reds started in 2002 in a small apartment in rural Elburn, IL. John moved back to Elburn from Champaign after a summer tour in 2001 with The Firebird Band and a brief stint playing bass in The Blackouts. He met Eriq late one night after watching a documentary on the Manson Family.
Initially freaked out by the situation, they quickly moved on to start playing acoustic music together. Eriq had previously played in bands such as Plagues of Jezebel and Axe Murder Process throughout the Chicagoland area, situated from the infamous "White House" days of punks and hangers on. Eriq had built up a studio in his apartment on the property of the local church.
John and Eriq started out writing mostly acoustic songs with simple drums. John and Eriq played only one show under the name, "The Insects" at Mike n' Mollys in Champaign in 2002. Cancelling a second show, John and Eriq concentrated on changing and expanding the sound.
Late night sessions at the studio and the addition of a '77 Rhodes and the Korg Triton saw the first inclination toward electronic textures. One song from this period, "She says she's fine" would eventually be included on GCAP's Artists Against AIDS compilation, "Give it up, Hand it down, Put it on" put out in 2006.
Eriq introduced John to the Roland mc505 and the first steps were cemented. With time and practice, "blips and bleeps" started to form songs. Two demo songs from this time period ended up contributing to The Firebird Band's album, "The City at Night," 'Next Wave' and 'Satellite Delay'.
Hours and hours of songs and material for reds were written, much of it never performed or played outside of the studio.
After The Firebird Bands' tour of the US and Canada, on which Eriq was the Sound Tech, John and Eriq started getting the word out and formulating the sound to come. With the first set lined up and the first show booked, reds set out on the electro path.
As with many things, trial and error were the order. Shows proved difficult as the mc505 became unreliable in tuning, causing much chaos on the stage and in trying to keep the sound together, balancing not just an out of tune mc505, but a Korg Triton, a Realistic Moog, guitars, bass, vocals.
While some shows would go off well, others would descend into chaos. A Goth show at The IMC in Urbana proved to be rather infamous as it ended in a thrown bass and walking off after the fourth song.
Over time and with additional patience, John and Eriq regrouped and with a new and improved sequencer, the Roland mc 909, the sound expanded and hit on new highs as tuning wasn't a problem anymore. John and Eriq could focus more on mixing and mastering the sounds and working on allowing everything to fit together. Reds was able to be mixed mostly live by John and Eriq which added a new dimension of control.
Reds has been a process as improving the live sound, additions of better monitors, use of space, lighting have been experimented with. Reds has gone through at least a few incarnations, from the early days of electro goth, to the 80's new wave vibe, to minimalist french house, to the more current embrace of euro disco pop.
We've been working on a record for at least three years and should have something coming to fruition at some point.
It's understandable to say the least that most people don't really know what to make of it. We don't always either. We will say that we have been working on keeping things new and fresh in our minds, ears, hearts. This project has gone through as much frustration and exhaustion as anything else but we'll keep trying to get it right. Who knows what the future has for reds but we'll keep going on. See you then, j
