Disappears began as a recording project at the beginning of 2008 between Graeme Gibson and Brian Case, morphing into a live proposition later that year with the addition of Jonathan van Herik and Damon Carruesco. Focusing on the minimalism and repetition of dub and krautrock, Disappears spent the better part of the next two years on the road or in the studio, opening for the likes of Deerhunter, Tortoise, and Wire.
2010 saw the release of their debut album Lux on the venerable Kranky label, followed less than a year later by their second album Guider. After an amicable split with Gibson, drum duties were filled by Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley – a fan of the band and early supporter. 2012’s Pre Language, recorded with Shelley, saw the band reach its widest audience to date – producing what Spin called “their most uplifting work yet”.
Flash forward a year later and Shelley had returned to the fold of his Sonic Youth brethren and Disappears were preparing to release their most original set of music – Era . Featuring new drummer Noah Leger, the band received the best reviews of it’s career, with Pitchfork stating that “On Era, Disappears begin to pave a path to transcendence”.
Irreal, the bands fifth long player, arrives in January 2015. Hazed dub landscapes give way to the bands most experimental and open music yet. Disappears sit in the negative space where art rock and post punk collapse onto each other. It’s the sound of The Void looking back.
Hi there, how are you and what are you up to today?
Getting ready for an east coast US tour with Suuns and doing taxes.
To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?
Minimalist art rock.
What are the 5 albums and artists that have influenced you the most?
David Bowie – Low
Sonic Youth – EVOL
The Smiths – The Smiths
Brian Eno – Another Green World
Can – Future Days
What other artists do you really like at the moment and why?
I’ve been listening to the new Jefre Cantu-Ledesma album a lot, HTRK, the Mica Levi soundtrack for Under the Skin, Viet Cong, Tomaga….they’re all pretty different from each other but all of them have a sense of patience in what they’re doing. It’s definitely not all patient music but it has a purpose and real thoughtfulness to it.
What are some of the key pieces of gear you use to write your tracks?
Guitar mainly but some rhythm ideas come from messing around with a Doepfer Dark Time sequencer. I also use a Moog delay a lot so that figures in as well.
Do you have any information regarding upcoming releases, projects, DJ mixes or collaborations in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?
We just released our new album Irreal and have a full album cover of David Bowie’s Low coming out later this year.
What’s the best gig you have ever done and why?
We played with Michael Rother, which was really special seeing as how influential NEU! is to us and the music we make. When I was younger in a different band I did a show with Fugazi – what was pretty huge for me as well.
What’s the worst gig you have ever done and why?
Ha! Hmmm….I did a show the night George W Bush was elected for the first time. The bar owner made us wait until 1am to start then told us to get off stage 10 minutes later. It was a pretty bad day.
Right Quick Fire Round….
Classical
I like a lot of the more modern classical stuff but of course there’s great pieces throughout history.
Blues
Not so into the blues. Probably because of all the white people who’ve co opted it and stripped it of it’s soul.
Soul
I like it a lot, I’m no expert on all the players by any means but what a great time in America for music. I also really love the production on a lot of the earlier soul stuff, like the Stax sound etc.
Hip-Hop
I’m not too into the newer hip-hop I’ve heard but I really like stuff like Ice Cube Death Certificate and some of the King Geddorah and MF Doom stuff.
Folk
I like it fine, not too much of the baroque UK stuff but the more singular voice and guitar things are great. I don’t get too deep with this stuff, mostly Leonard Cohen, Bob Lind – I’m probably most familiar with that And Dylan of course.
Finally If you weren’t a musician what would you be?
I do graphic design so probably more of that.
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