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Et
Tu, Brute?
An interviw with Jon from The Brute
Medium
By Nate Hough-Snee |
A short while ago, on a
dreary, misty, humid, sticky and otherwise adjective-laden day I ventured to
Cleveland's only DIY venue, Fort Totally Awesome (A house located at 2097 W.
98th St. Cleveland, OH - stop in and say hello) where Redlands' CA
erratic-rockers The Brute' Medium were playing with their good friend Wilmot
Proviso. Pronounced Broot-Ay (from the play Julius Caesar for all of you
who don't happen to be literature buffs) this three-piece made it to the
city whose river caught on fire for the first time as they tour the newly
secure homeland in support of jazzed-out rock (with a part-time accordion)
and the DIY ethic. I was glad to see a band that gave everything they had
to a small crowd under ominous conditions and still kept a positive
outlook. After a basement set that would have made John Wayne or any
equivalent tough-guy male weep I sat down to have a word with Jon Anderson, the big
man who graces the kit for these genre transcending madmen about what makes
them tick.
Nate: How long has the Brute Medium been around?
Jon: It's pronounced Brootay, you know like from Julius Caesar.
N: Oh yeah, my bad.
J: Just about Four Years I think it’s been.
N: That said why do you do what you do, day in and day
out making the music you do?
J: The band Halalshedad. They're this amazing band who at the time we
started was our absolute favorite. We're a little bit weirder than them,
but they made us want to play a different type of music than what you mostly
hear these days. We all played in different bands, but we never really got
off the ground. It was always California and West Coast shows, but we
wanted to tour and bring our music all over. Primarily we wanted to leave
and tour and play our songs with the primary influence we loved. That and
playing music since childhood; we all have been playing for a while now.
N: How long have you been on the kit?
J: (counts on fingers, starts over with clean hands and stops) Eleven years
now!(laughs)
N: You’re as good as if not better than Chris Penny as
far as I can discern.
J: Who?
N: The guy from Dillinger Escape Plan
J: Oh! This one guy reviewed us and was all like "you guys are so much like
Dillinger Escape Plan." We read some of his reviews and found out that
every band he reviews apparently sounds just like Dillinger Escape Plan.
(Laughs)
N: Good Stuff, back to the interrogation. Why an
accordion?
J: Mike is our third Guitarist, and early on we went to his house to
practice and there he was just playing this accordion. We figured he can
play it so we might as well use it. He has a trumpet too.
N: Yeah I noticed it as you set up. On an unrelated
note are you guys full-timing the band or are you students, what's your
deal?
J: We're both Juniors, but Mike just flew back from his graduation at UC
Santa Cruz. It sucked because he missed his flight and it threw us a bit.
Yeah, I was at Cranton Community College, but I'll be at Berkley this year.
Scott's at California School of Arts and Crafts...
N: Whoa, sounds like summer camp! Canoes and
campfires galore!(laughs) So you guys are pretty busy, what label helps you
out with everything or do you guys self release?
J: Well, actually I'm proud to say that we are self released on a label I
work on with a good buddy named Matt Endsley (The Filthy Vagrants) called 96
records, so there really isn't any support. It all comes out of pocket
right now...
N: Hold on, this is where I say labels take note they
are basically UNSIGNED! Ok, we got that out of the way, so what’s more
fulfilling, the label or the band?
J: The band for sure! We just put the label name on it to have a name on
it. Even without the label we'd be out here in one form or another. Bands
can go on without labels. We'll be around a while.
N: Do you round out school and music with political
activities or are you strictly entertainment? (enter Mike)
J: Between the places we come from, Oakland, Santa Cruz, I guess the whole
Bay Area in general is so living and breathing activism, we can't help but
be right in the middle of some things. We might be in one of the most
liberal areas in the Country except for maybe Vermont...
N: Yeah, totally.
J: Politics are such an important part of life for so many people out
there; radical ideas are an integral part of our music as well. We're all
vegans and of strong convictions...Mike got arrested for protesting...
Mike: ...and for riding bikes on the freeway. (laughs)
J: yeah, they (politics and music) aren't separate, but then again they
are. (Holds up a sheet of patches he's been selling and giving away to
those too broke to pay emblazoned with the slogan “Smart children, not smart
bombs” printed all over it) All these take is a stencil, some fabric and
ink, I've given hundreds away, sure it may be small, but it is a start,
vocalizing an idea. It sounds cheesy, but this whole process would be
futile if you didn't change something, even if only subtly.
N: WHat are your plans other than staying out of jail,
studying and playing music? What does the future entail?
J: When we get back, we're going to go in and record some tracks then
hopefully spend a few weeks in Vancouver and possibly Alaska.
N: Alaska? Is there a big native eskimo scene up
there? The Brute Medium posters covering the local record igloo?
J: (laughs) I guess.
N: Well thanks for a show well done, and good luck on
the rest of the tour.
J: Thanks.
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