After the last tour, you took a series of road trips around the country, which you said ended up being reflected in your songs. You also said your last album, The Mountain (2009), was rooted in the aftermath of a longterm relationship and that your new album, Arrow, is you being comfortable again. I’ve also read that you suffered from writer’s block. Were your trips meant to be a form of therapy?

I get ideas in my head all the time, so I don’t get writer’s block in a sense of musical ideas. My writer’s block comes when I have to sit down and put words to the melodies that are in my head. That’s always been a difficult process for me. I think it’s because I write from a very personal part of myself, and I think it just takes me a while to feel comfortable with putting those thoughts out there for people to hear. So, that’s just a kind of very time-consuming, difficult process for me, and that’s what I get writer’s block with. When I went on that road trip, I already had most of the songs for the album in my head. It was just a matter of, I needed to focus and try to force myself to get those thoughts out of my head.

When you were on the road trip, was that meant more as just a traveling thing, or did you actually play shows while driving around?

No, I didn’t play any shows or gigs. I just wanted to focus on writing new material.

You’ve always seemed to be able to balance the gritty, more rocking guitar with the mellower acoustic numbers. There are a few mellow songs on this album (and I say mellow just for lack of a better word) that still hit you over the head. The first single, “Parted Ways”… my initial impression, for some reason, was that it reminded me a lot of early 70′s Stones. But then while I was walking into the studio tonight, I was humming “Parted Ways” a little bit, and I kept breaking into Social Distortion’s “Ball and Chain”.  

You know, the inspiration for that song is actually Thin Lizzy’s cover of the old traditional song “Whiskey in the Jar”. That song used to be on the jukebox when I bartended in Cincinnati all the time, and I always loved it. I never got sick of that song. When the melody for “Parted Ways” came in my head, I knew I wanted to approach the song in that way, because that song is rocking, but it’s got acoustic guitar in it. And that’s kind of almost every song on this album, other than three. So, seven of the songs are on acoustic guitar, but a lot of them are rock and roll songs, though, like, “Gotta Have Rock and Roll” is acoustic, too. And T. Rex does that same thing; they’ll put an acoustic guitar to, like, a rock sound. I like the percussive elements. It’s a different way of approaching songs than I have in the past, something new for me.

Was that a conscious decision to write differently, or is that just how things worked out?

I think it’s sort of just how things work out. Like, I get these melodies in my head, and I don’t even know where the ideas come from. The melodies are there, and I don’t record them. I tell myself if they’re any good, I won’t forget them. And so I just carry these ideas around with me for long periods of time, and then eventually I have to sit down and force myself to work them out and focus. So, a lot of the ideas I had in my head over the three-year period of The Mountain… er, two-year period, I guess, between when The Mountain came out and we recorded. And some of these ideas… like “Marathon” was actually meant to be on the last album, but we ran out of time. “Down in the Canyon” I started writing in 2007, started writing it possibly for All This Time, but I just didn’t feel like it was coming together right. I think sometimes if you’re not feeling quite right about how the idea’s coming together, it’s better to just shelve it for a while and get back to it later and hope that something sort of gels eventually.

With that in mind, the Heartless Bastards have had numerous lineup changes over the years. I was looking at the interaction of all the players, and it was almost like a game of Mastermind where you’re trying to find the perfect combination. The three that you’re playing with now – Dave Colvin, Jesse Ebaugh, and Mark Nathan – you’ve all recorded with in the past, yes?

Dave’s from my hometown in Dayton, and then I was living in Cincinnati when I started working on Heartless Bastards, the ideas. And it was a recording project, so Dave recorded on that. And Jesse. And then when I moved to Austin, I happened to run into Dave here. He was going to UT. So, I just kind of happened to run into him, and I needed to find a band, and I asked him if he was interested in playing drums. And then I called up Jesse. He was living in Covington, Kentucky, which is pretty much Cincinnati. I called him up and asked if he’d consider moving down to Austin to join the band. I’ve known Jesse for years and always thought he was a great bass player. He was on the demo as well. I just had a good feeling that he’d be a great fit for the band. But Mark… I recorded The Mountain, and then we did a fall tour before its release–Dave, Jesse, and myself as a three-piece–and we brought Mark on. We met him through a friend, and he did sound for that tour. We got along really well. We had similar tastes in music. We had been hearing that he was a really good guitarist, and when we were looking to add a fourth member for the release of the album at the beginning of 2009, we asked Mark if he was interested, and he said, yeah. We didn’t even try him out. He just joined the band. So, Mark wasn’t on the demo.

You said that you felt a connectivity with these guys that helped make Arrow the strongest record you’ve ever done. Would it be safe to say that after all these years you’ve actually found your four-piece? 

Yeah, I think so. I don’t have intentions of changing musicians all the time. It’s kind of how life happens. When I first started the band, Dave was even in the original live lineup, but he got an opportunity for work or something in San Francisco, and he moved away. And Jesse was busy in another band at the time, so I didn’t ask him. Sometimes you just make things work, and I don’t mean that in any reflection of the previous band on the records. I don’t mean it didn’t work. When Mike Lamping, my ex-boyfriend, and Kevin Vaughan came into the band, we worked together for two albums. But when Mike and I split up, it was really painful. It was really hard to continue working together. So, I moved to Austin, and I just sort of needed to start over. There were session musicians on The Mountain because I hadn’t begun the process of looking for a new band yet. Mike McCarthy, who produced it, suggested that I go ahead and just concentrate on writing the songs and that he had people in mind, and then if it didn’t work out, we could cross that bridge when we came to it. Moving to a new place and everything, I just kind of went with that. But I don’t have any intention of changing band members all the time. Sometimes things come up in people’s lives. Dave just became a father, but he’s making it work with the band. I guess I just mean that people’s lives are some of the other elements that… if anybody ever needs to leave because they need to do something for themselves, then that’s okay, but I have no intentions of looking for any other new members.

I kind of viewed Heartless Bastards as your project, and the artists were chosen to fulfill what vision you had.

Yeah, although now I really feel like with everybody I’m playing with right now, that we all have such diverse tastes, but we have similar tastes. I feel like I could want to go in any direction, and we would be able to do it as a band. When we toured on The Mountain, Jesse was playing banjo; he plays peddle steal. Dave has a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies and can totally play jazz drums, which are very complex. I mean, maybe one of these days I’ll want to do a jazz album or something. I don’t know. But I feel like everybody’s got very diverse styles. If I want to go in a certain direction, I think they’ll be just as into trying something new for themselves as well, so we can kind of go there together.

The Mountain was produced by Mike McCarthy, who’s produced Spoon, and Arrow is produced by Jim Eno, Spoon’s drummer. Is this a result of you moving to Austin, or are you just really big Spoon fans?

Well, I actually moved to Austin because I have family here, and my management at the time was here. When I moved here, I was sort of starting over, and it just seemed like a good place to go. I mean, I’ve always liked the town as well, touring through, but I didn’t really move here for the music scene, although it’s a nice plus. Yeah, I’m definitely a fan of Spoon, but I chose Jim Eno because I think he’s just got a great temperament. I knew we would work together really well. We have mutual friends here in town. At one point, I think, Jim expressed some interest in recording an album, and we really like what he’s done with his own band. He also produced Black Joe Lewis’s album… I’m drawing blanks, but he’s produced several other albums as well. I just heard really good things about how he produces, and it worked out really well. He came to a couple of practices, and he sat, and he listened to the songs and made some suggestions here and there, which we would try out. Some of the things definitely worked out, and we agreed that they were good changes to be made. We really just decided we liked working with him. Jim also has really diverse tastes. A lot of the approach of the album, as far as recording it, he was like, “What are some of your inspirations for these songs? What would you want it to sound like if you recorded it?”

For instance, “Gotta Have Rock and Roll” is T. Rex-inspired, so I was like, “I’d really love to get that T. Rex sound.” That’s one of my favorite bands ever. And then I mentioned “Whiskey in the Jar”, the Thin Lizzy cover, so we took the recording process and kind of went for the sounds. I felt like Jim really helped us figure out how to get the sounds that we wanted. We worked together really well as a team. Like on “The Arrow Killed the Beast”, I was like, “I’m thinking something like Ennio Morricone meets Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, like them singing over an Ennio Morricone song.” Their voices together, they always record them really reverbed out, like it’s in a canyon or something. I’ve been really inspired over the last several years by Ennio Morricone, and that was like, to me, the song was approaching a cross between the two. But I feel like Jim was really good at helping us get those sounds that we’re looking for. It was just a really great process. I enjoyed the whole thing.

I read that you said you were “really, really happy” with this album.

I am. I feel like it’s the closest I’ve gotten to where I was trying to go with ideas. I felt like it was a combination of working with a band. On “Only for You”, I was trying to make myself sound like Curtis Mayfield. I was inspired by… I love the way he sings real close to the mic. But when I was talking to the band about it, they were just as into going in that direction of, like, 70′s soul and R&B. It was something different for them and me. And then Jim has similar tastes and diverse styles of music that he likes. I just felt like the band and Jim, we all just worked together and got to these places. It’s just been a great experience.

For this album, you’ve changed lineups, changed producers, and you’ve also changed labels. Your first three full-lengths were all released on Fat Possum; The Arrow will be released on Partisan Records. What was behind switching labels?

I just thought at this point that maybe it would be good to try somewhere else. We didn’t have a big falling out or anything, as far as Fat Possum. I certainly wouldn’t say anything negative about them, but Fat Possum’s been the only label I’ve ever been on. But I felt like… one thing about Partisan, they’re sort of a new label, and I feel like they’re still growing and wanting to, in a sense, grow and progress as a label. I feel like with Heartless Bastards and this project, I just feel like there’s room for the band to grow as well, and I feel like with Partisan, we’re kind of… I keep on using that word team, but as far as with Jim and the band, I feel like we’re going to be a good team. We’re working together.

Considering the first single is titled “Parted Ways”, is there anything behind the Valentine’s Day release, or did that just happen to be happenstance?

It’s sort of happenstance. I had planned on naming the album Arrow, and Partisan didn’t even realize it yet, because I just hadn’t told them the title, and then they came up with this idea. They were like, “We thought it’d be really funny to release a Heartless Bastards album on Valentine’s Day.” I agree. I totally concur. I was like, “So you know, I was planning on calling the album Arrow.”

I hope people don’t think I’m naming the album based on a marketing plan, releasing it on Valentine’s Day. It was just a total coincidence, and then somebody from Partisan was like, “Most people don’t ever remember the date an album’s released.” Maybe because it is funny, and Heartless Bastards and Valentine’s Day, maybe people will remember for a while. But I could not tell you the release date of any album I’ve ever purchased in my life, other than, I remember always the release dates of my own albums.

When do you go on tour?

We leave Monday [February 5, 2012], so like, six days from now.

How long is it going to be?

I think it’s right around five weeks. Then we get back to Austin, and it’s South By [South By Southwest]. I almost feel like we’ll get home, but it’s kind of a continuation of the tour there for a little bit.

Well, good luck on the road and with the album. I was listening to it today, and I really, really enjoyed it.  I have to say “Simple Feeling” is one of my favorite tracks. It reminds me a lot of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”.

Yeah, actually, that’s definitely an inspiration for it, or when we were writing it. I brought the idea in, and that was probably one of the least formed songs that I brought into the band. Dave and Jesse were there that day, and I was like, “I have this idea and this melody and kind of an idea of structure, but…” Yeah, that one just kind of came together. We were at first, “Does that sound too much like that,” and we decided that it was different enough.

Today, of Montreal releases its latest collection of pop cacophony, Paralytic Stalks. This time around, musical brewmeister Kevin Barnes mixes things up, intermingling the influences of 20th century classical composers like Partch and Ligeti, experimenting with through-composition, and using session players for the first time. Paralytic Stalks also marks the first time in quite awhile that Barnes has written or recorded without the use of an alternate persona or character. Consequence of Sound‘s Research Editor Len Comaratta caught up with Barnes while he was at home in Athens, GA as he and the group finalized preparations for their upcoming tour.

We can just jump right into it if you want. I assume you’re down in Athens right now.

Yeah.

The tour begins… in two weeks?

Well, we’re starting… our first show is in Athens on the 17th, I think, of February, but then we have a couple of weeks before the tour kicks off for real.

Okay, so you’re just doing a hometown show to kind of kick things off, see how it goes?

Yeah, kind of… well, the record will have already been out. We’re attempting some stuff that we’ve never tried before visually, so it’s good to get one run through.

Visually, do you mean like the theatrics that you have or like in a new light show?

Yeah, it’s new. What we basically are doing is we’re trying to have as many projectable spaces onstage as possible, so basically, visually it’s going to be sort of a sensory overload. It’s going to be all these different layers of different kinds of animations and different kinds of lighting. At least that’s the way we visualize it; it’s going to be really extreme at times and really powerful.

So are you going to have warnings regarding seizures?

That’s a good idea, actually.

With the sound of this album, you have all these strings. Are you going to have the string players on tour with you, or are you going to do that via different methods?

It’s going to be a combination ‘cause we do have the guy who actually played all the parts on the record, Kishi Bashi; he’s in the band, too. So he’s going to be playing parts, but they’re so densely orchestrated you can’t really pull that off just as one person, so there will be some things in the backing tracks, or some things will be played by other instruments. Yeah, that’s kind of a challenge that we’ve been working with right now. We’ve been in rehearsals for two weeks now just trying to figure out a way to reproduce those arrangements live. It’s been a real challenge, but I think it’s going to sound really cool. I’m excited.

A lot of people may have felt that you “changed directions” on the last few albums, but I’ve always kind of felt like you have this direction you’re going in, and the albums are the albums as they are; you’re not going back or forward or anything like that. It’s just this new… a new album. I don’t know what people were worried about with this one.

[chuckles] Yeah, I don’t know. I’m definitely incorporating some elements that maybe I haven’t in the past. But as far as the songs being structured in this way, it’s definitely something I have done with records like The Gay Parade and Coquelicot [Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse] and Skeletal Lamping, as far as having songs that contain different movements within one song, so it’s not just like an obvious pop arrangement. That’s definitely something that I’ve been interested in for a while just because when you’re writing songs, when you’re writing pop songs, there’s a tendency to follow the template that other people have already established as far as having verses repeating and choruses repeating and all that stuff. It’s not very challenging. Once you’ve written the verse and the chorus, then the song’s almost done. So, there’s not that much you can say beyond that. I like the approach of writing a section of music and then using that as inspiration for the next section and then using that as inspiration for the next section but not really worrying so much about having things come back, not worrying so much about repeating sections.

And that was your experimentation with the through-compositions?

Yeah. That’s something that appeals to me just because I find it more challenging and more exciting and more fulfilling. I have worked with the typical pop template a lot just because sometimes I’ll try to chase that idea trying to write the perfect pop song. But with this new record, I’ve been more interested in extending the songs and having it be more transportive, more a journey of sorts.

False Priest marked you returning to organic instruments. And Paralytic Stalks takes it even further now with the inclusion of session players. Why did you decide to bring in session players, especially considering that you’ve been pretty much a one-man band in the studio for the better part of this decade? And how come you never bring in the live touring band to record the albums?

Well, I guess what it really comes down to is that the people that I got to play on the record play instruments that I can’t play, whereas the touring band has had fairly common instrumentation as far as keyboards and basses and guitars and drums and things that I can play. I like to do the bulk of the work myself. So when it comes to something… when I hear something that I just can’t produce on my own or I can’t realize on my own, then I’ll bring in other people. Getting Kishi Bashi involved and getting Zac Colwell involved was great because they were able to contribute something that I could have never contributed on my own, and they were able to help steer the songs into a direction that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. They’re in the band now, so I guess it is like having band members involved.

With that in mind, were those parts strictly written out, or did you leave room for the players to move within the framework? For example, “Wintered Debts” sounds a bit more structured than the avant nature of “Exorcismic Breeding Knife”.

Yeah, those, “Wintered Debts”, “Ye, Renew the Plaintiff”, and “Authentic Pyrrhic Remission”, those three have extended instrumental sections that were definitely more collaborative in nature as far as I maybe have a concept, I want it to be this length of time, and I want to have this sort of vibe, and then I would send it to K, or I would send it to Zac. K is Kishi Bashi. So, I’d send it to them to see what they heard or what they could contribute. Then they’d send me their parts, and then I would use that to help create a structure, and then I would add my own parts to that and affect the things that they sent me. It was definitely a lot of back-and-forth and collaboration for those moments.

So was that after you’d written the song, or was that actually during the songwriting process?

It was within the songwriting process just because I had written the first couple sections and then got to the point where I knew I wanted to have a certain musical emotion or whatever. I wanted to have something in these sections that was different from the other sounds I had created. And then from there, like with “Wintered Debts”, for example. And then I wrote that tag at the end, the piano thing at the end. I mean, I could have just kept writing. The songs didn’t ever really have to end. I could have made each one of them 30 minutes long or whatever. But I sort of, I guess, got to the point where I was at seven minutes or eight minutes or 13 minutes or whatever, and it could just be done. I could just work on something else now.

Wondering what Kevin Barnes has been listening to on Spotify? Click here and find out!

I noticed the last four songs on the album are almost 2/3 the album length. You’re not a stranger to having long songs. “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” is over 12 minutes long. But it’s usually one song that stands out, whereas on this album, it seems to be all weighted towards the end there. When you were sequencing the album, were you conscious of all that? Was there a method to your madness?

No. And actually most of the songs are sort of alphabetical as far as their working titles went, the sequence of them for the most part. I changed all the titles after the fact, but the working titles pretty much placed them in that order, in that sequence. So it was almost alphabetical. I did experiment a little bit. Initially, I was going to put “Exorcismic Breeding Knife” as the opening track, and then I thought better of it because I thought maybe it would alienate some people and they wouldn’t really get to that point. They’d just listen to that one song and throw the CD in the trash.

That’s not much faith in your own work is it?

No, but I understand how people are. I understand that certain people, some people aren’t interested in that they don’t really look to music to provide that kind of stimulation or whatever it is. So, I can appreciate that there’s some people like that… it’s not for everybody obviously, and I don’t really want to antagonize people. I just want my art to communicate with people, and hopefully it does.

Let’s go back to “Wintered Debts” real fast. Parts of that and parts of “Exorcismic Breeding Knife”… I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the piano player Sakis Papadimitriou…

Uh-huh.

You know Nosferatu?

Yeah.

…A few years ago, they did a contemporary soundtrack to it, where they had the movie playing, and then [Papadimitriou] and his avant European jazz group did a contemporary soundtrack to it. It’s very haunting like some of the elements that you’ve been incorporating, like in “Wintered Debts”. I noticed that “Wintered Debts” was also released on Soundcloud back in the fall rather than releasing it as a single. Because of the fact that song is so different, so dark and so complex… is that why you released it on Soundcloud? To sort of test the waters? “Dour Percentage” is being released as an official single. And when you listen to “Dour Percentage”, it makes sense. It’s a poppy song. It sounds like a single. But what was the logic or the reasoning behind the Soundcloud release?

I think we just wanted to give people a taste of the new direction that we were going in. And that seemed sort of more indicative of the overall album. I guess with “Dour Percentage” the label is in the business to sell things, so I guess they want to release it as an official single or whatever and charge… I don’t know… it’s just a strange, murky territory now because you can get anything you want musically for free anyways, so it’s kind of just like wishful thinking in a way to even officially release anything or charge anything ever. You just kind of hope that maybe some people still care to buy it, or maybe they’re like intimidated enough by their cable company to resist stealing things.

With that in mind and, I guess, with the decline in sales, in recent years, of Montreal has lent its songs to other commercials and television shows and whatnot. In the age of dwindling sales, I find it totally understandable, and considering in the past much of your proceeds you’ve actually used to funnel back into your own tours. It’s not like you guys are just trying to sell out and makes tons of money. How do you choose whom you’re willing to work with when it comes to that?

I haven’t really done much of that over the last couple of albums. Maybe it’s because the songs aren’t as commercial or something. But what initially happened… I had been so broke for so long, and no one had ever even asked me if I wanted to have a song in a commercial or anything. I was so green. I had no idea what any of that stuff was about. I didn’t realize how… what a big effect it can have on people’s perception of your music, because it always just seemed kind of absurd. You feel like you live in this world, this small little indie world or whatever, and that things that are on television don’t have any sort of connection to that world at all, and then when somebody from some big mainstream company contacts you and asks you to use one of your songs, it almost feels totally surreal and totally unbelievable. Like, why in the world would that company want to use one of my songs? That doesn’t make any sense.

And it’s really hard I think for artists to say “no” when they’re offered more money than they’d make in a year just for allowing them to use your song for however many commercials. I kind of was on the really extreme side of it because I had the Outback Steakhouse commercials that lasted for like four years because I had no idea what kind of contract I was signing. With no representation, I just got totally fucked. But most artists, I think, are a little bit more savvy and can weigh it in their heads, the pros and cons. Like, there’s gonna be this Taco Bell commercial with my song in it, and I’m gonna get a lot of backlash, but I am going to be able to keep making music for the next year without having to go back to my telemarketing job or whatever. The backlash is coming from a strange place because people don’t really realize that even though they own the record and they’ve seen the band play and they seem like they’re pretty popular, most indie bands, they can’t really survive more than three, four, five years at best, and then everybody has to go back to their day job or whatever.

Well, how do you account for your success? You’ve said with this album you weren’t necessarily trying to make a commercial album. In my opinion, you’ve never tried to make a commercial album. I don’t think any of of Montreal’s stuff, though it is successful and you have a really good following… I’ve never seen any of your albums as intentionally commercial. Maybe The Sunlandic Twins, probably could be, in my opinion, the most available commercially. But I never really thought that that’d be an issue for you. I thought that you’d be more like that you were going to go out and play your music and do what was in your heart, in your mind, and in your soul. With that said, how do you account for of Montreal’s success?

I guess just good fortune and just luck, because everybody for the most part is doing it for the right reasons. There aren’t that many people unless you’re part of the major label machine, and they sort of handpick people because they look a certain way and they might appeal to a certain demographic or whatever. But most, I would think like 99.9% of musicians, people in bands, are doing it because they get some fulfillment out of it and because they love it, and it’s coming from a pure place. As far as us being successful, we were so unsuccessful for the first six or seven years of our existence. We know firsthand. We know all too well.

It’s really traumatizing in a way to spend six years driving around in a van and sleeping on floors and eating McDonald’s because that’s all you can afford and just dealing with that world for so long and caring just as much about your music and wanting to reach an audience and not feel completely irrelevant. And then it sort of turned around for us around Satanic Panic [in the Attic] and Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna [Are You the Destroyer?]. We sort of were able to pay our dues; I mean, we paid too many dues in a lot of ways because it can be kind of really traumatizing to live that life as long as we did it. But we did it because we’re so passionate about it, and I’m so passionate about making music. I’m just driven to do it; there’s no real reason for me to do it other than I just get so much fulfillment out of it and because my whole life is centered around that – the creative process. But I can’t really say why we’ve been successful. We could easily just be still just as unknown as we were in 1997. Luckily, thank God, something clicked, and people started paying attention.

You said, speaking with New Music Express, “Paralytic Stalks is different from my previous few albums, in that none of the songs were written from the perspective of a persona, all of the songs are directly inspired by my personal life and my psychic/emotional/spiritual state.” What was it this time around that allowed you to express without the need of a mask, especially considering you yourself said that you were going through a “really fucked-up period of mental anguish and self-hatred” during this time?

I think it was one of those situations where I just couldn’t even get into the state of mind where I could write from a persona. I guess it came to be a more therapeutic process. I was trying to redirect this really heavy, really intense depression, anxiety, psychosis, whatever you want to call it, into something more positive, and I couldn’t… I wasn’t in a light enough mood to even create a persona. It had to come directly from the core of my being. I think that usually when I write from persona I’m usually in a happier state of mind.

Why is that?

Maybe I’m feeling a bit friskier and more lighthearted. Most of my personas, all of the personas I’ve created, have been really kind of light and more positive figures.

So does that mean on this tour we won’t see Georgie Fruit?

[chuckles] Well, you know, I don’t think so. I don’t even know what that means, though. [chuckles] We’re definitely going to try… we’re definitely doing something different. It’s not going to be as glammy, or it’s not going to be what we were doing in the past. It’s not going to be like False Priest, the False Priest tour; it’s going to be different.

Regarding Georgie Fruit and his “history”, if you will, has there ever been any serious contention of actually doing an Arousal album?

Yeah. I think about it a lot actually. I’d have to be in the right state of mind.

Yeah, obviously to get into the character, and to do it right, it would definitely be a process, but I think that that would be an awesome side project.

Yeah. And I think that I have the right people to help me do it, too.

On many of the tours, you seemed reluctant to play older songs. Now, I understand most tours promote current releases, but do you have a personal expiration date as to when you play songs live? For example, is it too late now to hear “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal”? Is that too old of a song?

No, actually we’re going to play it on this next tour. But really it just comes down to if I still feel connected to it, personally connected to the song. Because a lot of stuff, a lot of the older stuff like The Gay Parade-Coquelicot-era stuff, even Aldhils and things like that… I just feel so disconnected from it. I feel like it’s almost a different person, and maybe I’ll come around; maybe in like 20 years I’ll be nostalgic for that time period and feel good about playing those songs. But now I feel just really charged and really excited about the present moment, and the things that I wrote eight or nine years ago I don’t really feel as excited about, so I don’t just want to get up there, and there’s only like a small handful of people anyways that would even recognize a Gay Parade song or care about it. They’d just be, “What the hell is this goofy song they’re playing?”

With the through-composition featured a lot on this album and how you were saying that you could have written these songs forever and they could have just gone on and on and on, will that be taken into account when you are playing it live? Will you allow for the freedom of the jam, if you will, to just take a song, or are you going to try and maintain some kind of control around that?

It’s hard to say where things will go once we’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks, but at least as a starting point, we’re sticking pretty much with the general arrangements of the record.

In an interview with NPR, you revealed that the concept of the CD could be going the way of the 8-track in favor of mP3 downloads. With that in mind, what was the logic behind the Cassette Box?

It’s funny how things like cassettes have more value now just because, I guess, it’s a bit of a novelty or maybe it’s a nostalgic thing for people who grew up with cassettes. Or maybe it’s people who didn’t grow up with cassettes, so they have some sort of romanticism or whatever.

I still have crates of cassettes in my closet.

Yeah. The label that put out the cassette box, that’s what their thing is. They’re sort of a boutique label that does these limited runs, interesting packaging. It’s cool just to see all the records like that in cassette form; it’s really kind of cool. My brother designed the box. I met the guy who handmade all the boxes. For them, it’s like a total labor of love. They just want to do something; they just wanted to contribute something special to the world.

Since your brother is involved with a lot of the artwork, will he be involved with a lot of the visual aspects of the tour?

Yeah, he and my wife, Nina, the two of them are working on all the animation and all the visual content. And Nick Gould, who’s our video guy, the three of them are working 10-hour days. They’ve been working 10-hour days for the last month and a half or so just trying to create all the content and figure out all the logistics of it. It’s definitely a very ambitious endeavor, and we’re very excited about it. The music is very visual, I think, and so to create a corresponding element that will hopefully draw people in and make it a more engaging sensory experience.

I’m always impressed with how you make your music come alive. Off topic a little bit. How did the collaboration with Os Mutantes come together, and what was it like working with those guys?

I just worked with Sergio [Dias]. He was the only one that was really involved. I guess it came about because the compilation was pairing up Brazilian groups, like tropicalia groups mostly and indie artists that were inspired by them. I’m a huge Os Mutantes fan. I definitely think of their first three records as easily in the top 10 greatest records of all time, so it was really a great thrill to work with him. It wasn’t really… like I didn’t even meet him. I created the basic track and did everything. I did the vocals and stuff and then emailed it to him. He went into another studio and did the guitar solo. We did have a short email correspondence back and forth, which was very exciting, but as far as that goes, it didn’t go any further.

Any thoughts to throwing in an Os Mutantes song in your set?

It’s hard. I don’t speak Portuguese to sing their songs.

You produced Solange Knowles’ album, right?

You know, it’s funny. A lot of people are under that impression, but I don’t really know why. I haven’t produced really. I worked with her. We spent like 10 days at my studio working on some of her material. I think maybe she’s going to use some of the stuff that we worked with, but I am definitely not the official producer of anything. I kind of just helped her get her ideas out. I guess she’s working on her record now, but I really don’t know any of the details. It’s definitely an exaggeration to say that I produced her record.

I read a rumor that you may be working with Phoenix. Care to confirm or deny that?

That’s another false. I wish. I’d love to work with them.

So what direction are you going with your new EP, Onwards to the Wall?

We’ve just been focusing on sort of honing in on what A Place to Bury Strangers is all about. Just kind of perfecting what we’re doing as much as we can to get that sort of extreme sound coming across.

What does A Place to Bury Strangers mean to you?

For me, I don’t know. I guess it depends on what context that question maybe is in. I mean, to me it’s an outlet for my music, but I guess it’s also kind of an outlet for something that represents that whole kind of music completely, which is, I don’t know, I guess kind of really messed up pop music.

Any sort of stylistic changes on Onwards to the Wall?

Definitely. You sort of get tired of what you were doing in the past and always want to move forward to something new and exciting that’s kind of different from what you’ve ever heard before. Also, on this EP, a lot of it was written when Dion Lunadon came in – [it became] more of a collaborative effort.

What does Dion Lunadon bring to the mix?

He comes from a garage kind of background, and so I think he’s a really good player and just someone I can shoot back and forth ideas with. I can work on things with someone with a different perspective. He didn’t grow up listening to, I don’t know, Ministry or The Jesus and Mary Chain and whatnot, maybe what I grew up listening to. So, it’s sort of taking a different element and kind of music and combining it with the stuff we’ve been doing in the past. We’re still going for the same kind of goals, but it just adds a whole sort of weight to the whole thing.

A Place to Bury Strangers have been hailed as the “loudest band in New York.” That’s saying a lot considering the competition.

I guess people say that. Sometimes we’re louder than other times, and we play each show sort of differently, and then sometimes you can be as loud as you can. It’s not necessarily for the sake of being loud. I don’t know what it’s like going to loud concerts, but I do kind of work on what we’re doing with A Place to Bury Strangers so that it’s a beast; it’s intense. To build up that intensity, sometimes you use volume, and we’re not afraid to get crazy loud if that’s what seems appropriate at the time.

Does this reputation draw attention away from the other aspects of your music?

I think so, but if you’re a music listener and not someone who is totally paying attention to what you read and actually listen to what’s going on, I think that you should come up with your own conclusions. Hopefully people are liking music that they actually like and not just because someone told them it was going to be cool or something. You know, whatever. If someone says that’s the best techno band in the world and they’re an awesome reggae band, whatever, it doesn’t matter. It’s hyped up. It’s all talk and maybe that gets people hyped up; that’s kind of cool, I suppose. It’s not, like, the focus of the band at all.

I notice there’s quite an unpredictable aspect to the music, and there’s complexity to and beneath the loudness.

Definitely, yeah. We’re just trying to focus on making stuff that we think sounds really cool, so especially the sound aspect and what it sounds in a live sort of sense. It’s just too big–something that’s kind of otherworldly, awesome, and sort of transforming. I guess that has to do with volume at times.

Your live shows are intense, and there’s an improvisational aspect to the wall of sound manipulations. Does this factor into the writing and recording process?

Definitely. I think a lot of what we’re doing is constantly experimenting and trying to do new and exciting things and come up with new ways to record. Since we’re recording everything on our own–we have our own studio–we have the luxury of creating something with tools we don’t always know how to use, and we’re always even creating tools that we’re using, so it’s kind of constant experimentation. And I think that a lot of times [it’s] much more awesome than something you can exactly plan out and something that really happens out of an accident. You just have to be constantly listening. It’s like, you can almost try to make some sort of sound exactly, but that’s not as exciting as when something sort of pops up out of nowhere.

More organically?

Yeah, definitely. I think it’s kind of like you give in to those moments beyond your control, and using those things to work towards your advantage, and that makes it cool, I think.

So what was it like opening for Nine Inch Nails? I understand their crowds are notorious for not wanting to hear any openers. How was that experience?

It was pretty awesome. There was definitely a lot of people who would seem like they were pissed off right when we started, but for the most part, people were pretty into it once the show started going on. I remember one moment when someone was giving me the middle finger out of the crowd, and I stared this dude down, and then he turned his middle finger into the devil horn rock sign, so who knows.

Sophie’s Choice time. Death by Audio or A Place to Bury Strangers: Which do you save?

You know, it’s going to make me look bad to my friends, but I guess I would have to choose A Place to Bury Strangers. I mean, that’s kind of even why the effects pedal company was started a long time ago. It’s just sort of an augmentation, or that’s kind of a way for me to further create the music that I wanted. I started building effects to make music. Ultimately that’s what I wanted to do: to create music. I guess the effects pedal company I feel really good about because it’s kind of helping people create the music that they want to do. I don’t know. Maybe it would be smart to go with Death by Audio to help out more people make music and not be concerned with my own music, but I don’t know. I guess the thing I would be most passionate about is to create music, so I would go with the band.

Porcelain Raft is the solo project of one Mauro Remiddi, a humble, energetic man living in London with origins in Rome. His bewitching blend of psych rock and ambient pop is a cut above that of his peers, and is reminiscent of the ’09/’10 resurgence of electro-pop in every way but one – Remiddi is 37. Most bands in his category, that is to say upstarts out of say Brooklyn or L.A. that play catchy synth tunes, are in their early 20s. This fact alone makes him a fascinating enigma, and also begs the question: “Where has this dude been?”

Well, that can be answered easily enough: the man’s been around. A musician most of his life, Remiddi has done everything from scoring independent Italian films to fronting indie bands like Sunny Day Sets Fire. But it wasn’t until last year when some of his singles under the Porcelain Raft moniker started making a fuss in the indie blogosphere that he took center stage. His debut album, Strange Weekend, was released earlier this week and is streaming in its entirety (that’s your cue to listen to the album for free while you read the remainder of this article). He describes his music as “Sleepwalking Pop”, which is an incredibly apt tag. As music fluctuates between full scale psych rock and ambient electronic a la Neon Indian and Toro y Moi, it’s truly a lethargic feeling. Blissfully lethargic.

We had the chance to pick at Mauro Remiddi’s brain this week, and the yield was as full of insight as it was energy. It’s a wonderful thing to meet a man in his late thirties who still maintains so much respect for the work he’s doing. That doesn’t happen in any field, whether you’re running a law firm or playing bass in a garage band. But, like we said, the man’s an enigma, a complete exception to the rule, and as perplexing as it might sound, a fair bit younger in spirit than many of the artists in his league. That purity is one of the most alluring parts of Porcelain Raft, and it really can’t be explained in a brief summation by a cynical writer, so I’ll stop. Let Remiddi explain the rest, and continue onward with my personal promise that you’re gonna like what you hear.

The Porcelain Raft project is fairly new, but for the past year you’ve been releasing great singles and EPs that have all led to the eventual release of Strange Weekend. Now, everyone is their own harshest critic, so you might be the best person to gauge how the album stacks up against former releases. Is it up to snuff? Where you’d like it to be?

I always like to record songs which didn’t have to be part of anything. It comes natural to me, like a diary of a day. The album was a challenge and I like challenges. I decided to record and compose everything in two months, it’s about me in this moment of my life. All the thought and things that happened to me in a weekend, that was the little concept behind it. I wanted to frame the album with a short time span, like showing a little detail of a big painting.

In a similar vein, I’d hate to pigeonhole your sound and call it “chillwave” or “electro-indie”, but it is very distinct and has a psychedelic element to it that’s fantastically capturing. Going into recording Weekend, who were your inspirations, either conscious or subconscious?

Just call it Sleepwalking Pop, that would do. There’s a dreamy element but surely I’m walking and not standing still. If an inspiration is conscious that would suck big time, like imitating something that someone did already, self-conscious records are the worst, if the inspiration was subconscious how would I know it? Unless my subconscious would just come alone and say, “Hey feeling like having a talk?”

 So, you’ve got these years of experience in the sometimes brutal music world. I for one would consider that a major blessing were roles reversed. Do you often tap into that well of experience to use for Porcelain Raft? How so?

My experience in music can be summed up like this: I’ve been carrying amps and equipment around for long time, before using a trolly and getting the underground, now it’s the same but with a tour van, all I remember is amps and equipment to move from one spot to another. And I never complained.

What did you honestly expect to come from this bedroom project?

This isn’t a bedroom project. Would you ever ask to The National what would you aspect to come out from your studio recording project? Flaming Lips last record was recorded in a room, in Steven Drodz’s house. Why that wasn’t a bedroom project album? The important thing is to use the space you record in as an instrument, use the space, whatever that is, as an instrument. The rest are just talks for academics.

Very well put. I apologize for generalizing. Other than Porcelain Raft, what would you consider your greatest musical achievement at 37?

Surely, the achievement is to be able to share this.

I can’t help but draw two comparisons when I think about the position you’re in – one’s semi-relevant, the other’s wildly absurd, but they’re a means to an end. The first is LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, who also got a late start as a performer in the industry and hung up his hat after three albums. And he always had this ability to use cautionary hindsight and foresight that carved out a perfect niche for his band and made his run successful. Would you say that you’re approaching cautiously from here on out because of what you’ve learned about the music business over the years?

No really, nothing to do with the industry. I think I’ve been searching for my own voice, for my own world to be formed and now it feels solid enough to be out and visible. Sometimes it just take long time to get things right. Magazines and ads focus on youth and you start to feel weird if you don’t achieve something straight away when you are young. I don’t see it in that way. Youth is overrated.

The second is Dennis Quaid’s character in The Rookie, which is a ridiculous comparison at a glance, I realize, but the premise of that movie is a much older man enters Major League Baseball alongside a bunch of younger actual rookies. He’s hasn’t got that fresh, eagerness of most rookies, but he’s got this wizened ability to look around him and appreciate it all, what it all means. Would you say that you fit that role in a way?

If only music was a sport, that would be a great role, but… If you see me in that role, I just trust you!

Well, that’s a lot of responsibility to take on! (laughs) But I think I’m up to it. Now, no one ever truly knows what the rookies of a new year will bring in the world of music, but 2012 looks to be very promising. You’ve got one of the first albums released this year as one of the hyped artists of 2012, and you’ve got the industry buzzing. The ball is in your court, now, so to speak. How do you plan to approach this year in terms of touring/releasing new music/getting the Porcelain Raft vessel up off the ground?

I just want to create an amazing live show, I just started touring full on and this is a great chance to focus on the live aspect of things. I feel I should never think too much ahead, let the music bring you where it belongs.

The album’s been streaming now for over a week. I know the feedback has been pretty positive thus far, but I’m a world away with an isolated vantage point as a critic. How’s the feedback been as you’ve talked with other artists/fans/reviewers/etc.?

I like the fact that this isn’t an album full of hits or doesn’t have any bold statement, it has brilliant moments and other moment less shiny, but never on your face. Just like real life in a way. To create an album that reflects that without fearing mediocrity, without feeling the pressure to be perfect all the time, that is my real achievement. To create something close to real life, and my life isn’t always brilliant. Why not showcase it?! Our life has moments of failure and moments of grandiosity, if I want to tell a story, I better tell it all.

Recently, Consequence of Sound‘s own Research Editor Len Comaratta spoke with singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi to discuss the new effort, the evolution of his music, and the pitfalls of typecasting and how one should avoid them.

I guess this is a reference to your last album, but do you still feel like you’re getting old fast?

[chuckles] Not exactly. I feel like I’m doing a lot… in a short amount of time but not necessarily getting old quickly.

Well you’ve definitely been prolific. I guess that’s an understatement. On your previous releases, you did all the instrumentation yourself. When did you feel it was time to actually get a band?

It’s the band I’ve had for a long time. I got a band immediately after I made the first record just ‘cause I needed someone to play live with; but I felt like recording with a band just made more sense with this album just because we kinda wrote the songs together as a band. And for me to go on and take what they created away from them and go and record it on my own seemed like a bad idea.

In the very beginning, it was more that you wanted to transfer it to the live scene, but nowadays has the sound evolved to a point where you need a band rather than write it all yourself?

Yeah, and also it’s more fun to play with a band. It’s more fun to write songs with a band, and yeah, it’s just sorta more fun for everybody when we do it that way.

From the lo-fi fuzz on Turning On and the frantic, almost spastic pop punk fusion that you had on Cloud Nothings, I found that this album is continuing this evolving sound where you’re shedding a lot of layers–kind of like focusing and sharpening. A lot of people have been saying that you’re changing your sound so much probably because you’re “so young”… your youth, 18 at one time, 20 now. I think that’s too easy and a cop-out on their part. What do you feel is responsible for your sound, especially considering how prolific you’ve been in the past two years?

I think the thing that’s responsible for the fact that it’s changing so constantly is just because the songs that are on the first album are the first songs I ever wrote. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had never written a song or recorded anything before, so they sound like that to me; they sound like the first things I ever did. And with each album, I’ve progressed–in my opinion, I’ve progressed–as a writer to be able to try different things and do new things. So, every time I write a song I try to write a song that does something different than the last song I wrote just to keep myself from getting bored or something. So, I guess the fact that it’s changing so much is because I’m just finding I’m comfortable writing different types of songs every time I sit down and say, “gotta make an album now.” It’s just coming out different every time.

“No Future, No Past”

Well there’s definitely a change in sound on this album but I didn’t think that it was incompatible or unfamiliar with what you have done before.  I just kind of felt like when I was listening to the beginning of it, especially with “No Future, No Past”, that there was a lot of Unwound or Fugazi inside there, and then on “Wasted Days”, I felt like there was some Wipers influence. Once again, I could be taking a cop-out on that. Were you listening to a lot of heavier material while writing this new album?

Yeah, I was. And I wrote it with the band, and they all listen to stuff like that all the time. Like our drummer only listens to noisy music that has crazy drummers, and that’s just how he plays. The fact that I wrote it with everyone and they all made their own parts brought in a bunch of influences that I might not necessarily think about when I’m just writing on my own..

Two things I’ve noticed on this album that are a little different. One, you have an almost nine-minute track, and then you have an instrumental. How did those two come about?

The nine-minute one… I just knew I wanted a song where we could do something like that.  The thing that happens in the middle of that song that’s sort of long… because it’s not something I would do on my own; again, because it doesn’t sound fun to me at all to sit there and record myself soloing over myself. That just sounds like a really horrible way to spend my time. But to do it with a live band is sort of exciting because you don’t know what’s gonna happen, really. So, I wanted something like that… where we could change it every time and mix things up. And the instrumental song is only instrumental because I couldn’t’ think of anything to sing. Up until the very last minute trying to think of words or something to do over that and I just finally gave up and decided it was going to be an instrumental.

That’s funny. At least you’re honest. I read that you wanted to create some of the arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road. Do you have any special plans for playing live or promoting the release?

Yeah. We’ve played this record a couple times here and there at some local shows and stuff.  And we have it organized so that we don’t ever really stop playing; it’s just sort of a constant stream of music or whatever, so there’s a lot of things we’ve added to the record that aren’t on the recording of it but that we do live to sort of segue between songs and stuff, so we’re trying to create more of a live experience than just playing eight songs in a row with breaks and talking to the audience in between because we’re not really into that.

Did a lot of this shift in your dynamic come about from working with Steve Albini, or did Steve Albini come into the picture after you decided how you wanted to make the album?

He was after. We had all these songs, and we were trying to figure out who would work as a producer to make these sound the best they could. And we ended up deciding on Steve just because I like the way the records he produces sound. And I knew that he kinda stayed out of the way. He didn’t really make any suggestions or anything the entire time we were recording, and he just let us do….

Yeah, he’s pretty much known for that right? He sets up the microphones and hits record?

Yep.

“Stay Useless”

So, how long did it take to record the album?

Four days.

Wow. I guess very little overdubbing then?

Yeah, there’s almost nothing on there that isn’t a first take kind of thing.

That’s awesome. So, do you prefer to record live in that sense?

Yeah, definitely I prefer to get things done pretty quickly.

So, when you’re working with him, did you guys play the music as a band, or did you play your individual parts, record them, and then put them all together?

Live as a band.

What are you hoping that fans and listeners can take away from Attack on Memory?

I just hope that they realize that they’re not able to pigeonhole us necessarily to a certain genre. We’re a band that has our own aesthetic rather than a band that ascribes to maybe trends or something that people might have thought we did based on our last couple of records.

Back in January, you told NME that you were going to make a hip-hop record?

Yeah, I wish I hadn’t said that. As soon as I said that, I knew I was going to be quoted on that for the next year and a half. This is not a hip-hop record, obviously. You have to say something in an interview, and I kind of regret saying it because I think people are going to be expecting something that maybe it’s not. What I meant to say was, I wanted to create a record that was centered around programmed beats, really, and had the swing of a hip-hop record.

A Brief History of Love was recorded at New York’s Electric Lady Studios. Was Future This recorded in New York as well?

This was recorded in London. For some reason, for the first record we recorded in a grandiose setting, just the two of us self-producing. This time around we recorded in a shed in west London, but with a great producer. We flipped it this time around by working with Paul Epworth. He’s a really great producer.

Besides the difference in location, what was your approach to writing and recording Future This?

I think in technique, exactly the same kind of production. When writing songs, I guess I had a different headspace. I really feel this record is our debut record, and the first record was our difficult second album. This record feels like it’s our statement of intent and feels much more about what Robbie [Furze] and I are like as characters, what we wanted to sound like, whereas our first record is almost too personal in a negative way to be a debut record. It’s got quite a bit of negative space on it, which I think would be perfect for a second record. So, I think we flipped it around. This is our debut, to me.

So, Future This feels more like your debut, and your actual debut, A Brief History of Love, feels more like your sophomore effort. How do you manage the expectations that come with following up a hit debut album?

By treating it as a debut record. We didn’t have any problem writing it. This record, it kind of wrote itself, just from the first record being quite downbeat, and then touring it, and realizing we really wanted to have more of an impact with people, like maybe with more movement from the audience. From touring, we got enjoyment out of seeing the different songs that make people dance, make people cheer, make people smile, and we really wanted that to come across in this record. That’s how we treated it. We were like, “I can see what we wanted to do,” for the first time. We wanted to make people happy, because we were happy. We wanted to have fun. That was the main thing, to try to write a record that was fun to perform.

I saw your performance at Glastonbury last year…

I can’t remember. Was that good?

Yes, it was. It was very loud, and you all pack a big punch. I’ve not been able to see The Big Pink in America, but you all seem to have made quite the connection with audiences here, even though your sound has a decidedly English sound and, especially, feel to it. How would you compare playing shows at home to in America?

We loved touring in America. Touring in America feels real. Touring is like part of the American culture. People always go on the road to play music in America. It feels very much like part of America, and the way people treat shows, and the way they go to a show, what they do at a show, and how they respond to a show. All that feels so good in America. It feels like it’s the real deal. England’s got a weird, weird outlook on music, especially on new music. People are very much about singles or about songs.

I don’t know. We always prepare for shows the same way. We never treat anything any different, any country any different… just the reaction after the show. That’s where the difference is. It always feels better after a show in America than it would in England. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because we know England too well.

Are you going to come back to America in the spring to do some shows and festivals?

We’re really hoping to tour as much as we can next year. We went from LA all the way around and ended up at Coachella over a six-to-seven-week period. I’d love to do that again, because it was one of the most exciting things I’ve done, interesting and entertaining. We really got good as a band. All those shows in a row was such a good feeling. Felt real.

Going back to regretting your comments about recording a hip-hop record, are there any other misconceptions about The Big Pink you’d like to clear up now?

I don’t think so. That would be the one, being interviewed and almost regretting everything I ever said in an interview.

Are you familiar with Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down?

No, I’ve never read it.

I thought it was interesting, because the character JJ talks about his band, saying that their original name was The Big Pink as a tribute to The Band’s album, but everyone thought they were a gay act, so they changed their name to The Big Yellow.

That’s a good story. I think as much as we like the reference to The Band, we also like the idea of it being quite phallic, as well. How the band has such a kind of serious music, but then be kind of joking… kind of a homoerotic or gay club vibe.

So, how would you describe the sound of The Big Pink? It’s not so easy to apply any single label to your music due to the various and often juxtaposed aspects of it.

No one’s come up with the right genre for us. I’ve always hated every one. I guess I listen to a lot of music, but I think, this record particularly, I call it pop music.

Right, because I know a lot of artists don’t like how they have been pigeonholed in the media.

I hate the term electro rock. And I love shoegaze: My Bloody Valentine and early 90’s UK music’s a particular favorite of mine. And I guess that’s what I bring into the band is the kind of dreaminess that… but really, Robbie and I are both into Rihanna as much as we are into…

Shoegaze bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain?

Yeah, we’re just fans of good music. What we consider a good song can really come from the feeling of something like This Mortal Coil, or it can come from the vibe or sugariness and the kind of haze of “Toxic” by Britney Spears or “Try Again” by Aaliyah. Do you know what I mean? I get enjoyment out of both, and I think that’s what we put into this record. I guess the production of that kind of 4AD stuff, and we also love the pop hits of Britney Spears and Guns N’ Roses, or Nirvana, or whoever. I think that’s just what we try to do: try to create our own sound within that.

Lykke Li covered “Velvet” on her tour this year. Are there any artists in particular you want to see cover your songs?

Did you hear the Nicki Minaj song “Girls Fall Like Dominoes”?

I have not.

She sampled “Dominoes” on her iTunes album, and that was a great thing. Because when we were writing the record, we were really listening to a lot of hip-hop, and I guess My Dark Twisted Fantasy was something that was on repeat, and we tried to put a lot of elements of that record in our record. We just didn’t want to do verse-chorus, verse-chorus. We wanted to have outros and intros, and we tried to put different parts into the mixing… in that kind of Kanye way. I remember when we dropped “Dominoes” last time, Kanye put that on his blog, and we were all so happy about that. And then three or four months later we got an email from our publisher saying a big US hip-hop star is putting “Dominoes” in, and then literally about two weeks before the album, we got sent [the record], and it was Nicki Minaj. It was going, “This is property of Cash Money Records” over the whole track, and that was great, because we’ve been listening to Kanye, and we’d listened to Nicki Minaj, and the next thing you know, she sampled it, and we were over the moon. Anyone from A$AP Rocky to Jay-Z. I’d love to be sampled by the hip-hop heavyweights.

You’ve always been a pretty huge comics fan, right?

I actually lived it and breathed it. You know, when I first came to America, I was eight and a half years old, and I remember one of the first books was The Brave And The Bold, and that was introducing the new Flash, the Silver Age Flash. You have to remember names like Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. I just devoured it. And, of course, the Atlas Group, the Kirby era monsters, and the Ditko off-world things. I bought the Harvey books…there are lines of comic books that I collected all the way from A to Z, from Charlton publications all the way to Dell and Gold Key. I mean, I had thousands and thousands.

And when I was… oh I don’t know, about 12 or 13 years old, I actually printed up one-page handouts, leaflets…”Buying comic books, a dollar a pound.”  And everybody had attics full of comic books. And I used to go there, because I knew what the Golden Age comics were worth. At the beginning of the model, comics weren’t worth anything. I was looking for the original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner things, and actually found some. So, a buck here, a buck there, and every once in a while, I’d get an Action Comics #38 or #40.  I made a small fortune.

So, you were a pretty business-minded gentleman from the very beginning?

Yes, I’m Jewish. Above and beyond all the other guys that talk, I have actually been and continue to be a superhero myself. From the late ’70s, in the KISS books that Marvel put out, Gene Simmons actually fought Doctor Doom with The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

What’s it like being in an Archie comic?  Is it a different experience from being in the traditional superhero comic?

It’s not different. It just goes to our mandate, which is self-imposed, which is to rule this planet, to make it Planet KISS, the world where we own the trademark. But it started off with myself picking up the phone and calling Jon Goldwater, who heads up the Archie guys. I was a fan of the early books of the Bob Montana days. You know, for over half a century, thousands and thousands of stories, and the characters still stayed vibrant and still remain an essence, living in that small town with the big ideas that affect everybody.

And Archie, other than just being a kids’ book for the younger audiences, actually dealt with some very big-game issues: homosexuality, and being outcasts, and different, and what that means. Just some really cool stuff in the same way that the Denny O’Neil Green Arrow and Green Lantern books dealt with drug addiction… those groundbreaking stories. This may be before your time. Do you know what I’m talking about?

A little bit. I’m a huge comics fans myself, but I don’t have as many of the older issues from DC.

Well, it’s the classic stuff. It’s the stuff that today… those books wouldn’t be possible without it today. You know, Batman, and Superman, and all the rest of them started off as sort of heroic ideas. And it wasn’t until the ’60s when there was so much social upheaval—Vietnam and so forth—that comic books actually started dealing with human ideas. The Marvel comic books in particular dealt with an outcast teenager. The cops didn’t like him and the bad guys didn’t like him. The Hulk continues to be an outcast, neither hero, neither villain. And of course, DC picked up the gauntlet a little bit and started dealing with, you know, being outsiders, and drug addiction, and the Vietnam War, and all. Without the ’60s and those books, today’s comics wouldn’t be possible. It’d be the same-old, same-old.

Do you read a lot of modern titles?

As much as I can, but what’s happened with the berth of all the independent publishers is that there are literally a thousand books a month that come out. None of them sell very much, and I don’t know how you could read all of it. I wish I didn’t actually have to go to work, so I could be a kid again, and stay home and devour it all.

I actually stopped buying new issues every week because it proved too costly. And to understand this X-Men title, you had to buy that X-Men title. It just got a little ridiculous, so I pretty much stick to graphic novels now.

Well, I think it happens as a consequence of business, which is that it’s such a competitive business, and the numbers are so small. The reason that Marvel or anyone else puts out four, five, six titles or variations of it is that you want to be able to control the visuals. So, when somebody comes by the store, instead of printing, for argument’s sake, 100,000 X-Men comics, you can put out four or five different X-Men titles, and only put out four or five thousand a piece, if you see what I mean, so you have a chance of selling 100,000.

That makes sense. It’s pretty interesting how the comic book industry has evolved over the years. With the KISS Archie comics, do they refer to you guys by your real names or your aliases?

Yeah, The Demon, and so on. We come about due to a magic event that happens, and you’ll have to read the books to find out what the event is, and where it came from.

Aside from the comics front, what’s the status of the band’s upcoming album, Monster? When’s it getting released?

We’re holding up releasing it, because there’s a tour that starts next summer. It’s going to be a worldwide tour that will last… oh, I don’t know, a year-and-a-half or so. We’re holding out and releasing it later to coincide with the tour, along with a ten-hour DVD, as well as a four-foot high book. It’s literally four feet high.

Sonic Boom was this great, old-school KISS record, some of the best work you guys have ever done. Is Monster in that same kind of classic rock vein?

Even more so. I don’t think we can be anything else. Everyone wanders, but it’s always good to come home.

When you say everyone wanders, KISS has dabbled, over the years, in all sorts of… I don’t want to say genres, but phases: Music From The Elder and your non-makeup years and what not. Looking back, is there anything that artistically you… “regret” isn’t the right word, but…

No, I understand, and it’s a very fair question. The truth is that when you’re busy doing something, you’re blinded by it, and you think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. And afterwards, you look back and say, “What the hell was I thinking?” It’s the same way you look back at photos of your hairstyle 10 years ago and you don’t want anybody to see it. But it’s part of life, it’s part of growing up, and it’s part of the experience. Would I change anything? No. The KISS golf course opens up in Las Vegas this month. The KISS Hello Kitty deal just launched in 90 countries. If you go down Times Square, there’s a 30-foot high Motorola poster. The tongue is out– it’s 10 feet long. I’m the face of Motorola this month. There’s KISS coffee houses all over the place. This has gone beyond what anyone thought a band could ever do. Yes, you have to have the music, and yes, you’ve got to deliver it live. But if that’s all there was, I wouldn’t be satisfied.

This is sort of a morbid question, but when the current lineup, as well as the rest of the original members have all, God forbid, departed…

The four original members never reached the success of this present lineup. People only remember it as a pivotal moment in media, and media doesn’t report what’s actually big. I’m going to give you a few facts that will blow your mind.

Sure, please.

Okay. The Ramones. The Ramones have one gold record to their name. Do you know that Chicago has 22 platinum albums? Did you know that?

I did not know that.

So, one of them gets all the respect in the world: The Ramones. But they meant nothing. They never succeeded, failed, in fact. Lived in their moms’ basements. Now, whether some people like it or not is an interesting question, because where were the people? Where were the records sold? Where were the concerts? They kept playing clubs. In other words, the people didn’t rally behind it. There are lots of groups that get all the respect in the world that never sold. And there are lots of bands that get no respect and have sold loads. So, what’s the criteria? A magazine article? Critics liking it? Or the people? The people decide everything. If the people do, then we’re paying attention to the wrong banners.

So, this current lineup with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer is literally 10 times the size of the original KISS lineup. And, by the way, it’s not unique. AC/DC is bigger by 10 times than with the original lead singer. And whether you like it or not, Van Halen with Sammy Hagar was actually twice as big than with Roth. And you’re talking to the guy that discovered Van Halen. So, “You can’t change lead singers, you can’t change original members.” Actually, if you take a look at the statistics, it’d be better to change the original members. Because you get bigger. The original Beatles were not with Ringo [Starr]. As soon as they got rid of Pete Best, they ruled the world. The Rolling Stones now has less original members. They’re touring again soon. It will probably become the biggest tour of all time, much bigger with the new members than they every were with the old members, the original members.

Do you think money trumps respect?   

I don’t care. Let somebody else figure that out. It’s just all opinions. Hot air comes out of our mouth when we talk. Hot air comes out of our ass when we fart. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean a lot. Opinions are like assholes, if you don’t mind me saying so. Everybody’s got one. Talk is talk. You like this comic book, I like that comic book. I want to know which one sells the most.

Whenever the current lineup of KISS can’t do it anymore or passes away, do you hope that someone else takes up the mantle, similar to a superhero?

Already planning that. Because there are no new bands, I’m talking about 10 years or younger, who can play stadiums. When you take a look at who’s playing the stadiums, it’s Paul McCartney, it’s U2, it’s The Rolling Stones. These are old guys. How old is Mick Jagger?

I don’t know. I want to say he’s in his 70s. He might not be that old. Let me check.

He may be 66 or 65.

I know Bruce Springsteen is 62.

The answer to Paul McCartney’s “Will you still love me when I’m 64?” is yes. Paul McCartney is multiple times bigger than The Beatles ever were.

Mick Jagger is 68.

68, yeah.

You got married pretty recently, right?

I got married when I turned 62.

It probably hasn’t changed too much since you and Shannon Tweed have been together for a while, but do you find that there are any differences between now and when you guys were just living together?

Yes. The arrogance of the male consciousness when we’re not married is in full force. “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do, I can go wherever I want to go,” which is why I urge all guys to never get married until they’re really old. Because we’re not mature. We don’t mature until we’re much older.

Was that what prompted it for you?

Well, I do actually care for her. So either we’re together or she’s going to leave.

Was it an ultimatum or something you came to realize by yourself?

No, nothing like that, but women always have that as an inferred difference. In either case, this is a far-reaching interview. Very interesting.

Is it okay that we’re talking about these kinds of questions?

It’s okay.

When you say there are no new bands…

I don’t mean that. I mean, there’s Green Day, and they’re doing very well. In some markets, they do very well. And Foo Fighters are a very big band. But on the level of stadium bands around the world, there are very few. And they tend to be old.

Are there any younger bands you listen to? 

Oh yeah, I think they’re terrific. Green Day is terrific. Foo Fighters is one of the best bands out there.

Our site actually just named them Band of the Year.

That’s great. And they deserve it. I think it’s legitimate, strong songwriting and everything’s really solid. But you know, once upon a time, when the British invasion was going on, you had a thousand bands, a thousand. The Kinks, The Hollies, and The Stones, and The Beatles, and on and on and on. A thousand. And then when it got heavier, you had Led Zeppelin, and Humble Pie, and Mott The Hoople. You had a thousand. And in the ’70s, you had Aerosmith, and KISS, and ZZ Top. You had a thousand. Today, you can say Green Day and Hello Kitty. [laughs] There are very few bands that have the power to get up there. And that’s because the world right now is ruled by karaoke singers. You know, the girls come out… and good luck to them. You know, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, even Madonna. 

With the Hello Kitty thing, is it Hello Kitty with KISS makeup?

That’s exactly right.

So it’s like a cat with the Demon makeup on?

You got it. We just launched it in 90 countries. You’ll see it on the store shelves all over the place.

That’s pretty awesome.

It’s more than awesome. Nobody can do that. You can’t do U2 Hello Kitty because there’s no face. It’s just a generic face.

I guess you could do Bono’s purple glasses, but that’s about it.

No, because there’s no one particular pair that says Bono.

I read that the reason you started playing music is because you read an essay on the Situationist International and the Sex Pistols. Would you say that your music still examines how performance art politicizes consumption?

Yes and no. Yes—this is such a great question, and it sucks that I’m driving right now—but in an after-the-fact sense. The initial putting out of that idea in the late ‘70s was the idea of politicizing consumption, but creating this thing where to be associated with it was almost making a statement that negated a lot of aspects of society at the time. Yes and no in the sense that I’m not trying to be divisive about it. There’s absolutely no utility anymore in putting a safety pin in my nose and telling people that I’m smarter than them because of some esoteric notion of freedom through negating everything. But in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, that was very necessary, in a rudimentary way, to articulate that idea. In the 21^st century, merely in a rudimentary fashion, trying to politicize consumption is some kind of lifestyle association or some kind of niche dream or something. It’s inherently divisive. It supports the system of consumerism. It’s kind of like, I’m free because I get to wear whatever I want.

That’s interesting, because, you know, people buying vinyl and putting music on vinyl is a form of consumption, but it makes the music better, and it’s a way to get music to people who might not otherwise listen to it.

Analogue is a form of consumption. You’re not going to get away from it. On top of the notion of politicizing consumption, you’ve got to do that to stay alive. You’ve got to do that to adapt to the terrain we’re living in right now. And, going back to the yes and no—more along the lines of the no—saying that consumption is bad and blah blah blah is just being as ideologically consistent and relatively ignorant as saying that homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to marry. It’s inherently divisive. Any kind of ideological exclusivity—regardless of whether you’re talking life or you’re talking religion or you’re talking economics or politics. Anything that’s being sidelined into any kind of one-dimensional thing that you can put on a T-shirt can be associated with an idea, because you politicize consumption. I’m not trying to do that. That’s no longer productive in society because it’s inherently divisive.

Speaking of divisive things, I read that you started recording under PUJOL so you could record without the hassle of bands breaking up and taking a break. I’m curious as to how you go about finding people to play with and how long you play with the same group of people?

That’s a good question. I find people obviously based on their musical ability, but also based on their personality. Then, when recording, I try to get a certain group of people based on their personality, and then playing around the song to be able to synthesize what that kind of interpersonal chemistry sounds like. And then, in a live performance or touring situation, obviously, based on musical skills and personality. And we’ll play music together as long as it’s constructive for them. I don’t try to keep anyone in longer than they want to do it. I don’t like to encourage people to make more sacrifices for their own livelihood than I believe I’m compensating them for their time.

How did you meet and/or get in contact with Jack White and Stewart Copeland?

Oh, well, it’s not Stewart Copeland from The Police… Sorry, my friend is eating Pringles and watching Gossip Girl on his iPhone with headphones on… It’s not Stewart Copeland from The Police. It’s the Stewart Copeland that I grew up with. But he’s named after that Stewart Copeland, and he’s blond, and he’s also a badass guitarist.

That’s awesome. I thought—I guess another writer from Consequence of Sound thought that and was like, “Man! Daniel’s so hooked up!” I mean, you still are, but that’s funny.

Yeah, I don’t like playing basketball with famous people. But I sent—two years ago, with the Jack White thing—a mass email to Nashville, and I was like, “I’m looking for a drummer who can tour for the summer in 2009.” And they just responded, “When we hear about anyone looking to play for someone, we’ll let you know.” And that just kind of led to us talking to each other and agreeing to work together.

Did you just work through email and phones? Or did you ever actually sit down in a studio with him?

I recorded with him and stuff. Most of the interaction was between me and the guy who’s running the label, but I did record some of the mixing with Jack.

Were you really intimidated?

No. I was more paying attention to him. I wanted to learn. I’d never seen someone working in that sort of environment before, and I’d never worked in a situation where I was being produced before. So I went into it trying to absorb as much experience as I could.

How did it come to be that “Too Safe” and “Black Rabbit” were picked up by Third Man? Why not “Mayday”, for example?

They sounded the best live at the time. I’m going to do a studio version of that in a couple months—not a couple of months, I’m sorry, a couple of weeks. I’m trying to merge, hold on a sec, let me put this down… Heeere we go! Yeah, you know, you go in there, and you hit it, and you make the single, and then that’s it. About four or five hours. Those were the two that, you know, were the grooviest at the time.

Were you pleased with the music videos that were made for them?

I was very pleased with the music video that Stewart Copeland made for “Black Rabbit”.

Yeah, that was a sweet video.

I know, I know. He is so easy to work with. I was like, “Hey, Stewart, want to do this video?” And he wrote up a treatment. I’ve never worked with someone who’s conducted themselves like a grown-up in that regard before. It was really interesting to watch the way that his mind works, because he’s always been a mystery wrapped in an enigma since our early childhood, in a navy blue polo shirt tucked into khakis at the Catholic school. He’s just a great filmmaker.

So you went to Catholic school?

No, I didn’t go to Catholic school. My sister went to Catholic school, his mom taught my sister, and he went to Catholic school.

It was very professionally done. I was pretty impressed.

He wanted to have cloggers. Instead of the band playing, he originally wanted cloggers. But the cloggers bailed because they found out that it was rock and roll music. They said it was too fast for clogging. That’s a very fast version of that song, but it’s not too fast for clogging.

Another question: Why did you switch labels so frequently?

This is going to be the most dude answer, okay? Whenever you make a record, you make a piece of art, and you want to put that piece of art out. And sometimes labels have release schedules, very long release schedules. In my case, I, one, couldn’t afford to not have merch in order to tour, and two, I couldn’t afford to put out the record that I just put out at wholesale after I sold the initial pressing. So, I just kept on making records. Let’s say I make a record in January, and then they print 1,000 of them. I get 100 of the seven-inches, I go on tour, I sell those 100 seven-inches in a month or two, and then I don’t have enough money to go buy $300 worth of seven-inches at $2.50 a pop. It was just easier for me to go out and make more records.

So, it was a financial decision, mostly.

Well, definitely, and an artistic one! I don’t want to tour on the same record for a year. I don’t want to tour on the same record for two years. Other kinds of music, mixtape culture and things like that, they’re able to make art at the speed that they want it to be put out, and that speed just so happens to be relevant to the speed that people live at. They’re not listening to the same song for two years. I’m not trying to cram this triangle peg into this circle hole. So, basically, it was a pragmatic decision. It was a mixture of economic necessity, and it also enabled me to make art at the speed that I wanted to, at the speed of my life, and the speed of other people’s lives that I’m sharing my art with.

Do you think that you’ll stay on Saddle Creek for a while, or do you think you’ll move on after this record?

I don’t know. I mean, one thing at a time. I’m having a really good time with Saddle Creek. I’m really happy with them. And they’re great guys who have invested in their local economy and business, and I really respect that. That’s why I decided to work with them.

Do you ever get writer’s block? Have you ever gotten writer’s block? Are you worried that you’ll sort of burn out going at the rate that you’re going making records?

I write a lot, and I do different kinds of recordings. Different kinds of thoughts can be recorded in different ways. When you think about writing, there’s always what you want to write about, and what you’re gonna write about. I like to do the home recording stuff for what I’m gonna write about. Like that record X File on Main Street? That was the record of what I had to write about in order to write more. In terms of making these relevant to life, it’s like a hamburger at McDonald’s. You’re not going to get the same size patty every time you get hungry. And, for me, that’s why I do the poems with the Nashville Cream and editorials, and writing for school. If you sit around, like, “I need to write the most eponymous, greatest song of right now, ever,” it’s like, yeah, you’re not going to do that. You just have to keep on working. Writer’s block is just not an option. You can pout about it, but you’re going to have to work through it anyway. You may as well figure out how you’re going to make a dignified work.

Do you use what you study in grad school in your songs? Is there any crossover?

Yeah, that’s another thing, too. I’m taking in a lot of information all the time. I’m exposed to a lot of great new ideas and attempting to continually put myself in a position where I grow as a person and be exposed to new ideas. The more you’re taking in, the more you have to process, the more you’re going to be able to put out. Maybe to a certain extent, making things is learning at the same time. It’s better than TV, but just as entertaining.

What are you going to do when you graduate?

Still do music. I’m interested in doing some doctorate stuff. Eventually, when I’m an old man and I’ve burned all of the fire and I don’t do anything except eat the same thing every day at the same time and—I don’t know, polish my shoes in the morning or something. I’d like to teach. I work at a youth center in Nashville, too. I’d like to be a little more involved in that, too.

You said of the album’s direction, “It’s going to be positive hip-hop. Hip-hop that can really generate good spirit, the spirit of the music and just good energy.” On the opening track, you have both Maya Angelou and your father echoing that sentiment. Was this meant to be a theme for the album, or is that just how it worked out?

I asked Maya Angelou to write about dreams, what she thought she would say to the youth about dreaming. And my dad, I just told him to talk about the believer and the dreamer, just in general, like what you believe, and what dreams… I mean, those are two wise people. Obviously, Dr. Maya Angelou is like living history, like living legend, a true mark in history, living, so I knew her perspective would be powerful. And then you have my father, who has experienced his own thing, is a wise, good dude, and his words about that are powerful, too. So, it all just tied together.

Maybe that’s just… not maybe. It’s just supposed to… like that’s how it’s supposed to be like. Those parts are supposed to be together on that.

There is a difference in sound, obviously, between this album and your last one working with The Neptunes. You hadn’t worked with producer No I.D. since 1997′s One Day It’ll All Make Sense. What was it that made you want to reconnect with No I.D.?

I think he is just a very talented producer, and he really cares about the culture and the music, and he really reminded me of what my purpose is in life. [At least] what one of my purposes is, and how much I really do love the music and love hip-hop. So, he just reminded me and brought me there. He kind of brings out all the sides of me, because he knows me. I’ve known him since fourth grade, and even though we hadn’t talked to each other for a long time until we started workin’ back with ‘Ye, the person still knows the core of who you are.

Working with him is basically an opportunity to make some of the best hip-hop I can make in my life; at the same token, working with somebody who really knows you, so they bring out some of the best in you.

His production is phenomenal on this album, but when he  announced the album, he said Kanye was going to be producing with you. Did he have to drop out because of the Throne and all that? When did it become just No I.D.?

I just wasn’t able to… at some point I wasn’t able to… Kanye was working and doing his thing, and we were working on a lot of things, and it was just like No I.D. hit his stride, so it wasn’t really necessary. We wanted to create an album, a true experience or a piece of art where you’re like, “This is….” Like, somebody’s gonna pass that on, pass that album on to somebody, somebody eight years from now passes on to somebody. That’s what we wanted to try and create. So, once we were able to… me and No I.D. just kept making music, and we had the access. It wasn’t really necessary for me to work with any other producer. Of course, it’s always good to work with ‘Ye, but I figured I could always do it on the next album.

I noticed that you also kept the collaborations down to a minimum. You only have one rapper, Nas, appearing, and then Maya Angelou and John Legend. Do you feel that too many cooks spoil the broth?

I feel like… it’s about the music for me, so there’s no need for me to have a bunch of people on the album. The music is the key. I always think that sometimes an artist that has a bunch of people… you don’t really get to know who they are, what their voice is, and what they’re about at that moment in their life, so I didn’t feel it was necessary. I feel like some of the most classic albums was that artist, whether it was Illmatic [Nas, 1994], he had one guest appearance… Midnight Marauders [A Tribe Called Quest, 1993], I don’t know, they probably had one guest appearance… you wanna hear that group, you wanna hear that artist.

I’ve also noticed that you don’t tend to get into a lot of beefs, but on “Sweet” you kind of remind potentially disrespectful people to watch their place. I read that the lyrics could possibly be taken as a dis against Drake and other rapper/singer guys. Do you want to comment on that?

Yeah. You know, I definitely was speaking up about hip-hop in general. A lot of hip-hop that was out there was just sounding kind of soft to me. I’ve always looked at it like, if you fit in that category… I rapped about this… You know, there’ve been times I’ve rapped about this person talkin’ about their Benz, da da da da. And, of course, there are examples of hip-hop artists that do it. If an artist fits in that category, they’re probably gonna feel it, yeah. Then that’s who it’s about. If you don’t feel no way about it, then it ain’t about you. You know what I’m sayin’?

If I was rappin’ about people being racist and you’re not a racist, then you ain’t gonna feel no way about it. But if you are, you’re gonna be like, “I don’t like that. That ain’t cool.” Man, it’s hip-hop.

Let’s go back to “Pop’s Belief” as an expression of how dreams could lead to a belief that could lift the poor from where they are. On “Sweet”, you rap, “I rhyme for the commoners, my name is synonymous,” and on “Gold” you say, “I am the smell of the weak and underprivileged.” That’s all tied to your strong faith. I’ve always noticed you have a skill in expressing these beliefs without coming across as hypocritical or sanctimonious. How do you credit that? How do you credit being able to preach this message without sounding like you’re preaching?

I think because I just express it in a real way, in a true way. I think as human beings we have our nature. We want good for ourselves. We want good things. I think people can feel the heart and the passion in what I’m saying, and it’s done for a purpose. It’s not like, “I know this ‘cause I’m smart, and I’m doing this, and this is the political side I’m taking.” That’s not really how to make people better. I wanna make, you know, inspire people, and make people feel better.

I think people can feel that. And it’s not like I’m sitting up here, taking a big political stance. I talk about life. I talk about experiences in life, and every human being goes through certain emotions. That’s love and pain and joy and anger and jealousy. All this expresses different aspects of humanity to me, and the way I observe it, and I think people relate to it. You gotta, no matter what, make it fresh. The way you deliver it, the way you put it together. That’s part of the craft, the art of it.

On “Sweet”, you open with the line “You do what you do, hip-hop is what you do.” But, in an interview with BoomBox, you said, “I’m enthused to do hip-hop, which is something that I have to do when I feel it.” With that in mind, I’ve noticed that this was the second album delayed by your acting schedule. Will we start seeing more film credits to Lonnie “Common” Lynn, with the eventual separation of Common the rapper and Lonnie Lynn the actor?

[laughs] Well, you definitely will see more film credits, and, God willing, more seasons of Hell on Wheels. Yeah, you will see more film credits. I don’t plan to halt my albums. Whenever I feel inspired to make the music, I’m gonna make it, but I’m definitely pursuing my acting career and just wanting to grow as an actor.

But do you think you’ll always be acting under the name Common as well as rapping, or will you have two separate identities?

I don’t know, man. I really feel like now I would want to keep that, because I’ve established the name Common, and some people don’t know me from acting and don’t go see the work I’ve done. They know the music. And then you got some people that may have seen me in a film or on television in Hell on Wheels, and they might come across iTunes and see Common’s record at the same time and maybe purchase the album. So, it’s about presenting my name to those different demographics. I don’t really plan to change the name, but I guess if you get as big as Will Smith, you can change anything.

Seriousness aside, who was behind the ELO and Kenny Loggins samples?

No I.D. was behind the ELO and Kenny Loggins… one of our guys named Row, who’s from Chicago, who we know, and he used to rhyme, and he’s part of the fam, and he said it was one of those joints, and he was behind it for real. And we thank him because “Celebrate” is really starting to turn some people, you know.

Common’s latest LP, The Dreamer, The Believer, is currently available in stores.

If it’s the latter, well you have no excuse now. Lights All Night has been described by Pollstar as “one of the biggest end-of-year blowouts in the known universe,” and with this year’s line-up including Tiësto, Neon Indian, MSTRKRFT, Ghostland Observatory, Girl Talk, and Wolfgang Gartner (among others), it’s easy to see why. Even better, the festival is also working with Red Cross during their event to raise money for the charity, so your conscience can feel good about it too.

So, thinking about hitting up Dallas now? Or, maybe you live nearby? Simple question: Do you want to go? We’re offering two passes to the year-end bash. To win, simply ‘Like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, share with us your craziest New Year’s Eve story in the comments section below. Extra points for any account that’s either a.) inordinately embarrassing or b.) rivals a Todd Phillips movie. None of that cute stuff, either. We’re not fans of Hugh Grant films here.

While you’re sorting through your memory banks, check out our interview below with the festival’s co-founder Scott Osburn of Highland Entertainment. He discussed how the festival found its feet in our volatile economy and what makes Lights All Night different from every festival out there.

So, to start things off, in one sentence, describe Lights All Night…

Lights All Night is a two-day electronic music New Years Eve event that everyone wants to go to, and once they’re there, they don’t want to leave – and once they leave they will never forget it for the rest of their lives.

That’s quite the sales pitch! Aside from that, what is your biggest selling point for Lights All Night? How will you convince new festival goers to give your festival a chance?

Our talent lineup is unmatched by any other NYE event in the world at this point. Also, we are promising a first class event from every aspect to production, to theatrics and operations…in order for us to create a conducive environment for this type of experience we must make sure all of our bases are covered. Also, there will be some show-stopping production moments that Dallas has never seen before. We have the top theatric/design artist in the world that will be turning our space into a visual masterpiece.

What kind of line-up are you having this year? What is your basis and reasoning for selecting those artists?

We are hoping for the best and most well rounded electronic music roster in the US. We have six of the top 100 DJ’s in the world on one lineup and the rest are all very well respected in their genres and are on the rise.

We have a lot of great acts that have a strong local and international appeal. We feel that the reason we have chosen the acts is because they mix well and give electronic music lovers of all subgenres an opportunity to get a bit of everything. We truly have selected artists from across the entire spectrum of the electronic music genre. Our full lineup can be found at www.lightsallnight.com.

With other festivals having difficulty finding their feet in this economy, have you had similar challenges for Lights All Night?

We’ve had a proven track record of success for the last three years. With Rolling Stone magazine deeming electronic music the largest genre in 2011, we’re pretty confident in the potential success of this event. Lights All Night is a Texas-based brand that is eventually going to be turned into a global brand. We’re using this year’s event as a way to build a brand to show the country that we are a unique, innovative and safe event. Also, SPIN has come on as our official media partner and will be helping us spread the word this year along with several other key partners.

How do you define success? In your eyes, what will Lights All Night have to achieve to be considered successful and to ensure another season?

People leaving the event saying “WOW! I’ve never been to an event like that in my life.” Last year people talked about it for weeks after it was over, they couldn’t stop reliving the moments. That’s what this industry is about, creating moments for youth and people of all ages to gather and experience new and exciting things together.  We are a community and these are opportunities for all of us to come together and express ourselves.

Because this is a fairly new festival, is there anything else you’d like people to know about it?

Highland Entertainment and MCP Presents (the producers of Camp Bisco), have created a partnership to produce Lights All Night 2011-2016 together. With that goal in mind, both organizations have agreed to bring its event production expertise together to create more than a show, more than event, a “happening”! Electronic music is exactly in the stages that rock and roll was in the 60’s and 70’s. This is the beginning of a long journey of over-the-top, innovative global electronic events. We have assembled the best team in the country from production, security, design, VIP services etc. Now all you need to do is show up with your dancing shoes and get ready to get down!

Lacking any New Year’s Eve stories? Last minute passes – single day, two day, and VIP – are currently available here.

Armstrong also just so happens to be a really big fan of musical theater.

Kicking off last month, Armstrong and longtime collaborator Dave Robertson have created Tim Timebomb’s RockNRoll Theater. It’s one part off-Broadway musical spectacular, one part Twilight Zone, and all punk rock. The first episode, entitled Dante, modernizes the Inferno, a section from Dante’s Divine Comedy, with Armstrong’s Rancid bandmate Lars Frederiksen cast as a sleazy businessman who goes to hell and finds the pit to his liking. The music is perfectly in line with the over-the-top stuff you’d expect in any musical, but with a heaping helping of punk ethos and gnarly attitude. Case in point of how bizarre the whole affair truly is? AFI’s Davey Havok plays the Devil in the first episode.

“He had a cool take on it for sure,” Armstrong adds in his decidedly unique speech pattern, slow and deliberate and focused like a DIY sensei. “Davey actually had five different suits, but he went with the pink one.”

Aside from bringing their own wardrobe, working with one’s friends translates to reliability, something Armstrong is well aware of in his creative worldview. The project exemplifies Armstrong’s belief in and continual practice of creating art with the same people over and over again, developing a true communal vibe and making everything 100% collaborative.

“It’s a brand new planet for me, but I’ve got the same crew and the same feel,” Armstrong says. “So, it’s as natural as anything I’ve done for me because I use a lot of the same peeps. But I want to keep making these and keep telling more stories. I want to see how it lands and what stories and songs and friends we can bring in. I want to make time for these.”

Creating hours in the day is just what Armstrong might have to do. When he’s not reinventing musical theater, he is hard at work tackling his biggest collaborative project to date: working with legendary ska/reggae artist Jimmy Cliff. Cliff and Armstrong will team up for two Cliff releases: an EP that hit streets last week and a full-length to drop sometime in 2012. As a guy who has been everywhere in the music business, even Armstrong is a little starstruck in the presence of the icon.

“It’s a thrill to work with a real legend,” Armstrong says. “But he’s also a real great person and just a cool human being. When I met him, he had a guitar in his hand, and we started playing right away.”

While Armstrong has spent the last two-plus decades as the head of a band and leading the charge creatively, the project with Cliff sees Armstrong take on more of a supporting role. Something, he’ll admit, he’s more than happy to do.

“We invited a full band to back him up, and we called it the Engine Room,” Armstrong says with a snicker, something you might not expect from a legend known for angsty snarls, but which sounds real and fresh from a guy living a long-standing dream. “And we’re really just trying to back him up and really help him to do him. I love the role of a producer with his guidance. And all of us are focused on the fundamentals of playing live rock and roll. We’re all really in the pocket, really locked-in and focused.”

That project, as is the case with so much of Armstrong’s career, simply doesn’t have his undivided attention. This year marks 20 full years for Rancid; a landmark as gargantuan as that requires the proper attention, which it’ll receive in 2012 with a huge world tour and, more importantly, new material. But even after all this time, and with seven previous albums under their collective belt, Armstrong still celebrates his time with his friends/bandmates.

“I’m going to have dinner with (bassist) Matt Freeman tonight,” Armstrong says during our interview. “He’s my brother, and I’ve known him my whole life, since I was five years old. We’re always going to be a band, and we’re never going to break up.”

And that dedication to one another stems back to Armstrong’s aims to keep the same people in his creative circle. The band plans to hit the studio at some point in the next couple months with Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz (“He’s like a part of the team,” Armstrong adds), who helped helm several past Rancid albums, including 2000’s Rancid and their latest album, 2009’s Let the Dominoes Fall. And just like they’ve always been, the sessions will be a “family reunion, a celebration with wives and kids and the whole affair.” It’ll also be just another record where the band painstakingly map out who they are as a unit at that very point in their career.

“Every record we document where we are, so we don’t know what it’ll be,” Armstrong says. “Each album shows us where we’re at in that moment in time, with the songs and the feelings that we’re experiencing, so it can change a lot in the next couple months.”

Add future recording plans with the Transplants (who have studio time slated for next month), and Tim Armstrong is one very busy man. But he likes it that way, something he’s more than willing to tell you as passionately and as often as he can.

“I am lucky in what I do. I get to do the things that I love, and I have the coolest gig ever. I try to do everything at once, but I just can’t do everything.”

Not that he won’t try.

At first, the thought of an outdoor dance festival located in Washington D.C. at the end of November seems like a crazy, illogical idea. But bring in over a half-dozen temperature-controlled tents to cover revelers roaming through four stages, secure an earthshaking sound system, and book artists like Moby, Infected Mushroom, Armand Van Helden, Diplo, Excision, and Zed’s Dead, and you have something massive. Fall Massive, to be exact.

Thanks to Steez Promo and Ultraworld Presents, the same team that delivers year after year at Starscape in Baltimore, bassheads and electro-aficionados worldwide have something to be quite thankful for this holiday season, when Fall Massive takes over our nation’s capitol this Saturday, November 26^th. At the head of this ground-breaking festival experience is Evan Weinstein, co-owner and head of marketing for Steez Promo. Amidst continued planning for Fall Massive and still in the booking phases for Starscape, Weinstein was able to chat with Consequence of Sound about planning D.C.’s largest dance party ever, how new blood has been able to keep Starscape on the cutting-edge, and the current state of electronic music.

Just to get a sense of the work you do, what’s your position with Starscape and Ultraworld?

I’ve been involved with Ultraworld from about 2001. My partner and I came in– I started as a street promoter, pretty sure he came in as a street promoter as well; now we own 50% of the festival. We do all the buying, promotions, and marketing, and play a major role with all of the planning from top to bottom.

A man of many hats. What projects are currently on the table for Steez Promotions and Ultraworld?

Right now, our main concern is with Fall Massive. The event is the largest production either Steez or Ultraworld have ever done. I’m also working on our calendar of club shows for 2012. We are working on breaking into eight to 12 new markets, while maintaining the 12 or so markets we’re already working in.

And that is going to be in Washington D.C.?

Yeah, we are going into RFK stadium and taking over Lot 8, the largest parking of the stadium, and we’ll be using the space for the largest dance event ever to come to D.C., somewhere around 16,000 to 20,000 people. This is realistically the largest indoor dance event ever to come to the East Coast.

This event, everything from promotions to lineup to sound to marketing, is the biggest thing we have ever done. We have one of the biggest media companies in the nation partnered with us on the event; they are called the Collective and are based out of LA and work with T.V., film, management, everything under the sun. We brought Ultraworld on and have Lonnie [Fisher] doing on all the logistics, and plugged the Starscape network into that, then we just went balls to the walls with the lineup. Simply, it is the biggest line-up that we could get put together.

Will the re-vamped Fall Massive also be an all-night event similar to Starscape?

This ends at 2 a.m. [the site's curfew] and starts at 4 p.m.. Again, we are not trying to be Starscape with it. Last year, it ended at 2 a.m.; before that it was at the Paradox and ended at 6 a.m.. When we outgrew that venue two years ago, we moved the event to a 2 a.m. curfew.

What we are trying to create is a club atmosphere in an outdoor environment, and doing it in a season when you normally cannot do an outdoor event. The entire thing, except for the smoking area and port-o-potties, is totally enclosed. If we can pull this off, we can do a show like this anywhere at anytime.

I have been in talks with two companies that own outdoors venues all over the country, and we could realistically just go in at anytime and set up an event. I personally think it’s ground-breaking, and I hope others do too, as I don’t know of anyone else that’s done anything like this before.

On the booking end, how early do you begin speaking with management and agencies?

For this specific event, it’s a unique situation because we used to produce this event in a 3,000 person club up the street in Baltimore, and we would still probably be doing the event there, but it closed and left the event homeless. We were then in talks with a 6,000 capacity club, and that ended up falling through, which is good because I just heard an event was canceled last week because they didn’t pay their electric bill. So then we just decided to throw the event in a parking lot somewhere in the city.

We then started conceptualizing it, got a parking lot locked down, then called Lonnie from Ultraworld, and oddly enough he had been envisioning this event for 10 to 15 years. He wanted to do an outdoor event, but create an indoor event using tents. He told us, “This is an event I have been planning for years.” So naturally we passed over the site planning and logistics to him.

We didn’t start booking until July or August. We probably started sending out offers in June or July, compared to a nine-month lead-time for Starscape, and that is late for us. We were super late in the game, but the lineup definitely worked out.

Do you know off-hand who is doing the audio and visual projects at Fall Massive?

We are working with Turbo Sound out of Canada along with Maryland Sound locally. We have a bunch of different sound items we are putting it. From what I understand, the bass cabinets for the Dub Nation Stage are the same cabinets they use to calibrate earthquake-measuring equipment.

There are several companies we are talking to for visuals and lights. We are going out of our way to find things that we don’t normally have at Starscape, like choreographed dancers and more decor. With an expanded capacity, we are looking to put more back into the event; we have crazy stadium grade lasers, next level stage displays, confetti cannons, and much, much more.

This is going to be the biggest production that we have ever done.

What do you think it is about Starscape that’s different from other dance festivals that has kept it thriving?

First, it is the only all-night music event on a city-owned property. I’ve been to DEMF, I’ve been to Ultra, and it’s just different. Our lineups have been more eclectic in the past; we went in electronic-jam music much earlier than other fests. We were a dance-music festival; we broke out into some jam music and live electronic stuff. Now we are going back more towards the DJs.

We actually had the Disco Biscuits way back in 2006. Back in 2005 was really one of the lowest points in dance music nationally, and we decided that we needed something new or this festival was going to die. At the time we had been running Sonar, a live-music venue in Baltimore, and the Disco Biscuits were doing well there, so we decided to bring them over to Starscape. Also around that time, me and my partner were getting back into DJ shows, but shortly after that time we were going more heavily into live music for Steez Promo.

Now in its 14^th year, Starscape is also one of the largest running music festivals in the country, and it’s one night. It’s 18 hours, boom, done, won’t be back until next year. People wait for this music festival all year, and after the one-night it is just done, and then they are sitting there waiting for next year. Unlike going somewhere for three days, getting all worn out, and then waiting a few months before you’re really getting ready for the following year. At Starscape, the day after people are already contacting me about who is going to be playing.

Starscape has been able to showcase a range of artists well before they reach a national stage; how have you gone about buying?

We are just really in touch with dance music. For instance, we booked Skrillex for seven shows back in September of 2010, and they all sold out. We knew it was going to be big, but we didn’t know the scale.

When we think something is going to break, we are really on top of it. Like SBTRKT and the guys from Hospital Records, we think that is going to come in big, but we have been on top of that for awhile.

Now in its 14th year and after selling out in advance in 2011, are there any expansion plans for future Starscape festivals?

We have talked about expansion plans, but a Starscape on the first Saturday in June in Baltimore is not going to change. It’s at Fort Armistead Park; it will be there until the day [the park] is gone. We have talked about alternate locations, but it has to be the right conditions. Starscape has always been an all-night event, and we would never move it somewhere that is would have to end at 2 a.m. or a place where we couldn’t create the same environment that we do at the current Starscape.

Starscape sold out three-and-a-half weeks before the event last year, and we are expecting it to sell out even sooner for 2012. But there is new competition on the East Coast with EDC: New York coming, so we are looking to be doing more festivals. We are going to be doing something in Philadelphia in May and looking to do something else in Maryland.

Will these events be produced by Ultraworld or Steez promo?

Steez promo did over 160 events this year. The guy who started Ultraworld, started Starscape, is our logistics guy. He has taken a step back and is into a lot of other things right now. He was actually one of the head people at the Baltimore Grand Prix this year. He has really just turned Starscape over to us when it comes to talent, promotions, and marketing, then he helps out with Steez’ other events like Fall Massive.

Other dance-music festivals have had issues in the last few years planning events due to regulations by local government. What type of relationship has been developed between Ultraworld/Steez and the city of Baltimore to ensure longevity of the event?

We work closely with the city and state to ensure that the event is good for everyone involved. We definitely stay on top of any and all safety concerns that the city has for the event. We work closely with police and Fire Marshall to make sure the event is positive and the safest event possible. When we sell out, the hotels and other city attractions sell out, so it is positive for everyone.

With that said, do you feel Starscape has turned into a destination festival?

Definitely. It is crazy how it has transformed into that. Luckily for us, we do sell tickets in local outlets, because due to the way information travels on the internet and Facebook, a lot of the local, longtime supporters would be shut out if we only sold tickets online.

Last year I spoke with people that came in from New Zealand and came in from Europe. People keep traveling further and further for these events. Right now, it is really turning into a global scene. And really, when a person comes one year, they will come the next with friends. It just keeps building and building.

This past year, Starscape was broken into dub, dance, bass, and main stages. Will this change for upcoming festivals? And what type of genres do you see being represented more heavily in the upcoming editions?

We are going to keep it more balanced. One of the biggest genres that we fell in love with over the last 12-months has been the Dirty Dutch movement and Moombahton. Me and my partner are always listening to music and looking for what we can incorporate more.

It is kind of hard to format by genre now, because a lot of DJs are playing a lot of different genres. One of the biggest complaints this year was that dubstep was playing on every stage. Even my partners and myself were surprised at the fact that dubstep made it into a number of sets where we didn’t expect to hear it. Not saying that’s a negative thing but definitely a surprise.

The dubstep movement is taking over everything right now, which is great for the scene. It’s finding its way into performances by artists you would never expect to play it; we can no longer make one stage the dubstep stage, another the dance stage. Right now, house artists are playing dubstep, the drum n bass artists are playing dubstep, and even the live artists are playing dubstep. But you know, you cannot tell artists what to spin.

For instance, Dieselboy’s Subhuman label is bringing together all forms of bass music.

Dieselboy’s whole thing is that he can play anything; he is one of the most technical DJs out there. It’s almost like DJs who are into DJing will play anything. But producers find what they are good at and kind of focus on that. For instance, Dieselboy’s new Unleashed is all over the place: DnB, dubstep, drumstep, he can play it all and he does. Every set is different and every set is exciting.

When Tiesto and deadmau5 start dropping dubstep into their sets, you know it’s everywhere. It was weird when, two or three Ultras ago, when deadmau5 dropped some bass music the middle of his set, and I felt the whole crowd just stopped because bass music hadn’t taken over. There were like 50,000 people there and you could have heard a pin drop.

It’s good to see everyone supporting bass music, but as a fan, I know where kids are coming from there, saying, “Oh god, I don’t really like dubstep and I cannot get away from it!”

We have discussed it a bit already, but what are the plans for Steez promo in 2012?

Right now we work in 12-14 markets, and produce 160 events per year. We are looking to produce over 200 [events] during 2012, and are already in the process of expanding into eight to 12 more markets next year. Right now, the only company on this scale is Insomniac events, and while I don’t see us competing with them because there is a mutual respect there, I definitely want to get Steez Promo up to their scale, or at least try to get Steez Promo to that scale.

The whole movement in the U.S. is crazy right now. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that is pushing the dance movement forward, everything from Jay-Z and Kanye using a tune from Flux Pavilion [on “Who Gonna Stop Me”] to Skillex music in ads to Heineken supporting dance music, is helping the scene appeal to a larger audience.

 For more information on Steez Promo and Fall Massive, please visit Steezpromo.com and Fallmassive.com.

Was Get Along recorded all from one concert or was it over several different nights?

You know, we filmed it over a six-month period. There are three films. One show was filmed over the course of the summer when we were on tour supporting Paramore. We took a little bit of time off; then we went on to do a trip-slash-tour to India where we brought another filmmaker with us.  And then we also filmed in Vancouver with a different filmmaker and did like more of a concert in hopes that we would be able to also really make like a sit-down kind of live record. So yeah, it was over the course of about six months. It took about another year to wrap it up and do edits and put all of the bits together. The whole project start to finish was about a year and a half. It was a big one [laughs].

Was there any rationale behind the setlist, knowing that it was going to get released as a live album? Or did you just do the songs you would normally do?

You know, it was kind of a combination of both. We ended up recording…I think we ended up doing a setlist of about 30 songs. [children start screaming in the background] I’m not killing children, I’m just walking by a school. [laughs] We recorded a lot of material and then sort of whittled it down to what we felt was both the strongest, but also the songs that we thought fans would want to hear, you know? Obviously we hope to always reach new audiences, but the real goal for a show within an album is to make something for fans. We’re not necessarily trying to break new ground or go out and make new fans, but we definitely wanted to entertain the ones that we already have. We tried to pick material that they would enjoy.

Yeah, you guys have always seemed to be cool about playing a good mix of new and old songs, whereas a lot of bands get prickly about playing their old stuff when they have a new album out.  Do you think that’s a trend with most live acts?

Yeah. You know, we’re sort of lucky. I feel like the songs that are most popular, for the most part…the songs that are most popular with our fans are usually the songs we really like from each album. Although, we generally also like to play new stuff. Having to go back and revisit some of the old classic records, it’s not as gruesome as it could be. [laughs] There are certain songs that if we never had to play them again, I’d be thrilled. But songs like “Call It Off” and “Back In Your Head”…you know, “Walking With A Ghost”…these songs that are sort of more well known throughout the fan-base, I have no problem playing them. I can still stand behind the material. I still find ways to connect with it. And the good thing about our band is that although it’s me and Tegan, we sort of have a revolving cast of characters who back us up. Playing with new people always injects something different into the music. We went up this summer with two guys we’ve never played with and it made me feel like I wasn’t even playing my own songs. It’s exciting and I felt nervous and it’s a really fun part about being in the kind of band we’re in. We don’t get stuck playing with the same people. We always have new people around.

On your earlier albums, you would write one song and Tegan would write one.  Do you guys find that nowadays you pretty much write everything together or is it still split down the middle?

No, no, we still are sticking kind of to our traditional methods of writing independently. We’re highly involved in the editing process. If I write something and record it, she’ll be the first person I send it to, and she’ll give me suggestions about arrangements or melodies, so we’re all certainly involved in the process. But from the beginning stage to about the 70% stage, it’s really us writing stuff by ourselves, individually. And that really seems to work for us. But we are getting more collaborative. I think in the beginning there was a little bit of reluctance sometimes, always sort of assuming that the other person was wrong. I’d be like, “Okay, thanks for your feedback, but no.” But as you get older and work with other people, you do a lot more collaborative stuff; you know, “I produced your record and I’ve written with other people and I’ve guested on things.” As you work with other people, it gets easier to take suggestions and criticisms and critiques and not act like that.

Being identical twins, have you started to see any differences or similarities between your songwriting styles? Can you recognize the Tegan songs from the Sara songs? 

Well it’s really tough to answer that because yes, I do, and probably in a magnified way because I’m me. So I hear some of the microscopic stuff in things. I always use the example that, for some people, the fact that we’re twins…you know, we look the same and they’re like, “Oh my god, I can’t tell you apart.” And I think that’s so absurd because I look at Tegan and I don’t see myself at all.  I don’t see a face that resembles mine at all. In the same way, when I hear music of Tegan’s, I don’t think to myself “Wow, that’s so similar. Like I hear only the finest differences.” So it makes it hard because I think we sound completely different. And yeah, I realize that our natural genetics and whatever make us sound similar.

You guys have talked a lot in the past about how, as songwriters, you have a sense of morality about yourselves and that you should be promoting a certain message with your music. Is that still the case?

It’s funny. After a couple of years, you think that your perspectives on things would change a tremendous amount, and yet they probably don’t.  Our approach to our band and our lives have remained pretty similar. At the end of the day, I want to be in a band that writes great songs, and I want to have as many fans as we can possibly find. We love to perform, and I’m a political person, so I love the fact that we have a voice and have a message, and that we’re promoting good and doing inspiring things. It sounds so boring, but it’s like that’s still my approach to the whole thing.

I think you guys do it in a pretty subversive way. You write things that have a message, but at the same time you don’t alienate the listener by being overly political. Is that something you’re conscious of when you write songs that are a little more message driven?

The big thing for me always was that I wanted to be able to talk about the things that I cared about or was inspired by or whatever, but I wanted to do it within reason. When I love a band and I think that someone’s fantastic, and I find out that they also share some of the same thoughts or concerns or whatever, it’s very exciting. But it is a fine line, because you can also like a band and find out they’re a bunch of dicks. I don’t want to abuse the power that comes from having a voice and having an audience. And I do know that we have an impressionable audience. So I choose very carefully what I talk about offstage or what I pursue or promote. Because at the end of the day, I didn’t want to necessarily be in a political band. I didn’t want to use music as a vehicle to talk about those things.

Well, you’re always going to write about what you’re feeling.

Exactly.

Do you think rock stars have a certain responsibility for how their content affects their fans, or do you also enjoy artists who write stuff that’s just fun?

You know what, I think there’s a place for all of it. I think there are people who I always…I think of U2 as a great example and I guess Arcade Fire comes to mind; bands that are sort of big and popular, exciting bands that also have political views and occasionally take the time to sort of step up and speak about the things they don’t talk about in their songs. But I also appreciate political acts, people like Billy Bragg. For me anyways, I listen to a spectrum of pop music. I think that if you feel compelled to do it, you should do it. There was definitely a time in my life when I thought that Tegan and I would grow into a political band but still have the vehicle of pop music, which I love.

Who would you say is the trashiest, most non-political, fun band you listen to?

[laughs] I don’t know if I would say trashy, but I mean I love pop music. I try to think about the records I bought in the last year…it’s so varied. I listen to a lot of old country and I listen to a lot of old hipster electronic music, and also a lot of really lo-fi shit. And I like love Rhianna. I envy and admire those who are able to write and produce those massive hits. It’s not easy and it’s not a fluke. I can really admire a big public machine like Justin Bieber. That record is just chock full of melodies and hooks and whatever. I love pop music so much. It’s what I grew up on. You know, my parents loved Zeppelin and Springsteen and U2 and The Pretenders and The Police and all that kind of stuff. We were indiscriminate. Anything that had a good strong melody, we loved it. So I still feel that way today. I can be the biggest snob, but when it gets down to it, I can get into a Tom Petty record.

I agree. In a sense, I almost don’t believe in guilty pleasures. There’s stuff you like and stuff you don’t like. Are you someone who mostly buys records or CDs, or do you go for digital music?

I definitely do digital music, but I’m definitely still an old-fashioned person in the sense that I buy a ridiculous amount of books and magazines. I love the sort of tactile experience of touching things and owning things. But I have to admit that with music, I can’t deny that being able to download it straight from the internet onto your computer or your iPod is just… sadly, I’ve moved away from the physical. I even thought of selling all my CDs, which is just…I’m having a hard time letting go, but I’m definitely considering it.

I have a friend who used to work at Apple, and she told me that they might be getting rid of the classic iPod. That worries me because I have a lot of music and wouldn’t be able to fit it on just a phone or iPod Nano.  How big is your record collection, and would that be something that would worry you?

Fairly big. It’s fairly big, and I definitely worry…even when I get a new computer and have to move my iTunes. There’s still something big about having to like carry that around with you, if it’s more in the internet, technical side of things, if it’s not in the physical side of things. The actual physical music that I listen to and listen to over and over again, and have listened to for years…I feel like I’ll always have that music anyway. Some of the other stuff is mostly impulsive.

Photography by Lindsey Byrnes.

Guitarist Neil Campesinos! joined us over the phone for a chat about recording Hello Sadness in Spain, writing poppier songs, and how Los Campesinos! refuse to take themselves seriously.

You wrote Hello Sadness in Spain earlier this year. What was that experience like, both in and out of the studio?

In terms of recording in Spain, it was pretty exciting. We’d been planning on recording earlier in the year in Cardiff, but we couldn’t get the studio dates that we needed. So, we thought, “Hang on, if we’re already in Spain, why don’t we just find a studio and record out there?” Basically, that’s what happened. It was amazing. It was just so much fun. There was a swimming pool, a pool table, and table tennis, which all sounds very decadent. Believe me, that’s not the kind of style we’re used to.

Any cool stories from your time in the country?

A lot of watching football (soccer), drinking beer… had a nice barbecue. We didn’t go swimming too much because it was a little bit cold. It’s all kind of a blur. We were there for about a month. Four weeks’ worth of booze, sex, drugs, and stuff. (laughs) That’s not true.

What were this record’s influences?

We just really wanted to write a direct kind of pop record. It’s a lot more stripped back than our previous work. On that record [Romance Is Boring], there’s a lot going on. Tom (Campesinos!, guitarist) especially was trying to do a lot with arrangements and trying to cram a lot in. It worked at the time, but we just wanted to strip it all back and record something that had more space to breathe.

Yeah, I noticed that “By Your Hand” is definitely one of the poppiest, most straightforward songs Los Campesinos! have recorded to date. Can you tell me how that song came about?

When we rehearsed and recorded it, we weren’t sure if we needed to try another tempo. It was really laid-back. It wasn’t until Gareth (Campesinos!, vocalist) put the lyric to it. We were adding things in and bringing things out. It’s not until we heard the lyrics recorded in the studio that the song took its final direction.

The hook line was not how we imagined it when we were rehearsing the music. It’s quite interesting. It’s one of the first songs we’ve had a very dominant keyboard going all the way through. We played it live a few times, and it feels really good.

You’re working again with John Goodmanson. Why does the band feel comfortable with him as a producer?

He’s just a really nice guy, regardless of his amazing production talent. He’s so laid-back, and he knows how to get the most from us and the best from us. We all look forward to spending time with him and hanging out. He’s got lots of good stories about being in the industry, back in Seattle in the early 90s. I could gush all day about him. After working with him for four records, he’s a friend now, not just a colleague. When we started to look at recording options, we didn’t even consider anyone else.

Harriet left the group amicably earlier this year. Did you know she was leaving before recording, and if so, what was the impact on the album?

We didn’t, actually. She decided to go back to university after the summer to continue her studies. As far as recording went, no impact really. It’s a long time to be in a band when you start in your early 20s and now you’re pushing your late 20s. A lot of people think we’re younger than we are, but we’re all on the wrong side of 25. I think she wanted to do something else and take her life in another direction, which is obviously a great thing to do.

Romance Is Boring was very abrasive and aggressive at times. Hello Sadness seems much calmer, albeit melancholy, musically. You mentioned before that you wanted this album to be more straightforward. Was that a conscious decision, or did it happen naturally?

I think probably both. It was a conscious decision in that we knew we wanted to keep it stripped back, but it happened naturally in that the songs felt complete with the arrangements being fairly limited. It didn’t feel like we needed to cram a load of stuff in there or add anything. The songs just felt good as they were. We’re really proud of them. I don’t think we’d go back and change anything. It just feels like there’s so much more space in the songs. I really love that. It feels like a record we’ve been trying to make for a long time.

In a statement about the album, Gareth said it’s about all of you growing up. How do you feel you’ve grown since the group started?

We started when we were still at university in 2006, so I’ve grown upwards and outwards. I’m a lot wider. I’ve got a bigger stomach than I did then.

That’s a really hard question to answer. It’s the kind of question that if you asked someone else to answer about me, they’d be able to give you a more honest answer. I’ll probably make myself sound really great. I think we’re just all comfortable with what we’re doing. We’ve done it for a few years, and it’s been amazing. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue. I don’t know how I’m different. I’m older. I’d say I’m more mature, but that’s not true. I’d say I’m more intelligent, but this rambling conversation probably suggests otherwise.

In your previous albums, humor and sarcasm have played a heavy role. How important is that aspect to the band?

I think it’s really important. A lot of it’s so tongue-in-cheek and off-the-cuff. We’re really not a band that takes ourselves particularly seriously. Like on Twitter, comments are made as jokes, and people go, “Ahh! I can’t believe you said that!” Come on, it’s a joke. There are so many bands that take themselves so seriously. They’ll hop themselves on platforms and have the fans below them. To us, that’s completely ridiculous. We’re just music fans at the end of the day.

What’s your favorite song off Hello Sadness and why?

Every time we recorded a different song, it became the favorite. I really like “By Your Hand”. It’s such a pop song, and it’s really amazing. I might have to say “Hello Sadness”, ’cause it’s my mom’s favorite. She just thinks it’s great. We’ve never really written a song like that before. It’s an epic pop song. I think it’s really cool. Jason’s drumming in that is just really exciting. We were really wary of doing that high-hat kind of work.

In previous  interviews with CoS, Gareth has come out strongly against albums leaking ahead of release. How do you feel Los Campesinos! and the music industry as a whole can fight against this?

It’s really hard to control leaks. They happen as soon as albums make their way into the hands of some journalists, but obviously not every journalist. Some people are far freer and not very careful about whom they give it to. It’s a really hard thing to actually stop. You can watermark CDs. You can give people private listening parties. But within a month of an album coming out, it’s in so many different places, you can’t keep track of where it is. It’s really bizarre because it’s become such a major deal. It really kills momentum.

What are the band’s plans for next year?

I expect we’re going to be touring a lot. We’ll be playing more shows in the U.S. next year. We’ve got a provisional routing through, and it’s big. In November, we’re only playing a handful of shows on the East Coast, and people are saying, “Why aren’t you coming to the West Coast?!” Trust me: We’ll be there next year. Hopefully, we’ll get to play a lot of festivals. This year’s been really quiet for us. I think we’re all quite excited to get back on the road in November.

Let’s start with the new package… the new greatest hits album, Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage. The title tells it all, your summation of 30 years of rock and roll?

Well, it’s funny; that was a phrase Peter used to describe us back, I think, in the late 80s. I’m not sure of the exact date of origin, but you know, it is. The thing you take away from that is love rock and roll as we do, but don’t take it too seriously. It is the most important and least important thing in the world in many ways.

With the new song “We All Go Back to Where We Belong”, is there an intention behind the title? Was that song actually written with knowledge of the band’s demise or breakup?

Yeah, both that and “Hallelujah” lyrically were written knowing that; and actually, “We All Go Back to Where We Belong” was originally written on piano for Collapse Into Now, but we couldn’t figure out a way to make it work, but I really wanted Michael to finish it for this retrospective, so I went at it from guitar instead of piano. I kind of rewrote it on guitar and changed it around from the piano song it was, and it turned out to be much more accessible for Michael, so we’ve got this beautiful song now.

And the third track is “Month of Saturdays”…

Yeah, that was something I was messing around with back in the recording of Collapse Into Now. I was thinking of Pylon and my friend Randy Bewley, who was killed not long ago, and I was thinking, “Well, you know this is kind of a Pylon kind of guitar sound, guitar line here,” and I didn’t expect anything to come of it, but Michael liked it enough to put the lyrics on it. I like it because it reflects the goofy side of R.E.M., which was often overlooked by people in the years. We were always having fun, and a lot of that got overlooked because people thought we were this really serious band, but believe me, we were laughing as much as anybody else.

Any chance of “Hallelujah” and “A Month of Saturdays” being released?

As singles, I have no idea. That is entirely up to the record company. If they want to, it’ll be fine with me.

So, all three of these songs weren’t necessarily cutting room scraps from the last album sessions. They were things you couldn’t really complete but wanted to.

Oh, exactly. No, they were things we really liked. Some songs just tend to come out and take about as long to write as it does to play ‘em; others require a lot of wrangling. “We All Go Back to Where We Belong” took a lot of work, but because I believed in it and I knew there was a good song in there, I just kept wrestling with it until it got to a point where Michael could relate to it and be inspired by it.

You said that you were trying to get Michael to finish it. As long as I’ve been alive, it’s always been Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe, then obviously Buck/Mills/Stipe. How do you approach the songwriting as all four of you or all three of you to get the song to be a Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe or Buck/Mills/Stipe song rather than a Mills song or a Stipe song or a Buck song?

From the very beginning, Peter said, you know, when we first started having to have song credits, he said we were gonna split them equally. I said, “Why would we do that? I don’t care about the money, but I want the credit if I write the song.” And he said, “Yeah, I understand that.” But being the historian that he was already, he said nothing breaks a band up faster than the songwriters getting all the money. So, he said we’re gonna share. And then in fact it turned out to be a truth because we did all write the songs. Everybody contributed to every song, whether we actually physically wrote it or not. Everybody had enough of a hand in the sound of it to make the splitting of the credits make perfect sense. And it does keep a band together, because if one or two guys write all the songs and they make all the money, the other guys are gonna be resentful, and that is not healthy.

Like with The Beatles.

The Beatles are a prime example of that, certainly; but I love the fact that we made the decision with the idea of avoiding tension, and yet it turned out to be correct and accurate in fact as well as in thought.

Photo by Anton Corbijn.

Over the course of three decades together, you’ve been a unit. It’s never seemed to be one personality, even though Michael Stipe’s personality certainly outshines the other three, R.E.M. itself always seemed to have its own unified front.

Oh, absolutely. When we got together the idea was that we were a band, you know. When you’re starting out, you’re taking your stuff out there on the road. And you’re playing it for people who don’t know you and may or may not even care that you’re there. You have to prove yourself night after night after night, and so you’re kind of a gang. A gang of four or five people who are out there, and the only people you have are each other. You’re the ones that believe in each other, and maybe no one else does at that point, so the only support you have is each other. And that tends to give you that unified front, and we’ve always felt it should be that way from the very beginning. Whatever disputes we may have, they stay in-house.

With that in mind, when Bill Berry decided to leave the band in ’97, did you as a band even contemplate possibly ending?

Yeah, of course, we did. We looked at it. What we found was that there was a dynamic that went on with Bill in the band that was completely shifted when he left, and we didn’t really expect that. Everybody has different ways of working, and Bill actually helped balance that out. As any relationship will over the years, you have to step back and talk about it and say, “Do we want to keep going? If we do, here’s what we have to do in order to do it correctly.” There were two or three of those, I’d say, major ones, over the course of our career, and that’s how you keep going. Whether it’s a marriage, a friendship, or a business relationship, those things are necessary every once in a while just to make sure you are all still pulling in the same direction.

Michael Stipe said, “A three-legged dog is still a dog. It just has to learn to run differently.”

Exactly, well said. And a three-legged table can be a little wobbly unless you balance it out right.

So, how did you decide to go on as a three-piece as it were, rather than have a full-time replacement?

We never wanted to replace Bill; there’s no replacing Bill in the sense of “band member.”  We were lucky enough to find Joey Waronker and Bill Rieflin, who were not only great drummers, but they fit with R.E.M. And not every great drummer could do that. We didn’t want to replace Bill. It felt disrespectful, and that’s not who we were. So, in our minds, it was still R.E.M., but R.E.M. was a different band after Bill left, and we weren’t trying to pretend we were the same band because we weren’t.

What was the reason for two videos for the latest single? And why the Andy Warhol Screen Test approach?

Michael is the visual artist in the band. Peter and I don’t care about videos as long as we don’t have to be in them. We clearly get final approval, but we trust Michael’s vision, and we know how much he enjoys it. So, we let him go out and do whatever he wanted, and as long as we feel it represents the band in a way of class and integrity, we are certainly fine with that. You know, three and a half minutes of Kirsten Dunst is not a problem.

No. Or even John Giorno.

What is his last name again?

Giorno.

Giorno, yeah, that’s it, John Giorno. He’s the one; you know he was the guy in Sleep, Andy Warhol’s eight hours of a guy sleeping. That was him. So, that’s again a little bit of a full circle.

A return to form.

Yep.

So, I guess that explains why we hardly ever see band members in the videos. You guys consciously did not want to be in the videos.

Yeah. I mean, Peter and I never got into this business to be actors. It’s not what we wanted to do. I personally resent the fact that videos exist ever anyway. Music exists for you to create pictures in your head. When all of a sudden you got some video director showing you the pictures you have in your head, I found that offensive. To a great extent, I still do. Given that, I’m proud of all our videos; we did great videos. Michael has an incredible visual sense. The ones he did by himself are fantastic; the ones he had help with he picked really good people to work with. So, you can make them an art form, and I think we did. Nonetheless, just the fact that record companies needed them as a cheap promo item, or not even cheap; some of those videos cost millions of dollars. But the fact that they saw them as a promo, and for me they took away from the essence of what songs are and music is supposed to do.

Let’s go back, if you don’t mind, to 1983. Do you remember the first time you were on Letterman?

Yeah, sure.

Was that “So. Central Rain”? No, “Radio Free Europe”…

I think we did two. I think we did “Radio Free Europe” and “So. Central Rain”, except “So. Central Rain” didn’t even have a title at that point. If you watch the clip, you see Letterman coming out and talking to Peter and I, and he was like, “What was the name of that song?” You can’t hear what we say, but Letterman goes, “Doesn’t have a name? Too new to be named, okay.”

So, when you guys joined up with I.R.S., was there a reason that you decided to go with I.R.S. versus other independent labels?

We liked what I.R.S. was doing. We agreed with their work ethic. We didn’t want an advance; they didn’t want to give an advance. They agreed to let us do things our way with minimal interference. There was certainly a connection in that Ian Copeland was one of Bill Berry’s and my best friends. He ran our booking agency, and his brother ran I.R.S. So that was a nice familial connection, but really that had little to do with it. In the end, it was mostly because we appreciated their ethic and the fact that they would kind of leave us alone.

Whose decision was it to work with Mitch Easter back in the beginning?

I believe he was suggested to us by Peter Holsapple, who we had become friends with. That was when we established our bona fides with I.R.S. Records. They wanted us to work with this name producer that we knew was not a good idea. So, we wanted Mitch, and so what we agreed to do, we did a demo song, one song with Mitch and one with the other producer. And the demo we did with Mitch is the version of “Pilgrimage” that is on the record, so it was pretty clear who was right about the producer.

So, there was obviously a conscious decision around the time of Fables… to change the direction of the band wasn’t there?

Not so much the direction. We had worked with Mitch and Don twice, and that was enough. They’re still good friends to this day, so it wasn’t anything weird. We wanted to try a different producer, a different sound. Peter liked Joe Boyd from all his work with Richard Thompson and Fairport Convention. We weren’t trying to change the sound, per say. We just wanted to work with a different producer.  As it turned out, the sound was a combination of factors: Joe Boyd’s production, the engineer’s type of engineering, the weird funky studio in London that we worked in, the headspace we were all in, which was pretty dismal at that time. You know, we made a record that was dark and murky and is a lot of people’s favorite.

I think it’s a great album. At the time of that album’s making and release was also around the time that all the R.E.M. clones started filtering their way through college radio, and I was always curious as if that was a reason why you shifted a little with Fables.

You know, it’s not. I was never really aware of any R.E.M. clones. I never really caught on to people trying to emulate our sound…

Really?

We were not trying to throw other bands off the scent. We were just recording the songs that we had in the best way we could, but due to the combination of studio and producer and headspace, we got this particularly dark record, which we all love. I think it’s great. The experience of making it was really tough. It wasn’t Joe Boyd’s fault. I consider him a friend to this day, but it was tough being in London and tough working in that studio.

How about with Document? Was it a little bit easier?

Document was great. Scott Litt was clearly a great fit for us, and we had a lot of fun making that record.

When you guys decided to go to Warner Brothers, was that more based on initially a distribution deal?  That they could get you international distribution?

That was a lot of it. I.R.S. had no presence in Europe. We really wanted to come to Europe and see if our music would translate, not in a literal sense of the term. We wanted to see if the Europeans could appreciate it, and I.R.S. had no presence at all, and we wanted to come to Europe, and while we enjoyed playing to American servicemen based in Mannheim, Germany, we wanted to see if we could get a bigger audience just to see how our music would go over. Warners not only had that European presence we were looking for, but they were clearly an artist-oriented label. They had Moe Austin and Lenny Wannaker in charge, clearly two guys who cared as much about the music as they did about the money. They had people like Neil Young and Van Dyke Parks on the label who were not making any money, but they were great artists. We said, “That’s the kind of label we want to associate with — something that’s not about the bottom line.” We could have gotten more money elsewhere, but that’s not what we were after.

Some people have considered your vocals and harmonies, especially with Michael Stipe on songs like “Superman”, to be the band’s secret weapon. J. Edward Keyes, who is a critic, and Stewart Mason, who is a reviewer as well, both have suggested solo albums by you. In fact, Stewart Mason suggested it in his review of “Near Wild Heaven”, which is almost 20 years old. Any thoughts to doing a solo album now that R.E.M. is done?

Right. Yeah, I’ll probably do one sooner or later. Right now what I’m looking forward to is writing some songs with some guys I know that I really like and respect and want to hang out with and work with. That’s probably next up, but I’d say some time fairly soon, I’ll start working on a solo record. If I think it measures up to standards, I’ll put it out.

Everywhere I look… I’ve been a fan since the early-mid 80s…

Cool.

I’m old.

You and me both…

But the name… I know what R.E.M. stands for biologically, scientifically. But I could have sworn in the documentary Inside Out, the old documentary on the Athens scene back in the day, that somebody said they just saw the letters written on a wall after a party.

No. I’ll give you the definitive story on that. What happened was we were looking for a name, so we had these plywood walls of this crappy place in this deconsecrated church where some of us were living, and we had pieces of chalk lying around. Whenever our friends came over, we had them write down suggestions for names on the walls. None of those turned out to be usable. So, we were sitting around one night before one of our first two or three shows, by this point we had to have a name of some sort, and Michael had a dictionary. He was literally opening it up and stabbing his finger down on words. Like the fourth or fifth one was R.E.M., and we said, “What does that mean?” And he said, “Well rapid eye movement is the dream stage of sleep,” and we said, “We’ll take it.”

Photo by Keith Carter.

While in Asheville, NC for Moogfest, Glover took some time out to speak with Consequence of Sound‘s Len Comaratta and Caitlin Meyer. The three discussed everything from filming music videos to haters to cunnilingous to an entity called “Space Pope”. You’ll have to watch the video to get that last one, which is available for viewing at the end, courtesy of Cluster 1.

Also, stay tuned for a special Audiography episode featuring Glover in the near, near future.

Caitlin Meyer (CM): [Referencing a class paper on the artist] I’m talking about the “Freaks and Geeks” video and how it’s basically unlike any rap video I’ve ever seen…I love the single shot… it’s for a film class…

Yeah, it’s a single shot

CM: Was it fun to shoot?

It was! I like doing stuff that feels like you can’t see it again. I feel like everything now you can just see again. Everything’s on the internet. See it, hear it, experience it over and over again until you’re bored with it. So I was like, “Oh, one shot.” I think that was the last one we did. We did one right before that I was happy with. We were like, “That one was good.” [The director] was like, “Can you do it one more time? Let’s do one for safety.” So actually some of the things I did weren’t in the other ones ‘cause I was tired.

CM: Crazy dance moves.

The spinning thing…was from being tired. That was a fun video to shoot. I had a good time. That one shot. I had a dream literally the week before.

CM: I think since it doesn’t coincide with the lyrical content of the song it makes you really focus on them. Usually people get super absorbed in the visuals of music videos and this time you actually have to listen to what he’s saying.

I think the best music videos are the ones that have nothing to do with the song. Those are all my favorites.

Len Comaratta (LC): Do you enjoy making the videos?

I really do

LC: Or do you feel more like it’s part of the job?

No, I really like making the videos. I’m all about storytelling; I really like telling the stories. That’s the most important part of most albums I like. Most albums I really like are just ones that tell a good story over and over again in different ways and by the end it’s like a novel. The “Bonfire” video’s really freaky and weird and a definite story. I really like it. And we’re coming up with a “Heartbeat” one and that one’s turning out to be pretty fucked up and weird, too. But I think that’s the point. It’s supposed to make you be like, “Okay, what color does that paint the song?” Like one of my favorite love songs of all time…I would listen to it when I would go through a break up and then I heard [the artist] interviewed and she [says], “Yeah, that’s about my dog.” And I [thought], “Oh, that paints it very differently; it’s about her dog that died.” So yeah, I think it’s just another tool to get the story and make the story specific but also general at the same time.

LC: Most of your recordings have been digital only right? And Camp was the first one you actually released a hard copy for?

Yeah, Camp is the first to be released hard copy.

LC: What was the argument or reasoning behind actually releasing a physical copy?

A lot of people asked why I signed in the first place anyway. I like doing music. I like putting it out for free. I really was fine doing it, but it was this thing where I felt like it could reach more people if I signed. I know that sounds weird because the internet is everywhere but I feel like with Glassnote [Camp’s label] behind me they could get me places that I wasn’t even thinking about going. And we’re already touring and stuff like that. And everybody was always asking for vinyl. For a while I was going to do it on my own. Like “Okay, I’ll just save up enough money and put it out and just have people pay what it is” but Glassnote knows what they’re doing as far as this vinyl’s concerned. It’s cool. I held the first copy in my hand. I was like, “This is crazy…” For some reason I tricked myself into thinking kids weren’t like me where they just go buy the No Doubt record and then go home and listen to it and read the notes while they listen. Kids still do that.

LC: How much control over the artistic vision did you have or was the label involved at all?

They let me do whatever…When I signed, the album was almost done anyway. I was like, “If I don’t sign with you guys, I’ll put it out anyway but I’m not changing anything.” A lot of labels were talking about putting “Freaks and Geeks” on there and stuff like that. The album, and I’m really proud of it, doesn’t have any features or anything like that. It wasn’t supposed to feed off the hype of the EP, which was strange to me anyway. We literally made the EP in a couple of weeks. We were like, “This is something that nobody will like but it’ll be something that we’ll put out and people might enjoy it before we go hit the road.” But I didn’t want to feed off of that. I really wanted Camp to be a story. I really thought it was a story I was kind of afraid to tell before but now I was finally okay doing it.

LC: So do you view it as a concept album?

I guess concept in the sense that I don’t think you have to look at it a certain way to do that. “Camp” stands for a bunch of stuff. Every meaning of camp from “campy” to “going to camp” to “concentration camps”…every meaning should be in that album; I think all the best things work on a lot of levels. So I don’t think it is just a concept album but it definitely tells a specific story that hopefully I feel like everybody will understand.

LC: Do you like making the original albums or the mix tapes better?

The original albums. I put out “Bonfire” and literally a day later someone is saying, “I’m gonna kill you on this ‘Bonfire’ track.” I don’t care. It’s always about who has what track and who can kill who on what track. That’s kind of the reason why I don’t like putting out instrumentals that much. It’s flattering when people freestyle over my instrumentals. I love it. I love that Kendrick Lamaar thing he did over “Bitch You Know Me”. I like that, I like that a lot. But I like the fact that on like “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson I know that’s him. I know that song. I connect with that song. I think rap should be like that, too. I feel like for a long time people just don’t do that; they’re just like, “Oh, they’re interchangeable.” It’s just like Wiz Khalifa on a Lil’ Wayne beat is just like you’re not listening to the music anymore, which I think is important. So, I love the albums way more. Mix tapes are fun. Like tonight I’m gonna rap on the Meek Mills beat “I’m a Boss” and I would never make that beat but I love that beat so much.

LC: Is that how you got into rapping? You were just making beats on your own?

Yeah, my friend ripped Fruity Loops for me freshman year of college and I literally didn’t know what it was. He just ripped it and gave it to me. I don’t even know why, but it was on my first computer and I was just messing with it and I didn’t leave my room for a week. I skipped class. This was amazing. I was ripping all this stuff and putting it together. I was just making instrumentals.

LC: Were you writing music before you became a comedian?

I was making music back in fourth grade. I’d write songs on guitars and stuff like that. When I got to college I just got really more into it. I was DJing and stuff like that. It was really cool. But, yeah, I was doing it before the comedy actually.

LC: So did the comedy help with the rap career? Or did it kind of hinder it? Because in some of your lyrics you say the reason you don’t rap under “Donald Glover” is because you’re afraid of people associating the jokes with the music and not taking the music seriously.

Well, here’s the thing. It’s funny. I think half of it came from going under “Childish Gambino” and that helped. Because sometimes people would find Childish Gambino and then they would find it was me and it would make them really think about it differently. But the other thing that helped was that rap just got really funny. I don’t think there’s a real difference in punchline and joke style between my rap or Lonely Island or Lil’ Wayne or Ludacris. [Like Ludacris' "Number One Spot".] That goldmember song that came out where it was just like pun after pun of goldmember. I remember going to the club in Atlanta and people were like: [hums and bobs a little as if dancing]. It didn’t matter anymore. It was a joke that works. It was all about the lyrical content. I think that’s what happens. That Lonely Island album, that last one that came out, is a really good rap album. I feel that if you brought that to a kid who had never known that they are on television doing comedy, it’d be kind of enjoyable kind of like Presidents of the United States. They’re in on the joke. LCD Soundsystem, where they understand what “It” is. There’s a bunch of meta stuff there. I think that’s just what happened. I’m allowed to do that and I’m also allowed to talk about things that are actually happening and make fun of myself and rap.

LC: Do you find that you’ve actually been able to shed some of the haters?

Yeah, it’s funny. I remember everybody was like, “This is a joke, I don’t know why you’re into it. This is a joke.” I was totally expecting that, and that’s cool. I was going to actually put out an untitled EP, another EP next week. I was recording and stuff like that and I was gonna put it out. But now it’s this thing where I can read on Twitter and people sending me stuff like “Everybody’s on Childish Gambino’s dick now, what the fuck.” The opposite backlash is happening where now I don’t think I’m gonna do it. I’m just gonna let the album speak for itself. I don’t think I have to…I don’t think I’m that type of rapper. I don’t think I’m that type of rapper who’s like Lil’ Wayne; he’s a machine. He fucking puts out stuff [snapping fingers quickly], he’ll take your beat and he’ll just destroy it and I’m not that I don’t think. I think I’m much more…“Let’s sit down.”

CM: Deliberate?

Yeah, yeah, deliberate. Let’s sit down and what does this mean instead of just a free spirit.

Photo by Catherine Watkins

LC: Do you ever freestyle or do prefer to actually sit down?

Sometimes I freestyle. I don’t think it’s great, that’s the reason I don’t release it. It’s more of like a jazz kinda thing. Actually, one of the songs, the last song, “That Power”, on the album was from a freestyle that we did with ?uestlove in New York and he plays the drums on that song too. It was just like “Let’s do something” and I ended up telling this story and was like, “That song’s great.” I like to freestyle, I just don’t…oh, and that’s another point I was going to bring up – doing comedy it actually helped because I think the tools I learned through writing 30 Rock and writing plays and writing all that stuff really helped me construct the album. I knew this has to be at the beginning. Ludwig was making fun of me because we would finish a song and I’d go, “Okay, that’s track four.” I just knew where the songs went. I knew “Outside” was going to be the first song since we made it; I knew that “Power” was going to be the last. I just knew structure-wise how movies and books should work…

LC: Is that for all your albums or just the most recent one?

Just for this one. It really helped. Well, the EP some too. I think Culdesac is more of a mix tape. Culdesac was me literally figuring out…it’s so schizophrenic. I look back and I’m glad I made it but it was super schizophrenic and it was all over the place. I love “Got This Money”. I’d never make that song again. I learned a lot from those albums and this one I feel like it’s a book. I knew what I was doing.

LC: My girlfriend actually picked this up while we were listening. You’re a black man…

Yes.

LC: You rap about cunnilingus.

Yes.

LC: That’s against type don’t you feel?

It’s against type, yeah. I mean in the last couple of years it’s been…I think Lil’ Wayne made that okay. I feel like the way Pharrell made black kids skateboarding okay, Lil’ Wayne’s made eating out girls okay again. It’s weird. It is against type, but here’s the thing: I don’t know why. As a black dude who is not stereotypically like…because the album is about being a middle class black kid and having people telling you who you are all the time. So that was something I knew in…seventh grade…when I wasn’t eating out anyone. I don’t know why, but I’m definitely into it.

LC: Can’t blame you there.

Well, mostly ‘cause girls like it.

LC: If you do it right.

But here’s the thing. You gotta eat out girls that get eat out a lot, which I know sounds weird, but they have to. Otherwise they don’t…me and my friend were talking about this…girls who don’t expect to get eaten out a lot they don’t…

LC: They have a shell…

Yeah, they have a shell. They feel weird about it. They’re not expecting anyone down there. It has to be girls that are comfortable with you being down there. So everybody write that down, just a little help.

LC: Childish Gambino came out of a Wu Tang Name Generator. What did you input for that result?

Donald Glover.

Photo by Caitlin Meyer

Since the September release of her third LP, Strange Mercy, Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has seen a whirlwind of activity, from touring the States to hitting the late night circuit to popping up at festivals. This past weekend at Asheville, NC’s Moogfest, Consequence of Sound’s Research Editor and host of Audiography, Len Comaratta, got a chance to sit down with Clark and her tour manager, Tom Carlson, as they were ironing out some last-minute details for her upcoming European tour.

If you’re a fan of Len’s Audiography series, look out for a forthcoming episode with Ms. Clark herself.

You sound busy.

Annie Clark (AC): Trying to coordinate a European tour with a two-day turnaround.

When do you head to Europe?

Tom Carlson (TC): The eighth?

AC: Right after [Jimmy] Fallon, so the 7th [of November].

TC: The morning of the eighth, ‘cause Fallon is the seventh.

AC: It is. No, I fly that evening to Germany to do some German TV show.

Talk about being busy. And last night you said you had a late gig. Where were you playing last night?

TC: The Earl. In Atlanta. It’s like a club gig. It was fun.

AC: It was really fun. I like those club… I mean… it’s funny…

When you say “Club Gig,” what do you mean, like the 9:30 Club kind of thing versus an arena?

TC: One quarter the size of the 9:30 club.

AC: Yeah, it’s 250 capacity.

TC: Way too small for them to be playing.

AC: With our gear and our light rig, it was kinda Spinal Tap… or reverse Spinal Tap.

It worked?

AC: Oh yeah, it was a great time. It was a great show.

Do you like the intimacy, though, of the smaller shows?

AC: Yeah, I do, I do. It’s fun. A lot of these shows on this tour have been theaters. It’s sort of like very pristine, and we have an intense light show. It comes off well. It’s like a theatrical performance kinda thing, but it’s fun to just get nitty-gritty in a rock club, too. All the shows have been going well to be honest. It’s been a really fun tour.

Well this album is getting huge amounts of praise. It seems like it’s been out longer than just a month or a month and a half.

AC: Yeah, I think there was a lot of lead in to it, so the press people did their job.

Your producer, John Congleton, did a whole social media with Twitter. If you tweet so much, then a single will be released. How did you feel that that played out?

AC: I thought that that worked out well. I’m not a marketing person. I didn’t come up with that idea or anything; it was the in-house people at the label, but I thought it worked out really well. At some point, after maybe six days had gone by and people kept tweeting… it’s on my twitter feed, and I can see what people are saying. And I started to feel like, “You guys, is this kinda mean? People are really freaking out. They’re really ready for this single. Should we just give it to them?” And they were like, “No, no wait, this is the point.” So, it was a little bit of a game, I guess, but it worked out well. It got people excited… or angry.

One of questions I was told that I have to ask by one of our editors, who is in love with this album, is “What was the driving force behind what you were writing for Strange Mercy?” He sensed some kind of retro feminism in some of the songs, but he didn’t understand what your direction was. I didn’t really sense that, the way he was describing it, but he wanted to get your take on what was going on in your mind when you were writing the album. ‘Cause like with Actor, you said it was during a downtime. You were decompressing and watching a lot of films and that inspired you to what you were doing. Everyone keeps saying Strange Mercy is a departure, so what was going on when you were setting down to write that album?

AC: Well, a lot of the influence, at least superficially, on the record is still these little bits of pop culture that I can weave into my own experience. Like the hook for “Surgeon” is “best finest surgeon, come cut me open,” which is…

Marilyn Monroe…

AC: …yeah, what Marilyn Monroe wrote in her diary. I really fell in love with that particular sentiment.

Were you reading up on Marilyn Monroe? How did you stumble on that?

AC: You know what? I read it in a Vanity Fair article. I was in Seattle writing the record, and I was getting very frustrated with what I was coming up with. Lots of highs and lows in a writing process. You know, either you think it’s all good or you think it’s terrible, and there’s not a lot of in-between. And I was in a low patch, and I just thought, “forget it.” I’m just gonna check out of the studio early, just go have a glass of wine, and read a book because nothing is coming out. And I just picked up a Vanity Fair and got really engrossed in that article and her, and I think I probably still have my little journal I was carrying around. In giant quotes, underlined, circled, exclamation point, “Use this”. The next day I went back, and I wrote “Surgeon”.

You seem to be informed by a lot of pop culture. People always comment how even Marry Me was taken from an “Arrested Development” line…

AC: Yeah, yeah.

Is that intentional, or do you find that as you’re writing it just comes out of you?

AC: Yeah, that’s the thing. It probably sounds pretty redundant, but everything is inspiration for a song. Everything’s fodder for writing. On the last record, I just straight-up ripped a Hemingway quote out of The Sun Also Rises… it’s in “Just the Same, But Brand New”… verbatim. Hopefully, I can’t get sued for that sort of thing. I like re-appropriated it or collaged it together. But everything is kind of fodder for writing.

When did you start writing?

AC: I started writing songs when I was… probably before probably… we had a piano, and I would tinker around with that and write little bits of songs, and then when I got a guitar when I was 12, the first thing I did was learn a Neil Young song and then write one of my own songs.

Neil Young was the first person you learned on guitar?

AC: Probably. I think it was “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World”. I really liked that Neil Young and Crazy Horse record at that point in life. But, actually, it’s funny. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but the song “Year of the Tiger” on Strange Mercy, that riff [hums out the musical part] , that’s something my mom used to play on the piano… but I mean, it was sweet, it was sweetly played. Kinda plucky. I gave her writing credit. We co-wrote “Year of the Tiger” together, but that riff was always in my consciousness from a really young age.

Was Glenn Branca the first group you worked with? The 100 Guitar Orchestra.

AC: To say I worked with Glenn Branca is sort of like saying, as if I had walked through a recording studio and been like, “Yeah, I produced that record.” There was an open call for guitar players in New York. “Come for a pack of sandwiches and a coffee. Come and play. Bring your own amp and your own guitar out to Queens and play in this recording session.” I was a fan of Glenn Branca obviously, and everybody in the room was a massive fan of Glenn Branca, and I was just one of a hundred. It feels a little bit… to say I worked with him… Glenn Branca was not asking me for my input.

It was more like, “Here, play this part. Thank you.”

AC: Exactly. We were organized into maybe four different guitar sectors. All of our strings were tuned to the same, different octaves of the same note. When it was our time to go, it was crazy eighth notes and stop and crazy eighth notes, and it was thrilling to be in a room with that many guitars and that many amplifiers.

It must be just ridiculously loud…

AC: It was so loud. I had such a great time.

So, it was only for that one recording that you did that?

AC: Yeah.

On Actor, and even on Strange Mercy, there is distorted guitar. Is that informed from your time with Glenn Branca, or is the distortion something that you like doing on your own? The experimentation with the instruments.

AC: I just like it. Certainly, I am like anybody, a fan of the history of rock ‘n’ roll. That’s just guitar player 101, you know. I just like tweaking out with pedals. I think I probably really started delving into that stuff when I joined the Polyphonic Spree, because it just became necessary to have different textures and colors in my bag of tricks.

When you joined the Polyphonic Spree, was that after you moved back to Texas, or was that why you moved back?

AC: It was in quick succession. I dropped out of school; I moved to New York; I ran out of money in New York; I moved back to Texas. Two weeks later, I was in the Polyphonic Spree.

Was there another open call for that, or was it through people you knew?

AC: My friend Toby, the theremin player at the time, who played a Moog theremin, said, “You gotta come in and try out. They are always looking for people.” I had been a fan; I had grown up in Dallas. Right about 18, when I was 18 about to leave, that’s when the Spree really started. I remember seeing three or four shows of theirs and just being awestruck.

How did you get with Sufjan [Stevens] after that?

AC: I think somebody had sent him Marry Me before it had come out on a label. This would have been 2006, mid-2006. And Shara Worden, My Brightest Diamond, who’s a dear friend of mine, was gonna be not able to do some upcoming touring with Suf, and I was on tour… no, I don’t know how that happened. I got a call, “Sufjan wants to meet you and try out and maybe be in his band…”

What album was that in support of?

AC: That was in support of Come on Feel the Illinois. And so I went up to New York and tried out. I don’t remember if I tried out, God I don’t remember. Anyway, I joined up with him and then opened for him in Europe.

How was that?

AC: It was great.

So, you were the opening band, and then you came back onstage as backup…

AC: Exactly. I was opening up solo, and then I would come and play.

When you say “solo” you mean, literally by yourself, not with your band behind you.

AC: Yeah, I didn’t have a band.

When did you actually incorporate the band? Was it around the time of making Actor?

AC: I’ve always had a band that I’ve hired for live touring things.

Photo by Katie Scheuring

You’ve worked with Midlake’s guys…

AC: Yeah.

Is it just like with Texas musicians… is it a close-knit community?

AC: There’s a thing, yeah. I think there’s a thing.

Because Congleton’s from Texas as well, and Polyphonic Spree…

AC: Yeah, McKenzie [Smith, drummer for Midlake], John, Daniel Hart, who was in the live touring band for a long time and played on all three records, and Bobby Sparks, who played the Mini Moog on the newest record. It was all Texas people. It was a pretty tight-knit group of people, actually. I’m a solo artist, so sometimes you’ll have a record where a million people walk through the studio and add little things here or there, but it was pretty much just me and John in the studio the whole time. Bobby Sparks would come in and play the craziest shit you’ve ever heard in one or two takes. And we’d be like, “Ok, that’s great, Bobby. Thanks. See ya later. You probably did all of your parts for this record in under five hours.”

Have you ever gotten a chance to work with any major session musicians or any of the major studios like the Wrecking Crew or Muscle Shoals?

AC: Nooooo.

Would you be interested in that?

AC: Yeah, of course I would be interested in that sort of thing. Bobby, he’s a ringer. He’s like Mr. Come In and Knock It Out. McKenzie too is great. We’d just spend more time together because we’d be dialoging about the parts back and forth, and I think he knows me well now and I know him well, and I love the way he plays. We kind of both know at this point that there’s gotta be a groove, but it’s also gotta be a little bit off-kilter; there’s gotta be one little catch that makes it not just ho-hum drum thing. Be it a little stutter in the bass drum in “Strange Mercy” or a sort of dirty-south-like filtered snare drum thing in “Chloe in the Afternoon”. We’ve always… we just know.

Are you thinking about that when you are writing the songs, or is that more when you actually sit down to do the production and the recording… when you start adding the eccentricities?

AC: That’s in the studio. You know, that’s the thing I kind of… I have ideas. With this record, I wanted to make sure… with the Actor record, I took warm, organic instruments, and I tried to make them cold and strange. And on this one, I tried to take synthesized instruments and make them warm, make them come alive, and make them have a really human feel. You always have to walk into the studio with a directive in mind, and that’s what I did with this one. With this record, I just wrote simple songs. That’s why I was in Seattle alone for month. I was just writing and…

Did you self-exile yourself?

AC: I did, yeah, I did. I hit this point in New York where it was too much all the time. So, I called up my friend Jason who had a studio out in Seattle. It just so happened that the studio was closing, so I got the last month of the place. And, yeah, I wanted to kind of break away from technology. I was realizing a lot how suddenly you’ve allowed your dopamine level to be at the mercy of a blinking light or a buzz from a text message or an email and living in this kind of state of false urgency. I just wanted to take a break from that and just wrote songs. I took those songs into the studio with John Congleton. He’s such a master we kind of put everything together. Like I said, walked in with this specific sonic directive but then just kind of explored. We were in the studio for six weeks, so we had time to work it out.

The collaboration with Bon Iver… was that intended for the soundtrack, or was that a song that you just wanted to work together and they put it on the Twilight soundtrack?

AC: Justin wrote the song, and then he sent it to me, and he said, “Do whatever you want on it.” I thought what would be fun because he’s got such a beautiful falsetto, why don’t I try to sing really low? Ghoulishly low. I think maybe he had written it for the Twilight thing, I’m not sure. But I got it and was like, “this is such a beautiful song,” and I love him, and I’d love to work with him so…

I’m a fan of Beck, and I’m a fan of Liars. I want to know what it was like that day.

AC: Ohhh, so fun. It was so fun. The cool thing about it is you’re all starting from the same vantage. We all just showed up that day and picked a record that day. We were throwing all sorts of ideas around. “What if we did Here Come the Warm Jets; what if we did the first Madonna record,” and then I think it was Angus who kind of pushed it over, because he’s Australian. He kind of pushed it over the top with “No, we gotta do INXS.”

I think once we started digging into it, because like I said, we were all at the same… probably all of us knew the record [INXS’ Kick] about the same. It was almost like a science experiment. Go in and jam on something until you kind of have a direction. Maybe somebody will suggest something right at the top and you go in with that in mind. It was really fun, and the thing that I was so blown away by was how many hits there are on that record. I thought, “Oh shoot, I only know a couple songs of this record.” I was nervous because I’m not necessarily a flashy studio pro… I mean that’s not the point of those things… but I was nervous. What if I can’t figure out the songs? What if I don’t know the songs? I don’t want to hold anybody up. But, we got in, and I knew every song. There’s so many hits.

Was there a call saying, “Annie, do you want to come do this covers project with us?”

AC: Yeah, I think I got a call or a text from my manager that said, “Can I give Beck your phone number?” He just called me. He’s such a nice guy and so easy. It was nice. It was really nice.

One last question. What are we in store for tonight?

AC: (asking TC) Do we have the lights and everything?

TC: Oh, yeah.

AC: Bring your epilepsy medicine.

On top of releasing nine studio albums, the duo have put out several mixtapes, produced countless up-and-coming artists, made a handful of films, and starred in their own reality TV series. Oh yeah, and they won an Oscar, too. Phoning from Los Angeles, DJ Paul convivially chatted with Consequence of Sound‘s Dan Caffrey and special guest interviewer Dan Pfleegor about horror films, Three 6 Mafia’s delayed 10th album, and his love for R. Lee Ermey.

Tell us about your mixtape that’s been out.

Yeah, the latest one is Pray for Forgiveness, and it’s me and Ya Boy. We did the mixtape together, and put it out as a little bonus. So, it’s on iTunes for $4.99. It’s me and a little hot producer out of Memphis named Lil Lody. We released a video off the album. Me and Young Buck and Charlie P.

What’s the concept behind the video?

Aw man, the video’s stupid. It’s one of my favorite videos out there. It’s like a robbery movie mixed with a horror movie. The shape is like a horror movie, but the premise is put down like a robbery movie, like a drama. We got these chicks, and we give them guns and a Cadillac truck, and we spin ‘em up in a corner store. So, they run up in the corner store, and they start robbing and find out that the corner store man got a dope boy operation going on in the back. So, they run back there in threes, and they get the boys up. And the lesson there is that it’s hard to be a dope boy today.

Who directed it?

My boy Charlie P. One of the rappers in the video.

Are there any specific homages in it to already existing horror movies?

Naw, it just gives you the feeling of one, but it doesn’t taking nothing from one. We did a scene where the glass breaks, like if your TV screen broke. It’s pretty cool.

You guys have always been pretty big horror fans, right?

Aw, hell yeah.

Do you have a favorite horror movie of all time?  

Yeah, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part one. The original.

How’d you like the remake?

I liked the remake. It was one of the best remakes in remake history. That one was good, especially on the part where they shot the dude or the chick or whatever in the head, and the camera pans through her head out the back window. Man, that shit was awesome.

Oh yeah, it goes through the hole in her head after she takes the gun out of her vagina.

Just that sheriff alone, that dude’s a hell of an actor, man. He was crazy as hell in that. I wanted to kick his ass.

Oh yeah, R. Lee Ermey. Did you ever see Full Metal Jacket? He always plays a drill sergeant.

Yeah, I saw all his movies. He does commercials where he plays drill sergeants. He did a Geico commercial.

He did?

Yeah, it’s funny as hell, too. He did a Geico commercial where a dude was, uh… he wasn’t actually a drill sergeant in it, but he was a psychiatrist who acted like a drill sergeant. So, he was all hard on his clients and shit like that. And at the end, the dude’s crying, and he threw him a box of napkins and was like, “Here you go… Sandy Hands” or something crazy like that. I think it was a Geico commercial, but it was funny as hell, though.

You guys have ventured into filmmaking yourselves with Choices and Choices 2. Have you ever thought about making a straight-up horror movie?

Yeah, we have done a lot of that thing, man. We want to eventually do that. But we’re so scared. We got like three scripts, and nobody’s really had a shot yet. But I’m just trying to figure out the right way to do it and make it make sense and make it make money. ‘Cause it’s so easy to steal movies these days, you know? We already losing on music, so I’m just trying to figure out a way to put out a movie and do it with a skeleton crew and small budget so we won’t completely lose. ‘Cause I mean, you know, I’m in the hood and I’m at my boy’s house, and they be like, “Hey, man, let’s pop in the Transformers DVD,” and I’m like, “Damn, Transformers ain’t even out yet!” [laughs]

Is that frustrating? Laws of Power has been pushed back a few times. Is it frustrating to see the songs leak while you’re still waiting for the album to come out?

Naw, the songs that leaked… we leaked those. My studio is in my house. It’s like one of the guest bedrooms. And my engineer’s been with me like eight years. So, that shit don’t go to anyone else but me. He don’t even have a copy of it. At the end of the night, I lock the room, he go home, and I go to bed. We’ll leak our songs ourselves, you know, just to test the waters on them and release singles, but I never had nothing that like leaked and I was like, “Oh shit, how the hell’d they get that?”

Do you guys have a definite release date yet for Laws of Power?

Naw. Naw, the album’s done, but we’re just sitting there waiting for the label to get their minds right with which one of these singles they wanna roll.

Would you mind describing the plot of one of your film scripts?

Well, we’ve got one that’s called The Streets of Memphis. We’ve got a hip-hop movie that’s untitled.  And we’ve got Choices 3.

There’s going to be a Choices 3?  

It’s the return of Big Pat. He wasn’t in Choices 2 ‘cause he was serving time in prison, in real life. So, we just played it off that in Part 2 he went to prison, which he did. Then, in Part 3, he get out, and he’s coming at anyone who crossed him out or left him hanging or did bad shit when he was locked down. It’s hard. It’s gangsta as hell. It’s Project Pat on steroids. He comes out, and he’s killing motherfuckers all over the place.

Project Pat is frightening in Choices and on the albums, but on the show Adventures in Hollyhood, he seemed like a big teddy bear. Is that just because he’s shy? Does he have a nice demeanor normally?

Well, naw, he ain’t shy. Pat’s just real laid-back, you know?  It’s when you piss him off that you see the crazy side. He’s the type of guy that if you walk up to him… if a couple dudes walk up to him and then try to rob him or try to talk shit to him, he’ll try to talk them down first. He’ll be like, “Young dudes, ya’ll need to think about what you’re doing, this and that.” He’ll try to talk to them like, “This ain’t the way; you need to get your mind right, this and that. But if you wanna do this, there’s gonna be some repercussions.” [laughs] He has been in prison on and off a lot, but he can’t be wild in the streets. He only gets wild when it’s time to get wild.

Are there any plans for a Season Two of Adventures in Hollyhood?

Naw, that’s over with.

Was reality TV something you enjoyed doing, or did it get on your nerves after a while?

I like reality TV. It’s cool. But of course it gets on your nerves. A woman gets on your nerves, even the hottest one in the world.

Your early music contained a lot more references to occult imagery. Was that something you guys consciously moved away from, or did it just kind of happen?

Man, you know it just kind of happened. You gotta go with the times and the sort of people that’s listening to music in the club these days. Don’t wanna hear nobody talking about chopping somebody’s head off and eating it. You know what I’m saying? That’s a small crowd. There’s still an audience out there for that, and I wish I could one day sit back and throw a CD their way of that. But as of now, it’s too hard to sell records, so you’ve gotta try to come out with the hardest shit that you think that the whole world is gonna wanna buy, and not just some small little colored kids somewhere down in some small town gathered ’round a fire and thinking about shooting up the high school tomorrow.

How autobiographical would you consider your music to be? Is the stuff you do nowadays more autobiographical than your earlier albums?

Well, the stuff these days is really a lot of shit that we do, because the stuff we do is more about partying, drugs, women, alcohol. [laughs] It’s always been there on Three 6 Mafia albums. But you know, the ones in the day had more killing and robbing and this and that. All of them pretty much had the shit we done did. I mean I ain’t gonna sit up here and say I killed somebody or something like that, but as far as the robbery shit, the drug dealing, this and that… we grew up in some rough times, man. We grew up in some rough neighborhoods. So, there’s a lot of shit we did in the past that, you know, is crazy. You know, we talked about it once, and we really don’t talk about that no more. We’re just on to the more happier days. Those bad days roaming the streets are gone. We’re just talking about life as life goes, the present moment in life. And right now our life is riding in big cars and messing with hot chicks.

Do you think you’ve become happier as your career’s gone on?

Of course. Who wouldn’t?

DJ Paul’s mixtape, Pray for Forgiveness, is currently available on iTunes, with Laws Of Power, Three 6 Mafia’s 10th studio album, hopefully hitting stores sometime next year.

HARD has been home to the best and the brightest of both established musicians and up-and-comers. From Flying Lotus to Fatboy Slim and virtually everyone in between, every HARD event promises to be a who’s who of electronic music. Recently, Consequence of Sound was lucky enough to sit down with the brain behind the entire organization, Gary Richards (who also DJs under the moniker DESTRUCTO), for a few words just weeks before the 2011 installment of the annual HARD Haunted Mansion in L.A on October 28th.

It’s always riveting to hear anyone in the dance music industry’s take on the current state of the scene, but Richards gave us some particularly engaging insights regarding the future of not just HARD, but electronic/dance music as a whole.

For those of our readers less in tune with the electronic music world, can you describe HARD in your own words?

Uh, I would say it’s an amazing collection of international DJs where music comes first. Uh… [laughs] I don’t fuckin’ know. That’s a tough question. Can we come back to that one?

Absolutely. You’ve been pretty consistent in days past about making mostly electronic, primarily dance, music with a few live bands and a few rappers every now and again. Is this the aesthetic you plan to hold to for coming years?

Yeah, I mean, the backbone of HARD is always electronic, but we’ll pepper in whatever music is cool, whatever fits. I like all kinds of music. Like, I’m listening to some Mastodon right now. Whatever’s cool, we’ll chuck it in there, but just a little bit. Just a sprinkle, or, a like, squirt of lime in there.

You’ve certainly got L.A. on lock, and you’re reaching out to other cities all the time. Do you plan on being a huge presence like you are in L.A. in other cities?

That’s definitely the plan, and we’ve done two tours, so we’ve hit a lot of cities. We hit Austin, Toronto, Philly, D.C… So, yeah, the plan is definitely to grow into some of the bigger events in those markets. Just trying to do it in a nice, organic way, instead of trying to, like, force it in there, you know?

Photo by Jesse Bloch

Any international plans?

International [is] definitely on the plan. It’s just a little bit more difficult. We’ve been in talks with a lot of people from Europe to get over there, and our [Holy Ship!] boat goes in international waters, and we’re doing a private island in the Caribbean, so we’re kinda getting there. But, I feel like HARD is a little bit of a different brand or style, and I think there’s definitely a place for it all over.

There’s always a lot of overlap in the rosters. For instance, Fatboy Slim, Skrillex, Rusko, and a few others are all playing Haunted Mansion as well as Holy Ship! in January. A lot of festivals shy away from repeat performers. Why doesn’t this mindset affect your events so much?

I just think that a lot of our events are a little more intimate, like, not as big as some of the mega festivals. We’ll use Fatboy [Slim] as an example. He’s playing The Haunted Mansion and then the boat, which is, you know, on the other side of the country. So, we try and space it out a little bit, but I feel like some of the guys are just staples. Like Soulwax and 2manydjs? I’d have those guys play every fuckin’ day if I could. I feel like there’s a pool of super, super, super talented guys at the very, very top, and any chance I have to bring ‘em, I will. Obviously, after a while, we try to give it a rest. I come from the record business, so I like not burning them out, but I think some of them definitely warrant multiple plays. So, you know, I don’t want to just not bring them because I’ve had ‘em before. A lot of these guys, I could listen to ‘em forever. That’s the feeling behind it, and I don’t think anyone’s complaining.

Since the events carry an air of similarity conceptually as well as in lineup, how do you make sure each event is unique?

Well, we try to change up the stages all the time, the way that the stages look in their design, and we do a lot of different venues. Most of these events take place at different venues, different stages, different setups, but, mostly, it’s the people. I mean, we’ve got different people that come all the time to all of the different events, so I don’t think that we’re gonna have the same people at Haunted Mansion that are gonna be on the boat. There will be a few, but for the most part, it’s gonna be a new experience. Plus, I mean, on the boat, you’re gonna see Fatboy Slim on the sand on a private island, and at Haunted Mansion you’re gonna see him in the night in front of 10,000 people. So, yeah, it varies from event to event.

Specifically, since we’ll be covering the event this month, how will HARD Haunted Mansion 2011 be different from its predecessors?

With the Haunted Mansion, we don’t have to change it from year to year. I mean, the lineup’s completely different, but I think that for us, with that event, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The Haunted Mansion event’s been our best event to date, and I think we have a formula that works. Definitely the stages will be different, like the configuration of what you’ll see on the stage itself, but the layout is 95 percent the same. It’s taken years to get to that place to figure out that this is what works best there. It’s safe, the city likes it, the fans like it, so I’m not changing it, you know? What changes is the acts. The acts are completely different from last year.

HARD is an impressive institution, when you look at the whole scope of everything. It’s sort of all over the place. From a summer tour to a half-dozen festivals to HARD Presents, it’s a year-round gig. How do you stay on top of it all?

It’s tough, dude. I have a good team that I work with that helps me keep it all together. And I DJ, so it helps me keep my ears open to always listening to what’s new. I think that’s the secret formula to what we do. I mean, it’s pretty obvious. You could go book Skrillex, or you could book Rusko and sell tickets, but we’re booking Kingdom, Jackmaster, The Magician, some of the smaller guys, L-Vis 1990 and SBTRKT. [We're] trying to get the guys on the way up, keeping it fresh. But I think being a DJ helps me a lot, because I don’t sit here and go, “Hey, who should I book?”, or call people up and be like, “Hey what’s hot?” I make my own sets and whatever’s in there, play. I play, and I book, you know?

I hear that you’re also the father of two. Is that correct?

Yep.

So, what’s that like balancing home life vs. performing as DESTRUCTO vs. being in charge of HARD?

It’s brutal. [laughs] Put it like this: I’ll sleep in another lifetime. No, it’s tough, but every morning no matter what, when I wake up, I’m pumped. Get up at like seven in the morning and hang with the kids for a bit, and then to the computer, and when I look at my computer to see what’s going on, like everything that comes in is always exciting. I was thinking this the other day: I don’t consider it work, really. I’m like the luckiest guy on earth. This is the dream job to have.

Anything else you’d like to add?

[laughs] What was the first question again?

Oh, of course. What would you say HARD is, in your own words?

We’re trying to be the electronic music festival that focuses on the music. I think it’s really important. I’ve been involved with the music for almost 20 years. I’m trying to be the guy that when you think of electronic music, the first thing you think of is good music instead of drugs. I think so many times over the years the electronic music scene has been ruined or dragged through the mud because of drugs. And you know kids come there, and they think it’s a place to come to party and do ecstasy or whatever, and my job as a responsible promoter is to make it a place where you can come and listen to great music, and if you’re going to try and be stupid and sell drugs, or, you know, pop all these pills or whatever… That’s not what our festival’s about, and that’s not what we’re producing.

You know, we’re producing a festival working with everybody to make sure it’s safe and that it can continue. I wanna be known as the guy that, like, gave electronic music credibility. Because it’s always been that dance music has always had this cheesy kind of element to it, and I’ve always tried to get people to focus that, hey, there are some really, really talented musicians and some great music that comes out of this world, but it gets overshadowed by all the other bullshit. And I think that’s what HARD set out to do, and I think we’re doing it. I think in the beginning we just got lumped in as just another rave like everyone else, but now people are seeing like in the cities and with the local authorities, we walk the walk. Like, you know, we’re not just saying “Oh, yeah we’re not a rave,” and then we have 15-year-olds passed out on the floor. Most of our events are 18+, or sometimes 21+, and if someone shows up and they’re too shady, we don’t let ‘em in. We search ‘em, and we really go the extra step to make it safe and make it so that we’re able to continue doing this for the next 10 years.

This week, Anthony Gonzalez releases his sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, a 22-track effort that CoS President/Editor-in-Chief Michael Roffman calls “incredibly ambitious” and one that “shines, sparkles, and thrills.” Packed with a dazzling array of synth pop, the new LP elevates the French multi-instrumentalist to new heights, championing a sound he’s pioneered for the last decade. In just two weeks, he’ll take that sound on the east and west coasts of America, covering cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and beyond. He’ll also be performing at festivals like Asheville’s Halloween-extravaganza that is Moogfest and Austin’s late-year BBQ, Fun Fun Fun Fest.

Recently, Gonzalez had a chance to sit down with Cluster 1 correspondent Sami Jarroush in New York City, where the two discussed the idea of crafting a double album, working with Zola Jesus, the accessibility of orchestrating electronic music, and scoring films. At the end, you’ll also find the corresponding video interview.

Bonjour, je m’appelle Sami Jarroush, and…

Je m’appelle Anthony Gonzalez.

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming: Why a double album?

Well, I took some time to do it. I took three years to make this album, so, it’s a different process I would say. It’s not very different from making just an “album”, it’s just a different concept. And, of course, you take more time…I took my time because I wanted to do it well. And yeah, it’s a long process.

I always wanted to do a double album, I don’t know why, probably because when I was a kid I was in love with big albums, you know, very epic. That’s probably some of the reason why, and I felt like it was the right time to do that.

And how did Zola Jesus come into play?

I really wanted to work with Zola Jesus and she actually wanted to work with me, so it was really easy to get in touch with her. And she’s a really nice person, very talented, and she’s living in L.A. so it was really easy to work with her.

Is it one of those situations where you’re at a point in your career where you can just sit down and be like, “Okay, I want to work with this person”? And just give them a call?

Yeah, that’s the way you do it.

[laughs] Really? So there’s no going through management?

I just wrote her a check for $1,000, for $1 million…she wanted $1 million but I couldn’t afford that. I love her music, I love her singing, I love her voice, and she’s such a nice girl and very smart, very intelligent, and it went very well. It was very easy.

Is this definitely more of a “headphones” album?

This is one of them. The way we did this album is, and how the people evolved in the process, we really did it like we would do an album in the 1980′s. There was going to the studio, we put in the drums, the bass…I couldn’t picture myself making an album just on a computer. It’s not my style of making an album.

I want to do it right, I want to work with producers, and sound engineers, and I feel like my music needs that.

You have such an affinity for the synth, and just in that “Echoes” video alone there 20 synthesizers all over the place. And you’re playing Love Fest? Was that just a natural idea to play that festival?

Not necessarily…it’s just another festival. I’m in love with the max synths, and it was great to be part of this festival, but I didn’t really ask my management, and say “I want to do this”. So no, it’s just a festival. I don’t use max synths that often, they’re too expensive…[laughs]

So what type of instruments do you find yourself latching onto more than most?

Max synths, definitely. I used to, back in the beginning of my career, play a lot of my music on guitar, piano, but now I’m using many more synths in my music. It feels natural to me, to start writing with my synths, and I have a couple of sounds I am using all the time. Yeah, this is my signature sound, I’m using always the same two, three sounds.

Electronic music continues to blow up. Everywhere you look now there’s some type of artist from pop, or even rock, trying to sink their teeth into some type of electronic sound. David Guetta, Skrillex, Deadmau5, Afrojack, Swedish House Mafia, to name a few. How important is the electronic movement to music, and why do you think so many artists want to latch onto that type of sound and just try to get that type of beat?

Electronic music is very accessible. It’s easy to create a beat, a bassline on the computer. It’s less easy to play guitar, for instance. I feel like it’s easy to create music on the computer, like a drum, a drum kick, so I think that’s the reason why people are using a lot of electric music now.

In a sense, is electronic music now just becoming like a fallback for other artists, just so that they can think, “If I use this particular type of sound, I’m automatically going to get a hit…”

I don’t think that’s really the case, I feel like electronic music is there for so long, since the ’70s and ’80s. Bands were creating alot of synths. I think its just part of the music business nowadays. You have the tools nowadays to create something easy, not too long, not too much time. It’s not that hard.

In 2010, you scored Black Heaven. Have any other directors reached out to you?

No, but I’d love to work with tons of different directors, there are so many artists and directors, and the reason I am in L.A. is because I want to start working on soundtracks. I feel like my music fits well with pictures.

It’s just a very hard business, and it’s hard to get in, but I want to try and start a career.

Any particular names?

I’ve been trying to work with Gregg Araki.

Earlier this year, Trent Reznor [and Atticus Ross] won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network. Does that give you hope?

I feel like nowadays in the movie business, it’s about taking risks, and working with a lot of artists from pop and rock and roll. It seems more interesting, but it’s not like a classic soundtrack, it’s getting more experimental, and I like that about it.

What did you think about Daft Punk’s take, in the Tron: Legacy movie?

I think they did very well, I love the soundtrack.

Because I think a lot of people had misconceptions in the beginning…

Well, the thing with Daft Punk is, they were working on this huge movie and I feel like it was hard for them to deal with such a big movie, so they tried to do a mix between their music and something more commercial, because that’s probably what the producer wanted. But I think they did really great on this.

And being as involved with movies as you are, have you ever had the idea, or notion, of “Maybe, I’ll direct a short film, and then put my music behind it as well”.

My brother is a filmmaker, he directed a lot of short films and I’ve done the music for them.

Are there any artists these days that are getting you excited?

I feel like nowadays it’s a perfect time for music. There’s a lot of great bands coming out, and I was excited for a lot of albums recently. Living in L.A. as well, I go see shows a lot, and it’s a source of inspiration. And you’re right, you see a band you like play, and you’re like, “I have to get better and try to achieve the same thing”. There’s tons of artists I really like, and in today’s music there’s so much good stuff. I’m getting lost, it’s a jumble, it’s hard.

And being in L.A., I’m sure you’ve been to plenty of shows. Do you have a tendency to go towards more shows featuring artists that fall into the genre of your specific type of music, or are do you try and catch everything?

I’m playing the kind of music I’m playing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m listening to the same kind of music. I like a lot of styles of music. Two months ago I went to see The Melvins play in L.A., and it’s very different from my style of music, but it’s still great music.

When you see someone that is at the complete opposite spectrum of where you are musically, can you still look at them as a band, or listen to their sound, and still manage to draw a small molecule of inspiration.

Especially with this album, I really tried to play different kinds of instruments, instruments I’ve never used before, like the guitar, saxophone, flute. This is the first album where the spectrum of the music is larger and wider. So yeah.

Check out the complete interview below: