Return-Path: From: rsgour@aol.com X-Mailer: America Online Mailer Sender: "rsgour" Reply-To: "rsgour" To: bzs@world.std.com Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 18:51:02 EDT Subject: Chaos4.EBN With their off-beat sense of humor and elaborate multimedia stage show, Providence's Emergency Broadcast Network can truly be called one of the most innovative new bands anywhere. The group, formed by RISD graduates Josh Pearson and Gardner Post, uses a collection of 500+ hours of video taped off the television to create compositions with equal emphasis put on the music and visuals. EBN scan the airwaves and splice together what catches their interest, bouncing things off one another and turning it into a song. One of EBN's clips, their George Bush "We Will Rock You" video, attracted the attention of U2, who used it to open their "ZOO TV" tour. U2 also used another one of their compositions, the Dan Quayle "Watch TV" video and hired EBN to do a clip for their song "Numb" (included on their new home video collection). Pearson and Post had been working together on installation art and started up EBN about two years ago. The duo quickly made a name for themselves with their off-beat , high tech performances. At their shows, they use a replica of the presidential podium as the focal point. This contraption, which dates back to their days doing installation art, has video screens on each side which flip up to reveal banks of lights. The whole device, which front man Pearson stands upon, rotates around and is accompanied by larger video screens. EBN is currently rounded out by a third member, Ron O'Donnell. A club DJ in Providence, O'Donnell helps select the audio samples used in the music and is EBN's resident DJ for the live shows. EBN's audio/visual compositions are made by creatively splicing together sound bites from a wide variety of sources. The duo works in their home studio, where a massive wall of video cassettes provides them with the raw material they use. "We catalogue all the footage, we have 500 hours that we catalogued by tape number and counter number and once we catalogue a tape, we find certain things that catch our attention and sample audio and then construct the music," explains Pearson. "We lay the music on a video tape, finished song, and edit all of the visuals back into place. So it's kind of a painstaking, round about process, which hopefully will be eliminated in the next few years as digital desktop editing becomes more widely available, higher quality and lower priced." Although the current $30-40,000 price tag is out of their range, the group did get to use digital systems when they went to Ireland to work with U2. Post explains that with the faster chips and other technical innovations happening now, the field is about to advance to the next level and it will only be a matter of a few years before EBN get their own digital editing system. Another realm that EBN are getting involved with is CD ROM. They are working on a project that will allow people to put together their own EBN like videos. In addition, this will let the group manipulate their images in real time at the live shows. EBN have managed to experiment with interactive live video by using more primitive means. They have a controller that lets them manipulate the image and sound coming from a VCR- speeding it up, slowing it down and playing it in reverse. The group has put together loops of their favorite guitar players. "You you can play your favorite guitar player, and see the image and hear the sound," explains Pearson. Pearson says that the motivation in starting up the band was to "reach mass audiences and fuck with people's heads." The group's approach was inspired by the display and marketing techniques of major corporations. With their installation art, they had been influenced by trade show exhibits, and this carried over into EBN. Now that they have a record deal, the group is faced with the challenge of adapting their songs to audio-only form. "We are definitely ready," says Pearson. "We of course would like the video to be the main product, but it may take several years to figure out how to get away with it. It may also take a couple of years to straighten out our blatant disregard for all copyright laws." EBN currently have one single out on TVT ("Behaviour Modification/We Will Rock You") and will have a full length album out later this year. The group says that the single, along with a longform video of previously completed videos, was put out in an effort to ride the wave of recognition brought to the band through the ZOO TV tour. For the album, EBN are working with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto. Last year, EBN have found themselves part of a growing techno scene in their native Providence, and though that has died down quite a bit, they are sill much in demand by local rave promoters. The group has performed at many raves and supplies visuals to even more. "We are psyched about introducing the video aspect and having that be a very important part, as it has been for our music," explains Pearson. "We think it should be the same with the techno scene, since the whole idea of the rave is to create this incredible environment with lots of visual stimulation as well as the music." Now, EBN are getting away from the techno sound and once more experienting with all styles of music. "We're getting more back to being influenced by everything; industrial, alternative, pop, techno, jazz," says Person. Post adds that "every week we want to go in another direction, so probably this album is going to be very eclectic, there will be something for everyone." When asked what kind of samples will be used on the new album and who we can expect to make an appearance through the miracles of editing, Pearson and Post laugh, saying "we can't release that kind of information!" Now that they are on a label and their material is getting out to a wider audience, EBN are starting to have to think about getting clearance for the audio/visual samples they use. The group says that they have not had any problems in the past, though when asked if they got clearance for the old videos they respond with another "we cannot release that kind of information." "We are beginning to get into the realm of clearing our samples," says Person. "Musically, we're not working as much with recognizable musical samples as much as we did the with the Queen thing. Having that be recognizable was part of the song, obviously. It's really more video clearance that looms on the horizon as being a problem just because we use so many that it's hard to research them all." EBN's choice of samples is another thing that will be different on the new album. Politics are out, while entertainment is in. The group currently has about a dozen songs nearly finished for the album and is working with Dangers complete the production. Dangers had met the band on during Meat Beat's last visit to Providence earlier in the year and brought over samples >from his own personnel collection that he thought would fit in with the EBN sound.