mike donovan ( musician )
mike donovan discusses analog nostalgia, living in the garage, and wot, his first post - sic alps solo album .
mike donovan' s back — and he' s brought former sic alps pal and garage golden child ty segall with him — on peacers. donovan' s la ...
[ laughs ] yeah, exactly! but he’s really talented musician, so i hope he finds the time to do that stuff again. i wish him the best .
mike donavan’s new record wot will be released october 15 on drag city. a us tour begins october 11 .
mike donovan is a musician from san francisco. his band sic alps recently called it quits after roughly a decade, though their legacy can’t help but live on. that legacy consists of five albums and almost three times as many 7” eps of sometimes - scorching, sometimes - sweet garage rock released on such labels as woodsist, siltbreeze, and drag city. indeed, the lo - fi movement that rode its own wave through alternative music shoals of 2000 and beyond was forged by the likes of donovan, along with ty segall, thee oh sees, kelley stoltz, tim presley of white fence, and the fresh & onlys .
mike donovan, figurehead of san francisco rock band sic alps, is grinning in the kitchen of his ground - floor apartment, explaining what he likes about driving a cab for a living. along with the fact that donovan usually works only a couple 12 - hour days per week - - and can go on tour when and for however long he wants - - there' s the informality of the job .
although not quite the first white man to touch california soil, mike donovan is a pioneer. sic alps, the band wherein he was the frontman, precipitated an avalanche of like - minded weirdos from their homeland of the bay area, including its two most famous exports, ty segall and thee oh sees. any contemporary band from northern california who makes their trade in art - damaged rock ‘n' roll owes at least partial debt to them - - and now they are no more. donovan has gone solo .
donovan: oh, yeah. the best way to make money, honestly, is to play with my more famous friends — [ laughs ] my super generous and cool friends — that’s the best way to make cash. but yeah you can definitely can make money still touring and stuff like that, but i’ve just taken a huge break — something like, i’ve played four shows in the last couple of years. but i’m looking forward to the touring, we’re gonna tour the record in october. and we’re psyched too because we started wendy farina, we play the first four shows with her. but now our drummer is mike shoun from thee oh sees, who is their drummer from like 2008 to 2013. that’s insane, he’s an amazing musician. and we’re going to play our first show with him on friday at golden gate park .
donovan: it’s going to be more intense, yeah [ laughs ]. if you’re in san francisco you can hear us for free on friday. but yeah, it’s really fun playing with mike, for sure. and we’re going on tour in october with elisa [ ambrogio ] from magik markers. she has a solo record out, so we’re gonna do that kind of like double headliner us tour thing with elisa .
a couple weeks ago, sic alps announced that they were no longer together. it was sad news that was softened with the announcement of mike donovan' s solo album wot (out october 15 via drag city) .
new fieldhand bop
opens the new album with a bit of acoustic guitar minimalism. it' s actually more stripped down than most of sic alps - - an impressive achievement considering that album' s sparse nature .
donovan took two years even farther out of the limelight after releasing a one - off solo album in 2013, but he’s back to full speed ahead with peacers, a new combo that will release their self - titled debut lp on drag city next week. conceived during a 10 - month exodus to germany, the project’s ambling, monumentally chill demeanor will undoubtedly resonate with donovan’s longtime listeners; he continues to uncoil fragmentary psych scraps with the best of them. donovan mostly recorded the peacers album alone with ty segall, but it’s a full - fledged band now with longtime collaborator eric park. after a handful of shows with wendy farina on drums, they’ll make their first appearance with former thee oh sees drummer mike shoun at golden gate park for free this friday .
donovan: yeah, that’s always the case i think. always that kind of stuff that ends up getting into the tunes — stuff about people that you know and love and stuff .
when mike donovan and matt hartman founded sic alps in 2004, san francisco’s storied modern - day garage - psych community was still bubbling below the radar. prolific scene fixtures like ty segall and thee oh sees were just beginning to build zealous worldwide fan bases, and the minds behind the fresh & onlys, white fence, and sonny & the sunsets hadn’t yet founded those projects. a lot had changed nine years later when donovan decided to disband sic alps, having kicked out hartman two years prior. by then, the skuzzier corners of san fran’s music community had developed a reputation as one of the world’s most fertile sonic breeding grounds, a reputation sic alps never quite benefitted from. their primordial mix of lo - fi rock and folk was one of the city’s finest exports, but donovan had to settle for the admiration of influences like pavement and the fall rather than anything resembling a sustainable career .
although wot, donovan’s solo debut, doesn’t stray far from sic alps acoustic numbers like “country medicine” - - hell, there’s even a song on it titled “sic ballad” - - it still feels like the beginning of a new era for donovan, clearly walking down the dirt road of classic troubadours and reinforcing his abilities as a great songwriter instead of just as an idiosyncratic garage rocker .
dark, dreamy, and sic: s. f.' s sic alps are back from europe and will premiere their new lineup in their hometown friday at the verdi club. co - founder matt hartman - a vet of combos like the coachwhips, total shutdown and the aislers set - left the alps earlier this year, but co - founder mike donovan and noel harmonson, right, keep on keepin' on. as donovan put it :
happy to be taking new steps forward ,
with tim hellman and douglas armour on bass and drums respectively. after a six - week tour, donovan says the band is getting pretty seasoned :
sounds better than ever live, i may say .
with the
breadhead
four - song 7 - inch and
battery townsley
7 - inch out this fall, sic alps is also looking forward to yet another 7 - inch ep ,
vedley ,
in january and is currently recording a new album in the studio of donovan' s big techno werewolves brethren eric bauer - due in the spring along with, whoa, another ep .
i’m going to present you with a neil hagerty quote, by which i mean a rough paraphrase of a quote. he said something along the lines that rock and roll, in terms of guitar rock bands, peaked in the ’70s, and then after that hip - hop took over, and hip - hop was the new shocking popular music form, and then other stuff came along. he said he thinks of himself in the way you might think of a classical pianist or a jazz musician, as a practitioner of this art that has already seen its heyday, but that is still valuable for performance and consumption .
but now donovan is set to release a solo album. wot sees release on october 15 via drag city. the sound field has been cleared, the overdubs and instrumentation have been paired down, and what’s left is a man, his acoustic guitar, and his songs. not too much else. donovan talks here about transitioning to solo mode, living in a garage, and why the internet makes you seem more interesting than you actually might be .
here, donovan taps into a mode that seems to channel marc bolan' s vibratto over mississippi john hurt' s guitar. and he thrives in singer / songwriter mode. his melodies are simple, but undeniably catchy. he' s even socially conscious, singing about the monetization of our planet' s resources and overreliance on technology. but he can sell those sentiments with phrasings that sound great when he repeats them a few times. it' s a great, warm song to introduce donovan as solo artist. r. i. p. sic alps. rise, wot .
that was on purpose .
there' s something about disorientation that' s always been appealing to me ,
donovan explains. he' s
not trying to fuck with people' s minds ,
but has always felt the urge to spoil any easygoing moments with white noise and ear - shredding feedback .
speaking on the phone with hive a few days before his 42nd birthday, donovan freely discussed the dissolution of sic alps (including the acrimonious severance of ties with long - time member matt hartman), whether or not he’ll continue down the traditional singer / songwriter path, and why sexual reassignment surgery shouldn’t be such a big deal to people .
mike donovan: it was just at some point i felt like, rather it have be a continuation of the solo project, that it would be so much more fun to be in a band again and have that sort of mentality. so eric park, he’s the big reason, really. eric park plays guitar on the [ solo ] record, and we really did that record together — probably should of called it donovan / park or something like that. he’s like the best thing about that record; i love his playing on that, it’s amazing. we really worked hard on putting that solo record together in terms of like practicing on the front end. we just went in and recorded it live, two guitars. we really put our work in on that. and so coming back from germany, i wanted to work with him. but i didn’t want to be like, “yeah, you know, you’re my dude that makes my solo records with me. ” so he’s playing bass and singing backup in the live version of peacers now. he’s been singing a lot and so it’s super nice. so he’s really kind of the main reason that that went the way it was. but also you know, i wanted to get down with other people too, be in a band .
, with whom donovan' s sic alps had also released a few lps. the label' s famously obtuse press release style explains that the set was inspired by the
bratish invasion ,
and puts the focus on
compressions and crushes, bone - shakes and glutinous thinks ,
as well as
a wisp of the blues .
donovan: that’s an old song. the song i think is 10 or 15 years old or something like that. so i threw in some new lyrics. it was always called “superficial, ” and it predates sic alps, i think. but yeah, just changing the title kind of changed the meaning to it. yeah, for sure .
another thing that fits with that really well: recording your band' s woozy psych - rock on analog tape machines in your own garage or your friends' pads or old mental hospitals, getting the best result you could on the cheap, and then putting it out. and so that' s what donovan and sic alps have done - - until now .
mike donovan: well you know, sic alps yeah we definitely could have kept that going. you know, there’s a point that seemed like it was a good time to end it, and the solo record was already kind of in the works. it wasn’t really meant to be like, “ok, the band’s breaking up and now there’s this solo career that’s burgeoning” or something. it wasn’t planned that way, but it was kinda the way it went down i guess. as soon as that record came out we did a us tour with william keihn on drums and eric park on guitar. as soon as that tour was over i went to hannover, germany for like 10 months and just totally peaced out. so that’s kind of why…so it was kind of like a big break from both of those things. while i was there basically wrote the record there and in hannover. and my friend luke lives there and he leant me his four - track, and so i just sat in room in hannover and just worked on that .
from a stage in berlin on july 12, the final date of a european tour in support of their quietly beautiful self - titled record, donovan announced it would be sic alps ’ final show - - putting an end to a band whose 2008 full - length u. s. ez is to this day one of the high - water marks of modern garage rock .
the result is something of a revelation. the band' s fourth proper album still shares a lot with its predecessors - - that delirious reverb, donovan' s scratchy, distant vocals, and distorted guitars that sound more like an implosion - in - progress than any kind of desired effect. there' s still that listless, meandering quality to sic alps' music .
i spoke with donovan by phone earlier this week. the interview is below, but first, get into peacers’ headspace with “laze it, ” a new teaser track we’re premiering today. it’s a gently fuzzy psych - rock tune that reminds me of tumbling waves, so it only makes sense that the accompanying visuals by jim drain were filmed at miami beach. press play and read on .
the quieter songs are even more surprising. opener
glyphs
features lush contributions from members of the real vocal string quartet. somber closer
see you on the slopes
finds donovan singing alone, accompanied only by a piano. sic alps have approached this kind of intimacy in the past, but it was always tempered with chaos, by sonics that alienated the listener while luring them in .
for its new self - titled album, the band traded their trademark informality for what could almost be called polish. donovan and co. were given a real budget by their label, drag city. they went into a proper studio (bauer mansion in s. f.' s chinatown), hired a pro to mix the songs, and even got a string quartet to flesh out a few parts .
donovan: you know, maybe. yeah, that might be the case. i was definitely there like, “i’m gonna sit down and work on something. ” and anyone who’s tried to write has had difficulty writing, it’s the oldest story in the world. in a sense i walked away from it. it definitely made me realize what i wanted to do, though — what i was good at, maybe ?
donovan: yeah basically a boring story but it was like just the whole tune of heartache and confusion, and i just didn’t really want to be around or something. so i just kind of walked around hannover trying not to look bummed out and do as much work as i could, writing and stuff. so that was kind of the reason. but also just to get away from the whole san francisco trip and everything, which is kind of a bummer in itself lately .
donovan: for sure, i’d be down to make another record, and i’m gonna play some solo shows coming up too, just by myself, which is fun to do. but yeah definitely, in august we’re going to get in the studio and record some stuff. yeah, i would say full speed ahead is the order of the day for sure. but we’re a little bit older, so we’re not going to like knock ourselves out completely. we gotta last for a while, you know? [ laughs ]
which may be partly why donovan' s peers in the san francisco rock scene - - pals and collaborators like ty segall and thee oh sees - - seem to be growing ever more popular, while sic alps, with its eerie, unvarnished sound, doesn' t. the band has opened for sonic youth, yo la tengo, and pavement - - and stephen malkmus reportedly once quipped that it would be the most important band of the next decade. yet sic alps has remained more of an underground secret, sharing fans with their local colleagues and touring all over the world without quite bubbling up into the larger consciousness .
this new, surprisingly accessible album, which is seeing some of the best reviews of the band' s career, may change that. but then, donovan doesn' t seem to be itching to make it huge. at 41, he' s skinny and energetic, self - possessed and seemingly upbeat. he' s found a way to make a living and play in a functional touring band, and he' s already plotting the next sic alps project. (hint: expect less cleanliness .) and anyway, getting bigger would only require more paperwork. we all know what ron swanson would say to that .
donovan: jim drain made it. we did a thing when i was in germany, luke and i, my buddy in hannover, he has a radio show there, and we made a soundtrack for one of jim’s movies for the radio show that we did. so we worked on the soundtrack for one of jim’s movies before, and so that’s kind of how it came about. but the video itself is kind of based on that movie that we worked on with him, and it’s all filmed at miami beach on memorial day weekend. also, he’s got some weird technology where he’s figured out how to spin a camera in the real world, so there’s lot’s of spinning horizons in the video. it’s like a beach and party action, horizon spinning. appropriately enough, i guess [ laughs ] .
donovan: well i mean, a lot of my friends moved. when you see somebody from a few years ago or from the music scene here they’re always like, “whoa, dude you’re still here! ” people are surprised that you can stick it out in the economy here, which is insane. the whole zeitgeist here, it’s like everything revolves around convenience and distraction and how to make money off those things. everything is so iphone here, the virtue that people aspire to is how to get over times 10, 000. it’s not how to provide a service and make a living. it’s more like how can we get over times 10, 000, you know, like uber or you know what i mean? that’s the virtues that are sort of like lauded here, which is total bullshit as far as i’m concerned. those kind of values, they don’t mean anything to me. i don’t respect them. but it’s really pervasive here, so sometimes you want to get out .
donovan: it’s definitely different, you know? just based on the sheer number of musicians, creative people in the city now. i mean, it’s really stark compared to when i moved here. i moved here like 20 years ago, nobody worked and everybody was like in clown’s school or at cca or something. seriously, that’s what it was like. and now it’s like nobody does anything. well, i think the people think they’re creative, but it’s sort of all business - based creations. but just starting to play shows again, after putting this record together and now the records coming out, i’m just getting back into what’s happening here. so like kelley stoltz and like sonny and the sunsets and a lot of people are still here making stuff. so i’m just kind of happily weaning back into that stuff. but it’s definitely a smaller thing. and you lose someone like john [ dwyer ] from thee oh sees who made so much happen, and that sort of energy is infectious. so that not being here is a big deal for sure. but definitely there are people here still doing good stuff for sure .
donovan: i don’t know if there was a particular song. i mean when i went to germany too, i had an idea to write some fiction and put something together and like working on that for the first few months. and i never tried to do anything like that before. at one point the faucet turning on moment was when i decided that i was going to write a record, ’cause i was like, “oh, i wanna try to do this. ” and i did. i wrote like 50 pages or something like that of like roald dahl - inspired short stories. that’s kinda what happened. but at some point i was like, “i shouldn’t be using the time like that, ” or i could use my time better. and as soon as i switched over to four - tracking, i was like, “it’s on. ” i had my mission. so no one’s read that stuff, you know [ laughs ]. i self - published a book of poetry from that time. i came back with some poems and put that in a zine. so that kind of represents the first month. but that was like the big moment when i switched back .
donovan: well it was a lot of me and ty. we did the record in los angeles. i came back from germany and went right to la — didn’t even go home, hadn’t been to my apartment or anything yet, and like busted out with ty basically like, “here’s the tune, ” and he would be like, “got it. ” we’d do the drums and guitar at the same time time. and he’d be like, “do you wanna put bass on that? ” and he would put bass on it, cause he just knows my style or whatever. and so he can just knocks shit out like crazy. but to answer the question, barrett [ avner ], who was the last person in sic alps, plays guitar on one of the songs, and eric plays guitar on one of the songs. and few other people like brigid [ dawson ] from thee oh sees sings on two songs. but a lot of the main chunk of it was ty and i. in fact we had plans to do more recording in la but we got so much done that i was kind of overwhelmed by what we had and ended up just taking it back up to san francisco where we recorded the rest of the overdubs at eric bauer’s studio, bauer mansion .
is getting ready to send more psych - styled songs our way with new project peacers .
the set was co - produced and co - performed with ty segall ,
whose rhythm sections and arrangement - commendations re - cast most of the tunes on the rec with copacetic co - ness !
it' s hinted that the set is also slathered in reverb and
wireless hiss interference .
the first tease from the set is the lo - fi psych - folk flingin'
r. j. d. (salam) ,
which mixes acoustic strums and chill vocals with blue cheer guitar wailing. peace be unto you, you can stream the song beneath
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it might be the nature of haruki murakami' s writings - the luscious pop anomie he generates - but i don' t think any of his s. f. readers anticipated the mob at green apple books at 11: 30 p. m. oct. 24, there to grab their preordered copy of
iq84
upon its midnight release - along with a gratis can of sapporo and a free taco from the tonayense truck outside. a spunky green apple staffer raffled off signed copies of the novel - some 20 more than the promised 10 - to the happy cries of the winners and the disappointed groans of all us, er, sore non - winners. nevertheless, ex - barkeep murakami would have probably approved of the fact that there was enough sapporo for seconds .
mayhem was on the menu saturday at starry plough' s 10th annual murder ballads bash, as laura jean' s laura and danny allen (high diving horses), above, and john shiurba (spezza rotto) served up ac / dc' s
dirty deeds done dirt cheap
and loretta lynch got the twang going for freakwater' s
gone to stay .
a
we are the 99 percent !
chant - along lent the event a political charge, as a ghoulish audience member climbed onstage to declare ,
i' m the zombie 1 percent ,
hoisting
why don' t you get a job ?
signage .
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stereogum: you obviously record with sic alps under so many different lineups, it seems like you could of kept that name going and then your released a solo record and it seemed like you could of kept that name going. so why did you start recording as peacers ?
stereogum: you mentioned that you spent 10 months writing it while you were in hannover. what was the reason for that trip? or i guess it was more than a trip .
stereogum: obviously that scene there over the last few years did get a lot of attention. that didn’t make it anymore livable in terms of just like paying the rent ?
stereogum: that, or just, so many of those bands were touring so much and i would imagine that at a certain point the tours got bigger. did it have like an impact ?
stereogum: when i think about his drumming i just imagine — maybe it’s just because of the music that thee oh sees specialize in, but like i imagine something so intense. and your record is so chill. is the live show going to be more intense ?
stereogum: you were talking a little bit about some of the values in san francisco that you don’t really get down with. the last song on the record is called “super francisco. ” does that address any of those things ?
stereogum: we’re premiering the video for “laze it. ” could you describe the concept for that ?
stereogum: you mentioned that a lot of the people from the scene you used to to run in have moved away. how do you assess the current scene in san francisco. is there still a pretty vibrant music community ?
. com is a member of billboard music, a division of billboard - hollywood reporter media group .
well, sic alps essentially just came to a point last year where it was like - - how do i put it? like, how long a band is around is part of the whole thing. i’ve never had a band before that’s been like this, that’s lasted this long. and being the de facto leader at that point, i thought we had reached a point where, given the whole history of the band, it was just time to end it .
we had just done the she’s on top ep, which was essentially a live record of the final lineup - - of what the band had become. and i was super happy with that, and super happy with that last version of the band. and i think the end is important, so it seemed like a good time to end it. so it was kind of like, even though ending it is seen as a negative thing, it was in respects to what sic alps became, and also with respect to all other versions of the band, and all the other dudes who have been in the band .
that’s a good question. i don’t feel like it was winding down, because a lot of things happened after that for us. it was actually kind of a real busy time - - there was a bunch of stuff happening, like a bunch of singles, touring the record [ 2011’s napa asylum ], the eps released around that time. i mean, we could have kept going forever - - or as long as i can make albums, which apparently i can still do. this record could have been released as a sic alps record just as easily .
i appreciate you asking that question, it’s just a tough question. because of the matt hartman thing, you know, he was a big part of the band. and then not having him around was like - - it’s hard to separate having him not around and having him be bummed out about not being in the band and talking trash about me .
i remember reading an interview where you said the circumstances regarding his departure were mysterious. do you feel, at this point, that they were less mysterious ?
no. i don’t think i meant that. if i said that, i was just being obtuse. they weren’t really mysterious .
yeah, because there were fans on the other side of the river. i didn’t want to alienate fans of his contributions to the band .
i guess you could say he was kicked out. there were a lot of things that, you know, after a long time, i just kind of got fed - up and told him, “i don’t think i can work with you anymore. ” but then, it’s a question of what the other person does at that point. i had never said that before, but it was a long time coming, and he could have said, “you know, let’s work this out, ” but instead he kind of went into sabotage mode or something .
but it’s cool, you know? i wish him the best; i don’t want to say anything bad about him. which is kind of hard not to do in a way. [ laughs ]
you said this solo record of yours could have been a sic alps record - - i was thinking the same thing. but what made you want to explore the lighter side of sic alps more in - depth than you have in the past ?
i wasn’t really intentional. to start it out, i was going to keep sic alps building, and i was going to make this solo record. i guess it was sort of intentional in a way, but what i did was i wrote to my friend eric park who i had been in a band with before called yikes! , and was like, “hey dude, let’s start a band. ” so, i had this idea of what that band would sound like, and it was like - - because all of his bands were like providence, rhode island - type bands, from that school of really far - out music - - and i was like, “i’m thinking like this band is going to sound like it’s from another planet and it’s going to be something no one’s ever heard before. ” and when we got together, it was like, “hey, let’s check out these bob dylan covers! ” [ laughs ] and he was like, “oh yeah, i’ve been listening to a lot of merle haggard. ” and i was kind of like, “what? ” so, it turned out to be the opposite; it wasn’t far - out at all, it was super, like, traditional americana .
but it wasn’t so much an idea to go on the “lighter side, ” it was more of, “let’s do something really immediate and something that we could do live in the studio. ” so, all of the guitars we played together, at the same time. there were a couple overdubs, but every song is us playing together on one track. and i had never done that before, so it was really cool because it gave me a chance to really work on something again .
sic alps was a band that had become - - i was the only person living in san francisco. so, it was like we were getting together when we could, and when i made this record, there were opportunities to work six days per week for hours. and sometimes, he’d go to work and we’d get back later that day, and we worked really hard on developing songs. so, yeah, it was kind of exploring the lighter side, but more of going back to the trenches, when you really have to work for it. and that’s what was super exciting about it .
i noticed there was a song on the album called “sic ballad. ” were there any songs that you held over from the sic alps days, or is this more like what you were saying about how this could have been a sic alps record, and you just decided to put your name on it ?
well, there’s one song called “do do ya? ” and we tried to do that one before. and there was a recording that matt and i made of the song, but it was really a song we had trouble doing, making it work. so that carried over, but everything else was new, and not brought over from sic alps. maybe the next record will have one of the songs we were doing live [ before the band broke up ]. we’re actually doing that now. so, there’s a little carryover, yeah .
i’m going to wait to record it and take more time before i start recording. i think i could have gotten all that stuff together by now, but i’m just going to wait and take some more time on the songs .
it was the same way i’ve been writing songs, really, where it just kind of springs out and then i make something of what springs out. i just kind of record something and make sense of it later, make sense of the lyrics later. but ultimately, yeah, it was the same process .
one of the things i think is cool about that song is because it’s saying, “she’s not a she anymore, ” so you think the song’s talking about a man who has become a woman, but it’s actually talking about a woman who has become a man just by using the word “anymore. ” i think it was the idea that the last verse goes, “we can never be just what you see anymore, ” so it’s about how it doesn’t really matter what’s going on on the outside of your body, it’s about what’s happening on the inside of your body .
oh, thanks! i remember someone telling me there’s not just two sexes, that there’s like 26 or 27 different possibilities - - there’s a variety of things we could be, in terms of gender .
maybe deep down and i didn’t realize it, but i was really focused on making the record quickly. we recorded it with phil manley from trans am just around the corner in his garage, because he lives like two blocks away from me. so, it was like, “we could record this on 8 - track really fast and not make a lot of second guesses on it. ”
with all the sic alps songs, i would put something down on acoustic guitar on one track and maybe sing over it, and it would be like, “now what are we gonna do? ” and then, it would be like, “ah, i don’t know, we’ll have to figure out. ”
exactly! or it would get that swaying, multi - layered sandwich effect. like how going in and out of time gets woozy and stuff. that’s all gone because the only overdubs we did [ for this record ] fortified the songs. we’d do the acoustics together, and then i’d go back and get a drumstick with a big t - shirt wrapped around it and hit the bass drum turned on its side to get the “baboom, baboom” effect, and then go back and record a tambourine. and then it was done! it was like, “well, we could do something weird and put noise and more guitars over it, ” but we didn’t. we were just trying to make it immediate .
do you feel like eventually you’re going to get back to that? i remember when the self - titled sic alps record came out, you talked about how you still wanted to record “strange music. ” has that desire intensified now that you’ve recorded your acoustic blues album ?
yeah. even more so. the next record - - actually, we recorded a lot of the next record here at my house. barrett [ avner ] from sic alps came up in a week and we recorded five or six songs, and three or four of those songs are probably going to end up on the next record. i think it’s going to be a combination of a really raw sound and being sort of minimal. i kind of want to take the essence of an acoustic or stripped - down record, but have that old sound. we recorded it on the same machine we recorded a lot of the sic alps stuff on. hopefully, it’ll be something between a sparse approach, having some grit, and having guys who can really make a song stand up straight, like total shredders .
with the bay area’s rock scene being as fruitful as it’s been, do you ever put any thought into being a pioneer of that scene, or having a hand in why it’s been so revered? because to people who listen to a lot of the stuff that comes out of the bay area - - like ty segall and thee oh sees - - sic alps were a very important band. do you ever think about that ?
oh, totally! i’m really happy to have been involved with all that stuff. i’m happy with the role we actually played, whether or not we got a lot of recognition for it. i think it’s appropriate, i don’t think we’re making music that’s super destined for popularity. being around those guys, like ty and thee oh sees, it was a mutual influence. and it’s a very special thing to me. i love hearing the mutual influence we have on each other .
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yeah, there’s a captain sensible song called “wot, ” spelled the same way .
not too much. i made it with my friend eric park. i played in a band with him before called yikes. although i knew it was going to be a solo record under my name or whatever, we definitely made the record together. so it has the feeling of a project .
we recorded the guitars at the same time, two acoustic guitars playing at the same time and then overdubbed. we kind of knew what they would be. it was just going to be a bass drum and a tambourine so we just rolled it back and did ‘em real fast. different from sic alps where it was more “let’s do a guide track with the acoustic and then sing it, and we can do anything we want now. ” the idea was to do it real fast, and we did it real fast .
it was right around the corner from where i live, with phil manley, from trans am and the fucking champs. we did it in his garage on an 8 track and he had his own little home studio. i think he recorded maybe one other project there .
i read somewhere that kelly stoltz recently recorded something that was actually in a garage and people were taking about how it was a literal garage rock record. so all the garage rock people are starting to actually go back to the garage .
) it’s true. i’m standing in a garage right now. can’t escape it .
that was kind of the idea, that we would be able to play it just the two of us, but then we picked up william keihn. you might know his record covers. he did a lot of covers for thee oh sees and ty segall and stuff. he did the
too. we got him playing drums. he’s using mallets and a stripped down kit. he’s got a wood box and a set of bongos and a bass drum. we did a few shows and we said, let’s try it with a snare. and as soon as you give a drummer a snare drum, it’s a rock and roll band .
at least he doesn’t have any cymbals. that’s when you really get into trouble .
) totally. there’s one now. we just did a week with my friend chris hanson’s band, and then a week with ty segall. it was cool to get out there with those guys. now we’re about a week away from doing a us tour .
i moved here 18 years ago. i grew up in chicago and came out here on halloween, ’96. that went by really fast—it doesn’t seem like it should be 18 years. san francisco has changed a lot. even though it was dot - com when i got here, now it’s like dot - com with legs. for real, it’s so horrible right now. (
i noticed your landline number when i tried to text you earlier and i was pretty impressed right off the bat, so i was wondering how deep it went .
i do have a cell phone that i use when i am on tour. i bought if for my ex - girlfriend basically because i was totally incommunicado. it’s the worst. i go to other places or other countries and people seem to have some control. just like a year ago it became ok to walk in the crosswalk looking down at your iphone. like, no problem. i don’t know if it’s like that in brooklyn .
oh yeah, it is. i’m not going to say i’ve never done that but i do realize sometimes when i’m doing it—i am about to get killed .
the other thing is that all music delivery now is digital. i think cassettes are cool and that there are people who are into them, but so much of the way people listen to music now is little compressed mp3 files. itunes and apple and silicon valley is a part of that .
oh, absolutely. i was talking to my friend about it. the technology is so pervasive now that people don’t want to admit, or reject any of it, like “oh, well i’m on pandora, so i can’t really say it. ” like, “no dude, you can say it. ” i feel like technology has gotten so enmeshed in everyone’s life that they are not willing to talk about it. everyone’s got their own way of dealing with it, but no one is willing to be like, “steve jobs is a demon. ” it’s ok to say that. it’s like pandora and spotify, they ruined it. for a little bit of convenience .
i think the thing the technology does—there’s a good and a bad to it—you can definitely find out about a lot of things very quickly and easily. but there’s something about when you discover something and it’s not just served to you. basically it’s hard - won information. it’s sort of like, you find your thing .
for example, blogs will have a new post everyday of some really varied cultural high point, you know what i mean? so people are sort of shallow cultural polymaths. it’s like, “check out what i’m into, i’m into this and this and this, ” and they post all this stuff. it’s like, “well, what are you really into? ” i sound like an old guy, i know i do, but are you really into a million things? when all of those things are singular in their own way? but that’s the way it is, you know? all of it is accessible now, so it’s not like you have to be an expert or anything like that to find out about anything. and in a way that’s cool .
girls ep and it sounds really good. i like the ty segall album ,
that’s pretty awesome. that’s a really good way of looking at it. i always go back to the old stuff too, and in terms of rock and roll, something was in the air. you can’t make records that sound like that anymore, you know what i mean? and the people who try end up failing. my friends make really good records that sound like the ’60s, ty segall and thee oh sees, and stuff like that. that stuff is amazing. but it’s different too—it’s nice to put a twist on it .
there was something in the air back then. when you think about those guys and what they were coming out of and what they were rebelling against, it’s a slingshot from world war
that kind of thing can only happen one time. or one time in a century, maybe .
reflecting on a lost, post - apocalyptic, maximalist masterpiece of a concept album .
the black figure has always been a subject of entertainment in popular culture, as well as an image to sell things. in some ways, that’s how people relate to us—because they’ve seen us on television.
mike donovan ( born 6 october 1971 ) is a san francisco , california based musician best known as the guitarist and singer of sic alps ( 2004-2013 ) . he has also released music by other san francisco musicians with his dial records and folding cassettes labels . donovan is a veteran of several other bands . he was a member of the ropers , the church steps with chris douglas , nam , big techno werewolves , sounds of the barbary coast and yikes . in october 2013 he released his solo debut " wot " on drag city . in may 2015 , donovan formed the san francisco lo-fi supergroup the peacers , releasing a self-titled debut on july 17 , 2015 . the self-titled album was co-produced and co-performed by ty segall . the current lineup of the peacers is mike donovan , shayde sartin , mike shoun and bo moore . the band release their 2nd record " introducing the crimsmen " on drag city on june 16 , 2017 . 
mike donovan (born 6 october 1971) is a san francisco, california based musician best known as the guitarist and singer of sic alps (2004-2013). he has also released music by other san francisco musicians with his dial records and folding cassettes labels. donovan is a veteran of several other bands. he was a member of the ropers, the church steps with chris douglas, nam, big techno werewolves, sounds of the barbary coast and yikes. in october 2013 he released his solo debut " wot " on drag city. in may 2015, donovan formed the san francisco lo-fi supergroup the peacers, releasing a self-titled debut on july 17, 2015. the self-titled album was co-produced and co-performed by ty segall. the current lineup of the peacers is mike donovan, shayde sartin, mike shoun and bo moore. the band release their 2nd record " introducing the crimsmen " on drag city on june 16, 2017.
mike donovan (born 6 october 1971) is a san francisco, california based musician best known as the guitarist and singer of sic alps (2004-2013). he has also released music by other san francisco musicians with his dial records and folding cassettes labels. donovan is a veteran of several other bands. he was a member of the ropers, the church steps with chris douglas, nam, big techno werewolves, sounds of the barbary coast and yikes. in october 2013 he released his solo debut " wot " on drag city. in may 2015, donovan formed the san francisco lo-fi supergroup the peacers, releasing a self-titled debut on july 17, 2015. the self-titled album was co-produced and co-performed by ty segall. the current lineup of the peacers is mike donovan, shayde sartin, mike shoun and bo moore. the band release their 2nd record " introducing the crimsmen " on drag city on june 16, 2017.