Interview with John Schmersal
Words: Becca Nelson
Photo: Emily Wilson

Appearing:
November 9, 2007
Club Downunder, Tallahassee

November 10, 2007
Crowbar, Ybor City

November 11, 2007
BackBooth, Orlando

Enon, a quietly important rock band that’s been around almost a decade on Touch and Go, is releasing their 4th full-length album this month. After taking a significant break from recording in order to relocated to Philadelphia and set up a studio, singer John Schmersal is ready to dip a toe back into the waters of the music scene. Schmersal came into fame at an early age as member of influential but ill-fated post-punk group Brainiac (they played Lollapalooza in its heyday in 1995, worked with Kim Deal on their first Touch and Go release, and recorded with John Peel), who disbanded when keyboard player Tim Taylor died in a car accident in 1997. Schmersal has guided Enon through ten years and a prolific discography, and while finding himself a bit jaded with the current scene, is ready to take it on with the new album, a new tour and “the debt I always associate with being a professional musician.”

REAX:  One thing I love about Enon is that the music is very technically complex and layered but there is also there is an accessible, almost feminine pop feel to it. What is Enon’s concept?
John Schmersal:  Everyone in the band likes all kinds of music. I really think it’s a terrible shame when music ends up taking on one dynamic and bands get typecast. I don’t know if you would give the same description to a band like the Beatles, but I kind of feel like what we do isn’t really any newer, older, more innovative or complicated than what they were doing. I hate to compare my band to the Beatles, but it’s a good far-off point to reference because it was so long ago. I don’t think people make records that interesting anymore.

REAX:  My favorite album is “Believo,” your first, because the album is 10 years old, but the sound is so new. You are obviously ahead of your time as a musician… what do you think of what’s going on now in these pop epicenters like New York?
JS:  When I moved to New York in ’98 it was a very inspiring place to be creating music. But, it’s been very overwhelming and upsetting to be associated with what’s been happening there in the last couple of years, most of it I can’t really digest.

These days, there is ten times more music being made now. I don’t like most of what I hear, and I am sort of tired of looking. If it’s good, it will be there, and people will point me to it. Part of moving to Philly is that I’ve sort of ducked out on a personal level.

REAX:  Is there anyone one you are into these days?
JS:  I think Animal Collective are a great band… and Gang Gang Dance, they are cool and pretty interesting. It’s not that I’m disaffectionate with music, it’s just that I don’t feel the impulse to know about everything before it’s happening. Although, once I am on tour I’ll be inundated and there’s no way I won’t get back into it.
 
REAX:  Finally, you were in Brainiac when you were in your late teens to early twenties, and you’ve pretty much been in successful bands your entire adult life. How does that affect what you do?
JS:  I can’t really explain why I’ve been doing it as long as I have, it’s just perseverance, I guess. I wasn’t really planning on starting another band after Brainiac ended, in fact it was kind of strange when it did. Tim’s dad, who was a jazz musician, and who really supported us, wanted us to keep Brainiac together after Tim died, which all of us thought was really crazy. But, I realized he was coming at it from a professional standpoint, like, Hey, we’re musicians, and we play together. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

enon.tv