Miscellaneous - Interview

by John Clarkson

published: 15 / 1 / 2002

Article

First formed at the beginning of last year, Film Guerrero is a new alternative rock label from Portland in Oregon with a strong emphasis on detail, and a rapidly growing international reputation. It was initially established by its owner, local recording engineer, John Askew, simply as means for releasing 'Ames', the debut album by his own project Tracker.In the short time since then, Askew has, however, created for Film Guerrero its own manifesto, and has also added to its small, but striking roster another two bands, Norfolk and Western, a local act, and Buellton, a pop outfit from California. John Askew comes originally from Santa Barbara in California, but moved in 1997 to Portland to work at the Type Foundry Recording studio, a converted warehouse and a newly opened studio which specialises in using old-fashioned analog equipment. He started work on 'Ames' the following June, recording it, largely as a solo project, in off-peak periods in the Type Foundry's recording schedule. " 'Ames¹ took about nine months in time to record" Askew tells Pennyblackmusic. "I didn¹t work on it every spare minute or anything like that. I would be working in the studio anyway and then in extra time there or on a day off I would go in there and work away at it. " Named after a semi-mythical city that Askew discovered on a map of Iowa but which he has never been to, Œ Ames¹ is a loosely-based concept album and a "soundtrack following the travels of one man alone as he drives." Reminiscent in parts of Ry Cooder's 'Paris, Texas¹ and featuring a photograph of an American desert badlands on its front cover, it has a similar epic sparseness. Ames¹ reflective and solid, but layered and occasionally distorted guitar is the principle instrument, while his vocals tell of barren landscapes, desolate roads, empty motels and couples who are no longer able to communicate with each other. Adam Selzer, the frontman of Norfolk and Western and the owner of Type Foundry, plays the piano on two tracks, and Buellton¹s drummer Erik Herzog, who Askew has played in various bands with in the past, appears on a handful of others, while Askew plays the majority of the other instruments including the remaining drums, an accordion, a mandolin and also the bass guitar himself. Perhaps not surprisingly for an album which is largely about alienation , Askew found much of the inspiration for 'Ames¹ by spending a lot of the time during its recording on his own. "I had just left my home town, and I didn't really know very many people in Portland at that time" he says. "I had never really found a place before I came there where I was anonymous. It felt great to be able to walk around the street and to have my headphones on the whole time. A lot of the inspiration for the album definitely came from me spending a lot of time in this expansive solitude and hanging out by myself. I think generally that when you¹re alone for much of the time you find yourself looking at things like the environment or surrounding schemes much more and that visually the world becomes a lot more of an interesting place." " Portland is an incredibly rainy place" he adds. "It is basically a big rain forest, but if you go East it will take you into the desert in about an hour. When I was recording the record, if I had a free moment and I was wanting to listen to some of the tracks I had been working on, I would get into my car and take a really long drive way out into it. I realised then that I wanted the record to have a really visual aesthetic to it, so when you were listening to it you were thinking about driving or maybe being out in a landscape. I wanted to give the impression of maybe driving in and out of towns and through the desert, and to make the whole project a little more linear." When Askew finished recording 'Ames' in March of 1999, he began to send copies of it to record companies, and also to some of his friends in the recording business. Askew also writes for Tape Op, a North American recording magazine, and one of the people that he gave a copy to was Howe Gelb,the frontman with Giant Sand, who he had met (and who Tracker has subsequently toured with ) after he had conducted an interview with the Tucson musician the year before. "I have always admired Howe¹s work" Askew says. "So I sent him a copy and he responded back and said that he would love to put it out on OW/OM, which was this project that he had started. Things were beginning to get super busy for him though at the time and there wasn't a really whole lot he could do. That really cleared things in my mind and I decided that I would put it out on my own until something else came along, and to call Howe up if I needed advice, and he was really supportive of that. But then, having started Film Guerrero as an avenue to put Tracker out, everything went from there." 'Ames' (FG 01) was released in America in February of last year. Establishing the foundations for Film Guerrero with its release, and finding it as easy to talk about running a label, as fronting a band, Askew started to release records by other groups later that year. In the past twelve months, Film Guerrero has released two albums by Norfolk and Western, 'A Collection of' (FG02), a compilation of past recordings, and ŒCentralia¹ (FG05), which comprises of entirely new material. It has also put out the debut album by Buellton , 'Avenue of the Flags' (FG06), and two limited edition EPS 'Go Solar' (FG04) and 'Lunch' (FG07), which compile together material from Wasted Tape, one of Askew and Herzog¹s previous bands. Each of the three main acts on the Film Guerrero are in many ways very different from each other. While Tracker have a sense of grandeur and of the epic, Norfolk Western in contrast have a sound, which tinged with echo, is more lean and insular, and Buellton are an ultra-melodic pop outfit. Yet although there are dissimarilties, Askew is quick to point out that there are similarities as well. "We share the same recording philosophy" he says, reflecting on both Norfolk and Western and Buellton. "Norfolk are really experimental and allow a lot of their sounds to take shape in the recording studio. They work hard to keep things fresh and are open to keeping accidents and making things sound good in that way. Buellton come from the same philosophy. While they have got a much tighter knit sound, they again recorded their album on an analog machine and also in an old warehouse, (This time in in their own studio Boonapasta in Southern California, rather than at the Type Foundry where both Norfolk and Western albums were also recorded-Ed) When Erik first played me parts of that record, he had all these stories as well like how they put a blanket over their drum set to record some of the tracks. " "That is one similarity then. Another one goes back to me listening to a lot of my music in the car when I am driving, and I think that both those bands again have an aesthetic, visual feel to them. I really felt, especially with the second Norfolk record, that I could listen to them with my head phones on and watch the world go by. Both bands¹ records make great soundtrack albums." In the last year, since he started releasing records by other bands than just Tracker , Askew has developed as well a philosophy for Film Guerrero, which is highlighted on the label's website (www.filmguerrero.com) and the main aim of which is to release efforts "completely conceived and controlled by the artists themselves." "That is our manifesto, but it is also definitely the challenge as well" he reflects. "I hope that we can remain true to it. The idea behind is to try and keep Film Guerrero unique among labels and to support musicians or bands who can put out something they can see all the way through to the end. I certainly hope that we can keep that up. For me, my intention is to support that as full as I can. If that ever got challenged, I think I would probably back out of the label all together." With this policy now firmly in line, Film Guerrero¹s next release, which is due out in October, will be the solo debut release of guitarist Naim Amor. Amor is best known for his work as one half of the French two piece, the Amor Belham Duo, who have released two albums together, 'Wavelab' and 'Amor Belham Duo'. With his partner Thomas Belham, he also collaborated with Joey Burns and John Convertino from Calexico under the name of ABBC to release last year¹s acclaimed album 'Tete a Tete'. "It¹s going to be an all instrumental soundtrack record" Askew enthuses. "It is really beautiful, and a lot of it has a bistro feel. It is also very ambient. Joey Burns plays on one track, and it¹s definitely part of the Film Guerrero aesthetic. When Naim contacted me about trying to get something released, I was really happy to put it out. I really love Amor Belham, so it is pretty exciting for me to put something out." While 'Ames' and the rest of the Film Guerrero catalogue were only first given distribution in Europe in March of this year, there will, as well as the Amor release also be a new Tracker album in September. Tracker for live purposes over the last few months, instead of being principally just a solo project for Askew, has become more of a collaborative, and the new album, which is named after another Iowa city, 'Polk', is being recorded as a band. This band includes in a revolving line-up Adam Selzer on piano ; Michael Schorr on drums who also plays in the Washington State band Death Cab for Cutie , and bassist Dave Harding who appears as well in a local outfit Richmond Fontane. Firstly conceived as an EP due to be released in March, 'Polk¹ has now been extended into an album. "It originally had six songs which flowed together quite well" Askew laughs. "I was going to release it just the way it was, but then a couple of weeks after we had finished it, Mike Schorr and I ended up tracking some stuff together, which we felt would be really fitting to put that on that the record. All of a sudden that screwed up my whole idea of an EP." "The new album is going to have a bit more of a soundtrack appeal" he continues. "It is going to have more of an instrumental edge to it, and to have five or six instrumentals that, while 'Ames' related, will probably be a little more eclectic. It will be a good transistion. It will definitely be a little different though." With its international profile expanding, including in Britain reviews and write-ups in newspapers such as The Sunday Times and radio transmission on programmes including John Peel's , both Film Guerrero and Askew's status is rising. Able already to attract , after barely eighteen months of existence, an increasing set of well-known names , it is rapidly shaping up to be one of the most exciting new labels in the West of America.