My Day at the cirKus: New Swedish/French/UK Band Flexes Musical Muscle

They found each other by accident, and in their own words, they continue to live this way—-a good thing for everyone in earshot. cirKus distills the musical talents of Lolita Moon, karmil, Burt Ford and Neneh Cherry, four fecund fellows who live, love and create beautifully haunting music. Their debut CD “laylow” is a remarkably mature effort for a group that just “happened,” an interesting mix of pop, Trip-Hop and R&B that is anything but cookie-cutter or predictable. The 12-song set has a lush, moody texture suggesting a band of many years, a confident collection of soul music that lingers on well after the last tune empties itself into your conscious. Although the CD isn’t available in record stores stateside feel free to order it from Smallfish Records. Also check out the group’s My Space page. Here's a link to the band's official website.

I caught up with the band a month ago. Late one night I happened upon cirKus while searching for new music from Cherry, whose last disc “Man” tore my heart up. In this online exclusive, I let the foursome speak for themselves, mainly about making memorable music that makes people cry.

Tell me something about karmil, Burt Ford and Lola Moon

Karmil is former invalid, presently a DJ, musician and a good friend to all mankind. Burt Ford’s ambitions don’t extend beyond Las Vegas and his quiff. Lola Moon is a lady of few spoken words but harbors deep inner stuff.

Did you guys know one another prior to getting into the cirkus?

cirKus: A couple VERY vaguely and a couple quite well. Sorry but it’s hard to explain as we’re all so bloody vague.

Who writes?

cirKus: All of us. Lola, Neneh and Burt handle vocals, and karmil does all the music.

What's the buzz around cirKus in Sweden?

cirKus: TRYING to ‘laylow’ here but the things beginning to get buzzed up around the indi/slackers circuit.

Who knows about the group?

cirKus: Burt’s mum and ALL the wrong people

I read and think and breathe popular music, and often wonder where it’s headed. Hip-Hop bottomed out years ago, Trip-Hop is still coming along, but mainstream pop music sucks and R&B is just plain bloody awful.

Corporate labels control radio, still the largest outlet for most music lovers, and fat too many artists never get the opportunity to showcase their music to a wide audience. Downloading music has helped democratize the airwaves, in some respects, but access to new music remains segregated and inaccessible.

If I didn’t love the fuck out of Neneh's music, and hadn’t undertaken a web search to find out where the hell she's been, I would have never known about you guys. That's fucked up. There are a few acts that refuse to be genre-ized and sold to the 'appropriate' audience. cirKus appears to such a band. 'laylow' transcends genres fairly easily. How does the band describe itself when asked what the fuck is cirKus trying to do, musically?

Burt Ford: It's not big secret that there's two sides to the modern music word (call 'em 'them' and 'us'). One side gets their music played repeatedly on MTV and all 'pop' radio formats, gets their private lives endlessly focused on by magazines aimed at the young & innocent and by reality (although it never quite seems 'real' when compared to the life we all experience) TV shows.

The other side tries to avoid exposure to the former as much as possible, while devoting endless hours locked in the studio focusing on making music that's both balanced & from the heart with a level of consciousness in both the lyrics and the presentation that seems to the writers to reflect the state of the world today and the people in it. The second format I guess would seem to be cirKus' but when I re-read my comments I feel like It makes us out to be a little pompous which I hope we're not. Live and let live is our motto... let the two sides exist and never trouble each other. "Vive la difference."

karmil: Maybe it's a cliché but I guess our music is a mix of everything that is around us, but trying very hard (and hopefully succeeding) in keeping the song element intact…from my perspective, I think most music being made at the moment either sounds interesting, or has good songs, rarely both...

It's easy to get lost in a song. I was both surprised and pleased that the group was able to put together such a cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable album.

Burt Ford: Thank you.

karmil: Thanks, it was a lot of work....

Burt: what would you say cirKus' strengths are, and how to do you contribute that strength?

Burt Ford: I think we know what we're about and where we'd like to be going...

karmil: what was your former life as an invalid all about? And what do you mean by 'invalid'? Here in the states that word is politically incorrect, and I don't want to get it wrong, so enlighten me, please.

karmil: I had an illness, I believe it's called "chronic fatigue syndrome" in the U.S. I had it from the age of 9 till a couple of years ago (I’m now 26.) It basically meant that I would get a lot of colds, etc, and couldn't really do very much physical activity, but that’s why I got so much time to learn to play/write music, so it's not all bad…

Why/how was Neneh Cherry enlisted?

cirKus: To sell records... do you think it will work (laughs.) Seriously, she’s a diamond. she’s REALLY into being in a band again a
nd she’s SO much fun to work & travel with she teaches us all humility every day. And man can she cook!

She was reportedly working on a follow-up to Man but that was like, a decade ago. I’ve been waiting...

cirKus: She has VERY little personal ambition but the rumours are true… Don’t hold your breath though ‘coz she works very slowly.

Lola Moon: Do you write songs?

Lola Moon: Yes, but not very many. I’m itching to write more. I’m just trying to find the time right now.

What are you thinking about at 3am after a gig?

Lola: either ‘where can we go and dance all night? Or ‘zzzzzzz’

What are you listening to right now?

Lola: Well, I’m at the studio so it’s karmil using a new piece of
software and the new Les Nubians album when I’m at home.

Neneh: How does being back in a band compare to starting out with Rip, Rig and Panic in the 1980s?

Neneh: Being in a band is always gonna be "being in a band" so in some ways it's quite similar. But I'm older and hopefully more experienced now so that must show... surely!

'Broken soul music' Tell me what ingredients go into broken soul music.

Neneh: I try not to over think anything musical. The main ingredient is music from the soul of a person who has witnessed or experienced breakage.

Burt: I love music. Cannot live without It. Currently I have a band in the U.S. that no one wants to join, but I still sing and dance and write and lose my mind. It's important for me to lose my mind. Think Fishbone meets the B52s. Talk about your love of music and how it sustains you.

Burt Ford: I am an addict beyond hope! That’s it, it's my life and my whole family’s life... they love me so they HAVE to put up with my habit.

Lola: How are listeners/audiences responding to cirKus?

Lola: We’ve played a few gigs where I think we were a bit out of place, but people seemed to like us…not everybody but I guess that’s what being a new band is about. We have a lot of lovely friends on
myspace.com/cirKus, a lot of people there like our music.

Is it what you thought it would be?

Lola: Not at all. I have no idea what I was expecting though. I guess I thought nothing would happen with the music and it would just be something we talked about… but it’s real!

Relate an experience after a show, or when someone heard the music and how they responded to it.

Lola: I think a few people cry and a lot of people have just stopped everything and said ‘wow’. My favorite was when a friend of ours sat in this big armchair and listened to pretty much the whole album with his eyes closed. He didn’t really move or speak the whole time…that was pretty moving.

Neneh: What makes cirKus worth the time?

Neneh: I don't wear a watch... hopefully that shows in our music... there's ALWAYS time for the good things in life.

karmil: when you write music for the band, how do you do it? What is your creation process? Do you do it late at night, early in the morning? Can you let us in on your process?

karmil: I make music all the time. I love big studios, or just a guitar and tape recorder whatever is at hand (and there is usually something). Generally my process starts on an MPC and make a groove, then I move onto adding the guitar (as its my main instrument), then I replace some guitar parts with other instruments If I think it would sound nicer... But I also work very closely with the vocals, so after getting some vocals onto the track I might change everything... I don’t really have a set way of working, it’s more just a big experiment… but it’s what I live for.

Why cirKus, why now?

cirKus: We couldn’t do it any faster!

Will the group tour in the US?

cirKus: Hmm…that’s a tuff one... we’d like to think so but we’re VERY wary of US foreign policy, at present... s’pose we have to spread the word though... make love not war.

When will the disc drop internationally?

cirKus: Very gradually across first half of 2006.

Monday, December 26, 2005 @ 08:26 PM