There's been a lot of attention on His Name Is Alive again thanks to the release of the new compilation, All The Mirrors in The House (Home Recordings 1979 - 1986) via the Disciples label recently. The album, reviewed by me here, collected very early recordings from Warren Defever, with the resulting product revealing yet another shade to the His Name Is Alive sound, and some buried treasures from the elusive front-man's distant past.
I've been a fan of the band for decades now, and so I was thrilled to get the chance to interview Warren Defever and discuss the past, present, and future of His Name Is Alive.
Glenn, kenixfan: How did the release this year of All The Mirrors in The House (Home Recordings 1979 - 1986) come about? Where were the tapes?WARREN DEFEVER: At first I suspected it was a prank from Wolf Eyes when the guy from their British label expressed interest in reissuing a tape of early His Name Is Alive recordings on vinyl; I get a lot of prank phone-calls and weird fake emails, plus those guys are completely insane, or from another dimension or something, so nothing was really making sense. Next thing you know, I've signed a contract and they're using embarrassing old photos they found on my cousin's Instagram on the album cover... What the heck? What have I done?
I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and I like to just go with the flow. Also, I take a lot of naps and you know, when when you wake up from a nap and you're not sure what day it is, or if it's tomorrow or if it's still today? It's like that. The tapes are mostly cheap blue low-bias cassettes that my mom bought at Kmart, and the recordings start around 1979, and we're planning on doing three LP's that lead right up to the recordings for the first His Name Is Alive album from 1990 on 4AD, Livonia. Some of the tapes were in a plastic grocery bag, and some were in a medium-sized cardboard box stored at various times in a basement, a garage, and under a bed. I asked Shelley from Tyvek to transfer them for me. Most of the recordings are unlistenable nonsense, and because she's not a judgmental person, we're still friends.
Glenn, kenixfan: What were you listening to when you made these recordings, and what lead you to eventually submit music to 4AD?
WARREN DEFEVER: I started performing with my grandfather when I was five years old so I had a strong foundation in country, western, polkas, waltzes and old-timey music before I even really listened to music. One of my earliest memories is my grandmother placing an enormous accordion on my lap and instructing me to play but I couldn't barely reach around the bellows, and couldn't see the keyboard or the bass buttons. The ensuing laughter definitely negatively impacted my relationship with performing music in public. I'm probably still traumatized. In high school, my older brother John started buying records, tons of records, saving up his lunch money or stealing money, I guess, and so I was introduced to all the classics: Muddy Waters, Graham Parker, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Mott The Hoople, Billy Squier, etc. On one of the upcoming releases, I include some tapes of me playing fuzz guitar along with the radio on songs by Pat Benetar, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and Prince. A lot of Prince.
At some point, I heard the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and freaked out. I thought they sounded so weird that this must be psychedelic music. I mostly listened on headphones. They were so dreamy, so swirly, and none of it made any sort of logical sense. There was no clear linear development, no storyline, no connection to past music.
Glenn, kenixfan: Did you feel a part of a "sound" at 4AD? Or bristle at being lumped in with bands who may have been quite different but were considered similar simply because you were on the same label?
WARREN DEFEVER: Ivo had such a broad interest in all kinds of weird, depressing music that the 4AD sound really became whatever thing he was into. He was the first person to play me the Beastie Boys, and weird Japanese experimental music. I'm not a crazy person but I'm pretty open minded, so whatever's cool. I'm fine with whoever's lumping bands together, and that whole trip isn't a big deal for me. Like, sometimes even a chicken gets a piece of corn, you know?
Glenn, kenixfan: As the sound of His Name is Alive changed and progressed over time, how did you approach the recording process and touring?
WARREN DEFEVER: I'm not the world's greatest communicator, and over time I've come to learn that when a musician is performing it's often a shared experience between them and the audience, and that the goal seems to be to connect on a certain emotional level. I don't think that is something that I've ever tried to do, and I wouldn't expect an audience to understand what I've got going on when I don't really understand what's happening myself, and nobody in the band and really none of my friends have a clue as to what is going on in my head. The thing about recording is that music is primarily made up of sound, and I think people sort of forget that their nervous system is designed to accept and respond to certain frequencies. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it a bit, but that's what the exchange is really all about to me.
Glenn, kenixfan: Having seen His Name is Alive live in D.C. a few decades ago, I can't say I was surprised that the sound of the band live was different to the layered and complex music on the records. How did you view the touring process when you were younger? Did those live shows lead you to expand the sound of His Name is Alive?
WARREN DEFEVER: I look back now and regret all those times I stepped on the audience members' fingers who were standing right in the front of the stage, or all the times I drank their drink. I think a show should be fun. I think the energy should go places, there should be tension and there should be release, and I don't think that it all needs to make sense in a simple or direct manner.
Glenn, kenixfan: The music on All The Mirrors in The House (Home Recordings 1979 - 1986) is abstract, and nearly ambient. Are there any artists operating now whose music you enjoy, or feels similar to what you did so long ago?
WARREN DEFEVER: There's a great artist named ZONA from Istanbul. It doesn't seem to matter what instrument he plays -- guitar, modular synth, keyboards, or water -- it always has a really consistent vibe that is vague yet familiar. Z.M. Dagar always stays in dream-mode, probably because there's no tablas. But he's classic and ancient, and wouldn't technically be considered "operating currently", but I'm really just getting into him myself so it feels current. John Luther Adams' Become Ocean, is from the timeless time, the time before time. It sort of develops over 40 minutes, but I couldn't tell you a single thing that happens. It's basically perfect, and it is also an orchestra playing ambient -- no synths, no echo pedals. I keep meeting more 20-year-oold people who are listening to Eberhard Weber's The Colours of Chloe, so that counts as "new" even though it's from 1973. Also recent to me is Jon Gibson's Two Solo Pieces. A friend of mine named David Shettler sent that my way and, dang, it's probably the closest I've heard to perfect abstract and ambient, especially the bonus tracks. Thanks Dave.
Glenn, kenixfan: What's next for you as a musician?
WARREN DEFEVER: I've been studying the tanpura. I can play for about two hours before my legs fall asleep and my arm cramps up. Also, I've been playing the harmonium with my left hand, and the tanpura with my right so that's a thing.
Many thanks to Warren Defever for his time today.
All The Mirrors in The House (Home Recordings 1979 - 1986) is out now via the Disciples label.
More details on His Name Is Alive via the official website.