For this new section of keyCMND, we are introducing a monthly feature of an artist we are excited about or have been totally into ever since their tunes crossed our ears. They may come in the form of an interview, or an editorial piece, or a series of photographs, because its the internet, and we can do what we want. We hope to continue expanding our coverage to fit more pieces such as this one.

Recently, keyCMND scribe Giovanni De La Cruz had the privilege of spending part of his afternoon speaking to Daniel Martin-McCormik of San Francisco’s Mi Ami. They conversed about the origins of Daniel’s band after Black Eyes disbanded, the group’s new album, Steal Your Face, and the state of America and how it relates to Mi Ami’s continually challenging music.

keyCMND: Your band started out as a two-piece. How did the band evolve into getting the last piece of the puzzle?

Daniel Martin-McCormik: We were playing as two piece and it was going pretty good for awhile, but we had this sort of idea when we started that it would be kind of like disco or something like that. You know we listen to a lot of Detroit techno, house, and disco and [wanted to] kind of be this amalgam of like dance genres that we were into. So we used drum machines, live percussion, guitar, keyboards and stuff. Then the band started to form its own identity. We were losing patience in our own set up. Our drummer didn’t have a kick drum and we had a drum-machine going with us.

So he was just playing snare and cymbals?

Yeah, and rotary toms and toms and we had the drum-machine going with the rest of the beat, and we wanted to play the beat on our own after a while, so we added a kick drum and we realized we still needed more of a full sound. Anyone that has played in a band with synthizers knows that they break all the fucking time, especially when you’re traveling. So it’s like we had this set up that was super precarious and worked very well in our practice space and didn’t work very well live. It didn’t give us the kind of freedom that we were hoping for, so we started to talk about, “Oh, what should we do?” Then it got kind of frustrating, so we kind of put out the word that we were looking for a bass player, and then Jacob got in touch. And it was kind of like, “Ahh man, we could have been playing with Jacob the whole time.” It’s like we were trying to make a sandwich with out bread.

How many shows until you realized that this two-piece thing is not conducive to your ideas?

I’d say about a year of playing shows before Jacob joined.

Wow! I didn’t know you guys were around for that long beforehand. So when you guys were doing the two-piece thing, was that on the East Coast or the West Coast?

It was in [San Francisco]. The band has been entirely SF.

I think the first time I saw you guys was at a house show in West Oakland with Casy and Brian and Religious Girls, but you guys were already a three-piece by then.

Yeah. That was when we played in the kitchen right?

Yeah. It was in the bottoms of Oakland. I didn’t even know who any of you guys were, and then a friend of mine mentioned your backround and I just couldn’t believe it. You guys were defiantly more bitchin’ live that night than any of the times I saw Black Eyes. What was your reason for moving to SF?

Well, I just wanted to live out here because it was really nice. And you know, living in D.C. and growing up in D.C. after a while—it was just time for a change. I was able to get this weird grant that was available. See, there’s no real public universities in DC, and this grant paid for your out-of-state tuition to go to any university in the country, so I figured I’ll go to SF and do music out there.

So was your grant to go to school for music or just to go to school?

It was just to go to school out here. The timing was right. I wasn’t in a band. It just kind of happened.

That’s awesome I didn’t know they did stuff like that in D.C.

Yeah, rare.

So when you moved out here you met Damon first?

Yeah, we were both playing this show he was playing with these two other guys. It was this trio and I was playing solo. We were both playing this experimental abstract music, which was way more angular. This was in 2006. I was playing guitar and he was playing synths, keyboards, and drums with contact mics and stuff. We were talking afterwards and we were both talking about dance music and feeling each other out, and then I mentioned that we should jam because it seemed like both out heads were in the same place. You know, we were both playing weird music and both listening to a lot of dance music, which to me sounds a lot weirder than a lot of experimental music. As soon as I met him I thought we should be in a together. And it’s funny cause the guys he was playing with, they came to see us later and they had no idea he could play like that. He’d never busted it out before. He was excited.

Sometimes you don’t really get to your full potential until you start playing what you really like listening to. That’s funny, so you guys were listening to a lot of disco house and techno? Like Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Richie Hawtin?

Less Richie Hawtin, more Derrick May. Two years earlier, I’d just started getting into electronic dance music. Patrick got into it and Jacob also. We all listen to lots of stuff, not one thing. Patrick also listens to a lot of new age and Jacob listens to a lot of reggae and ’90s rock. I don’t think what we listen reflects on what we write. It doesn’t just have to be dance music. The internal dynamic of the band really has it’s own momentum.

I only brought it up because we were talking about the beginning of the band, and you said that’s what you and Jacob were listening to. Your music now sounds nothing like that, especially with Steal Your Face, which I want to get into next. So tell me about the cover? Did you guys have to pay any royalties? It’s such a bold and iconic cover.

Well, I made the cover, and had them print it up. So far no one has asked for anything. We haven’t tried to clear it with them or anything. The picture is a collage. I think there’s some law.

The Fair Use Act. Yeah, we don’t have to get into the logistics. I was just wondering if you had to pay big money.

So far we’re good.

That’s good. So you guys have been playing together for three years now. You guys recorded a bunch of stuff on your own, you put out a 12”, and then Watersports happened, and it got a lot of publicity for being kind of an abstract album. When I listen to it, it sounds like a jam band having a good time. Tell me about how all that happened with like recording with Phil Manley and stuff. Was it really comfortable? Or was it just natural? Or was it a lot of work?

Nah, it was pretty natural. Those are all loose songs on that record, and we wrote them that way. Going in there and recording and mixing it in five days, which is the same thing [we did] for Steal Your Face. I don’t know. I haven’t listen to it in a long time . You said it sounds comfortable and loose?

Watersports does. The new album, even though it’s still a loose album, sounds more focused to me.

Why would you say that?

Well the songs almost sound more poppy, almost.

Oh, OK. Well, with Watersports, the main difference that I could cite, and this is not speaking for everyone, [is that] when we recorded Watersports Jacob had been in the band for just under a year. We toured for like two weeks on the East Coast, and we had started writing new material at the beginning of 2008, so we recorded in August of 2008. That was like the first eight months of writing new material together, and probably would have been consistent if there wasn’t heavy touring. Our ideas would come together and gel, then we’d tour for 12 weeks. Seven weeks straight in New York, and then 5 weeks in Europe after that. And I feel like those songs on Watersports… Like, someone sent me a YouTube clip of us playing one of them, and I was like, “What song is this?” And then later, I could figure out what we were playing, but they got to this point where it was like they had a life of their own. Not that they would change everything. It was just a gradual change and revision [with] the live dynamic and the roles that everybody plays. The songs have filled out a lot more, and we have just become a lot tighter. So we wrote most of the album after we got back. That’s the main difference I hear. You know, cause live you want to be full on and play energetically and, like, get excited and engage the audience. I admire bands that stretch out live, and kind of be cool. It’s hard not to go for it totally and play as hard as you can, because if it’s exciting for you everyone gets excited.

So what sparked the seed for the album. What are most of the songs about on Steal Your Face? Lyrically, is it just what sounds good with the music or are the lyrics personal?

Half and half. It’s not a concept album. There is not an overarching theme. Our lyrics kind of pair off 50/50 into sort of more personal songs and then songs about living in America. They kind of fit hand in hand. The main theme is an examination of loss. One form of loss is loss of closeness in personal relationships: romantic and friendships. Watching people grow apart or violently break apart from each other.

That’s really apparent in your song “Secrets.” That’s such a great song.

Thanks! One of the other one I feel is the climate of America. What it feels like to live in America, how it bares down on you. You know, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the state of the planet today. Not to be a naysayer, I just find it hard to be optimistic about the direction humans are going in as far as our role in environmental and economical destruction. We may be out of the Bush regime, but it’s like America is still—even though it’s a very safe and amazing place to live in—it’s also a very terrifying and violent presence in the world and in each of our own lives in ways that are not so obvious, like the food that you eat everyday. It’s everything. You know, when you’re a kid you’re like, “America is the coolest place to live,” and as you grow older, it’s very slowly taken away from you if you allow it to be.

So basically, you’re saying you feel a lot of anxiety and hopelessness in your country right now?

Yeah, exactly. It’s really the two responses that, in a way, seem not necessarily healthy but obvious and totally understandable responses to living in America right now.

I can even hear it in your music. Just like chords you guys pick and whatever like dissonance sounds you guys are making. It’s there.

Interesting. That’s cool.