They hail from big cities all over the world, but the septet known as The Beeps are a New York band through and through, and one listen to Music For Awkward Situations, their new full-length CD, will tip you off to the reason they can lay claim to that tag: their music is the perfect soundtrack to the New York City night.

The song is "Wonderland," and the title is apt. A lonely synth beckons, setting the tone for a few solitary moments before being enveloped by guitar, bass and drums. It's all about textures of sound, and guitarist/producer Pablo Martin's big, open-chord sound swirls around all else. Sue K's voice, currently heartbreakingly gorgeous, joins the flow of sound, Later, on songs like "We'll Keep The Peace" and "The Jesus Song," she'll add a bit of a snarl and a smirk, but "Tell Me" will find you back in the goose bumps.

The Beeps blend influences ranging farther afield than you'd think. Sure, there's pop, Latin, electronica, jazz and punk in there, but who expected the influence of sci-fi television theme music from shows like Captain Scarlet and Space 1999? And if you had known to look for it, would you have expected it to be a good influence? Pablo isn't afraid to toss in musical references that would seem, on paper, more than a little risky, and it pays off time after time for The Beeps.

In fact, it paid off in a way nobody could have expected, even in their wildest dreams. Music For Awkward Situations has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Rock Album category. I didn't know about that amazing piece of news when I talked to Pablo and Sue last month, but we had plenty of other things to talk about.

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Cosmik: Just about everything I've seen written about The Beeps calls you a "true international band." How so, exactly?

Pablo: Well, Juan, the bass player, and I are from Buenos Aires, Argentina; Frank, the keyboard player, is British; Lane, the trombone player, is from Canberra, Australia; Sue, the singer, and Steve and Mike, the drummers, are American. We're based in New York City, but we can't label ourselves an American band, and we're also not all South American, and we're not European or Australian either, hence... International sits well with everybody. You could also say we're a New York City Band, but only if you want to confuse Strokes fans.

Cosmik: How did you all get together?

Pablo: Sue and I were on the same project, sharing the same drummer with Juan's band at that time, when the guy went back to Buenos Aires for good, left the bands in a total pedestrian mode. The project I was in got frustrating and Juan's project was on standby, so we decided to gather at home and just write some songs to see what happens. Then this painter, who is a good friend of Sue's, invited her to perform at his art opening. He had actually asked her to play cello, but instead she called us and Frank, who was in town not long before, and Mike, who was also a friend of this guy and was going to be at the party anyway, to get together and do something for the opening. But we all knew each other from before; we were either friends or friends of friends. That's what happened with the later additions of trombone and percussion. It was surprisingly easy to put together, and it was a seven piece band.

Cosmik: That's not the usual thing, really. I mean, that much immediate diversity in one band. Are there challenges that come with that?

Pablo: If anything, I think it was some kind of language misunderstanding or a different way to express things and different uses of irony and humor... I think we got together for all the things we have in common rather than the things we don't. The fact that some of us come from different sides of the world has always impacted positively within the band. I guess you can use the immigrant blues as a creative tool, too. Also, we all came from big cities and big city creatures seem to share the same manias, but still, challenges, conflict and shit, yeah, we do have a lot of that, but it's just not because some of us are foreign.

Sue: We also have a lot of musical diversity in the band. We are all very serious musicians, but in different genres. We have some serious jazz players in the band even though we don't categorize ourselves that way. Frank was a big salsa and jazz player in the U.K., Steve is a jazz player, but Pablo is a punk rocker through and through and Juan's background is rock as well.

Cosmik: I can see exactly how that would work for you, because there is this underlying tranquility and order in the music, but then something subversive that keeps it on the edge. Perfect job for a punk rocker, yeah?

Pablo: Yeah! It is in fact a post-punk album. It was made with a post punk mentality.

Cosmik: It seems like such a perfect sound. And basically each person just brought a different style and The Beeps' sound just happened? Just the right mix?

Pablo: Partially, yes, but most of the sonic concept was created before the band was formed, and the people just added their personality and talent within that frame, but because they liked the proposal first and thought it will work with their style and have fun doing it. Otherwise they wouldn't have joined the band. That includes me. Having played with way too many bands, I know that in order not to collect unwanted resentment you have to like what you are playing, you have to be able to identify yourself with the music. Having a clear concept from the beginning not only makes the things go faster but it also helps to preserve the peace.

Cosmik: One of my biggest gripes with music these days is the fact that lyrics are getting to be incidental more and more, but with a lot of your songs they're pretty strong hooks on their own. Lyrics seem to be extremely important in this band.

Pablo: Yes, absolutely. Vocals and lyrics are your front and will frame your music. A record is like a picture in a way, you know? Once you put it out, it's out and it has to speak for you by itself. That's why you should be able to support your words and vocals 100%, because that is the first thing the average music consumer, the ones whose musical perception comes primarily from the incredibly lame iPod headphones, will catch. They won't appreciate the textures and the details if they don't like the vocals and lyrics. And it's already hard when somebody tells you that they don't like your work for whatever reason, but it's much worse when somebody criticizes you for something you didn't really identify with in the first place.

Sue: The lyrics are very important because they are all extremely personal for me. We always start with the music when we write our songs, so I spend many, many hours listening to the songs after they are basically already written to try to find out what the song is already trying to say. Sometimes it takes a long time to come up with the lyrical program this way, because the chords in Beeps tunes tend to have darker qualities, there are a lot of them, and they change a lot. So something that seems light might actually have a darker undertone and vice-versa. That is the biggest challenge but it's also very rewarding when I finally come up with something.

Cosmik: I loved the statement on guns in "We'll Keep The Peace." And it just comes out of left field, because the album has a pretty serious atmosphere to it, then there's this tongue-in-cheek, happy little thing about going off on a crime spree and joining the NRA.

Pablo: It seems to me that some people like to buy guns and use them as an extension of their dicks. "We'll Keep The Peace" is like a gun jingle; you can put it on an NRA infomercial right in between the boiled eggs peeler and Focus Factor and people, if they're stupid enough, will buy them and kill their neighbors and themselves! It also raises the question of why a dude in the Middle East with an AK-47 in a Mosque deserves to be locked in a camp and tortured before it can be determined if he's a terrorist or just a guy who has the weapon to protect his goats, while a dude who keeps an M-16 in his trunk while he is in church is just okay. We did this song while the whole war issue and Bush insanity was on the rise. The song wasn't going to be on the album at the beginning because it was written after we had the record already recorded, so we had to set up a special session for it in Frank's living room. We had some faith in the people and in the elections at that time. If we knew how the things were going to evolve, we probably would have called it "We don't give a shit about peace," sad as it sounds.

Sue: The title of the song and the theme is sort of a mockery of a statement that Bush made sometime in 2002, something like "sometimes you have to make war in order to keep the peace." It was also right about the time of the D.C. sniper. So the song kind of takes the concept of violence to end violence and makes fun of it - you know, the logical conclusion is that everyone will just kill each other like an Elizabethan revenge tragedy.

But all of that content was really dictated by the music. When Juan first brought the tune in the melody seemed sort of a like an out-of-control klezmer piece. And then Lane plays this punchy trombone solo, and of course the repeated pop sounds -- also Juan's creation before we wrote the lyrics -- all evocative of guns, recklessness, and the mood at the time in the U.S. which was panic mixed with aggression.

Cosmik: In the 60s, reacting musically like that was the thing to do, but it seems like musicians are practically blacklisted for doing that today, and still it seems like there's more and more protest music being made. Is there a moment before you write it where you think "God, what am I letting us in for here?"

Sue: I think blacklisting nowadays is great for sales and can be sort of a status symbol, so we'd love to be blacklisted... but yes, I think you can take it too far. I don't want to be preachy about any kind of political message because, after all, it's only what I see, so that's why I try to use irony in songs with any kind of political tone. If you are a gun lover there isn't really anything in "We'll Keep The Peace" that says its a bad thing, it just paints a picture of what a gun-ruled society could be like taken to an extreme. You know, it's about Libertarianism. [Laughs.]

Seriously, I guess the difference between what we do and what I would call protest music is that our music isn't idealist; we don't paint a picture of a better world. That may seem dark... and it is. I guess I'm kind of what you would call lyrically whiney.

Cosmik: Something else you don't find very often, or really... almost ever, is an album of secular music like this that has one song that has a crystal clear religious message. I think "The Jesus Song" would have seemed jarringly odd in this context if it hadn't been one of the best songs on the album. This had to seem like another little risk, even on an indie level, didn't it?

Sue: Well it's funny that you ask that, because that song was written to be ironic, and a lot of people miss that, to the point where I've had to ask myself if I wasn't trying to work something out when I wrote the lyrics.

Cosmik: You're kidding me. Okay, so not so crystal clear. You totally slipped that one past me.

Sue: I think we've even sold records to seminaries because people think it fits with their image of Jesus, but it's actually a song that is critical of proselytizing and using the concept of God and religion to justify your behaviors, whatever they might be. The protagonist is singing about basically lusting after the disciples and taking hallucinatory drugs with Jesus, something which should offend the deeply pious, but might delight those who have issues with organized religion for one reason or another.

Cosmik: Oh yeah... The clues are all there. Not being deeply or even mildly pious, I just thought it was another way of looking at faith.

Sue: The same thing happened with Born In The U.S.A.; people latched onto it as a patriotic song because of the chorus, but actually it's not so hot on U.S. government policy. As for writing a song that's basically about Jesus? I'm surprised it's not happening more. Jesus Corp. is one big political engine, making a huge impact on the way this country and the world works.

Cosmik: How does "The Jesus Song" go over with your audience? I wonder for the obvious reasons, but also because, musically, it's one of your most energizing, exciting songs.

Pablo: The audience likes it precisely because of that; because of the energy, it's great for live shows, but at the same time because of the loudness and echo on the vocals sometimes the only thing the audience will hear is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and think it was a devotional song or something. So before we play the song we usually send a disclaimer, making sure that whatever illumination, salvation, elevation or resurrection might occur while we play is pure coincidence. Plus it would really suck for me to have to explain to anyone who might approach us, because they felt they identified with the song for religious stuff, that the music was inspired by an episode of Space 1999. Anyway, to make it a 100% clear, we ain't Christian, half of the band is Jewish, I'm the happiest atheist in the world and the rest... I haven't asked about, but everybody seems to be relieved every time I clarify this issue.

Sue: We really enjoy playing with this one, actually. In live shows, I tend to ham it up with the religious imagery. With Pablo as a foil I can get away with it. We play a little bit of the devil/angel image onstage between the two of us.

Cosmik: This album has a wonderful atmosphere to it. A dreamy thing to it that's almost cinematic. I want to break down your two jobs here, producer and guitarist, and separate them out for a few minutes. As guitarist you're playing with the band, but as producer, first of all, are you working alone?

Pablo: I had to work alone for practical reasons since I mixed the album after hours at my own office. I didn't want to do it like that but there wasn't a budget for anything else.

Cosmik: How much time did you spend by yourself with the recordings before it was finished? How much of this is a production creation?

Pablo: I'm the kind of "Artist over Producer" type of producer, plus I'm a member of the band. I took this role, and my main issue was having 12 songs and 3 microphones -- how am I going to translate the sound of this band, my band, in an accurate and credible way in the recording medium? I was able to do it because the songs were strong in the first place; that's a merit of The Beeps as a band. These days a production creation is... [American Idol star] Clay Aiken? And if you want to know how long it took me to get it done...

Cosmik: Well, yeah, mandatory question, you know?

Pablo: Between tracking and mixing... a year and a half of most of my sanity at that time.

Cosmik: You produce like an old pro. You have some heavy duty studio credits engineering for people like Sun Ra Arkestra and Mary J. Blige, and even Leonard Bernstein. That's a huge spectrum there. What are some of the ways you've been able to use that diversity for The Beeps' production?

Pablo: On the techie aspect, well, every project is different and needs its own approach, and those particular projects that you mention didn't have too much connection with The Beeps, although I used very literal references that came out of my personal record collection. What was really helpful on those projects was having the opportunity to get a very accurate inside view of this industry, and how fucked up it is. I realized years later that with the money MCA spent on cancellation fees for Mary J. Blige I could have put out 3 albums like Music For Awkward Situations beginning to end, just for the money they wasted for not showing up to the studio and then writing lyrics in the studio during the sessions while paying top engineers for pressing play-stop-rewind for 8 hours! It was the beginning of my career, yes, but I wasn't the only one there. I saw top engineers go through this thing, and I haven't seen any of those people happy to get paid for doing nothing; they all wanted to go home. When you realize what the parameters are you instantly know that your chances to get signed are zero and if you do, given the music you do, chances are that the best you can get is a "sign and shelve" deal, because they throw away money on this bullshit and then they cry because they couldn't pay the bills with the sales of U2 or Eminem. Fuck it.

I'm more comfortable now working with people like the Arkestra or the Bernstein estate, no pop or major label bullshit, just people working. I can identify myself with the idea of the musician as an artist and a worker rather than a star. It's good for us to own our work, it's good for us to pursue our label aspect seriously. In other words, I'm happy to be independent. But yes, I saw a good number of bizarre scenes.

Cosmik: What all is involved in taking this sound live? Is it pretty simple to do?

Pablo: It's normal stuff, nothing we can't do with our 2 hands and one foot at time, there is no sequencing or back tracks or anything that can cause you synchro-nightmares, everything is very organic...even Susan likes to mix and play with her vocal Fx's live, She's the Gibby Haynes of the ultra-lounge... maybe that is the most complicated part of the show because her set up can be threatening for the novice sound person. The other usual problem is stage space. We are 7 and if we get guests the number could go up 14.

Cosmik: What's a typical show like?

Pablo: We have a pretty honest and straight-forward show, sometimes we have themes and we work with projections and lighting, it's fun for us to mix our songs with music from Captain Scarlet or the 10th Victim while playing Death Race 2000 in the background because the people who can identify themselves with our cult movie passion have a lot of fun and the people who don't just look confused, and it works in both ways for us. We like to confront the audience, we like to think of ourselves as a bunch of old punks making the music we love.

We like the natural intimate and moody ambience of our music but the shows can be pretty furious and wacky as well.

Cosmik: You mentioned Space 1999 earlier, and now Captain Scarlet. You're talking Gerry Anderson SuperMarionation Captain Scarlet? Seriously? You guys work music from Anderson's shows into your set?

Pablo: Yes, Gerry Anderson and all the others who have fucked with my mind when I was a kid. It's funny now to watch those shows again. When I was a kid I just loved them for how cool they looked, but the stories are actually pretty weird. Captain Scarlet -- he would die and revive at the end of every show and every death would be more bizarre than the previous one.

Cosmik: But there's still something really cool about that stuff. Anderson's shows were like weird dreams. Secret Agent, Stingray, Thunderbirds...

Pablo: Joe 90 -- a kid brainwashed by his father?

Cosmik: But only to keep the country safe from bad guys, Pablo.

Pablo: The stories were so crazy, and they worked on many levels, and that's why those shows still look modern and age-proof.

Cosmik: Your music would work so well with cinematic backdrops. I'd love to see you playing "We'll Keep The Peace" while International Rescue flew Thunderbirds all over the screen behind you, with all those trademark Anderson explosions and space-age guns and everything. Of course I wouldn't want to pay for the rights.

Pablo: [Laughs] You know what? I think America Fuck Yeah! From The Team America film has that covered pretty well!! Have you seen that movie!??

Cosmik: I never go out to movies, but that one very nearly got me to go. I can't wait to see it on DVD.

Pablo: But Space 1999... I would definitely take that gig, that is my favorite of all of Anderson's work, even though he didn't use puppets. The sets, the spaceships, the costumes, the 70s porno-looking actors and the story are all just perfect. But don't get me started with this because we're gonna need another interview just to cover SuperMarionation.

Cosmik: So you're an engineer and you work on some major recordings, you have this fantastic band that you play guitar for, you write songs, and you produce. I think you handle the publicity, too, am I right?

Pablo: Nope, that's Susan.

Sue: We actually all chip in a bit with that.

Pablo: ...Well she's not only probably the best female singer in NYC but also the mind behind the record label. She does an awesome job, I just do the calls or e-mails for followups because I'm bullet-proof to disappointments and assholes in general, so once in a while when someone from X publication comes back to us with that attitude that "why the fuck should I review your CD?" or when they are happy to contact us to see if we want to pay for advertising on their magazine, but when we ask them if our CD will be reviewed in the issue they take it as I'm trying to bribe them and come with things like "Sir, we don't exchange advertising for editorial here"... I'm usually happy to be the one to deal with some of the more annoying situations. That also has put me back in the mode of reading alternative music publications; I'm in position to tell you all you want to know about [Interpol bassist] Carlos D.

Cosmik: Add all that to producing other bands and all the other stuff you do with The Beeps, and when do you sleep?

Pablo: All the people in the band do stuff, lots of stuff. We split the work and everybody does their part the best they can. We all work a lot. As a band and as a record label, we take it seriously. Since we are seven people, splitting tasks leaves me with eight hours a day for sleeping and going to the movies.

Cosmik: What's the future plans for The Beeps? Is this going to be your main focus, or are you going to be one of those guys with a thousand projects going at all times?

Pablo: We're writing our next record now, just writing. We have to match the standard we have achieved with Music For Awkward Situations, and that is a complicated task, to do it right without repeating ourselves and without going too far away from the original idea. Also, I just finished re-mastering the album for Digital Download. As much I was trying to avoid the "near CD quality" world, it seems that is going to be the game, so we'd better do it right. I'm actually happy with the results, it will blow your iPod. And yes, as an all-over-the-place kind of dude, in my free time I'm writing a dub album, which is my secret passion, but Beeps first.

© 2005 - DJ Johnson