People Get Ready: TAS In Session
It's hard enough sustaining any rock band, but what if a group manages to weave two creative disciplines into one cohesive whole? The theatrical split personality of The Lisps or The Citizens Band comes to mind, but Brooklyn's People Get Ready is making strides as an indie rock band and a dance troupe.
People Get Ready released its self-titled debut in the fall on Brassland Records, but didn't follow the usual band trajectory, like first-time sets at the Living Room or Pianos. Instead, singer and guitarist Steven Reker (former dancer for David Byrne's last tour), drummer Luke Fasano (ex of Yeasayer), bassist James Rickman (ex of Lissie Trullie) and keyboardist Jen Goma (A Sunny Day in Glasgow) honed their chops at performance spaces like The Kitchen in Chelsea, where they were part of a dance series several years ago.
The band is following a more traditional route these days, opening for Local Natives at a sold-out show this Friday, February 1, at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Another gig, a late show at Mercury Lounge, follows on February 8 and People Get Ready commences a tour with Deerhunter this April.
Not long ago People Get Ready visited The Alternate Side for a live session to talk about their robust, hybrid vision of choreography and music. Watch videos of the band's visceral performance below and listen to People Get Ready's interview and set this Friday, February 1, on TAS on 91.5 WNYE at 11 a.m. ET, also streaming online.
UPDATE: Listen to the People Get Ready session now in the FUV archives.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvuljnLaiE0]
Alisa Ali: Steven, I saw you doing a little dancing while you were singing. Is it hard for you to completely seperate those two worlds?
Steven Reker: I don’t know why you would.
Alisa: Exactly. That’s a little bit of your mission statement behind the band, right?
Steven: A lot. We like to integrate performance work into what we do as a band.
Alisa: I know you’ve done shows where you’re playing and dancing?
Steven: We do shows where we basically frame contemporary dance or performance within a live band experience. We’ve done that at places like the Kitchen and New York Live Arts, in theatres, instead of traditional venues like Bowery Ballroom. I’m a choreographer and a dancer and I filter [those experiences] through the band.
Alisa: Were some of you playing music and then dancing? Or were there points where you were doing both a the same time?
Steven: Definitely both at the same time. We have the help of some other performers as well so we pad out the whole thing with other dancers, dancers who sing and play music.
Jen Goma: Music is a loose term because we make sounds that do have a musical quality or are part of the musical landscape, with our bodies and using our bodies to manipulate. Maybe it’s not exactly an instrument; maybe it’s a microphone.
Steven: There’s a duet that Luke and I do where we are swinging microphones around. It’s all choreographed and timed. It’s dangerous and fun.
Luke Fasano: It’s impeccably choreographed.
Alisa: I can just picture the rehearsal of this and people getting smacked in the face.
Steven: You would actually break a jaw.
Luke: We [don’t] get smacked in the face. We get smacked in some other parts. Really, the look on the person’s face who is right in the front [of the audience] when you’re winging this microphone around is great. Worth it.
Steven: Sensational.
Alisa: You also also picked up floorboards and made use of this space for sound as well.
Steven: Basically we have this idea or concept of creating sonic landscapes through movement. The two can’t exist without the support of the other. That’s another thing that we did — we took Masonite sheets and manipulated them to make a lot of fun noises and from that, movement. Choreography just emerges.
Alisa: Did you incorporate these different sounds into the making of the record?
Steven: When we made this record, which was over a year and a half ago, we were still figuring out what we wanted to do as a band. These are just the songs and I think our next record will probably exemplify some of the other things we do.
Alisa: In recording, do you want to make some changes for the second record?
Steven: I think we’ll just represent ourselves in the performance work and try to capture some of the sounds that we make during our live performances, apart from the songs that we do.
Luke: I think we compartmentalized it to a greater degree initially. Like “this” happens in a performance in a theatre and “this” happens in a club. We’re trying to think of ways to bring those all together. Even on the record, you get that feeling.
Steven: Really, what we want to do is make a film. We’d do our performance work and capture it in a pretty cool way. So if you know of any producers or directors! And a suitcase full of cash.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io-hxKxn-9A]
Alisa: Steven, you and Luke met at Austin City Limits?
Steven: Luke and I met quite a few years ago.
Luke: We bumped into each other while we were both on tour [with other bands] and we just wanted to start a band. Steven had been keeping himself sane by writing a lot of material while he was on the road, so it comes as a natural outgrowth of that.
Steven: [We first met] at a dance show. Tara, Luke’s wife, is a dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. I was acquainted with Tara through some dance friends. This was in 2005 at Chez Bushwick, a salon where they had performance pieces.
Alisa: Do all of you have dance backgrounds?
Luke: Just Steve basically. Jen, did you?
Jen: Musicals. I’ve tread the boards. That was something that Steve and I talked about when we first met too; there were two brains where I did bands and I did classical music. I did singing for musicals, classical choirs and things like that.
Luke: We all have choir experience.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkMEVd8UXrM]
Alisa: So what was the comfort level for you guys in performing choreographed pieces?
Jen: It never feels comfortable. We all make stuff and initially, when we come up with it, we think it might be impossible. But we at least try it. It never feels like a walk in the park.
Luke: I generally get involved with “it involves swinging a [mic] around.” Watching me try to dance is comical.
Alisa: So the choreography is collaborative?
Steven: Very much so. I work with each person for a little while and, exactly what Luke said, figure out their strengths. From that, hope for the best.
Alisa: Steven, what are the strengths of Luke, James and Jen?
Steven: I think I can speak from the broad sense that each of them has deep intuition. I think they know how to use their bodies. I won’t bore you with specifics. All of them have a great sense of their own bodies.
Alisa: What about music? Do you hash this all out together?
Steven: I usually just work on some songs by myself and have a lot of ideas. I bring them to the band and Luke fleshes the percussion out. We go for it.
Alisa: Lyrics?
Steven: Usually just me. I’m not much of a writer, to be totally honest. It’s very important and I take a long time. I write a lot of stuff down and edit it like crazy, getting it down to the most basic and simple thing. A loose narrative … and [then I] cut it down to size. I think the most challenging thing is keeping this whole thing going — in a good way. We’re trying to do what makes sense to us and maintain our integrity the whole time. That’s sometimes challenging.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQBf7bemxN4]
