Interview with Nonagon

Original air date: December 30th, 2021

Players:

For Times Boredom
(TB): k. (Kasrael/Keith) Sonin (Nonagon superfan)

For Nonagon:
Robert: (Robert): Bass guitar, artwork, ‘group talent for everything’

Tony: (Tony): Percussion, PRF ‘Most Valuable Drummer’ 2014, 2017, 2019-21

John: (John): Guitar, vocals, dude that reassures k. that he can do this and he’s not just a lame drooling fan (even though k. totally is) to help him make it through the interview

TB: Hello NONAGON! First things first, how many chocolate bars do you think I can eat by the time this interview is over?

Robert: I was told there wasn’t going to be any math.

Tony: I’m going to look up pics of your cheeks before I make my guess

TB: I should tell you that it’s minis…

John:: 4

Tony:: 300

Robert:: 3.1415926535…

Tony:: Oh, choco pie

TB: Ok I’ll put all your guesses in the jar. Anything below 4 is already wrong.

So in the interest of pretending to be one of those drunk morning show hosts, let me tell you about my day for no reason. I woke up this morning and really didn’t want to get out of bed, but then I remembered your new album is still fresh in my mind so I put it on, jumped right in the shower, and made it into work! How does it feel to be responsible for the continued existence of losers like myself?

John:: So, it seems to me that you’re saying that we put food on your table?
I wish we could say we were doing the same for us.

Robert::
Many people want a shower after hearing our record.

Tony:
Losers listening to losers. checks out.

TB: Losers making loser music to make loser music too? (Sorry I was trying to do a clever shoegaze catchphrase parody there. I’ll clean it up in post)

John:
I see you’ve read my manifesto.

TB: Ah. So I understand Robert is the group artist?

Tony:: Robert is the group talent for everything

John:
By far the most talented person in the band. Don’t tell him we said that.

Robert:
I’m great at everything except interviews.

TB:
So what’s with the flying fishes?

John:
HA! Who wants to tell this dumb story?

Tony: I’m bad at telling stories

TB:Y’all seem to be saying you’re bad at a lot of things…

John: Yeah all of us except Robert

Tony: So you HAVE heard the record

Robert: The record title came before the artwork… it was from a joke Tony invented while were were driving around in the van

TB: Is it the kind of joke you have to be high to get or can you tell me it?

John: I think I was telling a long-winded story about how I used to watch bald eagles hang out near the dam in downtown lawrence when the rest of the river was frozen over… They would fill the trees along side the riverbank. Over-explaining, as usual, I said…”because, you know, they fish.” Tony said: “Nuh uh. They birds”

TB:And Robert somehow transformed that story into a menagerie of strange flying creatures that are fish and birds and reptiles with da vinci contraptions?

John: Exactly!

Robert:
Pretty much. I like stuff from ye olden days.

TB:I did see a reference to Jacques Cousteau I think and in my review said something about turn of the century monographs. But honestly I had no idea what I was talking about

Tony: I asked why they fish always hang out by dams. This particular dam that brought on this conversation is right close to the thundersnow hotel

TB:Oh! I’ve been there!

(Note to our readers; k. and his band Che Guevara T-Shirt paid $300 in 2014 to be allowed to play the annual PRF ‘Thundersnow’ concert with Nonagon, Low, Megamaul, and many other fantastic other bands in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was the highlight of their career; k. got drunk and fell asleep halfway through their performance.)

John:Where we met! Maybe even the same year Tony made the joke. If you saw me break out into laughter randomly at any moment, that was why.

TB:
I did wonder why you stopped singing halfway through every song and started cracking up laughing. Now i know.

So I hear y’all are famous for taking a long time to make records?

John: Heh. “Famous.” Yeah. We move at a snails pace. Our process isn’t efficient but we end up pretty happy in the end

Tony: 1 record every 14 years is our pace

TB:Well given the complexity of the parts it seems as though you go over everything with a fine tooth comb. I mean, why don’t you just take it easy and like, write a part in standard 4/4 time so I can dance to it? how does it usually work? does someone come in with a part? do you jam until something sticks?

Tony: John usually comes in with a riffy thing and we jam and judge

Robert: The parts tend to start with John coming up with a riff or two and we vamp around that for two years.

John: I don’t think we do a whole lot of building and rebuilding. We just keep playing the thing until it makes sense to us. A lot of the songs end up in a pretty different place from where we start, but its organic and slow-going.

TB: When do you decide something is ‘done’ or ‘ready for recording?

Robert: We will play a song out live a few times before it’s truly ready, and then change it up, and eventually it gets set in stone.

John: I can usually tell pretty quick if it’s not going to work. But not really set in stone until it’s recorded. I’m usually working on lyrics until the very last minute. Once it’s on tape, though, we don’t mess with it any more. There’s a very definite vibe when it clicks, and if it doesn’t click quickly we’ve learned to drop it. I have a lot of left over riffs.

TB: Can I have them?

John: HA! I’m thinking I may reintroduce them at practice and see if something happens. Don’t tell Tony or Robert.

TB: Would you say you use the audience as a sounding board at all or just see if you can play it well together live?

John: More of the latter, I think?

Robert: We don’t really get much feedback from a crowd other than, “I liked the new one.” Then at our next practice we kinda do a post-mortem.

Tony:
if we don’t trainwreck it too often, then it’s a keeper. There’s an acceptable number of trainwrecks. Right guys?

…right?

(crickets)

Tony: I’m fired aren’t I…

TB:Speaking of the recording, you did this one at Electrical Audio but opted NOT to use the great Albini. How was it working with Jon Sao Paolo?

John:Steve is amazing, but I feel like he’s been a hero of mine for way too long.

Robert: Jon was fantastic.

John: Jon is the opposite of intimidating. Warm, funny, talented as hell.

TB:Does he use a method similar to Albini? i.e. hundreds of room mics?

Tony:
Albini was suprisingly funny and warm too. but also all business

TB: I hear he’s really tall.

John: HA! Only in our heads, I think

Tony: JSP used the normal amount of drum mics : 147

TB:Is 147 that mystical number the boredoms came up with?

Tony: I believe it was the Ruins

Robert: 147 (a perfect break in snooker BTW)

TB:Did you record live? Was there any isolation or overdubbing at all?

John: ha. because it was all to tape, we only had a finite number of channels to work with, so it didn’t seem that there was ANY random room mic-ing. Everything seemed to have a specific reason. Once it was all set up, yeah… the four of us did all the tracking together at the same time — minus vocals and a few overdubs).

John: It’s pretty much what we heard in the room.

Robert: We did add a few extra noises on a track or two. So this LP was basically the Nonagon equivalent to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in terms of production.

TB: Sounds like a challenge. Have you recorded all your albums this way?

Tony: 2 at Electrical (audio), 2 at kerguelen in NYC
John
We have always done it this way. We never have a budget that allows for excess studio time, so we try to be as rehearsed AS HECK before we get there. Then rip through it.

TB: Did the legendary Mr. Weston do the mastering all after in a quiet room by himself or did you get to hang with him?

Tony: Ha!~

John: He mastered our very first CD, and we made the mistake of sitting in the room with him. He would ask us what we think and we would say stuff so he wouldn’t think we were dumb. We ended up stepping on our own stuff.

Robert: We put all our trust in Bob’s ears and left it to him.

TB: That does sound wise. I mean, he is Rusty.Seriously, does anyone know why the fuck he’s called Rusty?

Tony:His hair!

John: Mostly gray now, but a SALACIOUS red as a younger, more vibrant man.

TB: Do you feel like you’re in a sort of chicago boys club? Electrical Audio, Bob Weston, PRF?

Tony: We’re definitely not in the “club” — we may be adjacent? We’re in the JV club– PRF!

John: HA! Exactly. JV.

TB:WTF is PRF? Do you guys know who started it? Who’s in charge? What does it have to do with Jewish space lasers?

John:
Bob and Steve and Jon and the like are definitely part of the same community we inhabit, but for the most part the PRF seems to be just a wonderful bunch of scrubs (like us) who kind of don’t care if Pitchfork ever reviews us.

The board itself started as a tech thing before it became social and then “real life.” I wasn’t theree for the beginning, but I’m guessing Greg Norman (another brilliant engineer) and Faiz Razi (a hilarious polyglot) could be blamed for part of it… Those are just two names of many, though. It’s wonderfully decentralized.

TB: By board you’re referring to the Electrical Audio messaging space?

John: Correct. The whole thing started with someone asking about mic placement.

Tony: Yeah- the forum section of electrical’s website

Robert: 147 posts later and here we are.

TB: We had something similar here in Albany called the ‘Wasted Board’ at first which then became the ‘Upstate Ether’. Unfortunately instead of leading to a scene, we just made fun of each other until we all cried. I’ve been told the Chicago scene on the other hand is actually really unique in being very mutually supportive

Tony: Our scene is, for sure. But there are many, many scenes here.

John: Our part of it is. We feel very lucky.

Robert: Yes, our little corner of it seems to be

TB: I’m guessing there must be at least somebands that think they’re too cool to be hanging with you guys. Someone told me Haymarket Riot made fun of your trousers…

Robert: Early on as a band we got paired with bands that were too cool for us, but we eventually aged out of that scene.

Tony: that’s a different scene

John: We’ve played with a lot of cool bands. Haymarket Riot has played BBQs and had a blast.

Tony: side note to nonagon: Izzy just told me that a band that she knows that plays house shows would love to play with us at said house show

TB: hey knock it off! No side band chatter! This is a serious professional interview here!

Tony:back to your regular programming!

TB: Moving on… who do you think would win in a fight, Rodan or the dude from Molly Hatchet?
You know the guy with the huge sideburns…

Robert:
Rodan the Kaiju monster or band? Or French sculptor?

TB: Yes that one.

John:
ALL of Rodan vs. the one guy? Oof. I can’t call it.

Tony:Squirrel Bait or the other guitarist from Nazareth

TB:I’m trying to get an interview with Jeff Mueller who lives closer to me now. Do you guys want me to ask him anything for you?

Tony: yeah– ask him who he is

John: Ha… He used to live very close to me. I, of course, was always too shy to say “hi”. Stuff like that is why we’ll never be in the cool club… I’m too much of a fanboy, but I think it’s super important to hang onto being a dumb fan… otherwise, what’s the point?

TB: I hear that. I didn’t say hi to whats his name when Low played Thundersnow even though we have a friend in common..

Tony: His name is Mimi!

TB: Oh shit I’d never talk to her… I am so scared of her. I requested Sunflowers while they were playing and Mimi was like ‘fuck you asshole!’

Tony: I was too scared to say anything to any of the Low folks.

TB: But you have your own fans now… what’s that like?

John: I’m not sure we have “fans” the same way. I think if someone likes us they become friends before any hierarchy takes place.

Tony: Fun sidestory- my old band played with Low at CBGB

TB: Which band? I’ve been told I’m supposed to ask about ‘Jump Knuckle’

Tony: Correct! My old band was Jump Knuckle!

John: Totally not true.

Tony:Jump Knuckle was awesome

Robert: Tony was always known as “the Cute One” in Jumpknuckle.

Tony: (i was not really in that band)

John: Jumpknuckle was my college band… we took our name from a Boredoms song (2 references!)
Tony was in The Blue Meanies back then.

TB:Awesome callback to the Boredoms!

John: The Blue Meanies were a BIG band in the Midwest especially. Toured the world. The whole deal.

TB: Wait, who was in the Blue Meanies? I’m so lost…

Have you all always lived in the Chicago area or are any of you transplants?

Tony: Robert and i grew up ‘downstate’ –john grew up very close. So close he went to ALL the cool shows back in the day

John: Me = Waukegan (N. of Chicago), Chicago, Champaign, Chicago, Lawrence KS, Chicago, Michigan, Chicago

Robert: I grew up in central Illinois. Chicago was always the ‘Big City’ for us growing up. When I moved here in my 20’s I felt like I finally made it. And then reality set in.

TB:So yall are hardcore Chicago/midwest?

Tony: MxWxHxC

John:I’d call that a fair statement

TB: How does it feel to have a bunch of losers from upstate new york being big fans that want to interview you?(and if you think you’re big here now, just wait till this interview airs!)

Tony: How many is a bunch?

TB: Well there’s me, John, Matt, Phil, Michelle…

Robert:
As long as you are not from Buffalo, we’re cool.

Tony:WE’RE HUGE

John: Y’all are TOO KIND. We’ve traveled farther to play shows to fewer!

Tony: I think we need to play albany!

TB: You really do! Have you ever heard of Superdark? They are great at setting up shows and somehow always drawing huge crowds (which was previously impossible in Albany). If you guys play here you will totally cleanup.

Tony:you mean, they will actually make us clean up

TB: Yeah, all the MONEY! Gas money and then some!

Tony: Nonagon/Hungry Man East Coast tour?

John: We would set it up in a minute, but thanks to omicron, the few shows we actually have tried to set up have been disintegrating.

TB:Yeah our first show here after the vaccinations happened spread delta to EVERYONE in the scene.

John: OOOOOF!

TB: If the world doesn’t end, I WILL get you to play out here!

John:Even the DRIVE sounds fun right now.

TB:We have a great new venue out here in Troy called No Fun that’s pretty much run by all the cool kids

Tony: We are in! (covid permitting)

TB: Serioulsy though, how long are you guys planning to keep killing it? Word is you guys are all eligible to retire…

John: We are super old. and my back and hands hurt. but, much to the chagrin of my bandmates, I don’t see stopping anytime soon.

TB: Yeah, what is your secret?

Tony:Bionics

John: Beer and ibuprofen.

TB: That gives me IBS…

Robert: Hearing loss.

Tony:I have numb arms and hands when we play.. doesn’t seem to matter

TB: When I first saw you guys 20 years ago you were seriously hardcore… and your records still sound just as hardcore. Seriously. Did you make a pact with the devil in your 20s?

Tony:When we were a younger band, I thought it would be kinda hilarious to be playing shows when we were in our 50’s. And he we are.

Robert:We are nothing if not consistent.

Tony:Wait. you saw us 20 years ago?

John:Speaking for myself, I think I (at least sometimes) want to say that I play in one of my favorite bands. It took a while for me to get here, so I’m not in a hurry to end it. Sorry dudes.

TB:That’s what I tell my bandmates! But they aren’t willing to carry me home anymore… Honestly it’s been great talking with yall and I’d love to go all night

Tony:
Still– seriously, how / when did you see us 20 years ago?

TB:I saw you guys when you were in college and I was in the Korean war. I said ‘these kids got somethin!’

Robert:
We played that house party at the MAS*H unit

TB:yeah. sad, sad show.

Tony:
I made out with Radar’s teddy bear

TB:
so many needless deaths…

Tony: ….nonagon is painless…

John:NOTHING SAYS YOUTH MARKET LIKE MAS*H REFERENCES!

TB: Cool cool. Do you mind if I do a j? Any of you guys into Supertramp?

Tony: Well– there is that one song where they sample Mattel Electronic Football. that one’s cool. It was called, “The Mattel Electronic Football Song.”

TB:No wait I had a serious question. Seriously though, thanks a lot for doing this interview!

Tony: This was fun! I only want to do interviews like this from now on

John: Kasrael! This was a blast. And thanks again for taking our record under your wing. It means A LOT.

Tony: Thanks Kasrael!