Feature

The first experience with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is always a strange one. As they slowly slither through the crowd to the stage in a surreal funeral march while playing instruments straight out of a Dali painting, the crowd is assured that this is not going to be an average rock show. The surreal experience continues as these very accomplished costumed musicians begin to hypnotize the audience with a sound that is a strange hybrid of music created from both traditional and homemade instruments. One song could be a psychedelic symphony, and the next could be laden with metal. Needless to say, it leaves one with many questions. I was fortunate enough to present these inquiries to drummer Matthias Bossi, who was more than pleased to answer.

*SC: * When I first started listening to Sleepytime, I found it hard to describe your sound to people. I always see it labeled “prog” (progressive) rock, but that doesn’t cut it for me. How would you describe Sleepytime’s sound?

MB: Well, there are elements of prog rock in there. That’s justifiable. There are sorta more obtuse influences in there that are not necessarily American bands. Bands from the ‘70s/early ‘80s that have really mattered to us are Art Bears, Henry Cow. Then, there are bands that might be considered prog like Can but not bands like Genesis or Yes in the traditional prog sense or even things like Universe Zero or Glass Hammer or any of these new fangled proggy bands.

There are other elements in there though. Being classically trained, conservatory musicians, we definitely have that in our arsenal. We all sorta ran screaming in the other direction after our education, but Bartok and Ives and Ligeti and Messiaen and some of our favorite 20th Century contemporary classical composers factor into our sorta intensely composed rock compositions. We love detail, and most rock music out there these days; you don’t get that from there. So, we had to introduce other things into our equation.

Then, there’s the metal side. Nils (Frykdahl) the singer and Michael (Mellender), to that effect, the other drummer are total Black Metal fans, and we definitely have our metal side. It all comes together to be painted into what we call “Rock Against Rock,” or what has commonly been known in the past as “Rock in Opposition.” Rock is what we know, but it’s also what we hate. We hate what it has become in this corporate America, mass marketing, one hit wonder thing. There’s little or no longevity in the life of an artist these days. We have shunned the machine, and we’re out there doing it very punk and very DIY and signing with labels that we have been able to strike up a rapport with and stay within our comfort zone and maintain full control of our creative output. How’s that for a long-winded answer?

*SC: * That’s perfect! Another thing that has been hard for me to describe once I saw you live is your stage presence. There’s definitely something there. What’s the concept that fuels Sleepytime’s stage show? People are like, “What do they look like on stage?” I always have to improv and say, “Well, they’re like spooky Victorian.”

MB: Yeah, it comes from everywhere. In recent years, we’ve gone with the coordinated outfit look, but it has always been shabby chic Victorian meets Kabuki make-up/samurai warrior meets corpse. But this time out, we have a costume designer named Claire Mack from the Bay Area working with us. We’re gonna each have individual characters that may or may not reflect some inner characteristics or extensions of our personalities. I think I’m going to be a scholarly tennis player from the 1890s. Michael will be maybe a beekeeper. Dan (Rathbun, bass and other instruments) will be a blacksmith. Carla (Kihlstedt, violin and other instruments), I’m not sure what Carla’s going to be yet, but Nils may end up being some Christ-like figure in a nightgown.

Costumes are sort of a natural extension of our own absurd personalities. It gives us ammunition and a reason to ramp the show up to the next level. It’s like Steve Martin back in the day when he started stand-up. He actually used to put bologna in his shoes, and if he wasn’t feeling funny, he would just remember, “Oh my God, I have bologna in my shoes.” Our costumes are that to an extent. Life on the road is tough – 23 hours a day, you’re on the bus thinking about, “God, did I get enough sleep? Did I exercise? Am I eating enough?” You have that one-hour or hour and a half a night to completely rage on stage. Wearing costumes and allowing yourself to go to the theatrical side gives you that excuse to shake off the doldrums of the tour and really let it out because you have to get back on the bus and be on that cramped little tube with the same seven people every day. Why not give yourself the chance to freak out?

*SC: * When I last saw you guys here, you were doing “The Last Human Being” show with dancer Shinichi Momo Koga featured as “The Last Human Being.” I loved how it was presented as an actual museum exhibition. Will Sleepytime have a new exhibition for the crowd this time?

MB: This time around, I don’t know. Maybe these new costumes with each of us developing an individual personality within these could leave to some academic pretenses. There’s always some surprise to the show. It’s very unpredictable. More often than not, one of us will have to jump in when something breaks with an impromptu monologue or a reading from an Ancient Mariner’s novel or some sort of improvisatory skit or even an improvisatory piece of music. So, this time around expect some ridiculous new costumes. It’ll be a departure from the coordinated burlap sacks that we’ve been wearing the past couple of years. Perhaps you will be shocked at our new found knowledge in the academic fields of whaling or golf or…I don’t know. We could throw anything at you guys. Who knows?

*SC: * Your latest release on The End is “In Glorious Times.” What was it like going into the studio?

MB: It was great! It was actually the quickest we made a record. We did it with a couple different producers, obviously, Dan the bassist/engineer, who has basically done our records in the past. We shared the record with a friend of mine from New York. He’s a fantastic engineer named Joel Hamilton. We came out and did a big 10-day chunk out here in a studio in San Francisco, which is the most Sleepytime has ever done. We always record in fits and starts. Records usually take four years or so, but this one took two. For us, that was like full speed ahead. It was great.

Once again, we seem to have stumbled upon a concept/tribute album, this being a nod to the work of Ward C. Picnic aka Per Frykdahl, Nils’ brother, band artist, muse and inspiration who passed away in December of 2006. He’s been in charge of all of our artwork and T-shirts and record covers, and in many ways responsible for Nils’ strange stage antics and characters that come out of him. We were making this record, and he died. It was understandably heavy to have lost such an important figure in the creative life of this band and other projects. This record, as you can hear with all those little answering machine records weaving their way through the record is a tribute to him. It’s sort of a meditation on death and life and things like that.

*SC: * What’s the next step for Sleepytime?

MB: Well, we’ve started going overseas. We’re going on our second European tour of the year in October, and that’s been really fun to break into new territory there. We’ve had a fantastic response over there with the Internet and everything spreading the good word with our songs. This new record has been available over there. Now that we’ve signed with The End Records, they’ve struck up a great relationship with this label in France called Equilibri Music, and they’re hooked in with the Osmose folks.

That’s been exciting for us. What’s next? I don’t know, maybe we’ll make a new record at some point. We’re still fired up to tour with this new release. Maybe next summer we’ll be on some package tour with some of our label mates. For now, we’re psyched with Europe and beyond. Getting over seas has been a big thing for us, and it’s proven to be very fun.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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