February 2004 saw the release of All One Surface’s debut album, Such Is The Way To The Stars. The CD is a layered and diverse collection of songs and on listening to it we decided it was time to find out what makes this band tick; so off we headed with a handful of questions, which we then fired at vocalist and guitarist, Ven Pedro.

IF: How and when did All One Surface get together?
VP: Erm, a few years ago, I can’t really remember when exactly to be honest. I’d guess 2001. There was an ad for a singer in the back of Kerrass magazine, it was close to where I lived so I replied and was amazed to find a good drummer and guitar player. They had a bass player too but he had to go. We played bad covers for a few weeks and then I started showing them some of my songs, we recruited Tris on bass a few months later and it grew from there. Bizarrely I didn’t know any of them before but I knew all their brothers in school.

IF: Where does the name come from?
VP: One of my random poems. I can’t remember it all of the top of my head but the relevant line was “…and my lies are all one surface”. We had a big list of names we liked and that one just sort of stuck.

IF: How would you describe your sound?
VP: All musicians find this question hard, it’s a lot easier to describe individual songs because as a band you are evolving constantly. Unless you are Status Quo or something. Musically we have a lot of light and shade. Lots of the songs undulate dynamically and emotionally. I sing with a lot more emotion than most male rock singers. That’s the main thing that most people notice first. We have been called emo but I don’t think that really applies. There are elements of emo in there sure, but we are influenced by a plethora of different stuff.

IF: What influences AOS?
VP: I can only really answer this for myself as the guys all have their own influences that affect the way they perform and they bring that into the practice room.

Lyrically I look more to literature and films than other songwriters, cheesy but true. Vocally I get most of my inspiration from Jazz records. There just aren’t that many rock singers who try and do interesting things with their voices. There are a few exceptions; Maynard James Keenan, Brandon Boyd and Jonah Matranga all do good stuff. Actually that’s pretty much the list of people around at the minute.

In terms of guitar playing and song writing, I’ve been doing it for so long now and my tastes have changed so much that I can’t even begin to list them all. However I will say that the main theme of “Such Is…” in terms of guitar playing is chordal modality. We don’t play any big rock riffs or solos, its been done, instead we tried to use lots of layered chords or slightly odd chords with occasional melodic overdubs. And now and then we throw in a straight forward power chord section to change things up. In more Joe Human language, the songs sound simple because we try and keep it subtle but there are hidden depths to them. Of course we recorded the album before the Darkness descended over England and now the zeitgeist has changed and people want cheesy big obvious rock riffs (by people I’m referring mainly to industry reviewers and executives).

Fuck ‘em I’m happy in poverty.

IF: How was recording the album for you?
VP: Intensive, stressful but very rewarding. I don’t know how much room you want to give me here to explain the situation. Recording, mixing and mastering 9 songs in a week was ambitious to say the least; somehow we managed it and came away with a record that has a nice sound to it. On reflection I took on a bit too much personally, I did all the vocals, 70% of the bass, more than half of the guitars, and all the synth programming as well as co-producing it all. People aren’t built to concentrate constantly for a week. It fried my brain a little.

Overall, I think it was the best we could have done at the time. I’m never happy with anything because it always sounds better in my head, but when you listen to it in context to other debut albums done by bands on pretty small labels, it’s quite impressive.

IF: What music are you listening to at the moment?
VP: Erm, okay these are the ones that just spring to mind that I’ve listened to in the last week Carina Round, Mars Volta, Copperpot Journals, Far, Jane Monheit, Fila Brazillia, Jaco Pastorious and the new Incubus album. But I’m not sure that counts cos I haven’t decided if I like it or not yet.

IF: We hear [legendary comic book writer] Warren Ellis is a fan?
VP: Is that a question? How am I supposed to know what you hear?

Well I wouldn’t quite go that far. His actual words to me where something like “I liked it, girlfriend liked it more, more her taste than mine, though the fact that I liked it at all speaks directly to the quality of your work”. He gave us a free plug on his blogsite diepunyhumans.com, which was very nice of him. I’m definitely a fan of his.

IF: What does the future hold for AOS?
VP: Whatever happens, this band will keep going until the ideas run out or we get sick of each other. None of us care about making money all that much so I think we will keep going for a long time. Our sound will change, we will play gigs and write new stuff and with a bit of luck that stuff will get released and enjoyed by a select few people with taste. I’d like to stay “underground” to use the preferred musical parlance of our times but just a bit less underground than we are right now so we can afford to not hold down day jobs.

In a fair and sane universe this will come to pass.

IF: How would you like to be remembered?
VP: That depends on who is doing the remembering.

IF: Finally, who would win in a fight between a badger with a gun and a squirrel with a toothbrush?
VP: Whichever one had to answer the most ridiculous questions in a day. Their might would be infused with the power of annoyance.

More info: www.human-recordings.com