Iris: A Band Reborn

by Brian Staker

Copyright 1995 The Event Magazine

Iris members Craig Arnold, Rod Bailey and Jaymes Miller feel out the boundaries of glam rock. Photo: Rob DeBerry.

What's in a name? An Iris is a showy flower with spiky leaves. This Iris is blooming again, after reforming with some new members after bassist Scott Farley and drummer Kevin Checkwood departed to form Porphyria's Lover. The 'eye' of Iris, singer Craig Arnold, remains, and we talked with him and his new bandmates about the group's latest incarnation.

How did the new conglomeration come together? "Showboat was covering '"Everything Was Black,'" Arnold explains. "I'd heard they were doing it, and was absolutely tickled. They added an extra verse, and it sounded so good the way they did it that I couldn't help wondering what other songs would sound like." He adds that the breakup of the former Iris band was amicable and occurred during finals at the U. when they were all pretty stressed out. "In rehearsal, we turned to each other and just said, 'this is really boring.'"

"The biggest difference is the change from a guitar-based band to an ensemble," Arnold explains. "Now I'm a dedicated singer." Unstrapped from the guitar, Arnold is freer to pursue the more theatrical side of fronting a band, which he seems to relish. The former lineup was a tight '80's- style pop-group, reminiscent of the Smiths. The sound was intelligent, but a little limiting. The new arrangement is deeper, seems more willing to explore the possibilities of the group sound.

Jaymes Miller is on bass and backup vocals. Bryan Carr works the keys. Rod Bailey plays guitar, and Jack Holder pounds the skins, "when he's not selling overpriced cookware." As we are eating pasta at Miller's, Carr's and Bailey's Avenues apartment, a tape of the old group plays in the background, a bit like paying homage to dead ancestors, and the place does have a bit of an oriental feeling to it.

A Little Bit of Glam

The new instrumentalists have also been, until very recently, in other local bands, Sixhead, and formerly Showboat. This former group was metal and also a bit 'glam' influenced. Bailey has miniature mirrors stuck all over his guitar. "What do we all have in common?" they ask. "David Bowie, also Queen." Old material, penned by Arnold, is given a new reading by the new sound. 'Click,' for example, about Kurt Cobain's suicide, among other things, becomes a mixed tribute. It's a bit of a pastiche that could be taken both ways, serious and campy. The new arrangement tends to bring out the latter. But it also shows an ability to move on, to put the loss in the past.

'Joan of Arc' isn't new, but it sounds tailor-made for the new, more showy flower that Iris has become. "Dorothy went to the land of Oz/looking for Joan of Arc" is a quintessential glam lyric, self-obsessed and loaded with drama while winking ironically. "I converted myself," Arnold explains. "I reflected on my tendency to move in that (glam) direction, on that song and also on 'Fashionably Late.'" Arnold is sitting on a porch hammock, the hook is starting to falter. Then he falls, and even this is an occasion for drama--Arnold getting back on his feet in a comic manner that's difficult to describe, but his mannerisms always have a bit of the thespian in them.

Subtle Interplay

At DV8 on July 22, in what was supposed to be the last show for the old Iris, the new group does their Sabbath-like instrumental, 'Built Like a Witch.' The song shows the personality of the other band members, that they're not just backup for the singer. Bailey says "we're adapting more Iris traits," but their group definitely has a dynamic between their individual personalities, which makes the interplay subtler and more textured. That night, however, the band is completely over-the-top, seemingly determined to make a strong impression on their inaugural performance. Arnold is wearing some kind of sheer silver shirt, and he is playing to the audience, occasionally coming out into the croud to dance. The band is playing like the most demonstrative glam-rock ensemble you can imagine, Miller with his trademark eye makeup.

"I'm working out to try to fit myself into sheerer and sheerer things," Arnold grins. An English Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah, Arnold has published poetry in The Yale Review. His lyrics always show a literary influence, from 'Juliette and Justine,' de Sadean namesakes to quotes from people like Hart Crane and Yukio Mishima that litter his work. There is also a kind of 'spiky' yet flowery sexuality that suffuses the music. "It's kind of my reaction to being brought up as a trained academic," he explains. "Glam always struck me as funny. Growing up in England I thought it hilarious that these behemoths would be soccer fanatics singing along with Freddie Mercury at the end of the match. There are very few ways to really be subversive any more, and being in a glam band in an age of 'alternative rock' is certainly one way to do it."

Bailey has been musing about the 'glam' thing. He's not sure he's comfortable with the term. "What is glam? Fashion is one thing, but with glam I think there's more music packed into each chord progression." Arnold agrees. "We're kind of like Sweet. We're all over the place musically." Miller adds, "glam is an image thing. The grunge look was dirty and really boring. I always wanted to make a show, with makeup and stuff, when performing."

"Glam proper is very blues-oriented, whereas this isn't," Bailey continues. "If you play an 'F,' it's just a chord, but if you add energetic, theatrical gestures, it becomes something more."

Same Song, Different Style

"Sixhead and Arnold come from totally different styles," extrapolates Miller. "We find a good medium. We don't necessarily 'feel' Arnold's songs, but we add a lot to them. I think it's good to be in a band that's completely opposite from your regular style." Carr interjects, "it would be frustrating if we were hired hands. We all have distinct visions. Good music is good music. A lot of Iris songs were composed on piano, so it made sense to add piano to them."

Anecdote: Arnold says 'Worst Enemy' was written on the shore at Montreaux near where the hotel burned that inspired 'Smoke on the Water.' "It's a mark of Arnold's songwriting that songs retain their integrity with new arrange- ments," Carr adds. Eric Hunter, former Sixhead singer, tells what he thinks the difference in the new group is. "They're more confident. They enjoy it. They're sexy, exciting. It's brought a different Craig to life."

Cabaret Style

On September 20 they played the Bar & Grill. This time, all in black, they were more minimalist. The songs were sharper, with more of an edge, a little more new wave power pop than sheer glam. Arnold concentrated more on just singing and not as much on theatrics. At times he just sat on the monitor in front of him. It seemed more intimate, glam in the sense of cabaret rather than pure showmanship. They made an attempt at disco, and a little bit wobbly 'Girl From Ipanema,' with guest trumpet, local primitivist painter Shelly Turley. Arnold reclined on the stage floor, and said, "there's somebody's set list on the ceiling, but it isn't ours." At first I thought they were going to try to follow it anyway. "Black," Arnold incanted, and the others echoed him. "Black is cool" Miller said. It was 'Everything Went Black,' their traditional set-closer, and Arnold finally came out of his shell.

Their playing that night was generally more practiced, more focussed. An iris is also visionary, the part of the eye that doesn't actually do the looking, but surrounds the pupil, which controls the amount of light entering the eye. The iris is the part of the eye that others look at, that colors their perception of you. Iris seems bound to continue evolving, growing reflexively in response to its surrounds. The name of the game for them is performing, playing to their audience. As Arnold sings, "once everything was black/now everything looks back at me." They're still in their nascent stage yet; they haven't yet fully bloomed. But they show potential because they have that rare ability to surprise, showing that compelling music can still be made after rock history is over; after everything, it seems, has already been said.