Photo courtesy of John Masters

One of the most consistent names in D.C. music over the past ten years or so is John Masters.

The local native gained some notoriety’s the frontman of reliably catchy rock quartet Metropolitan, but has stayed active since that band called it quits with outfits like Stamen & Pistils and Kiwi-post punk influenced trio The Cheniers.

However, as Harness Flux, Masters is letting his freak flag fly a little bit more. His vocals are low and almost unrecognizable buried under the reverb and his guitar loops are reminiscent of the more experimental Pavement riffs with some soloing that goes off the rails just in time for an early exit.

Masters talked to us about the improvisational nature of Harness Flux and a positive outlook on the state of D.C. music past and present.

Find him online: On Soundcloud.

This project is just you. Why perform as Harness Flux and not just John Masters?

I thought that Harness Flux would be catchier. I mean, it’s going to be solo but for some reason, I prefer solo things that have names. Like, if I look back on solo things with names, I like them better. Something like Atlas Sound, or, what’s the Wye Oak girl’s thing? Flock of Dimes. I like it better when it has a name and then you have to figure out what it is. Then you get two steps. “Oh, have you heard so-and-so? Well, it’s this person.”

Where did the name Harness Flux come from?

It’s from two Pavement songs. “Harness Your Hopes” is a B-side and “Flux is Rad” which was on Wowee Zowee I think. So, I stole two Pavement words. I mean, they use all the best words. Malkmus came up with all the best words, already, so I’m just going to steal whatever he came up with. He and Berman already came up with all the right words.

Harness Flux seems to be more experimental than Stamen & Pistils and Metropolitan. Is that intentional?

I definitely want it to be more experimental because I have no reason for it not to be. I think, now, finally, just being me, it’s going to go easier on people. I’m hoping people will be more cool with it than a band being experimental. But I don’t feel like you’re expected to be weirder now that you’re up there by yourself compared to having a full band. I don’t know why. To me, it seems easier to be weirder and experimental by yourself. But that’s because Metropolitan was a poppier thing for a long time. Once that expectation kind of started, I wasn’t really going to go back too much. I mean, we’d jam out some but we didn’t get too super weird. We still had very structured songs. But, I hope that people will go along with me being a weirdo and sound weird and that’ll work out. Because that’s where I want to go.

The most interesting thing that I noticed is the change in how you recorded the vocals. I couldn’t tell what you were saying.

Yeah, I put some reverb on there. I don’t even really know what I was saying, honestly because I was just coming up with some stuff. I had some solid ideas of a verse or so and then just scatted it out from there. I was kind of making it up as I go along. I actually did a One Track Mind for that. He made me send him lyrics. I don’t know what the lyrics are. A big part of that song is just looping the riffs because that’s what I do live. I use a sampling looper pedal. I put the riffs in and play behind it and play over top of it. If you heard the end of that track, I went crazy with the solo thing. I do that too. I’m adding more guitar over another guitar. Like Dustin Wong but not as good as him because that guy is incredibly great with timing and stuff. But sound on sound kind of thing. At the last show, I tried doing some laptop beats and playing over those. I thought it was good. But as far as expanding, I’m going to start out simple and then put things later. Because I’ve already had people talk to me, “You need a drummer, man? You need a bass player?” Not yet. No collaborating until I have time to be by myself for awhile because I’ve never done it before.

What’s the experience been like of playing on your own as opposed to playing in a band?

Metropolitan I booked all our shows and did all our promotion. We kind of collaborated but I wrote all of the main parts and so I was doing a lot of the technical stuff of the band. So, the Cheniers was a nice break where I didn’t have to worry about all that stuff. Malitz does all that stuff. He writes the songs and he puts the records together. And for several years it was nice to shift. Now, I’m ready to do all my own promotion and crap again.

How many songs have you written for this project?

A very small amount so far. Maybe only technically five at most and even those are just sort of rough drafts. There’s only a couple that are really, really together. Like that “Stockholders” song that I got up was halfway improv’d when I recorded it. I recorded it on an iPad at home in my apartment. I was just kind of learning the ropes of GarageBand and I haven’t used it a lot yet. I have a thing that hooks my guitar directly into my iPad. It’s cool. It’s like when I used to wait and study for the test the night before. I’m always like, “That gig is two months away. I’ve got plenty of time.” Then suddenly it’s the very night before and I’m like, “Crap, I’d better practice.” But that’s what I think is good about being experimental about this project. I’m improvising a certain amount anyway. I don’t want to be too super ready, but with that song I was like, “I should really get something up there.” But the idea was there so I put it together. I was hoping to get another one up there by the show, but I’m not sure if I’m going to. It’s cool that it’s getting a good response from people who are interested in checking it out.

Are you going to ask me about the current state of the D.C. scene? I feel like that’s what every one has in there. Where I name the bands that I like. Do you still do that? I feel like you should know, you’ve written most of them at this point.

I didn’t do your first one. But I know that you have a long history here with D.C. music and you were in an Unrest video.

Yeah, I started interning at Teen Beat when I was in high school. I think I met Mark Robinson through my brother and I started interning for the label. Then I think one day we were just screwing around and Marc [Masters] had a project to do. He was in town and he said, “We should do a video.” So, we talked to Mark Robinson and he said, “You could shoot a video for Unrest. If you could, what the hell.” And he wanted me to be the star of it. I don’t know why. To this day, I don’t know his motivation of why he wanted me to be in it. I guess I’m glad he did. I never knew that my fifteen-year-old self would be on this thing for all of posterity. At the time, we shot it and it never actually got played on 120 Minutes. It was submitted to MTV, but I’m like, “They’ll never play it.” It wasn’t even technically on Perfect Teeth. It was a B-side. Then they ended up playing the old 9:30 and they played it on the TVs there. I was very embarrassed because I was at the show but Jenny Toomey told me I was cute. After that, I was like, that’s going to be it. That’s the pinnacle of this video and then when Unrest broke up, I thought, “No one will ever see it again.” Then, I didn’t know that things like Youtube were ever going to happen. Now, 20,000 views later — being 15 and that stupid hair — it’s okay. I guess everyone had dumb hair in high school. That’s what high school is for. Dumb hair. They made me wear ridiculous outfits.

But if you want to print something about my take on the current D.C. scene…

Yeah, go ahead.

It’s still always a great scene. It’s always been good. There’s never been a time where D.C.’s not been cool. There’s always been somebody doing something. It’s just weird because now it doesn’t really make a difference where you’re from anymore like it used to. Especially if they go national.

If you luck out and you get on the blogs and get on Pitchfork or whatever, it doesn’t make a difference where you’re from. You can be from anywhere. You could be from the middle of nowhere but you could be from the city. That city’s never going to make you what you are. Go to a cool city if you like it and then do your thing. But it’s the same amount of luck whether you’re in D.C. or you’re in New York or you’re in LA or you’re in San Francisco or whatever.

With the Internet and the way people write about stuff now, people don’t much care about where you’re from. They’ll put it in there but I think D.C. people are still somewhat obsessed with “Is the scene still cool here?” Yeah. It always is. There’s never been a lull time for it. There’s always been something cool going on.

There may have been times where it was more exciting nationally than other times. But Justin wrote that piece about people moving to New York and I agree with a certain amount of it because he has a point about it. It stole everybody. I remember being in Metropolitan at the time and everyone was like, “Move up here!” I just don’t want to. I didn’t want to live in New York. I didn’t have any money and I didn’t care about being popular just because of that. I’d rather be popular because of where I came from or what I did, not because I transplanted myself.