Buzz Blog

You may have read about it in one of our most recent issues, but Sculpture Club kicked off a new tour this weekend, with a sendoff show at Diabolical Records on Friday night. Playing with them were our old friends in Chalk, and a somewhat new band: Primitive Programme (the former Josh & Ian, with a new bass player). Today we chat with the new band about their previous incarnation and their new format, all with pictures from that show.

Primitive Programme (Josh Price, Ian Francis & Denney Fulle)
Primitive Programme on Facebook

Gavin: Hey guys, first thing, tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Josh: Hello. We are Josh Price, Ian Francis and Denney Fuller. Josh is from San Luis Obispo, California. Denney is from Mesa, Arizona. Ian is from Portland, Oregon.


What first got you interested in music, and what were your biggest influences?

Josh: We've all been playing in bands for a while now. I think we all see music as a platform for art, expression and fun. Our influences vary. I dig garage rock, punk and new wave/post-punk. My favorite bands are The Stooges, DEVO, Thee Oh Sees, Pere Ubu, The Fall, Units, Jay Reatard, Screamers, DK, Gang of Four, Corners, Los Microwaves, Adverts, DB's and Richard Hell.

Denney: Mine are Talking Heads, Philip Glass, The Kinks, The Zombies, The Strokes, Harry Nilsson, Sufjan, Yann Tiersen, and The Beach Boys.

Ian: I like The Clash.

How was it for each of you breaking into the local music scene?

Josh: A strange and tingling sensation.

Denney: Different. I started out in the private (gig) scene, and then came out to the real world of public shows. If you put in the time, collaborate with people and create a ton, the scene will come to you!

Ian: It was great. Salt Lake City is a very welcoming place for all kinds of artists. The more effort you make to go out and play and make connections, the easier it is to become a part of something. As the cliché goes: You get what you give.


Josh and Ian, when did you meet and become friends?

Josh: Ian and I met in late 2012 from a mutual friend. We have played in five different bands together.

Ian: We have a long history!

What made you decide to originally form a duo under your names?

Josh: After some of our other bands were fading away, we realized we were the only remaining mutual members. We wanted to form a duo and see how that went. Josh & Ian seemed like the most logical name. It felt transparent. It was just us. It wasn't alluding to a certain sound or feeling. But we also did like to think of it as a tip of the hat to the band Jan & Dean.


What made you go for more of a garage punk sound to your music?

Josh: We wanted to make songs that were short and to the point with lots of energy and groove. We also wanted to make a two-piece band sound as full as possible. The sound kind of just fell into place.

Ian: We wanted to make music that was fun and simple; just high-energy, stripped down rock n' roll. We also wanted to make sure we had an equal balance of edgy yet accessible. I don't think my mom likes it, though.

What was it like getting around SLC and playing shows with that project?

Josh: It was relatively easy. We never turned down a show, and I think some people liked us opening for them because of our simple, quick set up.

Ian: It was a lot of fun. Only having two members in the band made it easy to schedule and plan shows on a regular basis. We had a couple last minute requests to play shows, and since we were just a duo it was easy to show up with our minimal equipment and play.


You released an album back in January called Mystery Adventure Island. What was it like recording that album and getting it out to the masses?

Josh: It was great. We recorded it with Mike Sasich at Man Vs. Music Studios. We did 95 percent of all the tracking in one day, and then did another day with mixing/mastering. We learned a lot from Mike even in that short time. Our release was really fun. We've had a lot of positive feedback.

Ian: Yeah, recording with Mike in Man Vs. Music Studios was a great time. We came to the studio super prepared and had a very specific idea of what we wanted the sound to be. Communicating this to Mike made it easy to turn out the entire record in a short amount of time. The fact that each song averaged only two minutes helped with that too!

When did the decision come about to add Denney to the band and change the name to Primitive Programme?

Josh: Around February, we were considering adding a bassist to our live set to fill it out even more. Denney approached us after our release show and told us how much he liked our sound and would love to help out. After he started playing with us for a month or two, we realized what a great addition he was. Not just in his bass playing, but in his great ideas with arranging and honing in our ideas. Denney has sort of become the band's structure engineer. Once we decided to add him officially, it didn't seem right to be officially called Josh & Ian anymore.

Ian: Yeah, after the release of Mystery Adventure Island we decided that we wanted to add more depth to our music and we soon realized that that was going to be very hard to do with only two members—especially for live shows. We were at a crossroad around the time we talked to Denney about playing with us, so it all fell into place at the perfect time. Having him join the band was crucial for helping us move in the direction we wanted to go.

Denney: I remember seeing Josh & Ian on some show flyers and such and thinking of how quirky, and cool, the band name was. I saw them release two new songs online, listened to a ton, and asked Ian if my group The Boys Ranch could open up for them at their album release. Funny enough, he declined, saying "I was thinking about asking you the same thing! " But they ended up just wanting one other band to open so the show didn't go too late. Anyway, I went to see their album release show, and thought they had a great, raw sound. So what came first was me selfishly asking Ian if he would play drums for The Boys Ranch because Curtis Pettygrove was moving back to California. He agreed. I then asked him sometime in the next week or so if he and Josh would be interested in me playing bass for them. He asked Josh, Josh said to bring him to the garage practice. Now here we are, several months later.


Denney, how was it for you coming in and playing with them after being established?

Denney: What's it like to jump on a moving train? Kidding... it was like joining any new group of friends. At first, it was warming up to each other's sense of humor, then we made some music together, and all of the sudden everything changed and it felt like we had known each other way longer than we had (even though I was the only new guy). It was definitely nice to join a group that already had some good momentum and a solid foundation. The riff-master Josh and the human metronome Ian are great guys to be creating with.

Are you looking to record a new album with new material, or re-release your old one re-recorded?

Josh:We are currently working on a new EP/possibly mini LP. We have the first single song "Modern World" up on our Bandcamp already . We are hashing out the rest of the songs right now. It will probably end up being 4-5 songs, but could end up being more. We are hoping to get it out late summer or early fall. We have talked about adding bass to MAI and re-releasing it, but nothing is set in stone yet.


What else can we expect from Primitive Programme over the rest of 2016?

Josh: New EP, possibly some live videos with our friends who run The Borough, and we want to do a mini-California tour. We are also looking to do a short run vinyl release.

Ian: All of the above. Maybe a rock opera.

Denney: To navigate our way through the Modern World. Strive to create really great works of art. Maybe get some label support?