Just like many rockers who grew up in the ’80s, singer
John Schmersal of the exuberant and eclectic rock group
“Enon” enjoys waxing nostalgically about the music of
the past.
“Only in the ’80s would a band like “˜Talking
Heads’ become popular,” he said in a phone interview
from Seattle.
Anyone who has heard Schmersal’s work in the short-lived
but spastically spectacular group “Brainiac” knows that
the man is influenced by the electrically charged post-punk of
yore. Now the captain of a group with similar roots but more
melodic sense, Schmersal and the rest of Enon play at the Echo
tonight.
Released in June, Enon’s last record “High
Society” is a melange of sunny melodies and gritty guitar
lines, interspersed with the delicate vocals of Toko Yasuda,
offering an diverse collection of moods. While it has an identity
of its own, true to his words, Schmersal does find pleasure in
mining the past while giving it a more modern twist. He sounds more
willing to play with his poppy influences now than in his past
pursuits in Brainiac.
“The goal was similar but it was obviously a different
band,” he said. “I feel like the direction is probably
similar, although I feel that after a couple years I wasn’t
as concerned with playing music that was necessarily rooted in
dissonance as much as it was in pop. I think it kinda goes all over
the place, but I think “˜High Society’ was the most pop
thing I would expect we would do.”
Charm is what separates Enon from standard indie rock fare, and
that charm comes mainly from the group’s adventurous nature.
That creative and inquisitive mentality is something Schmersal
might have gained from listening to the radio as a teenager.
“In the ’80s, format was thrown out the window, and
the music was all across the board, there was a lot of interesting
stuff happening,” he said. “It wasn’t just one
kind of music ““ there was a new wave, but there was all kinds
of other crap happening and it was all in the same
blender.”
“Just being kids of the ’80s and listening to things
on the radio, I would feel cheated if I were growing up being a kid
now, not knowing what I was missing,,” he added.
On the phone from his next concert stop, Schmersal says
he’d go crazy if he wasn’t on tour. The band also stays
busy recording “Song of the Month” singles on its Web
site, www.enon.tv. According to Schmersal, the responsibilities of
the band don’t come in bursts, but a constant day-to-day
flow.
“Writing songs for me is not necessarily about sitting
down with a guitar or keyboard and writing a song,” he said.
“Things do come about that way, but (the title track
“˜High Society’) I wrote on the subway. The melody just
came to me and it stuck for a long time.”
Perhaps because the music lends itself to shorter and quicker
bursts of energy, “High Society,” is more a collection
of singles than a cohesive album. But now a more experienced
musician, Schmersal is more proud of this album’s flow than
of the group’s debut, “Believo.”
“I feel like “˜Believo’ turned out exactly the
way we wanted it to, but it wasn’t like we were a band at
all,” he said. “It’s strange because I had a lot
more preconceived ideas about how I wanted that record to be, but
oddly I think “˜High Society’ seems more
cohesive.”
Enon plays with Helio Sequence tonight at the Echo at 1822
Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Tickets are $10.