HEALTH Interview (Part 1 of 3)

We finally got the chance to do an interview with BBBD favorite, HEALTH (MySpace). I think we've literally been talking about this for a year now. Anyway, enjoy Part 1 today, 2 tomorrow, and 3 on Friday!
Q: Tell me a little about how you four got together as band.

JOHN: Not terribly interesting. Jake and I met each other working at Guitar Center Hollywood,I was playing Chinese Stars in the accessories section and he went: "hey you listen to cool music..." etc. etc. Him and Jupiter had already been trying to make a band and didn't know what they wanted to do, so I started meeting with them after work. After much talk and little action we decided to get a drummer off of Craigslist, BJ. Then we were a band.

Q: Shortly after the album came out, you began releasing a wave of remixes. Why did you decide to commission so many DJ's to remix your work? And what do you personally think of them?

JOHN: The original plan was not for so many remixes, I didn't think so many of them would be down for it. Every remixer was hand selected, I'm a huge fan of all parties involved.

Q: Maybe the most important and significant remix was the Crystal Castles one that was done way back before you had much of anything released. How did you get together with them and do you credit them with bringing you to any sort of fame?

JOHN: We discovered Crystal Castles upon my first visit to the blog 20jazzfunkgreats. Immediately stoked we started stalking their MySpace, added them. They left a nice comment about the tunes. Stoked+ we worked up the nerve to ask them to do a split or a remix possibly, at the time they had only two remixes both of which were amazing. Finally we emailed and asked. They were down for both. We owe a lot to Crystal Castles, possibly a right eye.

Q: The Smell has received major press in the past couple of months from sources as desperate as the New Yorker to i-D. Along with No Age, Mika Miko, and a few other groups, you're closely tied to the venue ... so how do you take all this press and, more importantly, what're your feelings on the place? How have you interacted with and benefited from the Smell?

JOHN: We don't mind the press, its not harming the scene one bit, and The Smell is a very willing participant in all this, so don't shed no tears. Nothing is in danger here. The Smell is a big deal for us, its always been a legendary place, I would drive up in high school from San Diego to go to shows there, but the biggest thing we owe to it is our record. Jim Smith gave us keys and free reign, and the Smell is really the sound of the record.

HEALTH - Heaven

HEALTH - Heaven (Pink Skulls Remix)