Over The Edge Page 6 Cultu re September 10, 2001
An Interview with the New World Symphony

By Kathleen DeVere

In April of 2001, two men
went into a basement, stayed
there for a week, and didn’t
come out until they had fin-
ished an album. The result
was an experimental and arty
low-fi noise explosion called
Erasedland Jazz, and the
men called their band The
New World Symphony,
expecting that to be the end
of the project.

However, following the
warm reception and some-
what unexpected local suc-
cess of Erasedland Jazz, The
New World Symphony have
decided to try their hand at
music again taking a differ-
ent, but no less experimental
path. As a result they have
just finished recording their
second album Strangers’
Guild, which is scheduled for
a release later this fall.

| was lucky enough to cor-
ner the rather playful minds
behind The New World
Symphony, Jeremy Stewart
and Chris Batting, and talk to
them about their art and their
music.

Over The Edge: How you
guys get together?

Jeremy: Well, we were in a
death band before, a stanky
deathy band, then one day |
_said lets record an album,
and so we did, and it
sucked... no it didn’t suck that
much, it was fun for us.

OTE: Tell me a little bit about
your first album.

Jeremy: The first album was
recorded in a shoebox in
1934...

OTE: No really...

Chris: First album...uh... is
sonically assaulting-

Jeremy: But it’s really very
-gentle!

Chris: It's sort of gentle like
someone remembering to
use lube when they rape
you..

OTE: Anyhow, so you’re just
finishing up your second
album, how is this one differ-
ent from the first?

J: Well, it’s still sonically
assaulting.
C: This time it’s sonically

assaulting on _ purpose...
that’s our keen production
aesthetic.

OTE: | see, so this album is
more experimental, can you
tell me more about the
recording process, was it dif-
ferent this time around?

C: This album we experi-
mented with pleasing the lis-
tener.

J: But, uh, really, well we did
a lot of fooling around with
transferring from digital to
analog and back again. We
did a lot of digital sequencing
with analog overdubs. We
tried a number of different
recording approaches. Pretty
much by chance. —

OTE: So would you say that
you prefer this approach to

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recording, the analog and the
digital mix, rather than the
pure old fashioned analog of

the first album? did it work

better this way?

C: Yes, we had more space,
and better electrical wiring.

J: Yeah, but in the future, I’d
like everything...

C: In purple!

J: To be more hi-fi. Low fi is
fun until you get sick of it. I’m
sick of it! I'd also like a stadi-
um.

OTE: To play in?

J: For my undies. My under-
wear drawer is really small...

C: | just want a stadium full of
people taking off their hats at
the same time...for recording
purposes. Imagine the
sound!

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J: Actually that was a lie, |
don’t have an underwear
drawer.

OTE: Tell me more about the
content of this new album,
what are some of your
favorite songs?

J: | like ‘Rehlacwitha’.

C: | like ‘My soul would
scream forever in the valley
of the ghosts’.

OTE: And what about the

theme of your album, is there

a central concept behind it?

C: Of course there’s a central
concept, we are geniuses!
(Much laughing.)

J: | agree completely!

C: Well, the title really says it
all, ‘strangers’ guild’, the
tracks on the album, sort of
behave like a group of

“PEOPLE =anit",

strangers that are in a room
together. The room is sort of
outside of everything, outside
of time and space, and the
strangers, whether they know
it or not, are working together
to weave the fabric of
change...

J: Very astute Chris, | would
help more, but | am NyQuil...

OTE: Anything else?

C: I'd like fries with that.

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