Background: After a four-hour plus ride out from the Motor City to the Windy City, the band had a little time to kill before the start of their 9:00 set. I was sitting next to bass/guitar player Jeff Freer, enjoying a beer when a man walked in and dropped a CD in his lap. “Oh, my God,” he said, turning the case over in his hands, opening it up to examine the contents. “This is the first time I’m seeing this.” It was the first pressing of the band’s debut album, “Secret Chorus” (Jumberlack Media), and its arrival lit Jeff up like a road flare. A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of catching Freer, one of Detroit’s finest rock bands, opening for Slings and Arrows and the Lemurs at Schuba’s Tavern in downtown Chicago. I followed them backstage after the show to the lounge where the rest of the performers and their close friends (including Erica Corneil of Chicago’s Office) were hanging out. Thrilled with my good fortune, I commenced the interview… only to find five minutes in that my piece-of-shit tape recorder wasn’t working. The following is a follow-up that I did with the lead singer/songwriter Jeremy Freer, via the internet.

SuburbanHorror: Before my recorder took an unexpected jaunt to trash-ville, you guys were talking about the experience of being a band in Detroit as opposed to other cities. Think you could pick up with that where we left off?

Jeremy Freer: Detroit can be a hard city. It has the highest unemployment rate and one of the worst economies in the country. There are a lot of abandon and decaying buildings in areas that would be thriving in most cities of its size. A lot of people abroad have romanticized this, but trust me, when you live here there’s nothing romantic about it. Plus there is just a raw vibe about most of the clubs that you don’t see as much in other major cities. Many a touring band has asked me “What’s up with this city?” The upside to all this is that it forces you to be even more creative and figure out if a music career (a hard road to pursue regardless) is something you really want to do. It’s sort of like a trial by fire out here. And Freer has gladly jumped into the fire head first.

SH: If I can jump back a bit for the sake of giving our readers some background, you’ve made a name for yourself previously in the Detroit scene with some other bands. Would you mind talking about that a little bit?

JF: The first band I was in was a band called Field Tree with Scott Masson from the brilliant Chicago band Office. After that I had a solo project under the name Baka. I was also in a band out in Chicago for a few years called Lucida with the drummer from Office, Erica Corneil.

SH: So obviously you and Jeff are brothers, and I’ve heard that Mike has been a friend of yours for a while. At what point did the four of you turn to each other and say “We need to form a band?”

JF: I moved back from Chicago a couple years ago and I was sort of in limbo musically. I write songs like a junky scores smack, so I always have a lot of tunes at any given moment. I considered pursuing some other interests and putting music on hold for a while. Jeff wasn’t having that and was convinced that the songs needed to be played and that he was going to help me do it. We started working on some songs at first. It was just him, me, and a drum machine. We decided we wanted it to be an all natural band, so Jeff brought his good friend Mike in on Guitar and he blew my mind immediately. Nick was dropped on our front porch in a basket with a note that said “please take care of this brilliant drummer” so we adopted him.

SH: Your debut album, Secret Chorus, is an incredibly eclectic set, and it’s pretty obvious that you’re drawing from a broad range of influences to create a marriage of a lot of different musical styles. Has there ever been a time where you’ve been working on something and said to yourselves, “Nah, this just isn’t a ‘Freer’ song” ?

JF: No. If we play it, it’s a FREER song.

SH: Unlike a lot of bands, you guys actually seem to put a lot of thought and meaning into your lyrics. What kind of themes attract you as a writer, Jeremy?

JF: I’m glad you asked that. I don’t have a favorite theme. I don’t think or write in those terms. I just attempt to express whatever it is I need to express so I don’t lose my fucking mind. And I love good lyrics in all shapes and sizes. When the lyric and the music sound like they were meant to be it makes me tingle all over.

SH: Something that crops up again and again on Secret Chorus is the juxtaposition of natural and artificial (particularly urban) imagery. I’m thinking of lines like “In forest and in alleyway,” “In streetlight and starlight,” or the buildup to the climax in the title track where you sing “Right now we’re sick, we need the perfect melody/ You can’t find it on the radio or T.V./ It’s in a secret chorus God gave to the birds.” Sometimes these images appear diametrically opposed, and other times like they completely belong together. How do you see the relationship between man and nature, and is that an important component in Freer’s musical philosophy?

JF: There are many religions that deal with this issue. In the story of Adam and Eve they are naked in a perfect paradise, and when things go wrong the first sign of it is that they become ashamed of their nakedness and make themselves clothes. Then they get kicked out of Paradise. Mans relationship with nature is a mirror to something deeper.

SH: On your Myspace, you guys have declared an open “War on Musical Terror.” What constitutes musical terror? Are we in a worse place than we’ve ever been as far mediocre rock radio goes, or has the jukebox always been anemic?

JF: Elvis being called the “King” of Rock N’ Roll is musical terror. Pat Boone making more money off Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” than Little Richard is musical Terror. Johnny Cash getting kicked off of Columbia Records is musical Terror. When the Grammys paired Smokey Robinson (a genius) with Lionel Richie and some young asshole who, from what I could see was more of a circus performer than an R&B singer, is musical terror. Female pop stars who get naked every chance they get and send a message out to young girls that it doesn’t matter if you can sing or have soul and talent, the most important thing is to exploit your sexuality every chance you get is musical terror. Male pop stars who promote violence, extreme materialism and the total objectification of women is musical terror. Designer Emo bands who fake emotion and exploit pain for fame and money is musical terror. And yes, I believe we are in a worse place now than we’ve ever been before.

SH: I noticed you resurrected “Dreams Disappear” from your Demo E.P. for the new album. Any chance we’ll get to hear some reworkings of the other two tracks in the future? I remember the first time I saw you guys, you did a KILLER rendition of “Icicles.”

JF: Yes that is a definite possibility. Especially “Icicles”.

SH: How can fans or curious onlookers outside the Detroit metropolitan area get a hold of Secret Chorus?

JF: The l.p. will be available to order on March 23 at JUMBERLACKMEDIA.COM and on their myspace page which you can see if you go to our top friends. Look for it at your local indie record store as well.

SH: Are you planning on a broader tour outside the Detroit/Chicago areas to support the album?

JF: Yeah we will be playing some dates in NYC, Ohio, Milwakee and Indiana coming up in May. Check our MYSPACE Page for details. www.myspace.com/freerdom

-Joe Hemmerling