Touring in support of last month’s Tarot Spots, Fuck Buttons hits New York tonight at Bowery Ballroom with Growing and These Are Powers. Mike Spence checked in with the two-man band about their punk influence and what exactly is in a name. Your debut album, Street Horrrsing, had a really strong critical reaction. Did the band feel any pressure to have to live up to expectations?
Andrew Hung: Not really. I think one can either choose to embrace or ignore (public) criticism. Our strongest critics are ourselves.
You’ve said that you guys try to use any kind of instrumentation that you can get your hands on. Do you ever feel like you really need a sound and try to find something that can create that, or is it more like you find interesting items and see how they fit together?
AH: The latter for sure. We're not sound designers and we're not interested in being that way inclined. We like exploring our sensibilities.
Benjamin John Power: I almost feel that if we were to spend a lot of time trying to find a sound that we've pictured clearly in our heads that it might have been an unjust use of our time. I say this because in that time, we could have stumbled upon countless other sounds that work just as well, if not better.
Ben has mentioned in previous interviews that he was in a few punk bands back before you two met. For a sound that has frequently been described as “loud chaos,” I wonder how much punk music has influenced Fuck Buttons?
BP: I think somehow the music that we listened to when growing up might of somehow shaped the people we have become and that might be apparent in our sound, but we're not trying to replicate any punk sounds/ethics in our music, or from any other genre for that matter.
You frequently refer to your instruments as toys, and many are even modified children’s toys, how much does the element of play come into making your songs?
AH: It's hugely important that we have fun when we write songs. It has to be fun otherwise it's all pointless.
Your music is so layered, how do you know when a song is complete?
AH: Because we write our music in our living rooms, we only get to hear the songs loud when we take them to the stage. When we play them live, our music is informed by that environment and we continue to develop the song. It becomes obvious from the space that those two environments provide for each other, when a song is finished.
Starfucker recently had to change its name, would Fuck Buttons ever considering doing so too?
AH: It's only a hurdle.
What is the most trouble you’ve had because of the name?
AH: Nothing too bad has happened so far really.....he says, tempting fate...
You’ve said your music can be pretty polarizing, and New York can be a rough place for some bands. How has the reception been for Fuck Buttons in NYC?
AH: We're really interested to see how we do on this, our first headline tour of North America. And hopefully New York will be good to us!
