Photo Credit: Justin Propp
Primitive Broadcast Service
Primitive Broadcast Service
“Peace & Love & Dissonance” would be a fine mission statement for a band that leans toward experimental sounds with a political bent. It also just happens to be how Primitive Broadcast Service’s J.D. Morgan signs off his correspondence.
The trio (Morgan, guitar/vocal; Andy Steffenhagen, bass; Bryan Dorn, drums) released the song “City of Clocks” in June of 2020. Two friends, one black and one white, head out for a night on the town. Instead, they find violence. One of them will be imprisoned and it is not difficult to guess which one. The line “In the City of Clocks, no one is telling good time,” looks directly at the issues of systemic racism and mass incarceration.
How has the lockdown affected your creativity?
J.D. Morgan: It has completely disrupted the process, everything but the writing. We had just begun recording our second album (Colors for Chameleons) when the state shut down and were not able to get back to it until July. Then we had to cancel recording sessions for the guitars in August because of a COVID-19 scare, then another. Our bass player, Andy, works in bars so COVID-19 has been a constant.
It seemed like every time we had something scheduled with our engineer (Vin Smith of the punk band Avenues), a positive test result within the "contact universe" of the project would force another delay. The last part was recorded remotely in early January, so we are finished. Finally!
In terms of the creative process, the delays have made me more intensely detail oriented than I want to be, that's for sure. With so much time in between sessions, there was an all-too-real urge to pick at the work; to add more layers to the madness; to make it “perfect”. The idea is to maintain the emotional energy and creative spirit of each track, not to build perfect little noise machines. I began to see COVID-19 as this formless shape stalking the album, threatening to suck the life out of the music. We didn't set out to make an overly processed, cloistered, confined album, and COVID-19 is all about all that. We had a real fight on our hands to keep those feelings out of the mixes. The patience and determination of everyone involved has been surreal.
|
|
Andy Steffenhagen: I would say it definitely sparked it, maybe ignited an aspect of it that may have been dormant for a while. With everything being put on hold I felt less distracted, other than the impending possibility of things getting worse. But of course, I would try to channel that into whatever music or writing I was working on.
As far as the band goes, I believe all of us really bemoaned the fact that we weren’t seeing each other as much what with having no foreseeable shows to look forward to/practice for. When we were able to meet after weeks and weeks of virtually no communication, we really cherished the time we had in the practice space, with necessary precautions taken. We harnessed it and used it effectively to come up with some pretty decent material. Whether it was something either of us had worked on in our own time or just jamming, we seemed to pull back together without much of a hitch in our step.
Do you have a routine or schedule for staying in practice or working on new material?
J.D.M: We quarantined completely for a couple of months, then in May or June started getting together once a week, but we haven't been able to maintain a routine. New material was flowing in during the recording of the album tracks, and we were able to record some of it. Now there’s more. We also shot some video for one of the songs. The idea has been to keep working in any way we can, to keep moving things forward. But no routine. Routine has always escaped us anyway, it seems. And there's been a lot of COVID-19 spreading on the Lower East Side and Downtown these last couple of weeks.
AS: Exact times have varied over the past months, but we try to meet once a week. It is at practice where we work on new material, for the most part. There may be some things that we, individually, will come up with at home and then bring to practice to bounce off each other, which works just fine. Over this past year especially, the practices where we just jam after a few warmups really seem to be the most productive. Creating organically with your mates can be quite cathartic and allows the band to grow creatively as an ensemble, not to mention it’s fun.
“City of Clocks” by Primitive Broadcast Service
Are you making plans for when you can resume playing in front of people again?
J.D.M: We’re beginning to, cautiously. The one thing not to do is to push anything or to be perceived as pushing for shows, especially not here in Milwaukee while COVID-19 cases are still so high. I've reached out to a couple of people who book shows in the last week or so, just to check in, so those conversations are starting to happen, but cautiously.
I believe we're headed for a renaissance in music and art like nothing we've seen in our lifetimes. I had been thinking the dancing in the streets would begin this Fall, but all the problems delivering the vaccines into the arms of the people have been incredibly disappointing. And Wisconsin is bringing up the rear on that.
I know we'll have Colors for Chameleons out, and I want to believe we'll be able to play live this Fall, but we'll have to wait and see. Caution is definitely the word
A.S.: Well, I’m sure we would be spending more time thinking about that one if the time was more certain. We (carefully) recorded a new album over lockdown and are happy with the results. Our shows don’t get that theatrical, so there really isn’t a lot of planning that goes in to any given one outside of a setlist, but we have plenty of new material we are very excited about unleashing at future shows, whenever that will be. Hopefully sooner than later because we really miss the energy and the intimacy we experience while performing for a crowd.
