HEALTH Interview (Part 2 of 3)

Q: I really liked your debut video [for "Heaven"]. Why did you pull that footage [from Werner Herzog's documentary, The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner]? It works really well with the music, but seems like a strange choice ...

JOHN: Yes, well it wasn't our idea. In fact we didn't know about it until after it had been posted on YouTube, and it started getting posted a lot of places. The video was done by Bret Berg of a great band called Anavan, he also did an Anavan video made with found footage ... The video is still not technically "official" but we really like it.

Q: And speaking about aesthetics and imagery -- where did the cover art for the eponymous debut LP originate? What was the inspiration there?

JOHN: The design used is one we've used for a lot of t shirts and our live cassette before, but the LP art was inspired by a lot of old record art, when the song titles or hits were often listed on the cover. Taking that idea and making it modern.

Q: Now, on to music. When asked to describe your music, what do you say? You're noise, but you tend to play more melodious stuff that other noise-rockers; you mess around a lot with pedals and weird effects, making the "experimental" categorization an easy one, but you seem to be more interested in song structure over random sounds; your tunes feature heavy, stoic drumming and speed guitar often, but no one's described you as a metal group yet. What are you!?

JOHN: Yeah thats tough. We tried to join several genre clubs with little success. We do get metal associations on tour, but Jupiter is the only one with a metal pedigree, though Beej is most accused of having one. We wish we could just be called Noise, but the L.A. Noise guys have reminded us that we are a band that plays music and not Noise. I like how BBBD says "Noise Dance". The genre thing doesn't bother me.

Q: What sort of stuff did you grow up on and how did you all personally get involved with actually making music yourselves?

JOHN: My formative years were punk rock, then I added classic rock, then progressive rock, then actual current music in that order, dance music got in a few years ago. We all played instruments in high school, and had high school bands. Weve always wanted to be in a band. Jake's was also punk rock, Jupiter, Metal, and BJ Blues Traveler. We all had equal Classic rock obsession and its the experience we share.

Q: And what type of music are you digging right now? Any undiscovered gems we should know about? Are you really all Michael McDonald fans?

JOHN: Um, Im really loving anything from "Italians Do It Better", get hip to Pictureplane, Captain Ahab, Telepathe, Narwhalz, Videohippos. If you live in L.A. get hip to Kyle H. Mabson, hes a goofy musical movement all to him self, in about 14 bands, all hilariously stupid: Kyle H. Mabson MySpace.

HEALTH - Heaven (Narctrax Remix)

HEALTH - Tabloid Sores (Nosaj Thing Remix)