Making Crazy Noise: The Ringo Deathstarr Interview with Elliott Frazier, Alex Gehring, and Daniel Coborn

Austin-based rockers Ringo Deathstarr have released their first album since 2015's Pure Mood with a self-titled 13-track wonder that really lays out the different sonic directions that the band commands.

Elliott Frazier, Alex Gehring, and Daniel Coborn all joined our Tower Live show on Instagram, and you can find that video and write-up here on PULSE!, but the whole band also spoke to us live from their rehearsal space for a full interview to dive into their music and their lives. Spoilers: It's about making a lot of crazy noise!

Buckle up for a wide-ranging discussion, including the phenomenon of speaking in tongues, what plastic musical instruments you can buy your children, when to throw out your  90's cassette machine, and most importantly, why DIY will always be relevant.

Hannah Means-Shannon: To ask a really basic question, can you all tell me what relationships you’ve had with musical instruments over time and right now? Are there things you have played and like to work on, or are you just playing the instruments we are most associate you with?

Elliott Frazier: Well, we tried a Pedal Steel Guitar on this album, on the song “Disease”. That was pretty insane.

Alex Gehring: It’s very hard to play. I don’t know if you’ve ever played one, but it’s not intuitive. Even if you play bass or guitar, it’s very different going to a Pedal Steel.

HMS: Wow. Okay. Was that another thing you had to bring in, like your new tape machine, or did you borrow one?

Alex: We borrowed it from a friend, which was really cool, since I know they can be expensive. I just loved the sound and thought, “I’m going to learn how to play this!” I did NOT learn how to play it. [Laughs]

Elliott: Alex and I both half played it on the song, so it was half her, half me, both fumbling around.

[Laughter]

Alex: But I think we mostly stick to our own instruments. I don’t really stray too far from bass. I played the banjo for a little bit. It’s in the attic now.

Elliott: We all kind of play everything—guitar, bass, and drums—and we all write the parts for each instrument. There’s not really any one rule about who writes what part for the instruments.

HMS: Right! Does that mean that, also, when you’re trying to write a song, any particular part of the song might be the first thing? That it could be one little part from one instrument that you think of first, and then build on that?

Alex: Yes, a lot of times I write first with guitar, and Elliott told me that he does bass first.

HMS: Wow! I’ve definitely heard of bass lines spawning songs, particularly in Rock ‘n Roll, for a long time. And often bass players don’t get as much credit for songwriting. Not in this case, thankfully, for Alex!

Did you all play different instruments in school and when you were younger? Were you pushed in any particular directions?

Alex: I played bass in school, but I believe Elliott was on the drum line.

Elliott: Yes, I played drums. I believe I started when I was 12. That year my mom failed to force me to play piano. [Laughs] But Dan played drums…

Daniel Coborn: Yes, me and Elliott both played drums in church. And now we’re Satan worshipers.

Alex: I come from a family of heathens, so I didn’t play in church. But I was taught bass.

HMS: I’m with you on the failing to learn the piano and having a lot of church music in my background. But both my brothers are guitar players and are fairly heathen, so I think they are making up for lost time.

Elliott: What church denomination were you?

HMS: Oh, boy, that’s a big question. My mother was quite devout, but she changed denominations a lot. She was never quite happy with any. So we were Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Church of Christ, those more persuaded by the Holy Spirit…

Daniel: Pentecostal?

HMS: Yes, Pentecostal.

Elliott: Well, if you ever saw people speaking in tongues, that’s a wild experience to witness that.

HMS: Oh, yes, I did. I went to a Pentecostal high school.

Elliott: Those things kind of inform our music as well. Just those memories. I played drums in two different Assembly of God youth groups and a Baptist one, all at the same time. Daniel was Baptist.

HMS: Wow. Yes, I’m familiar.

Daniel: They [the Baptists] thought speaking in tongues was of the Devil.

HMS: Yes, there’s a big difference in perspective on that between Baptist and Pentecostal, and I went from one to the other, from one day to the next once. That was weird for me!

It does really open up your eyes about how different peoples’ experiences can be of the bigger things in life. The bigger ideas. There’s no one way to do things; that is my conclusion. It’s wild.

Elliott: It’s a trip!

HMS: It’s a conversation stopper. Sorry…

[Laughter]

HMS: Do I dare ask if your families are okay with your pursuit of secular music?

Elliott: Oh, yeah, it’s fine. It is weird when you think back, though, about how parents used to get together and talk about how evil certain musicians are. But nothing that Marilyn Manson ever did could top the evil that Donald Trump is doing right now. Whatever we do, we just keep it from the heart. It’s about being genuine and about love.

HMS: That’s great, thank you for saying that.

To talk a little about the new album, aside from bringing in some new instruments, do you think there’s been a shift in your sound at all? Or is it more of a gradual development?

Alex: I would say “gradual”. We’re always trying to make something that doesn’t sound like a carbon copy of everything we’ve already done. With each recording session, we like to experiment and try new things, and that gets incorporated. But I wouldn’t say that it’s something that’s completely out of left field. But I think it feels like a natural progression.

HMS: Is it a case of getting closer to defining what your sound actually “is” with this album?

Alex: I don’t know that we necessarily have something where we would say, “This is our sound.” I think our sound will always evolve because we enjoy experimenting. We’re always listening to new songs and things that inspire us. So I think our sound will always be an evolving sound.

Elliott: The one constant thing will probably be the vocal harmonies. I think that’s important to our band. To have harmonies in some fashion.

Alex: Yes.

HMS: Are there multiple musical genres that you are interested by, whether in the past or right now? Do you look toward Blues or Country, or Brit Pop? Or are you are more anchored in time?

Alex: I think we all have a pretty wide range of music that we listen to. Embarassingly enough, I really enjoy Country music, even new Country. But I also love The Cocteau Twins and Dinosaur Jr., stuff that is more sonically what we sound like. Elliott and Daniel also have kind of a wide range of music that inspires them.

Elliott: I love the CD that I got for my birthday once, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. We kind of looped into that on this record. The Beach Boys. A Tribe Called Quest. N.W.A. Nine Inch Nails. Of course, My Bloody Valentine, but also Husker Du, big time. All that kind of stuff.

HMS: There’s so much now available, especially with the internet, that it’s so possible to go down rabbit holes in music. Even just on Tower Records’ site, we keep seeing reissues of music history items, like an album that hasn’t been available for forty years. It’s amazing what turns up.

Elliott: It’s great when you’re at a music store, too, to just see something and put it on to listen to it. If you’re using a streaming service, even, you can look for names you notice in record stores.

HMS: Yes, at the moment, Tower are just selling online, but we may someday have brick and mortar shops again. But even so, it’s a huge learning experience just looking around the shop for me, and I hope it is for customers, too.

When Tower Records used to be around in many physical stores, one thing is that it used to be kind of like a library, based on the stories I’m hearing. People would just go there to learn about music. You could go in booths and play and sample new albums. People used to live there and hang out.

Do you all have physical record and music shops in Austin that you all can go to, when we’re not in a Pandemic? Do you like physical media, or are you more digital?

Alex: We definitely have lots of record shops. Right now, unfortunately, they are all closed, and some you can call in and pick up. But we’re really lucky to be in Austin where music is such a part of the city. We have amazing mom and pop record shops that have been around forever and you can find the coolest, random things there.

HMS: That’s so awesome.

Elliott: I’m more digital now because I just don’t have a good hi-fi system or space in my house to have my record player out. I wish I could have them out, but my kids just grab the records, and throw them, and step on them… I just can’t have them out. Sorry.

[Laughter]

HMS: That’s awful! I bet so many people who are going to read this are going to sympathize with that description. I bet so many people have that problem!

I used to do terrible things to my parents’ record collection, which I now remember cringingly.

Elliott: I tried to get my four-year-old a cheap record player. But he puts on a record, but he immediately doesn’t like the song. He just doesn’t like Rock ‘n Roll right now, I think. He’s more into Michael Jackson. The kind of music that just appeals to every person on earth. If I play Indy Rock, he asks, “Why is this so loud??”

HMS: [Laughs] That’s almost like a study in developmental stages of human beings and our brains. When you’re very little, you’ll have the broadest base, I guess.

If he doesn’t like the same kind of music as you, in the end, is there going to be trouble? Or are you going to let him have different tastes?

Elliott: Whatever he wants, you know? I try to make music a normal part of his life experience, though. He tells me that he wants a tuba. It’s a little bit out of our reach right now for a four-year-old to have a tuba, but I’d give him one if I could.

HMS: I recently saw this online, that you can get these plastic instruments for young children that mimic real instruments. Not toys, but instruments. I was amazed.

Elliott: Yeah, I got him a plastic saxophone, clarinet, and trumpet! I told him that if he can play those, I’ll get him a tuba.

HMS: That’s so great!

To circle back to physical media, what about cassettes? I agree that vinyl can be hard to store and keep, but cassettes are also making a huge comeback.

Do you hold onto cassettes, or do consider that an “affectation”, as one musician said to me recently? I guess that’s the danger, that it’s just a kind of pose.

Alex: I don’t have a tape player anymore, but I used to drive a car where you could listen to the radio or listen to a tape and the radio player was broken. So I was collecting tapes. I remember that’s when I got the Dinosaur Jr. Bug album and I wore it out! I think I listened to that more than anything. And I have a couple of those tapes from the old days of that car, but I don’t think I have a tape player anymore. I wish I did.

Elliott: I have a tape player, but it’s really crappy. If I had a better tape player and more time on my hands, I’d be doing more stuff with tapes. I personally love tapes. As an art form. It’s cool to give people tapes and get tapes from people, with the artwork. You can do it all DIY if you want. It’s just fun. It’s interesting. I wish that I had more tape stuff going on in my life.

Alex: I remember, when I was younger, getting mix tapes from guys and thinking that was so much more special than a mix CD, since it seems like it really takes time to create. So there’s something special and tangible about a tape.

HMS: Well, our technology has increased in a way that’s changed how we can have tapes, if that makes sense. Like bands can have really cool tapes made now, like having bright blue plastic with orange labels etc. Back in the old days, you used to have to take what you could get. Now you can order this stuff, and it’s not that expensive, so the customized aspect is really cool now. I think that’s part of the appeal now.

Elliott: We used to have a cassette duplicator that could do three cassettes at a time, but it was from the 90’s and wouldn’t work anymore. So we threw it in the dumpster. We could buy a new one for the cost of fixing that one!

We are having a cassette done of our live recording that we did [for Levitation] so hopefully we can have more cassettes in future. I know people like holding physical items, and cassettes are the cheapest way to do that. I’m looking forward to more tape stuff, personally.

HMS: Right on.

There is definitely a move back toward tangible media for a lot of people, and it’s very understandable. Especially for bands and fandom, it makes people feel connected.

Well, you’ve spoken previously on our Tower Live show about the term “Shoegaze”. Are there terms that you are okay with people applying to you, or any you think might fit better than Shoegaze? Or do you want to leave things more open?

Alex: We’re definitely okay with the Shoegaze term, because I think people who know what that is can identify with it. But sometimes it can exclude a lot of people because it’s not a super well-known term like Rock or Pop. I think we just kind of refer to ourselves as Rock band, because that can interest anyone.

Elliott: If someone asks me what kind of band we are, it definitely is Rock who are fans of Shoegaze. But if we’re talking to people who have never heard of My Bloody Valentine and they ask what kind of band we are, I just tell them we are a Punk Rock band. We’re noisy and we have vocal harmonies. We have beautiful, angelic vocals, and crazy noise. I feel like we should have no terms to describe us, you know? But you have to sell records. You have to market.

Alex: It just depends on who you’re talking to, I guess.

HMS: I imagine if you’re with people, face to face, you might just read the people who are with you to try to figure out what kind of terms might make sense to them. You can tell if people are more geeky and niche or more general in their knowledge, often.

I was reading around online, and it does seem like in every article that people have written about Ringo Deathstarr, they want those terms, they want to pin it down! And yet they are all different. So many different terms are being used. It must just get frustrating for you.

I love the description you just gave, Elliott, and I think that’s the one that needs to be out there: “We’re noisy and we have vocal harmonies. We have beautiful, angelic vocals, and crazy noise.”

Elliott: Thank you. When you’re playing the shows, time after time people come up to us who are clearly not there because they love Shoegaze. They’ve never heard anything like us. They think we’re awesome. These are people who have clearly never heard Shoegaze before. We’re just doing it for our own personal fun. We aren’t trying to copy every Shoegaze that’s been heard before. It’s like recipes. You don’t make recipes out of a cookbook of your favorite chef’s because you’re trying to copy that chef. You do it because you know it’s good. Because you want to taste that. We want to taste that. This music is really fun and we want to share it with people.

It’s really interesting how the people who don’t have that record collection respond to it. There are actually people who have never heard Shoegaze before, believe it or not! Wink, wink!

It’s all about having a good time with people.

HMS: Well, it opens up possibilities for people if you use broader terms. Maybe they’ll like it, maybe they won’t, but then at least they’ve encountered it, and can make that decision.

Alex: Totally.

HMS: This is a weird question, and maybe too personal, but in our Tower Live show, you spoke about having day jobs, and then having this musical life also, which you’re very grateful for: Is it weird for you to have those two lives? Do the people in your lives understand how you try to navigate between the two? Is it psychologically difficult to do so?

[Laughter]

Alex: It’s definitely weird. I think all three of us wish we could do music full time. Maybe one day we’ll get there! I don’t know. We are lucky to have people in our lives who are supportive and who are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. But it’s definitely a hard line to walk. We have to try to balance having a regular work life, then taking off a month or more to go on tour. We get to play Rock star for a minute, then you come home and you get to get back to your real life.

Elliott: We were thinking this year, before the Pandemic, we were trying to imagine a world where we could tour for two weeks, then be home for two weeks or a month. Then tour again, and be home again. And we finally saw that we were going to be at a place where that was going to be possible, or at least an attainable goal. But that would’ve put us in a position to be close to full time musicians. It’s hard to let go of that. We’ve worked so hard over the years, and you know how much your loved ones have put up with you. We think, “If we just keep going, if we just keep going…”

It feels like that could happen. It’s really bizarre that people during the Pandemic even care about us, but it’s the same way that people care about other things they care about. We are totally grateful and we hope that we can keep this thing going.

The Beatles, The Beachboys, they stopped touring and wrote some really great music, so if anything, we’ll just keep writing great music, no matter what happens.

HMS: I think the eyes of the world are really on the music industry right now. One of the clearest things about the Pandemic and Black Lives Matter has been how important music is, strangely. So much livestreaming, so much social media engagement, supporting charities, donating to causes. Musicians are leading a lot of this stuff. I feel like you can see that in the fallout.

It’s sad how much income is being lost on touring, but music isn’t giving up.

Elliott: My personal experience in all this is that I had a new kid arrive in February, so in a way this Pandemic, with everything closed, has been a way for me to withdraw into being a Dad. I haven’t been on top of my social media and e-mails. We’re finally doing this video, and we’ll be doing more. It’ll be easier now that we’re set up to do.

HMS: It’s hard to do anything productive right now, but after a while, I think you can figure out what you can do. I think some of the changes happening now about how people engage with music will be here to stay, even on a basic level. Music may continue to lead a lot of this charity stuff for months or years to come. There will be plenty to do.

Elliott: It’s good to be able to do this now. To have fans who agree with you and support your message. We never really had such a message, overtly, before. But now is the time to be overt about it. We’re just going to keep doing more music with a purpose.

Collaborating with other artists as a way to raise money for charity would be cool.

HMS: I meant to ask you, on the new album, are there some prevailing ideas that tie the songs together or are they all really different things that are all just your sound, your thing? Since it’s a self-titled album, it’s a little harder to tell if there are certain themes there. Or is it more about who you are?

Alex: I’d say that it’s a representation of a lot of different things, a lot of different ideas. I wouldn’t say that there’s necessarily one theme that runs through it, other than that it has to do with our lives, and the things that we were feeling in the moments when we wrote the songs. It felt very true to us.

HMS: Cool, thank you. Obviously, you’ve had some big life events in that time, as you spoke about on our Live Show.

What do you think of the format of the long play album, longer and longer with digital? People used to release a lot more EPs and a lot more singles, but the music industry has continued to change.

But, actually, during this Pandemic, people have started releasing a lot more EPs again to give fans something to listen to.

Do you have any feelings about that, or are you wedded to a longer format?

Elliott: Personally, I feel like if I could write that much music, I would be putting it out that way, too. I don’t see anything detrimental to just pouring music out there if you can.

But I can’t even play guitar. Sometimes weeks go by without picking up the guitar. I fantasize about being able to make another album, or even two, and not even tell anyone. Then just be like, “Alright, here’s the album!”

That’d be cool. What do you guys think?

Alex: I think EPs are awesome. Like Elliott said, if you are able to be productive and you can get EPs out there, it’s a great time to release music. I think, as a music fan myself, I am appreciative of bands who are releasing things right now.

Elliott: And DIY people can just do it, with the gear they have. They don’t have to worry about budgets. It’s a great time for that. It’s exciting that people can do all kinds of stuff at home on their laptops or four track cassette. Just release it without all the barriers that used to be there.

HMS: Yeah, definitely. And a lot of the EPs I’m seeing come out are live performances, or cover versions that no one’s heard before, from different genres than fans expect. It’s really cool stuff. It’s like collecting bits and pieces that there’s never been a place for on albums. It’s giving bands a chance to give fans something weird and interesting.

Elliott: Cool, yeah. If you don’t have agreements made where you can only release some music in certain parts of the world at certain times, you’re freer. I hope we can take advantage of this and just put things out there before the tentacles of the major label ways which hold you down come back! Now I’m just rambling…

HMS: Oh, man, that’s a good point! DIY for the win.

Elliott: I love our label. Don’t get me wrong. But trying to get things out in physical copies in multiple countries while going on tour is very hard to do. It’s hard to get off the ground. You have to make some sacrifices, I guess.

I’m speaking about our bonus tracks. We have enough bonus tracks to fill an entire album, I think. I don’t know how we’ll ever get it out there, though.

HMS: Oh my god!

Elliott: It’s all under an agreement for a certain number of years that it can only be on the Japanese releases.

Alex: Yes, you should look into the Japanese releases, because they only have those tracks, and they are also.

Elliott: They do, they do. But we’d love to collect them all onto one record.

Alex: Maybe that could be an EP.

HMS: A deluxe edition of the album! With a double vinyl.

In Japan, there are still a lot of physical Tower Records shops. I don’t know if you’ve gone when you’ve been over there, but I’ve been in several of them and they are awesome.

Elliott: Yes, we’ve done signing sessions there, photo sessions with fans. They gave us all kimonos. They dressed us up, and said, “Put this on!”

Alex: We got to wear traditional Japanese kimonos, though I don’t know the correct terms for them. It was really cool. We got to go to a shop and pick them all out. It’s really cool that there are so many Tower Records in Japan and it’s still such a staple.

Elliott: Like five floors! It’s so cool.

HMS: It really is. I’m so glad they are doing what they are doing, and you’ve had such a great experience of them.