This is a recent interview I did with a badass band from the burnt-out badlands of Montana USA. It was featured in Negative Guest List's issue #29. Since issue #30 is about to hit the stands I figured the fine folks at NGL will have no qualms with me posting it up here (hopefully).
So without further adieu...
Mordecai make a loud racket from Butte, Montana USA, A town known for having a giant, chemical-filled pit that was left behind like a permanent hangover from the mining boom of the 50’s. Maybe growing up so close to so many dangerous acids and metals is the reason that a band like this exists in a town like Butte. Or perhaps being born at a Grateful Dead tour in ’89 and ‘92 left a lasting impression on their raw, sponge-like brains. Either way, it’s safe to say that brothers Elijah and Holt Bodish are getting it right, and their debut Long player on Killertree Records proves that it is no fluke. I managed to scrap together a bunch of questions to ask Bass player Elijah via e-mail.
MS: Tell us about Mordecai. Who are the members, what you play, how you guys met and how you decided to form a band.
EB: Current members are me (Elijah Bodish) on bass, my younger brother Holt Bodish on guitar and vocals, and Gavin Swietnicki on drums. This is subject to change and may include Gavin switching to rhythmic guitar as we have found a local hop head asshole who may want to play drums too, while our old drummer Louie Whiteford may become a sax player this summer. I do not like to take instructions from others on how I play but am willing to allow the group evolve organically in sound and one nice way to get that change is switch it up every so often. The core is Holt and me and that’s final. But anyone else who can play and shares our attitude about life and/or music is welcome to try joining.
I can’t really get a good idea why we started the band in the first place other than that we had an amazing space to practice in (an old YMCA in butte that emptied out around 8 pm and left its doors accessible to us). Our friend Nick was constantly trying to get bands together to play his songs and kind of led us in the direction of forming something. We spent a year or two getting together in summers to make fuzz bass and guitar scree freak-outs, with minimally competent drumming from a friend or two. These actions eventually led to something a little more solid forming, then something more, then recording, then playing shows, then recording more... Now we are a BAND who practices (although we still jam, do other bands even do this? Probably the bands I like). The reason I keep it up is for the release it offers, need to bang something out on Friday afternoons or I’d be pretty depressed on Monday morning when I go back to the routine. Also we do like the tunes we make (not above admitting a little narcissism) and so do some others, so I think it’s worth continuing.
MS: You guys are from Butte, Montana. What's it like there? Are there many similar sounding bands?
The fact is there are not any other bands in Montana that play music like we play music. For Better or Worse, most other groups have entirely different sensibilities when it comes to playing. Though I can’t tell you this for sure since I'm on the other side of my amp while playing than I am when I hear the groups in question.
Butte's music has its heroes, my high school friend Russ Nelson who almost made it big in L.A. rock and roll school, where he started a band "Skyrocket Love" that played a genre somewhere gayer than John Mayer with a lil' Creed influence. They sadly broke up last summer, in Butte for that matter. During the annual Evil Kenievel biker rally/town drunk, after the lead singer got on top of a table at the Pekin Chinese restaurant and exposed his wang to poor Russ's younger sister and Mom. Exclaiming, "get some of this hot L.A. cock". The other big local hero would be Andy Larson (Holt almost started a band with in 8th grade, Holt on guitar, in which they would write a song about AMERICA) who almost got big in Nashville in the 70's but returned to Butte, broken, and spent the remainder of his life promoting music in the community by writing songs about for example: the great 84' Butte High Wrestling Team. Now to answer your initial question about what is Butte like? I can tell you: Yes the above is all-true. But on the opposite end of the spectrum we have had great help from others in the town, especially Dickie Nelson, who has lent us and given us countless instruments and equipments throughout our lives most notably holt's guitar a Japanese strat copy that used to belong to Robert Quine and was given to Dickie by the man himself when they was buds in NYC in the 80s. Essentially Butte is a place of opposing forces of awesome stupidity and at the same time genuine character and beauty. See the Berkeley Pit.
Thinking about my initial reaction to this question I must say that even though their are few or no people around our hometown who share me and Holt’s musical sensibilities, I think this is a blessing and has kept us from feeling too self-conscious about our music to keep it real and raw. Butte is home; this is a good thing. My friend’s from there are truly great friends, really good-looking people (Charlie Chaplin loved our whores, attributed to the rosy color the arsenic gave their cheeks) with amazing senses of humor. I would hate to see that tainted by an attempt to be in a band that sounds as stupid as ours. They could do a lot better.
MS: I guess that even from my little knowledge of Butte I didn't expect there to be many people/bands playing your sort of style of music. Actually from just about every article I read about Mordecai, everyone seems quite surprised that you are from there and not some big city music hub. So that leads me to my next question, how exactly did you guys get into the music you're into? Was there some sort of "cool" uncle who showed you the light and saved you from becoming another Creed fan?
EB: My initial introduction to both the stooges and the velvets (along with many other punk rock sounds) were through skateboard magazines and videos. Holt and I being in the same house means we ended up both digging these jams. The other huge one was finding Lester Bang's "Psychotic Reactions Carburetor Dung" as a freshman in high school; saw it laying around a coffee shop (looking pretty lonely next to tons of Buddhist texts and other dull gen-x affairs) and thought it was about drugs. I’d go and read it at lunch every day, finally stealing it after 6 months (I'm a slow reader) and taking her home to guide my music explorations. Most distinct memory was his description of sister ray being like 96 tears (a song I often listened to in friend's car on oldies radio while driving round late nights) combined with free jazz fuck ups (scored Ornette Coleman's free jazz from public library around this time too. One night at age 15 after washing dishes for hours at a wine tasting I returned home to record myself on my alto sax, blowing myself out of the water when I played back later and realized I came up with same phrasing as an Ornette riff). Made a tape, stooges (A side) and velvets (B) songs, for said 96 tears bud and would listen to L.A blues in car often before and always after school to get in right mental space. Main point is that Lester keeps drilling these points about music with killer Bo Diddley backbeat and free jazz shits all over mixing to make a genre I still find to be my favourite. Wish I knew whose book that was I owe em big. Seriously doubt it was my uncle.
Dissimilarly Holts musical upbringing was even more inward, blaring atonal guitar solos in his room before we even heard the above bands, and before I fully got it. While me and parents and parent's friends and other guests and neighbors kept complaining. Big thanks to mom and dad for putting up with what today I remember sounding like what metal machine music sounds like in your head before you hear it. He’s more tuned in than I to this day. While I know more about crappy bands from 70’s.
MS: So what's it like being in a band with your brother? Is there much sibling rivalry?
Being in band with brother definitely adds some tension. Mostly comes out during recording process. We are in many ways making it up as we go, trying to get bits of technical info off the net, but it rarely plays out how we want. As a result our struggle to make the band sound good on record (at least a common goal. maybe not a common aesthetic) brings up the more intense sides of our personalities. Our arguments during these activities often leave me questioning why I do something when it isn’t truly fun to do. But once the doing is done I’m always feeling ready to go back into it again. Even though we are both completely aware of the absurdity of our interactions during these sessions we continue to replay the same shouting matches leaving our band mates feeling a little alienated. However, I couldn't call this rivalry in the sense that we are competing for attention or to "win" the band etc. But more in that we both refuse to let our artistic sensibilities be bastardized by the other (not that we don’t agree on 90 percent of this shit, but the other 10 can definitely fuck things up). The plus side is that 90 percent really shines when are just playing in Gavin’s room. Usually the same riff for 10-15 minutes, not many other people I know have the attention span to do that and try their hardest to make it as interesting as possible. Holt is the only one in the band who can write lyrics and his guitaring is the most interesting or the only interesting aspect of our group. I can admit that at least.
MS: You talked about jamming a riff for 10-15 minutes, is that the normal case in making a song? Take us through the song making process if there is such a thing.
EB: On average 10-15 minutes sounds right. I find myself playing these songs for longer times because it’s harder to make up a lot of real good riffs. Which means if we want to play for two hours we got to stretch our tunes out. Also it adds a physical element to our music, which I like. Mostly due to a knee injury from a few years ago it is hard for me to perform most exercises. Playing bass for a long time is one of the few recreational activities that I break a sweat during. As a result of the previously mentioned benefits this is the normal case for making a song, which we have approximately 40 of (half of which I remember currently). The rest of the process involves Holt coming up with some sort of lyrics that reflect our group’s current psychic status. Being brothers our minds are usually the most well represented. Usually our songs have two parts in them too, maybe even more. In practice I refer to these as "the change". Holt cites Meltzer and usually calls them "tongues".
MS: On Holt’s guitar playing, did he ever receive lessons? What influenced him to play in that style?
EB: We both received about a months worth of weekly lessons while I was in middle school from George Grosbeck Jr (RIP). He showed me a blues scale and I would always blow off practicing. I never saw what he taught Holt because I usually went to the other room and watched TV. I distinctly remember not liking these lessons because it meant I missed the Simpson's re-runs on Channel 18. However, most of Holt's music knowledge is attributed to our friend Nick who claims to have learned all of music theory in one night while on ecstasy. Their time spent together while Holt was in High School playing music and boozing is how Holt knows the names of all the notes I play. While Holt's "style" is more attributed to personal exploration, free-form-freak outs before he knew the term taking place in room alone. And our shared interest and/or love for atonal music. While many current groups opt for a more rhythmic or earthy style of guitar, I prefer a, for lack of better word, "insane" sounding guitar both in the long and short form. Lou Reed being the main long form ally. Our interest in short bursts of energy can be attributed to hearing Gasaneta on a recommendation from friend Steve Hesske. I think they were big influence on High Rise. More interesting for my money. Lots of rhythm guitar falling apart to become illogical metallic noodles. But upon first listen we were reminded on expressivity of the guitar and have been exploring it since.
MS: You played at gigs quite frequently around Missoula, MT when I was over there, have you played anywhere else? Any future plans?
EB: Once we played in Anaconda, Montana. 15 Miles from town and pretty much Butte in a funhouse mirror (sad because our towns already pretty shit) the "Rock-Inn” Bar. Went on after a sublime/Hendrix cover group, kid in that band spent half of each song soloing on knees. It was a fun venue since you could smoke inside (not in Montana casinos now) but the audience didn’t take to our set. We couldn’t really tell while playing though because the feedback between sets drowned out any heckles. But we got the plug pulled ten minutes in. This is only gig we had outside of hometown bullshit and Missoula (where some even pretend to like our music).
Wish I could give you more info now on this but looks like an early August West Coast tour is in works. May not happen though. I know it’s a waste of money but we see tons of shit bands come through Missoula and so I figured I ought to get in on the fun. Take a trip.
MS: What music have you been spinning lately?
EB: After band practice today Gavin played Big Star - Beale Street Breakdown (live 75). Ridiculously drunk playing and singing. "The Letter" is the last and best they play - like Royal Trux backing Chilton who I’ve also been enjoying through their live WXDR '92 session. Three songs, average of 15 minutes in length. A "Jam", a Moby Grape cover (blowing the fucking top off the original), and a Godz cover. Neil noodles (good wah action) and sings amazingly, sounding nothing like Royal Trux. If anyone knows of other recordings that sound like this from anyone let me know. Some of the best rock I've ever heard.
MS: What do you and your mates do when not playing music?
EB: Our favourite pastimes are smoking cigs drinking beers and trying to have conversations of some interest with each other or whoever happens to be round. This is what Americans call "bullshitting". My favourite topic is mathematics and Holt is probably just as interested, while Gavin is getting converted. Building up his knowledge so as he can go become an electronic engineer. None of us have much faith in any of the more mystical or emotional aspects of reality. LSD don't show you nothing that isn’t already there etc. No witch pies here. Neither do we have faith in language as a means to truth. Too many ways to lie under any and all circumstances. But we ain't no objectivist bummers either. The most bizarre and important math topic to me is the incompleteness of logic systems, Gödel proved this in 191?. Any axiomatic system (complex enough to discuss number theory) that utilizes deductive proof methods to extrapolate theorems (ex: geometry, start with points, lines, circles, 90 degree angles, and parallels then you can prove Pythagorean theorem...) is inherently incomplete. Meaning there exist TRUE theorems that cannot be proven true given the initial axioms. Thus forever limiting the only truly accepted mathematical proof tool (visual proofs, statistical testing, leaps of faith etc. don't count). Which means we cannot know if something’s in math or science (applied math) are true or not. And we cannot determine if they are able to be show to be un-provable or not. I def went into math looking for some escape from the Romanticism I observed around me. As a post 9-11 youth. But found only more chaos. Thankfully this is at least an organized way of looking at how chaotic reality is, instead of poem bout pollution.
Other than that we are pretty dull dudes. Missoula is a shit hole of over sensitive NPR liberals (who spend most of their time writing the poem cited above) with no sense of humor or taste in music. Not that they'd admit it. Their constant punning and acoustic jams are like a late period M.A.S.H. episode with a flat chest. You seemed to enjoy it here were you just constantly drunk?
MS: Most of the time. But It can't be all bad, their are still people and venues that support your music, which is pretty rare for a town so small.
EB: Don’t mean to be so negative. Just riffing and got lost in it. That kind of thinking is pretty adolescent. I don’t gotta get out of this place, though most days I would like to. However, In Missoula If we played a show just ourselves, I can think of five people who would show up (Holt's G.F. included). We aren't a draw and most folks seem to support us cause its their fucking duty as good D.I.Y. punks to come see whatever shit band they have in their town open for the shitty band coming through. My friend Eric often likens the average Missoula (and most likely nationwide) music fan as simply playing a game. Collecting points for knowing about or liking a band (good or bad), while often completely missing the experience of listening to the music. Yes I like searching out obscure sounds, but this is because my appetite for raw sounding rock remains un-satiated, not for a hobby. Regardless of above trivialities, we’ll be in Butte for the summer, which means cheap studio to play in and record any night of the week. The two things that for me is important. Playing music for myself and band mates, and recording allows us to play for any ear worldwide that is actually interested in hearing us.
MS: Fair enough, you were talking about math earlier, at least I think you were, I sometimes zone out when something seems too complex for me to comprehend. But is that what you study at University? Do all three of you go to College?
EB: We are all college boys. I just graduated w/ degree in math education (this means I can teach high school math's) though I am now finding myself rather disillusioned by the public education system. And in a selfish streak will most likely continue to study math so that one day I can teach at a community college. Holt is on the road towards a math or physics degree (though I am pushing him towards math b/w/ philosophy) While Gavin is working on an electronic engineering degree with intent to use it for musical means.
MS: After self-releasing a few demos that are floating around the interwebs, you finally have an LP out on Killertree Records. Tell us a little about it...
The LP is a set of songs made during summer 2010 in Butte, Montana. Recorded by Holt and I with Louie on drums for the last two songs. I don't feel like saying too much else here. I think it is good; you may, you may not. But if you do like it then I'd hate to ruin it for you by providing too much information pertaining to the songs (influences and drugs or lack of both etc.). Context can be a bitch. Ask me this in a few years, when more than three people have heard it.
P.S. Bryan is a saint for putting this record out. Great music maker, great taste. We’re lucky to be part of his trip.
End Interview.
