Spaces: Von Haze, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Where is this?
Katherine: This is our rehearsal space and back yard.
Travis: We record here as well.
How long have you been making music here?
Katherine: Maybe a year. We used to rent a rehearsal space but it smelled like a hamster cage and had no windows. We created this environment ourselves so we feel at ease and open here.
Travis: Everything is so expensive around here as well so you end up sharing the hamster cage with about twenty bands and not too long after you get sick of clearing away cases of empty beer cans every single time you want to make some noise.
Why do you choose to record here? What appeals to you about this environment?
Katherine: It’s what we have made work for us with our resources. We are comfortable and can play and record whenever we like. We are about to go to a house in the mountains for seven months to record. We are ready to change environments for a bit and see what comes of that.
Travis: I didn’t think I would like having the rehearsal space in the house as well as the recording rig but it has settled in with me nicely. I love it actually. Typically, I am really into the idea of having separate spaces where you live and work but somehow its working at the moment. In my dream world there is definitely a sound proof tree house.
Do you think the room has an influence on the sounds you create? If so, how does it effect your music?
Katherine: I feel free to go to some far off places in my head when I am in that room but that has more to do with me than the room. The room itself doesn’t.
Travis: I think it does definitely. We are comfortable in the room so we are able to access the creative parts of ourselves in a way that you can’t when you are stuck in some smelly dungeon that you share with twenty bands. I think the music is more intimate. We wrote our EP in this room and have started our full length but we plan to finish it in a house we rented in the Catskills which is a few hours away from the city.
What is your favourite place in the world?
Katherine: I have not arrived there yet or I can’t remember.
Travis: Stoned on the beach is up there on the list.
If you could make a record anywhere, and in any space or room in the world, where would you choose?
Katherine: I would like to make a record in space. It may be challenging but I think you could tap into expressing some really strange and wonderful ideas.
Travis: I think doing a record in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean would be pretty insane. You could turn off the lights and trip out on all the bioluminescent creatures swimming around. It seems like it would be an endlessly entertaining light show.
Katherine: Travis just reminded me there is no sound in space but we will have air in the space studio so it shouldn’t be a problem. I have a feeling aliens make excellent synth players.
What’s happening with you guys at the moment?
Katherine: We are currently at home and soon to be in the Catskills recording our LP.
Travis: We have been working really hard on our first full length. It will be done by the end of the year. We will be back and forth between the catskills and the city playing some shows but its mostly all about the record.
“Von Haze’s”:http://www.myspace.com/vonhazerocks ‘Von Haze’ EP is out now on Hippos In Tanks
