When Long island native Sharon Topper met former farm boy Craig Flanagin and local Gnosticism enthusiast James Garrison in the Gertrude Stein section of a New York bookshop, the central nucleus of the God is My Co-Pilot band was formed. Full of enthusiasm, the fledgling outfit recruited percussionist Michael Evans to their ranks. A few weeks later, Topper fell deeply in love with beautiful student and model Siobhan Duffy, whom she had often seen hanging around her local neighbourhood. Duffy accepted the band's invitation to be their drummer, and history was made.
Since then, God is My Co-Pilot have grown in strength and number. Eight albums (nine if you include their Knitting Factory live album) and a plethora of seven inch releases in only a short number of years; the band's membership itself swelling to gargantuan proportions as an approach towards collectivity is explored. Friends and fellow musicians - some trained, some not - seemingly take turns at making cameo recording appearances. New York luminaries such as John Zorn, Anthony Coleman, and Elliot Sharp have all guested; these artists of the "avant garde" joined by indie-rock talents such as Jad Fair, Catpower's Chan Marshall, and the Boredoms' Yoshimi P-We. Sharon Topper, purveyor of lyrics and vocals, and musical director Craig Flanagin are the only members of the band to have played on every record. Such wide ranging musical input means that God is My Co-Pilot's output is always changing, always sounding new, reflecting the impetus of changing personnel. Yet a stylistic continuum can be identified in the persistent themes and modes of expression employed by the band: mish mashed rhythms, intensive drumming, scratchy guitar playing, jazz mutation, disco intensity, Topper's playful catalogue of sexual desire are all persistent motifs - yet it is the band's sheer dexterity and sonic variety which is their most defining musical feature.
Thematically, gender and sexuality are issues continually explored by the band, who are openly queer - song titles, record covers, inserts, lyrics etcetera have all used the language of sex or sexual politics for artistic expression. Here it is worth quoting at length from Flanagin's sleeve notes to the 1993 album Straight Not: "We're not a direct action group, we're a band, and our music is what we have to offer. For that reason. We wouldn't want our songs to be nothing but "La La La I love you," but let's face it, there are better ways to say "the workers must seize control of the means of production" than over a heavy backbeat. If you need a message, how about: so much noise in the world, so much sex. so many amazing things, and nothing happens that doesn't contradict itself in the happening. I think I will dance now."
Another persistent thematic exploration is that which concerns the nature of language and translated text, and how these notions relate to cultural perception. Songs are sung in a variety of languages thanks to Topper's linguistic dexterity, alternative cultures are appropriated with absolute sincerity: "We're probably not the best expression of our grandparents' hopes, but their best hope was not to end up as quaint museum pieces or speakers of a dead language! Finnish folk song and Kalevala verse is wild: sexy, funny, violent, surprising, and in love w/ the sound of its own voice. We should pull these things out and dress them up in our new clothes, not file them away under "tradition" and forget about them..." On Mir Shlufn Nisht, for example, an album of "Finnish-Yiddish field recordings", a whole range of musical instruments - from violin to saw - are employed in order to authenticate their musical forays.
This environment for fertile collaboration which such an approach engenders has found a perfect outlet in the band's own label, The Making of Americans. It is an outlet for many of the band's members' numerous guises, as well as for other bands from the New York area. Core God is My Co-Pilot members have featured on records by Jad Fair, Bugout Society, and Growing Up Skipper. Sideprojects include Math Club, Pope Joan, The Dragonfleas; and Craig Flanagin and Canadian artist Fly have recently started the "squatcore" band Zero Content, and have just recorded a fifty song demo tape, Fucking Demo.
The most consistently deployed alter ego, though, is the beautifully whimsical outfit the Hattifatteners, a band made up of God is My Co-Pilot members playing total Moomincore. That is, the band's two EPs thus far, Vogue Bambini and Constantly on the Move With... (as well as their forthcoming album, which includes guest appearances from Yoshimi P-We and Syd Straw, among others...), reconstitute in a musical form the literary works of Finnish Moomins author Tove Jansson (who is said to be a lesbian).
What Moomincore encompasses is rather vague... Dark Beloved Cloud's Douglas Wolk defined the movement for us in terms of a Hattifatteners' all time best list:
"1. Tove Jansson 2. Liquorice in our pockets and cream our coffee 3. Moomincore 4. Snorkstelpan and little My 5. The Blue Lagoon and Strokkur 6. The Hattifatteners' credo "All small beasts should have bows in their tails.""
As for their music, it is far more melodic than the familiar rhythmic intensity of God is My Co-Pilot. Indeed, Topper has described the Hattifatteners as "a very musical band, our whimsical alter egos playing Moomincore songs." (Muppet Voice). The Hattifatteners add one more level to the rich sonic armoury of God is My Co-Pilot who, the more you hear them in different contexts, on different records, the more they seem to offer... I recently interviewed Sharon Topper in order to find out more about the disparate musical facets of her band.
AU: Are God is My Co-pilot part of a "scene" - or are you unique?
ST: We're part of the Glasgow music collective, NYC avant-jazz, East Village homegirl, homocore, riot grrl, Jewcore, Squat or Rot scene.
AU: As an extension of this, there are those who regard your music as some sort of fusion of an alternative/counter cultural aesthetic with the neoclassical/contemporary avant garde. What do you think of this particular definition?
ST: Sure, I'll buy that.
AU: What sort of message or manifesto are you trying to convey through your music?
ST: Fun. sex, pleasure, queer theory, life theory, how to be, I am not this body, speed yr trip...
AU: Are there any cover versions which you would particularly like to do?
ST: We've always covered songs. We feel that we come from a tradition of folk music. Reworking old favourites and even "covering" our own songs differently each time we play them. We recently covered Totally Wired by the Fall for a Fall compilation record called Dead Beat Descendants on Dark Beloved Cloud records
AU: All of your albums have been released on CD, does this reflect a preference for the format or is it financial?
ST: Both. I love vinyl, but most of our albums are too long for that format and while I would really love to release each album on all formats, we've never been in a financial position to do that. CDs make more sense because they hold more music, they're cheap to make and have a higher markup. There's also much more of a demand for CDs compared to vinyl.
AU: How are you received in New York? Do you play there very often?
ST: We play every two weeks when we're in NYC and we have ever since we started in 1990. NYC is a reaily transient city where lots of students and tourists come and go, so we always have some new audience as well as regulars.
AU: God is My Co-pilot are amazingly prolific. Do you find the urge to culturally propagate simply overwhelming?
ST: Its the urge to work through ideas and not to create "the perfect song" so much as to apply different ideas to old songs and to create new songs within the framework and rules of the new idea.
I was always interested in the way American and British pop music reaches/assaults non-English speaking countries and kids around the world; and the way bands in non-English speaking countries sing in English out of necessity/accessibility. Kids in non-English speaking countries have always been forced to either learn English or mumble along with their favourite records. I love to sing in Finnish and have loads of kids ask me to teach them the Finnish words so they can sing along. Then I'll provide the English translation in the booklet so they can read the brilliant text. The new language I'm learning now is sign language! I love it and am trying to sign as I sing. My deaf teacher and his girlfriend even came to one of our shows!
AU: Are there any British bands that you like? Do you have a musical affinity with any of these bands?
ST: I love Laika and PJ Harvey and Dawson. Laika are working on a remix of our song QDA. I love dance music and can't wait to hear our songs transformed into house hits! Dawson rock hard and are the sweetest guys (everybody has a crush on Jer). The musical affinity is so clear that it doesn't even need to be discussed - just check out their records.
AU: Did you enjoy your most recent gigs in Glasgow, the Sausage Machine, and Rough Trade?
ST: Glasgow is the coolest city to play in next to NYC. The scene there is so warm and homey. We always feel like we're visiting our own people there and always have a fantastic reception. The Rough Trade shop shows are the biggest challenge and always terrify me. There's no stage, no dim lights to hide behind, not enough room for more than an abbreviated version of our set-up and the audience is right there in your face - there's no ignoring them!
AU: Did you like your London support bands Lollyshop & DT?
ST: We chose those bands so, yes, we like them and love to play with them. In fact, last fall we paid to bring Lollyshop to Amsterdam to play a show with us there! I think that qualifies us to be president of their fan club.
AU: Which other music have you been listening to recently... and which film makers do you like?
ST: We like Galen, Duotron, and Bjork. I like that animated Alice move by that Czech director [Jan Svenkmajer], and I like the moves of NYC film maker Annie Stanley.
AU: Which musics have you been most influenced by?
ST: Finnish folk music, Yiddish music, Bhangra, Hindi film music, dance, traffic, every sound we hear...
AU: Are there any childhood memories or experiences which have had a profound affect on your music?
ST: Some of the Hebrew songs I learned as a child have stayed with me. Also, the French torch songs and even the corny Broadway show albums my dad always listened to have influenced me - my dad always said the best singers were the ones that could belt it to the back rows! Me and Ethyl Merman!
AU: What do the members of God is My Co-pilot do when not being God is My Co-pilot?
ST: I can't figure that out! That's all I ever do.
AU: Why was there such a delay between the recording of the matenal for the Mir Shlufn Nisht album and its release?
ST: Ask John Zorn!
AU: Is it true that there is to be an album of Mo' Wax remixes of God is My Co-Pilot songs? And I've also heard about some Japanese reissue CDs which will feature additional live material... do you have any information?
ST: Mo' Wax will release a DJ remix of Rubber or Leather. Also, there are remixes in the works of different trax by Laika and E#. The bonus trax from Meldac Japan will appear on later issues of The History of Music series, our series of records which will compile all of our 7" vinyl records, compilation trax and miscellany. The History of Music Volume I and IIwill be out soon. These are mostly our early 7" singles. Volume III will be our three Peel Sessions!
AU: Do you have any other new releases forthcoming - or is all quiet in that respect?
ST: Never quiet! We just installed a drum kit, Macintosh, and a DAT in our living room so there's much more manipulation on the way. Next is our beloved Puss O2 with the beautiful vocals of Chan Marshall from Catpower singing with me as well as the cat screech of Yoshimi P-We from Free Kitten.
AU: I gather you've also been working on some more Hattifatteners songs recently...
ST: We're not sure which label will release it yet. We've been accumulating songs for the album slowly. I think of the Hattifatteners as something really precious, the mood I want to convey is a really delicate one. Imagine some creature so delicate and vulnerable and beautiful, full of colour and bloom like the kind of small flower that is vividly coloured with no smell and as soon as you pluck it, it dies.
PO Box 490,
Cooper Station,
New York, NY 10276,
USA.
Interview, discography and introductory text by Andrew Utterson, with the assistance of Douglas Wolk and ML Compton. Many thanks to Sharon Topper for her time.
Date created: 28 February 1996 Last modified: 12 June 1997