On Tuesday, March 10th, From Monument to Masses’ long-awaited new record, On Little Known Frequencies, will finally be released, and from the opening bars of “checksum,” it does not disappoint. Founded in the Bay area in late 2000, From Monument to Masses soon signed with the label Dim Mak, releasing a self-titled album in 2002. But it was with the next year’s The Impossible Leap In One Hundred Simple Steps that they discovered their signature sound. 2005’s remix album, Schools of Thought Contend, featured only two new tracks, including the crowd favorite “Deafening.” That album, with its variety of remixes and styles, inspired the band to branch out their sound even further on their long awaited follow-up, incorporating concepts inspired by other artists. FMTM - who are now bi-coastal, with drummer Francis Choung in New York, and bassist Sergio Robledo-Maderazo and guitarist Matthew Solberg in the Bay area - have continued to progress by utilizing new technologies to expand their sound, while writing, recording, and performing.

Over the last year, I have spoken with the three members of FMTM about using new technologies to make, play, and distribute music, the process of writing and recording their latest record, and the ethics and politics of file-sharing. Known for their political message - primarily conveyed by their choice of sample material - I thought it would be interesting to hear their thoughts on activism, music, how technology is changing the industry, and how that relates to their politics. Since our first interview, the guys got together with engineer and co-producer Matt Bayles [Minus the Bear, Isis, Botch, Pearl Jam, Mastodon, Blood Brothers, Russian Circles] in San Francisco’s favorite indie studio, Tiny Telephone and have produced a fantastic new record, On Little Known Frequencies.


“In a perfect world you could just make music, but we have day jobs,”
-Sergio

Writing and Recording OLKF

Fans of the band may wonder why it took over three years for the group to go from “Deafening” to their latest single, “Beyond God and Elvis.” Matthew explains that they “generally work slowly.” Their tendency has been to write longer songs, though on the latest record, they have since been consciously attempting to write shorter songs as well, while still resisting the verse-chorus-bridge song structures of conventional pop music. Francis remarks that “being bicoastal now doesn't exactly help the situation,” though he is quick to note that it has inadvertently made them more efficient. They have tended to write out of long periods of workshopping tracks live and on laptop, which has allowed them to branch out, particularly with Francis three thousand miles way. They "can’t just get together and hammer out a song,” as Matthew puts it. But this has opened new doors, as they can work on ideas individually, workshop them online, and develop and compose using the computer. Matthew expands on this point, saying:

"Francis being on the other side of the country has brought Sergio and I closer together as collaborative writers in the drafting phase. We just riff off of one another more adeptly than we used to - and using Garageband has enabled us to save all of our ideas before they vanish. Then Francis has really had time and space to explore layering in new sounds via Reason, plus he has plenty of time to practice beats before committing them to a song. Basically, the distance between us has created the writing environment we've all ideally been looking for over the years (in some ways) and it's been really excellent. Writing and recording this album has been a really interesting creative time - it just kind of gestated for a couple years, then... well, I don't want to go any further with that neonatal metaphor. Essentially it happened really fast and in new surprising ways - we're incredibly happy with it, but we learned some important lessons too. Looking forward to the next album already."

Francis stresses that FMTM has grown as a live band as a result of incorporating new technologies as well. By incorporating the laptop into their live show, there is nothing they can’t reproduce live, which has allowed them the freedom to branch off even further in the studio. The band therefore enjoys trying out new ideas, as three years ago they never integrated any electronics live. “Our ambition for what we wanted to do, it led us to the laptop and luckily the technology was available for us to do what we wanted to do. It opened up a whole new world to us,” says Matthew. He continues, “I love the laptop because it makes playing so much less stressful. When we don't have to try and synchronize a drum machine a guitar loop and an iPod sample and try and synchronize [that shit] while we're like, ya know, trying to play our regular instruments and hold the song down. Now we have a laptop that can synchronize that for us. It makes playing live so much more enjoyable, for me.” The band points out that the laptop has not made them flawless, and they always fear laptop breakdowns, overheating, vibrations, etc, but for the most part, the laptop has allowed them to do what they want to do, and create the fullest sound possible.

It isn’t surprising that the band would seek out a producer to ensure that their first album of new material in over 5 years sounds just as full, and they could not have done much better than Matt Bayles. Initially, FMTM feared he might be “out of their league,” but they quickly learned that he was a fan of theirs and would love to work with them. Known for his synth playing in Minus the Bear, and for his production and engineering credits ranging from Isis to Russian Circles, Bayles adds his distinctive style to the album as more than just a producer.

"There are moments where the album sounds more "polished" than we're used to, but that's not a bad thing. There are moments where the guitars and bass sound a little "Botchy", and other times when the synth and drums sound a little "Beary", which is a departure from what we're used to ... but it's great. As a producer, it makes sense that a bit of himself comes through on the album and I'm all for that. His role for us was that of a collaborator."

Of the experience, Matthew continues that “even though it was difficult and demanding, I wouldn't hesitate to work with Matt again on a future album. He's insanely talented.” They bet that he could make them sound their best, and there is little doubt that OLKF is the bands strongest effort to date.

“Jamming... is not the way this band operates.”
-Sergio

The Art of the Sample

One of the elements that has come to define FMTM’s sound is their creative use of (often political) samples. Technology has made it easier to incorporate the samples into their live set. But laptops have also influenced the band in a less obvious way. When making Schools of Thought Contend, which included only two new tracks and 13 remixes, the band was only indirectly involved in the actual process of creating the remixes. Despite that, the album was “a roundabout way of collaborating with some pretty random folks,” according to Francis. The band agreed that even though some of the results weren’t what they expected, it was cool to push their music in new directions. This experimentation has actually affected the new record. “Really great ideas were put out there that we liked, and we absorbed those ideas. The whole laptop thing was pretty influenced by some of the sounds from SoTC,” Francis claims. This is most evident when one listens to On Little Known Frequencies when compared to The Impossible Leap In One Hundred Simple Steps.

The band knew many of the remixers directly, including their label owner, and the others indirectly through Dim Mak. Such projects can be a good way to build relationships with other bands, they say, as well as to be inspired by a different perspective on their music. But sadly, “as much as you'd like it to be purely artistic and in your control, there’s an element of the business perspective, things that have an impact, or that we never would have thought to put them on their, they add something we wouldn't have thought of.” Sometimes these sorts of forced parameters can be serendipitous, and SoTC was mostly successful. Sergio draws our attention back to the title. “The album title is relatively important; the format, very important. In terms of art, it is important to have differences.” The title comes from a proverb from communist China. Let a hundred flowers blossom, a hundred schools of thought contend. The band takes this idea to heart in a way we can only wish Mao had.

"When we're trying to determine what art and culture should be, we're not going to prescribe it. Put it out there, see what sticks, what comes out." Sergio’s description is also apt when applied to their general approach towards writing. When asked if the band has samples in mind while writing, Sergio answers that “it varies, but on the main they come in after the fact.” The band prefers to write the music and hear where the songs are going thematically. Once the mood is established they begin to search for appropriate samples. Sergio likens the process to filming and scoring a movie. They see “where the buildup lies, like filming a movie and then figuring out the soundtrack. What the story that is being told is. ... the hard part is finding the sample which fits.” Francis adds that the sample “has to work audibly, be the right duration, fit the mood, a lot of factors. Sometimes great samples don't work.” The band tried writing from samples, such as some of those great samples that didn’t fit, but “it's much more difficult, we try to let the song find itself,” says Matthew. Perhaps a bit more philosophically, Francis believes that “the music itself has its own narrative, just from the song itself.”

Matthew says flat out that “using samples, not vocalist, was a definite decision made beforehand.” The band made a conscious decision to eschew vocals, although the opening track on OLKF does in fact include some lovely female vocals leading up to the climax of that song, “checksum.” Unlike other (mostly) instrumental artists who may have added vocals to their music, the vocals in “checksum” don’t come across as at all jarring, but somehow work as if just another sample.

Sergio cites influences that may not come as a surprise - DJ Shadow, for instance - as inspiration for using samples in lieu of vocals. From the beginning, the band sought to create a different context. “We pretty much wanted to not feel we had to take a certain orthodox road towards making music, or what it means to make music. What it means is we use samples, types of samples change, from speech, or ambient, or more ambiguity.” Having attended art school in Santa Barbara, Sergio admits that more academic influences, such as John Cage, who influenced ideas of chance and reappropriation into music, were not unknown, but denies that they had any direct influence on the band. But he was intrigued by the idea of using found sound, or of thinking that whatever is out there can be music. Some of these ideas helped make him more aware and lead the way towards “listening to speeches for cadence... moving towards a helicopter, a found sound, [a] landscape.” He firmly states that they are not interested in chance, but rather that “we do want to communicate certain things. We are really particular about things.”

To be continued...

From Monument to Masses are:

Francis Choung - drums, keys, programming
Sergio Robledo-Maderazo - bass, keys, samples
Matthew Solberg - guitar, loops

http://www.myspace.com/frommonumenttomasses
http://www.monument-masses.com