Riders on the Storm: An Interview with The Body & Dis Fig

“I know I’ve been trained / But I don’t want to behave,” screams Felicia Chen (a.k.a. Dis Fig) on the blistering dreadscape, Coils of Kaa: the penultimate track from the debut collaboration between the Berlin-based vocalist and The Body, Orchards of a Futile Heaven.

It’s a song that fuses together the key ideologies of The Body and Dis Fig. The chaos of the former harnessed by the latter.

Since the turn of the century as The Body, Chip King and Lee Buford have disturbed audiences all across the world with kind of scarred, mordant sonics that have taken punk to frightening new extremes.

The duo’s ever-expanding collaboration works have been equally as fascinating, working alongside fellow hell-raisers and kindred spirits, Uniform, Thou and Assembly of Light Choir, to the hypnotic folk laments with BIG|BRAVE. The Body let their collaborators take the reins in becoming the focal point, and their approach has always provided interesting results. Alongside Dis Fig it’s no different; her vocals, like a dream trying to swallow a nightmare.

Chen herself is no stranger to chaos and collaboration. While her work over the years behind the decks mirrors a black acid nightmare, this dark undercurrent continued alongside The Bug’s Kevin Martin with the 2020 release, In Blue.

The remnants of that release are fleeting throughout Orchards of a Futile Heaven; the void sonics of To Walk A Higher Path and Holy Lance both loosely aligned to In Blue’s tunnel drone. By and large however, Orchards of a Futile Heaven possesses more fire and brimstone, coupled with subtle eastern inflections that Dis Fig explored during her 2019 LP, Purge.

As you would expect, this is music made on the fault lines, and it starts with Eternal Hours – a hypnotic crash of thunder breaking the borders between heaven and hell. On Dissent, Shame Dis Fig gives a searing, spirited performance; her voice like a clarion call from her Berlin-base to The Body’s Portland headquarters.

Then there’s the title track, revealing the tension collaboration often brings, as Chen’s blissed out echo from the gods rides against King’s minotaur howls. Following album highlight Coils of Kaa is the trio’s last air of menace in Back to the Water. A scintillating wall of noise destroying all in its wake, underlining the sheer intensity of this creative union. Another addition to the win column for both The Body and Dis Fig.

In the lead-up to the release of Orchards of a Futile Heaven, last month Chen and Buford answered some questions about the collaboration, their creative process, touring, and more.

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S13: Can you remember a song or moment that changed your life and steered you towards making music?

Lee Buford: “We grew up pretty lucky in that there was a very large punk scene for such a small town that we grew up and everyone basically had a band. Technical proficiency was definitely not a prerequisite, so it was great place to learn. I guess other kids had sports or something, we had punk bands!”

Felicia Chen: “I’m gonna bring it all the way back to my former kid-self nerd singing in choirs. I was lucky to be in a school that had a really good music program where it was taken very seriously. I remember it was the first time I really experienced how visceral and deeply music could feel and from then I always wanted that feeling to be part of my life.”

S13: The Body and Dis Fig share a similarity insofar as pushing art to the most extreme places. Because of this, did it feel inevitable that you would make music together at some point?

FC: “I guess so, it definitely makes a lot of sense.”

LB: “I always think of us as the odd man out, so I’m always surprised when people like us. I never want to get my hopes up of any potential collab’ stuff but I’m always glad when it happens.”

S13: Had you all met prior to this collaboration or was it more of an exchange from afar after acknowledging each other’s work?

FC: “We hadn’t met before, and I think that’s also what made this album really interesting and written without any preconceived notions.”

LB: “We didn’t meet before, unless maybe Chip and Felicia met in Europe that I’m unaware of, so it was an internet friendship first.”

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S13: Can you tell us about the process behind Orchards of a Futile Heaven?

FC: “It definitely took some time. A lot of rests in between sending stems back and forth. A lot of shit was going on – externally and personally. But in retrospect I appreciate how much time it took because sometimes [the] stews got to simmer a while to get to full flavour bomb.” 

LB: “Yeah, a lot of sending stuff back and forth. We record everything in Rhode Island, so a lot of us finding time to make it out there and work on it.”

S13: The Body’s music can open a lot of different emotional responses, but I think Felicia’s performance on the record makes this one of the most atmospheric and spatial records you’ve all produced, taking the listener to different places than your music in the past. Was that something you thought about with these songs?

FC: “I’m not sure if it was entirely intentional, but I tend to always yearn for a visceral feeling when listening to and making music. So maybe it was just us tweaking it until it felt right and did the thing. I like when vocals aren’t just straightforward and really wrap around you, creating an atmosphere. And regarding atmospheres: I like them swirling around making your brain tingle.”

LB: “I think on our end we really leaned into Felicia’s vocal style and approach and tried to follow her lead in that sense.” 

S13: Some artists say that as soon as they enter the creative process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Was that the case with this record?

FC: “Yeah, I often don’t know what a piece is about before it tells me. There’s always something inside, subconscious that bubbles to surface. So, it ends up being a process of initially creating freely and then listening back carefully to fully understand what came out. Not in a technical or mechanical way, but in a way of receiving the message.”

LB: “We write everything in the studio, so we really only go with a pretty abstract idea of what we want it to feel like without actual music specifics. With collab’ stuff it’s even more of a loose process where everything kind of builds organically from what gets sent back and forth.”

S13: Coils of Kaa really feels like embodiment of this record, almost like it was the first song you wrote together. Do you remember how it came about? 

FC: “It actually began as a demo I had written for a specific performance a while ago. It never felt totally fitting with where I was at with my solo stuff, and I thought it would be interesting to see what the guys would do with it. I think it was the first demo we sent back and forth, and so it was also the first glimpse we got of what this project could look like.”

S13: You’ve both collaborated heavily in the past. Are your approaches different in collaboration compared to writing material in isolation as The Body and Dis Fig?

FC: “Yes, definitely. Writing solo is like writing in your own capsule, a true reflection. But collaborating comes with the challenge of finding common ground to plant something. And then figuring out what you’re going to grow together. And at the same time, it’s amazing to be able to lean on each other through each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

LB: “Definitely so. When we’re recording on our own, we go in with a specific vibe we’re aiming for. With a collab’ you have to go in with no preconceptions because you never know what the other people are thinking. It makes it more exciting for sure, and like Felicia says, you can rely on the other people to fill in the gaps of our own shortcomings.”

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S13: Do you think your work is an extension of your everyday personality, or do you view creativity as escapism from that? 

FC: “I think people would be surprised how jovial all three of us are in person! I don’t see my creativity as escapism though. It’s not escaping from anything. It’s confronting and expressing what, in its raw form, is too taxing to engage with all the time.”

LB: “Yeah, we get it all the time that people think we’ll be very stoic and serious because of the music we make but we’re not really like that in person. It’s important to know how to balance those aspects of your life. I think the music we make is very real in the sense of how we view the world but we also are very aware of that and try to make our corner of the world as best as we can. 

S13: You’ve spent years touring. After a show, do you have any process, is it a time to relax or does the adrenaline take you somewhere else?

FC: “Depends on the day and my mood. In the past I’ve had more energy to fall deeply into the night, but these days I value rest and sober mornings a lot more!”

LB: “We usually eat pizza and then fall asleep.”

S13: And speaking of tours, are there any plans to tour the album?

FC: “Yes! Later this year, we’re planning to run around, so hit up your local promoters and let’s make this shit happen!”

LB: “Next year is our 25th anniversary as a band so we’ll be hitting the road quite a bit and quite a bit for the collab’!”

S13: Do you think you’ll work together in the future?

FC: “I don’t think there’s anything stopping us!”

LB: “I don’t see why not!

Orchards of a Futile Heaven is out Friday via Thrill Jockey. Purchase from Bandcamp.