Sic Alps, not part of a party line

In the last century Mike Donovan’s guitar could be heard on a number of noise rock albums. Based in San Francisco, he got involved with a lot of groups (including the Hospitals, Delevelum, Mesh, and the Church Steps), as well as the cult band known as the Ropers. Since 2004 he has presided over the destinies of Sic Alps, a foursome devoted to musical exploration and sound explosions.

While they started off in the field of experimental rock, they have gradually broadened their horizons and tackled other electric genres (noise, lo-fi, rock, psychedelic, and garage). Over the years, Sic Alps has even made friends with melody, embracing the conventions of pop and actually using strings to accompany its songs. The missing link between the Velvet Underground and Ty Segall, Mike Donovan’s group is back with She’s on Top, an EP dedicated to girls in all their glory.

Sic Alps has often been praised for its cottage-industry approach and its involvement in the garage rock scene. Do you have the impression of belonging to a particular musical movement?
Mike Donovan: When we started, our songs had a lo-fi aesthetic that was akin to quite a few noise and garage groups. When you stop to think about it, our first recordings weren’t really songs. Our music back then was about simplicity and chaos. What’s more, we recorded our discs at home. Which didn’t help. Later, we linked up with labels that gave us an opportunity to work in a studio. That undoubtedly explains the transformation of our sound. Are we part of a particular scene? In all honesty, I would say that Sic Alps has always been upstream and downstream of movements in music: that’s where the interesting things happen. I’m more interested in the embryonic ideas and the dead ones. I never really liked being a part of a party line.

On your latest album, Sic Alps, there are string sections and lots of orchestration. How did that come about?
Donovan: Through our label, Drag City [Bill Callahan, Ty Segall, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, etc. – NA], which recommended the composer Ryan Francesconi, who has worked with Joanna Newsom. It was very easy to work with him. I think that, alongside him, we have really succeeded in taking our songs somewhere else.

You are coming to Brussels to present your latest EP, She’s on Top. All the songs on the disc have a common theme: girls. Is that your new obsession?
Donovan: It’s true that we talk of womankind, but only in terms of relationships with guys and with other girls. “Carrie Jean”, for example, describes the adventures of a destructive woman in prison. She is strong and depraved enough to control and manipulate her cellmates’ minds and hearts.

Who is the young woman on the sleeve of She’s on Top?
Donovan: Her name is Zoe. She was a member of the Diggers, a counterculture, alternative collective in San Francisco in the mid 1960s. Its activists were actually the precursors of the hippy revolution. The photograph in that illustration dates from 1966.

Sic Alps • 28/6, 20.00, €8, Madame Moustache, Brandhoutkaai 7 Quai au Bois à Brûler, Brussel/Bruxelles, www.madamemoustache.be