100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions

Part Forty-Three: Namelessnumberheadman

instigated by dave heaton

I've been raving with all my might about the Kansas City-based trio Namelessnumberheadman for years, and I'll continue to do so until people start paying attention. Why? Their music is absolutely unique. They blend the spacebound with the earthbound like no one else. They create atmospheric, lost-in-layers-of-sound music that also hits you where you live, like a raw, intimate folk song would. Their albums When We Leave, We Will Know Where We've Been and Your Voice Repeating are among my absolute favorites of the last decade, and sadly they're both out of print. That's a sad fact of life: a fantastic band making innovative music, without a label that wants to help them get it out to the people (so record-label people, check them out!). Some of their new songs can be heard on their MySpace, and of course there's information about the band on their own website. For this interview they're mostly speaking in one unified voice, except where noted.

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What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

We have just finished a long recording process of putting all the pieces in just the right place – at least in our own minds. That part is really satisfying, but there is the next process where we figure out how to play the songs live. Our process lately has been to create things as the recording, where there are no physical limits, and then figure out later how to recreate things live with just our six hands. The songs change somewhat, and we still try to keep a lot of layers in, but it is cool to feel it really settle in to just the three of us playing.

Also, we really love looking for a label.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

I think the most frustrating part is the pressure to do things the right way: Get your CDR into the hands of some decision maker at a label, hope they like it, negotiate, release it, then get out on the road and promote it; rinse and repeat. I think that these pressures don't just come from the outside, but I think we impose them on ourselves. We begin to think that if we don't do things the right way, something bad will happen. I'm not sure I've thought it all through, but I think there's this big amorphous fear with the heart of it being that we won't be able to create music anymore, and that's just not true. We can create music without a label, without touring, without publicity, without fans even. The truth is that we, ourselves, are the ones that we should worry about pleasing, because if we're not enjoying ourselves, then we won't be working on this anymore.

What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects, etc).

I think my first two answers summed up lately. We just finished full-length #3 and are having it mastered right now.

We've been thinking and talking about some other outside projects, like resurrecting McCracken and some other things, but nothing has really materialized yet. We are talking about getting together to paint all of our keyboards the same color. Is that considered an extravaganza?

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?

A few years ago, we played a show at YJ's snack bar here in Kansas City. It's this tiny restaurant that has something on the order of five tables, four of which we had to move in order to set up our stuff. There were people sitting outside watching the show through the front window. It was exciting in that we just really filled up the room with music. We were completely cramped, way more cramped than even our practice space.

As far as recording, we have always recorded at home. But I guess the weirdest thing is listening back to songs we recorded in places that we don't live anymore. Like Andrew recorded a couple of songs at his last home, but his new house doesn't sound anything like that.

In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

Growing up in Oklahoma all different kinds of popular music affected us in different ways. There also wasn't a prevailing Oklahoma sound (the Lips were definitely their own thing even then). So I think we took our cues from those places and tried to start making our own thing. Then in Kansas City , there was the whole emo/post-math thing, but we didn't really fit into that. But I think it still affected us. I think we sort of glommed on to some of the sounds of that, but we certainly didn't fall right in line.

I know there are many local bands that I might not have listened to or even found had I not been friends with those bands. The Life and Times, the Architects, the Welterweights They're great bands, but I would have just categorically missed them

When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

Last week. It's pretty awesome, and it's about record labels. But it's all good stuff, promise.

Actually, it's hard to say. The most recent 'finished' song has probably been a couple of months ago, but we always have multiple chord progressions or tunes floating around the brain in various stages of construction. They range from big piano hymns to college rock riff to sampled percussion experiments. Then the fun is to see which of those you can morph and paste together.

As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?

Andrew: More. I think I'm more interested in things that are different than what I've heard before. For example, I don't seek out the sugary Matthew Sweet-like pop that I used to. Although I still love that stuff, and still love good melody and harmony, I usually look for stuff that's more abstract or stark now.

Jason: I'm only interested in listening to podcasts these days. It is really ruining my life.

Chuck: Sometimes I'm more interested, but lately I've just tried to notice the things I've overlooked in either the albums I've had for a while, or have been present on the radio during my lifetime. Mainly, I just let Andrew and Jason find the really good stuff, and I grab those for myself .

Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)

Chuck/Jason: Nothing in particular. Stuff that's on labels. Like we'd like to be.

Andrew (After shaking head at sarcastic band mates): String Quartets: Bartok and Schoenberg. Mark Hollis/Talk Talk

Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician?

Chuck: I think this is probably more of a guilty pleasure, but I really like Lloyd Cole. Love Story.

Andrew: Greg Brown. He's a prolific songwriter from Iowa who has made like 20 albums. No one album is a total masterpiece because he releases one practically every year, but his total body of work contains some of the most poetic, deeply-affecting, yet simple folk-blues based songs ever. If you look for one song, look for "Spring and All."

Jason: Jim Lehrer. His podcast theme song totally gets me pumped.

What's the saddest song you've ever heard?

We had a massive Sad-Off to try and decide the answer to this. I mean, we didn't get out a tournament bracket or anything (which we're not above), but there was a little one-upmanship going on. Some of the saddest are:

"Casimir Pulaski Day" – Sufjan Stevens
"Romulus" – Sufjan Stevens
" Happy Birthday to You" - Sufjan Stevens (just kidding)
"Copied Keys" – Kathleen Edwards
"TB Blues" – Jimmie Rodgers
"Empire of Light" – Tin Hat Trio

Band photo taken by Russell Gunn.

To check out the rest of the Q&As, click here.