I Recently got a chance to talk to Battle Flags main dude Jack Budd about his (mostly) solo project and recently released album, Color Engine.
FNR: I’m listening to your album right now and there’s so much stuff going on, it really sounds like a full band. Are you playing everything? Are there any other faces working behind the scenes?
JB: Basically it worked like this. I tracked about 80% of the music in my room, so I am playing bass, guitar, some drums and synth parts. After I had the songs done, or at least mostly done, I took them via jump drive over to my friend, Josh Scolaro’s, studio. At his studio we added some live drums, vocal layering and a couple other extraneous parts. Also, all the EQs and fine tuning was done by Josh as I have absolutely no patience for that drudgery. I am currently piecing together a band so I can pull this music off live and Josh will also be included in that. I am hoping to gig by late July.
FNR: It’s a really eclectic sound. I know people throw around the word ‘eclectic’ like crazy these days, but your record is really an exception. How do you compose these songs? Is it a kind of a traditional write it on guitar then record it thing, or are you building them from scratch on the computer ( or not using a computer at all! ) there are so many layers.
JB: Most of this album came together from me just spending time experimenting with sounds and rhythms. I had never recorded anything before and in learning how to use Logic (recording program) I spent lots of time tinkering around in different sound banks and finding noises I liked. Typically that would spark an idea or melody and I would progress from there. I was kinda surprised myself at the music I was making. It is more electro than I thought it would be. Also, I never thought going into it that my songs would be so poppy as I have always been something of a rock musician but that’s just what came out. It was a little more Beach Boys and a little less Black Flag than I was expecting. I am very pleased though, I can’t wait to start the next album.
FNR: Your music sounds really diverse, does your record collection? Any favorite new records at the moment. Favorite old records?
JB: I am always looking for stuff to listen to. Recently I have been vibing on Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. I also like this guy White Flight, his project is pretty rad, can’t figure out why more people don’t know him. I like what Micachu is doing, Yeasayer, Animal Collective. I get down to a lot of older punk rock like Adolescents, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, etc. Some hip hop, old Common, Ohmega Watts, Roots, Talib Kweli. I love Death From Above, I pretty frequently have them playing.
As much as this is a cliche to say I really listen to everything, I think you have to, especially if you are making music. Creatively I am always inspired by what I hear. I cherry pick sounds and ideas from other peoples music and try to make them my own. I have to laugh, I was recently labeled as playing music in the Chill wave/glo-fi genre, so whatever that is I guess I listen to a lot of it.
FNR: Your songs are pretty lyrically dense, do you have a favorite lyricist?
JB: When I was a kid I started smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee because John Lee Hooker had a line about it in one of his songs and I wanted to sound like him. It didn’t work.
FNR: So, I know this record just came out, but what are you planning on doing next?
JB: I was going to get cardboard cut-outs, attach them to instruments, tie them to fans to make them move and just work off my computer. However, I thought it would be lame if I showed up to a club and basically sang karaoke over myself. I mean, I would need some pretty rocking cut-outs and probably some explosions to make that work. I have started assembling a band and am hoping to start gigging in late July. If people like it than hopefully some tours. I keep getting emails from Sweden so maybe we will go there, catch a hives show and shop at IKEA. Cross you fingers!
you can check out the whole album @ www.battleflagsmusic.com
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this is pretty cool.
is there a 2nd noisecast in the works?
workin on it!