featured interview:

Russian Circles

A conversation with Mike Sullivan and Dave Turncrantz

(May 2008)

Russian Circles photograph by Ryan Russell

The Russian Circles are young men hailing from Chicago, Illinois. You may know them from our previous interviews and live reviews, as we here at The Red Alert are big fans of their music. Their instrumental music is powerful, extensive and has evolved significantly from their first full-length album [2006's Enter] to their newly released record, Station. Prior to their show at the Echoplex in Echo Park, CA, the guys were kind enough to sit down with me and chat about, well, everything.

When asked about how Russian Circles came together, guitarist Mike Sullivan divulged that initially, they didn’t know what intentions they had as a band and didn’t necessarily expect to be a band sans vocalist.

“We started in late 2004 kinda just fucking around and with no expectations of what we were going to do… We had a keyboardist for a while and we weren’t sure whether we would have vocals or not, but then it got to the point where we were like ‘Well, I think we’ve got enough crap going on’ so we decided we didn’t need anything more, and stayed a three piece.”  There has been only one line-up change in Russian Circles history, which occurred when they parted ways with their bass player last year - leaving Sullivan and drummer Dave Turncrantz with the task at hand of finding a replacement. Currently their friend Brian Cook [These Arms Are Snakes] is helping them out as they finish up their tour with Angeleno instrumentalists Red Sparowes. Cook also played on Station.

Previously, the Russian Circles had spent time on the road but they weren’t exactly touring with bands that sounded anything like them. When asked about the initial tours with bands like The Appleseed Cast and Criteria, Sullivan responded by telling me how much they appreciate diverse bills.

“Touring with a like-minded band has resulted in more of a response from the audience just because there is more crossover amongst fans, as opposed to touring with a band like The Appleseed Cast, when people will usually tend to know either one of those bands or another.” Sullivan and Turncrantz have also apparently spent some time working on their sex appeal with a stylist, which has also generated a better response from the audience at shows, thusly proving that it has paid off. “More sex appeal, more fans,” he says.  Admitting that their sex appeal still falls short of that of the Red Sparowes, they still have guitar twirls on their side.

In addition to being sexy, they are also fans of fellow sex icons Chiodos. “We have a giant picture of Chiodos that we kiss before we play a show,” says Sullivan with only the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice. Turncrantz chimes in: “It’d be awesome if I just put ‘Chiodos’ on the front of my bass drumhead”. According to them, they occasionally listen to shitty bands so that they know exactly what they don’t want to sound like.

Russian Circles are constantly being compared to Isis by the press; not really too sure why, besides the heavy and somewhat torrential nature of their first album. “I guess technically we could be in the same genre but we’re not even huge Isis fans; we like the guys in that band a whole lot, but they weren’t really an influence. People think we're fucking Isis! … but it seems to be happening less and less with the new album. It doesn’t bother me and as time goes on we’ll just continue to make it more apparent that we aren’t Isis. We’re actually a lot more like Pelican, but nobody ever compares us to them. The best part of the Isis comparisons is the fact that Isis isn’t even instrumental!”

Known for their haunting and stark artwork featured on their website, MySpace and so forth, Sullivan explained the front cover of Station. “It belongs to a friend who had someone in the photo. It was framed and hanging in his apartment, but it’s the only thing in there, seriously. We were thinking about the album cover, and this photo was so creepy and eerie that we decided to scan it and see how it looked. It really is weird how it does kind of fit our record in an odd way”.  The photo is a black and white photograph from the 1940s of a group full of soldiers standing on risers.

When the topic changed from music to television, I was informed that Lost is the best TV show ever. “Our goal is to do a live performance of Lost”, says Sullivan. Inevitably the conversation goes back to music after brief discussion about A Silver Mt. Zion and GodspeedYou!BlackEmperor. Although they can all collectively agree on this band- it’s not “van music”. “Every album I like to listen to by myself is more ambient, or with slow subtle piano that’s beautiful, but anything like that is just lost in the van. In the van all we can listen to is radio hits, or metal. Anything with ambiance or nuance is thrown out the window because you just can’t hear it. So metal or pop music is cool… Plus ¾ of our speakers don’t work.” Vans aren’t vans unless they have some sort of character, though. If everything works, it’s not as much fun.

Enter plates of food, individually labeled for each band member. The time for doors opening is drawing near and we switch topics to fashion. “Hair cuts are fucking depressing as shit! This hair phase with the swoop and the dye is fucking a mess. It’s time for it to die and to be fucking buried and to make fun of them. These bands, who are having millions being poured into them, and yet they’re destroying the youth of America.”

Brian keeps his hair short; he adds, “I’m making a statement by keeping it short, plus- I don’t have to deal with it” Sullivan states “I haven’t cut my hair in three years” - this is obvious, as it is long past his shoulders and complemented by his matching mustache, while Turncrantz sports hair somewhere in between. All three of these men clearly have not fallen victim to the shitty fashion trends, and thank God for that. “You know, girls just need to not go for dudes with shitty haircuts.”

Shitty fashion and haircuts brought us to our final stop in the interview which was a quick recap of SXSW. Did they get crazy? “We stayed in, ordered Papa John’s and watched March of the Penguins, Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.” Sullivan proceeds to show me a photograph on his cell phone of some lamps that they had decorated in their hotel room. “We put these faces on some lamps with duct tape… oh man… boredom and duct tape. South By was fuckin’ hilarious.”

After the first band of the night played, Russian Circles took the stage and captivated the audience with an intense, hammering set of songs, which they executed effortlessly - and without the slightest resemblance to Isis.

— Interview by Alexis Roberts

 

www.russiancircles.net

 

Related:

Russian Circles - Feature Interview [Mike Sullivan, April 2006]

Appleseed Cast / Criteria / Russian Circles - Live - July 14, 2006

 

More by this writer:

The Gutter Twins / Great Northern - Live - April 2, 2008

Explosions in the Sky - Live - March 17, 2008

The Static Age - Feature Interview
Red Sparowes - Live - October 11, 2006