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Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=70881 Printed Date: December 22 2024 at 19:37 Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: DisciplinePosted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Discipline
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 14:32
Discipline is one of those rare cases of obscurity combined with reverence. Much like Änglagård was the Swedish phenomenon, Discipline was the U.S. counterpart. They are bands that released two highly praised studio albums in the '90s, and then disappeared. The ensuing passage of time allowed them to become legendary. The most obvious difference from Änglagård being that the Discipline albums are still readily available.
Even though they did not have an official release until 1993, the band had been around since 1987. I got in touch with Matthew Parmenter for the Discipline story.
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When was Discipline formed and do you have any background from other bands ?
Before forming as a band, we met in high school. Fresh out of middle
school, Jon Preston Bouda was a sort of blues guitar prodigy whom I met
through the school's jazz band. We jammed occasionally. Picture a bunch
of gangly teens with 1980s hair making loud organ-driven space jams
under strung up holiday lights. We played some parties, played some
Beatles covers, that sort of thing.
Our past was undecorated, just a group of young people who did music
together. We were aware of different artists. Some of us liked the
contemporary '80s music and hardcore punk with its counter-culture
allure. We had been raised on separate diets of 1970s top 40, blues, art
rock, hard rock, Zappa, fusion, and classical music. Nothing
exceptional except the wish to be an exception. I suppose every bud
seeks to define its own branch.
In 1987 we'd finished high school and were ready to start "playing out."
We named the group "Discipline." after the King Crimson LP and started
doing shows at the clubs in Detroit. To be true, we had more heart than
discipline in us at the time.
We recorded a album called "Chaos out of Order" and sold it on cassette
tapes at these shows. Though it never saw a release on CD, the songs
from that first recording were scattered through the earliest sets.
To start with; please give me your (long or brief) thoughts and lowdowns on.........
Push & Profit from 1994
I think Push & Profit was released in '93 not '94. ...It surely was
because we played overseas in Norway in '93 and this was just after we
finished recording in '92.
We recorded this first CD in a studio in Ferndale, Michigan called the
Tempermill. It seems like it all came together quickly, in about a week.
We mixed it a week or so later.
Not long after making the Push & Profit CD, which was several years
into our playing around Detroit, we learned about the new "prog" music.
There was no world wide web at the time. The rock music we heard came
from older siblings, the radio, or the used record shop. Some college
radio stations played new British bands, but radio in Detroit avoided
old art rock or progressive rock, and absolutely no one played the new
so-called Prog.
We thought we were quite alone until the album got picked up by
distributors and we heard about other bands in the world doing their own
thing, similar to our thing. This was exciting, if you can imagine, to
learn that activity was going on where before it all seemed a leftover
style. There was no sense of saturation, or too many bands. A few of the
new bands were exceptional.
Unfolded Like Staircase from 1997
Nothing much to say about Unfolded itself. It is an organic album. Quick
and dirty production. Un-apologetic. Great stuff really.
A possible "record deal" fell through two years before we recorded
Unfolded. A record deal, any record deal, had previously seemed a holy
grail for struggling bands like ours. When our own deal fell apart, I
think we were a little pissed off and disillusioned. We made Unfolded on
our own in spite of this.
Interest from the distant festivals like ProgDay and Orion helped
introduce us to new listeners. We had abandoned hope of any commercial
success, label, or radio support. This is partly why we selected only
long-form songs for Unfolded. Commercial radio DJs are not permitted to
play such long songs because advertisements between songs take
precedence over music. (Believe it.) But listeners can stomach a good
musical journey now and then.
There may have been a sour grapes reaction, as if to say "well, they
won't play us anyway, so let's put out something they may not play if
they chose to." If one elects failure and obscurity, then failure
becomes a sort of success in its own right. Or so went the convoluted
rationalizations and emotional bulwarks that allowed us to make
Unfolded.
Ironically that CD gained the widest audience. We bore the moniker "underground" proudly as if it were a badge of honor.
Into The Dream ... Discipline Live from 1999
Mike Potter invited us to play at the Orion Progressive Rock Showcase in
Baltimore. This CD is recorded from two separate live shows there. My
favorite memory of Mike was at one of the ProgDay festivals. People were
hanging out in this parking lot playing music, just singing and
strumming guitars and stuff, then Mike brings out a flute and plays
along really cool. I did not know he could play.
The DVD called Live 1995 from 2005
This performance was originally videotaped and released in 1995 as a VHS
videocassette. The show records one of the last costumed performances
with the five-piece band. I loved those days, being able to focus just
on singing and acting out the songs. Playing keys is not for me, and in
1995 we had a great keyboardist named Brad Buszard. Unfortunately, the
U.S. VHS videotape format did not play in Europe, so our European
dealers did not want it. We sold them mostly in Detroit at live shows.
Ten years later in 2005 we re-released the concert on an international
format DVD with lots of bonus material. Some of the bonus stuff dates
back to 1988 and our earliest shows. So in the end it made for a
worthwhile recording.
You did a solo album called Ashtray in 2005. Please tell us more about this album.
"Astray," not "Ashtray." The joke at the time was that if people
disliked the music, they could use the disc as an ashtray. (A common
typo.)
Remember in school when kids made ashtrays for their parents in art
class? Do kids still do that today, or has smoking become taboo as a
pottery craft? I'll have to ask a teacher.
Astray was my first attempt at a solo CD. Matthew Kennedy joined in on the bass.
You split up for a while, but reformed in 2008. Please give us the latest update and your immediate plans.
We are recording a new studio CD. No promises on the release date. It
will be the Unfolded group, with Jon Preston Bouda, Mathew Kennedy, and
Paul Dzendzel.
Which bands and/or scenes would you compare yourself with ?
We get compared to a lot of older bands. The mellotron sounds old, but
so does the music anyway. It must be a retro sensibility in the songs
and the performances. We all were kids in the 1970s, so music from that
period influenced us. Not surprising.
How is the writing and creative processes in your band ?
I usually come in with the structure of a song and we work the ideas
together to find the right dramatic effect. We learn the songs by
jamming the various parts, then knit them all together. Sometimes I'll
put together a rough demo in advance, but usually we just work it part
by part and get it into a groove.
You did a tour of Norway back in the 1990s. A bit of an unusual thing to do..... Please tell us more about this tour.
Playing out in Detroit, we started doing the shows with the costumes. A
couple of guys were visiting from Norway and my girlfriend brought them
to a show. They dug it. It turned out they were part of a Norwegian
college entertainment committee and invited us to come play in and
around Oslo.
We had a great time. The whole trip lasted just half a month. Aside from
the few shows, we hung out with these college students and trekked
around Oslo.
It was in Norway that I first learned of the new term "prog" music, and a
complete stranger there turned me on to the alt.music.progressive
internet newsgroup. In 1993 before the world wide web and web sites took
off, internet newsgroups were an online forum, and this particular
newsgroup was abuzz with posts about new prog and old progressive music.
The newsgroup threads led us to find progressive distributors for our
music, such as Syn-Phonic, Wayside, and Kinesis.
What is your experiences with the music industry and how do you
think the music industry will look like in the coming years ?
In the future a race of martians will invade and make earthly music
illegal. During the ensuing rebellion a small band of internet pirates
will discover that martians hate the sound of violins but the pirates
will be powerless because they downloaded only rock and hip hop to their
PCs. The martians will shut down the Internet to prevent dissemination
of the harmful string sounds. As a result, classical music performers
will rise up to supplant sampled pop and to set the human race free.
Morgan Freeman will narrate.
Anything you want to add to this interview ?
I should mention the new Discipline. live CD coming out soon on the UK's
Cyclops GFT label. The working title is "Live Days." It has live
performances from the mid-90s period recorded at the ProgDay and Orion
festivals and at some local Detroit area clubs. Looking forward to
wrapping that up.
Thanks for your interest in an interview.
Thank you to Matthew for this interview
Discipline's PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=82 - & their homepage http://www.strungoutrecords.com/ -
Replies: Posted By: Doomcifer
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 15:47
Haha, I remember making an ashtray at school in pottery class for my father. I forgot about that.
Anyhow, thanks for the interview. I am extremely eager to finally hear this LOOOOOONG awaited new album. That song posted a couple years back was awesome.
------------- Greater is the man who conquers himself, than he who conquers a hundred times a hundred on the battlefield.
Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 15:59
Glad to hear that they are still progressing towards a new album. I was beginning to wonder given there hasn't been any updates on their website in recent months. I also loved the new song that they were working on a couple of years ago.
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Posted By: VanVanVan
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 19:19
This is why I love this site. I love Unfolded but haven't followed Discipline closely enough that I would have known about a new album if not for this. Thanks!
------------- "The meaning of life is to give life meaning."-Arjen Lucassen
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 19:27
Interesting review ... I'm going to have to actually check out their albums at some point. Also, I totally agree in their predictions for the future of the music industry, it's very logical and I can't really see it going any other way.
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: August 31 2010 at 20:16
Good to hear about a new album.
------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
Posted By: Uncle Spooky
Date Posted: September 05 2010 at 11:42
Parmenter's Horror Express was one of the best albums of 2008, so I'm particularly interested in what he does next...
Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: September 07 2010 at 20:35
Discipline's Unfolded like Staircase is one of my top favourite albums. Both my wife and I love it. A stunning piece with an emotional effect bigger that transcends the album itself. I also love Matthew's solo albums, in particular Astray.
Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: October 21 2011 at 16:42
Look what I found guys. New album from Discipline titled To Shatter All Accord available on Bandcamp. http://disciplineband.bandcamp.com/album/to-shatter-all-accord" rel="nofollow - http://disciplineband.bandcamp.com/album/to-shatter-all-accord
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Posted By: infocat
Date Posted: October 22 2011 at 01:25
rushfan4 wrote:
Look what I found guys. New album from Discipline titled To Shatter All Accord available on Bandcamp. http://disciplineband.bandcamp.com/album/to-shatter-all-accord" rel="nofollow - http://disciplineband.bandcamp.com/album/to-shatter-all-accord
Oh my god! I thought I'd never see the day!
Love these guys. Nice to see alt.music.progressive mentioned, which is where I learned about this band (not until the late 90s, though), among many other of the "90s prog revival" (echolyn, Änglagård, Anekdoten and Dream Theater). All of which, I believe, have new albums this year or next (not sure about Anekdoten). (Quite disappointing with a.m.p. went all to hell several (many?) years ago. Too many years without good prog discussion before I found PA this year. Well, the CARS mail list is good, but not a large following.)
As soon as I finish listening to ITCOTCK I will listen to the new Discipline.!!!! (everyone forgets the trailing period!)
Frank
------------- -- Frank Swarbrick Belief is not Truth.
Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: December 06 2011 at 22:40
An excellent interview! I'm yet to listen to their new album.
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Follow me on twitter @memowakeman
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: December 07 2011 at 07:31
If you like Unfolded you should like this one unless you don't like things being similar to other things.
------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...