BLOWING UP with two smash hit 12" singles "HEY STEWARDESS" & "AQUARIUM DREAMS", at this very moment RONDO BROTHERS are making enormous noise everywhere they go, and are notably well appreciated among the music scene of Hip Hop, Breakbeats, Rock etc.. Their 1st album "NO TIME LEFT ONE EARTH" was released in 2004, on the label called "COUP DE GRACE" (his label mates incl. ROB SWIFT, AUTOMATO), but it was kind of the album essential but underestimated in Japan so this time we JET SET re-introduces their classic with a brand-new 12" single & Japan only edition CD Album (both incl. the first-ever appeared remixes by HALFBY & HANDSOMEBOY TECHNIQUE!). Furthermore, at this perfect moment, we got an exclusive interview.
RONDO BROTHERS are the unit by two multi-instrumentalists, JIM & BRANDON. They've pursued the career on the album by HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL, and played lots of shows as a front act for top artists like THE CURE, THE RAPTURE, INTERPOL, produced some commercial campaign songs for NOKIA, ADIDAS, GAP... Also just look at their solo-works, the contributions have spread widely across studio works for JAMIROQUAI, GORILLAZ, as well as track-producing for MC PAUL BARMAN. "Hawaiian Hip Hop", it is what we reckon the concept of their 1st album "NO TIME LEFT ON EARTH", using many Hawaiian instruments incl. Steal Pan guitars, Ukuleles on "delightfully quick tempo" beats, the music straight up reminds us of the early DE LA SOUL, UGLY DUCKLING, or LEMON JELLY, tropical, loungy track-makings and catchy breakbeats well harmonized with quality song-writings derived from their influences of the US Alternative Rock artists like BECK, MAROON 5, SUGAR RAY. Fat beats, no seriousness, and soon after listen to their melody line, you'll easily find how gorgeously the 1st album has reflected the American Pop music in the past quarter century. RONDO BROTHERS, they have been jumping around so many music styles, will keep us entertained with further exciting releases.
On this interview, we had a really great time talking a lot about their 1st album, contribution for HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL, their favorite music, and about the recent music scene in US and so on...Just check them up!!
TEXT: KOZUE FUKUSHIMA(JET SET TOKYO)
INTERPRETER: HIROHIDE TOYAMA(JET SET KYOTO)
* Please introduce yourselves first.
JIM:
Hi, my name is Jim Greer and I am the better looking half of the rondo brothers. I'm about six feet tall and have brown hair and blue eyes.
BRANDON:
My name is Brandon a.k.a. the Bastard Prince. I love Led Zeppelin, fondue and the color black. I don't like hot weather, I have a hard time sleeping at night and I never knew that Jim was 6 feet tall?
* You've been recognized as a unit but in a band format as well. Can you tell me about the division of the roles each member has in the band?
JIM:
I play keyboards, write songs, produce, mix, and make coffee.
BRANDON:
I write, arrange, produce, engineer, play guitar and any other instrument I can get my hands on. I also like to play with electronics that make noise.
* What made you guys start the unit together?
RONDO BROTHERS:
In 2003 we went with Dan the Automator to new Orleans to work on an album with a really great band there called GALACTIC
(*1). We ended up making massive contributions to the album and working very well as a team. When we came home, we were asked to put together the music for an NFL commercial, and we did it successfully. We then realized we could probably make records, and more commercials, and do remixes, and anything we wanted, so we started doing it. Our record was finished within a year.
* Please tell me about your biographies, especially before starting RONDO BROTHERS.
JIM:
That could be a very long answer. Basically, I have played music all my life since I was very small. I played keyboards on stage starting at the age of fourteen and started recording on a four-track when I was thirteen. I had one band in high school, one band in college, and since moving to California in 1994 I have played in a wide variety of projects: as Jim Greer, in Dr. octagon, TIPSY
(*2), VISITOR JIM
(*3), THE GUN AND DOLL SHOW
(*3), essence, rondo brothers, HEAD AUTOMATICA
(*4), handsome boy modeling school, and probably a few more!
BRANDON:
I grew up surrounded by musicians, so it just seemed natural for me. I started playing guitar at the age of 12. As I kid I was heavily influenced by KISS, Led Zeppelin, Queen, David Bowie and a lot of early Punk/New Wave bands. I started playing other instruments and forming bands with friends in High School and from there I have just gone where it has taken me. I have played all over America and some places in Canada and England. I have played in JoJo, Tokyo Marine Fire
(*3), Handsome Boy Modeling School, LOVAGE
(*5), DELTRON 3030
(*6), Head Automatica, Rondo Brothers. I am now starting a one-man-band "the Bastard Prince" which is sort of an experimental sound sculpture project performed live with the laptop and other digital gear.
* How do you process the recordings? All of the tracks are written only by yourselves, using live instruments, sampling? Is there a role-sharing during the trackmaking?
RONDO BROTHERS:
We use PRO TOOLS
(*7) and lots and lots of live instruments. We basically write all the music ourselves except for when a vocalist comes in and sings on a song, they will often write the lyrics themselves and/or the melody. We use beats from the computer, play live drums, find beats from records, we make beats however we feel like it that day. Then we add various live instruments to the track and we do a lot of digital manipulation to certain sounds to create more sounds. We try to make everything have a musical reason. As far as role sharing goes, we pretty much both do everything equally. Some of the songs on "No Time Left On Earth" were mostly made by only one of us, and other times one of will make a track and the other guy will come in and add just the one little thing it needed. We have learned how to leave something good alone. Other songs we make with both of us sitting there, or writing the song first on the guitar or keyboard and then recording it. We also do a lot of songs where we write the song first, and then record it, as opposed to just creating it in the digital world. Both ways are great!
* Buy records for sampling?
RONDO BROTHERS:
We buy a lot of records, but we rarely sample off them. Usually if we sample something, it's to create a certain mood or feel that we can then replace with our own sounds. Or, we will tweak the samples so heavily that they become an entirely new sound.
* You've contributed on the fantastic album by HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL. Can you tell me what exactly you did on it?
JIM:
I played keyboards on World's Gone mad with barrington levy and the guy from franz Ferdinand.
BRANDON:
I have played guitar on a majority of the projects put together by Dan the Automator including Handsome Boy. I think I played on about half the tracks on the new Handsome Boy release.
* The HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL album is awesome, especially their sampling sense as well as the beautifully laid-down live instruments. Have Prince Paul & Dan The Automator had any consequence for you? And (if yes) what are they?
JIM:
I learned tons from both of these guys. They are responsible for some of the most innovative, cool sounding records in hip-hop and everyone should be influenced by them. It's mostly an attitude and a kind of quirky sense that I take from them. Not being afraid to be a little silly or have the songs feel really good. Not being too gangsta.
BRANDON:
From Dan I have learned to not take things too seriously. People can get really caught up in gear and technical details. Dan is a constant reminder to me that you just need to sit down and make the song, good gear is nice to have but its not going to make you better as a producer or a musician. From Paul I have learned a strong work ethic. In an industry riddled with losers and fly-by-night business dealings, Paul is able to navigate his way around and get done what he needs to get done by keeping focused and keeping real. That is something that I try to remember when stuff starts to get cloudy and weird.
* Before this interview I checked the photos of your gigs on your homepage, it was really like you were playing as a rock band, one guy playing guitar and so on... how have you managed your stage shows, i mean, have you got any other support members, or play only by you two?
We have a very fun little band: a bass player/singer, a rapper, another singer, and jim plays keyboards and ukulele and Brandon plays laptop and all sorts of crazy gadgets. We also have a lap steel player.
* Also I found Tattoo on your arm (if I'm correct), what have tattooed?
RONDO BROTHERS:
Jim has a galaxy on his arm, and Brandon has too many tattoos to name!
* The next is the questions about your 1st album, "NO TIME LEFT ON EARTH". How have you recognized that your 1st single, "HEY STEWARDESS", was definitely one of the favorite tracks selected by our JET SET and so many music fans all around Japan?
RONDO BROTHERS:
That is about the greatest thing we have ever heard. We are so glad because we always thought that people in japan would appreciate this album, and we would love to have some fans and friends there.
* The album is featuring lots of steal pan guitar sounds, which made me guess you are the band from Hawaii, when I heard the 1st single. The album is really enjoyable, in the sense of the "pop" arrangements of various instruments and samplings, even though on many tracks it's featuring raps and is really fat breakbeats production.
RONDO BROTHERS:
Yes. We have straight up pop songs, which we love to do, and we have fat sounding hip-hop songs, and we also have ukuleles and steel guitars and all sorts of fun things. We just really wanted to make a record that had no limits musically, and we found it very easy to fit many of those instruments over beats. We aren't from Hawaii, but we knew that Hawaiian sounds could make a good album. But we also wanted to have darker songs, and darker parts of it, which we totally do. But we didn't want to be afraid of the big happy hooky single with "Hey Stewardess".
* Whose talks on INTRO, INTRODUCING and INTERLUDE?
RONDO BROTHERS:
That is brandon's gardener, his name is Vincent, and he is telling true stories.
* Your label mate includes AUTOMATO (produced by DFA as well), ROB SWIFT. Is there any connections existing between you and them?
RONDO BROTHERS:
We did a remix for automato that is really cool. For their song "the single". But we have never worked with Rob Swift, but we would love to.
* 2 brand remix works have been finished up, by 2 young exciting talents from Japan, HANDSOMEBOY TECHNIQUE and HALFBY. How do you like them?
RONDO BROTHERS:
They are AMAZING! We have been listening to them nonstop since we got them. We can't believe it. We are flattered that they worked so hard, and we can't believe how great the songs sound, and they have so much energy and spirit. They are the first remixers to remix any of our music, and we couldn't be happier with the results. We are dying to come to Japan and work in the studio with these guys, or have them play with us in a live set, or whatever.
* As listening to your music, it is so hard to categorize them in a certain genre. It's Rock, Hawaiian Folks, Pops...Hip Hop and Breakbeats... So I'm really curious about what kind of music you have listened to to date. Tell me about your past as music aficionados, please?
JIM:
I am a total top 40 nut. I was raised on the American top 40 as told by casey casum. I loved all the early eighties pop songs more than anything in the world when I was growing up. On the flip side, my mother was constantly playing old school American folk music like woody Guthrie, pete seeger, the roches, bob Dylan, the mcgarrigles, and more, so I developed a love for that as well. I had three older sisters as well and I was exposed to lots of interesting music at ayoung age through them ?stuff like Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa, and other avant-garde music. Living in Ohio it was also inescapable to hear lots of good old American rock and roll. When I was young I was alos a huge fan of musicals and made my mom take me to pretty much every musical there was to see, and I would memorize and learn how to play the soundtracks. She also played a lot of classical piano and Was really into classical music especially choral music, like Handel and Bach. I have been through phases of being really into pretty much every form of music that exists for a brief while. I had my pink floyd and everything related to them phase, a whole hard rock/metal phase, several rap/hip-hop phases, a jazz phase and there is a lot to know about jazz. I see it as one of my goals in life to have some knowledge of all forms of music, and throughout the years there have been so many amazing talents that went unrecognized. But these days I primarily concentrate on my own stuff. I like discovering things that were recorded a long time ago that never became popular.
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BRANDON:
I like music to be simple, satirical but intelligent, driving and a little dark. I like music to be theatrical and/or climactic. I like music that takes me somewhere and is somewhat more progressive. I love rock operas like Tommy, the Wall, Ziggy Stardust etc. I like songs that have strength but are not necessarily loud or fast. The Rondo Brothers creates a synthesis of atmospheres by bringing organic instrumentation into an arena filled with electronic beats and bent circuits.
* Please list up the artists have influenced you?
JIM:
There are just too many really. I am constantly influenced by different songs from all sorts of memories, uncommon occurrences, random things I hear. I'm probably most influenced by guys like stevie wonder, prince, paul mccartney: songwriting troubadours who play all their own instruments and are really prolific. Whenever I making a pop song I am probably drawing from one of them. Songs like "Raspberry Beret" by prince are my favorite kinds of songs: just great, upbeat, fun, quirky, hooky songs. That is what makes my soul bounce.
BRANDON:
Liz Phair, Lou Reed, Jimmy Page, ENON
(*8), Kid 606, NATTEFROST
(*9) and Ram Dass
* Do you have any recent favorite albums / artists?
JIM:
There are lots of things I like that are recent, but they are kind of obscure. Destroyer is one of my favorites, from Canada. I like the arcade fire. I like JOSH ROUSE
(*10). I am always listening to something and it's most often not recent. I was listening to They might Be giants a lot lately, and Frank Black.
BRANDON:
New releases that I like are: Lali Puna, Broken Spindles, the Go Team, Bloc Party and Feist.
* How do you like nowadays mainstream music in US?
JIM:
You know, a lot of it is complete crap. I hate anything that's pop stars or "American idol" or any of that. I can't stand it. But also in our mainstream you have some bands that are really big that are good live bands and really have something to say and really entertain people: green day, weezer, bands like that. These are bands that are real bands and aren't manufactured. So I think the mainstream is just what it is, it's what the big entertainment companies are spending the most dollars on right now. The mainstream doesn't mean anything to me really, it's too big to see or bother trying to interpret anymore. I've realized that this is my life and my musical journey, and sometimes I'll be part of the mainstream in some way and other times I won't. It isn't a real thing, it's a not a living creature that you're trying to please. It's an odd combination of media that you see all the time or don't see. When mainstream means all the terrible gossip magazines and fashion spreads and things, I totally lose interest. And that's mostly because there are such real, hard things happening in the world that everyone should be paying way more attention to. I am a little ashamed of our culture sometimes and how empty it seems, but I think every culture has that happening. There are tabloids in all the countries of the world these days. Then sometimes I realize that most of the entertainment that's happening is directed at 15 year olds, and that's just the bottom line really. It just that when I was 15 I lived in tiny town with nothing happening, and I never had cable TV, and never had any clue how much bullshit was always being spouted around. I'm glad I missed it.
BRANDON:
I hate mainstream music for the most part. I guess the recording and producing side of it is a little interesting but the music itself in the top 40 really sucks. I do, however, like KELLY CLARKSON
(*11).
* How do you feel the whole music scene in US (incl. Indie/Underground US music scene)?
JIM:
Honestly, the music scene in the U.S. is great. If you play music and you want to achieve something, and you work hard and are nice to people, you can really get somewhere. There are lots of places to play and lots of opportunities. It just takes a long time and a lot of dues paying. It is very easy to go see someone you are a big fan of and probably meet them if you really want to.
BRANDON:
The music scene in America is great. There are new genres being invented weekly, artist are getting their music out to people through the internet. The music industry is completely changed from what it was like 10 years ago. A lot more people are being heard and there is a lot of interest in counter-culture music and under the radar bands.
* Please pick up some albums, artists, you would recommend to RONDO BROTHERS fan.
JIM:
I recommend: SUNSET VALLEY
(*12), Destroyer, the McGarrigle Sisters, and Elvis Costello.
BRANDON:
I recommend: Belivo by Enon, I though I was Over That by Lali Puna, Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin.
* Have you already planned to do the next release?
RONDO BROTHERS:
We are working very hard on our new record RIGHT NOW.
* Finally, please say hello and left your messages to the fans in Japan.
JIM:
I have been to Japan once, in 1998, I played with Harry Hosono at the Ebisu New Year's Celebration. It was a great, amazing trip, and I am so excited to come back again sometime soon. So to all my friends and fans there, I say, get ready!!!
BRANDON:
Thank you for the support. I have wanted to go to Japan for a long time. I hope to come and play there in the near future. Hello to everyone!!!!
