INTERVIEWS AND MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES

If you made it this far into this site, you may be wondering... WHO and WHAT are Anatomy of the Heads?! Here is an attempt at the early history of Anatomy of the Heads as told through interviews with two band members, Michael van Gore (Hawaiian shirt) and J.H. (beard & bass). Enjoy!

(by Marry-Sue Latin for BLAZAGG!)

J.H.: Mika and I first met at school in University, back in 2011, I think. It was during a party in someone's apartment. I was drunk and smoking weed while professing my love for the women on the cover of Zombi’s ‘Escape Velocity’ album, which had just came out. It turned out we both loved the music of Zombi, Relapse Records and Gorgio Moroder. So we started talking some more, you know? We were also into bands like King Crimson, Steely Dan, Dr. John, and I think even Slap Happy. And discovered we both had some instruments and started to meet regularly to play music together.

Van Gore: The idea of a duo appealed to me from the beginning, because I never wanted to be part of a conventional band or anything like that. It’s like being married to two or more people. I always wanted to do the Benny Goodmann - write music, hire an orchestra of people to play and record it, and throw them all out afterwards. Playing-wise J. has a background in funk while I always wanted to play metal, but never developed a feel for it. Neither of us really had a fixed vision for what it was that we wanted to do, but we both aspired to play since we got along so well. We didn’t spend much time playing other people's material, but rather worked on developing our own 'style.‘ We collaborated loosely with other bass and guitar players, as well as drummers and percussionists, but that didn't really lasted for more than two sessions.

J.H.: Yeah, and with a small home studio, we recorded everything from the start. That certainly shaped the way things went and still go – part of our history is basically the death of the music industry through the improvement of recording technology that enabled pretty much everyone to dabble in music production. For better and for worse.

Van Gore: Yes, we are part of an army of bedroom producers. We remembered the poster from the party and tried to imitate Zombi. We wanted to kinda sorta sound like them, but not to actually play their songs. In hindsight there was something about that story that would eventually give birth to Anatomy of the Heads. We kept playing and recording while throwing in anything that would make a sound and quickly realized that we also didn’t wanted to sound like Zombi.

J.H.: And then it clicked: Exotica!

Van Gore: Exotica! Taken as an origin story for what would become Anatomy of the Heads, J.H. love for two-dimensional waifus was a major contribution. It reminded me of the woman on all the Martin Denny records and how I have spent a good chunk of my college days living on a mountain overlooking the city while listening to Martin Denny, Korla Pandit, and Arthur Lyeman records.

J.H.: Pure fantasy! Shangri-la and coconuts. Why stick to overbearing genre conventions in search for authenticity? That was another thing. Vocals and lyrics. It quickly became apparent that both of us really had a hard time to sing and write anything. Not necessarily technically, but in terms of sharing. You know?… Meaningful soul-searching lyrics.

Van Gore: A soul striptease. Non of us wouldn’t be the singer! But, you never know about the future. We do it when we feel like it. Historically, though, being autistic about opening our mouths has never been a part of us. I have never been a lyrics-guy anyway. I like the sound of human voice set to music, but I do not care about the words.

J.H.: Later we eventually played a few gigs in a local gallery for traveling exhibitions and local art. We quickly got more experimental with each one, in the end Mika brought in all his angsty teenager sensibilities with full-blown Noise and black metal.

Van Gore: Kill me! Kill me! I want my mommy! Weee Weeee

J.H: Needless to say, we were not asked to play there a fourth time.

Van Gore: But we weren’t Anatomy of the Heads, yet. That took a trip around the globe. We both signed up for a research trip to Kiribati. Neither were we serious about the research, nor did we really wanted to go there. We mostly chuckled to ourselves about how funny it would be to go there and do the whole Island paradise thing. We liked the idea of being authentically unauthentic.

J.H.: Two weeks later we arrived at Cassidy International Airport. Of course, we fell in love with the place and the people. Our job was it to interview some people about everyday life and environmental change and one day we went to a place called Banana. Got an interpreter and started to do some interviews. At one point he was offering us bottled water you know? He made a big deal out of it.

Van Gore.: Sacred Water!

J.H.: Yes, sacred water! The purest freshwater. A rare good in Kiribati. He also wanted us to meet a guy he knew who actually lived near the well.

Van Gore: They guy is allegedly immortal. Our interpreter told us that his son is 74, while he still looks like 28. But that he was a source of great knowledge. So we meet him, his ‘son’ and a small group of like-minded individuals in a little shag build right above the well. And indeed he did know a lot. So it was worth it.

J.H.: After business was done we asked… you know? What’s the deal with the water? And then things start to turn weird. He told us that ancient royalty once resided in Banana and that one of the mightiest chiefs took a bath in the well regularly. Since then the place supposedly attracted a lot of people around Kiritimati island to drink and bath in it.

Van Gore: Yeah, and that on the spiritual-plane (which only he can see) the well is occupied by a giant golden temple emitting the purest light. That is why he built the hut right onto of it. At one point the magic man asked our interpreter if we had drank the water. Which he enthusiastically confirmed. Then he ordered the interpreter and a few other people who hung out in his hut to prepare two baths - and you can guess the rest. We took the bath, and he told us that we are one of them now.

J.H.: We left the place in silence and were like - Dude, did we just join a cult?

Van Gore: I consider this the definitive birth of Anatomy of Heads. Exotica indeed.