Bark Bark Bark's sound is a cocktail of electronic drumbeats, synthesizers, random samplings from old Nintendo games and maybe a little LSD.
Jacob Cooper, the 20-year-old creator of the one-man experimental rock band from Tucson, says he created Bark Bark Bark as a solo effort because, "I prefer to make music on my own. This was something that I couldn't really do with a band."
Cooper's admiration for music began when he was about 7 years old. "My dad worked at a record store, and I was constantly around music," Cooper says. "I would sit and listen to my old man's cassette tapes."
Cooper began to make music of his own when he was 12, after he received a four-track for Christmas. "[I started recording] really simple stuff, like guitar riffs and mixes with my drum machine," Cooper says. "I would just create 15-minute symphonies of random shit."
At 15, Cooper began playing music with garage bands but didn't do much live performing until he created Bark Bark Bark a few years later.
Bark Bark Bark's raw sound arises from instruments Cooper borrows from friends and "whatever is lying around," he says. "I mix everything on a computer, but it comes together by accident most of the time."
Indie record label Retard Disco, which has worked with the likes of Gravy Train!!! and other dance-worthy bands, released Cooper's full-length album, "Haunts," in May 2007.
With contrasting tracks like "Tattoos" and "One Thing Stands," it's difficult to fit Bark Bark Bark into a pre-packaged genre. The understated music in "Tattoos" serves as a background to quirky but mellow vocals that tell of showing off biceps. "One Thing Stands" begins with mixed beats, synthesizers and fast vocals about God-only-knows-what.
"I work with so many types of music and people that it's really hard to put a label on it," Cooper says.
On the band's MySpace.com page, Cooper describes the sound as "a monotone Beck, a darker Deerhoof and a disjointed Liar's record."
Since the release of "Haunts," Cooper is focusing on touring the West Coast and "spreading the gospel," he says jokingly.
Bark Bark Bark has shared the stage with popular indie bands like Of Montreal and Architecture in Helsinki, and local electronic band Peachcake.
Chemistry senior Nicolas Dionisio, a fan of Bark Bark Bark, says that the show attracts a diverse audience.
"[They're] pretty much hit or miss," he says. "There's either a really good turn out or like five teenagers mumbling in the crowd."
Though Bark Bark Bark is currently a solo effort, plans to involve other musical influences are in the making. "I want to be able to work with bigger people and make [my music] more of a collaborative thing," Cooper says.
But because Bark Bark Bark just finished touring, there are no plans to play live shows in the near future, Cooper says. "I want to work on writing a new record," he says.
Cooper says it seems that musicians can go two different ways. "One way is to start working with labels and management that will put you in the right place at the right time," Cooper says. "But I want to use my drum machine and make fuckin' dumb songs. I want to have creative control over everything."
Reach the reporter: megan.pantak@asu.edu.
