Magma Mag

Lovetune for Vacuum has been described by certain individuals as "ambient music for torture chambers"

"Sweepstakes thing started a few years ago. I think Jupiter was like, 'Hey man, when we sell the album, we gotta sell something like a baseball card, so there's a chance you can get a rare card or something,'" laughs Famiglietti. "That's where we were like, 'Dude, whoever gets the fucking golden ticket -- we're going to fly him to LA, and he's going to go to Magic Mountain.'" That is in fact the grand prize of the sweepstakes, and other prizes, personally crafted by the band, are available as well. They include everything from posters autographed in blood and locks of hair to intoxicated video chat sessions, astrological consultations with Jupiter's mother, and conference crank calls to prominent indie musicians. Sure, the idea is bound to receive criticism from those who ask, "What does that have to do with music?", and they'd be right. It all has nothing to do with music, but that's just fine, because HEALTH are about the artistic process as a whole. In addition to their sweepstakes, they've also spread their interests to film and fashion, but none of that means that their music takes a backseat to their other projects. All of their projects merely work together in harmony.

The band is also moving forward with their interest in fashion. Anyone who is familiar with HEALTH's T-shirts, which utilize bright colors and clean geometrical designs, will be excited to hear about their upcoming clothing line, for which HEALTH will work with independent designers to create high-quality, hand-sewn, one-of-a-kind items.

HEALTH were a normal band until they invented (or discovered) (or re-discovered) the Zoothorn, which is a permutation of microphone and guitar pedal and which made their entire band sound newly weird.

Is there any band that everyone in HEALTH all equally admire? Jacob Duzsik (guitar / vocals): Animal Collective.

Actually, Television was a big influence when we started.

Someone was listening to your stuff over my shoulder and described your sound as 'robots fucking', would you concur?JOHN: That's pretty cool. I wouldn't have thought that at all, but I suppose its gotta be Robotech style mecha robots fucking. Unless he's picturing this passionate humanoid robot super advanced mind sex....that's a crazy-ass description.

Does the band's creative process vary, or is there a routine?JOHN: The process varies, but the most common method is by diagram. Songs start different ways but usually at some point one of us will bring in a little flow chart with a lot of explanation bubbles, and we walk through it piece by piece. It's extremely inefficient.

I mean, all previous forms of intense music are so old the reaction is built in, no matter how intense the metal or whatever you're blasting, you're mom would throw some devil horns jokingly, if that makes sense. Kids we're playing to were born in the 90s, its totally different upbringing, the way they perceive rock music or just music is completely different than previous generations, but that's also really exciting. Music is exciting right now, 2007 is so much more exciting than 1997. We should all be happy, I'm fucking jealous of young kids now, like green with envy. In '97 I was in my bedroom fucking bummed about how there were no good new bands anymore; I thought music was just over, like that's it. Now I'm perpetually fucking stoked.