I spoke with Jason Bell recently to find out what the band is all about.

antiMUSIC: I got your record just about week or so ago and I love it. It's excellent. It sounds a lot different to everything else that's out there.

Jason: Thank you. I appreciate that.

antiMUSIC: I guess to start off with, like I say, your record really sounds like nothing else out there. Did you experiment very much with the sound or is this just naturally the sound when you three get together?

Jason: I think at the time, that was the sound that came together. We had sort of a format in mind that we wanted, you know, electronic elements, we wanted to also make it seem as natural as we could, you know, adding a lot harmonies, the big guitars and that sort of thing. It's kind of a challenge trying to bridge those two elements together, there so divergent from one another. But you know at the time I think we kind of just went out, like we kind of just, this hot and cold thing and put it together and that's sort of what came out and some time has passed since we made the record. We're changing stylistically, but yeah…

antiMUSIC: Can you give a bit of background on the band, who everybody is and all that?

Jason: Well, um, Kevin and I, Kevin's the lead singer, and I write all the songs, and lyrics and then bring them into the group, which would be the two of us and Dan, our drummer and then we work on the arrangements together and we usually end up changing it usually from the original format. And then, Kevin and I have been writing songs together for about 10 years, and we never really could keep a band together. Just you know, for a variety of reasons. And once we finally got our sh*t together and decided that it was time to stop screwing around and make a serious attempt at making a good record, and we keep playing together it sort of happened. And we found Dan through our bass player at the time, and our bass player quit for some personal reasons and then Dan stayed. And then we just decided to start programming bass as opposed to trying out bass players. We didn't want to deal with that whole thing so, we jut decided that Dan would be the bass player and the drummer. So that's how we started.

antiMUSIC: How do you cover that live?

Jason: Well, we sequenced every thing. So we, all the drum machines and bass lines and everything are sequenced. Then we, Dan plays to a click track and so we are on the grid basically, so there's no improvising while we're playing. The songs have to be really cool. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: Yeah, no room for error.

Jason: Yeah, no room for error. You can't screw up. You have to keep time really well. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: Your record is a bit of Pink Floyd and My Bloody Valentine all at once. Do you guys have a diverse set of influences?

Jason: We really do. It's funny that you say that because a lot of different reviews that I've read, well I kind of stopped reading reviews for a while, but when the record first came out in the States it was cool because the reviews were very distant from each other. We would get Depeche Mode and Echo and the Bunnymen. And the next thing we would get would be Pink Floyd and Cold Play. And the next thing we would get would be the Postal Service so I think it shows we definitely all have different influences in our musical tastes, our collections are different in terms of what we listen to. There's some things that we agree on. I mean we definitely agree on Pink Floyd, Radiohead, the Beatles. We definitely all like British Pop so I think that comes through in the music.

antiMUSIC: Are you guys U2 fans at all cuz I hear a bit of The Edge with the guitar work?

Jason: It's pretty impossible not to, I think in this day and age, be influenced by U2 and Radiohead if you're doing sort of anthemic rock. I mean our goal on this record was to like I said, bridge these elements, but also we wanted to make a big sound with just three people. We thought that would be a cool thing to try and do and present the live audience, with there's only three dudes, but we sound like a five or a six piece. So when you're trying to make that kind of thing happen, you know, obviously you have to fill space with programming and sequencing so as a guitar player it's pretty hard being, when I was growing up, obviously like U2 was a huge band, Radiohead all these kinds of bands. Everyone was saying you guys are the next U2. You sound like U2 and then it was you sound like Radiohead. Bands are using big guitars and I mean, those guys, that whole scene of bands are all awesome players. I think you're a bit of a jackass if you haven't been influenced by The Beatles or any of those British bands.

antiMUSIC: How did the record come together? Which songs helped determine the framework of the record?

Jason: Well, we didn't have enough money to go into the studio to record 20 tracks and then choose so we went in with what we thought were our 10 best tracks and you know it's kind of a concept record with themes to some of the songs and the title itself so we picked the songs that kind of fit the overall theme the best and we thought would make the coolest play list and sort of present all sides of what we're trying to do.

antiMUSIC: What's the significance of the record title?

Jason: Well, it encompasses the three themes of the record which is time, love lost, and of course the cost of conflict being American in the last eight years hasn't been the easiest thing in terms of geopolitics, so, you know, there's a lot of maligned memory on the record. There's a lot of dealing with conflict in the course of love. Obviously the title relates to all three of those themes. Each song has at least one of those messages and some songs have multiple messages. One track in particular is sort of the capstone of the whole thing. It actually has all three messages in it.

antiMUSIC: Agalloch is from the Portland area also and when I was talking to them, they said that the area definitely had an effect on their sound. You share some elements with them only in the atmospheric qualities of the music (not the actual genre). Would you say that your location influences you?

Jason: Absolutely, right now, really for a lack of a better word, it's just the hotbed of kickass bands. You know, the list of bands…it just goes on and on. It's like everybody I know is in a kick ass band. it's a pretty cool community of bands and musicians. You know, I think also, weather for me as a songwriter plays a lot into how the music is played. It rains a lot, and it's very cloudy most of the time, even in the summer so you spend a lot of time indoors, and you can't help but let some of the melancholy affect you, you know, it just gets pretty f**king depressing.

antiMUSIC: You're probably tired of explaining it, but your band name comes from a Belle & Sebastian song title. What was it about the title that struck you as a great name for a band?

Jason: Well, you know, it's weird. I never realized how naming the band in reference to the Belle and Sebastian song would be such a big deal. But you're right, I have to answer that question all the time. The unromantic truth of it is, I was at the Oregon coast and I was at the beach and I went to sit in my car to get stoned (laughs) and that song came on, and Belle and Sebastian is a cool band, but I'm no way a super fan, I don't have any of their records. I like the band but that's it. And the song came on and I was high as a f**king kite (laughs) and they were singing that refrain, "stars of track and field you are", and I just thought, Wow, that would be a cool name for a band. My family is a long line of track athletes, except for me, so it just kind of struck my funny bone, like that's ironic, that sounded cool, and it would be a funny thing for my family to hear it. And then we did it and we just moved on, and like everybody in the band, wow, that's a cool name. Our drummer had never even heard the song until he read a review of me explaining how we picked it. He didn't even know we came up with the name. So, but you know, people make a big deal about it. Most people think it's cool (laughs) but it doesn't mean that much to us.

antiMUSIC: Anything else that you would like to mention that I didn't ask you?

Jason: No, you had good questions. I appreciate your time.

antiMUSIC: No problem. I appreciate you calling and I wish you all the best with the record.

Jason: Thanks Morley. Take care.