Central City Transmission
Interviewed by Ali Rashidi
Central City Transmission’s gritty, jangly, reverbed-up guitars fuse with dual male and female vocals and a stripped-down, swinging rhythm section to create an undeniably rockin’ blend that is a fusion of London, New York and Los Angeles post-punk as much as it harkens the proto-punk genius of the Modern Lovers. CCT is a five-piece powerhouse that includes Lowell Abelon on bass, Brian Watson on drums/percussion, Dan Sutti on guitar, and vocalists Jacqueline Santillan and Brett Schultz, who also handle piano/organ, and guitar, respectively. March 15 marks the release of their Incommunicado EP on Kapow Records. So do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. We had questions for CCT. they had answers.
Brief history of the band & how CCT came together.
JACQUELINE: Brett kidnapped us all.
BRETT: CCT didn’t really get rolling until Dan moved to Los Angeles from London. Before that, it was very much a stop-start, revolving-door ordeal. Once Dan joined up, we practiced for about three or four months before our first show, which was at the old Grand Royal Studios in January 2003.
LOWELL: That was a hot, sweaty, sultry summer evening. Everything previous to the moment that we hit the stage seemed like an endless running joke in a shitty comedy routine. My hair was bushing up like steel wool from all the humidity, Jacqueline had overdressed, making the rest of us look like homeless scrubs rummaging through our guitar cases for spare crumbs to munch on. Brett had anticipated more ladies in the audience and his thong underwear peaking through the top of his low cut jeans wasn’t impressing anyone but a few of the “fellas” in the audience. Dan was foregoing underwear all together, as per usual, but this time his pants were cut way too low, and you couldn’t tell if a girl with 38 triple D implants was coming, or if Dan was going. As if that wasn’t enough, Felix [our former drummer] was wearing clam diggers while from all estimation, we had to be at least seventeen miles from the closest beach.
But everything was going so well up on stage, it was like we were strippers and some old sugar daddy had come in, raining five dollar bills all over us. Afterwards, we quickly got our disheveled selves off the stage, while the three guys left in the audience gave us courtesy claps, not realizing they’d just witnessed pornography.
How does the LA-NY connection work out? [Brett lives in NY, while the others live in LA.] Taxing on the band?
LOWELL: Well, on March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell called Watson on this thing he invented called a telephone. Watson showed it to us and we’ve been using it ever since. It’s pretty relaxing and not taxing.
JACQUELINE: For me the LA-NY situation was hard at first. I missed playing with my band and on a personal level I think we all missed Brett. I thought it would be the end of CCT which broke my heart since I was so proud of the EP we had just finished recording. As it’s turning out I’m glad to see that everyone is still very enthusiastic about this project and still very committed to it. I’m fortunate to be in a band with a bunch of responsible and smart people who make things happen regardless of the circumstances. I’d say the most taxing thing is not being able to play together year-round, but I’m optimistic that we’ll make the most of it and am impressed by everyone’s dedication thus far.
Doesn’t NY foster a scene that’s more conducive to your band’s music? Or do you think that being a part of the LA scene gives you greater exclusivity, in that there aren’t as many bands playing your type of music?
LOWELL: While I feel NY fosters a scene that’s more conducive to our band’s music, I think being a part of the LA scene gives us greater exclusivity, in that there aren’t as many bands playing our type of music.
Where would you rather play, LA or NY? Anywhere else you’d like to play?
BRETT: I love playing in LA. So many supportive people. Playing New York was wild too.
DAN: Yeah, it’s totally wacky here in LA. You can be in a band and smash a bottle on someone’s face and people will still be supportive.
LOWELL: I would rather play NY. Everything is sexier in NY. Even Brett.
JACQUELINE: It may be a case of the “grass is always greener “ with me right now, but I noticed an energy and enthusiasm for local music in New York that I don’t feel here. I mean our friends and friend’s bands are always supportive and awesome but I think in general NY seemed a bit more impassioned by it’s local noise makers. From random strangers to people we’d known only days I just felt a lot of love there. Maybe it was all the alcohol.
LOWELL: –The alcohol, and Brett. Sexy, Sexy Brett.
Did you use any special techniques recording the EP to give it the kind of garagey, vintage sound? Did things turn out exactly the way you wanted them to, or were there surprises along the way? Give recording details–when, where, with whom, how long it took. How’d you hook up with Gabriel Hart from The Starvations?
LOWELL: Brett totally bought a Kama Sutra how-to video before we recorded so that he could use special techniques in the studio. I gotta say, it improved his stamina.
DAN: I think Mike just forgot to turn off the baseball game that he was listening to on the radio.
LOWELL: Well, the technique I used to give it that garagey, vintage sound was to take a shitload of drugs like they did in the 60’s and I wore paisley shirts, tight trousers, and Beatle-boot roach kickers. And also, if I fucked up, I kept it and just make sure that I always play the song with that fuck up now. It’s scientifically proven that if you do these things, you’ll get a garagey, vintage sound. The Count Five did the exact same thing, and so did the Music Machine, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Status Quo. And again, we did the telephone thing to “hook up with Gabriel Hart”... and boy did we hook up with Gabriel Hart.
JACQUELINE: I find you can really separate the mice from the women when you’re told you only have two in-tune octaves on the piano that you can use. Still, I loved the piano at the Distillery and the entire recording experience. Mike is great to work with. My vocals were the most awesome thing to do. At one point I sent all the boys out and it was just Mike and I really fine tuning my parts, screaming at each other, brandishing fists, pushing it to the limit! It was intense.
How about your equipment? Is it all vintage stuff?
WATSON: All my drums are vintage civil war era drums. In fact my snare drum was used by Willie Johnston, drummer of Company D, 3rd Vermont Volunteer Infantry who also was the youngest person to ever receive the medal of honor at age 12.
JACQUELINE: Vintage is hard to carry. These days I’m using my old Alesis keyboard as a controller and accessing sounds from my laptop. And since Robert Smith was my first obsession circa the sixth grade I’m very proud to say that I use a Roland JC120 like he does. Still obsessed!
You mentioned that people have compared you to Psychedelic Furs. Television, The Jam, and Modern Lovers. Do you hear any resemblance between your band and these bands? At the outset of the band, was there anyone that you wanted to emulate, or at least use elements of their music?
BRETT: I think some of those comparisons are a stretch but not totally off the mark. I mean, we’re drawing from a lot of the Ruby Records bands, Rough Trade bands, Flying Nun bands...It’s a total hodge-podge obviously but I think that gives our sound its character. Really, though, everybody in the band has pretty different tastes.
LOWELL: Yeah, Jacq likes sweet, Dan likes sour, Brett likes bitter, Watson likes salty, Felix likes fishy, and I like Del Taco.
JACQUELINE: I think this sound is really a make up of all of our individual sounds. We’ve all got our own tastes and styles and we’re lucky it all works well together. For some strange reason it’s so easy for me to write with Brett or add a melody to one of his progressions.
Any side projects? How about previous bands?
WATSON: California Ghostbusters.
BRETT: My NY band is called Woman.
LOWELL: Yeah, and it’s one of those totally ironic bands where they’re all dudes, but have a feminine name.
BRETT: Kind of like Lowell’s new band, We Have Penises. Ironic, because they all have a silky smooth patch of skin where their genitals should be.
LOWELL: Well, I’m still in this band called the Stupor Stars. The Stupor Stars love Mexican food, so we play Mexico City every other year. I was also in this sweet band called Eunich-Horn, but we didn’t get much play, so we disbanded.
JACQUELINE: Gabe and I loved each other musically so much that we decided to start a casual side project for all of our songs that didn’t find homes in the Starvations or CCT. We also recruited Jorge and Kevin from The Red Onions. So far so good.
