The Whitest Boy Alive

A conversation with Marcin Oz

(April 2009)

Interview by Adam McKibbin

The news coming out of Mexico lately has not, to put it mildly, been especially good news. But Erlend Øye (also of Kings of Convenience) and The Whitest Boy Alive have a glimmer of smooth-sounding sunshine in their Mexico-made Rules. As they explain it on their website, The Whitest Boy Alive have grown from an "electronic dance music project" to a flesh-and-blood band that plays everything live. That hands-on approach pays off on Rules, an album of easy and immediate charm. Now if they will just make it to the States!

Bassist Marcin Oz checked in with The Red Alert to talk about the rules behind Rules, the dish on disco, and the secret component of The Whitest Boy Alive that's just as important as the music.

"Disco" is still a dirty word in some corners. Have you embraced it? When people describe Rules as disco or indie-disco, are you nodding or recoiling?

Disco seems to be the appropriate term for what we are doing. We play house music - something that developed from disco - with instruments. And it's more the disco of Loose Joints rather than Village People.

What led you Mexico to make the album? I know you had a friend there who offered up some space - was that the simple motivating factor, or was there something else that made you seek a change of scenery?

We didn't have our own studio in Berlin, so we decided we could go just anywhere. Having played a tour in front of a great Mexican audience in the beginning of 2007, it seemed like a good idea to set up the studio in the garage of our friend's house, record during the week, play more shows in front of great audiences, and finance the studio time with the shows. The other crucial aspects were climate, food and the ocean.

The recording process sounds pretty involved.  I read that you had some "rules" for recording ­ such as playing only live instrumentation in the studio.  Can you explain how those rules worked ­ and what you hoped to avoid by having them in place?

We had rules for everything without noticing. How we record, how we play live, how we run the label and how the records should sound and look. I guess everybody does have rules for his or her work; that makes you an individual.

I also read that you¹re planning on extending those rules from the studio out onto the road ­ and you¹ll be playing everything live [no backing tracks].  Are there any songs that are proving hard to get ready for the live show?  Or did you think about how they¹d be played live so much ahead of time that it¹s easy to make the transition?

It is about transparency. We want the listener to hear there are real people playing their instruments together. Same on stage - you will hear and see what you know frmo the record. No effect, no overdubs that would make it hard to perform the music.

In the time since Dreams, you've played 120 concerts in Europe and Mexico. When is the big U.S. tour going to happen?

We want to play shows in the U.S., but no dates are fixed yet.

Erlend has said that he envisions The Whitest Boy Alive becoming almost more like a DJ act in a live context - where audiences move around and pay attention to other things besides focusing attentively on the action on stage. As a listener, what have you been listening to lately that's been keeping you from staying stationary? What's getting you moving these days?

We were busy making and releasing music so we don't really know what's going on, actually. It's mostly old music that moves us.

I think one of the tragedies of the digital age is that people are paying less and less attention to album art- some don't ever even see if it they're downloading illegally and all that. Your albums have a strong visual aesthetic, thanks to your collaboration with Geoff McFetridge. How did you get hooked up with him in the beginning?

Geoff was paining T-shirts in a shop/gallery in Berlin. We went in to check him out and Erlend said something like "This guy is drawing like I write my lyrics." We asked if he could imagine making a record cover. He said he has done that before. Perfect! He got music from us and started drawing. We loved so much what he sent us. That's how it all started. The art and the package is equally important as the music.

Do you give Geoff some idea of what to do with the artwork or do you hand it off and let him run with it?

It's a co-production between Erlend and Geoff. I take care ethat everything gets done on time, hehe.

The future of the music industry is supposedly going to be that the labels will be getting their hands in ³360² deals and getting cuts of ticket sales and merch sales and all that.  You¹ve set up Bubbles as your own company to distribute your products directly, cutting out the middleman. Would you recommend that for most of your peers?  What are the drawbacks or challenges that someone should be aware of before deciding to try to run all of that themselves?

The rule we work by is:   do as much as you can by yourself. I think I hit a world record in how much a band member can do in and for
a band. There are things that you simply can't do by yourself, but you should try DIY first. Only if you did all of the jobs by yourself once, you will be able to value the work properly. Definitely avoid 360 degree deals unless you are the label yourself. It's a lot of work, but don't be afraid - it's worth it.