ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

VJ Anthony, purveyor of all things ’80s and Retro and one of Atlanta’s only Video DJs, will be throwing a righteous party of ’80s proportions, ICON: 80s Music Video Dance Night, the Guilty Pleasures: Dance Songs You Hate to Love Edition at ‘Club Famous’, the back room of Famous Pub, this Friday, April 11 and every Friday in the foreseeable future! He will spin you right ‘round with all the MTV videos you’ve been missing! So, ditch whatever lame thing you were doing and rock on down to Famous Pub for a taste of nostalgia doused in new wave, a little dark underground as well as videos from Madonna to The Cure, with a little Sisters of Mercy, Depeche Mode and Siouxe thrown into the mix!

VJ Anthony hails from Florida and has been jockeying those discs for over 25 years. After settling in Atlanta, he slinked right into the Atlanta underground Goth and Industrial scene, helping launch Heels & Whips, an underground fetish club and was also the resident DJ at the Masquerade’s Club Fetish, which eventually led to the opening of Atlanta’s den of dirty deeds, The Chamber, which closed its doors in 2005.  In 2007, VJ Anthony added video projectors to his set-up and has been digging deep into the huge collection of videos he’s accumulated since the “dawn of MTV’,” delivering the perfect combination of visual and audio experiences at his dance party events. He was resident DJ at 688 Club; Future, which was located at Underground Atlanta and has since closed; the Mark Ultra Lounge (now the Sidebar); and The Shelter, where he hosted regular ’80s/’90s music video nights.  He could also be found dishing out danceable visual experiences at the Bootie ATL dance parties, which were held monthly at The Shelter.

If you have a craving for the ’80s and are feeling a little nostalgic for the good ole days when MTV actually played music videos, rock on down to the Famous Pub every Friday from 10 pm to 3 am and let VJ Anthony do a number on your senses!

ATLRetro caught up with VJ Anthony for a quick interview about the life of a DJ/VJ, his exciting venture into the land of ICON: 80s, his HUGE music video collection and his absolute devotion to clean bathrooms!

Since ICON: 80s Music Video Dance night is one of your new ventures, following your stint as resident VJ for The Shelter’s 80s/90s Music Video Dance Nights, can you let our readers know what sort of exciting things to expect when they come out to the Famous Pub (Club Famous) for your event?

First off, the space is incredible—a best-kept-secret kind of thing.  They can expect to hear old favorites they might not have heard in years and some they might have missed back in the day.  The best part, to me, is the video aspect.   Ninety-nine percent of the time, I have the video for the song, so you quite literally see what you’re hearing.  This is a dance night, but people who prefer to sit at the bar won’t feel uncomfortable.  There are a number of flat screens, as well as a couple of projector screens around the club.

How do you choose what you will play/show at your music video nights? Is it random picks? Audience requests? Or do you plan each night specifically?

I can feel out the crowd pretty well after 25-plus years, but I do play requests!  They have to be a good fit, but requests are welcome.  I want people to have fun—and come back!

You’ve done special nights recently, with the “John Hughes” and “The Lost Boys” editions. What other special editions would you like to see come to fruition and why?

I think the plan is this:  The first and third Fridays will be Icon: 80s, strictly 80s, with loose themes. I always loved the fantasy movies from the 80s – think DARK CRYSTAL and LABYRINTH – so I think that one will be heading to Icon: 80s very soon. There will also be tribute nights to individual bands such as Duran Duran, The Cure or Depeche Mode, that will showcase their prolific video catalogs throughout the night.  The second and fourth Fridays will be “Guilty Pleasures”—mostly 80s, with some 70s and 90s thrown in. Songs you love to hate, or songs you hate to love.  It will be kind of like a test to see if people are brave enough to dance to some embarrassing but fun songs.

What is your favorite 80s genre or performer and why? What or who can’t you get enough of?

I can narrow the genre part a bit by saying I really love new wave, Goth, ethereal and industrial. Electronic bands with synths, like Blancmange, Depeche Mode and Yello; Goth and industrial bands with a dance element, like Sisters of Mercy, Xymox, Front 242 and Skinny Puppy; ethereal bands that are calming and beautiful, like Cocteau Twins, Raison d’Etre and Dead Can Dance. The record labels 4AD and Wax Trax! are to blame.

So, you’ve “collected music videos since the dawn of MTV.”  When did you begin your collection and why did you collect them?

My grandmother bought me a Betamax in the early 80s and I was fortunate enough to have MTV from the very first airing on August 1, 1981.  I quickly discovered many new bands and was really attracted to the new wave sound coming from the UK. In 1986, MTV‘s 120 Minutes program gave alternative bands a huge push and exposed many to the Goth and industrial world.

How many 80’s music videos would you say you have? Which are your favorites?

Currently, I have around 10,000 videos.  For many of these, I have transferred the video from Betamax, Laserdisc or VHS.  Often, I’ve had to replace the audio track with a clean CD source for the best club sound.  My favorites are concept videos; they have a story to tell, like a mini movie.  They usually have bad acting from band members who are suddenly forced to make a music video.  This sort of campy video can never be reproduced in today’s music video world.

You also hold a “BLACK OUT” version of your 80s Music Video Dance Night. Can you tell our readers a little about how it differs from the regular event and about what to expect?

Black Out is the fourth Saturday each month, also held in the back of Famous Pub.  It’s actually not a version of my 80s dance night, though I can see why it might seem to be.  It’s still a music video night held at the same venue, but it’s specifically Goth and industrial.  To be fair, though, there is some crossover.  At Black Out, you’ll hear things like Bauhaus and Peter Murphy, Joy Division, Wolfsheim, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie, Wumpscut, Cocteau Twins, Nitzer Ebb, VNV Nation and Covenant.

You’ve been a part of Atlanta’s underground Goth and Industrial scene for quite some time, with your involvement with the underground fetish club Heels & Whips, Club Fetish held at the Masquerade, and the Chamber.  What drew you to the dark side?

Although I love “up” music too – Oingo Boingo, Erasure, Howard Jones – I just like the feel of some of the darker music more.  Maybe it’s in the sad chord changes or keys they’re played in… not sure.  It definitely wasn’t the stilettos. Ouch.

Did you have a particular calling to become a DJ and then a VJ? What does the road to a DJ/VJ look like?

I never heard enough of the music I really loved when I went out to clubs, so I started learning how to DJ for myself, then parties, then clubs. I was always in love with the video aspect, so it just felt like a natural progression to me.

Just as I went from tapes to vinyl to CDs to digital, I went from Beta and VHS to DVDs to digital. I don’t play MP3s, though, unless it’s absolutely the only way to get the song. The road has been long, but lots of fun. It’s definitely a lot lighter now than it was back then!

Who are some of your favorite DJs/music purveyors and influences?

DJ OMAC [Roy Miller] in New York and DJ Rob in Tampa.  I’ve heard a few sets I’ve really liked from various “famous” DJs, but I can’t remember any off-hand.  I don’t think I was influenced by any DJ in particular, but even DJs run up to the booth to ask what that last song was!

Having worked at many clubs in many different cities, which gig would you say was your favorite?

I don’t really have a favorite club or city.  It’s about the energy of the crowd.  I love it when the music itself is what brings them [the audience] out and moves them, figuratively or literally.  The most important tangible things I want to see in a club are a really good sound system and clean bathrooms – which Famous Pub has!  Everything else—like crazy lights and cool art—is really incidental.

If you could have a dream gig, where would it be and how would it run?

I would love a weekly dark eighties night in a club not unlike some of the seedy ones in 80s movies. But I want clean bathrooms!

How does it feel to be established as one of Atlanta’s only video DJs?

I haven’t really ever thought about it. I don’t know of any other VJ in Atlanta who works in the same genres I do, but I have to give a shout-out to Bill Berdeaux, resident VJ at Blake’s. I learned a lot from him (and he’s a super nice guy!).

Do you think the nostalgia of the 80s will keep people coming back for more?

You know, I think it will.  People already had that nostalgia in the early 90s, when the 80s were barely over.  It was huge in the mid- and late-90s. It’s big again today. Hell, I hear people who are currently in high school and college going on about some obscure 80s band.  It’s weird, but it makes me happy. There was just that *something* about it…

Any special plans for your upcoming April 11th ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night event?

There’s an Absolut Vodka promotion that night, so the name was easy: Absolut Guilt!  (That’s the second Friday, so it’s a Guilty Pleasures edition.)

What’s next for VJ Anthony?

A 70s disco and funk night and few other surprises while I get my own business “on the road,” but that’s another story!

What question do you wish somebody would ask you and what’s the answer?

How do I feel before, during and after a gig after 25+ years of DJ/VJing?  I am still nervous as hell, every time!

Can you tell us something you’d like folks to know about you that they don’t know already?

Ironically, I am not comfortable in a large crowd of people. The DJ booth helps keep me in a small personal zone, which makes it easier to interact with just a few people at a time. I guess I have social anxiety, but only when the number of people creeps above eight or so.

All photographs are courtesy of VJ Anthony and used with permission.

Photo courtesy of Russ Marshalek.

When TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was released in 1992, it evoked boos in Cannes and derision from almost all US critics and many loyal David Lynch fans. However, over time, the film, meant to be a hybrid of prequel and sequel to the iconic TV series, has acquired its own cult following who revel in the excessive grotesque, over-the-top symbolism and psychological horror dualism of Leland Palmer and the corrosive Bob. One of these new advocates is once-Atlanta resident/now New Yorker Russ Marshalek, a musician, DJ and looper whose previous project with Sophie Weiner, the Silent Drape Runners, devoted much of its creative energy to re-soundtrackings and re-imaginings of the iconically weird TV series, a precursor to quirky cable dramas of today. Now with his new solo project a place both wonderful and strange, he’s doing a live re-scoring of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME this Sunday Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Highland Inn Ballroom, and well, while Angelo Badalamenti‘s score was a film high point, maybe the Log Lady injected us with a primal sense of curiosity.

The idea of new fans and a new soundtrack makes me wonder if TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME might have been received better as a standalone feature, in other words, if the series hadn’t existed. I, for one, recall hating it for the same reasons as Quentin Tarantino did – Lynch was so out-Lynching himself that it became almost a parody of the cinematic vision I had grown to admire from ERASERHEAD to THE ELEPHANT MAN to, of course, BLUE VELVET, and WILD AT HEART. TWIN PEAKS was an epiphany when it hit the airwaves, and Audrey Horne (Sherrilyn Fenn) became my role model for how to be all innocence and tease, saddle shoes and maraschino cherries. Alas or maybe for the better, Fenn, along with Laura Flynn-Boyle, skipped the movie, although the pass did not save her career. Lynch also had lost his co-series creator Mark Frost by then, and even Kyle McLachlan sought to minimize his role. Maybe it’s the train wreck aspect also that perpetually fascinates, the longing that something highly anticipated, such as Audrey’s slow knotting of the cherry stem in her mouth, would be better than I remember. Chris Isaak and David Bowie also played roles in it. Yeah, just plain weird. Which also is totally Lynch.

ATLRetro caught up with Russ because I had to ask “why?” I’m happy to report, he left me asking “why not?”

ATLRetro: You and Sophie just disbanded the Silent Drape Runners. How is your new solo project, a place both wonderful and strange, similar or different to your past work? And is that place TWIN PEAKS?

The production work for Silent Drape Runners was mostly me, and when Sophie and I parted ways I immediately knew that I wanted to continue with what I’d been doing, so a place both wonderful and strange is a similar creative vision, but it’s mine. The music is a bit more accessible, I think, and live performances incorporate a heavy visual and dance element. That carries over into the FIRE WALK WITH ME show, which is a bit more theatrical than the SDR shows were. On the whole if you liked SDR, I think you’ll love a place both wonderful and strange.

Let’s go back to the beginning. What was your entree into the world of TWIN PEAKS, and why did it entice you so much as to become such a central theme of your music? Were you already a fan of David Lynch’s work?

Lucy, my friend/current vocalist/then-gf, introduced me to TWIN PEAKS when I bought her the Gold Box for Xmas one year ages ago. It broke the conventions of everything I thought could be done with using images to create a mood – I am, and have always been, more about words or sounds. That was the gateway drug. Combine that with the fact that Lynch’s influence is inescapable in the modern dark electronic music scene, and there you have it.

TWIN PEAKS’ second season was not as satisfying as the first — some say it descended into strange for strange sake once Laura Palmer’s murder was resolved. And TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME doesn’t get a lot of love from critics. What are your thoughts and why if the show didn’t end on a high note does it have still have such a following nearly 25 years later. 

I attended a lecture recently done by this group FEAST OF FOOLS here in Brooklyn, at the occult bookstore Catland, on David Lynch, TWIN PEAKS and the occult. In it, the end of TWIN PEAKS Season 2 was discussed: how when Lynch returned to the show he did so in a BIG way. And I agree – yeah, a lot of season 2 was “eh,” but the end of the show was phenomenal, and that’s what sticks with you. Honestly, FIRE WALK WITH ME is one of my absolute favorite things, and though it wasn’t adored by critics at the time, I think it shines as a terrifying masterpiece.

There have been other re-soundings of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. What makes yours different and worth coming out on a Sunday night? 

What we’re presenting is a unique vision: we’re not adhering to what Lynch and Badalamenti have laid down as gospel, but rather taking the dualistic playful/terrifying nature of the source material and using it as inspiration. There’s a live performance aspect that goes into it, and honestly if I ever scanned the notebooks of concepting that went into these two hours, it would be enough to drive a sane person nuts. Also, yeah, it’s a Sunday, but you’ll be home by 10 p.m.

Are there specific parts of the film that were especially interesting or challenging to re-conceive musically? 

Laura’s death. It’s easy to treat that with TOO MUCH gravitas, and that’s not what the show is about. Yes, it’s terrifying and emotionally draining and horrific, but it’s also campy and outlandish. The trick was finding a middle-ground. The whole movie, in fact, is like that.

If I understand correctly you did the soundtrack in collaboration with GHOST COP, aka Lucy Swope. What’s Lucy’s part in this? 

Lucy and I actually dated ages ago; we’re just friends now. Lucy’s GHOST COP project is really impressive electronic space pop. As I said, she introduced me to Lynch. She also had performed a few times with Silent Drape Runners, doing a twins/doubling performance with my former band-mate Sophie on a witchy version of “God Only Knows.” When there was a gig to fill doing a show for the David Lynch Foundation in South Carolina post-SDR, we talked and the pieces kind of fell into place. I love FIRE WALK WITH ME, probably more than the entirety of the series as a whole, so the show kind of started from there. We took to the film with a scalpel and came up with something that’s playful, a little inappropriate and creepy as hell. She does the majority of live vocals.

Looping and goth music are obviously strong influences on your work. What about some of the iconic experimental industrial groups such as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubaten?

Looping/drone was one of my first musical loves. I used to walk around the Barnes and Noble on Peachtree in Atlanta and listen to the sound the store’s air conditioner made. It was a really uniquely repetitive tone that was strangely highly nuanced. IDM stuff like Autechre and old Warp/Rephlex Records stuff also factor in there, too. The work of Chris and Cosey‘s stuff under that moniker more so than Throbbing Gristle, though obviously Throbbing Gristle is incredibly important. Nine Inch Nails. My Bloody Valentine. My hair stylist pointed out to me the obvious nods to Coil.

Russ Marshalek. Live photo taken by The Culture Of Me. Photo credit: Zhang Qingyun; Art Direction: Deanna Paquette.

What do you think of DUNE? To me, it’s always been an intriguing but tragically flawed film, and I’d be very interested in seeing a re-sounded interpretation. 

HMMMMMMM. 🙂

You and Lucy used to live in Atlanta. Does your show here have a special resonance because of that, and what else would you like locals to know about what you have planned? 

Atlanta’s always a fun place to play. My old band had a great time playing some gigs there last year. It’s where I grew up. Plus it’s the last show of the tour. We’re doing four shows in four days, so I will be in a pretty festive mood after. Maybe we should all go to The Bookhouse? 😉

While you’re here in Atlanta, you’re also DJ’g a Depeche Mode after-party Thursday night at Noni’s. Can you tell us a little bit about what you have planned for that? 

Yeah that should be fun – the folks who run the NONSENSE Atlanta parties and I are doing that . Up here, I DJ so much pop music that I’m really excited for a chance to dig into some darker dance tunes without anyone asking me for “Blurred Lines.” I have an external hard drive full of stuff that I can’t wait to play.

Will there be a recording of the re-soundtrack and what’s next for a place both wonderful and strange? I take it that it won’t be all TWIN PEAKS, or will it?

No, no recordings. The original Silent Drape Runners re-soundtracking of the TWIN PEAKS pilot was recorded at our final show in August, and that’ll be coming out next month, but I feel about this show the way I felt about that one – it can’t be experienced unless it’s live. The live, performative aspect of it is what makes it special. What’s next for my project? I’m putting out the music video for my single DNT CM, finishing my ep.

Finally, gotta ask. If we went to a diner, would you order coffee and cherry pie?

YES, but not at Waffle House.

Advance tickets are recommended and available at https://aplacebothatlanta.eventbrite.com/.

Is Amanda Palmer a Goth Goddess? A Steampunk diva? Sally Bowles? Super-heroine? The publicity photos for her new band the Grand Theft Orchestra suggest Geisha meets AMADEUS. Atlantans will find out tonight (Sat. Sept. 16) when she steals into the Variety Playhouse.  A creative chameleon who has played in many Retro eras from costume to sounds, Amanda Palmer has reimagined herself again with a new album, THEATRE IS EVIL, released on Sept. 11. Some critics have dubbed this album poppier than previous projects such as the Dresden Dolls, but we’re intrigued by the list of many of our favorite ’70s and ’80s Goth/alternative bands, which she lists as influences yet how she makes the songs very much her own.

THEATRE IS EVIL also is testament to her savvy social networking skills and a passionate fanbase. It’s already music industry legend how she produced the LP without label support through a Kickstarter campaign in which she asked for $100,000 but raised $1.2 million. You have to imagine plenty of musicians are tilting their heads and analyzing the hows and whys of her success – could crowdsourcing be the golden ticket to being able to stay true to your artistic vision without interference by over-zealous marketing suits?! In any case, Amanda sure seems to be living the artistic dream life with enough money to follow her creative bliss and even married to Neil Gaiman, award-winning leather-jacketed punk rock author of dark fantasy best-sellers and creator of the ultimate dream-weaver comic, SANDMAN.

Yet all the while Amanda stayed true to her busking performance art spirit  including fun Kickstarter incentives that radiated a reciprocative passion for her fans including an artbook, personal sketches and private concerts. And she even took a time out during a busy week on the tour bus to zip out a last minute Q&A for readers of a humble local blog like ATLRetro, for which we have to say she’s a mighty Kool Kat…

ATLRetro: On NPR’s ALL SONGS CONSIDERED, the two critics Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton  couldn’t get enough of THEATRE IS EVIL, even comparing it to Bowie’s THE LODGER. You’ve mentioned that you had The Swans, My Bloody Valentine, The Cars and VIOLATOR era Depeche Mode on your mind with particular songs. Since we’re ATLRetro, we have to ask which critic comparisons have pleased you the most and are there any other Retro musicians/bands who particularly influenced the work on this album?

Amanda Palmer: Oh, where can I start? Soft Cell. Gary Numan. The Cure, all over the place…I feel like some songs like “The Killing Type” are more early-era stripped down Cure whereas “Want it Back” is more KISS ME, KISS ME ,KISS ME me era, and “Smile” was directly an homage to “Plainsong” from DISENTEGRATION, right down to the fact that I chose it to kick off the record and the fact that we open the live show with it. One of my deepest and influential moments was the first 30 seconds of seeing The Cure live in around 1989, on The Prayer tour. They opened with Plainsong, and I felt like I was listening to the voice of god.

You embrace live performance with a passion and bravado unparalleled by many contemporary musical artists. Why the album title, THEATRE IS EVIL?

Because it’s hilarious.

Your songs not only tell stories but also always seem to have interesting stories behind how you came to write them. Pick one song on THEATRE IS EVIL that you’d like to tell Atlanta fans more about.

Wellllll – “Tour Heart Replica” has a good one. I was going through a really rough breakup, and I was visiting Neil Gaiman at his house with my whole touring crew, before we started dating. I was also really feeling the tour grind, the caged feeling. He took us to a trout farm. We piled into his car on a freezing Wisconsin day right before Christmas – a few of the actors in the tour, my opener and cellist Zoe Keating. The trout farm was this set of shacks where they had the trout swimming and swimming endlessly in circles in these big metal tubs. They clobbered a dozen of them to death and brought us into the fish surgery where they gutted them, and as the dude sliced into one of the fishes, he said “look” to us, and a fish heart was laying there in his hand, still beating. And for about 20 seconds, it kept going, in his hand, beating. “This happens sometimes,” he said. Then he put the heart on the counter and he left, and Neil followed him out. And Zoe and I stood in the room, looking at the fish heart on the metal counter. And it kept going, it kept beating. Everything about my life was reflected in that moment. And Zoe, Neil and I joked in the car that the moment was the perfect song, the perfect poem. And we all went off to write. Neil’s poem was published in a journal, and my song found its way onto the album.

Some of my favorite songs by you with the Dresden Dolls and solo have been those that have been angry/angsty but also clearly about empowerment and moving on. In other words, not getting derailed by relationships that end bitterly. Can you talk briefly about what those kind of songs do/mean for you or are you moving away from that thematically since you’re happily married to Neil?

Well, a lot of the album does feel like it’s about coming to peace with things. But in order to truly come to peace, you always have to peel the rug up and look at the truly rotting stuff. You can’t have one without the other, I think. To me songs are the perfect way of doing both things at once: the peeling up, and the coming to peace with what you find there. And then the best part: sharing what you find with everybody else, and seeing the heads nod in “you too?” agreement. You can find anything under the rug if you don’t feel alone in the finding.

Without giving away any crucial spoilers, can you share a little sneak peek into why no one should consider missing your show in Atlanta this Saturday whether or not they have seen you perform live before?

Well, I’m backstage in North Carolina right now, and we just had the audience split up into a “lamb of god” divide and wield disco balls and peace twigs at each other. ANYTHING is possible. But in seriousness: be prepared to dance. The dancing is key. Bring a tissue as well, for the sad bits.

Finally, we know that you are goddess queen of the Earth, so what secret weapon could we use to save us from your wrath?

A towel, obviously.

A free Joy Division Tribute Night this Friday June 29 at 9 p.m. at Famous Pub & Sports Bar in Toco Hills?! Being an old-school, heavy duty acolyte of Joy Division, who at one time drew my nose up even at New Order in loyalty to the ghost of Ian Curtis, ATLRetro had to prick up my ears. Turns out 1WB, aka One Will Burn, is a very recent entry to the Atlanta music scene (they played their first gig May 7, 2012!), but is made up of some seasoned Atlanta musicians, including vocalist Ross Henderson and bassist Todd Caras (Methods of Espionage), guitarist Michael Church and drummer David Goodwin (Other Voices, Candy Apple Black). Sleep The Owls and The Flannels also are on the bill as opening acts. In sum, the idea of a band dedicated to keeping Curtis’s ghost alive in the 21st century was so compelling that it just seemed to make perfectly unnatural sense to make Todd Kool Kat of the Week if only to find out why?

ATLRetro: Why a Joy Division tribute band in 2012?

Todd Caras: Like many who collect music or perform in band, I have personally experienced/seen a wide generational gap in what bands/sounds influence today’s 20-somethings. My generation – I’m nearly 40 – were influenced by bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, etc., and developed a connection with contemporary bands such as Interpol, The Doves and Suede not so long ago, etc. who draw directly from the same influences. Today’s 20-somethings are listening to bands who are influenced by bands who were influenced by the early 4AD/Rough Trade post-punk groups; there’s practically three to four generations of distance and separation leaving us with some very watered-down hints of what used to be. Nothing wrong with it. It’s inevitable, natural, but ultimately sad.  I personally feel that bands of Joy Division’s ilk were the last major movement in music from a creative standpoint. Yes, you had the shoe-gazers in the early ‘90s, and then grunge, and later the garage rock revival of the early 2000s; but they all drew from a warmed-over idea.

I understand One Will Burn was founded somewhat by accident. What’s the story?

One Will Burn was hastily formed by members of a few local bands in town to play a show and fill in for a band that couldn’t make it out. Our front man Ross and I belong to the band Methods of Espionage and were asked to fill a slot at a local venue, but two members of our band were out of town. Still wanting to play the show and help a friend -plus we wanted to help a struggling local venue, THE MUSIC ROOM – we pushed forward and reached out to drummer David Goodwin of Other Voices and Candy Apple Black. The trio decided to play a Joy Division tribute set since they had listened to the legends for years and knew the songs already. One Will Burn played the show and were so well received they decided to pursue the project seriously, since adding guitarist Michael Church.

Todd Caras of 1WB. Photo courtesy of 1WB.

How did you decide on the name?

After a one-night practice session with less than 24 hours before the show, we came up with 1WB – a name we came up with in two minutes from a lyric in Joy Division’s “Heart and Soul” – “One Will Burn.” I personally like it because it is enigmatic, looks like a British postal code, a license plate number, etc.  It [also] gives us the opportunity to use this moniker, should we turn into an original material band, which may be in the cards.

When/how did you discover Joy Division and what does JD mean personally to you?

I discovered them by accident in high school. I had a collection of cassette tapes – yes, cassette tapes – some belonged to others, some from my sister’s numerous boyfriends, etc. I was looking through them one evening and came across Joy Division’s “Still,” which contains live performance material. It made me sick to hear it! I hated it! I couldn’t stand the overuse of chorus effect all the time. The recording was old – 1979/1980? – so I’m sure that the original taping source was speeding up and slowing down – and you can hear it. Joy Division was playing sloppy, ferocious and fast as usual. Ian was bumming his notes every so often. Bernard had mistakenly left the pitch bender on his keyboard in the “on” position during “Decades” which created horrible sounds. Hook’s bass was too low, etc. etc. etc. I hated it! And kept returning to it, listening to it to see just how much I hated it.

I was trying to picture the way their singer (Ian) looked, based on his vocals; in my mind I kept seeing an older Bob Mould type. Obviously, I was dead wrong.  After discovering – pre-Internet days, mind you – what they looked like [and] spending many hours at Tower Records, pouring over “fanzines” for images and information, I discovered an immediate connection as they appeared to be “nobodies” from a “nobody” town with plain clothing – kind of like The Smiths. It was an image completely separate from punk or heavy metal. It is what you would see in the mirror.

Being a blossoming – horrible – musician at the time (bass, keyboards, drums), their music was easy to play (not easy to write, however) and accessible to a novice like myself – yet, their sounds created imagery. They spoke before the lyrics. After discovering the darker – unfortunate – background surrounding Joy Division, my intrigue was permanent. I learned to like them because they provided me a more “butch,” tough,” “dodgy” set of heroes to worship, apart from “nice heroes” like Depeche Mode.

Being a suburban sports bar, Famous Pub seems an odd location for a dark proto-industrial/goth band tribute show. Tell me why it’ll be perfect.

As the story goes, Joy Division started out in a bar/venue completely unsuited to their style of music, whatever it was at the time. I’m sure it was an odd place for such a gathering. Perhaps, today, playing such music at a place like the Famous Pub is almost as fitting in a way. We also anticipate that many of the old school fans of Joy Division have moved away from the city and started families, etc. Perhaps this venue is accessible to them given its proximity between the city and the ‘burbs. On the other hand, perhaps we can encourage the goth/industrial types to take this place over!!!! And, lastly……….it was available.

Anything special planned for the show?

Other than trying to look the part and sound the part, we will keep the theatrics to a minimum and stick to presenting the music as close to the way it was originally presented as possible – including some of the early, low-tech, outdate, electronic blips and synth sounds of Joy Division’s era. The set list is loaded with all of the popular and not so popular Joy division tracks. We are most proud to present some of the more obscure songs.   More importantly, there are some songs that Joy Division never properly played live in the first place. There was always some technical difficulty or reason why the song was always “butchered” live. Now is our time to rectify that, I hope?

What’s next for One Will Burn?

In the immediate future, our next show will be July 28 at Kavarna in the Oakhurst neighborhood of Decatur. It’s a fitting set of scenery and architecture for the music we are playing, we think.  Overall we plan to enjoy this project some more, play more shows, attract more audience who want to celebrate Joy Division, etc. However, given how the four of us click well musically, I imagine 1WB becoming an original band. All four of us write original song material; it’s no accident that we all found each other.

What else do you do when you’re not resurrecting Joy Division?  

I play in an original post-punk band called Methods of Espionage. During the day, I am an executive headhunter, providing companies/clients with highly sought-after, niche, talent for mission-critical roles within their organizations.  I get to put people to work – I like that! On occasion, I get to bump around from time to time with people who make a difference in the professional world in Atlanta, which is highly rewarding. I’m happily married; my wife and I called Northwest Atlanta home – for better or for worse.