It Sound: Talking About the New Album, ‘It’s Called Blood’
The forthcoming release from It Sound, ‘It’s Called Blood,’ is a necessary surrender, coming out of the rain-slicked, grave-toned quiet of Seattle.
Jesse Damm, the driving force of the project, threw out overproduction entirely, opting instead to chase something more real. His process was dictated by the impulse to get the song out now, and the spirit of “impatience, nonchalance, the power of rock n roll” is palpable across the record. He literally risked fidelity, admitting that impatience was the engine.
The record is a meeting of two distant, grey sisters of pop: the solemn, mossy contemplation of the Pacific Northwest and the sharp spirit of London’s late-’70s din. It’s a slow blend, like pigment dissolving in water. Check out the track ‘The Calendar Bit-Bit,’ a hypnotic, organ-driven séance where the beautiful and the ugly become indistinguishable. It’s built on a crumbling memory from the Black Sea, turning a handful of dust into whispered questions. Damm focuses on the tiny bit-bits of what happened, accepting that “the better part of beauty is what ain’t so pretty.”
With Pascal Le Gras’s stark, non-chromatic visuals providing the perfect counterpoint to the music’s pulsing color, ‘It’s Called Blood’ arrives on October 10th.
“I am not a person who can partake in the “practice makes perfect” way of building a song.”
You say “Everything is blood,” and the album’s called “It’s Called Blood.” That’s quite something, an almost mythic claim. What’s the one thing you had to give up, no going back, to bring It Sound into the world?
You are correct that the phrase “It’s Called Blood” is quite a claim. I’m glad you heard this. It means everything is important. This song title came to me as a potential answer to every question, if there could be just one. Why war? It’s called blood. Must we go to school tomorrow? It’s called blood. What is a family? It’s called blood.
I listen to music from sun up to sun down, and it provides me both elation and investigation. I’ve had to sacrifice nothing for music, as music offers a forever journey of joy and discovery. But to answer your question, I have had to sacrifice fidelity to bring It Sound to the world, due to the urgency in which it’s created.
You’ve built a sound that nods to the punk energy of London, but you’re rooted in Seattle. How do those two musical climates clash or blend when you’re making something new? Does the Pacific Northwest’s foggy inwardness ever butt heads with the sharper bite of late 70s England?
Punk is a term that I identify with. It’s not obtuse nor difficult to define. It’s a spirit of rebellion against certain rigidity. London inspires a lot of things, but especially song. I was a waiter in London at age 19, the toughest job I’ve ever had. Yet being born in the solemn nature of the Pacific Northwest and growing up in Seattle, it’s the moss, wind, darkness, wet stone, and damp nights in the midst of the city that provide the quiet energy manifested in the music of It Sound.
It Sound contains the music of the cities I’ve lived in: deep bass thumps, found sound, guitar squeals that I hope one can feel, sotto voce vocals, catchy songs, meaningful lyrics, and an exploration of sound (perhaps inspired by Eno’s ‘Here Come the Warm Jets’). I’ve lived in a lot of places, but Seattle and London are likely the core locational foundations for It Sound. They work quite well together. Like grey sisters of pop.
Pascal Le Gras’s art has always carried a kind of haunted humor… ghosts of Mark E. Smith, flashes of Pat Fish. When you handed “It’s Called Blood” over to him, what was the one unspoken feeling you hoped he’d pick up on and weave into the visuals?
I was obsessed with the art of Pascal Le Gras since the age of 15 or so. I felt that his art matched the music, perfectly reflecting the aims of Mark and Pat and others. I’m blessed to now have Pascal as both a friend and a partner for art. The cover for It’s Called Blood was something he had shared with me quite a while ago, and I knew it was meant to be the cover of this album. I didn’t overthink it, but I was overpowered by it. The toned-down sound on this album matches the black and white cover art that is a contrast to the brilliant color he most often creates. I have ten more records that get to showcase ten more beautiful album covers by Pascal Le Gras. I’m so excited to see them all out there.
My solitary approach to making music necessitates a drum machine, while the instrumentation is played organically without much constraint or direction. I am not a person who can partake in the “practice makes perfect” way of building a song. I prefer spontaneity for this process, and the music reflects it.
The press release says “organic meditations collide with hard pop.” Was there a moment in the studio when something gentle or intimate you were working on got totally reworked, maybe even torn apart, to become more aggressive or catchy? What did you lose in that shift, and what came alive?
I’m very open to change while making a song. Almost too so. Deconstruction, reconstruction, add a bird, remove the drums, frustrate it, walk to another room with it, let it go. The song ‘Seventeen’ never had my kids’ voices on it for years until it dawned on me that their perspective was entirely needed. I have many, many, many songs where a motorcycle drives by, a tree is heard, a person comes in the room, or the tape breaks. I have no problem with any of that. Do others? I guess it’s a rule. Doesn’t make sense to me. I’m always trying to break the mold when I don’t even have a mold to break. It’s a process very open to change, obtuseness, no thought, and nary an influence. Just breath.
What’s one decision you made on ‘It’s Called Blood’ that you absolutely refused to budge on, even if it risked losing a listener or collaborator?
I’ve risked sound quality (or fidelity) because I can’t be bothered with the setup of gear when I just want to get to the song itself, raring to get out, which is thrilling. Impatience, nonchalance, the power of rock n roll. Nobody gets to weigh in but me. What a cool process art is!!!!
On collaborators, my dear friend Caithlin DeMarrais sang on ‘Likely Just 8’ (and some other songs to come), and I never felt that I might risk a partnership based on decisions I make. One, she’s awesome, and two, her musical wingspan is wide. I feel that the things I refuse to budge on are what will bring in listeners and collaborators.
Someone called the album “distorted elegance,” like the Velvets. Can you break down a moment in the record, a chord, a beat, where you tried to merge something ugly with something beautiful? Where do those two feelings meet for you?
The song ‘The Calendar Bit-Bit’ is about a calendar that was on my apartment wall when I lived on the Black Sea in Bulgaria for a couple of years. This calendar was so old and brittle it would turn into tiny pieces of paper and dust when touched. I imagined each tiny square holding a piece of action. Like looking at sand when sitting in the natural hot spring water at the beach near Chaika on the 12th. Or hearing the wind through the trees over in Galata next Monday at 3:05. This song asks what the tiny piece of paper represents. It asks “what happened here?” The song has no answers at all. It’s just talking about the bit-bits. It sounds like a small séance, like the Velvets. The song also has me playing with an organ and deep bass sound, believing nothing is impossible. Where ugly meets beautiful is the moment when the song is complete. I have a lyric that reads “the better part of beauty is what ain’t so pretty.” That’s a core belief.
We would love to hear about the Rockland Bazemore collaboration. What was that like for you?
We built the video as he hopped on and off his sailboat, and I was working with human cells. We jammed, added, and subtracted. I learned things about the process that I didn’t know before. I laid the groundwork with a basic concept as well as a “no rules” mentality. Just go. It was great working with him as we just went with the flow and built it out. We set sail and then we docked.
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: It Sound (Credit: Mr. Hawks)
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