Black moustache: look what's risen out of the ashes of electroclash

Interview, Sept, 2003 by Milena Selkirk

While the band's cryptic name conjures images of Burt Reynolds at his hirsute zenith, there's much more to Black Moustache than ironic facial hair. The Williamsburg, Brooklyn art-rock trio--singer Spencer Product, drummer Mike Skinner, and multi-instrumentalist Kenan Gunduz--is on a mission: to infuse electronic dance music with the visceral power of punk rock.

"One of my earliest aspirations was to bring punk to the dance floor," remembers Product, a DJ who is best known for kick-starting the Brooklyn-based electroclash movement with promoter Larry Tee three years ago. Along with Skinner and Gunduz, Product wrote and recorded Black Moustache's eponymous debut during an intense three-week stint in a Queens studio. The album, released this month by Lakeshore Records, is a gritty disco-punk opus that bites on the retro-futuristic sound of early-1980s new wave and oozes modern paranoia, with Product growling about mental institutions ("Mobile Unit"), media saturation ("TV Slut"), and global politics ("X-On/X-Off") in a freeze-dried, digital voice. Product, who has a background in graphic design, also lends a visual element to the project by creating the album's artwork and posters; the group has begun staging performances in galleries and boutiques, too. "The more we started working, the more we realized that what we were working on was more than a band," he says. "Recording the album was like making a painting--it's art. It derives from things that are happening [in the culture] and takes them to a different place. I have certain aesthetics that I think relate to the feeling of the album, the feeling of the music."

Black Moustache isn't Product's first foray into performing: As electroclash groups like Fischer-spooner and W.I.T. gained momentum, he concocted an alter ego, "Prance," a self-described robo-Prince-protege impersonator. "He always wanted to be like Prince," he explains, "but he never got the lyrics right."

As for the Black Moustache moniker, Product is reluctant to give anything away: "I won't get into my own personal interest in moustaches," he says, proudly sporting a thin, wispy fuzz of his own above his upper lip. "It's all about the image."

Milena Selkirk is a New York-based journalist.