Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.

Getting to Know the Octopus Project

Photo courtesy Angel Ceballos.
Photo courtesy Angel Ceballos.

Many music-lovers probably have a list of bands they secretly wish to become friends with, or at least say, “Great set, you’re awesome!” after seeing them live. I ended up somewhere in between a few weeks ago when I talked to the members of The Octopus Project after the band's show at Plush in downtown Tucson.

Getting there was pandemonium. It almost didn’t happen. But here’s the story of how it did.

A good friend of mine is the most recent addition to Treasure Mammal, an experimental music/performance art act known locally for its invasive audience interaction, über-topical pop culture references, and their love of unicorns, wizards and unitards. Treasure Mammal was invited to open for The Octopus Project’s tour kick-off show in Tucson, and when my friend found out he could get us in free, plans were set.

I also decided to e-mail the band, one of my personal favorites, on the off-chance they’d agree to an interview with a student journalist. To my surprise, there was a new Gmail thread in my inbox the next morning: “me, Octopus Project.” Success! The weekend upgraded from “great” to “legendary.” Or so it seemed.

On Friday, the whole afternoon blurred into a tedious-but-necessary lead-up to later events. At 3:30 p.m., my friend texts that he’s en route to pick me up. My pulse quickens. A few minutes later, he calls.

Engine trouble on the Loop 101. Bad engine trouble. As in, a tow truck’s on its way. My pulse freezes, and my soul curls up and dies a little.

But, but … my interview! But, but … The Octopus Project! And not just my own dreams come untrue — what about my friend, who’s always dreamt of performing in front of a large audience?

No. No. This is simply unacceptable, we decided. It would be too easy to punk out now. We had to will this night into existence.

So new plans were hatched. Suffice it to say they only worked because of the tow truck’s prompt arrival and the superhuman generosity of my car-owning roommate. We finally left Tempe just after 7 p.m., but time was ticking. My friend’s performance started at 9:30, and we still had to meet up with a UA buddy of mine first.

We made it, but barely. My friend donned his unitard with the rest of Treasure Mammal, who shock-and-awesome’d the unsuspecting crowd.

Afterward, we exit to the patio, where the merch booths are. There, I’m faced by Yvonne Lambert, elegant theremin-rocking goddess and member of The Octopus Project with her hubby Josh (Toto Miranda and Ryan Figg round out the cast of multi-instrumentalists). I introduce myself and chat her up, probably doing more harm than good as I block fans’ access to the merchandise.

Yvonne and I agree to meet up later for a post-show interview; I tell this to my UA friend, and we equally share in the moment’s happiness. We’ve been concert buddies for years, and one of our most memorable teenaged nights was seeing Octopus Project at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix. This night, in a different yet similar-enough locale, was like a checkpoint marker in our emerging adulthoods.

I ask my concert buddy to summarize Octopus Project using a few key adjectives and mood descriptors, a la AllMusic.com (see band interview, below). His four-part response was nothing short of brilliant:

1) Hyper-literate,

2) Quirky,

3) Everything Else, &

4) “The ability to rock the shit out of wherever they go.”

Which pretty well sums up that night’s performance. Remember that awful brain freeze feeling you’d get from eating slushies too fast? An Octopus Project show has the exact opposite, positive effect on your skull.

The band is touring on their fourth LP, the 2010 release “Hexadecagon.” It began as a twice-only, massive performance last March at SXSW in their hometown of Austin, Texas. The music was written specifically for an 8-channel, surround sound speaker system, accompanied by eight videos projected around and above the audience (thus, the 16-sided name).

“All of the songs were written to be a part of that experience, and it was only after that we realized we really loved these songs, and wanted to record them,” says Yvonne Lambert. Now the band is taking the act on the road, including touring stints with DEVO in March and with Explosions In the Sky in April.

But I was just glad to see this show. My friends and I met with adversity. We overcame obstacles. We danced like maniacs to the anti-brain freeze magic of Octopus Project. And finally, at 1:30 a.m., I interviewed the band.

The following are excerpts from State Press Magazine’s exclusive interview with The Octopus Project. They are: Josh Lambert, Yvonne Lambert, Toto Miranda and Ryan Figg.

SPM: Was it a difficult process to translate Hexadecagon into album form, and then again into standard concert form?

Toto Miranda: It took a while. We’re still kind of figuring it out.

Yvonne Lambert: Yeah, we were just talking about how we could fix certain things … obviously, trying to turn an eight-speaker, surround sound song into a stereo song, there’s complications that go along with that.

TM: There are some things that just don’t work in this format, and we have to leave them as part of that one performance, and forget about them as far as regular shows go.

It seems like you guys love playing live, and that recording music isn’t the only goal for you. Is meeting other musicians on tour part of the reason why? Or is it just the joy of playing?

JL: I think [meeting musicians] is part of it, but I think we just like playing live. It’s really fun, because we’ve worked so intensely on these songs and these sounds, and then it’s a good excuse to let all the crazy energy into this room, let things develop further [to places that] maybe wouldn’t be on a record.

TM: We can be pretty meticulous about the recording: “Oh, we can fix this,” or “Oh, that can be better.” And then you get down to the show, and it kind of just is what it is.

YL: Yeah. It doesn’t matter. [laughs] Everything else melts away, and we just get to play.

You like to work visuals and sensory elements into your performances [Josh and Toto went to film school together.] Is that part of why you enjoy the live performance as well?

JL: That’s part of it too. I think it’s everything, all of it, altogether. Every time we have a chance to do something that’s crazy or colorful or fun or weird or whatever, we take it.

TM: This [the live performance] is a good collector for all the random ideas that we have.

YL: Being in a band gives us a chance to create any kind of crazy experiences or ideas that we have. And I mean, some of them fail, terribly. And some of them are great, and fun. It’s always an experiment. Everything is an art project.

I was looking stuff up for this interview today, and came across your AllMusic.com page, which hasn’t been [fully] updated in four years. So, first question: What’s up with that?

YL: I don’t even know what that [Web site] is.

TM: More like, ‘SomeMusic.com’…

That’s on the record.

JL: Yeah, you’ll have to put a smiley face in brackets, to show we’re joking.

Our technology is pretty good over at State Press Magazine. I think we can do that.

YL: I actually still don’t know what that is.

JL: It’s okay, we haven’t done anything notable in four years. Once we do something that’s worthy of AllMusic.com …

Anyway, they try to tag the mood that each band creates. I decided to look at your band’s list of moods, and it was the most insane list I’ve ever seen.

YL: Really? What was it?

SPM: It was just a list of paradoxes — everything from quirky, sophisticated …

YL: I like that!

… complex, playful …

YL: Nice!

… brooding, “not brooding,” basically …

YL: Exactly!

Do you like it that you stumped AllMusic.com? What is your mood? Give me your top 20 moods …

TM: Wall.

YL: Clock. Robot.

That’s a lot of nouns.

JL: Pristine.

Do you guys create your songs from moods and emotions, or does it come from somewhere else?

JL: We kind of just get excited about a song or an idea and go from there. There’s no real map that we’re following. It’s just, “Hey, this sounds cool, let’s work on this.”

TM: It doesn’t start with mood, but the stuff we end up being excited to work on is stuff that maybe conjures [emotion] up. That’s not really the intent in creating [our music], but that’s the reason why it works.

YL: That’s a good answer.

Yeah, it’s a lot better than “brooding, not brooding…”

TM: [laughing] Hey, sometimes I brood, sometimes I don’t — what to you want?

Is there anything else you want to tell the ASU student body? There are 70,000 of us, and we’re bored.

JL: Do your homework!

Hmm … something better?

TM: Don’t do your homework!

JL: …Brood!

YL: Don’t brood!!

JL: Either way, you can listen to our record while you’re doing it.

Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu


Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.

Subscribe to Pressing Matters



×

Notice

This website uses cookies to make your experience better and easier. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.