Music, Style & Culture

Crystal Antlers: Green Credentials

"Bands like the Sleepers, Flipper and Crime are my bread and butter."

Long Beach’s answer to eco-friendly punk, Crystal Antlers self-released their second album ‘Two Way Mirror’ on 1st August. El Hunt had a chat with frontman Jonny Bell to find out more about the album and the band’s green credentials.

Your new album is release very soon. Are you excited about having new music out there?
Yes, we're very anxious to get some new music out there. We’ve had these songs done for almost a year. We’re already halfway done writing the next one!

Do you have a personal favourite track from ‘Two Way Mirror’?
I like the song 'Fortune Telling'. It feels really different from our older stuff –but somehow still connected. It’s got a kind of classic feeling ending to it which we’ve never really allowed ourselves to do before. It’s also a three part linear arrangement which is one of my favorite ways of arranging a song too.

The Mars Volta’s Issiah "Ikey" Owens produced the album. What was it like working with him?
Ikey is a great friend; we’ve known him for years now. He actually used to play with us before we worked together on the EP, so he already knew our band inside out. He’s got a very laid-back approach to everything and he’s one the best when it comes to trying to get a good performance out of someone. He’s also stoned a lot!

Last year you started writing the album in a barn in La Punta Banda. Why did you choose to go to Mexico?
I’d just finished reading the William S. Burroughs book Queer on tour and it made me want to go and explore Mexico City. Cora and I were floating around in a pool after the tour was over, and started talking about the possibility of renting a space in Mexico somewhere to write the record. We’d tried a few times previously to do similar things, but we never really had the time or money to make it happen. This time everything fell into place really naturally and it was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

What made you decide to release it on your own label, Recreation Ltd?
We’d self-released everything apart from 'Tentacles' on our own (or on friend’s) small labels so we already knew what’s involved making it happen. I think with this one we just didn’t want to relinquish control, and we’d already funded the recording ourselves. There were labels interested, but it didn’t feel like it made sense to have a middleman involved. We’ve always had a close relationship with our fans and wanted to be able to sell direct to them.

Black Flag’s Raymond Pettibon designed Sonic Youth’s ‘Goo’, and also your cover for ‘Two Way Mirror’. Why did you choose him?
SST (Black Flag’s independent punk label) was an ever-present part of our upbringing in music living in southern California. It was really what introduced us to Raymond’s art. I’d been a big fan of his work since I was a kid and of course I’d always wondered what it would be like if he ever did artwork for one of our records, but I never thought it would happen. I remember when I was at his studio looking at his older artwork that looked similar to the stuff I’d seen on SST. I deliberately tried to choose stuff that I felt seemed separate from that.

What scenes influence you as a band? Do you feel influenced by LA’s punk scene given that you’re from Long Beach?
The first wave LA punk scene has definitely been an influence, but for me personally, the early San Francisco scene was much more influential. Bands like the Sleepers, Flipper & Crime are my bread and butter…

What other bands influence your music?
Anyone that’s got a good song and thinks differently. I love Chet Baker and Jacques Brel. Besides punk, I grew up on a lot of abstract 50’s and 60’s music. Henry Jacobs’ audio collages, lots of spacey Jazz like Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders, and also Bizarre records with Zappa, Captain Beefheart and all that stuff.

In the past the band have toured in a vegetable-powered vehicle. Are you concerned about the ecological impact of touring?
Except for our first West Coast tour, all of our touring in the US has been in a vegetable oil powered vehicle. The first two were on a school bus!
I’m concerned about the ecological impact of everything. Travel in the US in incredibly inefficient, and it’s a shame. Touring in a grease-powered van isn’t going to make a huge impact, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s not a sustainable solution for everyone though, and requires a lot of maintenance. We spend quite a bit of time under the van while on the road!

Do you think it’s important for artists to voice concerns about green issues?
Only if it’s something they really care about. I don’t like music that’s didactic though, it doesn’t seem like a very effective strategy if you actually want to convince people to change. Captain Beefheart was great at burying really thoughtful opinions in abstract songwriting (i.e. Petrified Forest) …I think it’s much more interesting to let people come to their own conclusions about this kind of thing.

Will we be seeing you in a similar tour van for your UK tour later this year?
We’ve looked into doing it in the UK/Europe, but it seems like it would be much more difficult, plus probably more expensive to get started over there. There’s also the big problem that in most places you have to steal the grease and we’d have a hell of a time if we lost our visas/passports overseas! Maybe we’ll figure out a way that we can tour on public transport for the next one though…

What are Crystal Antlers’ plans for the future?
We’re building our own studio right now, and we’re looking forward to recording and releasing our next record very soon. We just need to make our money back on this one first!

Crystal Antlers' new album 'Two Way Mirror' will be released on 1st August.