In the course of our 20-minute conversation, 32-year-old Rochester rocker Ian Downey guzzled down four cups of coffee. He was buzzing like a cheap TV and yet he was more amped about his band, Ian Downey Is Famous, his music, music in general, what goes into it, and what is supposed to come out the other side. All rock musicians have their stock hipster quips, but Downey has none. He is unpretentious to a fault. He is also unpredictable, unapologetic, and unforgiving. And he presents a strong argument for chaos, not for chaos's sake, but for the sake of his listeners. Downey's appreciation of music is varied, odd, and deep, yet the end result is generally loud and hard and raunchy. Between sips of joe, he explained why.
CITY: The name was a joke before it was even a band, right?
IAN DOWNEY: I just started putting stickers up around town before I was even playing that much music. I was playing in other people's bands. I was playing cello in Annika Bentley's band, and we'd go to different cities and I'd put up stickers that said "Ian Downey is Famous" as a joke. So then when I made my own CD - mostly me playing acoustic guitar - I called it Ian Downey is Famous. I've tried to change it.
Why?
I started to feel bad because it started to become a real band, and others [Chris Reeg, bass and keyboard; Darren DeWispelaere, drums] were making a total contribution to it. But every time I'd come up with a name they would strike it down. But I joke around with it. Ian Downey is Flaccid. Ian Downey is Fucked. My girlfriend wants me to change it to Ian Downey is Wealthy.
What's your musical background?
I come from a musical family, my father plays music. When I was just a little kid, like 3 years old, we would have pots and pans in the kitchen and we would make what we liked to call "monster music," and we would record it. I learned to play the cello when I was 6. In high school I was in orchestra. Somewhere around 16 I didn't want to play cello, I wanted to play guitar, I wanted to be a rock star. I played in Pittsburgh for a while. When I came back to Rochester I got back into cello again.
Did you return to the monster music too?
Well, I started playing out in coffee shops, and I would do these weird shows where I was jumping up on tables and knocking things down.
That ol' monster music was in your blood?
There was always mayhem. There was the monster music when I was a kid, and I've always had fun messing stuff up, even acoustic guitar stuff. I do like causing trouble. It's true.
Do the others in the group adhere to the anarchy?
Yeah. And for a while all three of us were in the Blood and Bone Orchestra, which was a lot of improvised craziness.
You're constantly pushing your music's limits and boundaries. What doesn't change?
I can't stand staying the same.
So Ian Downey is Fluctuating?
I think if you make a song with some basis in reality, then you'll be able to play it in a million different ways.
Give me some influences.
A couple of my favorites are Wire and Gang Of Four. I'm always trying to write Gang Of Four songs. I think Gang Of Four sounds like the Rolling Stones, and nobody agrees with me.
Ian Downey is hard to classify. I'm sure there are people you don't agree with on that either.
A couple different people have said we sound like The Minutemen, which I think is just a nice way of saying that I'm fat.
It makes sense musically, what with your punk energy and chaotic vibe.
I hesitate to call this band punk or hardcore or any of those names because it's so different from the bands that call themselves that now. I feel bands like The Minutemen or even early Dead Kennedys, could play all these different styles of music. One minute it sounds like surf rock, the next minute it sounds like free jazz. And even though I love Minor Threat, I think they kind of ruined everything, because before that there were all these hardcore bands that sounded different. And after Minor Threat there were a million bands that sound like Minor Threat.
So what do you call your music, anyway?
I actually really enjoy the term pop music. This is definitely a pop band. I think once you give yourself a label other than pop, then you have to live up to this pre-conceived idea of what that music is supposed to sound like.
What do you expect out of your music?
I'll tell you what I don't expect. I've never been into expression like "I wanna express myself through music." I don't want to express myself through music. That's no good. And I don't want to see anyone express themselves through music, because I don't care what's inside of them. That becomes a group therapy session.
So what do you want?
I like it better when somebody is creating some moment, the band is a part of it, but the audience is what it's really all about. It builds up and it becomes this giant energetic event that no one knows where it's going, no one knows what's going to happen next, they just feel this energy and start moving around. You feel this energy driving in a particular direction you just don't know what that direction is.
How is that done?
What I try to do with virtually every song I play is to engage people, then slowly bring it toward chaos. It can be traditional song structure - or a traditional song, something by Woody Guthrie, whatever - and grab people emotionally so they care about it and then you build it up to where it's chaos, that's the best.
Have you ever created a situation that's truly gotten out of control?
I want to.
Ian Downey is Famous
w/Hotel Reverie, Dreams From Gin
Monday, April 13
Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Ave.
8 p.m. | $5-$7 | 454-2966