Below is an interview we did with Teo from the Italian zine Shapeless back in December 2003. You can read the interview below in English or if you are Italian or just fancy a challenge, by visiting their website here. Teo: Would you like to introduce Foe to our readers, tracking the history of the band and describing the current line-up? Jason: Okay. Hello, we are Foe from London and we are an instrumental rock band. We have been together since November 2001, but played together before that in a band called Geiger Counter. So far we have released an album called ‘Arm Yourself With Clairvoyance' and contributed to a split album with American Heritage and Art of Burning Water called ‘The Combined Stupidity of Spiteful Men. House of Stairs released both CDs. Our bass player Crawford Blair recently parted company from the band so we are currently a two-piece. We have a new bass player lined up and hope to audition him soon, but at the moment it's just me Jason Carty on guitar and Paul Westwood on drums. Teo: Your music is quite complex and anti-commercial. Why did you decide to express yourselves playing this style? Jason: We never really decided to play this music. It's just the stuff that comes out of our heads naturally because of the music that we listen to. Pretty much all of the music I have ever written has been outside of the ‘commercial' arena. It's just the way I write when I pick up my guitar. In my head I usually imagine the music being played by an orchestra, and am quite often disappointed by the actual size of the music when it is finished. I'm always striving to write epic pieces that you can get lost in, but I know I still have a lot to learn. Paul: Haha he knows he's awesome really! I guess it's not up to us to say what should be 'commercial' for these times, or where 'complexity' starts...well I suppose if the TV stations start broadcasting 'Prog Idol' then that could do something for us. But I am not so aware of the complexity of our music anymore, the way we do things simply feels RIGHT. Teo: I really appreciated the production of ‘Arm Yourself With Clairvoyance', it's essential and with live sounds (I hate ‘false' productions). Where did you record this album? How much time did you spend in studio? Did something strange happen during the recording sessions? Jason: The album was recorded in various places in London . We recorded Paul's drums in a school classroom with a portable recording set-up. After that, Crawford recorded his bass at the studio where he works. Then I added my guitars at my leisure at the Pancake Day Suite, which is our friend's recording studio. All of this took about a month but we spent a month after that mixing and tweaking it until we were happy. I wanted to go for quite a dry sound for this album because I'd been listening to AC/DC and Botch and was enjoying the weight that they achieved. Nothing strange happened during recording, but Paul found a tape of him from when he was a baby. You can hear his family quite clearly talking to him in his kitchen and then him responding with usual baby noises. All of a sudden, a muffled voice interrupts with what sounds like “Now easy clearing Homer”. Nobody on the tape acknowledges the voice, which is really spooky. We thought we should use it so we put it in the middle of the sixth track ‘Wasp-eating Bulldog'. Paul: I think we can be really proud of the production on our first album, it was hard and meticulous work that truly paid off. The business with the taped ghost voice wasn't the only strange thing that happened. At the place we recorded drums there was a piano in the corner and late at night it would play a gospel rendition of 'Easy Lover' by itself. Teo: How do you compose your songs? Is it difficult to find the exact matching of each part? Jason: When I write a piece of music I usually start by coming up with a couple of basic themes. Next the themes are warped and chopped and abstracted into as many variations as I can dream of. I've then got a massive palette of riffs to work with. Just by playing these initial riffs a few will naturally seem to want to go together making a chunk of music. When there are enough chunks I'll start getting ideas for a rough structure and will usually try and write it down to see what the shape of the piece looks like. If it looks like it's going to need any new chunks of a specific dynamic to make it work I'll then try and write those. That is the most challenging part because they are the bits that tie all of the other sections together. Generally speaking though, because all of the parts are quite closely related it makes it fairly easy to write the music. Many people just think that we are writing through-composed music that never repeats a single melody, but they are not paying attention properly. My new goal is to learn how to get their attention. Paul: Rehearsing material with the group can change a track quite considerably as well; early tapes of existing pieces are strikingly different from their outcomes. We are conscious of pushing ourselves further as musicians and writers with each new piece, and that is one of the most exciting things about being in Foe. Teo: How do you decide the titles of your songs? Jason: It depends. Sometimes a cool name will present itself and it inspires us to write a piece of music for it. Other times songs are named after characters from books or funny animals. We are currently writing a concept album about the lifecycle of African killer ants called ‘Siafu'. All of the song titles on that CD will be directly related to the life of the ants. Paul: 'Arm Yourself With Clairvoyance' was originally going to be called 'Charm Yourself With Hair Buoyance' but Jason as ever got his own way... Teo: When I write a review, I try to do some comparisons to try to help our readers to imagine how that album sounds. To describe your music I named US band Dysrhythmia, it was the most similar band to you in my opinion. Last days I read some reviews of your album, and most of them named Dysrhythmia. Does this comparison bother you? Jason: Not at all! They are great musicians. But I don't think the comparison goes any further than the fact that we happen to both be instrumental trios. I think our musical style is quite different to their's. The way our music is evolving will make this more apparent on our next album. Another band that we get compared to is Pelican. Again, this is very flattering given their reputation as a Hydra Head band, but we don't actually sound anything like them. It's weird. I'd say we sound closer to bands like Breadwinner and Meshuggah, although those bands are on a different level of greatness altogether. Paul: All comparisons are welcome in my opinion, as these can really encourage people to hear the album. I'm personally waiting for the moment that Foe is used as a comparator for other bands - only then can we get the full measure of what others think we have achieved. And if nobody ever gets compared to us, that would give encouraging signs about our untouchable originality haha! Jason: Hahaha! Teo: You've just finished a tour with American Heritage and Art Of Burning Water. Can you tell us something about this tour? Did you receive good responses? Jason: Everyone that came out to see the bands seemed to be pretty impressed, although with us in particular people don't really openly ‘rock out', but tend to just listen and appreciate it. People say nice things to us when we've finished playing. We met a lot of truly beautiful people on that tour…you know who you are… Birmingham and Leeds !!! Paul: Yes, thanks to all the lovely people for having us! Teo: I appreciated the philosophy of House Of Stairs, since I like labels that care only about quality and not about trends. How did you get in contact with them? Are you satisfied of their work? Jason: Well, It is a lot easier with House of Stairs because I am involved with running the label too. We started the label with members from the bands Ursa, The Monsoon Bassoon and Defeat The Young to create a home for our music. It took us a while to get the first release out but we have ended up releasing four albums in our first year, which is a great achievement for us. Paul: It's great to be associated with this label. I would strongly recommend anybody with a serious interest in challenging music (and by this I mean it's the MUSIC that's challenging, not the media publicity or the fashion haha!) to get in touch with House of Stairs - exceptional quality stuff guaranteed! Teo: What about Geiger Counter? Can you describe the music you played with your previous band? Jason: It was quite similar to Foe's sound, but had more themes in the pot due to the extra guitar by Jon Meade, and also had lots of quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamics. The first set of songs we wrote for Foe were an attempt to write a more linear style closer to that of band's like Breadwinner, hence the use of doubling and unison melodies with the guitar and bass. It is the melody that is most important to me and because we used to do a lot of poly-meter stuff in Geiger Counter it became hard to pick out a clear tune between the two guitars. I have started to miss the dynamic shifts in volume though, so I'm re-introducing that into the sound of Foe at the moment. Paul: Foe was a massive step ahead of Geiger Counter, and it's very difficult to look back to our predecessor now and hear it in the intended way. It's a shame that Geiger Counter didn't do more in terms of releasing and touring, but at the same time this has given us greater motivation to up the workload with Foe. Teo: Now arm yourselves with clairvoyance: where will you be in 2008? Which results will Foe have reached? Jason: For me, I'll be disappointed if we haven't made at least five albums that I'm proud of and haven't toured the UK and Europe at least once a year. I hope we've had a chance to play in America by then too. Teo: What about the underground scene in England ? Is it a friendly scene? Are there other good bands you want to suggest us? Jason: There isn't really a scene as such, more a case of lots of little bands doing their own thing. I have huge respect and admiration for bands like Art of Burning Water, Lapsus Linguae, Knife World, Silent Front, Monkey Boy, Stars In Battledress and NØUGHT. If you get a chance you should check out any or all of those bands. Paul: Yes, there is a lifetime's work in listening to underground rock music. Out of all the bands of course I would say we are the friendliest! ;) Teo: Are there Italian bands you like or dislike? Paul: The media in this country still perceives the UK as being the base for the 'rock tradition', so the only way to gain perspective on what is going on in Europe, Asia etc. is by word of mouth - so please excuse our ignorance! I quite like the progressive/experimental Italian artists of the 1970's such as Area, Franco Battiato, MEV, Goblin...also from more recent years Sadist (technical death metal) and Maurizio Bianchi (his earliest noise works). I admire the non-conformity in the scheme of modernity by composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Sylvano Bussotti. Turn of the 17th century Italian composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo wrote great music which has remained curiously awkward and dissonant to this day. Sorry, have to say I'm not much of a fan of Puccini or Verdi. Please give us some recommendations! Jason: Paul and myself have been getting into Goblin recently, in particular the soundtrack for ‘Suspiria'. We're also very big fans of Frank Zappa who was an Italian-American. Does he count? Teo: If I shift back of 1 step the letters of ‘Foe' I get ‘End'. So it means that Foe comes after the End... you talk about clairvoyance, and you also ‘pick on god for a good laugh'… uhm, tell me the truth, can you walk through walls? If you come from hereafter, can you have sex with groupies??? Jason: If you move the letters forward one step you get the initials GPF, which stand for the words Gifted, Premonition and Foresight, so the answer is yes to both questions, and no to the one that you are thinking about now. Paul: Or 'General Protection Fault' - last time that happened I walked through a groupie and had sex with a wall... Teo: Ok, we are at the end! Just close this interview saying what you want! Paul: Ta - hope all goes well for you and please keep in touch! xx Jason: Thanks for taking the time to interview us. We've really appreciated your interest in our band and enjoyed answering your questions. I hope that we can do it again some time…actually I've just had a vision, we will do it again at the end of next year. You are so generous, thanks!!!