What is Capillary Action? Well that depends. On one hand, Capillary Action is multi-instrumentalist, producer and Oberlin College sophomore Jonathan Pfeffer. Pfeffer has been selling his first album, a noise-prog-bossa nova epic titled Fragments over his website for several months now. Next fall, he will release his second album Cannibal Impulses, a brutally atonal noise collage comprised of samples from sources as disparate as grindcore, hip-hop, 1950s sex-ed tapes and Star Trek.

Capillary Action is also the name of Pfeffer’s live band, which toured the East Coast over winter term and is currently gearing up for am epic cross-country, 10,000-mile tour this summer, which will take them through the south, then up the west coast into Canada in a van that he doesn’t know how to drive.

The band is comprised of Oberlin sophomores Spencer Russel, Stefan Alessi and Sam Krulwich on bass, guitar and keyboards, respectively, as well as Kurt Howard on drums and Paul Laughridge on keyboards, both friends from Pfeffer’s native Philadelphia.

I recently dragged Pfeffer away from a last minute A-level binge to discuss both of Capillary Action’s incarnations.

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Capillary Action

JK: What distinguishes Cannibal Impulses from your last album Fragments?
JP: As far as the basic construction goes, it’s not all that different from Fragments. I don’t follow any verse-chorus-verse song structure. It’s just a lot more focused. I didn’t start with any kind of intent. As I started writing a more songs the style of the album became a lot clearer. The key difference between the two is the focus.

JK: How did you start producing your own albums?
JP: I first started creating music on my own when I was 12 or 13 because there weren’t many kids at my high school who were really dedicated to music. I started writing the album when I figured out that I could make MP3s of my music by plugging my guitar in the mike line on my computer and using the computer to edit. Before that I’d have mountains of four-track tapes and the music was really terrible. I started taking it really seriously in 2003. I would have a riff and start recording it on the computer and I’d wonder what would logically go with that riff or come after it and I came up with songs out of these tangents. When I was recording Fragments I was very stubborn and wanted to stay true to the original intentions. People who listen to it always comment that the songs sounded more like pieces of songs but that was sort of the point.

JK: What’s your impression of the Oberlin student music scene?
JP: There’s a healthy sense of community here. The fact that people are making music and being creative is always nice to see. I wouldn’t really consider myself part of the Oberlin music scene though because I’ve only played one show here and two guys in my band don’t go here.

JK: The songs on Cannibal Impulses seems like they would be tough to perform live. Are they going to be part of the band’s set on this tour?
JP: I think that we’re going to try to replicate the record at some point but for now we’re mainly playing material from Fragments.

JK: Any good rock and roll stories from the last tour?
JP: Well, we couldn’t get a van so we had to take a Chinatown bus from Philadelphia to New York where my wallet got stolen and I was broke for the whole tour. When we were playing at Wesleyan, we got invited to play at a frat party and made horrific noise for about ten minutes until a girl unplugged Spencer’s bass amp and asked if we could please stop. In upstate New York we wound up playing a show in a warehouse owned by this crazy guy Joe. He made these movies where he spliced together snuff films and America’s Funniest Home Videos. He was kind of like Charles Manson with a heart of gold.

JK: Any predictions for this summer?
JP: The last tour prepared me for this one. You have to be prepared for everything. Be prepared at any moment for a show to fall through or the van to break or equipment to break or members to drop out. We’re going 10,000 miles in a month so I’m excited to see what happens.

JK: So we’re living together next year. Do you have any personal habits I should know about?
JP: Cannibal impulses: it’s not just an album title, it’s a way of life.

Capillary Action will perform at the Cat on May 24