Everybody Is Watching American Movies
Interview with the Observers from Portland,
Oregon - Part 1

By Morten Brohammer

The cover of the Observers debut album, titled "So What's Left Now", is a painting of a boy/young man standing on a narrow ledge of a tall building, looking down on the masses passing indifferently by. Depressed? Slightly desillusioned? Ready to jump?
Songtitles like "Symbols, Slogans, Lies", "Lead Pill", "State Of Decay" and "Down On Today" point in that direction. The music is executed by people sharing the view of the world with the lonely boy on the ledge. Someone looking at the world and asking what the hell is going on?
But instead of depressing the crap out of you, the Observers manage to take their dark and sinister NOW perspective on life in the 21 century and turn everything upside down. Yes, the condition looks hopeless, yes, the world is screwed up and, yes, mankind is no doubt f&%#ed and probably not going to last forever. But, for an apocalyptic soundtrack, the music is downright UPLIFTING!
Love/hate, faith - and lack of it, dreams and nightmares, manipulation of the masses, waiting rooms and screaming, feeling cool one minute and totally inadequate the next. "So What's Left Now" deals with all those things with a sense of urgency and growing poetic pain that makes the Observers stand out. Traces of late-70s UK punk rock of the more sinister kind and early 80s California-core are evident throughout the album, but the intensity is personal and unmistakeably insistent.
I was curious to hear the band elaborate on the current state of the world as observed from their perspective and I'd like to thank them for making time to answer a couple of questions, before their show at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Sunday 31 July 2005. More about American movies later.

The Observers are: Doug - vocals, Colin - bass, Kashani - guitar, Mike - drums

LC:Your album paints a sinister picture of the world today. Do you think you can change things with music or is it futile to try and change things at all?
Doug: I don't think music alone is gonna change anything, but it's an outlet to get your ideas across. Express how you're feeling about the situation and I think… really, what the power of music - not to be like… cheesy about it, but I mean… it's just a really good way of getting your message across in such a way that when other people hear it, if they feel the same way, then that would maybe rally people to sort of come together because it's a clear way of seeing what they have in common and so if they don't like what they've got and they wanna change it. That's sorta how music can help with that.
Mike: I don't think music or anything that we're doing will ever change the world, but there's a possibility to make things better for us and for other people.

Doug: Yeah, it's not like I, by anything we've done, I don't see a whole - you know, there's no change really in the way anything is, but just in my own life… For me personally - you know, it made all kinds of changes. I guess that's the other thing.
Kashani: I definitely think things work in cycles, because you can change things for a certain group of people within a certain amount of time and then 10 years later, there'll be a new album that comes out that'll change things for a different group of people and then in another 20 years… and the cycle just keeps going on.
Mike: I guess that cycle happens every week though.
Colin: I think it happens every second…

LC: You've received decent reviews for "So What's Left Now?" - do you pay any attention to the reviews?

Mike: Yep.
Doug: Yeah. I think so.
Kashani: I only pay attention to the bad reviews and so far…
Doug: I like… even bad reviews - you know, every now and then there'll be one… It's good to know what other people think. Of course the nice reviews are really amazing and it makes you feel good about what you do. But you have to pay attention to the reviews, I think. Or, at least I think most people do, and those who say they don't - they're lying!
Mike: We're not in this to get praise, but to hear what other people have to say about the music is constructive, and at the very least - interesting. We're all attentive to it.

LC: Is there a follow-up coming sometime soon? The expectations will probably be pretty high… Does that in any way affect your approach to writing new material?

Doug: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I've been working on this record for a while. I think maybe the main thing is that I really don't wanna rush the next album, 'cause I think a lot of bands do that. They'll put out an album and it's like "this is great, awesome - let's do another one really quick", and for me - I think, I'd like to take more time just to make sure there's not filler or something.

LC: Anything you'd like to change about your debut in hindsight?

Doug: I don't know. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

LC: "Symbols, Slogans and Lies" - please share some of your favourite examples…?

Doug: - of symbols, slogans and lies, oh wauw… Well, I think like, sort of slogans that'll be an example is just anything from… What are some of the September 11th ones that are really good?
Mike: I think anytime the Christian Church has ever claimed to be about love - absolute nonsense. Things like that.
Doug: Across the board, I think in punk there's tons of slogans, that sort of like… oh, yeah - class war, this and that. To me personally, I'm not speaking for the whole band, but to me personally, those are the slogans that I'm talking about.
The symbols that I speak about - a Christian cross to an Anarchy symbol… It's anything you look at and identify with and then, in all of us I see… lies. I don't think anything is a 100% pure. I think everything starts out with good intentions and then eventually ends up in a bad place. That's just me, personally.
Kashani: And everything also too - on the news and the religion and stuff - that I see in the song. My interpretation is that everything wants to be divided into binaries. Black and white - love and hate. And like terrorist organisations with the muslim faith and everything. They talk about that being hate! But it's really just kids with guns. You know? That's the real truth of it. When you observe it. But they wanna divide it into those secondaries…
Doug: - yeah, and that's kind of what that song is really about. That's what it comes down to. Like the Anarchy symbol, it's a little bit more black and white than things really are.

LC: What's the most efficient form of brainwashing going on today?

Doug: I think in America today, with the last elections and everything... with a lot of people in America, who are religious, there's this misnomer - a little bit - that if you're Christian, then you have to be Republican. Somehow the Republican government has got that into a lot of Christian people's minds and what ends up happening is that you get a lot of people voting in ways that don't benefit them. Farmers in the Midwest going really gun ho on right -wing politics because they don't want gay marriages to happen. They sort of hurt themselves financially - you know, tax breaks to the rich and all these things, when they're the ones really getting hurt by it. No healthcare and things like that. Just so that gays can't be married and that abortion isn't legal. These religious things and so on. I think that in a way is one of the biggest ways that brainwashing is happening in the United States. Through the Church, like people in their church getting the message - you need to support the right wing parties, because of these things and because you LOVE freedom - which is another, maybe, slogan…
Mike: I think the American - or the western - longing for complacency. The idea that we should have nothing to complain about and as long as the media or as long as all of the news, or the so-called news, that we get is good news, then there's nothing worth caring about, nothing worth fighting for, nothing worth concerning ourselves with. Just the idea that we should be able to live the so-called American dream, be lazy and you know… fat - and not worry about -
Doug: Yeah, definitely the media plays a huge factor in America. I think more so than a lot of people outside of America really realize how powerful and how… It's really weird. And it's really interesting, because it sort of seems like no matter who you talk to - some people really complain about the media being controlled by the Conservative people - or the Conservative parties, but then you keep hearing about the liberal media - you know, but it's all the same thing and it's all really corrupt and everybody is kind of afraid to do anything but give this one sort of message and that's… kind of frightening, for sure.
Mike: And beyond just the media, though - like - we are perpetuating our own ignorance by telling each other that we should have nothing to worry about.
Kashani: A lot of that is perpetuated by the American film industry. If you think about it…
Doug: Yeah, I agree as well. I think that outside of politics, but just anything - love and marriage and everything is a happy ending, you'll always find your soulmate and all these things about love…
Kashani: That's scary because all these American films are showoed out all throughout the world. We have them in Europe and in Japan, India - you know, everywhere. South America. Everybody is watching American movies.

LC: We are! Next question… Do you have a favourite era where you think the best music was made and please name some artists from that era and maybe some influences?

Doug: I don't think for me there's any one era, but I'd probably say the two that I listen to the most… I really like the 60s. I think a lot of really interesting music came out of the 60s and some really interesting recordings… from everything. From jazz - you know, Miles Davis type stuff to Iggy Pop or something. I just think that was a really cool decade for music. But then, obviously, I'm a big fan of like 70s - you know, the punk and things like that. I think every era… I think right now is a really awesome era for punk in the world. Some of my favourite punk bands… like tonight I get to play with Gorilla Angreb, which is maybe my favourite current band right now. We played with them a couple of months ago in San Francisco and playing with them in Copenhagen tonight is really amazing.
Mike: I think we all, I won't speak for everyone, but I think it's important not to get lost in what happened then and to be far more involved in what's happening now.
Doug: That's something that frustrates me with a lot of bands who make a big deal out of "oh, we're '77 punk, we're '77 punk"… Why are you trying so hard to be part of a decade, that you weren't really a part of? I'm not saying we're progressive or original or anything - you know what I mean, like - we definitely sound like… we're heavily influenced by that period, but on the same note, you know, we're not trying to go around and say "we're a '77 - '82 band" or like - you know, like a lot of bands do. I never really understood why they do that. Why not try to be really stoked about what's going on… like, being contemporary - you know?

LC: How do you go about the creative process of writing your material? Do you have the songs all ready to play when you show the rest of the band or is it a collective process?

Doug: Usually, I'd say… I have… 95 % of the song is complete - you know. I've got the lyrics, the music and everything that I've written, but Ian (Kashani) and I also work together on the music. When we work together, it's sort of like… he'll show me some riffs or some things that he has come up with and then I'll play around with them and maybe work it into a song and then come up with the lyrics and then bring it to practice. I just kind of start playing the song and they're all really incredible, just picking it up, like I've never been with people who learn songs faster than these guys. Usually that's how the song happens. Still, in my mind, I have a certain idea of what the song should sound like, or what I want it to sound like, but then everybody comes in and add their own take on it and then it becomes something a lot different.
Mike: When he brings it to us, it's just chords and lyrics and when we play it as a band, it becomes a song.
Doug: Yeah…

To be continued…