A curious Q&A with "Awesome"

Editor's note: Earlier this week an under-the-weather Michael Upchurch was able to entangle five out of seven "Awesome" members in a frenzied e-mail exchange. Here are the results.

Seattle Times: You guys share a rather unusual sensibility. How did you find each other? Do you believe in "band member" at first sight? And how many of you are the love children of UW music professor emeritus and experimental trombonist Stuart Dempster?

John Osebold: The answers are: yes; 7; and by accident. In whatever order.

David Mitsuo Nixon: I think we found one of the Johns inside Stuart's trombone. He was getting a "sound massage."

Kirk Anderson: Some people like to say that we met at one time, during an Open Circle Theater benefit, but that's not true. Damn those lies. We've all known each other and worked with each other in different combinations for a long time. Basil [Harris] and Evan [Mosher] and I used to do avant-garde comedy together in different groups, at the same time John [Osebold] was doing the same thing with other people — while David Nixon was doing long-form experimental comedy with even more "other people." It kinda jelled around Evan, David and the Johns [Osebold and Ackermann]. Then the rhythm section was grafted on a few months later.

Evan Mosher: All of Kirk's statements are true, except for the phrase "avant-garde comedy." It should be "manage hedge funds."

Anderson: Also, Dempster was married to my mother's sister, who used to baby-sit for David's brother. The two of them had an ice-cream truck. "Dempster Dips" were quite popular on the Peninsula, around the same time as the Seattle Pilots. So not for long.

Nixon: The Seattle Pilots were Seattle's air hockey team in the '70s, if I remember correctly. Gosh, I still remember getting Dempster Dips at those games when I was a kid. My mom usually didn't let me have any, on account of the whole "Dempster Dips cause cancer" thing. But Dad would sneak me one.

Osebold: I'm dripping Dempster Dip on my keyboard.

ST: I realize that almost all of you are quite a bit taller than I am — but why "Seven Brides for Seven Band Members" rather than "Snow White and the Seven Band Members" for Chapter 1 of "The 'Awesome' Cycle"? Weren't you tempted by "Heigh Ho"?

Mosher: Actually, I'm only about 3' 11". I have really complicated shoes.

Nixon: "Really complicated shoes"?! — whoa! whoa! This is a family show!

ST: Can we look forward to you doing my favorite lines from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers": "A man can't sleep / When he sleeps with sheep"?

Nixon: Yes, the "Lonesome Polecat" song will be performed. It's actually got some great harmonies. And it's dirty. Which the kids love. I mean, that's why Al Gore invented the Internet right?

ST: Chapter II of "The 'Awesome' Cycle" is "A Funeral Report for Indie Rock." Does the band often perform at funerals?

Mosher: No, but I believe we have done four weddings. Zing! Am I right? Fellas?

Nixon: Every show we play is like our own funeral. Professionally speaking. That's why we serve Dempster Dips. And Complicated Shoes.

ST: Then comes "Election Report and Analysis." In what ways will "Awesome" attempt to influence the election so as to have more to report and analyze?

Mosher: Kirk and I actually planted the kernel for this election by publicly reacting to the 2004 debacle as Maximum Impact Performance Squad, the world's most important and least-known political performance-art group. We danced to a Scott Walker song. The reverberations are clearly still being felt.

ST: Finally, "The Littlest Bang" — should we all expect to fall into a black hole, triggered by your finale?

Osebold: Yes, get your black-hole galoshes on.

Mosher: I'm pretty sure the world doesn't end until 2012, when the Mayan calendar ends — and Sarah Palin runs for president.

ST: David is the professor of philosophy in the band. But some tunes on "Beehive Sessions" suggest that you also have, among your number, a geometrician ("Shape Song"), a mathematician ("Ones & Zeroes"), a biologist ("Cell Song"), an astronomer ("Nightsky") and maybe a specialist in aberrant psychology ("Memory Leak"). Is that the case?

Basil Harris: Kirk = Geometron. JohnA = Mathmagician. Evan = Biolon. JohnO = Astromaguy. David = Goalie.

Nixon: Today I told my class of 30 to divide up into five groups of five. So I'm definitely not the mathematician. But I like numbers. I mean I REALLY like numbers. By the way, "aberrant psychology" is what philosophers write down when they're trying to get a grant.

Mosher: Most of us have 30 or 40 degrees each, though most of those have been earned from home. I have a masters in TV/VCR repair.

Harris: I have a degree in high-school diploma/private investigation. I double-majored.

ST: Your first album, called "Delaware," was about Delaware (and other things). Your second album, "Beehive Sessions," was about bees. Then you did a live theatrical show, "Here's What Happened," that was about fruit. Will the third album be fruit-centric? And how far along is the third album?

Osebold: The third album is waiting for us to finish the ACT show. It will be quite a smorgas — ... a shmorega — ... a sch — ... lots of stuff.

Mosher: We've got maybe five-ish songs in various stages of completion — a healthy mix of our earliest songs and our very newest songs. It'll be fun to see if we can staple a theme to it once we've got it all done.

Harris: We've decided the third album needs to learn to fly, baby, fly on its own two feet. Or whatever. We've also decided to self-produce it to a large degree, which is great for us in some ways — we record when we have the time and money to do it. And not so great for the same reasons. We've got some quality stuff recorded so far, though. There might end up being some fruit in there, too.

ST: Last night I took my temperature and it was 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Which "Awesome" song would have cooled me down, and how? Also, "Shape Song" sounds great when you're in the car. Was that on purpose?

Osebold: "Shape Song" was recorded in a car in the studio. If your temp was 101, don't listen to us, go to a doctor!

Nixon: I'm a doctor and I agree: don't listen to any of us, especially me. I'm an authority on that. I've only listened to "Shape Song" from the trunk.

ST: Is "Awesome" the kind of band/art collective that could spring up anywhere? Or is there something special about Seattle that made it possible to happen here?

Osebold: Seattle's got great art. A lesser sketch scene surely wouldn't have inspired some of us to get together in another town, for example. But hey, I s'pose anyone with any interest in cross-pollinating art forms could start something anywhere.

ST: Are there any crucial areas that I haven't touched upon that you feel need to be addressed?

Osebold: I've got a crucial area on my shoulder.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com