Hailed as the best band of the last 10 years, Ex Norwegian, seemlessly blend power pop, indie and psychedelia into one infectious band. Frontman and songwriter, Roger Houdaille, speaks to Jason Barnard about his music and the two albums they’re releasing on 5 June 2020, Spotting Hues and Hue Spotting.
What was the idea behind pairing two albums together, one of covers and the other self penned?
The pairing idea was super last minute. I had the self-penned Hue Spotting album all ready to go…in fact, already at the pressing plant when I had the urge to compile some of these covers that were being released as singles into some type of companion album.
I had this cool design by Dawn Aquarius I could use for the album art and it just made sense, thus Spotting Hues was born. You see, one of the crazy ideas I started in 2020 is to release new music, mostly consisting of covers, every Friday. I had done something similar a few years ago with a weekly covers series but without much fanfare. And last year, I put together a lot of those old psych covers I had as part of a Fruits de Mer label giveaway and surprisingly it got some attention. That also helped inspire the move towards a more classic psych pop sound on these new albums, my true musical love. Not to mention an invite to play the now postponed 18th Dream of Sardinicous Festival.
Where and what was the process to record them?
All the material on both records have the same basic process and are home studio creations. I’d do a take of the song here in my Miami Beach home studio and then send it on over to my old high school buddy and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo out in California to lay down the drums. I love his style. He dislikes modern drumming as much as I do. And his home studio is always on, so sometimes I’d have a drum take sent back within the hour! From there I go about completing the tracks, sometimes forwarding it back to Fernando to add some more specific layers that I know only he could pull off. My attitude was as if I was working analog but in a digital workstation. For example, I bounced down tracks before final mixing and did lots of live effect modulation and panning. Kept performances authentic as I could, some happy mistakes here and there.
When did you write the songs for Hue Spotting – what are its themes and key tracks to listen to?
I try to keep Ex Norwegian releasing an album every year; however, it was time to take a breather, so in 2019 we did the “Best of” compilation which gave me a chance to prepare to work on something different. The two songs I started working on back in March 2019 were “Fear Backwards” and “Night Is Long (As Long As Night)”. The album opener and closer, respectively. I actually spent more time than I usually do experimenting with these and it was around this time co-singer Michelle Grand decided it was time for her to move on from working with me so that changed things up and freed me up to really jump into the popsike and progressive pop hard. Basically I just pretended that I was making a record in 1971! Once that was settled, things moved quick and I finished up writing and recording by the end of 2019. I may have spent the most time on this record than any other. But that’s not to say I didn’t work fast, it was just very spread out. And a few songs took a while to get right. Normally I wouldn’t have that patience.
There are a couple of re-makes of old Ex Norwegian songs, “Something 2020” which is a psychedelic version of the first and arguably most popular Ex Norwegian song “Something Unreal” that is more akin to the Who’s “Armenia In The Sky” than the powerpop original. “Your Mind Is Mine” is also the song “Ice” from previous album Glazer/Hazerr rearranged. I wasn’t 100% sure about using them but I felt bad to take them out as they fit in so well. I think each song is its own trip. Collectively, to my ears at least, they make up a nice sequence.
“Hue Spotter” is a pun on Hugh Hopper and naturally the track is inspired by Soft Machine’s Two. “Bloody Parrots!” is a quintessential popsike ala the Nice. “You Turn Papers Colour” I wanted to be like a White Album out-take. “Not Underground” was channeling some Syd Barrett and besides being by far the longest Ex Norwegian track ever, it boasts the most insane guitar playing Fernando ever has done!
On Spotting Hues you chose predominantly cult psych tracks. How did you choose the material?
The songs chose me! I never force a cover. Most of the time I will simply hear something a little different in a song I really like or sometimes it’s like what would “Jove Was At Home” sound like done with the full band, and I try it out. Then I make a note: potential cover. I don’t think I’m a great musician or good singer at all, but I do think I am good at picking cover songs. I’m particularly fond that I was able to blend in a track from Gruppo Sportivo and Gene Clark among the primarily British psychedelia tunes.
You’ve picked some pretty obscure tracks on this album and Original Copies, many of which are favourites of mine from the UK 60s scene. How did you get to hear them in the US?
I grew up listening to all this stuff. There was a book, Tapestry of Delights by Vernon Joynson which I picked up and that helped me navigate the world of British 60’s/70’s psych and prog in those pre-Napster days. And I scored that last copy of the book at the only record store in Miami that had any of this stuff called Yesterday & Today, still around by the way. Thankfully, they did have a wonderful selection of music and I remember picking up on CD very influential stuff like Kaleidoscope’s Faintly Blowing and Family’s Music In A Doll’s House at nicely import prices. This music was an escape for me as it was miles away from anything contemporary going on at the time I was growing up. And I totally skipped over the rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll phase and went straight for this acid psych pop stuff. Give me “Orange And Red Beams” over “Be-bop-a-lula” any day!
How did you go about re-recording those tracks – how faithful to the original was the plan? What makes a good cover?
I definitely don’t set out to do a carbon copy of a song. I don’t see a purpose of that, unless you are doing it live, then it’s pretty neat to be authentic to the original. But I do respect the original song. I think a good cover pays attention to the things that make the original cool while putting a different spin on it. On Spotting Hues I didn’t want to “update” the sound, so to speak. But sometimes it’s fun to modernize an old track. Every track will be a little different. For “Buffalo Billycan” I literally had to track over the original recording because there is no way to tempo map it! But I usually don’t reference the track closely like that, instead opting to go with whatever memory I have of the song. In some cases I surprise myself as I could have sworn there were harmony guitars during the solo of the excellent Kaliedoscope/Fairfield Parlour lost track “Baby Stay For Tonight” but when I reheard it again they weren’t there!
What have the artists said who’ve heard your versions?
I’m happy to say it’s all been very positive and encouraging feedback. I can be very shy about sharing…very shy! It’s a little surreal to me so I don’t think about it much. For example, Davy O’List came across “The Cry Of Eugene” cover and applauded the effort and production. How cool is that? And then I saw that Nick Garrie and Gruppo Sportivo shared their covers…again, super cool. But the last thing I think about when working on these is if the original songwriters or bands will hear it. On the flipside, I really do want fans of the original music to check them out and hopefully have fun with them or turn the uninitiated on to the originals.
What are your musical roots, when did you start to play music and your influences as a songwriter?
As a kid I was a straight A student except in music class, so honestly I’m not sure how I ended up being so into music but I suppose it started like so many other musicians with the Beatles. Then it was the Who. Then it was the Kinks. Then it was Badfinger. Then it was Family. Then some Amon Düül II. So, I started leaning more towards underground bands, for lack of a better term. I think all the Ex Norwegian covers are a reflection of my influences. I am keen on the odd-bars and mysterious chord progressions and dirty sounds.
Who is in your band? Who has that evolved over the years?
Right now it is pretty much just me. On these albums, Fernando Perdomo is my recording partner. But he’s got his hands full in many bands, projects as well as a solo artist in his own right that it doesn’t make sense for him to be a full time Ex. Although he’s very generous with his time to help me out. I put together a live band this year consisting of Tatiana Blades (vocals), Vic Kingsley (guitar), Josey Hernandez (drums) and long-time bassist Guiseppe Rodriguez just in time for COVID-19 to strike. But to go back to the origins, Ex Norwegian evolved out of Father Bloopy, which was my ill-advised moniker I started getting semi-serious with. It was 2008 and I put out my first proper album, Ginger Baby, as Father Bloopy, and it was also the first time I hired a publicist
to actually try to reach people outside of my hometown and my comfort zone. To my surprise we got some good write ups and even college radio play. Besides feeling good, this more importantly allowed me to see things in a little more serious light. The problem was everyone loved the music and hated the name. So once I realized I was paying to get my band name criticized it had to change, and Ex Norwegian was born. I convinced my friend Carolina Souto to play bass, an instrument she never had played being a classical guitarist. So the two of us with the new name and new
songs needed to find a drummer. Arturo Garcia was majoring in drum performance at the University of Miami and more than happily joined us in this exciting beginning of a new band. His friend Guillermo Gonzalez (known as Billie G) joined in on lead guitar and we set off to play the CMJ Festival in NYC. All of a sudden we were a proper band, or so we tried. Michelle Grand was also involved since the beginning, however she was still in high school and couldn’t commit to all the performances and touring we started doing.
So even since the beginning the band could range anywhere from 3 to 5 people, haha. The original core trio of myself, Nina & Arturo kept busy those first couple years but by early 2011 we were burnt out. It was decided to just end it as sadly there was no bigger support coming in or label interest and we had pretty much gone as far as we could. I moved up to NYC for a bit when the second album, Sketch, started getting something of a second buzz and I decided to come back to Miami and put a band together to tour and support it. Pretty much since then it’s been my band, whether I like it or not. Michelle has been the most constant member, but there was even a split in 2014 when singer Lucia Perez took over lead vocals for the Wasted Lines album. It would have been nice to have kept things as a proper band but impossible without the work and demand and money.
Has your songwriting changed since you first started out? Do you start with a musical phrase or lyric?
I have fine-tuned my songwriting but I think the attitude is still there as when I started out. I find that having an interesting song title can really start the spark to write a new song. The new album is filled with examples such as “Hue Spotter” and “Post Post Malone” were just interesting song title ideas, taking me minutes to write out the songs. “Night Is Long (As Long As Night)” I wrote on the bass, as well as “Bloody Parrots!” which will create a different type of song. But almost anything can become a source of inspiration for a song. The oldie “Original Copy” came from passing a Nike advert on my way to work every day which said: ‘be an original’. Ok, sure! Be original and buy some mass produced sneakers! Sounds legit. So, I do take the piss on a lot of things in my music. Some obvious while others a little more cryptic.
I assume Ex Norwegian came from the Monty Python sketch? Are you a fan? Would you describe yourself as an Anglophile?
Yes, it’s definitely from Monty Python but there are two sources. The parrot sketch obviously works as one, but there is an episode where the phrase “Ex Norwegian prime minister” is said and I think that’s what I heard and had that a-ha moment. I was a huge fan of the Flying Circus series. They had a full weekend marathon sometime mid-90’s on US TV and I literally stayed up 3 days taping all the episodes. Lots of episodes, especially from season 4 were not really rebroadcasted ever and at the time no DVDs, and the VHS tapes were hard to come by and had something like two episodes per tape so this was literally the only opportunity to see them. I struck gold and wore out those tapes and as a result ingrained a sense of the absurd in me. Anyway, I suppose that makes me an Anglophile by default! And that kind of humor does find it’s way onto the stage and into the music and promo materials.
What are your activities outside music?
These days it’s all mostly music related to be honest. I enjoy traveling a lot. I love long walks. Going off the beaten track. But I am a workaholic in addition to being a bit of a collector. Stamps, and what have you. And on the Monty Python note, I did have an underground comedy sitcom called All My BJ which I wrote and shot and edited which I am sadly very proud of. Looking back I don’t know how I had the energy to do so much. This was right before YouTube became a thing so unfortunately it was a little ahead of its time. But I did consider going into comedy/sitcom writing seriously. I definitely lost that interest.
What albums and tracks would you pick out from catalogue for those new to your music?
I think there’s something for everyone in the Ex Norwegian catalogue which is both awesome and a marketing nightmare. For someone who enjoys the new album and covers, I guess the 2016 album Glazer/Hazerr would be a good one to also check out as it was pretty underproduced and raw. 2015’s Pure Gold is mostly obscure covers and powerpoppy. If you don’t like my voice, then Wasted Lines would be a good album (my personal favorite). Last I checked there are well over 100 songs on Spotify so if someone needs a new band to binge to, Ex Norwegian’s got you covered!
For more information visit exnorwegian.com
