614 Magazine - Columbus, Ohio

Times New Viking

Weirdos, Obama Voters, Ohioans

By Wes Flexner

4 Comments

I caught up with Times New Viking just as they were concluding a video shoot for the title track from the group's new album, Born Again Revisited. They were gearing up for a three-month tour of Europe and the United States, leaving the next day, and still had to complete a new song for their split 7-inch vinyl record with art-punk legends, New Zealand's Axemen, as well as tying up loose-ends like pet-sitters and parents.

Although TNV will spend most of the fall on the road, they will be back in Columbus on October 14th for a CD release party at the Summit with Envelope, and mystery-men hardcore group Vile Gash.

As for the album itself, it's perfect for the miserable-but-textured fall and winter season in Columbus, with lyrics that conjure multiple meanings for cold month holidays, and titles like "Martin Luther King Day," "2/11 Don't Forget," and "High Holidays."

The group also reference themselves with repeated phrases that make the album a roman a clef when coupled with the artwork. The album's content deals with disillusionment on several fronts - from the impending reality of Americans unwilling to work together in spite of the idealistic sentiments which characterized Obama's path to the White House in 2008, to coping in the wake of failed relationships, as well as the day-to-day existential crisis of being alive.

Sounds like the ramblings of a bunch of weirdos? Well, it's as universal as a Nirvana record, except they drink where you drink and feel alienated where you feel alienated, and the songs are 75-percent shorter.

Guitarist Jared Phillips, drummer Adam Elliott, and keyboardist Beth Murphy share some insights on the band's career and the surrounding culture.

Adam Elliott: How come 614 didn't ask us what an indie rock band makes for their money issue?

Oh, man. Funny. Ok, how much money does an "Internet famous," successful indie rock ensemble on Matador records make?
Beth Murphy: Internet famous? (laughs) You can look up Kurt Cobain and what he made in 1994. Times that by three.

Huh?
Adam: That's because there are three people, right?

Rate your net worth as a band.
Adam: 1.5 million. I am not a mathematician. It's either 5.1 or 1.5 . . . or maybe 50,000 dollars. It really adds up after a year. I know that Modest Mouse makes $30,000 in merchandise a night.(pointing out that I was wearing a Modest Mouse t-shirt turned inside out)

Adam: And they have a drum technician. Which I never thought that mythical creature existed.

What does a drum tech do?
Beth: Sets up drums.
Adam: Sets up the drums. Then sits and reads Rolling Stone.

How come a band of your stature doesn't have a guitar tuner tech guy?
Jared Phillips: Who cares?

On the inside of your new "Move to California" single there is an angry letter written to Matador complaining about you not having one.
Adam: That's easy. Jared tunes his guitar to Beth's keyboard.
Jared: And I don't change tunings.
Adam: So Beth's keyboard is our guitar tuner.
Beth: So we actually do have a tuner.
Jared: I would like to answer that question with: Who cares?
Adam: And we like to spend all of our money on heroin.

When you were recording Born Again Revisited, you told me that you were making an album for people in their mid-20's who don't know what they are doing. Why is that?
Adam: I am trying to connect to what I know. I think our generation missed out on any idols or anything like that. We're still lost. Eventually our generation is going to be lawyers and politicians, but I still don't think we have an identity. We are the first generation where you are not supposed to get married until you are 28. People are still living with their parents at the age of 26.

Where does this extended adolescence stem from?
Adam: The technology when we were youth, starting with cable television. It used to be like - you wanted to be an individual, you dressed like a beat. Our generation, there are so many types of people you can be. We were at the start of all these different subcultures. Our generation is still waiting for something to happen.

What about 9/11 or the Obama presidency?
Beth: Maybe Obama.
Adam: I think Obama is a good step. But it took the younger kids for that to happen. 9/11 shocked the older generation. But I don't think it shocked our generation. It didn't really shock us.

Our generation expected 9/11 to happen?
Adam: Something global like that. It's finally culminated with everyone having digital cameras. There is so much. That was like 10 years ago. That's where everyone was walking out with a way to document the world. Hearing about 9/11 versus the '60s, where you could fake shit like the Bay of Pigs. You could read about fake wars and people read about it later in the media. 9/11 was the first giant thing everyone saw in front of our eyes. Those buildings were tall. Our generation could never build that high.

Speaking of technology and ways to document things, the internet has been pretty good at spreading your band's popularity globally. But on the inside cover of your new album, it says "F&*k your blog" . . . ?
Adam: It's all about if you take the word 'f&*k' as derogatory term. It could mean 'I want to f&*k your blog'.

Do you want to f&*k someone's blog?
Adam: I don't even know what that means.

You're the one who said it.
Adam: It is also f&*k your blog.
Beth: There is a song we did called "F&*k Books" about books that are blasphemous.

What's a book you want to f&*k?
Adam: The Trial, by Franz Kafka. Tom Sawyer. I wouldn't mind f&*king Tom Sawyer.

Or maybe also meaning, yeah, blogs are good to spread ideas. As far as your blog being better than anyone's blog . . . they are bedroom ideas. We write bedroom songs. So your bedroom criticism of our bedroom songs don't mean shit. It's not like it's the New York Times. But f&*k their blog too.

How come you haven't left Columbus?
Beth: It's too easy to live here, when you can travel all the time. What's the point?
Adam: I know where to get tacos, know where the hospital is. I know where the record store is. I know where to get free booze.
Jared: All places suck. They all suck. You are just picking one turd over the other.
Beth: We were in L.A. at this potluck. And every single person, minus one, was from Ohio. So I guess you can just move to California and hang out with people from Ohio. It's like that for all states.

So the song "Move to California" is about . . .
Adam: The premise of that song is really simple. Another night, getting drunk in Columbus. The next day you wake up hung-over. You wake up saying, 'This sucks.' You start saying I want to move to California. It's like, go ahead. I think it would be different for us if we didn't get to travel all the time. Plus, the Buckeye coverage here is amazing.

Are you a Buckeye fan?
Adam: Yeah. Now I am. After 10 years.

How do you think they're gonna do this season?
Adam: They are gonna be awful. They are gonna be 6-4 this year.

Why is the album called Born Again Revisited?
(extended silence)
Beth: Pretty catchy title.
Adam: The idea of being born again, but doing it before you are born again..The idea of making your Christian rock record before you actually become a Christian rock band.
Beth: You are born again before it happens.
Adam: You're revisiting it. Before it happens. Sounded clever. Worked really good with the album art. It's all about Watergate. Also, it's a Randy Newman reference.
Beth: Chuck Colson.

Earlier you were talking about Buckeye football, but you all play in a band that is pretty arty. How do you balance normalcy with pretense?
Adam: I don't think we have any pretension.

Why do you think people project that onto you?
Adam: Because it's easy to. When all you know about someone is their art posted everywhere, you know nothing about the person. It's not like there's individual biographies that people read about on the internet. People don't know how we actually are in our everyday life.
Beth: The music we make is actually the least pretentious music we can make. It's simple songs.

So if there is an idea in Columbus that you are stuck up, pretentious, or there is a wall between this world and that world, do you think that idea is a false notion?
Adam: I think it's completely false. I would argue that there isn't anyone who has seen more local shows, other than the bloggers, than our band. We like music. Jared puts up every band that comes to town, pretty much.

You guys do bring a lot of people through.
Adam: Is that pretentious? It would be pretentious if we shunned Columbus and acted like we didn't live here, as opposed to trying to get all of our friends to come here to play in front of friends and people in this town.

You get embraced by some elements, like The Wexner Center for the Arts, and then another aspect of this city is trying to ignore you.
Adam: Nowhere have we ever talked down on Columbus.
Beth: At the same time, if we get the opportunity to play the Wexner, why wouldn't we? I went to art school. It's the only way I can impress my father.
Adam: In Columbus, we walk to Bourbon Street, people think we are hipsters because we wear tight pants. Then in New York they think we are hillbillies, because we aren't dressed like the hipsters. We can't win either way.

Times New Viking
October 14 @ The Summit (2216 Summit St.)
www.myspace.com/timesnewviking

Originally Published: October 1, 2009

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