What's cooking on the bus to Beelzebub: 15 minutes with Soul Coughing

(February 9, 1997 @ the Automotive Club)

"And now we take a stick of butter..."

Yuval and Sebastian of recent Starfish Room headliners SoulCoughing have lapsed into an amusing bit of Julia Childimpersonations. It's late Sunday afternoon, the day afterSoul Coughing have blown us away by beating even our hugeexpectations for a great show. We have been granted a paltryfifteen minutes of discussion with the rhythm section and weare determined to make the best of a disappointingsituation.

So, we went to Plan C.

Plan A, a dream come true by spending the afternoon hangingwith the guys was unlikely from the start. Plan B, afurious game of word association with Doughty, the leadsinger and genuine wordsmith of the band (is "chocodile" inyour vocabulary?) was eliminated the evening before. Weapproached him after Saturday night's sold out show todiscover that he "had a date with Star Wars" the afternoonof our interview. Plan C was to avoid all the "bandhistory" / "meaning of the new album questions" as much aspossible and get to the important issues.

But because we would be alienating those who haven't heardof Soul Coughing, a little background info first. SoulCoughing is extremely New York City; they have acosmopolitian hipster sound that could only come from suchan eclectic town. The band met in The Knitting Factory, anNYC club known for producing innovative new bands. M.Doughty was the doorman and formed the band with drummerYuval Gaby, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and keyboardist /sampler, Mark De Gli Antoni. Their 1994 debut "Ruby Vroom"combines with last year's "Irresistable Bliss" to form aunique sounding body of work. Previous attempts we have usedto explain their sound have included "sorta like if thePixies played something jazzy" and "jazzy hip-hop with coollyrics."

In retrospect, neither of these descriptions come close andwe feel quite inadequate, having to admit that we havefinally come across a band that can't easily be described asa combination of two other bands. However, one thing iscertain, they are damn catchy. We haven't found a person whodidn't enjoy them upon hearing their discs, and their liveshow creates fans instantly. Doughty has acknowledged thattheir stage performance is their strength, improvisationbeing a key element. "Kind of like Phish meets the ChemicalBrothers." But while Doughty checked out the cinema (andprobably made one of his infamous posts to the Beverly Hills90210 newsgroup) we had 15 minutes to barrage Yuval andSebastian about the "issues": Measles, Orange Juice Pulp,Media Concentration, and Millenial Angst.....

Gord: So our first question is, have you ever beeninnoculated for the measels?

Sebastian: Actually, I don't think I have. I had the GermanMeasels.

Bryan: Well, it's Red Measels, the other variety. But youdon't have to worry 'cause we've been shot.

S: We'll know who to thank...if we get them.

Yuval: Measels? (making large welt-like motions with hishands to his face)

S: No, that's mumps.

Y: Mumps...? Chicken pox?!?

S: Like Chicken Pox, but different.

Y: I might have had that.

G: We'll all be okay.

B: Yeah, you'll be fine.

Y: Ahahah.... (laughing) S: Ahahaha... (lauging too)

G: So we figured 15 minutes with you guys... well, we knowall of the stuff about the new album and what you guysthink of it compared to the last album and all that standardstuff, so what we want to know is how come you guys got sentand how come Doughty is watching Star Wars right now?

B: Yeah, how come he's watching Star Wars and you guys gotstuck talking to us?

Y: Well, he got to do some press yesterday and so we got thepress today.

S: And anyways, he's going to go and see the EnglishPatient.

B: He told us Star Wars last night...

S: Well, he changed his mind. So yeah, he's going to see theEnglish Patient and he deserves it.

Y: We switch interviews. We didn't do any MuchMusic thistime, but we have been busy. When we hit Montreal andToronto, we get the same press that we get here, so it'sbusy.

G: So how was Japan, you must have just stepped off the plana few days ago...

S: It was great, it was amazing...

B: You have a lot of fans in Japan?

Y: Quite a few people bought the record out there. We wentfor three shows, one in Osaka and two in Tokyo. We had agreat time, we were treated really well and we ate amazinglyand the shows went really good. We thought we might be rustyafter not playing, we took our yearly vacation that lastedfor six or seven weeks and we actually came together prettyquickly. Turned out to be pretty cool.

B: So what sort of confused us, was who exactly your fanswould be out here. Your record's hard to find here a littlebit still. Your records finally on the [Georgia Straight's]charts though...

G: You arrived this week at number 32 on their 50.

S: Wow.

Y: Hey.

B: So who are your fans? We went to the gig last night andwe still don't know...

S: Just average folks.

Y: You can't nail the crowd.

S: It's pretty interesting. We noticed this pretty early on.We had a pretty wide age group. It differs from country tocountry and state to state. We got a little more popular inthe states with this album 'cause we finally got someairplay, so that tends to broaden the demographic.

Y: We get like students age, like you guys, we sometimes getmuch younger than that. Like if we do an all age show, wewill have actual kids, like real kids and teenagers and thenlots of older people as well. Even people our parents ages.

S: Lotsa moms.

G: Really?

S: Yeah.

Y: It really covers a whole range.

G: You've had a bit of airplay here. I heard you once onlate night CBC radio and Bryan actually heard you listeningto Houston radio over the Internet.

Y: The Buzz...

B: Yeah, I actually heard you guys first when you played onthe 'Net. The day of your Houston show, Doughty played acouple of songs live on the air... Which brings us to thewhole Internet thing. You've got Soul Coughing.com going,you've got Warner's official page, etc. How did that come tobe. Was this thrust upon you by Warner?

S: Well, no... Warner Bros. gave us an AOL account andunlike apparently a lot of bands that have these things, weactually check it and write back. Doughty was at first theonly guy who would do it. Mark would occaisionally do it butI got a little Powerbook a year and a half ago and Doughtyand I took over the bulk of checking the mail. I'm computerilliterate, so I barely know how to get to our web page andevery time I do, it's not working. It's really easy to dothough. I really enjoy reading these funny letters fromthese kids and being able to respond and have them go, "Ohmy God, I got mail from them!!!" It's nice having that kindof access. If I'd been 15 years old and been able to writeto Pete Townsend and actually have him write back to me...wow...

Y: It's kind of a technical thing too. It's hard to getaccess all the time. Usually there's a couple of computerson the bus...

S: But only one of them usually works.

Y: And it doesn't make it any easier to check our mail.

G: Well, there's a lot of stuff out there.

S: We seem to have an appeal to computer people.... Andgetting back to your other question about what sort ofpeople come to Soul Coughing shows, especially after thefirst record, we were definitely people's private band...

B: Yeah, you're still a very well kept secret right now

S: It's changed a bit after this album in the States withthe airplay, but certainly it's been word of mouth, sopeople would be passing on info to their special friends...

G: So we have some different questions... some wackierstuff...Like what do you think of concentration of mediaownership...

S: I don't own a television...

G: ...smoking or non... extra-pulp or pulp-free...

S: I like pulp.

Y: I'm with the pulp. Pulp is good. What's called Homestyleorange juice... Homestyle...

S: Smoking in the back.

Y: Back lounge is for smoking, up front is non...

G: Any thoughts on millenial anxiety?

S: Not at our age...

G: Year 2000: It's just going to happen...nothing's gonnahappen...?

Y: It's gonna happen and we're gonna rock...

G: You got plans? Like the Knitting Factory that night?

Y: (lots of laughter) Oh God! Not if I can help it...

S: I plan to be with my girlfriend. Somewhere where it'svery quiet. Either that or I wanna be under the bomb when itdrops.

Y: I don't mind doing a gig, but it's gotta be like the*right gig* like in Corsica or something.

B: Are all you guys into 90210 or is that just Doughty?

S: Hell no! That would be just Doughty. The man with thetelevision and nothing better to do.

B: So you don't own a television.

S: I don't own a television.

B: And what's the reasoning behind that.

S: 'Cause it's just another way for the man to try to keepus down. And also, it just makes you stupid.

B: So on the Rush Limbaugh-Noam Chomsky continuum, you're...(laughter)

S: Yeah... Actually, I'd take Fats Waller over both of them.

Y: I on the other hand have a television. But I don't watch90210.

S: And it's not like I don't like immediately turn the thingon the moment I get to a hotel room.

Y: You wanna watch some quality programming... The Simpsonsand Ren & Stimpy. Now that's quality programming.

S: Also very active social commentary. Best writing on TV.

Y: Cooking shows are the best. (laugther)

G: Like Julia Childs...?

Y: (in thick Israeli/NYC accent immitating Julia Childs...)Oh... Julia... (laugther)

S: (in equally funny Julia Childs accent) ... and now wetake a stick of butter.... (laughter and impressions ensue)

G: (recovering...) Who does the cooking on the bus?

Y: hmm... well...

S: I make Miso soup on the bus.

Y: Boil the water.

S: Yuvall is the most "make something out of nothing" whenit comes to cooking.

Y: I do little things that help make something becomebetter. Just little things...

S: Mark is the most survivalist. You know, he'll open a canof fish and eat it with his fingers and he gets that far offlook in his eyes. And Yuvall always comes by and says, "Ohgee, there's no lemon, what are you doing???" (laugther)Yeah, Yuvall's the gourmet. He's a vegetarian. He's actuallya fishetarian... And in Japan we got taken out to thisamazing restaurant and there's all this insane stuff and atone point they put a hot pot down and they give you slicesof beef tongue in garlic and Yuvall who hasn't eaten meat in15... 200 years... is like, "Here, allow me..." (laughter)

Y: We also ate fuku fish when we were there... blowfish.

B: Where do you eat when you're here?

Y: We ate at the Gate of India yesterday. Good Indian onRobson

S: And we went to this Chinese place in Chinatown today. ForChinese New Year. Lotsa festivities... Although, we wereamazed. That's the difference between Chinatown here and inNew York: where are the firecrackers? We were there for 10minutes before we heard one.

Y: And then it's like those polite crackling... pop-pop-pop-pop... Like in New York, I almost lost my hearing a coupleof times 'cause of these things...BOOOM!!! Like a kid, likethis shorty, dropped a huge bomb and it almost like...blinded my ears...

S: ...blinded ... my ... ears ...?

Y: And it's like a kid, like I can't even curse at him.(laugther)

G: Okay, one more practical question... How did you decideon the two shows here? We noticed that it's 2 shows here, 2shows in Tokyo, 2 shows in LA, 2 shows in Seattle...

Y: Yeah, we play in Seattle tomorrow night. They addedanother show before this one 'cause that sold out prettyquickly.

S: Temporal physics... Second show added before the firstone...

G: So just ticket sales?

S: Yeah, or if there's a place where we can't do an all agesshow or something like that. It's nice to play 2 nights inone place 'cause we've got lots of different stuff and weget to play some different music.

B: So why was the December show cancelled?

Y: We were supposed to do a Vancouver, Seattle, Portlanddeal and the second radio show got cancelled so it kindatook the whole bottom out of the thing.

S: Sorry...

B: We were mad..

S: We know. We got so much mail, like *so much mail*...

Y: We weren't happy about it either.

S: It's true, we were like, "Yo, gee, the place with thereally great Chinatown... man..."

Y: We wanted to come back to Vancouver for the many Chineserestaurants.

S: Sui-tan? Sooey-tan...It's on Granville

Y: And the "not just another music store" on Granville orwhatever it's called.

[photo-taking and smalltalk here...]

S: As they say in France, "fromage"

B: What's your favourite city to play in?

S: Yes. (laughter) At this point, there's probably 2 placeswe don't like to play and I'm not going to mention them byname.

B: You had some bad experiences there?

S: At this point, it all comes down to where the goodrestaurants are.

Y: Yeah, not about the gigs...

G: Gigs are gigs, eh?

B: I'm in rock 'n roll for the food.

S: You know who John Zorn is? He's this New Yorksaxophonist/composer, very downtown, very hardcore...amazing guy... he actually books tours around food.

G: Around restaurants?

S: No, countries. Like the "Olive Oil and Garlic Tour" -- noGermany, no Austria, no Switzerland... it was all Spain,Italy, Greece, South of France...

And that was it. Times up and the BCIT student press wasnext as the stone-faced Warner rep flipped the metaphoricalegg timer. Cool guys, cool tunes, and we still had anothersold-out gig (with a play-list that we were *promised* wouldinclude "Casiotone Nation" and "Screenwriter's Blues") tolook forward to that evening.

If the two Sold out Vancouver shows and their recentappearance at 32 on the Georgia Straight album charts areany indication, and with the next leg of their tour openingfor Tricky in the UK Soul Coughing may not be a "best keptsecret band" for much longer.

---

homepage current issue past issues search peak@sfu.ca

---

more issue #8