Drowned in Sound: The Aquarium

THE AQUARIUM MAKES psychedelic pop with a wide-screen, ocean-deep sound — despite being just a duo. Jason Hutto's overdriven electric piano and keyboards are fed through distortion and delay, creating a lush purple haze of melody, as Laura Harris bashes her drums like a prizefighter mashing an opponent.

The Aquarium's self-titled Dischord debut is one of the best local releases in recent years, and the twosome performs as headliners tonight at the Black Cat backstage. (And, yep, Hutto will drag out his trademark 16-millimeter film projector and screen random films behind the duo as it plays.)

We caught up with Hutto to discuss what's under the surface of The Aquarium.

» EXPRESS: Even though you two have played together for a little more than four years, there's not much info floating around about how you came together.
» HUTTO: I met Laura at Galaxy Hut six years ago or so when she was taking drum lessons from a friend of ours. I just thought she was so hilarious, but I lost touch with her. So about five summers ago I ran into her at a Fort Reno show. I had just finished [with the band] Motor Cycle Wars and was interesting in doing quiet, ambient music. I didn't want to play guitar. I wanted to play the instrument that relaxed me when I was stressed, the Wurlitzer piano.

My old roommate used to keep a huge saltwater aquarium in my room, and I was in love with the fish and the bubbles and the compressors buzzing. So I would run my fingers up and down the electric piano and watch the fish and let the bubbles and the drone sweep me away. I made a recording of these sounds called "The Aquarium" and gave it to friends with kids and yoga people as music to be calm and watch fish to. This all changed when Laura was interested in jamming.

Laura came over in the fall of 2002, I think, and I was trying to keep it soft and chill, but she just hit so hard. I would battle with her about "Let's keep it relaxed." And we were asked to play a show at the Galaxy Hut. We crammed to come up with enough material for about 20 minutes — "Credits," a song we wrote that day, we still play. I had a projector and a few 16-millimeter films I found from a guy near Baltimore, and I hoped that playing with a film in the background would take the attention away from us. And I thought, "They might not be into the music but people like visuals and zoning out."

[But] Laura hit the drums so hard, and I got so tired of fighting over volume I cranked up the bass amp I was running the piano though and added my guitar effects — like fuzz and delay — and suddenly we started sounding huge. She joined some other bands during this time and became really tight and confident and really gave the songs a great energy. The piano rocked like a tugboat. I had to start standing up to play soon after that.

» EXPRESS: The band's tunes are split between instrumentals and songs with lyrics. Do the instrumentals keep to your original intent to have The Aquarium be more of an ambient or soundtracky band?
» HUTTO: Swinging between my left hand and right hands on a piano or keyboard made it really tough to think I could sing at the same time. I love instrumentals and I love melody. I have a hard time not singing the same melody I'm playing with my right hand. It drives Laura crazy sometimes.

As far as lyrics go, I will sing a song until the words happen. We played "White House" for months with scattered words. I'll get feelings of words in the melodies and then hash out the rest. In "Can't Afford to Live Here," that line just felt right. I think I was in the shower. I get all emotional when I nail a feeling and a melody.

» EXPRESS: Did you ever consider having a bassist or a guitarist or another musician in the band?
» HUTTO: I used to think I'd love to have another body in there to free us up a little and to help sing. My singing is all over the place and Laura's not much into harmonizing or anything like that, but it hasn't happened. I like bass and try to keep something rumbling down there as best as I can. It's an interesting set up and challenging to keep the bases covered. Maybe it's just down to economics: Bands have to make cuts these days to pay the bills.

I don't think it has much to do with being disciplined, or having a vision, or being unified and agreeing on everything. We barely practice, or get to hang out, with our odd schedules — and we are as dysfunctional as you might think a boy and girl band might be. But we care that this is our music and our sound. We both get nervous about playing shows cause it's just the two of us, I make the sounds and she makes the beats and we'll find ourselves live just wildly driving to keep these songs on the road.

» EXPRESS: Where do you find the films you project during your performances?
» HUTTO: The MLK Library downtown has a ton of films in their archive. The first time I tried to take home a film, the girl [behind the counter] didn't even know what she needed to do for me to check it out. My closet is a mass of reels and lids that make no sense. I try to show fresh ones [each concert] but seem to always end up showing the one about puppets that my friend Ben hates.

» EXPRESS: Dischord has a great tradition of inspiring people to form bands, and sometimes they're lucky enough to end up recording for the label. What's your favorite Dischord band?
» HUTTO: I didn't grow up in D.C. I grew up on a farm in North Arkansas. In college I was exposed to tons of bands through doing a radio show with my dormmate. He had Fugazi's "13 Songs" and "Repeater," and he would play "Repeater" every show and I thought, "Wow this must be some amazing crazy Japanese band."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with The Hold Up, 9 p.m.; $6; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photos courtesy The Aquarium