Interview: The Armoires
Christina Bulbenko, Rex Broome and Michael Simmons Discuss 'Octoberland'
The Armoires are an LA pop band that organically grew into Big Stir Records, and now—seven years and dozens of releases later—that established indie label just launched one of its best albums ever, Octoberland…by The Armoires.
It’s an impressive full circle moment for Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome, the creative duo that fronts the band and the two leading lights behind the record label. Adding to the pronounced community vibe on Octoberland, the album was produced by talented friend Michael Simmons of veteran LA guitar pop band Sparkle*Jets U.K.
“For the first time, this was Rex and myself sitting down and writing all the songs at once, basically from scratch. We knew we wanted to do it that way, writing with all the band's strengths and quirks in mind, but we didn't quite expect the that it would give the songs such a cohesive sense of time and place, with all kinds of unifying themes and images. When that started happening, we really rolled with it,” Bulbenko told me for the interview below.
The Armoires fourth album is a captivating collection of songs that perfects the band’s sound while relentlessly pushing it forward.
“It felt essential that we wrote it that way, quickly but with a lot of care, and moved it down the line to the band and to Simmons when he came on board as a producer, so we could forge ahead as collectively as possible. This was the most rewarding creative project I've ever, ever been involved in, and that's a credit to the small and dedicate cadre of people we worked with,” Broome added.
I interviewed The Armoires and Simmons live on stage at their record release party a couple of weekends ago. It was such a fun conversation that we decided to recreate some of that magic for you here with this supplemental email interview.
Interview With Bulbenko, Broome and Simmons (Oh My!)
Where and how was Octoberland recorded?
Rex Broome: Like many indie records these days, a lot of it was recorded ‘at home,’ the files rifled between us and Simmons, with some exceptions like John (Borack)’s drums which were all tracked by Simmons. The thing that makes this a little different from a lot of indie projects is that it was really all one session, just one that took a year or so. We didn't cobble songs together from disparate writing sessions or come up with new stuff as we went along. We had these eleven tunes at the outset and the process was one of working on them all at the same time. So, as with the writing, there was a lot of sonic crossover from track to track, keeping them all of a piece.
Christina Bulbenko: We really wanted to preserve that communal vibe. Although a lot of sessions were focused on one member’s parts, we’d try to convene the whole band together—usually at Simmons’ place, every few months—so it felt like we were all in it together. We would be like, ‘How are we all feeling about this?’ just in case anyone thought we were losing the plot. Somehow, other than really little details here and there, it was always overwhelmingly positive. Pretty miraculous, and it leaves us with the rare ability to look back on the whole recording process without having to feel like it was ever going off the rails. We just remember our friends being happy and excited about the thing we were making, and we really treasure that!
Michael, the album sounds fantastic. How would you describe The Armoires music to somebody who has never heard it before?
Mike Simmons: Well, it's very intellectual, very literate. And I've come to find that it's a little witchy, too. It's actually a lot of fun. But that's just the thing, there's a lot of onion layers to it, so the more you kind of live there, the more you find as you dig around.
I don't think I can ask the band about their favorite Octoberland songs, but I can ask you—what are a few of your favorite tracks and why?
Mike Simmons: Oh gosh. Well first of all, ‘Music And Animals’ was a big one right off the bat. I heard that and it has this quality that I always call, you know, driving the Autobahn at night. I don't know what that means. It means something to me, but I don't know if it means anything to anyone else. It's just kind of got that vibe to it and it just gave me the feels and then when I heard what it was about, it was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’
I really like the way ‘This One’s For The Swedes’ starts with that little synth thing that we've got going on. That little percolation made me really happy. And ‘Here Comes The Song’ is great with the strings section and everything, how that worked together. And what a chorus! The bridge, too. And ‘Ridley & Me’ is great.
I wanted to ask about a couple of my favorite tracks from the album. "This One's For The Swedes" is hypnotic. I love the groove. What's the story behind that song?
Christina Bulbenko: It's a travelogue about our 2019 California tour with our wonderful Big Stir Records labelmates In Deed, from Uppsala, Sweden. Most of that crazy imagery is made up of details of that whirlwind tour. That trip was also sort of a road test of the current lineup of The Armoires. Night after night we were so inspired by In Deed—when we sing about them ‘levitating off the stage’—it really felt that way to us, and it made us into a better band. It was just a lovely experience, so very worthy of commemorating, and that semi-shoegaze sound is a tribute to them, too.
Rex Broome: I think that on that song we're really praising a transcendent collaboration in the form of another band, and taking it on as our mission, too. Just digging at that magical chemistry thing, which is a running theme on this album. We start out on ‘We Absolutely Mean It’ by mythologizing ourselves, sort of, and immediately turn to mythologizing another band as example of what creative community looks and sounds like. Plus, that groove and that feeling of travel really does keep the record's momentum up. It was always the second song in the track sequence... well, the entire track sequence never changed from the time we wrote the songs, so we knew we had to keep this one propulsive. Cliff (Ulrich) and John are just great on it! They hit the ground and can't be stopped, which was just what we needed.
"We Absolutely Mean It" is a perfect distillation of The Armoires sound to my ears. What inspired you to write a "psych-pop manifesto"?
Christina Bulbenko: It was time. I think every band needs one! We were basically just introducing ourselves as The Armoires… The Armoires that we always wanted to become. This is what we sound like, this is what we aim to do… go big. It's our ‘We Are The Monkeys.’ Or, you know, ‘We Are Devo’ from Jocko Homo. We wanted the earnestness to be there but we also wanted to craft some things you wouldn’t expect like the ranting and chanting. I would say that song is both tongue-in-cheek and sincere somehow. I mean, that was the intention. It was meant to be fun, but also make a statement.
Rex Broome: But it's also describing our ambiguous androgyny, and... I feel like it's the point of arrival for the band we always had the potential to be. We'd kind of explored a lot of different sounds through previous albums. And for this one, we were like, ‘OK, we actually know what we sound like now. We know what The Armoires sound like.’ And here we're saying, ‘Yeah, it's two simultaneous vocals, switching who's on top. The keys, the viola and the twelve-string all have their roles and we understand them now.’ And we talk about that in this song. It's very meta. I mean, in the process of declaring it, we're also embodying it.
What's the deal with all these intense song titles like "Green Hellfire at the 7-11," "You Oughta Be Cut In Half," "Sickening Thud"... Is this a cry for help? Or a peek at the dark truth behind the Paisley curtain?
Christina Bulbenko: You tell us! The songs you mention were written as a response to what’s going on in the world and the frustration resulting from the cognitive dissonance, closed-mindedness, anything standing in the way of moving forward in a positive way, really. They’re dark songs, but for the most part they end on a hopeful note, very much by design. They come from a place where gloom and doom exist for whatever reasons, they’re different for everyone, but they express the need for positive discourse, connection, feeling like you’re being heard—not alone in your fears for the future, that sort of thing.
Rex Broome: I mean, as a general thing, I think I'd rather be and live as a kind and respectful person whose art reflects some of the rougher aspects of reality than to be a complete a-hole who hypocritically sings about peace and love all the time. This record started from a darker place than it ended in. There was a lot of us asking the question that is actually best embodied by ‘Here Comes The Song’ and comes from our wrangling with music industry stuff too, which is: ‘Is there any point to trying to make art in the modern world?’ Or, ‘Is this good for people, or are they maybe hurting themselves and others in their singleminded pursuit of being noticed?’ We wanted to take that question seriously, like a science project in a way.
What's next for The Armoires?
Christina Bulbenko: That’s difficult to say. We would love to gig and tour, but we’re not a ‘plug-and-play’ band anymore. We wouldn’t want to do shows where any one element that contributed to the magic of Octoberland was missing. That would result in a sub-par experience for anyone who’s heard the album and it spoke to them on any level. We would love to recreate that vibe live, but that would mean adding members to the band. The last time we saw The New Pornographers, there were eight performers on stage, probably for that very same reason! But that is a goal for us and we would love to achieve it…whatever it takes. People are asking us to tour overseas again, and on that front, sponsors for the work visas would be nice and would help, wink wink. We just want to put in the work and effort to be the best we can be live and as recording artists for everyone who’s come along for the ride thus far. We appreciate the support and we aim to please!
Rex Broome: And I think we're feeling like we have a sort of creative lightning-in-a-bottle thing at the moment. We do have half of an album’s worth of song ideas kicking around, and they're a little different, pushing a little further into witchy territory... I kinda feel like this is the first of maybe a trio of peak Armoires records. We're kind of endlessly fascinated by this ‘we songs’ approach, and I think we'd love to keep pursuing the nearly infinite possibilities of that and where it might lead us.
Octoberland is probably the record we were put on earth to create, but it also opens the door to all kinds of other things we can do before we're done. And that's exciting.
Interview: Michael Simmons
Los Angeles was a hotbed of guitar pop activity in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
Thanks for turning me onto The Armoires - I just bought the Octoberland vinyl!
Cool! I like their quirky, original lyrics!