iNTERViEWED
BY BRiAN LUSH
Mixing two distinct personalities together is a lot like
mixing chemicals. I won’t pretend to know what combinations are
combustible but
I do know that if you can pour this thing and that thing into a beaker
and it
doesn’t blow up on you, then you’ve won half the battle. If you can get
that
stuff to glow in the dark then I should’ve been your lab partner back
in high
school. In the case of the rock-edged electronica duo FUNERAL IN THE
MIRROR,
the paring of JOSEPH DEROSA and JAMES PINKSTONE is a bit of chemistry
that
would’ve made MADAME CURIE forget all about that Radium business. The
duo’s
sound is marked by DEROSA’s innate rhythmic know-how and PINKSTONE’s
left-of-center approach to lyric writing and the pairing’s sense of
adventure
when it comes to melodies.
The
fruits of
their labor in the studio (PINKSTONE’s basement actually) are evidenced
on
their debut LP ‘OLD WOLF THOUGHTS’ – a recording that is best described
as the
missing link between THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS and the future. Adding to the
duo’s
already potent mixture of beats and rhyme surprisingly is DEROSA’s
background
as a standup comedian.
“[T]he reason
I stopped doing music (in the beginning) was because I was getting so
frustrated trying to be in bands and trying to figure out that puzzle
of having
four different voices and work ethics fit.” says DEROSA “That was why I
loved
comedy. I didn’t have to lean on anybody. That’s why I like working
with JAMES
because he’s got a great work ethic and he’s creative and I can count
in him.
We’re both going to carry our weight and we’re both good at doing
different
things. Both of us need the other person to bring those elements to the
table.
It works.”
ROCKWIRED
spoke with JOSEPH DEROSA and JAMES PINKSTONE of
FUNERAL IN THE MIRROR over the phone. Here is how it went.
Great
CD guys! Now
that it’s out there for people to hear how do you feel about the
finished work?
JOSEPH: We’re very
happy with it. It turned out exactly the way that we wanted it to. When
we
listened to the final product, it was certainly reminiscent of what we
had set
out to do. In the reviews that we’ve gotten, people have mentioned the
albums
attributes and the parts that reviewers like about it reflect what we
had intended.
It’s a nice feeling
JAMES:
It was
kind of a long term project in the beginning and then all of a sudden,
it kind
of felt like n avalanche once the songs found their place. That was
what was
cool about seeing it finally completed. In the beginning, we just had
some song
ideas but by the end it was ‘Okay, we
need something that feels like this for the middle or something that
feels like
this for the end.’ As we got closer to the end it got more
exciting putting
the pieces in place for what we thought would work from track one to
track
twelve.
The band has a
curious moniker. How did you settle on it?
JOSEPH: JAMES is
a big LEONARD COHEN fan.
JAMES: I’m more
of a folk fan than JOE is. I think he was placating me because he heard
that
quote and liked it. He figured that I would appreciate it because it
came from
LEONARD COHEN.
JOSEPH:
That is
basically what happened. JAMES talked so goddamned much about LEONARD
COHEN. I
heard the album ‘SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE’ and there was a lyric on that
album
that said ‘You’re a funeral in the
mirror’. I called him up and said that we should name the
band that. I
guess the name of the band was a secondary nod to another artist. I’m a
big SHUDDER
TO THINK fan and more of a prog and art rock fan than JAMES is. SHUDDER
TO THINK
had an album out called ‘FUNERAL AT THE MOVIES’ and the title is sort
of a nod
to them as well.
JAMES: Our only
concern when we settled on the name was that it made us sound like a
nineties
emo band. We were a little worried about that but we decided that there
was
something dark yet grown up sounding about it.
JOSEPH: Yes, I
agree. I guess it does kind of sound like some of the names of a lot of
the
bands that are out there right now.
JAMES:
With the
album title, I was actually brainstorming buzz words for the mood that
I wanted
and OLD WOLF THOUGHTS were the first three words on the list. I figured
I could
use those three words themselves instead of using them as inspiration.
That’s a rather
stream-of-consciousness approach.
JAMES: Exactly.
JOSEPH: On one of
the interviews that we had done before , the guy asked me what the
album title
mean t and I was like ‘I have no idea,
man!’
You should’ve made
something up. Talk about the genesis of this project. How did that all
begin?
JOSEPH: JAMES and
I have known each other since high school and we’ve always done
different types
of musical collaboration. The most recent thing that we had been doing
was this
thing called DEEP. It was a parody of very sexual, misogynistic rap
music. We
thought it was really funny. It was a bit of a social commentary. One
of the
things that we set out to do with that was to not make it a joke in
terms of
the music. We really wanted to make it sound like a good rap album. If
you were
just out of earshot and don’t really scrutinize the lyrics, these are
really
enjoyable and catchy songs. Sure enough, that was the reaction that we
got when
we started playing thee songs for people. We got to this point where
there was
nothing that we could do with that stuff. I was too hard to explain the
joke
and the people that didn’t get the joke were very offended.
JAMES: That was
part of the thing to. It was so vulgar that we thought everyone
would’ve known
that it was a joke. It became this sort of ANDY KAUFMAN phenomenon.
Half of the
people found it hysterical and half of the people didn’t know how to
take it.
It was funny for like a minute but as a musician you can only do so
much of
that to your audience.
JOSEPH:
Yeah, that’s
a good parallel. It was a lot like when ANDY KAUFMAN was wrestling
women and
you’d say ‘this has got to be a joke!’
but the people that didn’t get that would get angry. After that, JAMES
and I
were continually talking about what we could do because we work very
well
together. Eventually we came to a decision to make some music where we
could
hold our heads a little higher.
JAMES: Music that
our parents wouldn’t be ashamed of.
JOSEPH: Exactly!
JAMES: It was JOE
that came to me because I was the manager of a professional recording
studio
for seven years. I only stopped doing that recently. JOE wanted us to
take
advantage of studio time and make something more straightforward and
rock
oriented. At first it sounded like a lot of work to me but I eventually
decided
to give it a shot. JOE had a very specific idea for the song working
together.
He had it almost completely written in his head already and we played
with the
melody a little but he pretty much knew how he wanted it to turn out.
Another
song was called ‘ON YOUR WAY TO HELL’ which is track two on the CD. He
basically just had a riff and we just played around with it and started
writing
melodies over it. We had just those two songs for almost a year and
then
finally, we realized that we needed to make a record and then we just
belted it
out after that.
JOSEPH: That is
exactly what went down. The other thing that we were very cognizant of
was the
sound of the band. I remember in the initial discussions that we had, I
remember bringing up a lot of other computerized rock duos like
GHOSTLAND
OBSERVATORY and old THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS and older WEEN. That was
something
that was very present on the album, which we’re happy about. There is
definitely that electronic spine throughout the songs.
JAMES: We’re
hoping that it lacks some of the silliness that THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
have. They
can just pull that off better than we can. We’re going for an
electropop rock
duo sound without trying to be overtly tongue-in-cheek.
How does songwriting
work between the two of you?
JAMES: It kind of
varies actually but more often than not, one of us will call the other
and say
‘I’m about to email you a demo’.
Half
the time it’s an instrumental demo and we’ll say ‘pick
up where I left off, add
some instruments and write the vocal melody.’ It’s a lot like
how that band
THE POSTAL SERVICE was putting songs together. We were coming up with
initial
ideas and passing the ball onto the other guy and seeing how far he
could take
it and then take it back. There are a couple of songs in the record
where I
would go so far as to say that JOE had about ninety percent of the
idea. This
is true with the first song and the last song in particular. Overall,
one of us
would get an idea, pass it on to the next guy and then go back and
forth. It’s
very difficult to say who writes what for the band in general because
it
switches from song to song.
JOSEPH:
What
often happens is that JAMES will send me a track and I’ll listen to it
and
it’ll sound like a bunch of grunts and noises then I’ll add the music
to it.
JAMES: I didn’t
want to come right out with it but that is usually the case. Half the
time it’s
my dog breathing for two minutes.
JOSEPH: Being
serious, that’s actually one of the things that I cherish the most
about this
band. There were times where I would come up with the music or the
shell of the
music and I would hit a wall. We have different musical influences and
different musical backgrounds and ‘SAID THE DOG’ is a great example of
that. I
wrote that music on a plane and I was like ‘Wow!
This is really cool and there are some neat little parts in here but I
don’t
really know what to do with it’ so I sent it to JIM and he
put all of these
great melodies and harmonies on it and that is one of the stand out
tracks on
the album. At least it seems to be one of the stand out tracks for the
people
that have heard it so far. I don’t know where that song would’ve gone
if I
wasn’t doing this with JAMES.
JAMES: It’s sort
of like we’re challenging one another to rise to the occasion when one
of us
comes up with an idea and we see what the other guy can do. In general,
I would
have to say that JOE has a little bit more of an original perspective
than I do
and I’m a little more melodic than he is. We compliment each other
really well
in that way but sometimes we’ll switch roles just to see if we’re up to
it and
the results can be really good that way as well.
Talk about how each
of you settled on music.
JAMES: Well JOE
is adopted. Let’s start there. If you saw a baby that looked like him,
you’d
give it back. There are actual skid marks on the hospital parking lot.
I guess
I’ll start. I basically had no music in my family. My mother would
listen to
cassettes in the car and stuff like that. As a kid I really loved music
but I
had to take whatever I could get including whatever tapes I could
borrow from
my older brother and whatever music I could buy with my allowance. I
didn’t
really have any musical role models or any of the cool older kids who
were into
music to show me anything. I had to figure out for myself which meant
that I
liked a lot of lame stuff. In the first grade, REO SPEEDWAGON’s ‘I
CAN’T FIGHT
THIS FEELING’ was my jam. As I got older, JOE and I started hanging out
in high
school and he was a drummer. We were in a band together and I was the
singer.
JOE doesn’t play much live drum on the record but he’s actually a very
good
drummer. He was actually one of those kids in high school who would try
to play
along to the RUSH album and stuff like that. After our high school band
broke
up, I started writing and recording music on my own in college. I got a
four track
that I borrowed from somebody and I learned to play guitar and bass. I
can hack
my way through keyboards but I’m a faker with it. I got out of college
and
actually got a job working at the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania
but I wasn’t happy because I
was recording all of these songs in my basement. I decided to go to
audio
engineering school and that was like eight or nine years ago now. I
went to the
Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona
and then ended up moving to Atlanta
for the music scene and I became the manager of NICKEL AND DIME
STUDIOS. In my
tenure there, JOE would come and visit me and we would mess around and
make our
joke songs. By the time we got really serious about it, I stopped
working in
the studio so we actually recorded this CD in my basement on my
equipment.
JOSEPH: I grew up
in a fairly religious household and I was obsessed with rap music –
particularly
gangster rap music. That was the direction that I was moving in. I
wanted to be
a rapper more than anything in the world.
JAMES: In high
school I was one of those kids that loved NIRVANA and JOE was one of
those kids
that loved N.W.A. and somehow we found a middle ground.
JOSEPH: I
certainly tried my hand at that for along time. I was decent at it but
there
was always something organically missing probably because I came from a
very
religious and suburban upbringing which really doesn’t give you a lot
of the
grit that you need to be very convincing rapper.
JAMES: And being
a total candy-ass doesn’t help either.
JOSEPH: My
interest in rap music was what got me interested in drums and rhythms
and
beats. I started to get into beat production and more serious drumming.
I was
the opposite of JAMES. I didn’t sit down and learn to play guitar or
any of that
stuff. I learned stuff just enough so I could write some songs with it
and pull
it off. In a weird way, the lack of a music theory foundation helped me
with
songwriting. It wasn’t about what chords go together but what feels
good. Our
lives have brought us both to this place where each of us has very
specific
roles. We realized what those roles were when we started doing working
on the
song DEEP. I made the beats because I knew how to makes these beats
sound like
hip hop beats and JAMES wrote all of the lyrics because understood
poetry and
knew how to put the words together in the right way and come up with
the
ridiculous metaphors and all that stuff. In realizing those two roles,
they
sort of just transferred right over to this thing. I walked away from
music a
while back. I shouldn’t say that I ‘walked away’ like I was some
fucking star
or something. I stopped doing it and I started doing comedy. One thing
sort of
fueled the other because the reason I stopped doing music was because I
was
getting so frustrated trying to be in bands and trying to figure out
that puzzle
of having four different voices and work ethics fit. That was why I
loved
comedy. I didn’t have to lean on anybody. That’s why I like working
with JAMES
because He’s got a great work ethic and he’s creative and I can count
in him.
We’re both going to carry our weight and we’re both good at doing
different
things. Both of us need the other person to bring those elements to the
table.
It works.
JAMES: That is
what makes JOE so easy and challenging to work with. He was a very
strong work
ethic and he demands constant accountability. I’m used to dealing with
flakes
after having worked in a recording studio for so many years. I’m used
to
dealing with air-headed musician types who don’t follow through with
what they
say they are going to do. It’s refreshing to work with JOE because JOE
says
he’ll be there at nine to record a song and he’s there at nine to
record a
song. It feels like we really get things done.
What songs stand out
for each of you the most and why?
JAMES:
Personally, I’m the most proud of I FEEL IT, VALENTINE and probably THE
WORK
because that one is a good example of the band it it’s best. Half of
the song
is like grunge rock song and then all of a sudden this dirty rap beat
comes in
for the back half. I think that in three and half minutes, THE WORK
really sums
up our sound.
JOSEPH: THE CHEST
is a stand out for me because I remember recording the demo for that
song in a
hotel room and being anxious about getting into an actual studio and
doing all
kinds of things with it. VALENTINE is great. To me that is the most
infectious
song on the record. I love the vocals that JAMES does. The other two
for me
would have to be SAID THE DOG and 8AM MY TIME.
What would each of
you like a person to come away with after they’ve heard this album?
JAMES: I would
like to have people speculating and wondering how they put it together
and who
sings which song. JOE and I are such big fans of discussing an album
after we
hear it. Do you think they wrote that knowing that it would be track
two? Do
you think they wrote that knowing that people would be asking these
questions?
Hey which guys is singing this one? We get very scientific about the
music that
we love and I would love to have people walk away wondering how we went
about
it.
JOSEPH: I want
them to think ‘How is a guy that funny
and that hot able to be in a band this good?’ I agree with
what JAMES is
saying. I’m always flattered when people say that they like it but as
far as
the analytical side is concerned, It would be cool if someone got to
the point where
someone could listen to us and get
an idea
of where each facet of our music comes from.
JAMES: And for
all of my musician friends, I want them all to think ‘God!
I wish I wrote that’
APRiL 7,
2010
BRiAN
LUSH (FOUNDER,
EDiTOR-iN-CHiEF)
