"It makes it hard to find a niche, but we don't care, really," Mileski says. "I've seen people dance to maybe two measures of our songs and then stop," Mileski says.įor a group with at least one foot in the world of electronica, creating music that doesn't get people on the dancefloor is a risky proposition, leaving underwater in a purgatory somewhere between moody, ambient trip-hop and doleful indie rock. While heartbreak can sound achingly beautiful in underwater's hands, it can be tough stuff to dance to. Portions of the album were inspired by disturbing events in the personal lives of band members. Still, Jeanes admits it wouldn't ring true for underwater to record a "Shiny Happy People" song.
To me, there's a lot of humor in this album."Īs an example, Jeanes offers the album's track "melc," named after one of the Spice Girls (though Mileski points out that the song is not actually about her). "It's not about wallowing in pity all the time, there's a balance in all that we do. "The whole idea is that the life we are living is not a film, it's real," Wilkins explains. While hardly a comedy album, lighthearted touches lay amid the chilly keyboards, angular guitars and often sensual vocals. "So maybe that's why we sound a little sad."Įven the music, it seems, reveals layers of levity underneath. "We're incredibly realistic people," Mileski qualifies. While on the surface, the music of this is not a film does in fact convey melancholy and isolation, in person, the band hardly comes across as morose. Number two: we are not about making people happy. With that model in place, the band's manifesto remains simple, says Wilkins. The first electronic music we were exposed to was through song-oriented bands like New Order, OMD, Depeche Mode." "That's what's really different about us," Mileski explains. Underwater, however, see themselves in the tradition of groups that used synthesizers and electronic elements, but were essentially live pop bands. "But where's the band in that? Where's the human element?" "There's an audience for a couple of people taking some pre-determined loops and punching up a chord structure on their sequencer," Jeanes says. Yet the musicians' constant goal has been to make real music, even in the arena of manufactured sounds. Initially a side-project to their previous band, Rosewater Elizabeth, underwater has undergone a flood of changes in its short existence and now includes Jeanes as well as keyboardist Deborah Lutz and drummer Alec Irvin. Underwater - which just released its latest CD, this is not a film, on its own sub:marine label - was originally formed four years ago by Florida natives Jeremy Wilkins and Mileski. "It's much harder to do it as a real band. "It's easy to sound good like that," she says. Underwater singer and lyricist Melissa Mileski agrees.
"But what's the point of having 12 Crystal Methods?" "People thought, 'We can do something just as good as the Crystal Method.' And you probably can," he says. Jeanes, on break from working in the group's Decatur studio, says that when electronica hit big, the percieved notion was that it was all about computers and digital manipulations. "At least not in most people's minds." But then underwater is not everyone's idea of an electronic band.
"Those are not necessarily words that go together well," says underwater keyboardist Matthew Jeanes. In advance of the first episode, we caught up with John for a quick tour through Submerge with local photographer Joe Gall.Underwater is an electronic band. His work with Underground Resistance and Submerge over the years is just one reason we’ve asked him to helm a live, monthly show from our radio studio in Detroit. On the lower level of Submerge, there’s a record store, Somewhere In Detroit (SID), where you can find the best electronic music around, including a stunning selection of Detroit techno and house.ĭetroit techno is a worldwide phenomenon, and one of the undoubted architects is John Collins, a legendary international DJ, producer and historian. There are many showcases throughout – including one of drum machines and keyboards responsible for some of electronic music’s most iconic records, and another of engineer Ron Murphy’s original Scully lathe. Submerge contains Exhibit 3000, a museum that walks you through a history of Detroit techno. Submerge and Underground Resistance are two of Detroit and the world’s most important electronic music institutions.
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