Wojtek Kozielski | 07 Sep 2005

Interview with the Medications

"Medications succeed in employing everything that should not be, has not been and always will be, into the lost art of the song" - says the band's bio on Southern website. - Inimitable guitar lines, acrobatic bass work, unabashedly furious percussion and break-neck rhythms grapple with three part harmonies and melodic instrumental passages creating a genre-defying synthesis of the essential rock and roll elements".

We caught up with with Chad Molter to talk about the roots of the band, their debut album and today's DC scene.

So, first of all, how would you describe Medications?

I would probably opt out of describing it in favor of letting the music speak for itself.

Well, I suppose it would be useful to get a brief background of the band. Who are you? What facts of your life and music career European kids should know?

Devin and I have been playing music together for more than ten years. We played in a few bands in California before moving east in the mid '90s. Devin joined Smart Went Crazy (on drums) soon after we arrived in DC. Faraquet formedshortly thereafter - originally as a side project of SWC and as a way to get Devin back on his primary instrument, guitar. I volunteered to play drums though I didn't really know how (I like to think that I made up in enthusiasm what I lacked in skill.) Faraquet broke up in 2001 . Since that time Devin had been trying to put together another band with a revolving cast of characters. Devin and Andrew met through an advertisement Devin placed in the Washington City Paper. Andrew had recently moved to DC. Having grown up in nearby Delaware, h'd played drums since childhood but this was his first formal band experience. Since the Faraquet breakup, I'd been re-acquainting myself with the bass in some bands around town, none of which were really going anywhere. When Devin gave me a call and asked if I wanted to play bass I jumped at the chance.

Would you consider Medications as sort of an extension of the music you guys did in Faraquet?

Sure. It's music being made by two out of three members of that band and we're not making a conscious effort to distance ourselves from Faraquet, musically. I think that Andy definitely adds a new element to the equation, especially since he's not the kind of drummer that's content to just go along for the ride.

Your debut album came out in May. How has the response been so far?

Response to the record has been pretty positive. I don't think that anyone has totally trashed it.

Why did you choose Brendan Canty as a producer of "Your Favourite People..."? What did you learn from working with him?

After doing "Burn to Shine" with Brendan, we (the band and Brendan) started talking about this idea of filming a live performance of our next batch of songs and releasing it. When if became apparent that this was not going to happen he became the logical choice to produce the record. We wanted to work with him because he's a friend and someone we trust. Devin had also just worked with him on the Mary Timony record and had nothing but good things to say about the experience. As far as learning from him go es I think that he taught us to have fun in the studio and this enabled us to try some things that we might not have.

What is your process for developing songs? What does each member of the band bring to the songwriting process?

We don't really have one way of developing songs. I'd say that it's more of an instinctual or intuitive process. The songs usually start out with a piece of music that one of us has written and that points us in a certain direction. From there we just kind of hash it out. There's a lot of trial and error involved but at the same time it's usually pretty visceral. We don't talk it to death. We just react to one another.

What are some direct musical influences to your sound?

We've been influenced by so much that it's hard to pick out a certain musician or group of musicians. I think that in the end I'm more influenced by the creative spirit behind the music. The people who continue to plug away though what they do may not be commercially viable.

How did it happen that you were touring with Mary Timony?

Well, Devin had been playing with Mary for a little while and they did a record together (Ex Hex) and our records were released within months of each other so it just made sense to tour together. That's not saying that it was purely a business decision. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to tour with Mary Timony?

Do you feel that rock music is still alive as a form of communication? Does the noisy guitar stuff still bring across any kind of positive message? Do you believe music needs a message?

I think that live music is still very valid. Just the fact that you have a group of people onstage working through this music that they've put together is exciting to me. I think Nels Cline once called every live performance a "tiny miracle". Even if it's not my cup of tea it can still be an amazing thing to watch. As far as communicating with music goes, I think that all music that's made in the right spirit is positive. Everybody has a different take or approach to music and thats the beauty of it. I've never believed in using music in order to further ones own agenda the music comes from us so I suppose that there's no getting around the fact that what we do contains a certain amount of who we are, but we don't really have a overt "message" that we're trying get across.

Do you feel DC is a healthy musical community? How do you fit in to it all?

DC is a great place to play music. It feels like a small town but there's always a lot of new local music popping up, seemingly due to the transient nature of the city. It's hard to say how we fit in because I've been here for almost ten years now and I feel like this my home so I don't really think about fitting in anymore. Except, that is, when someone brings it up in a review with something like, "these guys aren't originally from DC but they emulate that 'DC Sound'".

And finally, what's next for The Medications? Any plans on coming to Europe?

Yes, we're working on that right now. We're doing a U.S. tour in October and we plan to spend most of November and December in Europe.

'Your Favorite People All In One Place' avaliable on Dischord records.

Listen to a song from 'Your Favorite People All In One Place'.

Buy Your Favorite People All In One Place from the Southern web shop.