INTERVIEWS AND MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES

Interview with PUSH Magazine (2019)

As you know we like to do our Interviews in a fun, light-hearted, way to get to know the people behind the music a bit more - as talking about music is like dancing about architecture. Today we bring you Anatomy of the Heads a relatively new band, even though they have been playing music together since 2011. They released their debut album in 2017 and it would win any award dedicated to individualism and eclecticism. They combine elements of exotica and noise to create their own brand of experimental rock called Kraton - the place where kings dwell. Meet the only band in Kiribati - Anatomy of the Heads.

N.V.: Okay let’s start with the formalities - Name?

Van Gore: Michael van Gore
J.H.: J.H.
N.V.: Occupation?
Van Gore: Professional esthetician and interior decorator
J.H.: Lawn-Gnome
N.V.: Marital Status?
Van Gore: NON OF YOUR BUSINESS
J.H.: I am just in love with the salt and the sea
N.V.: Zodiac Sign?
Van Gore: Extra-virgin of course
N.V.: Like the oil?
Van Gore: Yes, just like the oil.
N.V.: How about you?
J.H.: I think of myself as a pisces, but I am actually a Taurus

N.V.: …What a Taurus thing to say. Anyway, let’s get down to business. As Anatomy of the Heads you make pretty weird music. Your debut album An Adoration in Prayer and Ritual contains three long tracks that change genre as frequently as normal people change their underwear. One can’t help but wonder what kind of stuff do you two listen to? … Just so you know my guess would be something obscure but rockish.

Van Gore: Do we look like we’re using beard oils?
J.H.: This baby (points at his beard) is all natural. No oil or little combs needed, you know?
Van Gore: But yeah something rockish most of the time - like Danzig, Captain Beefheart, CCR - the classics. But Steely Dan is the baseline for me. My go-to band when I am in the mood for nonspecific music.
J.H.: Currently Deerhoof, Thee Oh Sees, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tool and a lot of bands I see live or know people playing in.
Van Gore: But I wouldn’t box us into the whole rock thing. We both listen to plenty other genres. Just because we like distorted guitar here and there doesn’t make us Rock and Rollers.

N.V.:  What kind of music do you put on to set the mood to charm or entertaining a (potential) lover?

J.H.: I once got lucky playing „La Cucaracha“, but I guess that is highly situational
Van Gore: Classic Hard-rock ballads of the 80es to make fun of large hair
J.H.: Oh yeah, having a Youtube-party is always a good way to get touchy.
Van Gore: Uhhhh Loverboy wants to get touchy - feeling brave
J.H.: I mean I got her on the house already, so why not
Van Gore: Yes, word on the street is that she likes you.
J.H.: What can I say, I am a lucky guy.
Van Gore: Word on the street is also that you got a child out of wedlock and once bought a BMW to impress a girl.
J.H.: Those crazy hippies and their jive-talk. You can’t take them seriously.
Van Gore: Yeah, those crazy hippy kids and their socialist propaganda.

N.V.: Speaking of Jive-talk, let’s talk about your roots. Who has inspired you to do what you are doing?

Van Gore: Oh, we steal from everybody. Sun Ra, Merzbow, King Crimson, Miles Davis, the Melvins - you name it.
J.H.: I always liked Death from Above.
Van Gore: I also partially credit the outrage of my friend Adi’s mom, who wanted to exorcise us once she heard our music for the first time.
J.H.:  Fact is, I grew up in a village with nothing much to do you know? Except agriculture.
Van Gore: Were there dirty hoes?
J.H.:  Yes, agriculture is full of dirty hoes. Some of them become so used up that they become cracked.
Van Gore: So they become dirty crack hoes?
J.H.: Exactly, you are supposed to create your own entertainment. And we did, me and my friends got together and created a little music scene in our village.
Van Gore: I am from the city, so I can not relate with your backwards ways. I just saw Slayer on MTV and thought: Well, that would be a cool thing to do.

N.V.: Pure romance. Name three bands that you would clear your calendar to go see if they were passing through your town.

Van Gore: Hahaha, where we live, really no band is stopping by. 
J.H.: Maybe the occasional Beach Boys cover band.

N.V.: But just hypothetical…

Van Gore: I would totally clear my schedule for the resurrection of Glen Miller, Elvis or the Rat Pack. I am to lazy now for rock concerts. I like my music with a dinner, thank you very much.
J.H.: I didn’t know that we could nominate dead people?
Van Gore: Don Hoe
J.H.: And there we are again.
Van Gore: Yes, the hoe has become full circle. She started out in a hardware store, worked the fields, became hooked on crack and turned into Hawaiian Elvis.
J.H.: A hero’s journey
Van Gore: I could totally go for Journey concert, if anyone got a lighter. My point is I am not that crazy about live performances and I like my schedule. So, I wouldn’t really clear my schedule for anyone.
J.H.: Tower of Power and Dinosaur Jr. are on my bucket list this year.

N.V.: What would be the ultimate Anatomy of the Heads concert, describe it to me!

J.H.: The highly conceptional concert drama of The Residents, combined with the theatrics of GWAR and the pyrotechnics team of Kiss.
Van Gore: That means that we would play at the black pyramid in Cairo during a full moon night on a numerically significant date determined through scyring. In preperation we'd sacrifice a goat to the Moon and begin the show by leading a procession of moon-drunk fans and astonished bystanders through a night of adorations and prayer. Each melody becoming a swift celestial fragments of music, streaking across the vacuum of space to nowhere in particular. Becoming meteors and comets - the wanderers of space. Heading out into solar system and beyond - to wander, to burn, and impact.
J.H.: Yes, we are going to destroy the moon.
Van Gore: Big finish.
J.H.: But now that you know our plan…you have to die Mr. Veit.

N.V.: Have you ever dreamed of being a Bond-villain?

Van Gore: It has been my dream since childhood.

N.V.: Who would be the opening act, any takers?

Van Gore: I can tell you who it wouldn’t be: Bohren and the Club of Gore. I came close to see them two times already in Europe, but each time something horrible happened. First time I got the flue. Second time the train split and I ended up in another city and had to hang out in McDonald's for like seven hours. I tell you they are cursed. Cursed I tell you. CURSED!
J.H.: We are open for anything. But we probably would not have an opening act in the first place. Maybe a partnering band that would play with us as a big band, maybe the Inspired School Of Astral Music or the Satanique Samba Trio.
Van Gore: But keep in mind we are not that much of a live band anyway. We are really a studio band. Playing live only happens on our terms and only if we are really really really in the mood to do it. Otherwise, we just have too much fun behind looked doors.

N.V.: What do you like people to do at an Anatomy of the Heads show most: mosh, sing along in case you ever have lyrics, or hold up posters that say „I want your Baby“?

Van Gore: Listening to the music.
J.H.: Yeah!
Van Gore: That is what is all about. We would also like to do listening parties. Whit personal headphones, comfort, and a fully stacked bar.
J.H.: Beanbags and waterbeds all the way.
Van Gore: Maybe we should start playing retirement communities.

N.V.: Okay so you will eventually blow up the moon and go to jail. There is no doubt about it. What would you want for your last meal?

Van Gore: Pizza Hawaii and a Coke.
J.H.: Some nice fettuccine alfredo and ice-cold beer would do the trick.

N.V.: I have to say, you dress well - care to pass along a style tip to our readers?
 
Van Gore: Buy suites. As soon as you have some money to spend. Get your self a tailor made suite. Stop dressing like a high-schooler at 25 the latest. If you live somewhere where tailor made suites are expansive to make. Go to a tailor and get your measurements and use the power of the internet to find a place that can make you that suite for cheap China, Bangladesh, Indonesia - they love the business, the prices are to die for. If you can wait for six weeks of shipping you got yourself a deal.
J.H.: That was awfully specific. I think what he meant was plug your merch.
Van Gore: Oh.
J.H.: Anyway are now selling merch. Album covers and the like, but we will also offer limited runs of designs. To make them more unique. Maybe even some bags.

N.V.:  Anything else?

Van Gore: Don’t shy away from real fur coats or animal leather. Believe they are out of this world. Don’t care about the whole PETA crap.
J.H.:  …and shave your armpits.

Words of wisdom. Thank you gentleman. Anatomy of the Heads - Triptych Terror Oriente out now and their debut An Adoration in Prayer and Ritual still out, on Hyperbeast Records. Niclas Veit