Interview with Oneida

July 30th, 2006 by Rachelandthecity

Brooklyn-based Oneida, consisting of drummer Kid Millions, guitarist/bassist Baby Hanoi Jane, keyboardist Fat Bobby Matador and recent addition Phil Manley of Trans Am under the moniker “Double Rainbow,” have been making their improvisational style psychedelic hard rock for close to a decade with no sign of letting up. Named for the Oneida Society, a utopian commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, NY, it’s fitting that the group would choose a man named Noyes as their muse. Almost a genre unto themselves, the band is hard to classify in neat and easy terms. Music scribes tend to throw around comparisons to Sonic Youth, but the band, who play The Hitone tonight, prefer a reference that’s a little less fashionable.

‘We played in LA with an old friend’s band called 400 Blows and the singer said we were a cross between (British progressive rock band) This Heat and The Steve Miller Band” says Millions, calling from a “lime-aid break” in Tuscon, AZ. “I think we are inspired by bands that have a long varied creative career.”

The band’s latest album, Happy New Year, is being called their most commercially viable from a long discography of records that have yet to sell enough to allow the band members to quit their day jobs, but mainstream success has never exactly been the aim of the band.

“I think that’s probably one of Oneida’s best qualities, we’re not very calculating. We’ve never been cool” admits Millions. “We just do what we’re gonna do. (Our music) is compelling for a certain type of music fan, who is really in deep and loves different kinds of things, but in terms of fashion and being a hip band, for better or worse, I don’t know if we really know the market and we’re really unwilling to compromise.”

That attitude has not only separated them from certain trends that made fellow NYC early-millinenum-breakout bands the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and The Strokes so popular, but to not allow being different just-for-the-sake-of-being-different to overpower their decisions.

“We wrote (the more dance oriented) “Up With People” in 2002 or 2003 when we were just listening to house music. We wondered if we could do something like that” says Millions. “We used to think Oneida was supposed to be really hard, heavy and abrasive but then we decided Oneida can be anything we wanted it to be.”

In terms of playing in Memphis, our fair city holds a special place in the hearts of the band, as they claim outside of New York City, they’ve probably played here more than any other city in the country, other than Pittsburg.

“Greg Oblivian (aka Greg Cartwright, formerly of The Oblivians, currently of The Reigning Sound) has been a great inspiration to us” says Millions. “Memphis music, like The Lost Sounds (has influenced us) for sure, along with bands like Can and the Beatles.”

The band tries to stop through Shangri-la Records whenever they get the chance.

“I really appreciate the (Shangri-la published) Kreature Comforts guide, I really love that approach to the city” laughs Millions. “I have a lot of respect for the town and the reverence of it.”