Posted on March 4, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Hexes & Ohs

They’re not and overproduced duo from the Yacht Rock era. It’s more like finding a secret place in the land of avant-indie-pop and finding the liar of a nasty raven bring on shiny pieces of electro sounds from the sessions of “Hot Chip” and “Mixtapes and Cellmates”.  “Hexes & Ohs” is a Canadian duo are now exploring new sounds with the new release “Bedroom Madness”. We had a little SleepTalk with Edmund Lam.

Mark Zonda: How did you decided to start a musical project? Introduce our readers to Hexes & Ohs. What’s that name supposed to mean, anyway?

Edmund: Heidi’s brother and I are very old friends, we were in music class together in high school and started a Nirvana cover band. That band eventually evolved into a beatle-esque pop band which Heidi then taught herself bass to join. Heidi’s brother quit, the rest of us started another post-rock band, than that band split up leaving just Heidi and I. We decided to remain two and called ourselves Hexes & Ohs. The name was inspired by the song “Ex’s and Oh’s” from a band called On!Air!Library!, we thought the double entendre was fun so we took it and changed it a bit.

Mark Zonda: How much of Of Montreal lies in your songs?

Edmund: We get that comparison a lot, but the funniest part is that neither of us have ever heard a whole Of Montreal album. So the answer is none. I do like what I’ve heard and I see the similarity but it’s one of those bands that I’ve never gotten around to checking out.

Mark Zonda: Is Elephant 6 collective still en vogue? Were you ever interested on that scene?

Edmund: It was never really on my radar. I’ve heard some Apples in Stereo and kind of liked it, but not any more than that.

Mark Zonda: If in Montreal by mistake, what bands should we look up to, then?

Edmund: Some of our favorite Montreal bands are Pony Up! and the Winter Gloves. Just saw this female-fronted hip hop act the other day called Random Recipe, they’re pretty great as well.

Mark Zonda: “Head Over Hills” is such a magical song to me. You recently did a cover of that Tears For Fears song. Have you got any particoular memory lingering on that 80′s hit?

Edmund: Yeah, that song came out in 1985, the same year I immigrated to Canada so I associate it with that big change in my life. I’ve always loved that song. It’s one of those things from my childhood that when i revisit it as a adult, it’s still as good as I remembered, or better now that I can appreciate it on whole different levels. Some things don’t stand up so well over time, like Transformers.

Mark Zonda: “Head over Hill” also appeared on the movie “Donnie Darko”. Which is your impression on the movie?

Edmund: Never seen it, is that the movie with the soundtrack that had all those alternative rock bands collaborate with hip hop artists? I remember one with Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul. That was cool. It’s probably not that movie though.

Mark Zonda: Donnie Darko and Hip Hop? Nope.The Soundtrack is a selection of dark-wave oriented pop from 1984. “Head over Hills” has his moment. But a cover from “Mad World” too. Most of the movie take place in a shool. Talking of which… Hot Chip or Arcade Fire? Which band would you pic to cover HHHighschool and what’s the inspiration alchemy behind that song?

Edmund: I adore Hot Chip so definitely them. They’re an inspiration for us. Can’t say I’m an Arcade Fire fan but I’m proud to share a hometown with them. H-H-Highschool was actually one of the last songs we wrote for the album, we wanted to write something that was really simple where we can scream and rock-out. In the process of writing the album, we discovered that no matter how serious our songs were, our voices somehow always brought it back to sounding twee. I think that’s where “same old skinny kid from highschool” line comes from. Where’s your website based by the way?

Mark Zonda: Sleepwalking is run by writers from Italy, Uk and Sweden.

Edmund: Very cool! thanks for including in your website!

Hexes & Ohs – “Alive Until Saturnday Night”

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