Silk Flowers: A ‘spoonful of sugar’

NYC's Silk Flowers finished their UK tour with a fizzle rather than a bang. Usually known for their electric sets, synthed up to their eyeballs and droning gloriously over the top, the airport left them kit-less and cut short. Still in love, Emilie Joy caught up with Aviram from the band to talk mixed bills, culture projection and home made poster projects.

Hi Avi. So you've just finished your UK/European Tour. Any favourite dates?

Overall, the trip was a success. We played in places we've never been, met some really great people, and recouped our costs. We booked it all ourselves so, a lot of planning went went into it. For the most part it was smooth sailing. Favourites include London and Ireland. People were acceptionally kind to us in both those places.

You got to play with a real mixture of bands with really different sounds. Liz Harris' delicate show on the first London date to Sex Beet in Nottingham who are a filthy garage band. Is it something you always like to do?

When we're at home we try to play with bands we like or are friends with. In the same token it's nice to make way for chance occurrences. We just lucked out on this trip. We've played many shows with Liz at this point and they're always great. In Dublin we played with Patrick Kelleher. That was a favorite. Also, No Tomorows in Belfast. And definitely Factory Floor in London!

Do you think there are a lot more mixed bills in the UK and US than there used to be?

I'm not really sure compared to the past. But, that is something I really enjoy about what's happenning in music right now. You can go to a show and see different bands stylistiaclly but, the approuch is the same. which is really cool.

It's something that's often said about Post Present Medium as a label. How is working with Dean going? [Silk Flowers are on No Age's Dean Spunt's label]

Dean is great. He's organized and honest with you. I think that idea we're talking about is certainly something he gives a lot of considertion to. PPM's bands may vary musically but, they all approach it with the same attitude and need for expression.

You do your own posters for your blog. They're great. How do you do them?

Ethan's been doing them all as of late. I made all the ones with the faces from horror movies. I start by making a pattern collage and then I print the face over them. It came out of my interest in primitive ism and the mask as a symbol. The horror movie thing sort of represents the aspect of the outsider. Rejects of modern culture. In all those old hollywood movies it's more about the fear of the culture being projected onto those creatures rather than them actually being evil.

Is it important for Silk Flowers to work through different artistic mediums? Dean and Randy work with skate vids.... Lucky Dragons are also well known for Sumi ink club...

Music and visuals have a very close relationship for us. We think about them a lot in association with each other. We all have jobs related to art also. In a way it's what follows in our interest after music. Most of our friends either play music or make art or they at least know a lot about one of them. So, in that way it's part of our community.

So how did you make your your last video?

This is a good example of what I'm talking about. I've always known Brian Degraw as a visual artist. And I noticed he was into doing video work. So, I asked. We live near each other and one night we played a show in our neighborhood. He came down and filmed a lot of the raw material from that. I guess after that he had some green screen experiments he wanted to try. So, I went over his place late one night and we just tried a bunch of different things with the green screen fabric. Cutting it up and hanging it in different ways. It was a fun project. He's an amazing person and I'm happy with the results.

Your stuff was lost by Easyjet... did that affect how you felt about the last show?

It was certainly not an ideal circumstance but, we managed to pull something together. We managed to play about five songs. Which is better than none. I'm cool with how it went. We'll come back to make up for it.

Do you ever feel hindered by using a lot of pedals and effects? As if you rely on them?

I actually don't use that much stuff in comparison to a lot of people we play with. We do a lot to keep things compact. Equipment is all relative though. If you play guitar or drums you can break a string or your stick or even your drum heads. I never learned how to play any instruments. I was always into psychedelic music so, I learned how to make weird sounds instead. Everyone's gotta do what's right for them. When you play music you rely on whatever you choose to use. Even if your just sing. if you lose your voice, what do you do?

I think the album deals as much with light pop sounds as it does the dark stuff you get known for [Silk Flowers are as Human League as they are Scott Walker]. Is the pop element important to you?

Yes! It's VERY important. We want our music to be enjoyable. No one wants to hear what you have to say when you're being too harsh. It's kind of like using the "spoonful of sugar" method. But, we all like different forms of pop music. And that comes into the equation when we're writing songs.

Does your approach differ much from when you did Soiled mattress and The Springs?

For the most part, we use the same method. Playing around for a long time and then editing it down to the parts we like. But, it's a bit more difficult to play and play when you use mostly electronic equipment. You have to build up sound banks to be drawn from. So, we've improved on our previous model. We now record everything and then listen back later. This helps capture and hone in on a lot of spontaneity. Also, now that there's vocals, There are more varied methods for song writing. Other times, I'll come in with lyrics and very basic structures and we build on them all together.

And what are your plans now that the European tour is done?

We have a 12" EP coming out on the Captured Tracks label very soon. A US west coast tour in January and we're starting to write for a new LP. We'll probably try to come back to Europe in the spring.

Any good parties in NYC over the festive season?

I typically abstain from celebrating holidays...not to sound like such a misanthrope...