UV Protection

What: Interview
When: March 15, 2005


There's a whole litany of amazing things about U.V. Protection, an unlikely new band that's part electro-pop, part avant-droid art project. One particularly noteworthy factoid, given the buzz they're generating, is that they've only been playing together for a year. Their first show was at The Distillery in South Boston on November 21, 2003 where they were the live band selected to accompany video artists' presentations. In front of an audience comprising mostly art students and musicians, U.V. Protection came out in black and white outfits with spacey lampshade-like headpieces. "We could see through them, but our faces were concealed," says drummer Deborah Bernard. "We didn't really plan it, but we adopted an otherworldly, robotic demeanor that the audience really responded to." The lack of monitors caused some sound problems that, at one point, was "so off it sounded intentional... but people seemed to eat it up." Indeed. If weren't for such bizarre serendipity as this, we wouldn't have penicillin, Post-it notes, or cheese.

It was only natural that Karen Tsiakals and Joanna Muehleisen, who'd started constructing a youthful jigsaw puzzle of musical symmetry as mere kids back in Chicago, would pick up the pieces when they each happened to end up at Massachusetts College of Art. Karen's idea of creating a band that interlocked operatic vocals with a spaced-out din of Casio keyboard wizardry led her and Joanna, an accomplished student of opera, to form a quirky duo that played around town.

By chance, drummer Deborah Bernard went to see the intrepid opera/ synth duo play one night in October 2003. "At the time I was playing drums with some metal guys whose main influences were bands like Boris and Earth," recalls Deborah. "I met Karen and Joanna after their set, which I thought was the best thing I'd seen in a long time." The three like-minded women found common ground in an appreciation of, and talent for, theatrics, costume design, and visual art. When they starting talking scope and direction, they decided to head to Deborah's Sound Museum rehearsal space and try playing together. Before long they found a comfortable and thrilling groove. They knew they were onto something. "Right from the start we fell into something cool and fun."

U.V. Protection's musical and lyrical commentary targets modern societal ills, particularly those earmarks of wealth and progress that our world has come to depend on, but that can, if gone unchecked, kill us figuratively if not literally. Themes of spirit-killing corporate culture, soul-sucking media, moral-threatening science and profane technology run rampant. With a hearty nod to irony, U.V. Protection utilizes technology to deliver the very warning that technology can't replace humanity. If the message sounds heavy, well, maybe so---but make no mistake, this is an entertaining band out to give the people a good show. To that end, the stage show brims with theatrics, costumes, android dance movements, special effects, and video projections. The songs are infused with a comic sense that hedges any overt social lesson or preachy-ness. "Something inexplicable occurs between the three of us when we are writing songs," says Deborah. "We each have a different musical spin and it comes together in a really fun and usually comical way. We laugh a lot. The comical aspect is very important. The more ridiculous the better in most cases."

Take for example the "U.V. Theme Song" from the debut release, Consumer Material. It's a quirky Devo-like beat behind Waitresses-like vocals (both '80s buzz bands and, coincidentally, from Ohio, separated only by Indiana from U.V.'s home state). Like Devo's "Jocko Homo," which is essentially a comic robot funk anthem about themselves, "U.V. Theme Song" issues a proclamation while also introducing the wit and, dare I say, wisdom, of this trio. "We're here to protect you," we're told in the opening lyrics. "You need our business too."

Ladies and gentlemen, your noble protectors, U.V. Protection.

LK: Who are you people?

U.V. Protection: We assume the persona of a unified protective force. Here for our fellow man. Critiques of government, material decadence and technology are all lab experiments that are assigned words, music and images to create a mirror in which to view our culture and ourselves.

LK: Your songs are great. They meet in a sort of tenacious blend of a sparser Elastica or Eurythmics, but with the manic hitch and weirdness of Devo. It's almost too hard to define because yours is an "act" that's so much more than what my mere ears are telling me. This band is visual art, too.

U.V.: We feel that the avenues available to perform and show visual art are somewhat restricted to galleries and studios that are not necessarily accessible to the public on a larger scale, and can be somewhat elitist. Combining visual elements with music gives us the chance to create and present art in a much more communal way. Boston has many excellent art schools and is filled with very creative people. We feel supported and inspired by the art/ music community here.

LK: Let's talk about music genre for a minute. What's new wave? What's synth pop?

U.V.: To us new wave is new music that is artistic, observant and accessible. And it's also a kind of blanket term for bands from the '80s that combined punk attitudes with dance music and fashion. Broadly speaking synth-pop is a form of music that is played predominantly using electronic instruments. We are inspired by both, but we don't really know what heading best fits the music we make. Our influences and inspiration come from so many different places. We mostly create music without considering the category it might be defined by. Just sort of happens.

LK: Describe your favorite way to approach writing a song.

U.V.: We have created a very open and respectful forum for each of us to try stuff we feel inspired by. We all like to write and play off of each other's work by adding layers and lots of ongoing editing. As far as the final mastered rendition of our songs goes, we're constantly critiquing ourselves and trying to make improvements. We tape and listen to every practice so we can make improvements. We try new things in old songs all the time.

LK: I could count on one hand the number of bands around here that subscribe to the concept of visual impact in a live show. Talk about the role and importance of the visual element in a live show.

U.V.: We strongly feel that visual multi-media elements are necessary to provide our audience with context and give our commentary relevance. Our impression is that music tends to be considered by genre, style, and technique whereas visual art seems to allow for more philosophical exploration. The combination of music and visual art gives us a way to present our philosophies in a more complete way.

LK: Are the dancers part of that philosophical presentation?

U.V.: The dancers provide visual representation of the music we perform. They respond to and design their moves around the sentiments and philosophies behind the songs. The same is true for our special effects, costume design, and video projection.

LK: Earlier you talked about the famous lampshade headpieces from your first show. What did you wear at the Middle East show last month?

U.V.: We wore neon yellow robot tunics, yellow riot helmets, and furry black boots as prescribed by the official regulations... many of our costumes are directly related to what's happening in the world in the very moment. For example, in September we had an Olympic theme. Our theme for the past few December shows was the pageantry and decadent tradition of the holiday season, but mostly we (Karen, actually) design costumes that hopefully present us as an otherworldly, symmetrical, unified task force.

LK: Tell me about the other people on the task force.

U.V.: All of the people involved in U.V. are visual artists of some sort. Both dancers, Sasha Hodges and Sue Murad, have art backgrounds, as does Nate Muehleisen, the person who does the majority of our video, and Nate Tyburczy who does special effects. In addition to being a recording engineer/ producer, Darron Burke pursues photography, video, drawing, and designing beautiful and functional recording studios on a budget.

LK: How is this whole thing perceived by your audience?

U.V.: Much of what we do could be perceived as ironic in an amusing and perhaps sarcastic way, but we are actually quite sincere about how irony and sincerity are interconnected. For example, while we are making social critiques about corporate culture, excess in our society, the in-discriminant use of technology, we also utilize technology to our own advantage. We feel a kinship to the society we comment on and strive to hold ourselves to the same critique and commentary we are making. We try to present our music, visual art, costumes, and performance in a less obvious way, which hopefully gives our audience some freedom to interpret what's behind it. Our costumes and video are designed around specific concepts, but we try to obfuscate what they actually are. The same holds true with our lyrics. We feel disappointed by things that are too specifically defined.