Pitchfork

Photo by Amanda Merten

With Benjamin Curtis having ended his tenure with Secret Machines, the School of Seven Bells is officially in session. The Brooklyn quartet-- comprised of Curtis, ex-On!Air!Library! sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, and James Elliott (aka Ateleia)-- has plenty on the syllabus this fall, including a new EP, a Prefuse 73 collaboration, and a tour with Blonde Redhead.

"[We met] on an Interpol tour," Curtis told Pitchfork in a recent interview. Both his and the Deheza sisters' former bands were opening for the brooding NYC behemoths. "You know, it always takes a while-- bands are always so shy-- but we started talking. And we just became friends. Their thing fell apart and I was kind of moving on in my own direction too. That's just how it happened."

While Curtis says the combo has only been playing together for "maybe nine months," they already have a 7" on Sonic Cathedral, and a 12"/digital EP due September 11 on Table of the Elements. Listeners can expect "really chromatic synths...and a really visceral rhymthic context" from the songs on the Face to Face on High Places EP, according to Benjamin. "You know, and guitars. Because that's what I end up doing."

The sound apparently has Secret Machines fans divided. "I've already gotten my share of hate mail," Curtis admitted.

"It's kind of divided down the middle. [I'll] get messages like, 'I know at least 10 people that never ever buy your records now,'" Curtis offered with a laugh. "It's like, you can have those 10 people, it's all right man."

He continued: "But it's just totally different music. Fans of Secret Machines are very committed, more so than I ever thought. It's weird, it's like if you're a big fan of the hometown football team, whoever that is, and you're cheering on the quarterback and the quarterback gets traded somewhere else. And all of a sudden he's the enemy, you know what I mean? It's very much like professional sports. It's loyalty to the name, I guess, not the people."

Those hungry for beef about Benjamin leaving Secret Machines, however, should take their salivating elsewhere. Indeed, "it was the most boring split in the history of rock."

"We hang out, and they come to our shows and we go to their shows. Brandon [Curtis, Benjamin's brother] and Josh [Garza] dig [School of Seven Bells]. But I don't think they want to be doing what I'm doing either, so I think it's cool."

Due a week after the EP, on September 18, is a new single from Prefuse 73 called "Class of 73 Bells" and featuring School of Seven Bells (perhaps you caught the stream in Forkcast?). According to Curtis, Prefuse-- who has both a son, Alejandro, and a collaborative project, A Cloud Mireya, with Claudia Deheza-- "just called us up and asked us for a song. So we just did some guitars and vocals and sent it over and he did his thing on it. And it turned out really cool. It's one of my favorite things he's done."

A School of Seven Bells full-length, however, might be a little ways off. "We keep doing revisions and revisions of the record, but I don't think we're exactly there yet," said Curtis.

"We've gone through so many changes in how we sound. We're ready to do this tour with Blonde Redhead and we're going to do it fully drummer-less-- mainly kind of putting it in a totally electronic context. So we'll see; if this works out, putting it in the dance context, then we'll probably have to go back and change [the record] again!"

While the band name and song titles like "My Cabal" suggest a touch of the occult, Curtis insisted there's nothing too spooky going on. "We talk about that a lot, and there's this quality of conjuring things, but a lot of the songs are actually about hypothetical characters that we've developed.

"We've had this idea of these characters that exist in dream states, and a lot of the songs are letters, correspondences between them. And then it kind of turns into, 'Maybe they're different emanations of a similar personality?'"

Ultimately, "it's a fun thing to think about and it's a fun way to write."

School of Seven Bells' very first tour, with Blonde Redhead, kicks off September 9 in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Face to Face on High Places EP:

01 Limb by Limb
02 Face to Face on High Places
03 S.Ada.Licht

School's out:

09-07 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street *
09-10 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theater *
09-12 Columbia, MO - Blue Note *
09-13 Oklahoma City, OK - Bricktown Ballroom *
09-15 Austin, TX - Emo's (Austin City Limits) *
09-17 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club *
09-18 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theater *
09-19 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel *
09-21 Norfolk, VA - The NorVa *
09-22 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom *
09-24 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
09-25 Providence, RI - Lupo's *
09-26 Boston, MA - The Roxy *

* with Blonde Redhead