Q and Not U

Long, long ago in the autumn of 2004 I interviewed John Davis, then drummer of Q and Not U. He can now be found in Title Tracks.

In show and on record, Q and Not U deliver the goods: passionate, engaging performances injected with politically charged (though bathed in poetic, sometimes ambiguous) lyrics. Their performances often feel more like a religious revival than a rock show, with the audience dancing and singing fanatically along. From 2000’s No Kill No Beep Beep to 2002’s Different Damage, the band carved a definitive space in independent American music. With their new release Power, Q and Not U transcend what’s come before. The bold album breaks barriers and challenges expectations (from a group that already made a career out of breaking barriers and challenging expectations). Drummer John Davis graciously discussed the life and times of his band and himself.

First, some background. Did you grow up in the DC area?

Yeah, I grew up here. I moved to the area in 1981 when I was about to turn five years old. I went to my first punk show in 1992. It was Fugazi, L7 and Bikini Kill at the Sanctuary Theater. Totally mind-blowing. So, I feel really lucky to have been able to grow up here and just be completely forged by what was around me.

How did you become interested in playing music? Were the drums your first choice of instrument to play in a band?

My parents are both very into music and my Dad has been in radio since before I was born. So, there was always music playing, boxes of records to plunder and radio stations to run around in. Drums are not my first, nor really my primary instrument. My first instrument was guitar, which I picked up when I was 12. I was really getting into the music that would be my foundation (Beatles, Doors, Hendrix, Zeppelin, other classic rock standards) at that time and I wanted to start playing along with those records. So, for my 12th birthday, I got a guitar and I learned from there. As for the drums, I never had a lesson. I just messed around on friends' and band mates' kits until I was able to play in a band.

Do you consider yourself a "musician"? Do you practice regularly and get into drum gear and all that, the essence of being a drummer?

I do consider myself a musician, but I don't practice, get into the gear, etc. But I wouldn't consider any of that what makes someone a musician. Playing music is my life, as well as my profession, so that's who I am: a musician.

Are there drummers that you look up or that you find particularly inspiring?

Yeah, tons. Elvin Jones, Ginger Baker, Tony Allen, Pete Thomas, John Bonham, Joe Morello, Keith Moon and plenty more.

It seems that with most bands, drummers play a marginal, background role. But you are very prominent, taking care of the web site and conducting interviews. Do you feel like an equal in the band, more than "just the drummer"?

Of course. Our band is such that it wouldn't occur to me that any of us wouldn't be equal to the other in any way.

Power sounds to me even more grounded in the rhythms and drums than previous albums. Do you write any drum patterns first before any other instrument?

No, I don't think I've done that. Anything that I personally wrote in advance on this record was on guitar or piano. I wrote parts of "Collect The Diamonds," "Book of Flags," "Passwords" "Wet Work" and maybe a little more too. Basically, we all just bring ideas in and sometimes they fly and sometimes they don't. As for this being a more rhythmic record, for the life of the band we've always really been into music that is steeped in rhythm (funk, afro-beat, disco, jazz, etc.) and you can see how it's shown in different ways on all of the records. On this record, I think we just wanted to have more music that moved us and it happened to just be a little funkier than the other records we'd made.

It seems that the band is focusing more upon rhythm and other non-guitar instruments. Is it a concerted effort on the part of the band to move away from guitar-driven rock music and explore other musical terrain?

It's not a concerted effort. The way the songs came out was organic. Them being different is just a result of having two years pass between recordings. So, we're just different people and musicians now. But I am glad that we've moved in the direction we have. A lot of the bands that we get lumped in with are really boring to me.

There seems to be more collaboration on the new album with outside musicians. Will there be more of that in the future, live and on record?

That'd be nice. I enjoyed having Rafael and Pete be a part of this record, so I'd like to have others join us too. I'm sure there'll be more of that.

Any plans for you to begin singing in the band more often. I see that you did some background vox on Power?

I've done backing vocals on all of our records, but this record is so vocal-centric that I'm going to be doing some backing vocals live now. So, yeah, I'll be doing more singing. I enjoy singing, though it's hard to do it and play drums at the same time. That was a scenario we've talked about for years. How can a singing drummer not look dumb? That mic stand to the left just looks silly for some reason. But now we have no choice, so we have to do it.

You guys are touring machines. You're embarking on a tour from September through December, toured over last summer and much of the previous fall and winter. So at this point, is the band a full-time endeavor, or do you have "day jobs"?

Yeah, it's full time. We have a few random things we do on the side to bring in extra money, 'cause we're all still pretty tight for cash. But the band is definitely the main thing. I would love to make a comfortable living off of music and I think we'll be trying harder to make that happen soon.

Any specific ways you’ll be trying to do this?

Well, I abdicated the booking responsibilities over to a friend of ours who does it for a living. That's been a really good thing for us so far. I have more time to take care of other band business and he's done a great job at getting us the shows we want. We also have had some friends help us with publicity and college radio.

While at work this weekend, I found myself reading an interview with Le Tigre wherein they discussed signing to a major label. Considering their past involvement with rabidly independent/DIY projects, reading that led me to ponder the continued relevancy of independent music. Do you think a band or artist can exist independently of corporate-owned industry and thrive, and perhaps more importantly, reach a broad audience? Or, is the only way to do any of those things by working with major labels and big-time promotion agencies? I guess what I am getting at here is whether or not the Fugazi model is obsolete, or if it even existed in the first place as a viable option for any other band.

Fugazi was definitely a very special case and one that may not happen again. Other bands stayed on indie labels, like Superchunk and Sleater-Kinney, but they still "played the game," so to speak, by having publicists and doing other more major label style things. For us, we've started exploring more options with publicity because some of us in the band felt like we were going to plateau if we kept things at their current level. Considering the amount of time and work we've put into the band, we did not want to plateau. So, we've had friends help us with publicity, booking, radio, etc. So far it's been great and we'll see if it helps or not. But I do know it takes a lot of pressure off of us, since we had to do a lot of that ourselves before. We still have tons of work to do to keep the band running, but it's nice to be able to have friends there to help us take care of it. But as for whether or not a band can thrive independently, I say sure. I don't agree with the mindset that actively promoting your band through magazines, radio, television, etc is a bad thing. I believe in spreading the word on what you do in whatever way you're comfortable with. Since I'm comfortable with being in magazines, radio etc., I have no problem with what we've started doing. But I do think a band probably could, with luck, skip the entire publicity train and still do pretty well. Hell, I think that basically describes us up until this year. We did very little of that, but still sold 25,000 copies of each record, which is pretty good. So, hopefully with this extra work we're putting in, more people will hear about what we're doing.

Has Dischord been receptive to your use of booking agents and PR people?

They've definitely been open to most things we want to try. They understand that these are band decisions and they may not agree with everything we want, but things that are strictly band decisions are left up to us.

The band has asked activists to table at shows. Why?

We want to use our shows as a forum for progressive ideas, so we thought we'd ask groups to contact us about using our shows to put some ideas out there beyond what size t-shirt someone wants to buy.

What organizations or activists have tabled at your shows?

Music For America, The Empower Program, PETA, among others.

Every time I've seen the band, Chris has made a point to comment on the 2004 elections, the war on Iraq, Bush in general. Is it important to the band and to you personally that you take a political stance?

Definitely. We, as people, are political. Music is an expression of many of our sides, so the fact that our music has a political side only makes sense. It's far from the only thing in the music, but because those sorts of ideas and notions get so much attention, they can often dominate a person's perception of a band. But, like I said before, I consider our shows a forum for ideas and we want to put what we think out there and let people make their own decisions.

Power appears more outwardly political to me than your past records, not that any of the lyrics are blatant in a sloganeering or preachy, sanctimonious way. I was curious how important the lyrics are to you and to the band, and if it is necessary that everyone understand exactly what is happening in them, if one meaning is intended or one reaction desired among the audience?

I don't write the lyrics, so it's a little difficult for me to answer the question. But it's not important to the band that people understand exactly what Chris or Harris is saying. They leave their lyrics open to interpretation because they want people to participate. Since our lyrics are a little harder to decipher, there's an extra layer of investment in the music for the listener. They need to figure out what they think the song is about. I think the multiple interpretations of the lyrics that different listeners have is a pretty amazing thing. I love seeing what different perspectives people have on them.

Can a band change anything on a social or political scale?

Yes. I know that we have. Even if it's on a small scale, it's still important. Just the people that have told us that we've inspired them to register, start voting drives, talk with their families, etc. That alone is a difference. So, it makes it all the more important that we keep on talking about these things at our shows and elsewhere.

Do you think your perspective is affected by the fact that you live in DC?

Sure, living in D.C. has an effect on who we are in many ways. Sometimes you forget that you're living in the seat of power. We go by those buildings all the time and it's easy to forget how symbolic they are. But there's still a majesty to them for me, which I'm glad I've held onto. I'm really proud of D.C. and the U.S.A. despite all of the terrible things we've done and are capable of. There's so much good here that it makes me even more inspired when I see certain politicians and people misrepresent what this country is about.

You recently returned from South Africa. Did you have any fears about touring in that country? Why go there?

We went there simply 'cause we were asked. It seemed like a rare opportunity and that we should take it. We were definitely pretty nervous about going there. All of the things we heard about violence, disease, etc. But once we committed, we knew we had to go through with it and that, once we were back home, we'd be glad we went.

What were your impressions of it?

It truly is a scary and violent country. There's so much tension, crime and chaos there. The way that violence is an everyday part of people's lives is frightening. But the country is also a very beautiful and hopeful place. The duality of South Africa is fascinating.

How did the shows go? Would you tour there again?

The shows didn't go that well. We weren't the right band to bring over. Ska-punk is huge there, so we were this weird band that only a few people got. But the people that liked it REALLY liked it, so that was amazing to know that we were changing some people. Hopefully we were able to plant some musical seeds while we were there. I hope that some different music starts to sprout up there 'cause it seemed like a very stale music scene to me. I don't think we'll be going back. It was an amazing experience, but financially it seems pretty impossible to do it again.

Any plans to tour any other countries outside the usual U.S. band tour circuit of U.S., Western Europe, Canada, Japan?

No, not now. I think our trip to South Africa has kind of cooled our notions to go to more exotic spots. We'd talked about Mexico City, Brazil, Russia and some other places, but we'll have to see about
that. Maybe next year we'll start to think about that again.

With No Kill Beep Beep, I read that the band wanted to focus attention on youth and the youth of DC. Now, four years down the line, everyone is older. Do you still feel that connection with the city, and the youth of the city?

Sure, we still feel a connection, though many of the people from that cover have moved, which is kind of a bummer. I mean, we're four years older now than when we took that picture and we've changed, as has the scene in D.C. But I think we still feel connected to it. I don't go to that many shows when we're home because I'm always at shows when we're on the road. But I go to about one a month usually when we're home and I do my best to keep up with what's happening. That's a far cry from ten years ago when used to go to 3 or 4 shows a week. But I'm a different person now and my connections to the music scene change just like I do. But, yeah, I still feel Q And Not U is very connected to the D.C. scene.