As it should be, says drummer Emil Amos, who reacts to my comment about fun with something approaching a gush of relief. “It’s awesome to hear you say that. Maybe it’s age but at this point in my life it feels easier to push all the bullshit aside and produce music that’s literally just fun to listen to.
“I don’t mean mindless, I mean fun in that you want to hear it again and again. I think fun is a big part of why we all like music and why we all got into it.”
Advaitic Songs’ first track, Addis, is a sparsely augmented Hindi chant that sounds both ancient and immediate. It’s sung by a female guest (not by OM vocalist and bass player, Al Cisneros, also of stoner doom band Sleep) and demonstrates OM’s power to lead listeners down paths they might not otherwise tread – even if it’s the promise of some huge, growling riffs that gets them there.
There could be no better opening track than Addis, but Amos admits it was actually recorded for OM’s last record, God Is Good. “It didn’t fit in very well so we decided to lead off this record with it instead. So the beginnings were recorded with Steve Albini.”
After using Albini for God Is Good, OM turned to a San Francisco-based engineer, Jay Pellicci, for Advaitic Songs. “He’s mostly known for doing Deerhoof records. He’s extremely focused and has, I don’t know, a kind of a Zen vibe himself. He’s the real deal. He did basically the whole record, though Brandon Eggleston, who also works with The Mountain Goats and Swans, helped too.”
Those hoping OM might complement their eerily spiritual vibe with some similar-spirited props (guilty as charged) will be disappointed. OM let the music do the work, says Amos.
“There’s really no light show or anything, though we do try to keep it moody and dark. We kind of come from the punk movement in that sense. Like, when you used to see Fugazi play they’d turn up the house lights and play like they were in a gym.
“When a band has total power and total commitment to their own reality and atmosphere, they don’t need anything. We try to live up to that. We also don’t like not being able to breathe and smoke machines and all that shit.”
When it comes to lyrics, however, OM couldn’t be further from punk. Amos is hesitant to talk about them at all, given they’re written by Cisneros – “it would be really weird for me to try to interpret his lyrics” – but is happy to explain, if not the meaning, then at least Cisneros’ perspective on words such as ‘Traveller now reach the stream/The astral flight adapter/From the pain-sheath life ascends/The Non-returner sees’ (from State Of Non Return).
“A punk song is like, ‘I hate my boss, I hate my parents’. Everything about it is so direct. The challenge Al faces is putting words to ideas that are not as simple or as temporal or pedestrian. It’s supposed to be from a place that’s more ineffable and to describe it would diminish the power and mystique of the place it’s trying to honour.”
BY KATE HENNESSY
