After an initial mix-up on timing before the show at Chop Suey in Seattle, I finally managed to speak with Brandon Bethancourt (aka Alaska In Winter) via telephone.
melophobe: So I noticed your accent in one of the interviews you did awhile back, did you learn German when you were living in Berlin? (Sprechen Sie Deutch?)
Brandon: uh (laughs), Nein. I picked up a little bit but I wasn't taking classes so I didn't learn a lot.
melophobe: And how long were you in Berlin?
Brandon: 6 months.
melophobe: And do you have plans to go back there?
Brandon: Yeah, I'm leaving in a week to go back.
melophobe: Are you planning on staying there for a definite length of time?
Brandon: At least another 6 months, and possibly longer depending on my visa situation a year or two?
melophobe: Did you get to travel around much outside of Berlin, or mostly stay in the city?
Brandon: Well, I did two European tours so I was in a lot of different countries, but I wasn't really sightseeing or anything like that.
melophobe: I was curious, when you travel like that to so many cities on a tour do you get to see much during the day many of the places, or is it just mainly the venues?
Brandon: No not really, you are just in the venue. You are in the car driving all day you get to the venue in the afternoon, you do sound check. Maybe you pop outside for a bite to eat and then play the show and go back to your hotel room. And then wake up and do the same thing the next day.
melophobe: Did you eat any Kebab when you were in Berlin?
Brandon: No. .. Wait, Döner Kebab? Yeah, I ate those all the time. They were so cheap.
[shared moment of loving Kebab and other cheap street food]
melophobe: So on to your music. You perform by yourself, but I noticed at Chop Suey you had a friend, was that Hari from R.A.P that was with you? Has he been touring with you, or are you normally by yourself?
Brandon: Let's see. On my first European tour my friend Hari came along for that, to help out. The second European tour my girlfriend came along. My European record label guy goes with us, so I'm not traveling by myself but I'm always performing alone.
melophobe: Does that get lonely at all, or do you like being able to do your own thing?
Brandon: Sometimes it does, but as long as I have one other friend or I have my girlfriend there, it's not bad.
melophobe: Along those lines, I assume your "virtual band" sort of came out of necessity since you are the only one performing, but where did you get the idea to use that form?
Brandon: It actually started as a project in art school, it was a performance art piece that I did for a class. Which was basically what I'm doing now but not as fancy and pretty, low budget, lo-fi. I was getting bigger and needing to play shows and I didn't know what to do. I had this opportunity to do a North American tour opening up for Beirut and I basically had a couple months to figure out what to do and at the time I didn't have a band so it just seemed way too much work to find six people that would drop everything in their lives and come travel with me for a long time so I decided to do the virtual band thing. I filmed all the parts. I didn't really have a choice, I didn't know what else to do.
melophobe: Well, my friends were all impressed with the choreography that went into the show. Seems like that must have taken a lot of work at the beginning to get it all sequenced. And then when you are performing does that take some spontaneity out of the show since you have to stay with the video? It seems like you were still able to wander some around....
Brandon: Yeah. My set is pretty much set in stone. There's not really a whole lot I can do with it. Pretty much the same thing each night. Towards the end I can add songs or take things out here or there but the majority of the set I have to follow it exactly how the progression of the filming goes.
melophobe: Do you have any plans to add people to your band later, or any guests you'd like to join you?
Brandon: I think eventually if I get to a point where I can afford to pay people and find a group of people that want to come tour with me then yeah. I"ll probably do that in the future, have a normal band.
melophobe: If you could pick your "dream performers," do you have anyone you would love to be able to play with? They don't have to be alive, someone in general that you admire?
Brandon: Shoot. Maybe Midnight Star? If I could get the whole entire Midnight Star to be my backing band, that would be pretty much awesome.
melophobe: You seem to have a good sense of humor in your performance, is there a line about how serious you think you should be? Or how seriously do you take the performance, your music?
Brandon: I take the music really serious. It's what I'm doing with my life. But I guess as far as the performance [goes], it's definitely lighter and there is definitely humor in there. When I first started the project I had completely different videos and different music. It was really serious and I was trying to make it really "artsy fartsy" and serious. And while that is great for doing it one night it gets really old and boring doing it night after night after night. And plus I think people seem to appreciate it more when you aren't taking yourself so serious and they see that there are funny elements in the video. It's obviously . . . I'm not being too pretentious and serious and I think people engage more that way, when there is an edge of humor in it.
melophobe: I definitely liked that part.
Brandon: It's easier for me going on doing it night after night. I can at least laugh at myself.
melophobe: We liked the part when you left the stage and watched yourself turning the volume up, for at least two minutes.
Brandon: Yeah, I was drinking a shot.
melophobe: I saw that.
Brandon: It was gross, someone gave me whiskey.
melophobe: That's not your drink of choice? I noticed you were drinking beer the rest of the evening, is that what you like?
Brandon: No. Its gin and tonic, gin and ginger ale. I guess I just drink beer while I'm on stage.
melophobe: Ok random question, in "Speedboat to Heaven" toward the end it really sounds like the "Top Gun" melody. Did you do that on purpose?
Brandon: No I didn't! I actually watched Top Gun a couple weeks ago and I said, "holy shit!" that's that weird line towards the end in Speed Boat to Heaven. Yeah I just literally discovered that a couple weeks ago.
melophobe: When you are singing live you are obviously using some sort of vocoder, how do you manage that? I don't really have too much of a technical background in these things so I don't know too much about vocoders.
Brandon: Well, the technical side of the setup is actually pretty complex. I used a program called Max MSP Jitter to do the performance. Its an artist platform where you basically create your own software, so I wrote my own software to do the sounds and the audio-visuals, and there is some midi sequences in there and that all ties in with the vocal effects processor that I use on stage. So its alot of pre-programming, tons and tons of computer programming.
melophobe: Do you consider your music dance music?
Brandon: Some of it. Some of the music I do is dance music. I think its just all over the place, I can't really put it in one genre.
melophobe: I've had a hard time describing your music to people. I mention its got beats and electronic, but also Balkan sounds and I sometimes get puzzled looks.
Brandon: Well my first album [Dance Party in the Balkans] is really different than my most recent album [Holiday]. And the stuff I'm working on now is really different than the other two albums so, I don't know, I'm just all over the place.
melophobe: Did you have a specific reason for using copious amounts of bass on the second album or...?
Brandon: Wait, reason for what?
melophobe: Bass. Holiday with a sub is super loud. Did you do that on purpose?
Brandon: Yeah, kinda. Part of it could be due to the fact that I was recording and mixing the entire album on this little tiny boom box that was in the apartment in Berlin. That was the only thing I could hear it on. So I think I probably cranked up the bass more than I needed to. But I also just really like bass, so I think I have a tendency to pump up the bass on the recordings.
melophobe: You toured with Beirut, has that been a blessing or a burden? They have quite a bit of popularity, has that been helpful to you? Do you find that frustrating if people refer to Zach Condon when they are talking about your music?
Brandon: I think its just to be expected. He was on the first album alot and he was already pretty well known when my first album came out so I think its just natural for people to reference the only thing they know, at the time they didn't know me. What do we talk about? Let's talk about Zach Condon from Beirut. And just like when Beirut's first album came out the only thing they could talk about was Jeremy Barnes from A Hawk and A Hacksaw. It kinda makes sense I guess. Its just what happens.
melophobe: Obviously your second album has moved away from that sound a bit.
Brandon: Yeah, definitely. I guess it's kinda weird when people talk about it like it's a Beirut project or something, which it's not. I think a lot of people just don't know where they are getting their facts from. Or people are just making stuff up?
melophobe: Speaking of Jeremy Barnes, did you get to see A Hawk and A Hawksaw when you were at SXSW?
Brandon: No! I didn't get to see them. I was totally bummed.
melophobe: They played on the lawn in the middle of the flowers. It was a nice show. Did you get to see many other bands at SXSW?
Brandon: No, I didn't get a wristband. I didn't really see much of anything other than a few free parties. I didn't really go see any night shows.
melophobe: Yeah I saw you come in by yourself at Submerged, do you have any sort of pre-performance ritual you do to get ready?
Brandon: No, normally I like to be in a room where I can get changed, I have to put so many layers on. That's normally what I do before I go onstage. Drink a beer and get dressed.
melophobe: Speaking of wardrobe, does your hat get really hot?
Brandon: Yeah, when I'm playing in the summer it gets pretty ridiculous. Its really hard to play sometimes with all that stuff on.
melophobe: Are you attached to the hat, or do you have plans to change your wardrobe or......?
Brandon: I have three different series of videos that I've done over the past two years and the first video that I did I just wore that hat, I don't know why. I thought it was something that would tie it all together, with my virtual members, tie it in with me wearing the hat. And then I started using parts of the first show, some of those videos and incorporating it in with new videos I was doing. But I already had the hat in there, so I had to continue wearing the hat otherwise the continuity wouldn't make sense. So I don't know it was a choice I did a long time ago but I'm kinda stuck with it now. It does kinda seem out of place, but oh well . . . .
melophobe: Well it seems like it fits in with the Eastern European aspect.
Brandon: It was to accompany the first album which was much more eastern sounding I guess.
melophobe: I noticed that you use alot of keytar in your music. Would you say you are obsessed with the keytar, or how did that come about?
Brandon: I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it. I just think it's, how do I say it, it's a way to do awesome rock 'n roll moves on something that's not a guitar. Because personally I can't stand the sound of electric guitar. I like synthesizers but they don't really look cool when you are playing a synthesizer on stage. So a keytar is the best of both worlds: it sounds cool but it also looks cool.
melophobe: Yeah I noticed when I saw Beach House she looked like she would have liked to have been moving but she was stuck at the keyboards.
Brandon: That's a problem with a lot of live electronic music where people are playing the synths. They are just kinda stuck behind the big keyboard stand with a couple keyboards and you can't really see the person and you can't really see what they are playing either. They are just kinda there.
melophobe: Speaking of other bands, do you have any new artists you've discovered or anyone recently you really like?
Brandon: Yeah. Actually after the Seattle show my friend showed me R Kelly's Trapped In the Closet and . . . wow. That pretty much blew my mind with laughter. R Kelly is basically my new hero. I think he's pretty much just amazing. Been listening to a lot of Queen. Boy, I don't know. 80's Metallica?
melophobe: We ask this to everyone, what is your biggest fear?
Brandon: Hmmmm. I don't know, growing old.
melophobe: Ok, to go back to your video, there is a part in the video where you are wearing, is it a deer's head?
Brandon: Oh yeah yeah. A deer's head.
melophobe: Does that have any special significance? Are you a hunter?
Brandon: No. I just bought it on ebay one day. I don't know why, I just thought it was really weird. And I had it for a year, sitting around, never using it and one of the days I was filming I was bored with the shots that I was doing and I just grabbed it and used it. Don't ask me why. It makes no sense. I just did it because . . . no special reason.
melophobe: Well, it throws in a little random touch, grabs your attention.
Brandon: Yeah. And I do like deers, deers are cool.
melophobe: Do you have anything else you would like to add? You said your new music you are making has a different sound than the previous two albums. Is it also hard to describe? Or is it secret at this point?
Brandon: All of the songs I have been working on have been anthems. Like big classic rock anthems or something. Or 80's metal slow ballads. I don't know how to describe it, its like 80's metal classic rock type feel but there's no guitar. And there is a choir in every song.
melophobe: Where did you get the choir from?
Brandon: Oh I don't know. I just wanted a big choir in every song. Big sing alongs, like Polyphonic Spree or something.
melophobe: Do you still feel like you are influenced by your time in Alaska, or is that a thing of the past for you?
Brandon: Yeah, that feels like sooo long ago.
melophobe: Well, I guess its kinda stuck because of the name. And I have another question about that, did you any particular thoughts about giving yourself a collective name, or..? When a single artist has a name like that, I'm never sure how to refer: do I use the band name, do I say "he", do I call you Mr. Alaska In Winter?
Brandon: Haha. You can just call me Brandon. Alaska in Winter was supposed to be the title of the EP or the collection of recordings that I did while I was in Alaska. I was actually recording under a different moniker at the time. But it just over time stuck as the name of the project itself. I guess originally it was more of a band thing. For the first couple shows I had people with me, I had Zach Condon play trumpet and Heather Trost play violin but they all went their separate ways and started working on their own music and it became less of a band and me doing these recordings and getting people to play a few parts.
melophobe: Are you still working on other projects? Rap?
Brandon: I'm working on other electronic type stuff that's like rap, working on stuff with Hari. Doing electro and techno on the side.
melophobe: Cool, I'll have to look for that. Well I guess that's about it, I'll let you get back to prepping for Berlin! Thanks for making it work out!
