Ask any independent band to identify its influences and you’ll likely get similar answers: The Cure, The Pixies, Sonic Youth and other bands are name-dropped by seemingly every rock musician to pick up a guitar.
Yet for Portland, Ore.-based Menomena, sometimes inspiration comes through error.
“I’m probably more influenced by mistakes,” said Justin Harris, who plays bass guitar, alto and baritone saxophone for Menomena. “It seems like the highlights (of my songs) came from mistakes or parts that shouldn’t have been there.”
The acclaimed experimental band is currently on tour in support of its January release, “Friend and Foe,” and will visit Los Angeles tomorrow night at The Echo in Silver Lake. In order to understand how mistakes can become entire songs, however, it helps to know the story behind Menomena.
The group was formed when friends Brent Knopf, Danny Seim and Harris came together after various other side projects disbanded. With each musician skilled in multiple instruments, ranging from guitar to the glockenspiel, the friends began to play together, each bringing his own perspective and ideas to the table, not necessarily having any expectations for what would come next.
“Each one of us had preconceived song ideas when we first got started, but it’s evolved over the years for sure,” Harris said.
A major way the band was able to evolve was through a computer program that Knopf created called the Digital Looping Recorder or “deeler,” as it is often abbreviated.
At its core, the deeler essentially digitally records and stores various improvisations and spontaneous melodies that band members play. This allows them to go back later and pick and choose small pieces of music they find interesting.
“These kinds of spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment ideas are spawned off listening to each other’s ideas, as opposed to jamming all at once,” Harris said. “It’s like a nerdier form of jamming.”
This process of looking through so much material is where one man’s mistake can become another’s fully realized song. It was also how “The Pelican,” a track from “Friend and Foe” that Harris penned, was born.
“The song is based on a piano loop which was actually part of a piano part that Brent had played on “Boyscout’n,” Harris said.
This portion that Harris heard while using the deeler was actually one where Knopf had made a mistake and hit an incorrect chord. Harris, however, liked how it sounded and decided to flesh it out. From there, Knopf’s tossed-off mistake became “The Pelican,” a track which would not exist if it weren’t for Harris’ use of the deeler.
“Things that happened by chance ended up turning out to be more complete ideas once I paid attention to them,” Harris said.
Yet that isn’t to say the band relies on computers and electronic effects at the expense of its live sound.
“We can’t play everything that we can record, so it gets a little stripped down at times,” Harris said. “(Playing) live is more organic than the recordings, and hopefully it isn’t too far off, but far off enough to differentiate it from the recording. I enjoy when bands play well live and are not necessarily mimicking a recorded album.”
Ironically, if the band were to simply mimic its album in concert, it seems hard to believe that Menomena could ever run out of tunes to play.
“It’s nice to have all that (music) in a databank and be able to go back at will,” Harris said. “We have sort of a smorgasbord of sounds that we once created.”
What Menomena will pick from this vast smorgasbord to fill The Echo with, however, is left for concertgoers to find out. If they can find a ticket, that is ““ because for the first time in the band’s existence, shows are selling out at a steady pace.
“I think we can attribute this to Barsuk (Records) and the press, and the exposure they’ve given us,” Harris said. “Hopefully the music has something to do with it too.”