No Age is defintely the best band around. They bring their own style of punk to the table, and are the nicest, coolest guys one will ever meet. What makes them even more rad is that they're vegan.
Here they talk about how they met and formed No Age, their ex band, Wives, their newest and past albums, inspirations, and being vegan!
How did No Age form?
Dean. We formed in 2006 after our former band Wives self-destructed. No
Age was the outcome of that. Stripped it down from a three piece to a
two piece and went to town.
Randy. After Wives was over Dean and I knew we still wanted to play music together. So, we just started jamming and we were really into just keeping it open and see what we could come up with.
What was it like going from a 3 piece, Wives, to a 2 piece, No Age? How did it affect your sound?
D. It affected it greatly, different drummers can fully change the band. We were way more stripped down.
R.Going to a 2 piece was awesome because it was so much easier to get stuff done. We just had to be more creative with how we made sounds. We needed to work harder to fill out the sound. It was inspiring to think outside of the box regarding what we could use to make sounds and how we could put them together just the two of us.
How have your ideas/inspirations changed since Wives?
D.My goals for wives were similar to no age ones. Communicate to the community. No age is going for a larger scale discussion, wives were smaller scale.
R.Yeah, our ideas are always changing and evolving. We try not to get bored or stand still too long
What was it like to play with legendary bands like Sonic Youth and Pavement?
D. Very very cool. Playing at the Hollywood Bowl was surreal.
R. It was nutz!!! I was/am a huge fan of both of those bands. I saw them both play at Lollapalooza in 95' when I was 14. So it was especially surreal to be on the same stage as them.
Where and who did you work with for Everything In Between? What bands have they recorded?
D. We did half of it ourselves in our own practice space. The other half was done at a studio called Infrasonic Sound in Los Angeles. They recorded part of the Nouns record, Abe Vigoda, Beck, Mission Of Burma, Mars Volta etc...
R. Yeah, we worked in LA with Pete Lyman at Infrasonic. We worked with him on Nouns and Losing Feeling. We also recorded a bunch of stuff at N.A.P.S. (our practice space).
Who are your influences? How have they changed over the years?
D. I have so many influences. They do change over the years, it seems like I can find inspiration and influence in so many different things. Not just music, but art, friends, spaces, even food. All these things surround me and influence the art I try to create. It is exciting to think about how I will keep learning and changing.
R. I get really psyched on seeing what other friends are working on. Luke Fishbeck from Lucky Dragons is super inspiring to me because he makes beautiful music and presents it in a very accessible tactile way. So mind blowing. Jesse Spears inspires me because she has such good energy and is constantly making funny/cool/WTF art.
Books, film, life are also huge inspirations. In general just having time to let my mind wander and forget about myself is what inspires me the most.
How has the touring experience been?
D. It is great to see the world, but can get hard on family and friends. We are taking a long break coming up.
R. Touring is good. It is fun to get the opportunity to travel around and see the world outside of Los Angeles. But, y'know, it can be hard too, because you miss your family and friends and you miss out on cool events that happen that you wish you could be at. Touring has definitely taught me a lot about myself and the world and how I fit or don't fit in the world.
I've noticed from you last two albums to Everything In Between your sound has changed some. Is there a reason for this?
D. I would hope our sound has changed. We have never been in tested in doing the same thing over and over or follow a formula. I am glad you noticed!
R. I feel like we have a hard time repeating ourselves. There are always things that your instincts will attract you to, but overall we get bored of doing the same thing over and over. So, because of that I would imagine our sound is always changing. I have a tough time distinguishing the difference when I listen to our songs because I am always thinking about how we recorded the song and when we wrote it. In my mind there are a million ways to record a song and by the time the song comes out on a record I have probably thought about how it sounds waaaaay too much and how I imagined it or re-imagined it has changed and evolved. So that by the time the song is done and on the record it is the strange collage of ideas and I remember all the different forms it took on its way to being what it is.
What's it like touring when you're vegans?
D. Well, every day is an exciting search and reaffirmation why I am
vegan. It is easier some days than others. Luckily we tell the promoters ahead of time, so they have vegan snacks at the show. Then we look up happycow, ask the locals, look for vegetarian places and health food stores. There is always a grocery store to get veggies, fruit, peanut butter, nuts, bread etc. When all else fails, we can go to Subway.
R. being vegan and touring has its ups and downs. I love rolling in to a new town and finding the cool/weird/awesome vegan restaurant. It might not be in the center of town, so you gotta go exploring and find where the Vegans in that town hang out. At the same time it can be tough because either there are not a ton of vegan options where ever you are at or there is really cool interesting local cuisine that is not vegan. Overall, being vegan and traveling is awesome but y'know sometimes you gotta work harder to find good food and not be too picky about what is available.
What are your favorite bands?
D.Faith, Black Flag, OMD, Public Enemy, Gun Outfit, Gas, Amps For Christ, Husker Du, Bad Brains, NWA, Mika Miko, Dow Jones and the Industrials, Infinte Body
R.I love:
Slayer
Sonic Youth
Squeeze
Captain Beefheart
Tom Waits
Jonathan Richmam
Crazy Band
What does No Age mean?
D. Anything you want! To me it means make your own rules, write your own story.
R. No Age means do your own thing. Don't worry about what other people say or do just make your art and have have fun!!!
Thanks No Age! P.S., No Age, Andy says hi!
