How Now, Justin Roelofs

By Tom King

Friday, December 9, 2005

"When you feel in your gut what you are, then dynamically pursue it—don't back down and don't give up—then you’re going to mystify a lot of folks." — Bob Dylan.

It is December and Justin Roelofs is sitting on a pyramid in Mexico.

In the Mayan ruins at Palenque, the past is irretrievable, the future irrelevant. The Mayans are gone. All that matters is now: birds call in the jungle; lizards skitter across ancient stone; the sun moves across the sky. The tourists arrive, with their guidebooks and iPods; they snap photos with cellphones and send postcards to envious friends back home. The tourists come to collect memories and mementos; Roelofs is in Palenque to download vibrations.

"Right now, I understand that my whole progression as a musician has merely been to learn how to unlock sound vibration using my voice. This is what I've been moving towards all along," said Roelofs on the eve of his departure to Mexico.

Rat Race

A Google of Justin Roelofs yielded almost twenty pages. There was a page or two about the independent movie "Firecracker" (with Karen Black, Mike Patton, Arthur Dodge and The Enigma), in which Roelofs played one of three characters named Travis. There were a few articles about a Lawrence performance troupe whose flamboyant, placard-waving protest at the closure (for remodeling), of a local McDonald's in the summer of 2005—with photographs of an outraged Roelofs, veins bulging in his throat—made ripples in the national blogosphere.

Everything else was about The Anniversary.

The band that Roelofs once referred to as "magical dwarves," The Anniversary—Josh Berwanger (guitar, vocals), Adrianne Verhoeven (keyboards, vocals), James David (bass), Chris Jankowsi (drums) and Justin Roelofs (guitar, vocals)—released two critically acclaimed albums: Designing A Nervous Breakdown (2000) and Your Majesty (2002), both on Vagrant Records. British music reviewers frequently tagged The Anniversary as "America’s Super Furry Animals," while admitting the comparison was inadequate as The Anniversary's sound was so difficult to define: high pitched vocals and trippy lyrics, skewed classic rock styling, layered synths and keyboards—almost surreal.

"It is very different," said Roelofs of The Anniversary's sound, and critics both in the U.S. and abroad were lavish in their compliments. With label-mates The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary toured the United States, Britain, Europe and Japan.

In January of 2004, the Anniversary disbanded. That summer, Roelofs spent a month in South America, visiting Peru and Brazil. Upon his return to Lawrence, charged by his experiences, Roelofs set to work. "White Flight", his first full-length, solo recording is slated for release on Rangelife Records in January 2006.

This Is It

"Here is some fire, here is some water.

There is no other time but now.

I see the way you love each other;

I see the way you bring your brother down."

— "Now"; Roelofs 2005

"That’s what I would always get trapped up in, thinking about the future of the band and where I’ll be a few years from now," said Roelofs in a 2004 lawrence.com interview, a few months prior to the breakup of The Anniversary. Roelofs' nuzzle with fame in The Anniversary days, and fame's abrupt departure, precipitated new perceptions of life—a spiritual advancement which called for an eschewal of materialism and an invigorated interest in esoteric thought and practices: the disciplines of yoga, meditation and clean eating, and topics such as holograms, the Mayan calendar, sonic power and the illusion of time.

That sound vibrations can be a source of great power is an ancient concept. Learned theorists have proposed that the Mayans used sound to move the massive stones of their pyramids; Gregorian monks chanted to feel God; the jazz prophet Sun Ra believed that sound vibrations could melt all the nuclear weapons on Earth; and there is reggae.

"To manipulate sound vibrations in specific ways, especially with the voice, can cause a torrent of positive energy to be released to the world," said Roelofs. "It brings peace and harmony, and a connection to now and everything. The inherent obligation of the artist, I believe, is the transmission of pure energy. That’s what matters. That’s what I’m trying to achieve."

[ Listen to a sample of Roelofs' sound vibrations. ]

Roelofs’ take on fame, however, remains unchanged: "It seems like a lot of bands now are interested more in their images and their careers than making pure and powerful music. I used to be in a band like this—we took press photos and we thought about the future," said Roelofs during the interview for this article. "What I have come to realize is that there is no past and no future. There really is no time but the present. The process of "White Flight" was liberating, and resulted in a pure expression, because it was all done in the moment. Each take had its own life. Everything I needed was there…now; I just had to tune in. Now is everything we need."

"White Flight" was thirteen months in the making.

White Flight

"White Flight" is mostly the spirit being captured… in my computer, in this case, ‘cause its easy to move around. It's electric, holographic, mysterious, rythmic… a recording of the spirit." — Justin Roelofs, 2005.

"White Flight," true to Roelofs’ mode, is indeed a difficult record to describe. "Kind of like jazz," was one listener’s description, "and kind of like Beck". "Like freak folk" said another. Metal bass, circus music, dancehall, koto samples—all find their ways into "White Flight’s" beat-heavy stew. And Roelofs uses his influences as a chef uses herbs: never gratuitously, always with a careful hand. In terms of scope, "White Flight" ranks up there with (Gabriel) Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and Outkast’s "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"—an epic and exhilarating journey that is, at its conclusion, still strangely inexplicable.

"White Flight" is a composition of fully realized songs so skillfully sequenced as to seem an unbroken series of movements and passages. Roelofs' vocals are impassioned and often unintelligible. At times a warped rapper, then a bird, then a man possessed and speaking in tongues, Roelofs sings effectively in the high registers, while below, keyboards swirl around garage guitars and horns blare to jungle beats. "White Flight" is otherworld music: whispers, shadows and animal sounds intricately woven to make a magic cloak, a cocoon of compelling, entrancing vibrations.

Roelofs used ProTools for the recording of "White Flight" and Jack Rock Studios in Austin, Texas did the mastering. There, Roelofs' digital vibrations were bathed in the old fire of analog tubes, under the care of engineer Jim Vollentine.

In Tune

"You know exactly what I mean." — Justin Roelofs, 2005.

Great artists are seekers. The quest for enlightenment is essential to art; art must have explorers because great art is always brave. And as the courage and vitality of popular music, rock and roll in particular, continues its devolvement towards redundancy and predictability, towards the crass instead of the profane, I yearn for unknown vibrations and musical adventures.

Justin Roelofs, be he shaman or Quixote, is an explorer, a true wheel. If he talks moonshine, what excellent moonshine: it catches and fixes the attention on distant, beautiful things. "White Flight" documents a guileless man's journey into the unknown, seeking to connect with the purity of the universe and amplify its energy. As quests go, it's better than most. If music can melt weapons, Roelofs might be the man to do it.

And down in Mexico—on horseback in the jungle, basking in Mayan vibrations—Justin Roelofs is thinking only of now, and how good now feels.

Rangelife

Rangelife Records will debut with two releases in January 2006: Roelofs' "White Flight," and a first offering of ambient electronica from 1,000,000 Light Years. Zach Hangauer is the mastermind of Rangelife, though Hangauer sees his role as "more of a curator". "Technology is so enabling to creative people right now," says Hangauer; "We’ll take advantage of new technology both to record and to market." Expect Rangelife’s website to be a multi-media production—Hangauer’s stable of artistic talent is a crowded one.

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Comments

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Posted by jeromefaulkley (anonymous) on December 10, 2005 at 1:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

shine on you crazy diamond! peace, love, happiness.
thank you, God bless.
good night.

Posted by ty2po33 (anonymous) on December 11, 2005 at 2:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

keep em comin from this jackass

Posted by judelang (anonymous) on December 24, 2005 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Great piece Tom.

Posted by milesbonny (Miles Bonny) on May 12, 2008 at 9:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

i love this podcast for multiple reasons.. great work all around

thank you

How Now, Justin Roelofs

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