God
Lives Underwater
An
interview with Space Boy Jeff Turzo
By Gail
Worley
With a name like God
Lives Underwater, it has to be good. It's somewhat
of a let down then to discover the name
"doesn't mean anything." The admission
comes from Jeff Turzo, 27, one of the two
computer geek/ multi- instrumentalists (his
partner is David Reilly, 26) who make up God
Lives Underwater. "We actually had to come
up with a name because we'd sent a tape to a few
labels that were really interested in doing
something with us," he continues,
"David and I just talked for a minute about
it and he said, "How about God Lives
Underwater?" If only it were all that easy.
Turzo, a
self-described "nature freak" who digs
reptiles and snakes, and is a huge fan of The
Simpsons, has phoned from the Los Angeles
offices of the band's new label, 1500 Records, a
business venture of their manager, Gary
Richardson. The band's second full length
recording, Life in the So Called Space Age
(the title culled from the liner notes of Depeche
Mode's Black Celebration) was released
on March 24, distributed by A&M. "I
think we were just ready to move on," he
says of their departure from the financially
troubled American Records. "We always
planned on having a label at some point, or being
involved with a label, not just being a band.
"
Recorded and mixed
entirely in their home studios, Life in the
So Called Space Age is an engaging
collection of danceable, synthesizer-drenched pop
songs, heavy on the programming and drum loops.
God Lives Underwater are easily labeled an
electronic band, while their live show has them
coming off as pure metal. The truth be known,
Turzo and Reilly would sooner put themselves in
the new wave pop category with the likes of Devo
and Naked Eyes. And when you mix their inorganic
instrumentation with the solid pop song
structure, the result is nothing short of
"future retro." "I wouldn't argue
with any of that," Turzo enthusiastically
agrees. "I know David was always a huge Gary
Numan fan and we were really into Depeche Mode. I
think there's something retro about it...and even
further back than the 80's. A lot of the drums
that we drew from and sampled from [are] more
like 70's and even 60's, combined with really
current things." And how about that intense
funky Stevie Wonder vibe? "There's a little
bit of that in there. Stevie Wonder's Inner
Visions has been in my CD player for the past
year. I had to buy a spare copy of that
basically."
The band's
biography contains the following descriptive
quote: "From Your Mouth" is an
excellent example of how GLU writes songs by
deconstructing standard pop notions, then
reconstructing them in their singature manner. Is
all this deconstructionist poppism calculated?
"It just happens", says Turzo. "I
mean, it's not something that we've ever done
consciously. The way [the music] sounds is the
way that we like to work. The way that we like to
do drums is by using drum loops and programmed
drums. We like to program synths so that you can
twiddle the knobs and get a sound you've never
heard. I think that's pretty much what we do on
each song."
When asked how he
feels their music has progressed in the nearly
three years between records, Turzo considers his
answer before offering it's "the same, but
different. It's been a difficult time, dealing
with changing labels especially, and that sort of
limbo period in between [recordings] was putting
a big strain on David and I. [There was ] a long
period of where we weren't very productive. I
think when we made this record, we made it the
way that we know how. We've just changed as
people and it's reflected, I think, in the
music." Such sentiments may be reflected in
the angst-ridden song, "Alone Again,"
containing the lyrics, "You came on
strange/but still the same."
Another noticable
element of God Lives Underwater's music is an
underlaying sense of humor; yet the songs can be
dark and sad at the same time. "You pretty
much hit the nail on the head. A lot of the
subject matter is from our lives at one point or
another, especially in these past two
years," he laughs. "It is sad and it is
kind of dark...there's been some sad, dark
periods in our lives, too." Like his
partner, who has been quoted as saying "From
Your Mouth" (the first single and video) is
so personal he will not even discuss it, Turzo
demurs from getting too specific about the
impetus behind certain songs. "Lyrics, you
can take them however you want, no matter where
they started from. What ever meaning you can
conjure up, all the better I think. There's a few
times that we've known where a lyric comes from,
and then someone will say "I thought it
meant this?" and then we'll think about it
and say 'That is kind of cool, it could have
meant that as well.' We're never like 'We respect
your opinion, but it's wrong.'"
God Lives
Underwater is in the middle of a tour supporting Life
in the So Called Space Age. "We have a
guitar player [who] we've played with since we
started touring, and we have a new drummer.
That's it, just the four of us. We're really
looking forward to it," says Turzo. "We
sort of approach it as a chance to remix the
songs...having fun reworking the songs for the
live show. The point of playing live is not to
make it exactly like the record."
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