Javelin is the latest in a line of energetic live acts that combines elements of electronic and improvisational music. Formed by Rhode Island-bred cousins George Langford (drums, samples) and Tom Van Buskirk (vocals, keyboards, samples), Javelin has quickly made a name for itself thanks to a series of ADD-fueled live shows that have been affectionately linked to channel surfing. Early on the duo adopted a series of colorful stage setups as well, which gave Javelin a Girl Talk-like performance art/house party allure. More recently the cousins have started to expand their live show with additional musicians who can help re-create the samples and programmed beats characteristic of the ensemble’s recordings. In the studio the band also piqued the interest of two buzz labels—Luaka Bop and Thrill Jockey, who released the full length Jamz n Jemz and the group’s most recent 12”, respectively. Below the members of Javelin discuss the project’s genesis, their connection to Addison Groove Project and why it is sometimes OK to be a jackass.
Javelin is based around two cousins. At what point did the two of you start playing together more formally?
Tom: About five years ago George said, “Let’s do this.”
When was your first official show? What was the process like of turning a “studio” band into a live group?
Tom: It was 2005. We wore identical masks that were incredibly lifelike, and in low light, totally believable. A guy at the bar recognized us by our tee shirts and informed us in thick Rhode Island-ese, “I just thought you guys were wicked intense.” We had all this extraneous equipment— glockenspiel, turntable, tape machine, a drum machine we’d use for one song. It was overkill. We just continued experimenting and letting loose, eventually we developed into what we are.
Was there a certain gig or recording that made Javelin more of a fulltime band than a hobby in your eyes?
Tom: When we signed to Windish, that was when it began to feel like a full-time job.
How did you initially get in touch with Thrill Jockey and Luaka Bop?
Tom: They got in touch with us! We had given Jamz n Jemz to friends, and had one terrific book/art/music store in Chicago (Golden Age) carrying our stuff. It made its way into the hands of these consummate organizations, and we really love working with both of them.
Growing up, did you see eye to eye on music? If so what are some of the bands you bonded over? If no, what are some of the bands you disagreed about?
Tom: Huey Lewis, Steve Winwood, the Top Gun soundtrack were early favorites. Both of our families really instilled The Beatles, Otis Redding, The Band, Dylan, Dire Straits, etc. In middle school we bonded over Nirvana, Beck, The Beastie Boys. Eventually Hip Hop and soul music became our common loves.
I never liked Soundgarden. Whereas George…
When did you start working on the songs for No Mas? Can you talk a little about each of your rolls in the song creation process?
Tom: In the early days we’d each make songs and sketches on our own, and yell to the other guy to come listen. (We were living in the same house). Essentially, we’d executive produce each other— make suggestions and adjustments during the formation of a track. Once we started living in different places, we’d email each other tracks as soon as we got excited enough to record them, sometimes just quick sketches, sometimes more finished work. But the same dynamic kept working for us. If we are working on a deadline, that’s when the full blown collaboration takes place, and we make a track almost from the ground up together. It’s much faster, and can produce unexpected results because there is more volatility in the mixture, from the beginning.
The core of No Mas stemmed from a time when we were making tracks we called “mossy,” or a sound called “moss.” We pictured it being the soundtrack for dilapidated mansions with green swimming pools, or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Mosses From an Old Manse.” Like all of our formal releases, Jamz n Jemz found its way in there, too. But we feel overall the album creates its own unique space.
Now that Javelin is gigging out live have you been able to recreate the songs live? If not how have you been able to recreate the vibe of your studio recordings?
Tom: The best description of our performances I’ve ever heard was from a sound guy in Asheville, NC. He said, “You guys are like flipping through late night television and seeing the illest Community Television program of all time, and they’re showing these savant local musicians just tearing it up.” We basically take our most block party-ish jams and try to turn wherever we are playing into an inviting, free atmosphere. Naturally, we choose to play material that leans toward this goal, but we try to surprise the audience, too. In recorded medium or live we can’t help but be totally all over the place.
In a Relix profile on the band, you mentioned Javelin’s music as similar to channel surfing when you were younger. Can you elaborate on that?
Tom: It makes sense to me on a few levels. There’s the process of sorting through music (records, tapes, etc.) that, until you put the needle down on it, you have no idea what it’s going to be. It’s sort of like flipping channels late at night. TV used to be way more varied, more unlikely, more anonymous than it is today. MF DOOM talks about the movies they’d play on Saturday feature, monster movies and the like. We try to find music that surprises us the way a good serendipitous channel flip does, in terms of content, and in terms of surprising your attention span.
We try to emulate this feeling using quick cuts between tracks, or within one track, that gives you the contrast of two competing aesthetics or samples. I’ve heard people comment on Godard’s use of quick cuts, one leaving an impression on the other, almost like they are superimposed. The ear works the same way.
Many early reviews of the band mentioned the band’s humor. What role do you feel humor plays in your live show?
Tom: We can be jackasses live. And we like to crack jokes and just makes people feel at home. We don’t always smile, but we are usually having fun.
You recently spent time touring with Yeasayer. How did that connection come about and did you take any aspects away from their live show that you hope to incorporate into your own live show?
Tom: I had friends who knew them back when they were called “Diamond Eagle,” or something. Anyone from the northeast knows one of these guys— they are the Kevin Bacon of bands. Anyway, I met Chris (Keating) and his lovely wife at a show we were playing in Baltimore, and they, surprisingly to me, were flipping out. What I took from their live show is that if you are awkward and skinny you must learn to either dance, sing, or grow pec’s… Something they might have took from touring with Beck(?). Make the gentlemen cry and the ladies lose their shit.
Are you currently working on any material for a new album?
Tom: We’re starting to have the time to, yes. In the meantime we have a few releases coming up that are not exactly run-of-the-mill. There will be more music out before an official album, for sure.
Early on you played many DIY venues in Brooklyn. More recently you played the Whitney Museum? In which setting do you feel more comfortable?
Tom: And before Brooklyn, DIY spots in Providence, Baltimore and the like— ultimately we feel more comfortable at those shows, but a show like the Whitney is exhilarating in a different way. It’s like playing at the US Open versus playing shirts and skins with your best buds… (I am a tennis fan)...
George, you used to play around Boston and frequently sit in with bands like Addison Groove Project. How do you feel your background in jazz and funk plays into Javelin’s sound (if at all)?
George: I learned a lot about listening and nuance but, mostly, immersion in that music (plus a deep Joao Gilberto phase a little later) ruined my ability to not play jazzy chords. I’ve been in a rut with a handful of these guitar voicings for a decade now! So now I mess with drum machines and have a preoccupation with brevity…
How much of your live show is improvised?
Tom: A fair amount is still improvised, and a lot of parts that might seem improvised the first time you see us actually were improvised, at some point along the line. We never play the same set twice, song order or anything. We feel we have to go crazy and make shit up on the spot, for one to keep it interesting for us, and also because we rely on technology to make live shows happen, we constantly fight the mechanization of music. We embrace it and we fight it.
I remember reading an early interview where you said you had 100 songs written before you released an EP. How much of your current album was written before that point?
Tom: Hard to say— if you count a song being “written” the way sometimes rock musicians record songs they wrote when they were teenagers— than it’s most of the album. There are about 5 songs that hadn’t been in any stage of completion or existence before that point. But in almost every case we fleshed the other ones out either from early sketches or from fairly full-fledged versions. They are all oddly shaped gems to us.
