“To call The Dust Dive a ‘band’ would be doing them a disservice. The profound depth of imagery in their lyrics and soundscapes is highly evolved and uncompromising. The sonic pictures that is painted for the listener is the opportunity to be transported to another place entirely and is nothing less than high art. Their music fulfills the deepest promise and intention of a musician to their audience. They also party harder than Motley Crüe.” – Jason Loewenstein

WHO AND WHAT ARE THE DUST DIVE?

LAURA
The Dust Dive is Laura Ortman, Ken Switzer and Bryan Zimmerman from Brooklyn, New York. We play piano, electric guitar, magnus chord organ, violin, casio, musical saw, samplers and all three of us sing with or without a bullhorn or walkie-talkies.

KEN
The Dust Dive are three friends that meet up each week, eat dinner together, play music, have a few drinks, and make fun of each other. It's also a messy but comfortable railroad apartment on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

BRYAN
The Dust Dive is the three of us getting together at our apartment; the Dust Dive is the apartment itself; The Dust Dive is the name for our natural process of making music. I think it’s an honest process. We dig into the geography of our past. We like to tap into the layers of memory, bring them into the present, and watch them grow and mutate. We hope that what emerges is a rich and interactive picture—and a mood.

WHEN DID THE DUST DIVE FORM?

LAURA
2000. We wrote our very first song “rope swing 2000” one night here at the Dust Dive…which we finally finished and recorded for our new album Claws of Light.

KEN
In the fall of 1999, I moved to New York. I started freelancing at a newspaper called The Village Voice—I was filling in for some guy who was on his honeymoon. That guy was Bryan, who was traveling cross-country with his new wife Laura. Another full-time position opened up, so when Bryan got back, we worked together. We became friends pretty quickly, Bryan introduced me to Laura, and then in the Spring/Summer of 2000, after a few drinks, we decided to leave the bar and go back to Bryan and Laura's apartment and try to play some music. It was fun, so we kept doing it.

BRYAN
Y2K!

HOW IS CLAWS OF LIGHT DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES? ALSO, IS THIS RELEASE TITLED AFTER A SPECIFIC ANIMAL THAT ALWAYS TEARS AT PEOPLE’S ANKLES UPON ENTRY INTO YOUR HOME (their cat Minnow buries a tooth into my bunion)?

LAURA
Claws of Light was recorded at our namesake apartment where we practice each week. Jason Loewenstein (of Sebadoh & Fiery Furnaces) recorded us for several months on the weekends. Specific animal? No. That would be our special edition laser disc “the claws will scratch you severely, puff up, burn and piss you off” to be released….when Minnow (our lousy, vicious cat) is, shall we say, released.


KEN
It's a bit more relaxed than Asleep or Awake Walk, and the mood’s brighter, maybe? I think we embraced melody more, and the structure of some of the songs is a little more traditional. As for the "claws" in Claws of Light, that might have crept in subconsciously. Bryan and Laura's deceptively named cat, Minnow, is terrible. Seriously, that cat doesn't have a single redeeming quality. I get attacked—viciously—by her at least two or three times each band practice. She's drawn blood numerous times. I've never been able to pet her, and she hisses at me even when I'm just minding my own business. And she's like this with just about everyone—even with Bryan and Laura sometimes! I think she's always on our minds, because you never know when she's going to pounce next. It's impossible to fully relax with her lurking about, so I think she adds an element of tension to our music. (laughing) There's also a postcard on one of the walls at the Dust Dive with a picture of a hissing cat with the caption "Claws beat skin!" So, maybe subconsciously all these things came into play when we named the album.

BRYAN
This album includes a lot more radio sounds and musical saw, and Laura is going into crazy new realms with her violin. I have never heard ANYONE play violin the way Laura does on a few of these songs. Also, the lyrics are more coherent on Claws of Light—believe it or not! If you read the Claws of Light lyrics on a page compared to the last album’s lyrics, you would eventually find a story that is multilayered yet fairly linear. I wanted the lyrics to be super dense, so that they unfold in time. Like “just add water.”

We converted our apartment into a recording space for the winter, and put a lot of time and care into recording, and we made very few compromises. It was Ken's idea to ask Jason Loewenstein to record us in our apartment. We are all big Sebadoh fans, and it was an idea that we all especially went for once we met him. We recorded our first album with Jeff Hoskins in a rooftop space that had a club-house feel, and it was fun! We really bonded with Jeff. We all knew that we had to make this one just as fun and experiential. And, sure enough, Jason turned out to be the perfect guy for us to record an album with. For me Claws of Light will always have a pure feeling, which comes from the process of recording it in the comfort of our own place.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR WORK I.E. LYRICS, MUSIC?

LAURA
Coffee, light, sonic textures, 4-track recordings and memories. We all write our own lyrics for the most part.

KEN
Maybe I'm trying to understand or accept things in my life that I've never fully resolved? It does seem to be a good way to express things that I have difficulty conveying verbally. I feel lighter when/after I play music. I don't really know . . . Sorry for the lame answer . . .

BRYAN
One of my biggest inspirations is this tall-grass prairie that’s near where I grew up in Kansas. I’ve been going there regularly since I was in 5th grade. It’s my church.

The dynamics of living in New York City: The struggles of living so far from open spaces, and at the same time the delight of living within a wilderness of humanity. At its best, New York City can offer wilderness, solitude, and company all at once. At its worst, it's a pretty exhausting and disconnected place to live. We try to be in tune with this whole dynamic. Also, growing up feeling alienated in the suburbs has had a strong influence on all of us. I think our music naturally comes out as a hybrid of joy and struggle.

I like to find the mysterious in the everyday, and reading into vernacular landscapes.

I'm interested in the varieties of landscapes and land-use in the U.S—especially renegade urban design such as illegal teenage hangouts, swimming holes, ropeswings, tailgate spots, smoking lounges in the woods, a lot of qualities found on Indian reservations. I am super interested in how the American landscape always leaves some kind of imprint of human desire, whether it’s totally bleak and disgusting or optimistic or inspiring or endearing.

I get excited about the possibility of a more intimate, more accessible, and less commercial American landscape—one that embraces socializing outdoors or in discarded or marginalized buildings or places. We've been very lucky to be involved in some great scenes in upstate New York that deal with presenting music in this context. free103point9, a great transmission-arts (a/k/a radio arts) organization that released our first album and Laura's solo album, does this cool outdoor music/camping festival called Campfire Sounds every summer. This year we performed next to a campfire and a pond, and projected videos on the trees. We also recently performed in an old decrepit church in Albany that, for the occasion, housed a miniature city of blanket forts.

I’m interested in how rural America is changing, and shriveling up in some ways. I love seeing teenagers in small towns walking around. I’m also really interested in the kind of people you see wandering around the streets in Brooklyn at dawn—the ones who aren’t on their way to work. I also love to observe this big revolving crew of junkies in the East Village right by where I work.

YOU FOLKS HAVE SOME RECORDED SOME INTERESTING SOUNDS. WHAT IS THE MOST FAR OUT TOOL OR INSTRUMENT YOU'VE USED TO ACHIEVE AN EFFECT? FYI I'M A GREAT YOODLER MY TONSILS WERE REMOVED. YOU KNOW JUST IN CASE.

LAURA
If you listen really close, you can hear traffic from Flatbush Avenue, the street we live on. It’s an unmanageable strain of constant noise and flow. It has crept into our recordings throughout the years and is our most achieving and peculiar instrument yet.

KEN
I can't think of anything too "far out," but I really like the Ham radio sounds Bryan picks up and uses.

BRYAN
I think that the Ham radio transmissions are the most wild sounds we use. They’re actual conversations that have traveled via the ether, and maybe even bounced off the ionosphere. These voices have already traveled so far and weathered so much, then we make them sing with Laura and Ken. It’s like human voices and stories embedded in the landscape. We also have electric musical saw that can be pretty haunting and psychedelic.


HOW DOES THE DUST DIVE MANAGE TO WORK COLLECTIVELY WITH EACH OTHER? I MEAN HOW DO YOU SETTLE CREATIVE DISPUTES, IF ANY?

LAURA
We penalize each other with who has to go on the beer run. But mainly, and most importantly, we give our songs lots and lots of time to work themselves out. Somehow all three of us know when parts work-almost without much discussion. I even hash through parts when I practice alone, trying to come up with a really interesting section of a song. At rehearsals is where we all meet and try out new ideas: Ken will lay an organ part on top of the guitar or piano part I wrote…or vice versa…and then we’ll 4-track record it and then Bryan studies the song and correlates lyrics with the feeling of the music.

KEN
We don't settle creative disputes, we just bury our resentments deep down inside until they have no choice but to ooze out into our music. If that doesn't work, then we're forced to discuss things like adults. And if both of those approaches fail, it's Rock/Paper/Scissors.

BRYAN
Slowly and painfully, but surely. I think that we are an unusual band in the sense that all three of us have a lot of creative input and then manage to fuse it together without having legendary fights (so far!). We are a true democracy.

WHEN RECORDING HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHEN A SONG BEGINS AND WHEN IT'S DONE?

LAURA
We’ll often have extra bleed on both ends of the song, a mini-intro and a mini-outro, and then in the mastering stage we come up with the album order and do fade-ins and cross-fades. It’s a very exciting stage of the recording process, because it glues the album together to make it a whole.

KEN
We pretty much know when a song begins and ends when we're finished writing it. But as far as fades and stuff go, we just listen to the songs over and over again and do a lot of experimenting. It's really just trial and error.


THIS QUESTION IS SPECIFICALLY FOR LAURA. AS AN APACHE WOMAN DO YOU FIND THAT THE DUST DIVES MUSIC IS RECEIVED DIFFERENTLY FROM NATIVE VS. NON-NATIVE AUDIENCE?

LAURA
I can barely understand what we’ve done. I know how we do it, but I’m never really quite sure what it is. People often ask me what kind of music we make and it’s the most frustrating question because I don’t know the best words for me to describe it. We’ve played in all sorts of non-native and native venues… people seem to get it perhaps even more than I do. So where does that leave me, as an Apache woman?


ADDITONALLY DOES THE DUST DIVE’S RECEPTION VARY FROM REGION TO REGION.

LAURA
Our label is in Luxembourg and the new album Claws of Light was released this past November (2007). We’ve had such a varied assortment of European reviews that have been, thankfully, positive. Our label, Own Records, has done a great job at getting it out there over there. It’s hard to say what it could be like over here in the U.S. if we had that sort of promotion from a label here…something we need to look into more. We’ve been labeled as a sort of avant-Americana band, so to see how people review it here would be quite interesting.


YOUR CONTEMPORARIES AND CRITICS ALIKE HAVE SAID THE DUST DIVES MUSIC IS “MELANCHOLIC” (laugh). I PERSONALLY PREFER MOROSE REVERB. DO YOU FOLKS AGREE WITH THIS ASSESMENT? IF SO WILL YOU FOLKS EVER CHEER UP?

LAURA
Some of my most favorite songs in the world have a falsetto, a tenacity, a breaking point, a stillness or a darkness of some sort. I’m outwardly a jovial type, but I have memories and thoughts that need to be expressed in a contemplative manner. I give great respect to music that moves and inspires me. It becomes worldly and helps people endure.


KEN
Yeah, I think it's pretty melancholic, and we write about some sad stuff sometimes. But I don't think it's hopeless—I'd like to think that there's some optimism in there! But it's strange, because we joke around and laugh a lot during band practices. I hope nobody thinks we're mopey—because we're not!

BRYAN
We can’t help how it comes out. It’s important for us to always be raw. It feels really right to make this music. I have faith that all this melancholy, if that's what it is, will unfold with the times and with repeated listens. I think the best "sad" or "melancholic" music is usually pretty complex, and it ages well. I try to think about how the music will sound decades from now. I want to make songs that have enough guts and personality to endure. I also admit that it's not until lately that I've been able to relax and let it be "melancholic" or whatever people want to call it. It bums me out a little bit that the music bums other people out, but I’m learning to let it be what it is.


WHEN NOT WORKING TOGETHER WHAT DO YOU FOLKS DO? ANY SIDE PROJECTS?

LAURA
Our jobs are our side projects. We mostly live for each other, our family and friends. Ken is an editor for an online magazine called The Week. Bryan works at the Cooper Union School of Art in the photography department and I work as a hairstylist at the Beehive Salon. Bryan and I are also visual artists. He makes collages, drawings and photographs. I have been making wood-burn drawings, sculpture that goes on walls and small pen and ink drawings. Bryan and I also work a lot on video imagery for the projections we use for our live shows.


KEN
I'm an editor and a writer at a magazine—I really like my job, but the hours can be long at times. I used to videotape myself doing monologues and rants; I'd like to get back to that soon. I'm kind of a homebody these days, watching a lot of movies, listening to music.

BRYAN
I keep busy during the days helping run a photography lab at an art college, where I also sometimes teach a beginning photo class. Then I am busy at night and on weekends working on visual art, including photography, collages, videos. For fun I like to do all kinds of outdoor recreation and travel, and go out and see friends and family. In 2008 I’m going to record a “solo” album with Patrick McCarthy from the band Latitude/Longitude and a bunch of friends who I think are brilliant musicians. I think we’re in the middle of a golden age of music in Brooklyn and NYC, and I want to make the most of it.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DUST DIVE?

LAURA
In March 2008 we will be taking off for our very first European tour!! Six countries in two weeks! Luxembourg, Germany, Italy France, Belgium and Switzerland. Each night we’ll be performing in a different city! We are very, very excited! Plus we’ll get to meet the guys who run our label, Own Records, for the first time. We’ve worked really hard alongside them to release this second album so it will be nice to finally meet in person.

KEN
We're going to Europe for a two-week tour in March—can't wait! After that, I'm looking forward to writing new songs.

BRYAN
Figuring out a live set-up that does our music justice. We want to make a live show that will enhance and draw people into the music. This will involve video projections (which were shot and edited by us) and a bunch of other things, big and small.

FINALLY WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF YOU HEARD A BUNCH OF DRUNKEN KOREANS KAROKE SINGING TO " BABY FACE IN A PICKUP TRUCK?" IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES.

LAURA
I know one Korean who has already drunkenly lip-synched her way through at least the first stanza….and she has the power of 20!!!


KEN
That would be incredible! Just to get that song on Karaoke play lists would be a high honor!

BRYAN
Oh man, I do hope someday people realize that you can party to our music. All these labels like “sadcore” and “slowcore” bum me out. I think our music has a great sense of humor. You should see us when we rehearse! Both these can make me puke from laughter.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF A GAY BEE? ANSWER OPTIONAL.

LAURA
Bee has its fly on and open!!

KEN
What bees do in the bedrooms of their hives is entirely up to them. And it's important for all bees to be accepted for who they are.