by Gordon Downs

Upon hearing a word like BATTLES, most people listening to music these days (especially fans of hip-hop) would automatically think of a couple of rhyme slayers spitting out verses about peoples' Moms and whack ass sneakers ala, "8-Mile." Not this time however. Forming like Voltron and coming together as the instrumental outfit known simply as BATTLES, this quartet has been steadily rising to the top of the art-rock/instrumental realm of contemporary rock music. Comprised of former Helmet and current Tomahawk drummer John Stanier, former Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, guitarist Dave Konopka and famed avant solo artist Tyondai Braxton on keyboards, BATTLES' music is a mathematical, yet very experimental voyage into the inner workings of music without any sort of attachments from the external world, aka 'reality.' BATTLES' several releases are curious endeavors that work best with an open mind and a good set of headphones. Tyondai Braxton, the human beat box for the band took a few minutes out of his busy day of writing to shed some light on of the best bands in America.

So what are you up to today?
I've just been writing. BATTLES is about to leave for tour and we're preparing for our new record, and I'm preparing for my new solo record. Pretty much for the past couple of weeks I've just kind of barricaded myself away from everyone and have just been trying to generate some new ideas and compose some new music.

When did you all officially get together as BATTLES?
We got together as BATTLES in August 2003 I think? First it was just me and Ian. Ian asked Dave [to join] and at that point we started rehearsing, just fucking around and getting some music together. When we realized that we really wanted this to be a band, all of a sudden, Ian said he ran into John on the street, who he had known from like years back in Detroit, when Helmet and Don Caballero played a show with Rage Against The Machine. He asked [John] to come by and sit in just to see what happens, and when John came in, it was definitely a magical moment where we kind of knew this was gonna be something special.

What's up with the cryptic songs and album titles?
All the song names are acronyms for something. There's nothing very deep about the acronyms either, they're just like reference points as we were developing the songs and stuff. For example, there was a trash bag in our practice space and it was duct taped to the wall, and it said 'Trash' on it. But then someone ripped the bag off and the 'h' fell off, do it just said 'Tras' just shit like that. It's not to be like anti-cool, or cool-whatever, it's just a means of naming the title without having any kind of attachment. There's no mission statement for each song. Each song is what it is ya know?

The album art for all of BATTLES releases seem to have a common theme of the outdoors. Can you elaborate on the foliage that appears on the cover art?
Dave is a graphic designer and illustrator, and that was pretty much his concept. It just works well. As far as the aesthetic within the band, there's a typical neutrality that lets things be what they are. The photographers name is Jason Fulford, he's just a really well known photographer in his own field and it was a pleasure working with him.

How did you end up releasing each of the three EP's on different labels?
As the songs started to develop, it made more sense to have the releases shorter, because this kind of music is very narrative. So the simpler the better. As far as the different labels are concerned, we're just working with our friends who we thought would be fun to release our first stuff with no real science to it.

How is BATTLES live as opposed to the recorded studio material?
I think there's definitely a big difference. I really like the recordings, I think they're very clear and you can really here a lot of detail. But live, there's just way more energy, its way more raw, [a lot] dirtier. I don't want to say I prefer [BATTLES] live, it's nice playing live. It's the energy; it's totally different. It's way more collective.

www.bttls.com

2004 "Tras" (Cold Sweat)
2004 "EP C" (Monitor)
2004 "B EP" (Dim Mak)