I lived together, in this one bedroom apartment. He figured out how to work all the gear on the A-DATS and those toys weÕve got. He figured it all out and set up our studio garage. We just started working and making music together. JOE (BISHARA) would give us tracks with keyboards he did, and we would make songs out of it, have our friends come down and play guitar. It just became this good-time vibe between him and me. We just made each other happy. We said Ņfuck everyone else!Ó

RCN: When Hold On To The Hollow came out, many people defined you as an industrial band. Is that accurate?

MF: Putting a band in a category is just something that you relate to somebody else with. I donÕt relate to our music as anything else. ThereÕs definitely elements of music that weÕve listened to for the past twenty years of our lives. But thereÕs no real approach for us. ItÕs just a matter of getting the performances we want and the vibe that we want, thatÕs the most important thing in everything that we do. LB: We like keyboards. We like guitars. We like heavy drums. In the Ō90Õs, once you add keyboards, youÕre called Ņindustrial.Ó But we added keyboards in our band in 1990, only because Joe, who loves keyboard music, thought it would be fun to play keyboards. We werenÕt trying to be part of any scene. So to say weÕre ŅindustrialÓ just never made any sense. Even in YesterdayÕs Tear, we were doing keyboards. Nobody called us ŅindustrialÓ then because nobody knew what that was!

MF: People are going to put a category on it just because they have to give some kind of reference to it. There are definitely elements of that type of music in what we do. But thatÕs not what kind of a band we are. We donÕt want to be considered one type of band.

LB: WeÕre not one or two guys and a computer. We turn up really loud guitars, and spill coffee on the floor and make a ruckus. Mic drums and do all this stuff. We get real chaotic and real raw and pure with it.

RCN: Many people have praised Drown for your balance of the industrial sampling side and very rock, very emotional, spontaneous feel. In the new music, where are you now? Have you gone more in one direction or the other?

MF: Definitely more emotion!!

LB: When YesterdayÕs Tear started we were a live band. So all we knew how to do was turn up loud and jam. Joe did keyboards and that was just part of our sound. The live, raw element is where it began. Marco, in all the bands he was in, he wasnÕt Ņmister studio guyÓ for ten years and then flew here from Belgium and we formed this great industrial band. He was just jamming live, and so we have this spastic live, raw, pure, animal thing to our music that we refuse to let go. Whether itÕs through singing or drums or guitars, we have that rawness thatÕs always been there inside of us. In the songs, itÕs still there.

RCN: The last record was angry, and bitter, and aggressive.

LB: None of that is gone!

RCN: No one wanted it gone!

LB: There is definitely nothing sweet and happy. DonÕt worry, I didnÕt all of a sudden wake up in a good mood! IÕve said it and IÕll say it again, I donÕt know how to write Ņshiny, happy people.Ó I have no idea how that works.

RCN: I suspect you experienced even more anger and bitterness in this year in between record deals. Has that influenced the music?

MF: Yes! It definitely influenced the music.

LB: But it was not only that. The anger was a given. WeÕre like Ņfuck everybody,Ó letÕs jam and do our thing. The anger was the root, that was the beginning. Then out of that came the whole desolation and desperateness of our situation, and the abandonment that we felt from everyone around us. One minute weÕre this great band, and the next minute, no one will return our phone calls, our manager hates us, the other guys in the band want to quit, and weÕre dicks. So there was not only anger, but it was also abandonment and this certain desperateness that Marco and I had for each other and for the music, that is now coming out. I realize when I look back at the songs, thereÕs a real abandonment theme going through everything.

RCN: What are your recording plans? Have you selected a producer and a studio?

LB: WeÕre probably going to do it with Bill Kennedy. The root of our situation is me, Marco and Bill Kennedy. And Joe, of course, will do his thing. WeÕre just going to record wherever it makes sense. I really want to do vocals here in my garage. WeÕll do drums somewhere cool where Marco wants to go. We know what the vision of the album is. We know what the sound is in our heads, so clearly. If we work with someone like Bill Kennedy, heÕs a great studio technical guy, he can help us get what we hear in our heads. So we donÕt really need anyoneÕs input. To Marco and I, the album is done. We just have to go do it.

RCN: Will you be inviting in guest musicians?

MF: There will definitely be guitar players. Our roommates Seany (Sean DeMott, currently in froSTed) and Duke (Duke Dekter presently touring with Skold) will be doing guitar stuff. WeÕre going to have some other guys do some stuff. We can leave that open because the songs are written. ItÕs just a matter of who we want to enhance them.

RCN: Do the two of you, or the three of you, write the guitar parts as well? Or does someone come in and add a guitar part to something that youÕve already written?

LB: It varies. Neither Marco nor I play guitar. But, as musicians and as artists, we hear guitars in our heads. All our favorite records always had guitars on them. At least, for the most part. So we hear guitars instinctively. We have a general idea of how we think they should go. But on a lot of songs, our friends come in and write with us.

MF: But, again, on some songs we actually come up with the guitar.

RCN: On the subject of friends, 1605 is, I guess youÕd say, fabled. Can you offer any good stories about wild and crazy things that have happened in this abode?

MF: 1605 is house full of musicians. And thatÕs all you need to say!

LB: A house full of musicians and a house full of friends. We are all dealing with hard things in our lives, so when weÕre able to, we always want to let loose and have a good time. And just completely fuck off. And no one can fuck off better than the people in 1605.

MF: This is just our vibe for us. Everybody at the house, 1605, the vibe is here in the garage and the studio. This is where we can all come together and do whatever we want. We can come home at 3:00 in the morning from hanging out and jam at 3:00 a.m. ŌCause thereÕs a house full of musicians. ThatÕs half the way we created the music. Really just on a vibe. Getting together and doing it.

LB: Everything we do is out of necessity. We have no money, we donÕt have shit, so we have to create our own fun. So chaos tends to be what we create. Chaos is always free!

RCN: Has it been hard for you to be off tour for so long? To be home and in one place for over a year?

LB: ThereÕs no worse torture on this planet. Playing live is what we do. We turn up loud and do our thing and get it all out. Performing and doing it live is where it really lives. When weÕre in the studio, itÕs all fun and everything. But thereÕs nothing like playing and touring.

RCN: Is touring part of the plan for when the record comes out?

LB: ItÕs the only reason we're making the record, to go tour again. Writing songs is fun, but touring is where itÕs at.

MF: Lauren and I use (the negative) stuff to fuel us up for what weÕre about to do. WeÕve had a lot of time to fuel. WeÕve got a lot of gas!

RCN: I've noticed that you still have a huge fanbase around the country. Do you actively cultivate that or does it happen by itself?

LB: ItÕs a little of both. Marco and I love meeting people that give a shit about our band. When we were on tour we met a lot of people. WeÕve done our best to keep those relationships going. Our music, to us, is the most important thing. And the fact that someone cares about it, then they just joined our family because they care about our baby. ThatÕs how it works. They turn into godmothers and fathers out there who look after it, too, because itÕs just as important to them.

RCN: When can people in Hollywood expect to see Drown again?

LB: I would love to say Ņtomorrow.Ó But we donÕt know. WeÕre just going to get this album done, worry about the live situation later. We just want to stay so focused on making the music, so when it does happen live again, weÕll prove that no band wants to go heads up with us.

MF: Somewhere around the first of the year, the first quarter of the year. As soon as possible!

LB: I appreciate that people even give a shit. Every time I go back up to L.A. I run into all my old friends and they ask Ņwhen are you guys going to play again?Ó People have a genuine passion toward what we do. That, alone, makes us want to give it back. ItÕs definitely frustrating that I canÕt give that to people right now. A lot of people share in the catharsis in our live situation. Our audience was always like part of our band. It was like one big community - where the audience and the band are on the same trip. WeÕre all the same kind of people. Our union was in the music that we made, and for some reason thatÕs continuing. ThatÕs the coolest thing in the world.

RCN: WhatÕs your business plan? Are you shooting to get radio, to make a video? Do you want it strictly underground?

LB: Radio will probably be inevitable because weÕve stopped writing these six and seven minute long songs. As for MTV, I donÕt give a shit. MTV never broke any of my favorite bands. MTV is like a mall, just waiting to put up the next fashion. I donÕt really care.

RCN: IÕm not leaving here until I hear some of this music! But for those who can't hear it with me, give me a description of 1997 Drown.

LB: My goal is to make a better album than the last one. I love our last album, and I want to be better than that. So, if anything, we just took the songs one step further. But yet simplified, Ōcause you can do that. Paid more attention to melody, paid more attention to not cramming three million things in every song. We get to the simple, raw, instinctive aspect of music.

MF: What we did is let each individual part play its part in the song. When something is there in the music, itÕs there because it needs to be heard.

LB: IÕve been referring to it like a movie. When you watch a really good movie, every character that shows up, you wonder who he is and what his story is because heÕs obviously important. So you pay attention to that character. That is how our songs have been working. When the guitarÕs talking, thatÕs what we make you listen to. When the vocals saying something, thatÕs what we make you listen to. With that in mind, everything has a purpose in every song. Everything is moving toward the next thing thatÕs about to happen. And then at the end, at least you feel like you went somewhere. 'Cause we were trying to take you somewhere. Whether that be a brutal, angry, crazy thing or a really lonely, desperate, sad thing, we will get to the root of that emotion and we will take you on a ride right through it.

And what a cathartic ride Drown then offered, through the multi-faceted music and moods of "Tired of Living Like This," "Alone In A Dirty World," "Two-Faced You," "The Selfish Ones," "Lock and Load," and a sampling of outstanding others. Drown godmothers and godfathers, and those of you yet to join the fold, your long wait will be exceptionally well-rewarded.

The best DROWN ever is on coming your way!!


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