New Loudest Boom Bah Yea - "Tap Not Lest Ye Be Tapped" (Stereogum Premiere)

Loudest Boom Bah Yea's the "drum-pop" side project of +/- {plus/minus} (and one time Kelly Clarkson) drummer Chris Deaner with fellow skinsman Karl Lundin. Yes, drum pop. The band consists of two sets and, to quote Deaner, "only two drum sets." As he explained to us, "The idea is to create pop music (3 minute, or less in song length) from only drums." So we're not looking at something noisy. Spoon's Jim Eno co-recorded/co-produced their debut Booty Beats Fully Realized; additionally, the twosome's working on a remix project where, so far, the Rosebuds, +/- {plus/minus}, and Mates Of State have signed on to do something with the duo's drum tracks (i.e. add vocals and other instruments and construct an entirely new song). For now, here's Booty Beats's "Tap Not Let Ye Be Tapped." It's an intriguing project, so we also asked Deaner a few questions about it ... as well as his stint with Clarkson.

Loudest Boom Bah Yea - "Tap Not Lest Ye Be Tapped" (MP3)

STEREOGUM: How did the project come together?

CHRIS DEANER: The project started about 10 years ago when [Karl and I] were both living in Austin, TX. I enjoyed watching him play, and admired the parts he would come up with for the bands he played with. We would always hang out as friends, and eventually it made sense to nerd out, just the two of us, with only drums. In that initial "jam sesh" we both agreed that 100% pure improv songs are not as fun to us as writing and playing pop songs, so we started to try to write pop music for two drumsets.

STEREOGUM: How did Eno get involved?

CHRIS DEANER: We are friends with Jim from back in my Austin days. My band at the time, The Adults, used to play with Spoon pretty often. We kept in touch over the years, and when I had some rough mixes done for the record I brought them to Jim. The sounds (drum and otherwise) and parts on the Spoon records are amazing, so I thought I'd approach him and see if he wanted to "produce" the album. To my surprise, he agreed. We took the tracks that we had to his studio, Public Hi-Fi, and recorded extra percussion, claps, tambourine, and vocables for the songs. In addition to making the fidelity of the album amazing, he also helped arrange the songs. Essentially he's the third Boom Bah Yea.

STEREOGUM: The group name is a mantra of sorts, connecting the pieces. Any significance to it?

CHRIS DEANER: The name of the band used to be called "Loud Est. 1999 Or Whatever." We would change it every year. As you might imagine, this became overly cumbersome and silly. During that time we would usually just refer to the band as Loudest. Karl watched When We Were Kings, and was inspired by the "Ali, boom bah yea" chant in the movie. He put Loudest on the front, and it just works.

STEREOGUM: It's two drum sets, as you said, but there are some sounds that seem manipulated. How'd you get those?

CHRIS DEANER: Most were created using simple analog overdrive, or compression. There is tons of fun outboard gear and percussion toys to use at Jim's studio. A couple of my favorite sounds are the vocables on "Tribute To The Dirty South," the belly-chimey things on "Preylewd (to a Fairy Dance?)," and the bassish sound on "Tap Not Lest Ye Be Tapped." On "Tribute," Jim used some weird 1980's vocalizer he had laying around. On "Preylewd," I played the catwalk that is in Jim's studio with some timpani mallets, and on "Tap Not" Karl played an African drum with zils that was run through tons of distortion and compression.

STEREOGUM: Finally, what's up with you and Kelly Clarkson?

CHRIS DEANER: Me and Kelly.... Well, unfortunately I'm not going to be with her on this tour. I decided to stay home with the family. Between Loudest, +/- {plus/minus }, and Kelly Clarkson I did not get to spend too much time with family the past couple years, so I'm going to make some time to do just that. Hopefully I'll play with her again in the future!

///

Booty Beats Fully Realized is out in the US via Teenbeat and BB*Island in Germany, vinyl, and download formats. They recently toured Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia and are set to hit SXSW 3/18 at Rainbow Cattle Company as part of the Chicken Ranch SXSW Day Party. More shows pending. You can get can updates at Loudest's site.

Posted at 3:35 PM by brandon in MP3
Tags: Loudest Boom Bah Yea | Plus Minus