// To the unitiated, Foot Village might seem like the craziest anomaly in modern rock. A baffling monster composed of four drum kits placed head-to-head-to-head-to-head, with 8 arms a flailin', spewing geography lessons. These four drum enthusiasts are bent on re-drawing the globe and intend to perfom this change with rock and roll and without electricity. This interview was conducted on August 20th, 2004 at the conclusion of the Foot Village / Friends Forever West coast tour via the Interweb.  

POE: Grace?
FV: Why the name, Foot Village?

Is this a reverse-interview tactic?
Is this Jeopardy? No need to phrase in the form of a question! This is Grace, I am much nicer than Brian, so you can ask me the questions.

Ok. Cool.
Why the name, "Foot Village"?

Because "Velvet Da Vinci" was already taken?
A+!

Maybe we could start out by having you each go around and say your name and what instrument you play.
Killer B. Brian "make you feel cryin" Miller on drums and body. Grace Pickleshine - snare, toms, kick drum, cow bell, symbols, hi hat, vox. Gregory Witscher - piccolo, tom1, tom2, floor tom4, big symbolic, chipped symbolic, and voice! Jeff - snare,cymbos, voise, dreamhat.

All of our flys are down!

Everyone here too! How did you guys come up with the concept for a 4-drummer band? Did you all just want to play drums and everyone called dibs? Or was it something more "meaningful" and deliberate. Had you all previously participated in drum circles on the front lawns of high schools, protests, or coffee house?
We all wanted to play drums in a band independently of each other. Greg sorta plays drums in Rainbow Blanket and I sorta play in House 1 and 2. mostly though we just started rockin' out after I was recording Rainbow Blanket one day. No drum circles though.

When I first saw you guys perform, I was pretty blown away. What sort of reaction do you get from your recordings? Do you think people can appreciate/decipher what is going on?
Grace: Sometimes people don't get what's going on when they just listen to the recordings, but usually people like what they hear anyways...but I am the "paranoid" member. Brian and I played the recording for Gabe (D. Yellow Swans) and he totally dismissed it. It was too late and he was too tired. But then he saw us and was blown away.

That dude is mad jealous!
Brian: I try to write songs that can be just heard, and then the performance part is just additional. but some of the first songs, like Korea, probably don't translate well on recording. I've just assumed that the recordings are cool though because some friends of mine that have a hard time lying to me seemed to like what they heard before seeing us and cuz the local radio station, KXLU, was not playing our stuff before seeing us.

What is the idea band city names for all of the songs?
It's actually countries... but the reason is cuz we want to research other countries in order to know how to build our own, Foot Village, one day.

I don't follow. How is naming songs after countries researching them?
We write the songs based upon group research we do of countries. The songs are reports, most of the time impressionistic and poetic reflections of the countries. for example, Iran is a new Iranian national anthem, Antartica is about how no one lives there but still the US and Russia hold dibs on controlling it, and Brazil is about Rock N Rio. Grace: Guatamalla is the sound of civil strife.

How do you guys go about song writing? Are the songs played live improv-ed (they seem to be very tight/coordinated).
The only song we improved on tour was China/Taiwan at the SF Bands Against Bush benefit. We basically write songs in a million different ways, no different than any indie rock bands we've been in. Sometimes we jam and we pick parts that we really like, or Brian writes lyrics and brings them to the table, or I write chants, or Greg starts a beat, or Jeff starts on his dwarf drums. Sometimes, one of us has an idea for an entire song (all drum parts and vocal structure). Grace: (Burp).

How was being on tour with Friends Forever? Were people taken aback be your set-up/performance anywhere along the way?
Brian: It was a life changing tour! I'm going to move out of LA. As for the reaction to the setup, people were consistently curious, often surprised that we aren't a drum circle/improv, sometimes unable to hear it as anything but drum circle, and once, in New Mexico, totally confused even after hearing us. But usually just pretty stoked. Fun!!!

Have you ever been banned from any clubs?
51 Buckingham cancelled our show once so we had to set up a guerilla show at the natural amphitheater across the street...and we got kicked out of the Smell (FUCK THE SMELL)....ha joke.... is there something you heard about?

Ever trashed any hotel rooms?
Ha ha ha aha, only our car. That's where we slept and we got murdered by mosquitoes when we had to sleep at a gas station we almost had to sleep next to a prison on the road, but it was too bright!

Do you guys have a manifesto?
Brian: The text on the t--shirt... the liner notes to the 7"... the text at http://geocities.com/footvillage do those count? That's all just me though. the band is nice and doesn't mind I babble.

What do you guys have in store for your future? World tour to amplify your geographic studies?
Grace: Well, we aren't sure...Jeff and Greg are still deciding where they want to live...Me and Brian sort of too...but if we live far apart, I think we are going to try to get together for one month out of the year to practice and play shows (tour). Maybe if we save enough money we can travel abroad.

Greg: How much are we getting paid for this interview? J/K.

Do you guys have any affiliation with Bands Against Bush or any other political organizations that ally with your band's vision/work?
BABSF wanted Friends Forever to play and we came along with the package. We aren't really for democracy, let alone Bush. When we make our own country it will be a new type of organization that hasn't existed before. a little anarchy here, a lot of savagery and primal shit there, and mostly hardcore physical castle building.

When do you think the world will end?
Grace: I know this one cause I used to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. The world will end when we are at our 3rd World War...then Satan will be thrown into eternal abyss and Jesus will be our ruler.

Will rock n roll save it?
No, rock and roll is dead. Rock and roll died the day Dio broke up.

Do you guys have any cassettes, records, laser discs that people can get a hold of?
We have 7", 3" CD-Rs, and videos: DeathBomb Arc (7", 3", video), Oedipus (7"), Silenc!o (7") the 7" was split b/w 3.

// E X E U N T