UN: Savannah seems to be a pretty strong breeding ground for heavy yet original bands. Is the scene supportive of bands from the earliest stages? Do bands still at their demo stages get the chance to play lots of shows? Basically, in a nut shell does the Savannah scene support creativity over trends?

UNPERSONS: the savannah scene is great in terms of nurturing everyone. we're all friends. right now there are several different bands that are just starting to play out and record demos and such. it's a small, tight-knit place. there's definitely a lot of support for any band that is creative and original, which is reflected in the diversity of the scene.

unpersons were extremely lucky to have developed in savannah. from the outset, people like phillip cope, victoria scalisi, and david rapp (in particular, though they are by no means the only ones to support the band) have been extremely supportive and essential in terms of helping the band get shows, record, put records out and get exposed. phillip helps with the production of every one of unpersons' recordings, and david and victoria released the first two records.

UN: Give us a history lesson on how Unpersons came to be. How did all of the members meet? Has there been any line-up changes at all?

UNPERSONS: the drummer and the vocalist/guitarist have known each other since time out of mind. the band started with the two of them in 1997. bassists and other guitarists have come and gone frequently, but the lineup has been essentially stable for the past three or four years. we started recording seriously in the studio, releasing records, and touring in 2000.

UN: This sort of goes along with the history question, how did you guys come up with the name Unpersons? It’s an interesting name that is totally unique and I haven’t seen used before.

UNPERSONS: the name is a reference to George Orwell's novel 1984. However, the nuances and connotations that are ascribed to the band name go beyond the mostly political ramifications of the term in the book. regardless, it's a great work of modern British literature and should be read by everyone.

UN: How did the deal with At a Loss come about? I couldn’t think of a better label to house a band like Unpersons. They seem to only want to release albums by original and unique bands, so Unpersons definitely fits into that category.

UNPERSONS: at a loss is a wonderful label, and josh is a great guy. very helpful, and willing to do whatever is necessary to help the bands on his label. the roster he's got is really impressive, full of different types of bands, which is both really cool and a smart move. phillip cope (who has been/is a member of damad/kylesa) introduced us to josh, and it just went from there.

UN: I was curious to ask how you guys recorded III. I’m assuming that you guys recorded live, but what I’m actually wondering was if you recorded in a studio or just at your jam space. The production, while lo-fi, fits the bands sound perfectly. Do you think that some bands care too much about getting a polished recording? I think it takes away a lot of the energy.

UNPERSONS: the full length on at a loss was recorded at the ass-stomping jam room studio in lovely downtown columbia, south carolina. its a small studio that has developed an intense reputation for great records over the last ten years or something like that. everyone from antischism to the queers has recorded there. its an amazing place... again something phillip turned us on to. damad recorded there, and they found out about it from either antischism or in/humanity, i believe.

UN: How long did the writing process take for III? While some of the songs are shorter, there is still a lot going on and every song introduces new elements. Do you guys go on gut feeling? Judging from the style of the band, do a lot of the riffs just come from improvising and jamming?

UNPERSONS: the first of the songs on that record were written in fall of 2001. the last of them were written winter 2002/2003. most of the basic structures are written and arranged in an individual setting, and then the band as a whole deconstructs them, adds, takes away, and rebuilds them. then, usually over a period of weeks, but possibly months, the songs are refined slowly through performance and constant rehearsal.

sometimes writing is difficult and slow going because for the past two and a half years, members of the bands have lived in different cities.

UN: I haven’t had the chance to check out your first full length that was released on Fish Fur/Born to Die Records. Is it different at all to the new album? Would you say that you guys have progressed since that album?

UNPERSONS: there's definitely a progression. this band is a linear process of searching for a truer musical expression of each member's vision, as well as a literary endeavor on the part of the lyricist. when we achieve the closest approximation of that synthesized vision, the band will have accomplished its goal, and further attempts would be redundant.

so its a progression, yeah, but only in the way that its a refinement of our technical ability to approximate or transcribe what we hear/know in our heads.

the second record (on fish fur/born to die) is a little less intricate in terms of song structure, and less heavy. its still pretty decent, we still like it, but we feel that it is no longer a true representation of the band now,... the current avatar.

UN: Because of the open ended style the band has do you feel like you can pretty much tour and play shows with bands of any style? Looking over who you’ve toured with it’s a pretty eclectic group of bands. Everything from the heavy groove based metal of Mastodon to the straight up grind/crust of Phobia. Do you think it’s important to have diverse line-ups for tours?

UNPERSONS: diversity is essential. everyone in the band has very diverse musical interests, and really, we only consider ourselves a punk band in spirit. strictly speaking, musically, we aren't always very punk. so we feel like different aspects of our music would appeal to different types of listeners. we would like to think we can hang with bands pretty well across the board (or maybe we wish could and so we try).

who wants to see the same three bands at every show? if only from a self-centered point of view, its important for us to play with as many different kinds of bands as possible. when we play every night for 30 days or so, if we see three other bands every night, and they're all the same thing, then that's ninety times of the same thing in a row. who needs that? not us. plus it allows us to be exposed to people of different 'scenes' or whatever. differently-minded people. it would be stupid if we only cared if crusty kids liked us, or hipsters, or metalheads, or whatever. we want to interact with all those people, and others besides.

UN: Is touring important to the band? I’ve read that you guys have toured quite a bit before signing to At a Loss so I can only assume that you will be touring even more now. Are any tours planned yet for the summer? Any bands you’d like to tour with that you haven’t had the chance?

UNPERSONS: we tour as much as we can. its the most important part of playing. we're trying to develop our show, our performance, into a more artistic expression of the music.

however, its difficult to mesh four different schedules (what with college and jobs and other bands) to dedicate a block of time to touring. we wish we could do it more.

we are planning some regional weekend-warrior type shows until the summer, when we'll tour for about a month, hopefully hitting the whole u.s.

bands we'd like to play with.... hmmm.. its difficult to single out a few bands... the northwest is packed with good bands these days. last time we were in seattle (december 03) we had to cancel the tour that very day because our drummer's eardrums were perforated. we were supposed to play with iron lung, doomsday 1999, and a few others. that show destroyed, but we didn't get to play. we'd love to play with those folks for real sometime.

UN: Do you find it important to be an original band? Often you’d expect a scene to embrace the unique bands but it’s usually the opposite. It’s all of the bands that sound the same that become the well known. The original ones are usually the ones that are talked about more over time though. Would you rather have some sort of legacy instead of flash in the pan success?

UNPERSONS: man, that's hard. i mean, of course a band who's worth anything at all strives to be unique and something new. otherwise, its a waste of time. i won't get on a soapbox about it... its something that really irks me, but i won't get into it.

at any rate, of course its very important to be original. and often, truly original bands languish in ignominy for too long. look at rorschach. now, everyone in the world loves that band. they played hard for a brief period and then broke up, and i get the impression that they were very under appreciated during their existence. but look how many bands they've influenced. you see them listed everywhere as "the best band of the 90's".

a band ought to not even really care about 'success', in my opinion. just strive to express oneself truthfully and in a powerful, unique way, and let the chips fall where they may. but of course if you're completely dedicated to your band and feel like you're doing something good, unique, important, whatever, and you don't get recognition for that, you run the risk of completely burning out and breaking up prematurely. so a little justification in the form of people digging your music is good. plus its nice to be able to exist and function without having to worry about making it to the next town because you have no money for gas.

UN: This is just out of pure curiosity, but how exactly does the band label the style of music you play? If say someone you work with asks, it must be hard to describe it. Hell, it would be hard to describe it to someone familiar with underground music, let alone someone not familiar.

UNPERSONS: when i have to term it, i call it noisy hardlycore disturbance. but i'm a wordy bastard. i mean, i have a difficult time putting it in a definite description, but i usually reference the jesus lizard, rorschach, the birthday party, rudimentary peni, germs, amebix, and sabbath. those are a few things that have really come out in an apparent way (to us) in our sound and lyrical stance, but by no means are the depth of our influences.

more and more i feel like just saying we're heavy, weird rock'n'roll. and then letting people make their own decisions. if you give much frame of reference for anything, then you have to wonder if you've tainted someone's reception of it and interpretation of it. i feel that's true about our music and also the lyrics, which are equally as important to me. and art in general. an important part of art is that elusive, nebulous connection you get that you can't quite describe and to put a finger on it and define it in no uncertain terms might even cheapen it a little.

UN: I was wondering if the 15 minute track you guys recorded has been released yet by Life is Abuse? Tell us about this release. Is it similar in style to what we’ve heard of III?

UNPERSONS: the piece that we're doing with life is abuse is not out yet. we're still working out the details. hopefully it will be out by the time we tour this summer.

we wrote and recorded it in the midst of writing what would become the record we did with at a loss. but it is, as a much longer piece would necessarily be, much different. its a bit heavier and in a different tuning. when phillip first heard the demos before we went in to record it, i think he said something to the effect of "oh god they've gone prog". but i don't think its that prog. its a little more metal and it isn't written very much at all in the traditional pop song structure.

in short, its different, but its still the same. i guess just wait and see.

UN: Is there an ideal place you’d like to see Unpersons end up? Just being able to tour and possibly making enough money to get by? I’m sure you guys aren’t looking for any sort of rock star success. Mainstream radio wouldn’t know what hit it if they played an Unpersons song.

UNPERSONS: we'll take whatever happens. we just want to play and express ourselves and refine our ability to do so. its fun, but that's not the only reason we do this. maybe it will be seen as pretentious, but there's definitely art in rock'n'roll, and we're about that. but of course, on a different level, we just want to rock, and to play and meet people and party. as long as we can still write songs that we feel aren't redundant, we'll be pleased to continue.

fuck, it'd be great to turn on mainstream radio and hear our music (or even hear music from the same universe, that would be good enough). but that will never happen, surely. we're not worried about that, that kind of thing is secondary... really, immaterial.