The Sound Of Animals Fighting is a band which has been talked about quite a lot in the recent months both because of their music and the mystery surrounding the band. Recently I had a chance to talk toRich Balling, who is the one who put the whole project together. I had a lot of questions and he did his best to answer. Thanks to Lindsay for helping me out and of course to Rich for taking some time to talk to me.
GARY: i guess first off, how did the project begin?
RICH: 1. the desire to be in a band called The Sound of Animals Fighting, a phrase my girlfriend came up with while reading an interview for the band Bear Vs. Shark.
2. the intense need to work with Anthony Green, who I believe is the greatest vocalist in independent music.
3. to get all of my friends that were off tour and at home together and collaborate once and for all, since we had all played with the idea for years and never actually jammed together. the end.
GARY: what other bands have you worked in/with before?
RICH: i was in rxbandits for 5 years, did a side project with rich zahniser called cowboy communist in 2000, which still hasn’t seen the light of day, and created the book Revolution On Canvas, a collection of poetry from the indie music scene.
GARY: i was going to ask about that book, there’s a page that says something like “TSOAF watch out!”
RICH: that is actually on the backside of the bookmark that often comes in the book. And you are probably the first if not only person to have caught that.
GARY: what did you play in rx and what albums did you play on? (sorry for my ignorance)
RICH: it is totally cool. i am (and i am sure they are) quite used to being overlooked as the phenomenal band that they are these days. i played on everything up to the newest one, the resignation. the last album i played on, in other words, was Progress. i played trombone, and did most of the backup vocals, with a little vocal trading with matt here and there.
GARY: “What If” was my favorite song for quite a while. the resignition is amazing, i listen to it often.
RICH: rad!
GARY: and of course analogue boy.
RICH: hehe
GARY: i guess i’ll ask this question before i say what i wanted to say next: Why did you choose (if it was a choice) to keep the members a secret?
RICH: 1. too much legal hassle. five members are under contract with other record labels, and when you are under contract, unfortunately, you can’t just run off and record wherever you want and release it on another label. we did get permission from the labels to put the album out, however, it was on the basis that we would not use the names or band names of the members to make money.
2. we don’t want our other bands helping us “cash in” with this project. this project is completely about the music, and we want as many people to appreciate it without having preconceived notions of what it might sound like.
so it was by choice, but it also wouldn’t have been legal any other way.
GARY: so i guess i’ll have no comment to what im saying next, but the drums and guitar sound quite a lot like rx bandits i had always thought.
RICH: i think that too.
GARY: was there a reason you only recorded 4 songs? maybe time constrictions?
RICH: the idea from the very beginning was to do it in the form of an opera, which is usually three acts. in this case, there are four “songs” or “acts” with the addition of an overture, interludes, and a postlude. though there are only four, the album is still full length, and not an EP. so the plan from the beginning was to have it split up into acts. and that is how it ended up.
GARY: how many artists worked on the project?
RICH: 15
GARY: i would assume that no all of the artists appeared on each song…am i wrong in assuming this?
RICH: there are 8 artists that appear on every song, the remaining 7 are the people that helped outside of the music. the music, for the most part, is a consistent group of musicians.
GARY: were you one of the artists as well as creator?
RICH: yes
GARY: with that number of people coming together from different bands and different places in music, how did the song writing process work? What were the difficulties? did any one person take the lead role or was it a group effort?
RICH: that, my friend, is where the whole thing gets interesting.
GARY: oooh
RICH: what most people will never realize when listening to it is how it was recorded. my idea was to execute the song writing process backwards. i got the best drummer i knew, had him play sick beats for two hours straight at the studio, two of us split those beats up into songs then gave the beats to the best guitar player i know. he added six guitar parts, and so on and so on. at no time did anyone see anyone else in the entire process, at no time did we sit down and write these songs. every musician was simply given a day to record over the previous tracks.
GARY: that's amazing.
RICH: in a way, the entire album is improvised which, if you know that, and then you listen to it, brings a whole new appreciation to it, i think. even the vocals were done in a day, with no planning, and no prior knowledge of the songs.
GARY: wow…the singer is amazing. he wrote all that in one day? it does being a new appreciation for sure.
RICH: whoever it was, had never even heard the songs before. just came in, played the song three times, went in the vocal room and busted out. no lyrics, no nothing.
GARY: so no lyrics were written down? just sung?
RICH: exactly
GARY: wow
RICH: i share vocal duties, and since i had nothing but time on my hands during all of these sessions, i admit, mine were planned, but literally NOTHING else was. i was the only one that had access to the songs the entire time.
GARY: are you the speaking parts in them? “there are a million ways out of this city…”
RICH: yes i am the speaking part and the robotic voice going on at the same time. i am also the one that starts the song before the “talking” song, as you put it. yes that is a quote read straight from peter pan. all of the talking is from peter pan.
GARY: i didnt know that. the ‘robotic’ voice, when i heard it it sounded like the vocals were run through a keyboard or something. was i right?
RICH: no. it is something i ripped off of massive attack. i do it a lot on the cowboy communist stuff. it is just a method of recording each word separately, over and over until you get the one on the right pitch, and then just lining the words up together.
GARY: ah. so you’re also saying the ‘this box is lovely…’ part in the other song?
RICH: yeah, i meant to say lonely, but the only good take i did i said lovely on accident. This interview is the interview of outtakes and secrets. haha
GARY: which is great! when this started, did you get everyone together and discuss your plan and did each member know who else was a part of the project?
RICH: a few people, luckily, jumped aboard last minute. for the most part, i had separate conversations with each person and basically aimed at making the whole process as low maintenance for them as possible, knowing that they all have their own bands to worry about. all of them are aware of everyone else that played on it, however, a few have to this day, never met.
GARY: wow. for yourself, was it hard picking who you wanted to be a part of it? was there anyone who said no, or anyone you didnt get to ask that you wanted to? even somebody you didnt ask that wanted on board?
RICH: not hard at all. i knew exactly who to call.
GARY: was there ever a fear that maybe this wouldnt work out? maybe the people you had in mind wouldnt take part?
RICH: TONS. i lost sleep and had problems being intimate with my girlfriend over the whole thing. i wanted to work with anthony so bad i could taste it. musicians in general are so hard to get ahold of that i lost a ton of sleep wondering if things would work out. and they did, thank God. then with the months i spent dealing with legal issues, it was just insane. that was another scare.
GARY: each member had an animal name such as the Tiger, etc. How did you come up with the names?
RICH: we each picked our own alias.
GARY: was there anything you would have done differently in the whole process?
RICH: had a million dollars up front to pay my friends for their time. there was a budget of exactly $0 and one million favors.
GARY: with such a small. (or i could say inexistent) budget, how/where did this get recorded?
RICH: a lot of home recording, and a gracious studio in La Verne, CA called A to Z.
GARY: i know you can’t tell us who played, but can you tell us which instruments were used on the album? and how many musicians played which instruments?
RICH: 2 guitarists, 1 bass, 1 drum, 2 vocals, 1 programmer, 1 opera vocalist.
GARY: i guess one thing im interested about is if you have any plans for a second release, or even a tour (i realize a tour would be near impossible)
RICH: i would love to do a second release. shows are complicated, but we shall see how the album does.
From: https://www.thepunksite.com/interviews/the-sound-of-animals-fighting/
