An Exclusive Interview With Musician "Ender" - September 18, 2005
(Official website:
http://www.enderhq.com |
Myspace:
myspace.com/enderhq.com)
Listen to a 15 minute exclusive medley of Ender's music (Realmedia)
Jonathan Wayne (U2Station.com Founder): What is your background in music?
Joel VanBrocklin: It's not a hugely extensive background, to tell you the truth.
My whole family either plays music, likes it, or is involved in other ways. For
instance, my uncle has been a teacher, has been in bands, has got a degree from
the Crane School of Music. My grandfather sings, etc... Myself, I started on
the drums, I guess you could say, at age 2 or 3, when I had a little Muppets
drumset. I have pictures of me playing that somewhere. All through higschool I
was taught and played the drums, and I played in concert band, jazz band and
marching band. I didn't really start singing until around the time I graduated
highschool and was teaching myself guitar and how to sing primarily through U2
but also through bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Spacehog and Collective Soul.
I was in a metal/pop band in 1996 and 1997 called the Waffle Senate, where I
played the drums. It was fine except that the other members of the band were
part of a drug culture I had no interest in, and although no one really got to
have a hand in writing songs but the singer, I could pretty much do what I
wanted drum-wise because I was the drummer and had a good feel for how the music
should be played. I eventually left that because I decided I wanted to write
and sing my own music. I briefly had a band in 1999 but nothing was getting
accomplished so that's when I began formally recording my own stuff. I was very
lucky because I excelled at music classes at St. Lawrence University, and by the
time I was a sophomore there I was a student lab technician so I had access to
all the equipment and software in the music labs. I more or less taught myself
how to do everything I was doing, and if you hear the earlier work up to 2003, I
would say, that really shows. From 2003 to 2004 I had another band, called
Starways Congress, where I was the lead singer and we played a lot of my tunes,
but that fizzled by late summer 2004. From that point on I've been gradually
building my home studio, piece by piece, and buying up books to learn how to mix
things, etc. The progress has definitely shown over the past couple years.
JW: Why has U2 been such an influence to you?
JVB: It's strange because when I was 12 or 13, that area, I was into metal and
punk. I liked Guns & Roses and Green Day and Aerosmith. It all changed when, at
age 15, I had my first real teen heartbreak. And you know how that can be.
Feels like the world is falling in on you and you'd like nothing more than to
just die. Well, at the time, I had had U2's Achtung Baby for about a year, but
had never listened to it. One night I put it in the CD player and it spoke to
me. It pretty much hasn't left the player since. My whole view on what music
is and could be, (as opposed to, say, noise) really changed. I heard MUSIC
coming out of those speakers. I heard heavy words. It was my first basic
experience where I understood that what I was going through was normal, and I
would be okay. And that's essentially what introduced me to being more... I
guess you could say, Globally conscious. You know, where I understood that I'm
just a speck. But at the same time, I quickly felt that I should do something
with this speck. By that time I had wanted to be a rock star for ten years
already (not really a long story but we'll say it is for now), and this was
pivotol in shaping how I was going to think aesthetically in those terms.
Needless to say, I bought all their albums by the end of that year, and was
enthralled by U2: At the End of the World. My mind opened up at that point.
Through the experiences they had, the people they mingled with on that tour, I
became interested in the works of C.S. Lewis, Salmon Rushdie, and the songs of
Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, as well as what it meant to be a rock star. I
had a new view: there was more to it than decadence. You could be a rock star
and still have your feet firmly on the ground. You could use it to do good in
the world. I remember the first time I read about ZooTV and saw the Sydney
concert I was blown away by how incredibly mindblowing the concept was. Because
of that I've always wanted to put together imaginable rock shows, not just gigs.
Even if it was in a bar. I want flashing lights! And in my mind, Passengers is
one of their greatest works. I still say it's a U2 album even if no one else
did (hell, they included a song on a U2 Best of... that should say something).
I could really go on for hours about this, but I'm just trying to at least skim
the surface.
JW: Which of the four members of U2 has inspired you the most and why?
JVB: Obviously they all mean the same, as no one member, or two, or three, is
U2. So I appreciate them all for that. However, to pick one who has inspired
me most? Bono. Hands down. He's the voice I learned to sing with, the words I
learned to write with. His lyrical imagery is beautiful in whatever era you
want to pick. I admire him for his endless campaigning for debt relief, feeding
the starved, helping the poor, etc. Sometimes I'm annoyed, and sometimes I sit
there and think, do what you do best. But... here's a guy who has a ton of
money and could blow it on anything he wants. Instead, he cares for a family, he
has a loving wife, he uses his influence to bring socially important issues to
the conscious minds of the populous. This is incredibly important to me. He's a
role model for many reasons. For one, he's living proof that you can be the
biggest rock star in the world and still have a loving, committed relationship
with a wife, and a supportive family. That means a lot, because I want that,
but I also realize that if I make it somewhere with my music, I'm going to be on
the road a lot. He's living proof that it can work. He's also a stand-up guy,
from what I hear. And I want to be that. I'm well aware that I can get a
swollen head sometimes. It's role models like that that keep you level, keep
you sane. He should be really proud. Someday if I get to meet him I just want
to tell him thank you, even though I'm well aware of the fact he's probably
heard it a million times.
JW: When did you start recording your music and what was the catalyst for you to
start making music?
JVB: I started recording music on my friend's four track cassette recorder back
in late 1997, early 1998. My first demo was actually called "Lemon Tea", and at
the time, my stage name was Wiggins. (I later changed it because I didn't like
the name, but my current name is a reference to the same thing). I mainly did
it for the same reason I still do it - I didn't have any other option if I
wanted to get things done. With no band, I had to do it all on my own, and I
had to start somewhere. After doing a couple of those during 1998, I graduated
to all digital in 1999, when I was the student tech at the music lab. I think
the catalyst was two-fold. The first was that I was disenchanted in the Waffle
Senate (the metal band I played drums in), because I got very little input on
the songs themselves, and honestly, all the songs sounded the same. I wanted to
break out from behind the drums and do what I knew I could do, because even
though at the time I had no ability, I knew I had all the talent and drive. The
second was the fact that the band I had in summer 1999 was just... nothing ever
got done. So I said, fine, I'll do it myself. And there you have it.
JW: Despite the fact that U2 has undergone many musical changes/phases, has that
also influenced your music to also change over time?
JVB: Yes, actually. And as a matter of fact, I look for that in other bands I
like. Such as the Smashing Pumpkins (still crossing my fingers on a reunion),
and the Tea Party. I'm hoping The Killers can impress that way, and although I
know Coldplay has it in them, I'm disappointed that they haven't evolved very
far musically and sonically yet. As for myself, I'm a student of many musics
really, so it's only natural. Though I usually speak about the same things over
and over again, I do it different ways. Neon Apocalypse in 2001 was a concept
album that sounded like a hip-hop group that learned to play music, for the most
part. The only reason it came out that way is because I only had access to drum
loops, no real drums, when recording. Scarlet Dawn in 2003 was more straight up
rock/pop, and this year's Lemonymous was somewhat ambient, somewhat pretention
and somewhat pop, but always experimental. It was a lot of electronica. Right
now I'm going back and rerecording old tunes and cleaning up their sound or
evolving them enough where they're more to my mental state now, but still have a
ring of their original versions in them. (much like I'm hoping U2 does if they
go back and do POP... actually... they better not Bomb it, they better stick to
their Pop guns). But I'm also recording all new songs, and they're more
straight up rock like "Vampire". The thing that bothers me about not being a
well-known artist is that, over the last 5 years, I've gone through many stages
and phases and I've evolved a lot. But no one knows. No one cares. I really
wish people could see me evolve and grow. I wish people could know of all these
ideas I've had and concepts I've run (and sometimes failed) with. If I ever do
become well known, I don't think I can go back and repeat some of that, simply
because, as Bono once put it, "There are no reverse gears on this tank." But
change is important. You have to be able to evolve. You have to want to
challenge yourself. You have to want to go out on a limb enough where you know
you might fail, otherwise, what's the risk? What are you proving to yourself
and others?
JW: Do you like bands that constantly change their sound?
JVB: As long as they retain the core of who they are, yeah. I mean, I love all
of U2's work for what it is but sometimes I like it for what it isn't. I like
Achtung Baby more for how much of a departure from Rattle and Hum it was than I
like it for what it actually is itself. I like Adore by the Smashing Pumpkins
because although Jimmy wasn't there (and let's be honest, you need Jimmy), there
was still this core Billy Corgan flow. This is one of the reasons that, while a
couple of the songs are good, Coldplay's new album disappoints me. It's really
just more of the same thing - too many slow ballads, not enough rocking. That
band has to Judas it at some point. The Tea Party is a band that has
consistently changed its sound and has remained solid all throughout.
Collective Soul is, in most cases, another. I think that ability to change like
that is a quality I certainly look for in new bands I'm discovering. It's
something I'm interested in seeing the Killers pull off. Do they have it or
not? And it's something I would want if I had a full band. What did we do
before and what are we going to do now and how are they not the same?
JW: What other bands/artists appeal to you?
JVB: I've pretty much mentioned them above, but I'm also into Beck, I love
Bjork's voice (check out "Amphibian" if you never have), CCR, Queen... some
pretty pivotol bands. I love 80's music, unless it's a power ballad or hair
band stuff. I can't help it, I loved the New Wave cheap experimental pop. It's
part of what makes me like what I like now. See, there was pop music then just
as there is now, but back then the norm was to be different, not cookie-cutter
like it is now. To me, the fact that bands like The Darkness, or The Killers,
can break in, it says a lot. Gives me a lot of hope as well. I think at some
point the masses will have enough of Britney, and we'll have a Big Band era
again or something. We're about due for another renaissance aren't we? My
tastes go all over the place though. I admit to liking Ace of Base. Sorry. I
loved 90's dance music. Some of the work by Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie is
stunning. It's really hard to peg it down. I'm known by my friends as sort of a
music fascist. I can be hypocritical and say "I hate noise" but then turn
around and "Beautiful People" is blaring out of my speakers. It's hard to
explain that really, and I don't try. All I know is I would never play that
song in a band. It's not my taste performance-wise.
JW: What is the hardest thing for a musician to do while in the recording
studio?
JVB: Maintain composure. I've broken a lot of chairs. I think I broke a
microphone once, and I did break a guitar over my knee another time (it was old
and not very strong so...). I get very frustrated when a guitar doesn't stay in
tune or my computer isn't grabbing sounds and rendering them the way it should.
I think the most frustrating thing for me is when I can't sing. I'll set aside a
day for it and then blow it, come out with nothing good and I'll just be
miserable the rest of the day. Everything else can be perfect but when I open
my mouth and off-key notes and horribly sustained sounds drone out, I lose it.
I can't control it yet. And it's very frustrating. I try to drink as much tea
as I can to stave off my post-nasal drip, which is pretty chronic and annoying.
JW: Do you prefer to play live concerts or just record albums?
JVB: Both. I want to record albums and tour them across the world. I think you
can't have one without the other. When you're trying to piece your themes
together, you need both quotients. ZooTV would've made no sense without Achtung
Baby or Zooropa, or vice-versa. I wanted to do a really cool tour behind Neon
Apocalypse but had no band, so the concept behind it fell short. I really think
both pieces are important and if I can, I will do both. If I HAD to choose
though... I'd pick live. Studio is too frustrating for me. I've only played a
few shows but I can tell you that when you're having a good night, there's
nothing like the feeling of performing right there for people, live and in
person. It's incredible. It turns me over. The downside of that idea though
is that you have no official version of the song itself. So... I mean, that's
part of why you need both.
JW: So in your few live concerts, what do you recall as the most memorable
moment either on or off the stage?
JVB: I'll be honest with you, I don't think I have one yet. I haven't played
live in a year, and before that I think there was four shows in Starways
Congress and maybe 2 with the Waffle Senate. So I'm a baby in a live setting
right now. I want to change that so badly. I don't think I have a most
memorable moment right yet because there isn't anything that stands out as
incredible in its own way. Being on stage is incredible enough. The difficult
thing is I live in a part of the country where no one cares what you can do, or
what talent you have, they want you to be a human jukebox. So talent and
originality are simply not appreciated. So, if we managed to pull off gigs with
original tunes, and it went over okay, that's because friends and family were
there. I will say, however, the most memorable moment in a bad way - this jerk
screaming for Metallica between every song we played at the county fair last
year. I really wanted to deck him. And by the time our show was over I was
right pissed. I left that gig in a flurry of anger. It's so disrespectful when
there's a group trying to show you their thing and you're asking for someone
else's music. Don't hang around if you don't like it. I'm not shy about that.
I refuse to be a cover band or play more than 3 covers in a set unless
absolutely necessary. Not because I can't pay my respects to my influences, I
can do that in spaids. But I'm not working hard to promote other bands. I'm
not working hard to show you how well I know someone else's riff. I'm working
hard to win you over, and with my own blood sweat and tears. Granted, not
everyone will like it, and that's okay. But if you don't like it, bugger off.
Not only that, but if you can win a crowd over with your own tunes, then you've
done a hell of a job. You've won way more than winning a crowd over with covers
will do. Sorry, I went on a tangent there but that particular incident gets me
going every time.
JW: When you eventually have a full band behind you, what kinds of venues could
you see yourself playing in?
JVB: Actually, I'm working to get a band together up here right now. I don't
know what will happen, but my intention is to avoid bars (where they are
especially clear on making you a jukebox). I want to play small theaters if
possible, or special places on college campuses perhaps. And I want to
advertise as a band that does originals so that people know before they get
there not to expect covers. And I want to put on a show. I've been talking it
over making it a big ellaborate project, but making sure to either do it through
homemade devices (like, say, controlling a stack of strobes through a power
strip that you're utilizing like a guitar pedal), or through creative means,
(like taking an 8 spot runner and instead of pointing it down at the band or
audience, put it on the floor near the rear of the stage and point it up a
reflective curtain of sorts). So I want to be creative, imaginative, memorable,
and original. So that dictates a venue that will allow for that. What those
venues are up here, I don't know.
JW: What do you make of all these post-punk, new wave "hipster" bands coming out
with their albums?
JVB: Depends on what band you're referring to. I don't like emo. In fact, it
annoys me. I just don't relate, all the bands sound the same, and they're too
whiny and only talk about highschool angst. I'm more interested in something
that's worldly or globally effective. My songs talk about broader, farther
reaching issues than whether or not your heart was broken at 15 (ironic isn't
it, having said what I've said already...). I question the universe, I question
the point of life, I question my own sanity sometimes. If you're talking about
bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Killers, I'm really open to them. Remember,
I'm an 80's freak. So, I welcome this sound as if it was fresh, and admittedly
because I'm disenchanted by the cookie-cutter state of the business right now.
I have to admit, I didn't think it would happen, but I've fallen in love with
the Killers. And it might be because of the recent heartache I'm dealing with,
but it's there nonetheless.
JW: What's cooler: all these trendy hipster bands or U2? Explain why?
JVB: U2. No band has ever been this interesting, this useful, this relevant,
this consistently good, this amazing, this heartfelt, this personal, this
creative, for as long as they have. That's something that's cool in and of
itself. U2 is cool for all the reasons the Stones are not. The Stones may be
around still, and I respect that, but they've never proven there to be a reason
to be. U2 consistently does it time and time again. That's cool.
JW: Do you think Bono is over-publicizing himself with the ipod and commercials,
in addition to all of the political campaigns and summits he attends?
JVB: You can overdo it sometimes yeah, but that's the risk you take. I mean, I
can understand the band saying "we're going to be flamed because Bono won't shut
up", but regardless of whether or not you whole-heartedly agree with him, you
have to respect him for putting his career on the line to help people. I'd
rather hear Bono out there campaigning for debt relief than hear about Scott
Weiland going into rehab again, you know what I mean? Bono is taking his fame
and stardom and putting it to use. It's not that someone else can't do it. But
HE IS. You know? I want to do that someday. Probably not that ferociously but
still... He's a crusader, and one with a level head. One who does the
research, one who doesn't just pick sides willy-nilly because he knows the other
side might be in power someday. So he plays it well. As for the iPod thing, a
friend of mine asked me how I felt about the commercial and the deal. Did I
feel they were acting too much like a corporation? I said yes, but let's be
honest, U2 IS a corporation. For them to act completely against what they
actually are would make no sense. And I'm okay with that. It's a status
they've earned. It would be silly for a corporation to do bad business. So...
yeah... it is what it is. It's not selling out. It's trying something new and
different, and at the same time, probably doing what you should given what you
are.
JW: Is Myspace.com a good place to promote your music and is it deceptive for
appearing to be "underground" and hip when it has really become mainstream,
knowing that Fox News bought out the site?
JVB: I don't know much about its history as I've only recently gotten into it.
But I have made a lot of friends, and there are more people listening to my
music now than ever (though I suppose it's not saying much). So I'm pretty
happy with it. If it wants to appear "underground", let it. It knows what it
is. And I can't knock something that's been good for me so far. So I'll see
where it leads me.
JW: Thank you for your time.
JVB: Sure, its been my pleasure.
