Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Jamie McDermott of The Irrepressibles.

Illustration by Paolo Caravello

Illustration by Stephanie Thieullent

Illustration by Alia Gargum

Illustration by Jo Cheung

Illustration by Kellie Black

The_Irrepressibles_by_Helmetgirl
The Irrepressibles by Helmetgirl.

If Amelia’s Magazine had a wish list of character traits that would perfectly encapsulate its personality then you would struggle to surpass those of Jamie McDermott, viagra sale one of the magazines favourite performers. The founding member, page and centre piece of The Irrepressibles, could have tailored his CV to fit the remit of Amelia’s Magazine. The Irrepressibles’ creator, composer, arranger and avant garde curator wears his heart firmly on his sleeve and is intensely protective and proud of his conception, and rightly so. Their mix of love and lust, longing and tragedy is often borne out as cathartic confessionals. Jamie’s vision and passion, which he so effectively channels through his ‘performance orchestra’, were captured brilliantly, earlier this year on his bands debut album Mirror Mirror.
 
The Irrepressibles, Jamie’s very personal labour of love, have been a regular source of fascination for the Amelia’s Magazine, having been previously featured both in print and on-line. Their very original and ground breaking approach continues to push the boundaries of live popular music, as their choice of venue can also testify to. Having performed in places as diverse as Latitude Festival and the V&A, and from the Hackney Empire to a recent guest appearance at London Fashion Week you are unlikely to experience the norm.
 
It was shortly after their recent LFW performance that I managed to hook up with Jamie. With a little trepidation, a youthful excitement and a great deal of pleasure I tracked him down and interrupted his very busy schedule. I was not only hoping to get a little insight into the world of The Irrepressibles but also an idea of who Jamie really is. I wasn’t to be disappointed. Jamie talked vividly and most candidly about how it all began, where his influences have come from and above all what an incredible journey it has all been. (Just don’t mention the Pope, you’ll only be greeted with silence!) Here is Jamie McDermott from The Irrepressibles.

The_Irrepressibles_Cello_Bass_by_Helmetgirl
Cello and Bass by Helmetgirl.

Way back before the formation of The Irrepressibles was there a pivotal moment in your life where you decided that you would be a performer, a musician, a composer? What lead to your epiphany?
I had fallen in love with my best friend – another boy – and we were inseparable. He had a band and I wanted to be around him so I began to sing in it. But one night I explained how I felt. We fell apart as friends. I felt alone, I knew that I was gay and that people didn’t feel it was right… I wanted to throw myself of the cliffs of the seaside town where I lived. But when stood there in the air I heard music. My own. Instead of jumping I decided to explain to the world through music the beauty of being in love with another man in a way that everyone would understand. 

How did you go about creating The Irrepressibles, did you have a defined vision of how you were going to express yourself? Has it changed at all? Do you see it as an evolutionary process and if so what are the triggers to change? How did you all meet?
I had been writing music focused on what I wanted to say and the emotions I needed to express. I wanted to surround this emotion with a world, a soundscape that could explain the depth of feeling, so I began to work with orchestral instrumentation as they could offer the abrasive and the sublime the surreal and the polyphonic. Initially it was me and four others on a course in popular music studies. I had discovered the library and as a working class boy from North Yorkshire I was starving for the words and pictures. I read about Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren, Andy Warhol and the KLF’s work with pop music subculture, about the political force of music in the words of Atalli and Eisler and fell in love with the iconic imagery of film makers Fasbinder and Kenneth Anger. I also read about the work with spectacle by Dali, Meredith Monk with The House and Laurie Anderson amongst others. I had been seeing visions since I was a child that accompanied the music in my head, I wanted to create something and these people gave me the confidence to make my visions real. I was irritated by the manufactured pop music and it’s lack of real emotion but also the boring visual aesthetics of indie music at the time and I wanted to create something fresh and reactionary. 

 The_Irrepressibles_Fluteplayer_by_Helmetgi
Fluteplayer by Helmetgirl.

What do you see as your main influences and inspirations, both musically and personally?
The sounds of the world around me. I am most influenced by non musical elements. The world itself is musical everything from the sounds of laughter to the hum of the bus I’m sitting on now are singing. The movement of people and machines all have a complexity of nature a kind of polyphony in their interaction. My music has this interaction. As do my spectacles where movement meets light installation meets interactive set meets music meets movement to create one being of emotion – one machine of emotion. 
 
Of your contemporaries, are there any that you are listening to, any that you are finding particularly creative or challenging?
Yes Simon Bookish is incredible, I adore Peaches, Broadcast are consistently inspirational, The Knife are wonderful…

Many people have tried to capture the essence of your performance and creation without necessarily being able to convey the whole experience adequately on paper. How would you describe your music and performance?
It is an organic machine of emotion. 

The drama and theatre within your music and shows is clearly crucial and only serves to heighten the experience for the audience. At what point in the creative process does this become a consideration? Do you have a structured way of writing a song? How does it all work for you as the writer/composer?
I write automatically i.e. from my subconscious. I let my decisions be as spontanious and uncontrived as possible in order to explain fully the depths of my subconsious. I then see visions of how I can present the music in a space working with the parameters of lighting and set installation, movement and feeling. 

The_Irrepressibles_Violin_by_Helmetgirl
Violin player by Helmetgirl.

There have been comparisons drawn with your style of music to Antony Hegarty and David Bowie among others. For me there is are also the theatrics of early Marc Almond solo work such as Vermin In Ermine as well as a sympathy and empathy with a lot of New Romantic sensibilities. Where do you see your musical style?
I am very much influenced by what I would call the leneage of gay artists. I also believe that gay artists create a slightly different aesthetic of sound and visual generally – a very varied one when you consider Grizzly Bear, Owen Pallet, Patrick Wolf and Me at this time – but there is an aesthetic. I am also massively influenced by female artists like Meredith Monk and Kate Bush of course. I believe like Kate I see music and performance as innately another world a fantasy world were emotions can be better expressed – a dream. 

Many of your songs, such as In This Shirt, are very personal and clearly connect with your audience. Do you find that laying yourself bare, so to speak, gives a song more truth, depth and sincerity and as such it is more credible and infinitely more appreciated? Is that what you strive for?   
I only ever write honestly and cathartically – I am completely open but I was bullied throughout all of my schooling you get to the point were you feel pretty much naked to everyone anyway. Sometimes you wont believe it as the songs sound melodramatic but when you consider that My Friend Jo was in fact about looking in the face suicide at a time of hysterical emotions it does make sense. Why does everything have to be simple in music? Life of course is complex and polyphonic and so I believe music should be too. Sometimes my music is more simplistic because the emotion is, other times it’s like a mad person you can’t understand. We are all mentally ill in some way. 
 
Both the 2009 release, From The Circus To The Sea, and this years album, Mirror Mirror, have been very well received garnering much critical acclaim. Do you now feel the swell of expectation and public consciousness rising as your audience grows ever bigger?
It’s been nothing short of incredible. I spend most of my time talking to fans all over the world. I always feel awful when people complement my work and I don’t get back to them. I have become a whore to Facebook and Myspace… ha ha! 

You have played some decidedly different venues this year from The Roundhouse and The V&A to three shows at Latitude. How were they for you and what can everyone expect from the forthcoming shows that are due to start at the end of this month? 
At the Roundhouse the orchestra performed 10 meters in the air on moving seats, at Latitude we opened the festival with ‘Gathering Songs’ which consisted of several pieces for different parts of the orchestra that were performed desperately all over the forest over 2 and a half hours which accumulated in a spectacle on the water, the year after I created the Light and Shadow spectacle with lighting installation. The V&A commissioned me in 2009 to create a spectacle for their Baroque Exhibition then came the chance to create my Human Music Box installation which was then taken to Latitude the same year. This year I created the Mirror Mirror Spectacle which began with a commission for the Queen Elizabeth Hall. We are touring this internationally now and present it again in London at the Scala tomorrow.  

The Irrepressibles are touring into 2011, are there plans after that to record any new material or are you working on other projects, if so what are they?
I am working on my new AIR spectacle which will be premiered in Modena Italy next week. I am then going to begin work on music for a Manga Opera with Hotel Pro Forma who famously created the opera with The Knife. The next album is now half written and we should begin recording this soon. 

Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate you taking the time. Best of luck for your forthcoming shows.

Categories ,Andy Warhol, ,Antony Hegarty, ,Atalli and Eisler, ,Broadcast, ,David Bowie, ,Fasbinder, ,grizzly bear, ,Hotel Pro Forma, ,Jamie McDermott, ,Kate Bush, ,Kenneth Anger, ,KLF, ,latitude, ,Malcolm McClaren, ,Manga Opera, ,Meredith Monk, ,Mirror Mirror, ,Owen Pallet, ,Patrick Wolf, ,Peaches, ,Roundhouse, ,Simon Bookish, ,the irrepressibles, ,The Knife, ,va, ,Vivienne Westwood

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Jamie McDermott of The Irrepressibles.

The_Irrepressibles_by_Helmetgirl
The Irrepressibles by Helmetgirl.

If Amelia’s Magazine had a wish list of character traits that would perfectly encapsulate its personality then you would struggle to surpass those of Jamie McDermott, one of the magazines favourite performers. The founding member, and centre piece of The Irrepressibles, could have tailored his CV to fit the remit of Amelia’s Magazine. The Irrepressibles’ creator, composer, arranger and avant garde curator wears his heart firmly on his sleeve and is intensely protective and proud of his conception, and rightly so. Their mix of love and lust, longing and tragedy is often borne out as cathartic confessionals. Jamie’s vision and passion, which he so effectively channels through his ‘performance orchestra’, were captured brilliantly, earlier this year on his bands debut album Mirror Mirror.
 
The Irrepressibles, Jamie’s very personal labour of love, have been a regular source of fascination for the Amelia’s Magazine, having been previously featured both in print and on-line. Their very original and ground breaking approach continues to push the boundaries of live popular music, as their choice of venue can also testify to. Having performed in places as diverse as Latitude Festival and the V&A, and from the Hackney Empire to a recent guest appearance at London Fashion Week you are unlikely to experience the norm.
 
It was shortly after their recent LFW performance that I managed to hook up with Jamie. With a little trepidation, a youthful excitement and a great deal of pleasure I tracked him down and interrupted his very busy schedule. I was not only hoping to get a little insight into the world of The Irrepressibles but also an idea of who Jamie really is. I wasn’t to be disappointed. Jamie talked vividly and most candidly about how it all began, where his influences have come from and above all what an incredible journey it has all been. (Just don’t mention the Pope, you’ll only be greeted with silence!) Here is Jamie McDermott from The Irrepressibles.

The_Irrepressibles_Cello_Bass_by_Helmetgirl
Cello and Bass by Helmetgirl.

Way back before the formation of The Irrepressibles was there a pivotal moment in your life where you decided that you would be a performer, a musician, a composer? What lead to your epiphany?
I had fallen in love with my best friend – another boy – and we were inseparable. He had a band and I wanted to be around him so I began to sing in it. But one night I explained how I felt. We fell apart as friends. I felt alone, I knew that I was gay and that people didn’t feel it was right… I wanted to throw myself of the cliffs of the seaside town where I lived. But when stood there in the air I heard music. My own. Instead of jumping I decided to explain to the world through music the beauty of being in love with another man in a way that everyone would understand. 

How did you go about creating The Irrepressibles, did you have a defined vision of how you were going to express yourself? Has it changed at all? Do you see it as an evolutionary process and if so what are the triggers to change? How did you all meet?
I had been writing music focused on what I wanted to say and the emotions I needed to express. I wanted to surround this emotion with a world, a soundscape that could explain the depth of feeling, so I began to work with orchestral instrumentation as they could offer the abrasive and the sublime the surreal and the polyphonic. Initially it was me and four others on a course in popular music studies. I had discovered the library and as a working class boy from North Yorkshire I was starving for the words and pictures. I read about Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren, Andy Warhol and the KLF’s work with pop music subculture, about the political force of music in the words of Atalli and Eisler and fell in love with the iconic imagery of film makers Fasbinder and Kenneth Anger. I also read about the work with spectacle by Dali, Meredith Monk with The House and Laurie Anderson amongst others. I had been seeing visions since I was a child that accompanied the music in my head, I wanted to create something and these people gave me the confidence to make my visions real. I was irritated by the manufactured pop music and it’s lack of real emotion but also the boring visual aesthetics of indie music at the time and I wanted to create something fresh and reactionary. 

 The_Irrepressibles_Fluteplayer_by_Helmetgi
Fluteplayer by Helmetgirl.

What do you see as your main influences and inspirations, both musically and personally?
The sounds of the world around me. I am most influenced by non musical elements. The world itself is musical everything from the sounds of laughter to the hum of the bus I’m sitting on now are singing. The movement of people and machines all have a complexity of nature a kind of polyphony in their interaction. My music has this interaction. As do my spectacles where movement meets light installation meets interactive set meets music meets movement to create one being of emotion – one machine of emotion. 
 
Of your contemporaries, are there any that you are listening to, any that you are finding particularly creative or challenging?
Yes Simon Bookish is incredible, I adore Peaches, Broadcast are consistently inspirational, The Knife are wonderful…

Many people have tried to capture the essence of your performance and creation without necessarily being able to convey the whole experience adequately on paper. How would you describe your music and performance?
It is an organic machine of emotion. 

The drama and theatre within your music and shows is clearly crucial and only serves to heighten the experience for the audience. At what point in the creative process does this become a consideration? Do you have a structured way of writing a song? How does it all work for you as the writer/composer?
I write automatically i.e. from my subconscious. I let my decisions be as spontanious and uncontrived as possible in order to explain fully the depths of my subconsious. I then see visions of how I can present the music in a space working with the parameters of lighting and set installation, movement and feeling. 

The_Irrepressibles_Violin_by_Helmetgirl
Violin player by Helmetgirl.

There have been comparisons drawn with your style of music to Antony Hegarty and David Bowie among others. For me there is are also the theatrics of early Marc Almond solo work such as Vermin In Ermine as well as a sympathy and empathy with a lot of New Romantic sensibilities. Where do you see your musical style?
I am very much influenced by what I would call the leneage of gay artists. I also believe that gay artists create a slightly different aesthetic of sound and visual generally – a very varied one when you consider Grizzly Bear, Owen Pallet, Patrick Wolf and Me at this time – but there is an aesthetic. I am also massively influenced by female artists like Meredith Monk and Kate Bush of course. I believe like Kate I see music and performance as innately another world a fantasy world were emotions can be better expressed – a dream. 

Many of your songs, such as In This Shirt, are very personal and clearly connect with your audience. Do you find that laying yourself bare, so to speak, gives a song more truth, depth and sincerity and as such it is more credible and infinitely more appreciated? Is that what you strive for?   
I only ever write honestly and cathartically – I am completely open but I was bullied throughout all of my schooling you get to the point were you feel pretty much naked to everyone anyway. Sometimes you wont believe it as the songs sound melodramatic but when you consider that My Friend Jo was in fact about looking in the face suicide at a time of hysterical emotions it does make sense. Why does everything have to be simple in music? Life of course is complex and polyphonic and so I believe music should be too. Sometimes my music is more simplistic because the emotion is, other times it’s like a mad person you can’t understand. We are all mentally ill in some way. 
 
Both the 2009 release, From The Circus To The Sea, and this years album, Mirror Mirror, have been very well received garnering much critical acclaim. Do you now feel the swell of expectation and public consciousness rising as your audience grows ever bigger?
It’s been nothing short of incredible. I spend most of my time talking to fans all over the world. I always feel awful when people complement my work and I don’t get back to them. I have become a whore to Facebook and Myspace… ha ha! 

You have played some decidedly different venues this year from The Roundhouse and The V&A to three shows at Latitude. How were they for you and what can everyone expect from the forthcoming shows that are due to start at the end of this month? 
At the Roundhouse the orchestra performed 10 meters in the air on moving seats, at Latitude we opened the festival with ‘Gathering Songs’ which consisted of several pieces for different parts of the orchestra that were performed desperately all over the forest over 2 and a half hours which accumulated in a spectacle on the water, the year after I created the Light and Shadow spectacle with lighting installation. The V&A commissioned me in 2009 to create a spectacle for their Baroque Exhibition then came the chance to create my Human Music Box installation which was then taken to Latitude the same year. This year I created the Mirror Mirror Spectacle which began with a commission for the Queen Elizabeth Hall. We are touring this internationally now and present it again in London at the Scala tomorrow.  

The Irrepressibles are touring into 2011, are there plans after that to record any new material or are you working on other projects, if so what are they?
I am working on my new AIR spectacle which will be premiered in Modena Italy next week. I am then going to begin work on music for a Manga Opera with Hotel Pro Forma who famously created the opera with The Knife. The next album is now half written and we should begin recording this soon. 

Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate you taking the time. Best of luck for your forthcoming shows.

Categories ,Andy Warhol, ,Antony Hegarty, ,Atalli and Eisler, ,Broadcast, ,David Bowie, ,Fasbinder, ,grizzly bear, ,Hotel Pro Forma, ,Jamie McDermott, ,Kate Bush, ,Kenneth Anger, ,KLF, ,latitude, ,Malcolm McClaren, ,Manga Opera, ,Meredith Monk, ,Mirror Mirror, ,Owen Pallet, ,Patrick Wolf, ,Peaches, ,Roundhouse, ,Simon Bookish, ,the irrepressibles, ,The Knife, ,va, ,Vivienne Westwood

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pyramiddd: An Interview: Part Two.

blue

So, shop Lets tackle the name situation. (A few months ago these fellas were known as Starfucker) I was on your blog reading the suggestions that fans sent you and my favourites were Rad Stewert and Wasabi Lube…
J: Oh, salve I don’t like that one at all!

That was my favourite!
J: You can have it! I dunno if you play but whoever suggested that would be stoked to know that there was a band called it I’m sure.

Pyramiddd was the one to go with?
R: Not necessarily, page I fucking hate it.
J: Not really, I kinda hate Pyramiddd too.

I got that vibe when I read that blog, there seemed to be a little tension surrounding the issue…
J: The thing that sucked was that we had to pick it so quick. We rushed into it, We were releasing our 7” here and everyone was like “What the fuck is your name, you need to pick a name so we can release this” So we were like – I guess this is it.
R: That was the one that we agreed on more than any other name, out them all.
J: Master Control was close and Trust Fund was close. They were the two runners up.
R: We had some other ones we picked. But, We picked ones and we liked it for a day and the next day we hated it. But there’s no such thing as a good band name. Like Radiohead sucks. That’s a stupid band name.

There is another band called Starfucker, Can they have it, are they worthy?
J: Yeah they can have it, It’s a stupid fucking name!
R: Starfucker is a bad name too.
J: It was a joke! We didn’t think we would be touring the US let alone coming to Europe and Japan if we had any kinda foresight we would have picked a better name a long time ago. Its like getting married, a joke that goes too far… Never again!

green

Another thing I saw on your Myspace was the Las Vegas episodes
J: That was funny, That dude talking bout the cist! I dunno how he saw it, I like bent over to pick up a key and he was like “Aahh cist there”
R: Its not even that big!

Are you guys filming what your doing over here?
J: Yeah we have, We have mainly been filming in the car because that is all we do. It takes hours to get everywhere, but its pretty, the architecture is pretty. Have we filmed anything interesting?
R: I filmed the red light district. That was difficult, your not meant to.
J: He got flipped off.

The Internet told me about the Target commercial, One of your tracks feature on it?
J: Unfortunately, that’s the way it is now- that licensing your songs to commercials is a way to make money. Which is better way of making money than parking cars for me.

Yeah, but its does get a lot of people to hear your music that wouldn’t necessarily hear it…
R: Yeah, I didn’t know that people did this but people will actually find the songs used in commercials and find out who the band is. I didn’t know that was a thing because I don’t have a TV. Target has great music on their commercials.. plus Target has great things at great prices! Make sure you go to target! Today!

Medicine” is your first release over here, Is this a good representation of what is to come with the album, or is it not that far on?
J: It’s not that far on but it seems mostly a little darker than stuff we have so far. The new idea is a 30 minute dance block-all the same tempo and songs that fade into each other. Maybe it will b like that. I dunno about “Medicine”, We didn’t really pick that. Other people were like “This will be a good song” So we were like, “Alright, do what you want.”.
R: Really every song is a single on the album!

Sorry for the “Smash Hits” stylee question, But what is your medicine for winter?
R: Most the things that make me feel good, make me feel bad later
J: I have been really homesick on this tour. I just started dating someone I really like so we are gonna take a trip to LA I’m excited about that. I’ll be all warm all my friends will be cold in Portland. I have been eating lots of good food like cantrell mushrooms chopped up with pasta.
R: That’s another great thing bout Portland, You can get so many great vegetables. That’s my winter medicine- I like cooking and baking pies.
J: He is an amazing cook!
R: I like to save my vegetable ends, put them in a big plastic bag in your freezer then boil it and it makes good vegetable broth. Keep all your ends and boil for a few hours = Perfect, amazing vegetable broth.
J: I want ask you how to make granola-he makes really good granola. He is like Mom, he would make us sandwiches when we started on tour.
R: I don’t do it anymore now, I get tired. I’m too busy now. I have a kid. If I make granola while my kid is with me the kid will end up in the granola.

The first thing I thought when I heard “Medicine” was that you guys played a lot of video games in the 90s?
J: Yeah, That’s really true! 007 was my favourite video game from the 90s on N64. Playing 007, listening to The Fugees album on repeat for hours on end.
R: I was a Nintendo system kid. I never moved beyond that. I played the Sega Genesis once, but that’s it.
J: Genesis was good.

I wasn’t a Sega fan, Nintendo all the way..
Both: Yeah
J: But I think Sega had, Mortal Combat, that was rad.
R: Yeah totally, Sega had Road Rash and Sonic the Hedgehog.
J: Sonic was rad too.

It’s such a colourful song but the video is black and white, any reason behind this?
J: I think it was easier for Andrew to make-he’s our friend, he is learning the programmes.
R: I think its fitting, I think the video is still very colourful, l like the dancing in black and white, it can bring out the movement. Whether or not that was intentional or not, I think It works really well.

red

I kind of came to my own conclusion that you were really into what Beyoncé does right now?
R: Her video was after ours!
J: That “Single Ladies” video was amazing though!

With the black and white thing and also all the moves being busted out all over the place I assumed she was one of you creative influences?
R: I like her for sure, I have total respect for her she’s queen diva. Neal Medlyn, a comedian/performance artist came to Portland and did “The Beyoncé Experience” and wore a wig and had gay dancers with him and that was one of my favourite shows ever. Yeah, so that was inspiring!

What’s your signature dance move, I know you defiantly got one Ryan from that at the end of the set? (He owned the floor)
J: I don’t go out, I don’t dance. Only on tour.
R: I love when he does though, its awesome!
J: It’s horrible!
R: I don’t dance like on stage when I got out, I tone it down, I cant go out on a dancefloor like BLUGHG, Some things are strictly for performance but for the most part when im around other people I don’t go too crazy I respect peoples space.
J: What that called, grinding though, that’s always nice. That’s how you get laid thts how it happens. You like it?
Love it!
R: Yeah, it doesn’t matter you just find someone you like!
J: That’s how it happens!
R: It’s very primal.

yellow

What live acts do you aspire to be as good as?
J: Of Montreal are amazing live! We played with them at Monolith festival, Colorado. They really put a lot of effort into putting on a live show. There is a lot of thought- interesting clothes, people coming out doing crazy shit.
R- I don’t even like Of Montreal that much, but live is amazing for sure. There aren’t that many live shows, I don’t really know, There just aren’t many good live bands…Broadcast they don’t do much, but they have a certain energy while they are playing that draws you in.
J: Deerhunter’s great live, they are one of my favourites.

What should people be prepared for when they see you live?
R: I like it when people don’t know what to expect, when people don’t know who we are. When there’s some mystery about it. I like going to something and not knowing anything about it and then when its really good, it being awesome like makes me feel like I have a secret now.
J: Sometimes you can see Keil’s junk when he is playing drums, like a lot because he wears dresses. Be prepared.

I thought they were nice boys.
If you think they are nice boys,
Follow them on twitter
Add them on myspace
AND BUY THEIR TUNE HERE

Categories ,beyonce, ,Broadcast, ,deerhunter, ,Monolith Festival, ,Of Montreal, ,Pyramiddd, ,radiohead, ,Smash Hits, ,Starfucker, ,The Fuegees

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