LONDON - NO PAIN IN POP VS. THE SAMPS

The Samps' super-fidelity, submarine flinch-funk sounds like it was made by a team of professional stoners: athletically pumped and hi-res, but full of thoughts and ideas that survive only a few seconds before bursting like champagne bubbles at a late summer wedding. The Samps are a Californian band that run with a few other Californian bands. Cole MGN plays guitar with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and is shacked up with Ramona Gonzalez, better known to you perhaps as Nite Jewel. Jason Whitemare runs a label. Harley plays drums more angrily with Dimesland and Wild Hunt and more calmly with Stan Hubbs. You should give The Samps your money and your love.

NPIP: What have you been doing today?
Cole MGN: Umm… Today I'm experiencing a weird change in energy because I recently quit smoking and ran out of money for pot so I'm going to sleep at 3AM, waking up at 6 and checking my emails and making phone calls. I'm making power moves because I've got too much energy.

Power moves?
Like, doing big bidness.

What kind?
The business I'm in involves the sale of mangos. Or actually the sale of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti T-shirts and 7"s.

Is it lucrative?
Not much. There's too many people in our band.

Do you get an even split or does Ariel take all the nuggets?
That's a little personal.

Sorry.
Just kidding. It's completely unfair. We do get an even split.

Isn't it just a Samps side project anyway?
Certainly. Whenever we can't make much progress on our own stuff, the Samps ghost-write and ghost-record Ariel Pink albums. Just to get the juices flowing.

As a kind of mental blotting process?
Exactly.

So what's got the Samps' juices flowing at the minute?
What's got my juices flowing right now is this new computer I'm typing to you on. I got a new computer so finally I can fucking maybe work on a song for a second. Because Harley, Jason and I don't live nearby, it makes it hard to get anything done. They live up in Oakland, I live in L.A. All I've got is an 8-Track I share with Nite Jewel.

Do you ever record with Ramona?
Yeah, I played bass and drums on some of her record… in fact, The Samps just did a song with her as well for her new 12" that Italians is doing.

Whenever I try to write about you guys I always get lost when it comes to pinpointing musical influences—I'd guess J Dilla, but what else is there?
Well yeah, a lot of rap. Have to say the Bomb Squad are one of the biggest influences. I met Hank Shocklee, he's pretty sweet. I mean, that whole ethic of just like filling the track up to its maximum capacity. Maximalism density.

I got the maximalism part. There's a noticeable juxtaposition against the stuff you do with Ariel.
Yes. At the same time though I think there is similarity there, just in how overwrought the production is in both Samps and Ariel's stuff. Like, just overdoing everything. But then of course a lot of my favourite stuff to listen to would probably be considered minimalistic. "Ralf and Florian" by Kraftwerk, for instance. I really love this group Iasos.

I don't understand those people who are either minimal or maximal junkies.
Me neither. So weird. One thing I think about sometimes, that is a very unresolved question in my head, is should you make the music you'd want to listen to?

It might make you a bit too comfortable I guess. I think it ties into striking a balance between empathy and pretense.
Right.

Between what you know something is and what you want it to be.
Right. What's an example of that? Can you think of another artist?

I guess the way you recontextualise a sample. Or unrequited love songs. Or dance tracks with drops that never arrive.
Right totally.

I think Nite Jewel too, actually. The kind of lo-fi and the glamour… bedroom disco. To me anyway.
Right, right. Well in both cases (Nite Jewel and The Samps) I can tell you that we have no idea what were doing.

Haha.
Actually that's not true. In fact, I feel like I've worked for a long time to try and separate the creation and analysis phases of working on stuff. I just think the analysis phase hasn't arrived yet for Nite Jewel and certainly not for The Samps. At least, for myself. I mean, with The Samps, really the only thing we shoot for is for the songs to be total ear candy.

Yeah?
But juxtaposing textural elements, like harmony and heavy rhythm. It's really fucking fun to work on stuff with those guys when we get to do it, which isn't often—only every few months. It's fun because I just feel like there are no rules at all, because it is so undefined. The idea that we even have a MySpace right now is funny to me—that we are doing this interview—because it's such a pet project. Just for us… I'm glad people like it, but all that shit on the MySpace is so fucking unfinished to me.

I don't know. I think that adds something.
But now that it's all been up for a few months it's like they are finished by default.

Surely you can just keep re-editing?
Yeah but you lose the incentive, when all my friends hear it and are like, "That shit is done" because they never heard it in the creation phase. We have been trying to keep ourselves from putting things up on MySpace because we want to finish some songs.

Keep them in isolation?
Right. I'm always ragging on Harley and Jason to get together and work on stuff because they can.

Are they busy with other stuff?
Jason runs a record label. Harley plays in a million bands. Ramona's calling now, sorry.

No worries man.

The Samps - "Train Cummings"

NO PAIN IN POP