Throwback Thursday
Lance Herbstrong is what electronic remixing should be, incorporating new ideas with respect for the work of the original artists, and bring a new element to the song that can offer a unique take on something that is already brilliant. DJs Kamal Soliman, Bill Sarver & guitarist Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros) are all around great musicians, fucking hilarious individuals, and professionals at what they do delivering an undeniable in your face stage presence.
The second weekend of ACL on Sunday Oct.13 harsh weather and flooding of Zilker Park forced Austin City Limits to cancel due circumstances beyond their control. Herbstrong responded with putting together something for fans hitting the web with a message telling fans of a FREE pop up ACL show at Amped Austin on 6th Street, “We hustled this just for you freaks so be there.” When in doubt, Herbstrong delivers, in an oversatured electronic music realm as the genre continues to grow you have to cut through all the bullshit and find the real talent, here is one of those acts.
I’ve reposted an interview all three members of Herbstrong did with Live Music Daily this past summer in Washington, DC. One last note, they have the funniest Facebook Page of any artist I’ve ever encountered, epic. (Here) The tracks from Meth Breakfast are available for download via Soundcloud & their Official Website by simply typing in your e-mail address.
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Interview with Lance Herbstrong
Kamal Soliman, Bill Sarver, and Pete DiStefano of Lance Herbstrong sat down with me before a show this past summer at the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC to do an interview. Also backstage before the show were Ashish Vyas (Bass) and Congo Sanchez (Drums) of Thievery Corporation & See-i as well as and Rob Myers (Sitar) who performs with both Thievery & See-i as well as The Fort Knox Five. Everyone in that room has been in the music realm for quite some time in various capacities so getting to hear them tell me about it was a unique opportunity.
Q: After you all having a good time at Lollapalooza in 2010 you thought maybe you could take it more to the national stage in terms of touring. Exactly how did this all begin?
Kamal: Bill and I started doing remixes just for fun, and we did a Thievery remix, a mashup with Manu Chao, they really liked it and we ended up doing a couple more for other artists on their record label. We sold those and so we never really intended to be a live act.
Bill: This isn’t supposed to be happening.
Kamal: Yea and then so Lollapalooza, we got the opening slot on the DJ stage and I knew Pete and we had remixed the Porno for Pyros song and asked him to sit in with us.
Pete: And I heard it and I became a calculated creep. Got myself in the band. I even have a Lance Herbstrong card with my name on it.
Kamal: He was jocking to get in the band since day one, we didn’t let him in until we found out he only had one testicle.
Pete: (smiling) It’s true, it’s true.
Ashish: That’s the Lance Armstrong
Pete: And I died my hair blue black.
Kamal: It’s true I overheard him talking about his one nut and I was like you’re in! (laughs across the room) That’s the cosmic sign!
Q: You tend to bring in a lot of influences from the Great Era of Rock n’ Roll (Classic Rock) that’s not typical of some of these artists to really be able to take the song, keep its original integrity and make it into something new. I’m sure that presents a challenge…what is your process when you work with those songs?
Bill: Listen to the radio (sarcastically)
Kamal: We all have diverse taste and musical influences and classic rock is just something that we all have in common that we love and respect. How could you not with some of the great people we’ve remixed. But there’s no real rhyme or reason to it. It’s just about what song or songs we really like and love and think that we can make and modernize and put our spin on and make it something intriguing or danceable or whatever… and like ya said that’s really what it’s all about is paying homage to the original song, keeping its integrity, ya know we don’t remix just for the sake of remixing it. We want to make it better.
Pete actually commented that some of the stuff he’s done with Herbstrong is some of the more challenging stuff cause when he records his guitar parts I mean he’s got a duet with Pink Floyd, The Who, and all these great legends…
Bill: And I try to match the tone of the original song…
Q: Pete I know you’ve played with Porno for Pyros and done some collab with Scott Weiland (Ashish: “Really?”) of The Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver correct?
Pete: We had a band called Action Girls… We practiced and got ready and were ready to go on tour and then he went to jail and that band was over. We made a record called 12 bar blues, a solo record.
Ashish: Got a great Scott Weiland story for ya later…
Q: Obviously you’ve played in some more rocked based outfits, but this avenue is sort of rock with electronic, with reggae influences, it runs the course of all different genres. So how does the guitar fit in there and can it sometimes be a challenge?
Bill: Very bad (laughs throughout the room)
Pete: It’s been super fun I mean I love Kamal and Bill, but it’s really ya know it’s… there isn’t like Jimi Hendrix or Pete Townsend or Jimmy Page that I can look at who’ve done this. It’s never really been done for me to look at how to do it. So I rely on Bill. Ya know Bill what’s cool?, he’ll tell me to go “da da da da da” (motions intermittent guitar strumming) “space space space” “da da da da da da” and I’ll just copy what he does so he really produces me and then I improv a lot, I get to improv a lot, but usually it sounds terrible (smirks)… Stuff that works good it’s a lot of a learning process, how to learn how to play with space, and there’s a machine that’s the meat and potatoes, when I’m with Porno for Pyros ya know it’s just… easier cause you are the thing so you can just play, this you have to be clever and find out where you fit in… it’s just different thinking
Q: For you all not being the typical one man DJ act how has your onstage chemistry improved and in what ways do feel you are connecting more naturally at this point…How has the sound developed itself both onstage and in the studio?
Bill: Well it’s all on tape so we’re not actually doing anything (everyone laughs)… the same thing every night, it’s just varying degrees of how fucked up we are.
Kamal: No it’s good, it’s interesting, you know after the first year we did about 40 shows… we have a usual drummer that usually plays with us the majority of the time. More often than not traveling it’s just the three of us, and we have opportunities like having Jeff sit in on drums since our regular drummer isn’t here… after about 40 shows we’re gelling a lot better… Ya know it’s interesting, I’ve added some percussion to my position at the DJ table as well… Bill hates it (laughs)… it’s all on the job training and I have fun.
Pete: Our favorite tour was with Morcheeba right, that was a good tour, cause it was serious… and then Bill and red wine.
Kamal: Red wine vomit
Bill: I used to in my old band, I used to have a bottle of Jager in a cooler next to me and I’d chug it then vomit on the crowd.
Lance Herbstrong Official
*A very special thanks to the Howard Theatre, Katie Harvey, and Andy Cerutti