Stick with me, this story has a purpose.

I got my wisdom teeth extracted in 1992, and at the time had a job at a local pharmacy in Virginia delivering prescriptions. The day I had my dental work performed, my mother drove me to the drugstore to get my codeine filled and my good friend Charles - not only the pharmacist, but a mentor in my musical evolution - was the Rx on duty that day. He came out to the car with my prescription and had an album in hand for me to borrow. The pills were for the pain, the album he said was "to accompany the mindset I may be in after I take them." That album was Galaxy 500's On Fire - and I can never thank Charles enough for the introduction to one of the 90's greatest bands, and 3 of the most talented individuals I have ever had the opportunity of admiring. Here I was in and out of alertness absorbing this music that I just knew had to be from another country, my guess was the United Kingdom at best.

So the sutures healed, and after a little research, not only did I find out that Galaxy 500 were from the Boston, Massachusetts area (America!?) - but they had disbanded a year earlier. After a brief and phenomenal four years as a band, Damon Krukowski, Naomi Yang and Dean Wareham (Luna) had done the thing only a few bands can actually be credited with: left behind a legacy of amazing work in the form of 3 complete LPs, and a handful of tapes and singles (that I have yet to find in any "bargain bin").

Here we are thirteen years later and Damon Krukowski & Naomi Yang, doing business as Damon & Naomi have set flight to the The Earth is Blue - their fifth proper LP and another slow-burning collection of the finest Cambridge, Mass. has to offer.. . within a 5,000 mile radius. The Earth is Blue also sees the duo returning to the foundation that 2000's superb Damon & Naomi with Ghost was built upon with the addition of Ghost guitarist extraordinaire Michio Kurihara. To top off the festivities, the band is releasing the album of their own imprint, 20|20|20.

If you've not followed any of the names I have listed prior, please begin the note taking now - Damon Krukowski has the best sense of what happens next.

:: sctas with Damon Krukowski February 2005 ::

+ Well, firstly, The Earth is Blue is your parting with SubPop, after a very impressive series of albums (and a CD/DVD) - what was the deciding factor to found 20|20|20?

Damon: It's probably one of the only decisions we've made in the music business that was dictated by money - we simply feel we have the chance to make more of a living from the sale of our records this way. It's a risk, cause we gave up an advance in exchange for holding on to all our rights. But so far it feels like it was the right decision.

I know self-releasing your own albums is the best way to take control of the recording / mixing situation in whole, but rights to cover songs can be a bastard - did you encounter any tangles with the rights to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"? Isn't most of the Beatles / George Harrison catalog owned by Michael Jackson!? ( it's such a wonderful version - I send you all kisses and the warmest hugs )

Glad you like it, at first we felt that it was risky to even attempt the song, much less put it on the album. But then we were all very happy with how it turned out, and I think it serves as a kind of emotional turning point in the song sequence. Did you notice the additional verse in the lyrics? That's taken from the demo version, available on the Beatles Anthology CDs (and various White Album bootlegs).
As for rights, there's actually a popular misconception about that: songwriters and publishers have no control over who records their music. It's true that you need to apply for formal permission before release (a mechanical license), but it is compulsory that they grant it - provided that you pay the proper mechanical royalties, which are a set rate regardless of whose song it is. The confusion arises because you often hear stories about problems with rights to songs in other contexts - commercials, films - but that's because once music is attached to an image, permission is no longer compulsory. And payment is no longer according to a set rate.

Well - Dean has put Luna on hold (or to her death?), a reunion or possible performance question just has to be asked.. . and I guess this is it. Any positive chance?

Sorry to disappoint! Anyway, now everyone can watch the DVD.

With that said, Damon & Naomi has made quite a name for itself over thirteen+ years, and now you have Michia Kurihara (of Ghost) as the semi-official third member. How has Michia joining the band changed your songwriting and outlook (as a band) for the future? That man can do some harm to an electric I must say!

We love working with Kurihara - he's a remarkable musician and also a lovely person. Watch for his amazing solo record, out later this year on Pedal Records in Japan! As for how he's changed our music, we still write the songs on our own, but this time we definitely had in mind from the start that when we eventually recorded them, we would put down basic tracks as a trio with Kurihara, which we did in September 2003. We had learned a lot about playing together on tour, and we wanted to use that on the album. And then he brought in an elaboration for the title track, The Earth is Blue, which is why he's co-credited as writer on that song. It's been a fruitful collaboration both live and in the studio, and we're very much looking forward to touring with him again in the US in April.

Also of note is the addition of a brass duo on nearly half of The Earth is Blue, in Greg Kelley's trumpet and Bhob Rainey's saxophone. Will either of these gentlemen be accompanying the band on tour for the album?

Yes, whenever possible, which means.. .sometimes. Greg and Bhob are part of the very active free improvisation/noise scene, and they play a lot of gigs. In April, it looks like we'll have at least one of them on tour with us almost the whole time with Kurihara - but which one might be different in different cities!

It seems that Galaxie 500 always had a larger following in other countries such as the UK & Japan, do you see this same fanbase now as Damon & Naomi? When do you plan to return overseas for a tour of The Earth is Blue?

Well that was part of the reason we felt comfortable setting up 20/20/20 for the release - we're releasing the record ourselves in the US, but internationally we've licensed it to labels in Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan. We love to travel, so we're hoping to tour behind the record as many places as possible.

You will be playing this years lineup at San Francisco's prized Noise Pop Festival, the 13th annual - is there any band you are excited to see?

I have to admit we haven't yet checked the complete line-up, though we love playing in San Francisco and so we're already looking forward to the trip. To be honest, we thought first about the bookstores and restaurants!

On a non-band related note (yet highly related of the collective), Exact Change (an independent literature publishing company owned by the duo, now in in its fifteenth year) has seen great promise and success while working with some of the most influential artists in history. To name but one - how did the (Franz) Kafka Blue Octavo Notebooks release come about?

Pretty much the same way all our books do - we realized a text that we love was out of print, and then figured out there was something we could do about it. These days, we're publishing more and more original translations, which is exciting. We just released Picasso's poems, never before translated. And we're working now on a previously untranslated book by Fernando Pessoa.

Where was the cover image of The Earth is Blue (by Naomi) taken?

That's Tangier, Morocco. Which resonates for us all the more in the current situation, cause we visited there before September 11 and the idiotic wars that followed it. As I said, we love to travel, and the idea behind the title of the album and the images on the cover is related to that - the landscape photos on the inside are taken all over the world, but Naomi linked them together so that there's one continuous horizon. We live in one world, why some people still don't seem to realize that is beyond me. Any war is a civil war.

Also on photographs - are the still of you three playing in the liners, by chance, from any of the recording sessions for The Earth is Blue?

Yes, that's from the sessions for the basic tracks. Even though there are a lot of later overdubs on the record, those sessions are the core of the album, and we wanted to indicate that in the credits and photos. That's our apartment, by the way! Kali Studios is a home studio.

Other than travel and great books - what makes Damon & Naomi happy?

Being together. (This release is scheduled for Valentine's Day, you know!)