Bluetip

From Washington DC's highly fertile post-hardcore scene springs forth Bluetip. A high octane blast of sharp, angular guitars over a stretched taut rhythm section, their debut Dischord No.101, was one of the finest records of 1996. Lead singer and guitarist Jason Farrell, ex-Swiz, has also made a 16mm film which was shown in London in November alongside a couple of super 8's by Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and a road movie about the Make Up. He's also been responsible for a lot of cover designs for the likes of Shudder To Think, New Wet Kojak, The Delta 72, Fugazi and Make Up (all yr favourites) to name just a few. Iain Henderson talked to Jason, Jake Kump (bass) and Dave Stern (guitar) when Bluetip and DC mates Kerosene 454 came to town.

This is your second lengthy tour with K454, are you not sick of the sight of each other by now?
Jason: "A little secret? (laughs) It's kinda hard not to get sick of the sight of anyone you're stuck in a van with for eight weeks.
Jake: "On tour I get really mad sometimes, but as soon as I get home . It's nice to see them once in a while. I don't think I'll ever fully hate them, but sometimes I feel like that on tour."
Jason: "Yeah, you get stressed out just being with anybody for long periods of time in stressful situations, so in that sense I can imagine it being far worse with any other band, but the fact is all of us knew each other beforehand and all of us get along very well. But the longer you go out the more little personality glitches come out in yourself and you find yourself hating things." (laughs)
Jake: "And finding things that are trivial."
Jason: "We kinda chalk it up as that when we get home. We try to forget about it and remember what you liked. They're fucking assholes, man! I'm not even gonna go into it (laughs) I got nothing nice to say about K454!"

Which were you into first - playing music or the visual side of things, such as film and cover art?
Jason: "Everything that I'm interested in now started from music. The need to put out a record and being fairly interested in art, led me to doing graphic arts. So the whole time in between Swiz and Bluetip I was doing that and film came up alongside of that, as far as doing super 8 stuff, goofing around with a few friends. We named our own little production company and made two films and then decided to add another story and made that film showing now called North Rt.1. So right now we're desperately gathering up all the equipment we need, all the film stock, all the storylines we want to shoot and hopefully spend all the time until next summer working on the record and working on the film. The whole plan was that it would all come from the same wellspring. You'd be able to cross reference lyrics with storyline, film plot with soundtrack, let it all be this multi-layered thing. It was something that we were gonna try to do with Dischord No.101."

Have you any particular favourites when it comes to the covers you have designed?
Jason: "My first favourite was an Ignition CD with a compilation of all their stuff (on Dischord) and I had this big stack of flyers, photos and a list of all their songs and shows. That was my first thing, I was just like 'Oh man!' And then to be honest with you after that I was very happy with the Bluetip album. One of the reasons I was driven to play music again was that I was getting sick of doing graphics for people and not being on the records besides 'Artwork by .' So I kinda told myself I wouldn't do anybody else's stuff and just concentrate on Bluetip. I haven't really stuck to that, but I really do love Dischord No.101. I just recently did a Regulator Watts CD. But I would much rather concentrate on doing stuff for Bluetip, because I realise that I'm not limitless with ideas and I tend to have a style. Like some of the stuff I did for Kerosene, you know, it says 'Kerosene 454', but it just screams 'Bluetip'! (laughs) It's just 'Ah, oops!' (slaps face). So I'm tryin' to keep that stuff as best I can."

What are you listening to at the moment?
Jason: "Some of my personal favourites are Regulator Watts, obviously I like Kerosene, tonnes of respect for that band. But other than that, there's lots of bands."
Jake: "I listen to lots of stuff. I never really grew up in the DC scene, being from California. I listened to Fugazi way back when the first album came out, but I never really followed Minor Threat or the whole history of it. I like Mud, I like Led Zeppelin, old stuff. I like new electronic stuff like Portishead. I love Jane's Addiction. I like more rock, than punk rock."
Jason: "I listen to a lot of rock. I like My Bloody Valentine, I like a lot of old Dischord stuff, a lot of new Dischord stuff. I never really got into the Chicago thing, like Shellac or Big Black. I like Girls Against Boys though."

What are Bluetip's plans for after this tour?
Jason: "We go home and try to record some songs, spend the winter writing, try to record some more in the spring. Hopefully see where we're at, try to get a record out late Spring, early Summer, depending on how it goes." Are you playing any new material on this tour?
Jason: "Yeah, on this tour we have a new drummer, Aaron Ford and before we left we tried to write as much stuff as we could to get used to playing new stuff live. All through the tour we played four brand new songs and when we get back we plan to record these."
Jake: "We're trying to learn how to play with a new drummer. Since we've had so many drummers now it's like we want the chemistry of all four of us to meld together."
Jason: "Musically, I'd say Aaron is the best drummer we've had and I love the way he plays. He adds a whole other level of energy to the band that maybe wasn't there or it was there to different degrees in the other drummers we had.
Jake: "Tonnes of energy."
Jason: "Lots of energy."

Four drummers in two years, what was the problem?
Jason: "The first drummer (Zac Eller) told us from the beginning that he hated playing drums, he was singing in another band, so it was kind of like slated fate in the beginning. So he left and we got another drummer (Garden Variety's Joe Gorelick) who sounded like and believed he wanted to move to DC and he faked us out! (laughs) And then we fucking killed him on that tour and he was like 'Oh my god, I can never leave the house again!' (laughs) He had a life whole and separate from Washington DC, he was up in New York and he realised that he wasn't able to make that move."

Managing to miss most of the interview, Dave Stern arrives in time to give his own reflections on Bluetip's first time in Europe.
Dave: "Our shows have been packed right across the UK, I mean with people who actually know the songs. Although they're not giving us incredible dishes like they were in Germany, goddamn they know our songs! None of the cooks in Germany knew our songs!"

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