|
Allston’s psychedelic wonders, 28 Degrees Taurus recently
released their latest EP, Post Midnight Thrills. They are the sparkling star of
space rock in the indie scene. I had the pleasure to sit down with Jinsen Liu
and Karina DaCosta at Charlie’s Kitchen not that long ago.
Deli - What is
the story behind your song, “Jagershots”?
Karina DaCosta-
What a masterpiece that is. There’s a very long back story to that.
Jinsen Liu – It’s
played on the radio a lot. Official drink of our band. We drink a lot of Jagermeister.
KD – Jinsen likes
Jager, he wrote a song about Jager, we sing about Jager.
JL– We drink bottles of Jager on our tour.
KD – I have seven
bottles of it at my house from my birthday party.
JL – Our
aspiration is to become sponsored by Jagermeister. That is the height of our ambitions.
I just want to be a Jager band and have a Jager bus on the Jager tour. It’s a
party anthem.
KD – [to
waitress] – Can we have three Jagershots please?
JL – Oh god.
K D– I mean, we
might as well.
Deli – Where did
you guys get the name?
JL – 28 Degrees Taurus is the location of the Pleiades cluster.
KD – [to Jinsen] Wait,
adjust your glasses while you do this.
JL – Supposedly, there
is a planet with all blonde humans. I
have a fetish for blondes.
KD – Like you.
Right now he is thinking about you naked.
Deli- laughs awkwardly....
JL – Wouldn’t
that be great to have a planet with all blondes?
Jager arrives....
J,K, Deli –
Cheers, we worked hard all day.
Deli – How did
you meet?
KD – I can’t
remember if we met at the All Asia or no,no,no, it was that place in JP (Jamaica
Plain).
JL – The Milky
Way.
KD – I just
remember he sang a song and I liked and was like I liked that and said I think
you know my boyfriend Paul.
JL – It was
weird.
Deli - When was this, 2005?
J L– I was August
4th, 2005 when I met her. That was the exact date.
KD – The best day
of his life, the worst day of mine.
J L– My friend
Barry introduced me to this girl Karina and a couple days or weeks later. I
sang Moments, Phases, and Timing.
KD – You sang it
that night, I really liked it, it was really cool. But mainly I was like, look
at this little Asian guy singing, I’m gonna complement him. I thought he was
gentle and meek.
JL– We all met at
an open mic, me met all our friends in our current scene in an open mic . At
the All Asia open mic. We were all meeting and starting bands then, they all
kind of formed at the same time.
KD – I didn’t
think you thought anything of me musically then, I didn’t really do anything. I
didn’t sing yet. I just bullshitted around. I played cello for him first.
JL– The was this
side project called Red Skies and that happened for a few months and then she
wanted to be in 28 Degrees Taurus and I said…
KD– No, no…He was
looking for someone to sing because he couldn’t “rock out” hard enough and sing
at the same time. So I didn’t say a word and he started posting ads for
singers. The way I saw it, we had been hanging out a lot and I was like, it has
to be me. I wish I could take this moment back. Because he was like, are you
sure you can handle being in a band with me and I was like, yes! Fine!
JL– I knew it
would be a strain on our friendship because I would demand a lot out of whoever
had that slot in the band. I knew everything coming up and I knew it would be
really demanding for her and the friendship would change.We became
legendary in Allston for all the fighting.
Deli – What do
you mean?
JL – We are
Allston’s version of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. We are notorious for
fighting on stage.
Deli – What was
one of the more memorable fights?
JL – There was
this time we played Zuzu, it was great show. Everyone was drunk. She forgot her
lines…
KD – No, no…you
played it wrong, motherfucker! You played it wrong!
JL – Oh no, here
we go.....
KD –Greg and I
are looking at each other like, what the hell do we do?
JL– So I put my
guitar down, figured we’d cut our losses.
KD – No, we were
both wasted, that’s the bottom line.
JL– Don’t know
what happened, but she came running across the stage and punched me in the face then I threw my beer at her and it hit the wrong
person…there’s lots of stories. It was like 2008, it was just this whole year,
the fights were happening non-stop and there was stuff happening off stage for
both of us. Our drummer [Greg Murphy], who had been my drummer for four years
in the 90’s was wondering what the fuck was going on. He didn’t get the
chemistry. It took him a while.
KD – He’s the
best drummer we ever played with. Greg is by far the best naturally talented
drummer I’ve ever seen in my life.
JL – I remember
asking him if he was ready for this. I was like, being the drummer in this band
is probably one of the most demanding jobs in all of Allston.
Deli – Where are
recording your next album? What studio?
JL – We are
recording it ourselves by default. We spent too much money. We spend all our
profits on Jagermeister. We had 25 songs after a year and we recorded it all
ourselves. We were happy with it because
we recorded the first record by ourselves and we liked that .
- Meghan Chiampa
http://www.thedelimagazine.com/burlington/artists/28degreestaurus/
|