I went to high school in a cultural wasteland, so the mere fact that there were decent bands within an hour of my home excited me. I can still remember the tape a friend made me, full of Usef's Well and Discount songs; it got me into underground music and started me on the fateful path of musical taste evolution. In a sense, you could say that through a few degrees of separation, that mix tape changed my perspective on life. Before I knew of Slint or Tortoise, there was Usef's Well, that weird band that played shows in Port St. Lucie or Vero Beach (not a half hour drive from my home). Its members moved on, eventually forming the Mercury Program, and so did I -- but I always had a sort of hometown affinity for their music. A few years ago the band relocated to Gainesville, FL, at around the same time that I was moving up for college. When the chance came this year to interview them, I jumped on it.

The men behind the Mercury Program are four well-spoken, yet altogether divergent personalities. After talking to them, it was obvious to me that the band is an equilateral effort; each member was as impassioned and individualized as the next.

The Mercury Program's jazz-influenced instrumental rock music is sometimes dismissed as yet another Slint rip-off hiding behind a post-rock cover. I was curious to hear the band's response to this criticism, so a substantial portion of our interview centered around labels and musical progression. I'll let the rest of the conversation speak for itself.

Splendid: Coming from more traditional bands, such as Usef's Well and Darkhalf, do you see the Mercury Program as a progression from those earlier bands or part of an altogether removed "post-rock" sub-category?

Tom Reno: We never really made any kind of connections with that; if you look back to Usef's Well, we played music like that like eight years ago, before anyone knew about it or before it was popular or anything like that. You just kind of evolve at the same time; it's been the same music -- just evolving.

Sander Travisano: As far as the post-rock thing is considered, I don't think we're rock. To me, AC/DC are rock. I don't think we're rock. We're just playing music.

Enter a friend of the band who claims to eat bugs. After this declaration, he wishes the band good luck on their tour and leaves -- without me witnessing the consumption of any insects.

Splendid: With your early material -- the Lights Out Over Georgia 7" and the split 7" with Versailles -- you guys took a more abrasive approach, bringing the vocals up-front. You've evolved a more subdued approach with the newest releases. What influenced the change in sound from record to record?

Tom Reno: Just growing up...the combination of the four of us all listening to different types of music at different times. And as one person might be taking a leap forward in thinking, the rest of us will be ready to go along at that time.

Splendid: Do you set specific goals when you write your music? Are you all working toward a specific sound, or concept, or whatever?

Sander Travisano: We're just going "Let's play it and let it go where it goes." When we step in the room we have no idea what's going to come out. We just do it.

Splendid: Although things aren't goal-oriented or scripted, do you think you ever consciously avoid clichés in your music? I know the Slint label has kind of stuck with you, so for example, if you thought people might perceive a certain riff or bass line as Slint-esque, would you make a conscious effort to take things in a different direction?

Sander Travisano: That's music that we have listened to in the past, and it has influenced us to some extent, but I don't think we sit down and write music that people who listen to Slint are going to like. Basically, we don't listen to that style of music. We are playing our own thing, and half the time it's just coming out of nowhere. Half the time we are just going to write it. Our influences can just as easily be some stupid rhythm that I heard sitting in a Taco Bell -- some dumb ass drumbeat.

Dave Lebleu: Influence can be in personal style -- like the way you play the instrument. But beyond that, I don't think it exists.

Sander Travisano: We're not shooting for certain things or to out-do clichés. We're just playing.

Tom Reno: Maybe on our first record you could draw some comparisons to Slint -- although it was still a stretch. But with From the Vapor of Gasoline or the new EP, to say that is a joke! To say that we sound like Tortoise is a joke; because we have vibraphones, we sound like Tortoise? Anyone that plays a trumpet sounds like Miles Davis? It's just laziness, and it's just silly. It's just people not trying to think further about the music. If anything, we're closer to writing songs that sound like Michael Jackson or Yes than to Slint or Tortoise.

Sander Travisano: We are just south Florida hardcore, trying to rock people's worlds.

Tom Reno: To me, it's writers who don't know anything about Tortoise saying we sound like them. They've never heard of people like Steve Reich, or don't know anything about contemporary classical or old school jazz, so they say we sound like Tortoise. The only things they can reference are indie-rock bands, so Tortoise and Slint are constantly used.

Splendid: What was behind the decision to release the vinyl version of All the Suits Began to Fall Off on Boxcar and the CD on Tiger Style?

Dave Lebleu: Vinyl doesn't sell all that well at Tigerstyle, and Andrew (owner of Boxcar Records) wanted to do it, so we went ahead with it. Just basically, having worked with Andrew before and having been friends with him for years, we knew he was reliable.

Splendid: What do you think the addition of Whitney (Travisano) on vibraphone and electric piano brings to the band?

Sander Travisano: He's a guy who's been playing music since he was four years old, and he just brings another mind to the Mercury Program. I'd like to have eighteen more members.

Dave Lebleu: It allows us to move in a direction that is more challenging in a live, instrumental sense. I mean, it's easy to do on a record. Basically, he's a fourth corner to what was probably meant to be a square from the beginning.

Sander Travisano: (Jokingly) I like that, Dave.

(Laughter)

Tom Reno: It's like we have another member who's been associated with us since we formed. He's hung out at practices since we were a three-piece, and he really knows where we are coming from.

Splendid: Having named From the Vapor of Gasoline after the Basquiat painting "Peruvian Made", I was wondering if you attempt to interweave visual arts or other cyclical archetypes into songs? Perhaps in the same way that June of '44's Jeff Mueller, in particular, perpetuated the nautical theme from album to album?

Tom Reno: The painting stuff is basically my influence on stuff. I'd be influenced by something and bring that to the band. We run across a lot of painters who listen to our music while they paint, and this is kind of a reversal of that. It's one of those things -- as soon as I learned about Basquiat, I wanted to find out everything I could about him. I actually think it's quite natural that people creating music would be inspired by the visual arts, as so much of the visual arts are inspired by music. It's very reciprocal, so it's hard for me to look at something and not be influenced by it.

Splendid: Your recent releases sound much more layered and obviously more produced. How important is the studio production process, and to what extent is a Mercury Program release the product of studio trickery?

Dave Lebleu: Ninety-five percent of the stuff we do is completed as we go into the studio, but sometimes we'll be in there, messing around, and we'll decide that whatever we did should go on the record.

Sander Travisano: When you're in the studio, there's just so much stuff to mess around with. I mean, if we were to have some of this stuff in our practice space, I have no idea what we would come up with. You're in this small space for over a week and you can fool and finagle with everything. Things are going to come out of it. And every time we go into the studio, just messing around at 3:00 a.m., we come up with something that lands on a track on our new CD.

Splendid: Is it hard to produce those songs live?

Tom Reno: Yeah, the last song on the EP -- "A Delicate Answer" -- is something we can't play live. There are just so many tracks of the same instrument. There's three vibraphone tracks, two tracks of guitars. From its conception, we knew it wasn't going to be something we could play live.

Dave Lebleu: In general, when we are in the studio and using over-dubs, we try to at least conceive pulling a song off live.

Tom Reno: It's either one or the other; we either do stuff that we can pull off live, or we just go completely apeshit and agree that we aren't going to play this live. There's definitely a dichotomy to the two.

"FUCK YOU!!!", screams the seemingly inebriated driver of a pickup truck that hurtles by on the road next to where we are standing. It takes a moment to get back on track after this.

Splendid: So...how has All the Suits Began to Fall Off been received?

Tom Reno: It's been good. With the last CD there was a little backlash, because some people over-hyped it and others just wanted to be cool and shoot it down. And that's fine -- let them do that. With the new EP, we left that alone. Tiger Style didn't really do a whole lot of press on it. It was just released, and we let it speak for itself. It was like "Here's this record, now what do you think about it?", as opposed to "Here's this record and this is what we think about it," after which people tear it down.

Sander Travisano: I think that touring and actually hearing people's responses to the music is really rewarding. On the tour thus far -- and it's only been five days -- people's responses have been really positive.

Splendid: You spoke about the hype surrounding the first album. I remember after Vapors was released, Insound had the Mercury Program in a poll concerning "the next big thing". Did stuff like that ever bother or overwhelm you?

Tom Reno: You can't really pay attention to everything someone says about you, good or bad. One person might think you are the greatest thing in the world and the next guy might want you buried in a hole somewhere. People might say nice things to you, and that's great, but it doesn't mean we think we are the greatest band in the world. Likewise, you can't take all the negative feedback to heart.

Splendid: What's it like going from the small venues -- I know we talked about a show in Palm City, Florida -- to fests like the upcoming More Than Music?

Tom Reno: We played the New York Underground Film Festival, SXSW and CMJ, and they were all kind of a bizarre experience for us because there are so many bands in such a short period of time. I think people are overwhelmed with music and I don't know if they are really appreciating anything they are seeing. It's just too much.

Dave Lebleu: It's just a cluster-fuck of music.

Tom Reno: I don't like festivals, personally. I don't think we've had all that great experiences with them. Overall it's just not as rewarding as playing a show in, say, Chapel Hill, where you have 200 kids come to see you.

Sander Travisano: But it's still pretty cool.

Splendid: What factored into the move from Martin County (South Florida) to Gainesville (North Florida)?

Sander Travisano: I don't know how familiar you are with the area we came from, but...

Tom Reno: He grew up in Stuart.

Sander Travisano: Well, then you know that the only thing down there is a bunch of shithole towns where everyone one is in bed by nine o'clock. You can't become a successful band playing to a bunch of fucking fifteen-year-olds who can't even get into the club in the first place.

Dave Lebleu: We all moved here to A) go to school and B) do this band. Those were the only reasons for everyone moving here. The reasons we chose Gainesville are obviously for the school, and it's much closer to getting out of the state, because much more happens outside of the state of Florida than in the state of Florida.

Splendid: People see the Mercury Program as a group of trained musicians. Ironically enough, such characterizations have been used against the band; some reviewers have referred to you as "textbook", and one review I read said you sounded like "a group of students trying really hard to impress their music professor." Do you feel such labels are justified, and is there any truth to belief that you are technically superior to other bands?

Sander Travisano: I think that's a ridiculous comment, because I don't know the first thing about music as far as technical manner is concerned. I know music by ear and play by ear, totally. David started out the same way and eventually worked himself into school. My brother (Whitney) has been trained since he was younger, so he knows what's up, but as far as being technically superior... We don't sit down and go like, "The B flat should be the relative minor to..." We just rock, and that's the way it goes.

Dave Lebleu: I think me and Whitney, when we're in the writing stage, might try to be key conscious, but other than that we don't think about time signatures. We don't fucking count anything. The only thing we think about is are we doing this in the same key too much? That's the only thing near technicality we might go to. Otherwise, it's completely off the cuff. Whatever happens in practice just happens, removed from our consciously incorporating any technicalities.

Tom Reno: The people who say stuff like that are the same people who'll label bands as math rock when they're actually straight up 4:4 -- as normal as AC/DC rock. The people who say that are typically ignorant. They'll say we are switching time signatures all over the board when it's just 4:4. It's kind of a joke.

Sander Travisano: At least take the time to count the thing!

Splendid: You've also been tagged as a jazz outfit. To what extent are such descriptions accurate?

Tom Reno: There's a heavy influence on us from that, especially from Dave and I. I think most of what we listen to is that stuff.

Dave Lebleu: But we don't play in any jazz chords, we don't change keys frequently, we don't play in any charts or heads that are favored by most jazz songs. Some swing elements come in occasionally, but that's merely my groove or my style. And Tom has the same effect with his guitar playing. And that's it. As far as any legitimate jazz reference is concerned, no.

Splendid: What factored into the decision to leave vocals off the new EP?

Dave Lebleu: That didn't happen until we got into the studio.

Tom Reno: It's usually left on me to add vocals and I decided that I was forcing myself to include them. These songs really didn't need them.

Splendid: So what have you been listening to lately?

Dave Lebleu: It almost shouldn't be spoken of. If people knew what we listened to in our van on our way to shows, they'd probably stop listening to our records. They'd be like, "I don't see that" or "I don't understand why they're listening to that."

Tom Reno: The one thing I can say on that is that it's not what you would expect. What you expect us to be listening to, we aren't, and what you don't, we are. The bands that people compare us to, we aren't listening to. I mean, maybe we own the record and have listened to them occasionally...

Dave Lebleu: But it's not like a Bible we follow or something.

Tom Reno: Most of those bands we don't ever listen to.