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A True Hive Mind Experience: An Interview With Iron Lung
Posted by: Necci – Aug 16, 2011
It stands to reason that the most boundary-pushing of musicians would be hesitant to put any sort of tag on what they do, as if the application of a name ossifies the creative process and reduces it to an immutable stasis. So while it may be tempting to refer to a band like Iron Lung as falling under the umbrella of power violence – a hardcore punk subgenre characterized primarily by alternating brief grinding fast segments with lurching slow passages – the band themselves sees things differently.
One of the better shows I saw them play occurred in Austin a few years ago. Between songs, someone in the crowd shouted “You guys are the midwives of the power violence rebirth!” Drummer Jensen Ward responded by methodically placing his sticks on the drums, staring into the audience for an extremely awkward twenty seconds or so and then flatly declaring that the statement was “the dumbest fucking thing anybody had ever said, ever.”
Listening to Iron Lung's music, it's not difficult to see where they're coming from. While the band certainly carries some aesthetic associations with power violence, they also push the music away from easy categorization, coming across as simultaneously more vicious and more cerebral than many of their contemporaries. They balance an overwhelming, abrasive wall of sound that owes as much to the Swans or Glenn Branca as any hardcore band, and a lyrical approach that eschews standard punk tropes in favor of imagery that's far more unsettling. In addition to their work with Iron Lung, the band's two members have also performed with Pig Heart Transplant, Walls, and Dead Language – each a proponent of a distinct brand of dissonance as varied as it is harsh – and founded Iron Lung Records, which has released albums by artists as disparate as California grindcore act Lords Of Light and critically acclaimed garage rock band Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
I had a chance to get a few questions in with Jensen Ward in anticipation of the band's upcoming Best Friends Day appearance.
RVA: Recent years have seen a widespread renewal of interest in faster, thrashier hardcore. And while there are positive sides (an expanded number of potential listeners, more people playing with genre conventions), there are also negative ones as well (every third-rate youth crew band that decided that throwing in some blast beats magically transforms them into a power violence band). In your experience, has this upswing in popularity been more positive or a negative?
Jensen Ward: I love that a broader audience is listening to power violence. It gives me a bit of hope that there is still good taste in the mainstream. But it saddens me to know that their version of PV doesn't include an Infest or a No Comment. Youth crew with blast beats aka NU FAILURE is just not going to last. Overall it has been a positive for us since the people's new-found lust for aggression allows us to see the planet in a little more detail.
RVA: Is it difficult to sidestep the cliches that have crept into the genre without straying too far from a recognizable sound? Or is the approach more intuitive and less concerned with stylistic parameters?
JW: We have never been too worried about the genre-defining barriers. A smart man once said that instinct is master and nine times out of ten instinct cannot fit in a conventional box. We will fuck a parameter in the ass before we make nice with it.
RVA: How has your approach to songwriting changed over the course of the band's existence?
JW: We go in and out of living in the same city so we've never had the same approach for more than a couple years at a time. The best time for us was when we both lived in Seattle and were writing Sexless//No Sex. We both worked at the same place and lived in the same house. A true hive mind experience. The scientists would have loved the results of that study. The newest phase is proving to be the most challenging. Jon lives in San Francisco and I still live in Seattle. We have fallen into the habit of writing songs, recording them and immediately forgetting them. I am learning that it's my least favorite way to write. I don't know how bands like The Oath do it being in different countries. Internet conference rehearsals maybe? Fuck that.
RVA: Much of Iron Lung's content, from the lyrics to the art design to the band name itself, reference some fairly unsettling medical practices. Was that a conscious thematic reference point from the start or was it something that developed over the band's existence?
JW: It was always our aim to sing on these subjects. The part that has evolved is how we use the information. Sometimes we use the hard informative text to drive the point of medical barbarianism home. There was a lot of this in the beginning. Sometimes we use metaphors to illustrate the madness and absurdity of modern living. The amount of insane shit happening around us is just as horrible to read about as the idea of going to a barber for a bleeding or to get some teeth extracted. Yikes.
RVA: It seems like a lot of the initial power violence bands' lyrical focus utilized either nihilistic shock value imagery or a broad social critique. Has Iron Lung's lyrical approach – a focus on the disturbing minutiae of society – arisen from a desire to focus some of hardcore's less specific disgust and disillusionment?
JW: I suppose you could say that. I feel like a lot of bands, especially in the 90's, generally used vague "political" lyrics. Maybe it was the easiest way to cop the Reagan-era rage with the mushy, easy times of the Clinton years. I always felt like that was kind of a copout. If people have something to say they should say it plainly but with some detail so there is no confusion. Even if it's "I hate myself", "Life sucks", "I love fisting" or whatever broad topics they wish to delve into.
RVA: Having only two members places some obvious constraints on what you can do musically. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the line-up decision?
JW: There are no disadvantages. Except for not having a strong clarinet in the band. I think we would really soar above with one of those.
RVA: You guys are involved with a variety of side projects – how do these influence the development of Iron Lung's material?
JW: If anything, playing in other bands allows us to flex different parts of our creative muscle, which introduces new directions in the less-is-more brutality approach that we use. There are drum parts I use in Iron Lung that I would not have come up with were it not for Walls riffs being the way that they are. Each person you play with has their own spark and style. I try to absorb as much as I can at all times. It keeps me fresh.
RVA: Could you give a little background on Iron Lung Records? Is there some overarching aesthetic that the label is working with, or is it simply a matter of releasing records you like?
JW: We started the label because Lords of Light had this song that was just so good that it had to be on a record. August referred to it as their "pop song" because it was melodic and was about girls. People really hated that record. Dummies. After that we just decided to keep it going with an emphasis on releasing stuff for bands that we both really like. We are fortunate to work with the groups that we do. They are all great.
RVA: Any final thoughts?
JW: I wonder what my final thought will be? Only I will know but not until it happens. By that logic there is no final thought today. Thanks Graham, enjoy the rest of my day.
lifeironlungdeath.blogspot.com
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Iron Lung is set to perform as part of Best Friends Day 10 on Sunday, August 21st at the Bike Lot with Corrosion of Conformity, Jesuit, Victims, Dry Spell, and Little Ozzy.
By Graham Scala
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