Eleven

ALAIN JOHANNES - GUITAR/VOCAL
NATASHA SHNEIDER - ORGAN/BASS/VOCALS
GREG UPCHURCH - DRUMS

When discussing music with Eleven's Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider, the conversation invariably turns to "The Twist Factor" - the group's term for describing unexpected tangents found in all genres of music which challenge and ensnare listeners. "If music isn't twisted to some degree," Shneider insists, "it's no good. But it still has to have a sense of elegance." "I guess you could say our ears are very stretched," adds Johannes with typically dry humor. "We listen to a lot of different stuff - classical, Indian, Bulgarian, jazz - and try to soak it in."

Iconoclastic, ear stretching, and brutally elegant, Eleven's new album, THUNK, unveils a particularly high-torque version of The Twist Factor. On their third record, the Los Angeles power trio refines the eclectic approach of two well-received earlier albums: their 1991 opus, Awake In A Dream, and self-titled 1993 Third Rail/Hollywood Records debut. "Nature Wants To Kill Me" opens THUNK on an appropriately aggressive note, with Johannes' insistent guitars and vocals driving the message home. Swirling organ and guitar hooks propel the unrelenting stomp of "Coming Down," while Shneider and Johannes trade off lead vocals to great effect. Whether weaving bright sonic tapestries (on the explosive "Why" and "Tomorrow Speaks") or exploring dark, modal epics ("Seasick Of You" and "Damned"), the group seems equally at ease in a strikingly diverse number of emotional settings. Sometimes the setting gets downright otherworldly. On "You Will Know" and "No Ground," the raspy angst of Shneider's lead vocals is equaled only by the gorgeous, eerie atmospherics of her organ playing and Johannes' gravity-defying guitar gyrations. Throughout THUNK, Shneider and Johannes reveal singing styles as different and distinct as their individual personalities, but blending these divergent elements provides the spark for Eleven's music. In producing the album themselves, they commandeer a vast range of sounds and dynamics - pristine, acoustic guitars happily mingle with roaring subsonic bass tones and electric squalls.

The evolving moods and approaches on THUNK reflect a period of transition for Eleven. Longtime friend and charter group member, Jack Irons played drums on seven of the album's 11 tracks, before leaving to join Pearl Jam. Following Irons' amicable departure, Soundgarden's Matt Cameron lent a hand to his pals in Eleven by performing on four tracks: "Why," "Seasick Of You," "Big Sleep," and "No Ground."
The album's release heralds the arrival of Eleven's newest member, Greg Upchurch. His entry comes mere months after the young drummer (and longtime fan of Eleven) moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, where he landed a job in a local music store. A fortuitous meeting with Shneider and Johannes resulted in Upchurch's rapid induction.
"He sold his drum kit to move to L.A.," muses Johannes, "and the only tape he had in his car was our previous record. We just ran into him at the store. Greg's entry is a shot in the arm. It adds some lightness, and a bit more fun overall."
Eleven's upcoming concert dates in support of THUNK will serve as Upchurch's official introduction to the group's rabid nationwide fan base. Shneider and Johannes also offer special praise to Dan Bosworth, who engineered the THUNK sessions (which stretched from November 1994 to February 1995 in Los Angeles) and successfully captured the group's creative outbursts.
"This record was not very thought out," Johannes admits. "The songs were written extremely close to the actual recording. Right up until the overdub stage, there were no lyrics."
"We had no songs in September," laughs Shneider, "and by November 11 we started recording the album. We usually like to keep it that way, because spontaneity is an essential element in every aspect of expression. We never fix mistakes in the studio; we like to go for a reckless vibe."
To keep things even more on the edge, Eleven employed a nearly unheard-of strategy in shaping THUNK: "I came up with the song sequence before we started mixing," Shneider says,
"and we mixed the songs in that order."

Their modus operandi in the recording studio vibe reflects the daring musical approach Eleven has displayed onstage during previous tours with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Candlebox.
In concert, Johannes' fiery vocals and guitar playing mesh with Shneider's multi-faceted sonic assault. "Natasha performs three jobs at once," he laughs, "organ player, left-handed bassist, and singer.
It's a lot." "But at least it's not boring!" she counters.
Presaging the widespread emergence of female rockers and riot grrrls, Shneider has been knocking out audiences for years with her gritty vocals and manic, amp-blowing musicianship. And long before "co-ed rock" became the music industry's hottest buzz phrase, she and Johannes had formed an egalitarian partnership more as a result of kismet rather than a desire to pioneer sweeping musical trends.
Johannes' youth had been spent on three disparate continents. Born in Chile, and raised in Switzerland, Mexico, and California, his pan-global musical interests reflect his unusual personal background. It seems only natural that Johannes would find a kindred spirit in his equally exotic musical compatriot.
Born and raised in Moscow, Shneider began studying classical piano during childhood (outside Eleven's environs, she is an active classical music composer), but fell in love with a wide variety of musical styles. Like other adventurous Russian teens, Shneider had to rely on a secretive network of friends to taste the forbidden fruit of degenerate Western culture: rock 'n' roll. By the time she moved to America as a teenager, she was ready for the next phase; "I was looking for someone brilliant to work with," she laughs. Until the day she walked into a sweltering Los Angeles art studio...
"I had a guitar loop running through a talkbox," recalls Johannes, "swinging the tube over my head, and she walked in the door. I had a dream a few days earlier before that a person on a swing named Natasha said that we were going to meet. She walked into this room and saw this crazy guy with a heavy coat in the middle of a hot summer day swinging a tube over his head."
"I didn't see his face," laughs Shneider, "just his silhouette against the window. And every cell of my body screamed 'that's the person!'"
"We're very lucky that we inhabit approximately the same universe," Johannes adds with a shrug. "We're always growing - almost getting where we want to go, and we're happy for awhile. Then we grow again."

For Johannes, creative exploration includes visual art and a huge variety of musical instruments. On THUNK, he plays horns, sitar, percussion, and just about any noise generating device that seems to fit the track. "I'm fascinated by new instruments," he admits, "and I keep buying them because I always want to keep that innocence, that searching that you have when you first start learning and experimenting with a new instrument." "The music must have a life of it's own, and a capacity to surprise you," enthuses Shneider; "The outcome of your work should be bigger than you expect."

With their new album, Shneider and Johannes exceed expectations - by miles. Driven by demons, exploring a labyrinthine harmonic territory bordering on the gothic, THUNK shows Eleven scaling
new heights of, umm - twistedness.