Interview With Boy Harsher
Caught up with the amazing Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller of Boy Harsher before their performance at Milky’s in LA. I was super stoked about this one because Boy Harsher were one of the very first interviews in Issue One, all the way back in 2021! So it was cool to hang in person and catch their live show. Their new album, Get Mean, is out September 18th on Nude Club / Atlantic. Link.
Photos by Max Flick for Synth History. Without further ado...
Synth History: What were some of your favorite albums growing up and do you ever go back to them? Some early stuff?
Jae: I actually just kind of went down this road because I did a friend's radio show and we were trying to break it down by vocal influence.
So as a child, my mom went through a divorce, and her divorce music was Annie Lennox. I naively didn't know about Eurythmics until much later in my life, but I knew Diva and Medusa. Those albums, respectfully, were really important to me when I was in grade school. I just remember being in the car and listening to my mom singing, “No more I love yous...”
Then later on, a surprising one maybe, but I do revisit this album because it's amazing–The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It's such a sick concept album and every single song is a banger. There are albums where you love them a lot, but there are still songs you skip. I don't skip a single song on The Miseducation.
I’d say, I didn't really get into synth music until I met Gus. Famously, the first time I heard New Order was at one of your parties [to Gus]. I didn't know about Depeche Mode or Ministry, and I didn't meet Gus until I was an adult woman! Like 22 or something. That was a little embarrassing. Another funny one to bring up is Crosby Stills, Nash and Young.
Synth History: I've been going through a real phase of [Crosby Solls, Nash and Young] lately.
Jae: I mean, those guys you can just revisit. I feel like Neil Young could be dictating the world's most boring grocery list and I would listen. I love his voice. He has such a crooked way of singing that is super inspiring, too, this caliber of sharp darkness. And then later on in high school, I got really into Cat Power. I revisit Moon Pix once every couple of years. Chan Marshall is an amazing songwriter. I wish I could write a song as good as “Metal Heart”. There's so many, actually. The Glow Pt. 2 by The Microphones. Ohio, I’m always listening to Magnolia Electric Company. I guess all my picks pre-Gus are kind of rock.
Gus: From age five to 10 my dad and I bought soundtracks. We had a lot of soundtracks in the car. We had the Night At The Roxbury soundtrack. [We were] kind of slamming house, late 90s and 00s house, “Rhythm of the Night” is on that. I heard that at age five. Obviously, they’re all still very solid to me.
Jae: Just imagining you dancing along with that as a five year old is so cute.
Gus: What's that John Cusack movie, where he's a hitman–Grosse Pointe Blank. He's a DJ who's also a hit man. We had that soundtrack. There's a lot of new wave on that one. There’s that Tones on Tail track, “Go!” It's almost a little Manchester, but cool kind of new wave. That was big for me. And then The Wedding Singer soundtrack. A great little sampler of 80s music I was listening to really young.
Synth History: How did you guys first meet and start making music together?
Gus: We met at the party Jae was talking about earlier in Savannah. We were throwing parties and shows and Jae was at one of them. She was making a film and I wanted to work on the film. I ended up doing art direction for it, as an assistant production designer. I just loved the sort of stuff she was making. She was really driven and had a really cool style and liked a lot of references that I liked, and liked stuff I didn't know of yet. And yeah, I think I just wanted to work with her. She was making these video shorts and I offered to score them.
Jae: I mean, it got to this point, though, because we were throwing shows together. Gus also, in addition to synth music, introduced me to noise music. I grew up really sheltered in upstate New York, so this whole noise thing was a complete mystery to me. And as someone who grew up in Western Mass, the noisy and proud, [Gus] was booking all these people from the Northeast to come through and play in this gallery we were running. We were running out of local support options, and I remember one day, Gus was like, “You know, what if we showed some of these films, the VHS films you're making, and I'll score it, and you’ll read some of your prose on top?” And so that really, truly was the genesis of us working together in a more musical capacity.
Synth History: What was the first piece of gear that each of you got–or a go-to? Doesn't have to be a synth per say.
Gus: The high school I was going to had a music room and they had a MC-303. I don't know how it ended up there. No one used it.
Synth History: No way!
Gus: I borrowed it and never returned it.
Jae: [laughs]
Synth History: [laughs]
Gus: But that one was perfect because it’s a really cheap little synth, but it's a sampler of all of these different Rolands and different drum kits. It basically had all this music history baked inside of it. At the time I had no idea what it was, but I just discovered a synth.
Synth History: Have you used it on any Boy Harsher stuff?
Gus: Yeah, definitely. We've got the MC-505, which we talked about in Issue One. It’s the bassline all over Lesser Man.
Jae: I’m not too precious about gear, but the Voice Live rack is one element of my kit that I’ve become very attached to. I got really into rack gear being my vocal setup. Usually vocal pieces are all pedals, but the racks are so fun and you feel like you're up there doing some type of calculus.
Synth History: That’s cool you use it live!
Jae: I do. We actually don't use it in the studio. So it's just for live.
Synth History: When it comes to writing and recording music, do you guys have a process that you stick with or does it change based on the album that you're making?
Jae: This time we did it differently. We did it mostly separately in the beginning. I was traveling a lot, and so I would wait for Gus to send me instrumentals and I would try to figure out if I could do anything on top–figure out the tone of my voice with his bassline, because he would always start with a bassline and a pad. I would, in the most DIY-like approach, record some scratch, send it back [to Gus] and he would kind of determine whether or not to keep moving forward with the song.
Gus: You know, make a beat, send it to her. See if there was something working and then expand on that. I guess this time it’s unique because we did it remotely.
Synth History: Your visuals are always very cool, and I feel like they expand on the story of your songs. How important do you think accompanying visuals are for your music? And as directors yourselves, are visuals something you keep in mind whilst writing?
Jae: I think [Gus] should answer that, because both “Jeans” and “Heartbeat” are our latest videos, and the concept began with this visual moment that Gus was experiencing, right? Like “Jeans” very early on, [Gus] was like, “I want line dancing, latex, girlies, saw lady in a tile room with a leg brace.”
Gus: I think making visuals for a record is more like a privilege. You want to make as many visuals as you can for a record. But it's like, do you have the means? You know, our first album, a couple albums, we would make art around it and design around it, and that was important, but they don't really have any other visuals. I think we think [visuals] are important, but as our career goes on, we have more dreams and–yeah, I think we would make a music video for every single song if we could.
Synth History: Before I asked what your favorite albums were growing up, and this is kind of a different question. I ask a lot of folks in the zine this, but a lot of times it’s via email so there’s some time to think. What is one album you think everyone should listen to at least once in their lifetime, apart from your own?
Gus: My instinct would be, right now on the spot, Brian Eno - Another Green World.
Synth History: Nice.
Jae: Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden. Only because to me, that album really represents the way you can transform after being this huge radio pop star. Mark Hollis famously was like, “No, actually, I need to create this fucked up weird music that doesn't make sense.” And I really admire that. But there's so many albums that I want people to listen to.
Synth History: What are some films you think everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime?
Jae: I think this [question] weirdly is easier because it’s the way we synthesize our taste. I would say Blood Simple, Coen Brothers' first film.
Synth History: That one is so good, I went through their filmography during the pandemic in order!
Jae: Oh, I love that. So you were able to see the evolution. That one's really good. It's the best. It's one of my favorite neo-noirs. I'm not gonna say it's the best [neo-noir], but it's really fun to watch. And I love young Francis [McDormand]. Then I would also say Crash by David Cronenberg based on the J.G. Ballard novel. I would also say Possession by Andrzej Żuławski, which sadly they're remaking. Why?
Synth History: I wish [studios] would remake movies that weren't good when they came out, but Possession is so good.
Jae: Isabelle Adjani.
Gus: I think if you want to understand us, those are for you.
Synth History: For your latest record, was there anything in particular that was inspiring you when you were writing the songs for it?
Gus: I mean, the guitar was a real inspiration for me. We had tracked the entire record and used a thousand different synths and we were still trying to take the songs to the next level. I just saw a guitar in the studio we were at. I was like, “I'm gonna try that.” Re-recorded some of the songs and replaced the leads with it.
Synth History: Any other gear on the new record you could name drop for the Synth History readers?
Gus: We used a lot of Ensoniq stuff.
Jae: Do you know that guy in New Bronfels?
Synth History: Oh yeah, Syntaur! You guys been in there?
Jae: Yeah, and it was like kismet. We got this somewhat random offer. We know this guy named Jesse Beaman, who was working with Syntaur, and he invited us to come down and use any piece of gear we wanted. He has the biggest catalog of analog and vintage synths. It was really amazing and we were drawn to Ensoniqs, mostly.
Gus: Yeah and I love Ensoniq sounds. And I guess he was an old programmer [for Ensoniq]. I like the old digital synths because they're so unique. It’s almost like crate digging. You're finding weird little memories from the past.
Synth History: Last question, if you could give one piece of advice to your younger selves, or aspiring musicians and filmmakers, what would it be?
Gus: I regret shooting my earlier stuff on camcorders and stuff. I wish I would have taken it a little bit more seriously. Like, don't do lo-fi for a second.
Jae: I think my advice... I was talking to my friend the other day–I live in the past and future, and I haven't figured out how to live in the present. We've toured endlessly now for years. And you really take that for granted. I can acknowledge that there are so many special experiences that I've had, but I don't remember the details.
So my advice would be: just take the notes, keep the diary. We played a show in Cairo and I wish I went home that night and wrote down what happened, because now it would be so valuable for me to return to and read my little notes and experiences. You forget things immediately. I do at least. So I wish that I kept better notes or a diary.
Synth History: Is there anything else you want to add for readers?
Jae: Get Mean comes out in September!
Synth History: Thank you guys!
Synth History Exclusive.
Interview conducted by Danz.
Photos by Max Flick.
As part of Issue Six.
