A personal metaphor takes on a deeper meaning, but the band still makes infectious electro-pop
by Joe Tarr
Dan Geller has given a lot of interviews in the past year, explaining how his band was named. In every interview he ever gives, he will probably be asked the same question.
"There's no way to avoid it," he says, as he and his partner (both artistic and romantic) Amy Dykes cruise in their Honda CRV on a nine-week tour.
The name of the band—I Am the World Trade Center—suddenly took on a more controversial and in-your-face meaning after Sept. 11 last year. And their first album, Out of the Loop, recorded before the terrorist attack, had the eerie coincidence of an 11th track titled "September."
Geller says the band name had a personal meaning for him and his partner. The couple were living in Brooklyn when they formed the band, and they'd see the twin towers every time they walked outside. "The towers were right there. And also, the thing with the name is we're two people, each with our own identity. That's the metaphor that was there."
When the attack happened, the two were living in Athens, Ga., where Amy is working on a masters degree in interior and fabric design. "The day it happened, the name thing didn't really come up until later in the day. There were bigger concerns on everybody's minds," he says. When the shock wore off, people asked if they would drop the name.
"It didn't make any sense to us. That was our name. We'd had it before. The World Trade Center's not a bad thing. The World Trade Center wasn't a symbol of evil," he says. (The group is donating a portion of profits from its first record to the United Way of New York's September 11th Fund.)
"Some people look at us weird still. But if you care about music, you take the time to find out why that's our name. Kids will ask a lot of questions, but they're asking questions because they want to know. The people that don't care aren't going to like our music," he says.
So, what's their music like? It's electronic music, but not the ambient or house kind. The group makes catchy, fun pop songs, created electronically—influenced more by '60s Brit-pop than by Mouse on Mars or Boards of Canada.
"I think we're electro-pop. It's a matter of writing new pop songs with these new tools," he says. "I worry a lot more about the songs than the sounds.... We're trying to write songs that people are going to remember, rather than say, 'Wow, that's a really cool sound.'"
And it's great fun to listen to, at times sounding like New Order, Everything But the Girl, and Blondie—they cover the latter group's "Call Me" (as well as the Stone Roses "Shoot You Down") on their new CD, The Tight Connection. Dyke's voice is warm and her lyrics slightly cryptic.
There's an 11th track on this CD too, called "Soiree." About the tragedy and their name, the song draws a parallel to pre-World War I designer Paul Poiret, who threw outlandish parties that were wildly popular. After the war, the public scorned the lavishness they formerly loved in Poiret. The song is about how everything about life can change in a single day, the band says. On the song, Dykes sings, "I was someone so easy to blame for I cherished still cherished the same name...."
Both World Trade Center albums were recorded entirely on a laptop. It was a lot tougher for the group's 1999 debut, Out of the Loop, because there wasn't much in the way of equipment or software for the task. Geller started working on it back in '98. "I wanted to do it that way because I wanted to see if could be done," he says. "At the beginning of 1998, I didn't know where to begin, and no one could tell me where to begin." After about six months of research he found a device that he could plug into the laptop, allowing him to input and manipulate sounds and vocals.
The attraction of using a laptop—he's now on his third one since he started recording this way—to record everything reflects Geller's lifestyle. "I'm very into compact small things and not taking up much room. Right now my studio isn't at home, it's with me." Such mobility allowed the duo to write and record a song while driving in the car on this tour. It's already been worked into their set.
Would he ever make a record without the laptop? "The only way I wouldn't [use the computer] would be if I find a way to work with a real producer. I don't think there's any in-between. I'm not going to work with an 8-track in a studio. The sound I get out of my studio is as good as any mid-level studio you pay $100- to $200-an-hour to use. It's going to take someone saying, 'I want you to make this record and here's the money to go do it.'"
Despite his unique recording methods, don't expect to see a laptop on stage at the Pilot Light. Instead, Geller uses mini-recorders to recreate the songs live. The work has already been done in advance, which allows Geller and Dykes to move around on stage and give the performance more attention.
"There's just something about a guy on stage with a laptop that doesn't appeal to me. If I had a laptop on stage it'd end up in a million pieces."
August 8, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 32
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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