There is something about The Forms that I just can't put my finger on. Scratch that last statement. There are a lot of things about New York's The Forms that I can't put my finger on. Describing the electric magnetism between my ears and my speaker cones the first time I listened to their debut, Icarus, would be the easy part. But, I knew that convincing you that The Forms have built a "boat" capable of paddling us out of indie rock's numbing current without providing a reliable blueprint was going to be a little tougher.

So feeling a little like the Titanic's captain, I arranged an interview with the band under the fog of cyberspace, hoping to pilot safely through the subtext, gaining the momentum needed to explain their il-linear masterpiece and get into more familiar waters. But what I realized is that the view from behind their tinted goggles, though more informed, is still a little hazy. The Forms have captured a series of moments in three dimensions: drums, bass, and guitar (I'll concede that there are some tape tricks, but you get the picture), and they might not be completely sure why it floats so damn well.

But there is clearly a greater presence of elbow grease than coincidence in Icarus and The Forms live show. After all, these are the guys who toiled over the same small piece of tape (over 50 times) during an evening in Steve Albini's the studio, and have banged out more than one seamless show in Dayton, Ohio bars. Never the less, The Forms have managed to be meticulous without forcing their expressive tide in any one direction. The disc skips from one track to the next, barely breathing between ideas, and their stage set charges effortlessly between cooing and unexpected cacophony.

Though I'm no closer to making sense of why I like this band so much, or why I'm inclined to put Icarus in league with some of the most memorable albums in indie rock's tumultuous history, I urge you to pay attention…this band might just save your life.

Interview conducted via e-mail by Tim Anderl. Pictures by Tim Anderl.

Names: Acqua (drums), Ecco (guitar, vocals)

Bettawreckonize: Who are The Forms and what instruments do you play?

Ecco: The Forms are Ecco Teres, Acquaman, and Rob Stillwell. Ecco plays the guitar, piano, and sings. Acqua plays the drums and occasionally the guitar. Rob plays bass.

BW: What is your earliest memory of having an interest in music? Have you been in other bands?

E: My earliest memories are mostly of disliking music actually. My parents started me with piano lessons at age 4, and I just remember hating practicing and getting smacked on my hands with pencils by my teacher because I didn't practice. I didn't really like any music on the radio either except "Ghostbusters" and "The Warrior," and I hated classical music too. It wasn't really until I heard the song "Lithium" on Nirvana's Nevermind that I really started to like music. I must have listened to that song 40 times in a row once. I'm not sure I'd be doing music right now if I hadn't heard it.

Acqua: I started out on guitar when I was nine or so. My mom got me lessons. It was strange because I didn't even ask. She just out the blue said "You want guitar lessons?" I have been very lucky in that I had two terrific teachers. My first teacher was only 17 when I was nine, and he played in a band called Silent Cry. This guy was an amazing guitar player. My lessons consisted of learning whatever songs I wanted to. I'd give him a tape; he'd figure it out and I would learn them. Def Leppard, Bon Jovi type stuff. Then he went to college and I bought a book of transcriptions of Appetite for Destruction, and that was it for me. I learned it, end to end, solos and all. Slash's musicality was an eye opener for me, and it's really how I learned about performance. The difference between playing everything correctly in a rote sort of way and playing with feeling, which few people pay attention to. I am self-taught on drums, but really it was just translating what I had already learned about music.

E: Acqua, Rob and I have each played in a lot of different bands over the years, though Rob joined The Forms only this past year. Acqua and I have played music together for a decade, previously in a band called The Heathers, which became known as Nine Days Wonder when we found another band had the name. It turns out several bands were called Nine Days Wonder anyway. It's tough to find a name no one has thought of, unless you pick two random words from the dictionary, like Deductive Condiments or something.

BW: Are you all originally from New York? How does that locale influence, help, or hinder the music you make or your ability to be a proactive band?

A: I live and have always lived in Queens, except for a short stint away at college. The place I live is bizarre. It's called Rockaway. The Ramones have a song about it called "Rockaway Beach." I live a block from the Atlantic and a block from Jamaica Bay, where Coney Island is. It's like a weird alcoholic/surfer haven. People don't realize that Queens is a very diverse and strange place.

E: I grew up in Eastchester - about 20 miles outside of NYC and have lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn since. Rob is originally from Annapolis, MD and has lived in Brooklyn the past couple of years.

Being in a band from New York is a strange thing right now. There is this culture of people who moved to NYC from other places with the idea of making it big that dominates what people view as being from New York. I'd be pretty shocked if even 50 percent of the people of the bands that call themselves from New York bands were actually born anywhere near NYC. There is this whole weird system that has developed revolving around all of that where people move here, size up the scene, figure out who the "right people" to talk to are (e.g. Village Voice music editor or whoever), modify their music to fit in with what's cool, and just become absorbed in this whole record deal sweepstakes game. It makes for a lot of really weak music. It's partly what we liked about playing in Ohio, because that doesn't seem to be going on there. So the quality of band is just a lot better, and I think it's in part due to not having to deal with all that. We have always tried to avoid letting what we do be influenced by the music business and by what other bands are doing, and I think it has really helped us musically. If we were not from NY, I don't see any way we could sustain ourselves here. I feel sorry for talented musicians that move to NY...if you want people to pay attention to you, better make music in the style of what the press is already writing about (garage rock, electroclash, anti-folk, etc.). Problem is, 2000 other bands have the same idea.

BW: How would you describe Icarus to someone that had never heard it?

E: It's decidedly hard to describe...people writing about it have called it post-rock, post-punk, indie pop, indie rock, and emo. Someone once told us that it was like water. I like that.

A: A guy I took studio art with in high school said we sound like a cross between Shellac and Enya.

BW: Is the title of the album based on the Icarus mythology? If so, in what ways does the band or the music on the album relate to that story?

E: Yes, it is based on that. I've always liked that story a lot. To me, Icarus represents being inspired by an idea and just going with it no matter what the consequences. When the ideas for this Ocarus record started to come, we never thought about whether people would like it or who it sounded like. The lesson of the myth I suppose is that it is better to play it safe and that Icarus is wrong for flying near the sun. I think Icarus had the right idea though, even though he got killed.

BW: Do you feel like comparisons to June of 44, Slint, or Q and Not U are warranted?

E: We like all of those bands, but for the years around when we wrote this music, we were kind of in a musical vacuum where I don't think any of us ever heard more than one or two songs by any of those bands. We've heard them more now and like them all. But while I think there are some similarities to The Forms, our music is nothing if not melodic, and those bands are not really interested in that so much. I feel much more of a kinship with bands like Shudder To Think and Sunny Day Real Estate (esp. STT's Pony Express Record and SDRE's LP2), because their songwriting is really exciting and creative, but their music is deeply appealing on an emotional level as well.

A: I like the Slint drummer and his sense of timing very much. I actually had heard June of 44 and Slint at the time, but I pretty much agree that we aren't in line with those bands so much. There was also an underrated Dischord band called the Crownhate Ruin who really had a sense of rhythmic fluidity to their music that I learned a lot from.

BW: It took me several listens before I was comfortable forming an opinion on Icarus? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, or am I just a moron?

E: Ha ha...well, most bands will do a part of a song three or four times, but we'll only do it maybe twice, so you have to listen to it more for the parts to sink in. I think also that The Forms' music is just different from what people are used to, so it may take a little bit more time to become familiar with how it works. The songs "Sunday" and "Stravinsky" are good starting points though, as people tend to like those two right away.

A: We aren't about gimmicks. That kind of thing is totally bankrupt. A lot of people aren't prepared to hear something musical. They want all these extra-musical things like a guy who wears a funny hat or plays a banjo. Beyond that, I think the Forms album can appear to be just some weird emo record, which really isn't what it is. You have to dig to see that.

BW: Ecco's vocals are particularly unique, somewhat like a separate instrument altogether? Is using your voice to produce memorable melodies or lyrical content more important to you?

E: I've never been too big a believer in lyrics in music. I've always felt that if words are really important to you, you may as well read fiction or poetry. The way music works is fundamentally mysterious...why is it that if you change one note in a good melody, the whole thing is ruined? Music's power is mostly subconscious and emotional and can't be articulated, and when you say that it is about your ex-girlfriend or whatever, it cheapens it. Some people have told us that the Icarus record is their favorite album ever, but the same people that really like it probably wouldn't be able to explain what it is about better than anyone else. That said, there are lyrics on Icarus, and I think they are important to the album, but the gist of the record can be had without them.

BW: How did you choose Steve Albini for the recording of Icarus? Did you approach your studio time with trepidation or were you intimidated at all going into the studio with a man who is notorious for being notorious?
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E: I have never heard anyone in the world that does a better job recording bands than Steve, so the choice was pretty obvious. I definitely was a little nervous at the prospect of working with Steve before the sessions, but after about five minutes of meeting him, we felt totally comfortable. Steve didn't try to control us at all. You hear stories about major label producers who will actually pick what lyrics go on the album (like Rick Rubin in the case of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). Steve lets you do whatever you want, and just makes it sound really good. He will offer his opinion if asked, but otherwise he is there to help you.

BW: When I caught Shellac at More Than Music Fest, Steve Albini used the pauses between songs to offer "constructive criticism" of the crowd. Are there any critiques or criticism that he offered during your studio time that are particularly memorable or that resonated with you?

E: Definitely! It's the thing I remember most about the recording - the scathing yet good-natured abuse he'd dish out. Example: at the end of "Innizar," where it gets a little downbeat and pretty, he flicked on his lighter and waved it in the air all glam-rock power-ballad style. We recorded one part in another song over and over again about 58 times, driving him absolutely crazy. When we were finally happy with it, he sardonically declared that we had just "saved the record!"

BW: read in your public relations material that you are a computer scientist and that Rob Stillwell is a Catholic geology teacher. First, how is Catholic geology different from the regular, secular study of rocks? Why no mention of Acquaman's non-musical occupation?

E: Catholic Geology is, of course, the study of "holy rocks," like cathedral ruins and gold. We don't really have those occupations anymore though. We're all about Threespheres, The Forms, and The Desert Fathers (Acqua's other band) now.

BW: There is a tremendous amount of care in your packaging and a pretty substantial emphasis on 2-dimensional photograph images, both in the actual CD and on the multi-media portion of the disc. How does your music relate to that other medium?

E: The way we usually work is that we'll just have an idea, instinctively know it's the right thing to do, and then later realize why we did it. With the cover photos, we just randomly drove by an I-95 overpass in New Jersey as the snow was melting and streaming down from the highway, and just instantly knew it was right for The Forms. It occurred to us over time that those images really reflect what the album is. They are really colorful, which I think of as being like melody in music. They also have all these ordered patterns and forms, sometimes random, sometimes symmetrical, much like the music. We also noticed later that every picture has massive pieces of stone somewhere in it, which I think reflects the way the album sounds kind of ancient and austere.

There is also something about how the pictures are of all these godforsaken places, with garbage everywhere, that are actually really beautiful. I like the idea of paradise being right in front of you every day and never even noticing it, only one day to realize it was always there.

BW: You've been out on regional tours at least twice that I know of. What were those experiences like? Have people been receptive to your music?

E: It varies pretty randomly from place to place, but overall, people have been really receptive. Like you said, some songs on the record require a little time to sink in, but live you can only play a song once, so we streamline the songs a bit for the live show. It's more fun for us that way anyway, since the streamlined versions are newer.

A: I think we're a very different band live and I think it helps for people to see rather than just hear to get a sense of what we do.

BW: The last time you were in Dayton someone locked your van keys in the van. Is that the worst thing that has happened to you on the road?

E: Oh my god...so much worse than that has happened to us. We have a van that was breaking down daily to the tune of $500 a day to get it fixed. Does anybody out there have a good van we can have? Email forms@threespheres.com!

BW: Valentine's Day was just a week ago....if you were to make a Valentine's mix for your sweetie, what songs would be your first choices for inclusion?

E: Oh boy...let's see, I'd want to start it off with something that'll make her a little crazy, push her to the edge. Like something off In Utero. How about "Milk It"? Then, follow that with the opposite extreme. Like, "Spin The Bottle" by Juliana Hatfield or something. At this point, she'll be evaluating what's really important in life, and her thoughts will gradually drift towards me, at which point "All You Need Is Love," the final song of the mix, will start playing. I will already be waiting on AOL for the inevitable IM pledging eternal devotion to follow.

BW: Any plans for St. Patrick's Day?

E: As for St. Patrick's Day, we're NY Irish Catholic geology teachers. What do you think we're gonna do?