Rick: So it has been totally a long time since I saw your band play last (in Montgomery, Alabama actually) – so it is totally cool that you guys are playing Total Fest in Missoula Montana this year as your only show in 2008. Why Total Fest/Missoula and nowhere else? What other cities deserve a FedX comeback performance in your mind?
Ben: Montgomery, Alabama comes to mind. Actually, Josh Vanek (of Wantage USA records) got after us early this year and really did a good job convincing us to play. The three of us have been on a pretty extensive - but not permanent - break since January 2007, when I moved to New York. That winter, we played a bunch of northwest shows, a west coast tour, and recorded three new songs at MARS with a fourth member, Josh Holland of the bands Cicadas and Black Eyes and Neckties. Bill returned to New York in July of 2007 from Portland. It seemed like a good time for another break.
We exist in brief spurts of activity that are just long enough to ruin any semblance of normal lives. Bill`s been pursuing a career in documentary filmmaking with much success. He`ll be releasing a documentary on the Olympia band Karp sometime later this year. Beau is mastering the zen of bicycle maintenance in Bellingham. I`ve been listening to Steely Dan and doing tons of blow. Just kidding about the latter.
We had no plans to perform or write any new FedX material in 2008 until Josh V started working on us. We played Total Fest in 2002 and 2004. Josh put out two of our records, the Budgie single and Rally Day. He`s known us and supported us since we were in our high school bands. The magnanimous KGBA underwrote the travel expenses and have given us a great opportunity to get together as a band, hang out and play music and enjoy performing and experiencing the TotalheshFest. This has also given us a good deadline to release our new record. Todd of Recess Records is putting out a two-song 12 inch single in time for Total Fest. It`s "The Only Fool" b/w "Chinese Food and Vietnam."
Rick: Is there anybody you are excited to see at Total Fest this year?
Ben: Josh Vanek, Nikki Payton, Andy Smetanka, Justin Humpy, and a bunch of the bands. The Narrows are legendary. The Trucks, Triclops!, Nudity, Akimbo, Lopez. I`ll be playing some lap steel with the beautiful Lana Rebel, who I always enjoy seeing and playing with.
Rick: I don`t know if it`s your Washington roots, your album with the title American Folk Horror, or your cover of Bruce Springsteen’s” Born to Run," but in my mind, Federation X is an AMERICAN band with an AMERICAN sound. Does that make sense to you? How would you describe the evolution of sound between your various recorded outputs? Is there a new guitarist (or am I confused)? What`s his deal?
Ben: Actually it was "I`m on Fire" that we covered on our first record, but perhaps we should integrate "Born to Run" at the Missoula show. American bands always have an American sound. It`s just how a band chooses to develop that sound that matters. We`ve found blues and country through American metal and Northwest punk rock.
We started out having fun writing drinking songs for parties informed by our northwest upbringing, emulating bands like Unwound, Godheadsilo, Melvins, and Karp. As we got out into the country we became more influenced by our friends` bands. Bay area anthemic punk got in there via Fleshies, Toys That Kill and the Bananas. Drunk Horse, C Average, Cherry Valence, and Champs got us checking our chops and sharpening our turnarounds. Our various other projects led us to pop structures and country progressions. In our last bout of song writing and playing with Josh Holland on guitar, we ventured into some real pretty chord progressions, some flamenco rhythm patterns that create a false or natural delay on the guitars, and some real timeless lyrics.
Rick: While we are at it, describe the evolution of various band hairstyles between your albums.
Ben: Beau once had a bleached white curly mullet that he rocked as a joke for one night and then without a pinch of irony for the following three months. He also blazed trails with his patented Mullethawk, shaped one night in Tuscon. Bill gets it big and rocks a headband, then turns around and rocks a nice neighbor vibe for a year or so. I go short, shaggy, short, shaggy. With a mustache for a couple of years. But who`s counting?
Rick: One of my favorite songs by you guys is your Budgie cover “Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman.” My favorite album is American Folk Horror. What work do you have the most attachment and memories toward?
Ben: Early on, Bill suggested that we do each album in a different place at a different studio. It`s made each album have a distinct sound and distinct memories for the three of us. The first album was basically our friend Erik`s college recording project. AFH was recorded on a trip to Louder in San Francisco. We were very excited to make a good record for Estrus and work in Tim Green`s new studio. We met Drunk Horse on the trip and stayed at Vonny from Fleshies’ place in Oakland. X Patriot was two days at Electric in Chicago winter. Steve Albini worked his ass off to make it happen on our modest budget and kept us entertained with his top shelf comedic timing. Rally Day was a great bonding experience for the three of us after a few years of strained relationships. I`m sorry, I meant stained relationships. Ryan Anderson, who recorded Rally Day, is a good friend of ours and the process of writing and recording was very low stress and very rewarding. I think some of our best songs are on that record. We went back to Ryan in January 2007 to record our three new songs which we`ll be releasing this summer on the aforementioned Recess records 12 inch single.
Rick: I would also describe your music as walking and driving music. I always have your Budgie cover on my iPod and keep one of your albums in my car. What activities do you think your music is best themed for (possible examples: fighting, loving, hot-dog eating contests, reading the classics)?
Ben: It seems to do quite well in the manual labor sector. Computer programming too. At a Las Vegas show with 400 Blows a few years back, the only person who showed to watch the bands was a computer programmer from Portland who was working in Vegas. He read about the show on stonerrock.com and brought a bowl down to huff in the alley. The other guys passed, so me and the dude went out back. He didn`t smoke weed, he just brought it down to the show because of the write up on this website. I smoked it by myself. If that guy still reads this, "Hey." And thanks to your fine internet publication. [ed: You`re very welcome.]
Rick: The band is split apart on different coasts now. Who lives where and why? What is the seemingly weird Yakima-NYC connection? Are you still a band? How is it to get together and make music and for shows? Aren`t you guys all involved in side-projects, what be they?
Ben: As I stated before, Bill and I live in Brooklyn and Beau lives in Bellingham, Washington. Josh Holland also lives in Bellingham and may someday play with us again. It didn`t work our schedule-wise for him to play at Total Fest this year because the Black Eyes and Neckties will be driving toward the Dakotas the night we play. He took over Bill`s guitar duties so Bill could concentrate on vocals. Bill is into playing guitar again these days. I really like being very fluid with this band.
I imagine we`ll be a band for years to come. There`s no pressure on us to tour or record because there is no money involved in this band. We`ve also got no illusions about what it means to be in a rock band in this era. There`s no "we`re gonna break if we hit it big this year." We`re just really old friends at this point who have each other`s best interest in mind. When it works out and there`s some inspiration to write these types of songs in at least two of us we`ll give it a go. This summer we`re excited to be given the opportunity to give a shit again.
Beau made the quintessential album Zorbatron. I play pedal steel and Wurlitzer with the NYC quartet Two Dark Birds. Bill is hard at work on the Karp documentary, Kill All Rednecks Please!. Email him at federationx_1@yahoo.com if you`ve got Karp footage or something to say.
Rick: Success… how sweet it is! Anyhow, what is your definition for success as a band? Has that changed? Do you realize that FedX has been around for a long time? Did you ever expect that?
Ben: None of us ever thought that the band was just a 20-something, pre-career thing. We all knew that, for better or worse, this is stuff we`re good at. More importantly, we`re bad at the kind of stuff a lot of people our age are good at, like making money.
A successful band is a band that can stay together for many years. That`s it. That means you care about each other, you are flexible in your ideals, beliefs and dreams, and, ultimately, that you are pretty good at what you do. Queen seemed like a very healthy band. "Come on, mate. Contribute a single to the record. This is how we make our living." The longer a group plays together the better they become. This is why I go for Presence and In Through the Out Door over I or II. That being said, we are not Queen or Zeppelin. We are dudes who have grown tired of touring, have various artistic interests, rent apartments, and don`t want to get fucked when we are old and sick. We will continue to produce music and play occasional shows for the rest of our lives while we each pursue our own lives. However, we do fuck Beau with a frozen fish at times.
Rick: Is Charlie Jackie Freedom Pride a real person? I could tell you about this drunk Native American I would run into in Missoula who thought I was going to hell… but I won`t.
Ben: Yakima, Nisqually, Lummi. There have always been Northwest tribesmen around us. The title of the song, however, is a misheard Karp lyric off of Suplex.
Rick: What does the future hold for Federation X and yourself in general?
Ben: Right now, being in Federation X means working on new material. Bill and I can digitize guitar parts into midi garageband files and email them to Beau. He changes them and emails them back. Give and take. It`s like composing in a rehearsal space except we don`t need guitars, drums or a PA until the song is complete. Bill and I are getting our FedX chops up at my apartment. In August, we fly to Missoula, go straight to someone`s basement, and play the new material for the first time together. We`ll be practicing in the morning and going to the shows at night. We play on Saturday, August 16.
