Seattle Subsonic

Local Artist Spotlight: Interview with Anomie Belle

February 24th, 2009

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The classic story of yet another violinist turned experimental trip-hop artist…WAIT….How often does that happen!!? Toby Campbell IS the band, Anomie Belle. And if you’ve listened to the complexity of her enchanting debut album, Sleeping Patterns, you would know that making such music solo is probably as easy as running a factory by yourself. Her business card could boast, “Violinist, keyboardist, guitarist, drummer, singer, songwriter, producer, and audio engineer” but I hope it just says Musician/Composer, so that it remains wallet size and readable.
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..The multi-instrumentalist samples her own recordings and blends them with down-tempo electronic beats to form intricate music, which serves as a platform for her rich and engaging lyrics. A Portland-born world traveler, who moved to Seattle to pursue a PHD, in studying culture and media; Toby also hopes to use her medium to promote open discussion of social and political issues.
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..Seattle Subsonic caught up with Toby and her manager, Anthon Smith, for a graciously long interview at the end of their west coast tour with San Diego band, the Album Leaf. Anomie Belle’s live show included guest vocalists, Aileen Paron and Anne-Lynn Willams, both skilled in the keyboard, so Toby could rotate through her arsenal of instruments. We had some questions about the tour, the music, the issues, and what’s next for this multi-talented Seattle resident:
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[On playing live and touring with Album Leaf]

S.S: What does the presence of the live band bring to the stage that you can’t do on your own?
Toby:

..I do all the recording by myself and bring in guests because I think it would be fun to have this person sing with me.  People really like it. Playing by yourself isn’t as fun. I like the dynamic of singing in harmony with other female vocalists.  Anne-Lynne Williams has done great work in the music industry herself and has a unique voice. It’s like having a new instrument at my disposal and I think about that when composing, “Anne-Lynne could sing something ethereal in this part.” As in classical music, I’m a composer and producer. I see the whole big picture, as I write the string part which will dovetail over the melody, along with the bass line which will go over the beat, all at the same time. The singing follows the composition and the people play their parts. It’s nice to have them up there. We sometimes have other guests, like a sax player who is a local grad student in music.  But, usually it’s just the three of us on tour.
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I had to play a show in New Orleans by myself and thought, “How can I get people to play onstage with me?” I called two dozen Baptist churches and found two different Baptist choirs that were willing to combine forces and back me up for the show. One choir was all white and the other choir was all black and they were totally into it. They were like, “we would have never met these other people.” It was amazing. I had to physically write out the parts in sheet music, which I don’t usually do for people and it was a challenge. There’s a lot of syncopated parts and I didn’t know the exact range of say..a tenor. They had great energy. I do shows like that when I can.
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Everyone in the choir had their own CD. It was sweet of them to come out and we couldn’t pay them very well, so the least I could do was buy their CDs and support them. It was a cool to learn some of the culture of the south at the same time. I worked primarily with the directors of each choir and when the directors met they realized that they had gone to grade school together. They were excited to collaborate again in the future, with each other, and that’s inspiring!

S.S: Is that performance available on video?
Toby:

.. The show needs to be edited together, as the video and audio were captured separately for more clarity.

S.S: How was your experience touring with the Album Leaf?

Toby:

.. I really liked touring with Jimmy LaValle and he’s really got some great musicians playing with him. Jimmy’s been successful at doing this for a long time. It’s been fun to get to know him, as we record similarly. So, I pick at his brain about the technical stuff; about how he does his looping and how he plays sets alone or with musicians.

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[On the creative process, sampling, and influences]

S.S: Where does your creative process start?

Toby:

.. With music and beats. Lyrics are secondary, not that they aren’t important, but I am more focused on the music. I learned to play the drums 9 years ago and when that happened I started to write different and started with trip hop. Now I begin with the beats. I really like the repetitive syncopated feel of hip hop drums and so I slow them down a little bit and then add melody and harmony.

S.S: Do you use drum machines or play the drums and sample them?

Toby:

.. Mostly samples. But I’ll play drum pads and I have an electronic drumkit. For a previous band, I learned to play the drums, so that I could effectively interact with my drummer in a way that made sense. As someone with composition and production as my main interests, it is important that I am able to tell people exactly what I want. I write a lot of syncopated parts that might not be intuitive for most musicians.

S.S: How have your surroundings influenced your music?

Toby:

..I worked in Amsterdam for an electronic experimental jazz label. So, I programmed live stuff with DJs and jazz musicians. Amsterdam helped me learn some new eletronica programs. The style there was very improvisational and a nice learning environment. My music definitely changed after that. Also, being around the Boards of Canada musicians influenced me.

[On social issues and contributing]

S.S: What points are you trying to get across through your lyrics?

Toby:

.. My aim is not that there is a political agenda and I’m going to push it. But I think there isn’t enough discussion in our culture about how we all support systems that oppress different people. And people don’t really talk about this. Those who do are in elitist academic circles and unfortunately it’s not a popular discussion that most of us have. Music I hope puts people into a contemplative place where they can sit and think about issues and discuss them, without shoving it down people’s throats. Hopefully this helps people to think about what is wrong with American culture, like how can we rethink suburban living or consider why we rely on cars so heavily, and putting that stuff out there.

S.S: Do you work on any specific campaigns?

Toby:

..Not explicitly, but I work in the non profit sector and we do benefit shows for the nonprofits. I’m interested in the All-ages Movement Project, which is an umbrella organization for youth based venues and art space, like the VERA Project. They provide resources to folks who want to start organizations, like the VERA Project, to create a place for community, art and music. Cultural organizing is a way to get people to one spot and then things happen and people organically build relationships and work on things important to the community. I work on VERA Project, Real Girls, and with the All-ages  Movement Project, but I don’t have it all figured out.

S.S: What is the VERA Project doing right?

Toby:

..I knew that they had a performance space, a recording studio, and did all ages shows. I interviewed at one point to be the co-director of VERA Project, so I learned a lot more about the organization. They are cool because they are totally youth run and I didn’t realize the extent to which they are. VERA has a traditional board and a separate youth board of members that work in conjunction. Teenagers make big decisions and get to organize things, which is a unique experience.

S.S: What social issue should Seattle work on first?

Toby:

..Housing. Making housing more accessible to everyone and cheaper for people who have a hard time paying for it.

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[On supporting our artists]

S.S: How can we best support our local artists?

Toby:

..I lived outside of the U.S. for several years, during which I spent some time working for a Dutch record label. In many European countries, including the Netherlands, the state subsidizes artists in a way that we don’t here. That makes the choice to live and work as an artist very different. In general, living in more socialized states has this effect. For example, the president of the record label I worked for in Holland (who is also a jazz musician) knew that his family had guaranteed health care and that his two daughters would be able to go to college, so he could afford to live more economically and choose to be an artist without making basic sacrifices in the welfare of his family. In the U.S., choosing to live as an artist can be more precarious.

Anthon:

..A lot of musicians here survive on licensing, which is supported by advertisers and television.

S.S: Do we treat our buskers (street performers) well in the U.S.?

Toby:

..I’ve done a lot of busking actually. I busked with a friend of mine, who’s a musician in Chicago, when we lived in Spain for a year. But, I’ve never busked in the U.S. actually. It’s not quite as hospitable.

Anthon:

..We kind of look at people playing music on the street as bums here. People in Europe are very responsive to others doing art on the street. In Europe, it’s like “oh, a musician. Neat!” You can be dirty but if you have a guitar, you’re musician! In Europe, they also have lots of walking based places, which makes the culture different.

S.S: I’ve noticed that artists are being more creative with their album art lately. Would you agree?

Anthon:

..Inserts have to be impressive to compete with digital sales. Also, now that booklets are included with the download, you can have 20 pages of cover art, instead of just one and you don’t have to pay the printer.  Then it’s just a one time fee for the designer. So, that’s really cool. We’ll probably have a special download of material with our iTunes purchase and also with the physical album.

S.S: Will you guys release on vinyl too?

Anthon:

.. Everyone’s asking. We probably will because everyone wants it. And because it’s good music to scratch on. Everywhere we go, DJs say they must have our album on vinyl. The answer is YES. The next album will be on vinyl.

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[On future projects and dream collaborations]

S.S: Do you have any dream projects that you’re thinking about?

Toby:

..There’s a million of them! I wouldn’t mind work with some hip hop folks. Doing something with Jimmy LaValle would be cool. I’m actually co-writing some material right now with Scott Mercado, a friend of Jimmy’s from San Diego.  Scott played with Album Leaf for a while and is in the band, Manuok. We may have a release together but we’re taking it song by song. I’m also working on a track with a couple of members of Jimmy’s old band, Tristeza.

S.S: Any upcoming local events that we will find you playing at?

Toby:

..Our medium gives us access to new media and new outlets for addressing social issues. For example, REAL Change the newspaper sold by homeless people, which deals with issues relevant to the homeless. We will be doing a benefit for them later this year. The event is still being scheduled but it may be in the spring.

S.S: Final question! While we recommend everyone checkout and purchase your album online from http://www.anomiebelle.com/ , we want to know what albums you are listening to religiously?

Toby:

..A new album I really like is School of Seven Bells, Alpinisms. Their stuff is really interesting and I’m also big fan of Four Tet’s, Rounds. I’ll have some stuff that sounds similar on my next album. I’m already anxious to start recording what I wrote while we were on tour!

S.S: Thanks for the interview!
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GO! Check out Anomie Belle on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/anomiebelle