Autogramm plays by No Rules
Trio returns with new album and memorable video
A-N-X-I-E-T-Y! It's something that plenty are experiencing daily during the pandemic.
It's also the title of the latest single and hilarious video from Vancouver trio Autogramm's new album, No Rules.
As the band spells out the word, countdown-style, tension builds until the music breaks out. The Big Shorts Pictures' clip directed by James Maher features the continuing misadventures of a stuffed bear named Teddy Cruise excited about heading to Tulum, Mexico, for some rest and relaxation. Nothing goes as planned.
Teddy almost drowns, has the runs, gets depressed and eventually jumps from an upper floor hotel room balcony. As the singer points out that “No one's got immunity/ from anxiety,” Teddy turns that frown upside down, taking a different view of events all set to a hooky melody that could have graced any number of great power pop/new wave classics. The song is a complete release.
But don't think that No Rules is the latest in a long list of new albums looking back at past genres for inspiration today.
The 11 tracks on the new record range from the driving, mechanistic punk of the title tune to the fast and furious leadoff single Jody is a Cop and chiming harmonies and heavy synths of Too Loud. The only rule that this band adheres to is executing everything with cool style. Given the pedigree of the three musicians driving the project, it doesn't come as any surprise that No Rules sounds so accomplished.
What would you expect from a band whose members all come to the music with their stage names long-established in a host of other great groups?
Bassist C.C. Voltage tore it up in such beloved Vancouver bands as the Spitfires and Black Halos as well as Berlin's Dysnea Boys. Guitarist/keyboardist Jiffy Marx played in Blood Meridian and Brooklyn's Hard Drugs. Drummer The Silo is in the acclaimed psychedelic folk/blues duo Lightning Dust as well as Chicago's Spun Out and others. A mutual love of the Cars, the Go-Go's, Gary Numan and Devo brought the three together.
From his home outside Chicago, The Silo chatted about Autogramm's creative spark.
“We sort of started when we got together to work on some songs that Jiffy had written and the idea was always that he would be the lead singer since he is the most `lead-singerly' of us,” said The Silo. “None of us wanted to be the primary writer, so we chose to concentrate in on our mutual admiration for this very particular era when punk rock, power pop and new wave all converged, and write accordingly.
The only condition was that we had to be able to play them in our trio format with bass, drums, guitar and keyboards.”
Since coming together in 2018, the band was quick to gain attention. The first single Jessica Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll hit No. 3 on CBC's Radio 3 charts and went into rotation on 30-plus college radio stations in North America. Dates across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico as well as 14 shows in Europe followed. The exposure led to inking a deal with Nevado Records, which released the debut recording What R U Waiting 4?
Nevado Music president Nick Bernal says the band was an easy fit for the Toronto label.
“I'm not signing bands based on whether they are going to be commercial successes or the cool new thing, I'm signing bands that I want to play at home,” said Bernal. “And these guys impressed me so much when they played me the first record and the live show is so much fun, it had to happen. Plus, all three of them are just so hard-working and are so nice and easy to work with.”
Having relocated to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue options for his artists in such lucrative areas as music licensing to TV and film products, Bernal says that No Rules has landed at a time when the sound is “cool.” There is a concerted effort to work No Rules to radio as any live shows to promote the release are presently on hold.
“Obviously, we worked the last album, but this new one is a step up we are pretty excited about,” he said. “They all say that they are only in the band for fun, but they've toured more than a number of other bands on the label and really built an audience. Although they all have other jobs, they all seem to be ready and willing to be on the road whenever they can be.”
The Silo echoes that Autogramm is, first and foremost, for fun. This goal even impacts the song lengths.
“I think that I would generally err on the side of longer songs, but C.C. is always there to keep us in temporal check,” said The Silo. “The fast, loud, short pop song is something that is both musically satisfying as well as something that won't take up a lot of our time. I play in other bands and have studio work, C.C. is a full-time teacher and Jiffy is busy in other bands, so this isn't supposed to be any kind of a drain.”
Even the touring has been approached with an eye on recreation as well as rocking.
“We want our tours to be fun vacations, which was why we toured Mexico in 2018, which was one of the most fun things we've ever done,” he said. “Aside from playing shows all over in places we had never been, we also fit in all kinds of cultural stuff and down time. Along the way, we just got better to the point that, when we went to Europe, we were so good that all agreed that we could be really great if we spent all our time together.”
But that isn't the goal of the group and all the members are happy with that happy-golucky approach. After all the struggles to be heard and accepted in all of the players' pasts, to have the project that doesn't come with that baggage gathering such steam is classic music biz irony.
Whatever happens, Autogramm isn't following any rules but its own.