Q&A: Autogramm Always Promises a Good Time
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY GIGI KANG ☆
BASED IN SEATTLE, CHICAGO AND VANCOUVER—Autogramm is comprised of Jiffy Marx (vocals, synths, guitars), The Silo (vocals, drums, synths, guitars), CC Voltage (vocals, bass, guitars), and Lars Von Seattle (guitars and vocals). On February 28, they released a vinyl seven-inch single featuring “Randy” backed with a cover of The Diodes’ “Jenny’s In A Sleep World.”
“Randy” is a lot of fun. It’s described as being dedicated to The Silo’s cat, Randy! Humor is characteristic of Autogramm, as seen in past releases like their “Born Losers” music video. The lyrics are sure to make for an enjoyable live performance: “The world’s looking for a pretty cool dude / and maybe that dude is you.” Apart from humor, “Randy” is an uplifting song that displays Autogramm’s musicality including a clever dance with pacing, a harmonious tangle of sounds, and a sense of unity among the band through layered backing vocals.
“Jenny’s In A Sleep World” is originally by The Diodes, who are considered one of the first introducers of punk rock to Canada in the ‘70s. It’s a track off their Released album from 1979. Compared to tracks like “Photographs from Mars” and “Weekend,” the song presents a lower tone, particularly through the delivery of unstressed syllables for the final word in many lines.
In their cover, Autogramm incorporates a similar brightness as heard on “Randy,” adding lightness to the song, especially through crisp, attention-grabbing drums. Most notably, the band adds their signature synths which achieve a similar sense of character that keys add to the original. The guiding guitar throughout the original “Jenny’s In A Sleep World” is what really makes it a The Diodes song, and synths are what make the cover an Autogramm song.
On March 14, Autogramm will be opening for Wolf Parade in Vancouver at The Vogue Theatre. Also in March, they’ll be embarking on a tour through Spain. Catch them live on the following dates.
March 22 in Cox at TNT Blues
March 23 in Granada at Planta Baja
March 25 in Sevilla at Even
March 26 in Córdoba at Hangar
March 27 in Valladolid at Cientocero
March 28 in Alcalá de Henares at Sala Ego
March 29 in Madrid at Fun House
Luna spoke with three of the guys about their latest release and the Spain tour. Read the full conversation below.
LUNA: The Diodes are an important band for Canadian music history. Why did you decide to cover “Jenny’s In A Sleep World” specifically?
THE SILO: Out of The Diodes’ catalog, that song really hit me as being a little bit different, even for them. It just resonated with me and with the other fellas as well.
CC VOLTAGE: Me too. I’ve listened to The Diodes for many years. It was always one of those songs that was like, “That’s the cool one.”
THE SILO: I think with it being a bit of a standout, we felt that we could probably do more with it, especially in terms of it not being a straight up punk rock song. We could do something that would make it more like an Autogramm song. We made it a little herky-jerky, or a little more robotic in its way. We tried to bring in a sort of staccato, weird, off-putting drumming, like a slightly jarring feel to it—to make it our own.
LUNA: Like any good cover, you put your own twist on it, especially the synths which are really an additional Autogramm member! Do you remember the point in your journey together when you decided that synths would be your signature?
THE SILO: From the very beginning, we wanted to hit this weird point in time where punk rock and synths had a small dalliance together. They didn’t converge for long, but we wanted to bring it back to that point where synths were a punk rock instrument.
CC VOLTAGE: Luckily enough, The Silo had a whole bunch of vintage gear and a lot of really cool synths that we were able to use in his studio and play around with.
THE SILO: Also, Jiffy was up to the task of learning how to play them (laughs). That was a big part of it. When we started this band, we were like, Jiffy’s gonna play the synthesizer—something he had never done before. I think that brings the right spirit to it. When you learn an instrument just for the band, it becomes a very cool thing because all you know how to do is play that instrument in that band!
LUNA: Let’s talk a bit about “Randy” which is dedicated to a cool little guy. Obviously, lyrically it’s a fun song, but tell me about the instrumental. It has the same immediately energizing effect as a cartoon show theme song.
THE SILO: A long time ago, Jiffy and I made the first demo before our band even existed. It was called something else then. It was basically all synths and drums. It was a really weird sounding song, kind of cartoonish. We went into it thinking, we’re gonna make it sound like a video game or something like that.
LARS VON SEATTLE: It sounds kind of 8-bit.
THE SILO: Exactly. It got way cooler when the four of us started playing as a band because the sound got really expansive. But it’s like the sound of a rock band trying to imitate an 8-bit video game.
CC VOLTAGE: [Jiffy] had some sort of preprogrammed bass thing that went along with it which was kind of difficult. I learned it and it was this weird, herky-jerky, almost computer sounding bass line that I ended up sort of perfecting on bass, or at least trying to.
LUNA: Something I like about this band is your friendship. Through songs like “Randy” and your music videos, it’s very clear that you’re friends first. In what ways does your friendship motivate the band?
THE SILO: The band, now more than ever, was always just an excuse for us to hang out and go do stuff because we’re busy people with other jobs that take up huge amounts of our time, and children, and we live in three different cities. So it’s like we have to go on tour because otherwise, we’re just not going to be able to hang out! Friendship has always been super important to this band.
LARS VON SEATTLE: It’s cool that comes through.
LUNA: You mentioned that you live in different cities—you operate out of Seattle, Chicago, and Vancouver. Now you’re going to be touring around Spain. How is prep for that going?
CC VOLTAGE: This will be our third time in Europe, first time in Spain, but [some of us] have toured there before. I think the planning, the booking, and all of the things that go into it are so much more organized. Everything comes together so much more easily in Europe. [Once we found] somebody who wanted to take our band on, they took care of everything which is really nice. This time, we have a driver which is a bit of a luxury for us! Traditionally, we’ve driven ourselves on all of our tours, which has been great.
LUNA: Any specific reason you’re headed to Spain?
THE SILO: We definitely have wanted to go there for a long time as a band and as individuals. There’s always an element of tourism in hitting the road with your band, but we’ve tried to put it on equal footing with our career ambitions—and it’s possible that we actually don’t have any career ambitions. I think our career ambitions are to swim in the Mediterranean, stuff like that … (laughs).
CC VOLTAGE: If we think back to the very beginning of the band, we had two goals: California and Spain. So here we are!
LARS VON SEATTLE: Spain has a long history of being really appreciative of rock music and punk and stuff. I had known that for a long time before playing in this band with stuff like Munster Records. You just start noticing records from Spain. Or, people would tell you, “That stuff’s huge there.” Like garage rock or something in the ‘90s.
LUNA: I want to ask CC about No Rules PR. I have so much respect for people who are music lovers and make positive contributions back into the music community. Working from all angles—fan, musician, PR—how do all these different aspects of who you are influence each other?
CC VOLTAGE: I guess they’re all reliant on each other. I think the only reason I got into doing PR was because bands, including this band and most people I’ve spoken to who play in bands, say they’ve had terrible experiences with PR people, unfortunately. We were the same. We weren’t super happy with what we got over the last few years, before I started doing PR. The pandemic offered this opportunity when I wasn’t working to try something new. I kind of thought I could do a better job than the people who were working for us. I usually take on bands that I like a lot and that I want to work hard for.
All of it informs each other. I think our band is totally like that too because we bring in different elements. The Silo, for example, is the studio guy. He’s got two different studios, one in Vancouver, one in Chicago. Jiffy does the art. Lars books shows in Seattle. Everybody brings something to the table.
THE SILO: It’s like Pet Shop Boys. You know, “I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks / Let’s make lots of money” (laughs). I’ve got the recording equipment, Jiffy has the artistic skills, CC has the PR skills, and Lars has the looks!
