Caught in the Carousel

Factory Kids

By Alex Green

Factory Kids

“Beautiful distortion surrounds me now,” sing The Factory Kids on their self-titled debut album. They’re not kidding. In the course of a song, the feedback rolls mightily along, the vocals rise and fall from unseen whispering warrens and a febrile riff gets disgorged from a churning palace and starts its own sonic kingdom. These are numbers that come as much from Sonic Youth as they do the Velvet Underground—they’re raw and feral, ponderous and hypnotic. Singers Tim Chaplin and Christina Marie make a dreamy pair, their vocals wrapping and unwrapping around each other in careening, blissful bursts.

Beautiful distortion indeed.

But let’s back up a bit.

Meeting through mutual friends at the beginning of 2008, the Englishman Chaplin and the American-born Marie hit it off right away and verbally committed to a future collaboration. “Having both been involved in music separately,” Chaplin recalls, “we'd always intended to try and work on a project together, as we had similar tastes and inspirations. The Factory Kids started taking shape around May 2008.”

The Factory Kids may be their debut album, but the Warwickshire-based band come across as anything but rookies. Their penchant for juxtaposing feedback with honeyed, almost disembodied vocals is not an easy thing to pull off, but this is a duo that knows exactly what they’re doing. Although Chaplin had worked with Luminous as well as his own solo projects and Marie had tenured in The Modern Hour and Audn, the two musicians found that working together was the most natural and organic pairing they could have imagined. “It's a lot less complicated than a 4 or 5-piece band,” Chaplin says. “Then again,” he adds, “maybe it's just that we listen to each other.”

Listening to the Factory Kids is, to say the least, a mesmeric experience. “FAO” suggests The Raveonettes drenched in fuzz and feedback; the doleful “September Falls” and “Sugar Landslide” both sound as if they were plucked from The Jesus And Mary Chain’s Psychocandy and the restrained “Don’t Meet No One” brings to mind the melodic elegance of Big Star by way of The Stone Roses’ “Don’t Stop.” Elsewhere, “Electric Light Bulb Lies” is a dead on confluence of discord and harmony; “You Gotta Rain” is a slow, burning jangle and the stunning, nearly ten minute auditory workout of “Look After Everyone” recalls the early work of Biff Bang Pow!

One of the biggest strengths of the band is that they don’t seem to ever force a song to go somewhere it doesn’t want to. Every track bends and twists to its own natural whims, taking shape and changing shape at the same time. This can be attributed to the fact that Chaplin and Marie’s songwriting pedagogy is one of both improvisation and an adherence to classic forms. “It's best not to be too heavy-handed with songwriting,” Chaplin says. “A good song,” he continues, “can really almost write itself. It's a bit like making pottery—you only need to gently guide it in the general direction you want.”

Dear Readers, allow us to introduce you to the Doctors of Distortion: The Factory Kids.

Factory Kids

BAND NAME: Factory Kids

YOUR ROLE IN THE BAND:
Both: Vocals and instruments

BAND MEMBERS: Christina Marie and Tim Chaplin

HOMETOWN:
Tim: Leamington Spa/Rugby, Warwickshire, UK
Christina: New Ulm, Minnesota, USA

WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/factorykids

RECORD LABEL: Powertool Records, Series Two Records, Unexplainable Recordings

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE:
Tim: A musical baked Alaska.
Christina: A candy shop with used books and vinyl in the back.

PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT:
Tim: Playing and singing with Dave Kusworth.
Christina: Playing and singing with Kimya Dawson.

ODDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT:
Tim: Playing and singing with Dave Kusworth.
Christina: Playing and singing with Kimya Dawson.

THE SONG YOU WISH THAT YOU'D WRITTEN:
Tim: “September Gurls” by Big Star
Christina: “U.R.A. Fever” by The Kills
FIVE BEST BANDS TO EVER ROAM THE EARTH:
Tim: Rolling Stones, Jacobites, Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band, The Replacements, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Christina: Oasis, Rolling Stones, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized and Primal Scream

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A KID:
Tim: Young
Christina: Innocent

THREE THINGS THAT KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT:
Tim: Cool radio shows, late night phone calls, insomnia.
Christina: Good music, late night phone calls, noise from the street below.

LAST TWO BOOKS YOU'VE READ:
Tim: Bad Vibes by Luke Haines and Down And Out On Murder Mile by Tony O'Neill
Christina: Sex Crimes of the Futcher by Billy Childish and And I Don't Want to Live This Life by Deborah Spungen

THINGS WE'D FIND IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR:
Tim: Evidence.
Christina: Nothing.

HARDEST PART ABOUT BEING A MUSICIAN:
Tim: Never being able to turn it off.
Christina: Writer's block.

FAVORITE LATE NIGHT TV SHOW:
Tim: “Married With Children” - it was on late over here
Christina: “Frasier”...used to be “Married With Children”!

IDEAL BREAKFAST:
Tim: Chocolate money sandwiches
Christina: Pancakes with peanut butter

DRINK OF CHOICE:
Tim: Beer
Christina: Beer, preferably Boddingtons or Amstel Light

BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU'RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP:
Tim: Anything by the Toy Dolls
Christina: Live Through This by Hole

INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP:
Tim: CDs
Christina: Travel

WORDS TO LIVE BY:
Both: What would Neil Young do?

Internet:
www.myspace.com/factorykids
www.last.fm/music/Factory+Kids

The Factory Kids is out now on Powertool Records

Factory Kids