The Awkward Off Vs. Magnolia Electric Co.

While touring for their latest album Josephine, MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. stopped by the 40 WATT in ATHENS, GA for a show. I was lucky enough to talk to frontman Jason Molina a bit before the show.

Beyond nervous, I got meet one of my musical heroes, Jason Molina. We talked about how vinyl media has influenced his album crafting, and he explained how their no-nonsense production emerged. When faced with the decision between studio and stage, Molina would choose the kitchen table. He’s not surprised to his lost things in weird places, so he’s taken to shredding his song notebooks and burning his unfinished song tapes. th

Full Transcript (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: I’m Nichole and I’m at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA. I am lucky enough to be with the one and only Jason Molina.

JM: How do you do?

NB: …who is rumored to be one of the hardest-working people in the showbiz.

JM: No. Well, I do write a lot. I do put a lot of sweat into it. I work a lot harder putting together songs, groups of songs and song cycles and the bigger picture of songs, than the entertainment side of it.

NB: So if you had to tell the story of Magnolia Electric Co. going back to Songs: Ohia and back to some of your solo stuff, would it be a pop-up book or a graphic novel?

JM: Definitely a graphic novel with no words.

NB: A silent graphic novel. I think I’d like to read that. Well I guess you wouldn’t read it.

JM: Yeah me too.

NB: Speaking of how hard you work, is anywhere home for you? I know you live in London now, away from your band.

JM: Correct, the band is still in southern Indiana. I still have a house in Indianapolis and hope to one day get back to Chicago. For the time being I’m trying to make London work. Just circumstance led to me living there, and it’s a difficult place to find musicians. Well, it’s difficult to find people without a preconceived notion of what I want out of playing music. Just getting four musicians together to play and see what happens has been really difficult. It’s been a really rocky road. It’s been two years. I’ve ended up flying people from the U.S. over and people from other places in Europe to come and play. Since Josephine was finished, I’ve finished about six projects. I’m working. I write a lot of songs. It just hasn’t been as easy. I know most places in the U.S. if you just throw a rock, you’re going to hit a good musician.

NB: So your latest record is Josephine. The other week, I was playing it for someone and then playing some of your older stuff for them so they could get an idea of some of the changes in a backwards anthology. And I’ve been searching for the word to describe the difference with the new album. It’s not necessarily more minimalistic. It’s almost less bombastic. Is that something that was intentional or something that just arose organically?

JM: While I was writing these songs that became the Josephine LP, I was thinking about things to leave out. I would come up with a lot of ideas, and before committing them to a tape or an arrangement with all of these ideas, I would see if there was any reason to have these other things. Usually there wasn’t a reason because it was kind of forced. I would extract parts. In Josephine there are a lot of references musically to a lot of records I’ve done in the past. So no only lyrically is it a cyclical…cycle. Hah, a cyclical cycle. There’s a lot of lyrical references to older records. There are musical passages that are in there bookending some brand new songs. So I really put everything in there.

NB: Coming from a consumer point of view, I only see the finished product. I know you had to cut some songs out. But to me it’s a very complete, almost vinyl, package with a side A and a side B.

JM: Exactly.

NB: Is that something that you had intended?

JM: Always. For every record I’ve done it like that. For most of the time I’ve been making records, I’ve had the CD as an option. I grew up listening to records. When I write songs, and I start to see a record coming together I don’t see this 78 minute long piece of work. I love doing a side A and a side B. It’s almost like every song is a chapter and then there’s a break in the book and you get the rest of the chapters. Hopefully, when you get to that last song you get a fully-realized story.

NB: You were saying that this one borrows lyrically and somewhat musically from some of your earlier work, and you do have some pretty pervasive themes and metaphors throughout your work. It’s almost not so much about events and stories as it is about feelings. I guess you could take it from there.

JM: Yeah, the listener has to come up with their own story. If tied to the actual sonic imprint of the record, like the recording style and the musical arrangement and the lyrics. If those things all come together then I don’t feel like something was added at the end to add atmosphere. For instance, if you have a finished song. It’s in its best state for you as an artist, and then you decide “let’s add some freaky reverb or delay” to this part. If the piece doesn’t call out for that, then I would feel like I was committing a sin against the song. The song didn’t ask for it.  A lot of the mood to the records comes through just the way of recording. Some of the most renegade records that we did were on a four-track or in someone’s basement with a couple of rickety mics and some duct tape and, you know, a wing and a prayer. These are albums that are still in print and people are still seeking out, and I think that’s grade. If the skeleton, the bones of the thing, are good—the lyrics and the attitude going in to the project—if that’s solid, then the other things that people latch onto like if this is a higher production value record or if this sounds home recorded. That stuff is incidental to me if the song is good. Some of my favorite music was recorded in the 20s and 30s in a hotel room with a microphone and a guy on a guitar just banging his heart out.

NB: And with recent music, so many people are going back in and tweeking their music. There are so many layers now, and it’s almost brave to have things be so bare.

JM: There can be no end to adjusting songs. Even when you’re recording in an analog world, you could spend weeks or months on a song and still do a hell of a lot to it. I want our songs to be a document of what we have with as many arms and voices and shit to pound on that we can do live. Then, if we wanted to go back and add something that we couldn’t do live, if the song required a little bit more, then that’s fine. The song will call out for that.

NB: So that being said, do you prefer studio or stage? I guess that would make them very similar.

JM: A kitchen table. Studio, for sure. I could live in a studio, and in a lot of ways I really wish I did. I’m not really interested in all of the technical elements of recording because I’ve put all of my energy and self-learning into writing songs. I know the value of having a good technician there to document this is just amazing because I don’t have to worry about that. Some people love it, and it actually spark a hell of a lot of creativity. While I’m trying to put together a basic chord progression and make sure that the lyrics have a solid landing ground, I know there a lot of musicians who are thinking of exactly what to do to get this one sound while they are still in the process of writing. It’s just a different way of working, but I would prefer the studio. I really enjoy the studio.

NB: You have some hobbies other than music, don’t you? You do a bit of art.

JM: I do. I do a lot of painting and drawing. On the road I don’t get much done. It’s hard to do in the van, but I work small now and not have paint out because paint in a van rolling down the highway gets hard. It’s hard to write lyrics in the van too. You might have 9 hours in the van, but it’s just awkward to write. I do everything in longhand, and it’s just crazy. It’s mayhem, but I do find myself getting a notebook full of ideas and sometimes a full song. If that doesn’t work out, I just get the pencils out and start drawing.

NB: What type of painting do you like to do?

JM: It’s lots of scribbles and just a little bit of color. It’s all really abstract stuff. I mean I do stupid drawings all the time just for fun, like cartoonish things. I do a little bit of figural stuff. The stuff that was inside the Sojourner box set were mine, but that was just a one off project that I was doing.

NB: Speaking of writing lyrics, is songwriting something that happens in which every song kind of comes similarly or are you just walking around and something comes to you? To me, songwriting is this magical thing.

JM: It’s rare that I’m hit with a lightening bolt of lyrical inspiration, but I may have an idea for a song. I’ll keep that with me. It may just go into my notebook. I may just keep it with me all day and keep revisiting it. I’m not the guy that sits down and has a song title in mind. I like the blank page and the challenge. The pencil and the page: I look at it, and I know I’m going to be sweating over it for a long time. There’s a lot that goes into the paper shredder. I’ll tell you. I actually started shredding lyrics recently because in London people go through everyone’s trash. It’s not that I’m worried about somebody finding my stuff, but there’s times I’ll be walking like a quarter of a mile from my house, and I’ll find part of a notebook of mine just laying in the park. Someone has found that in the trash and dug it out. I mean, it’s still trash, but that is really disturbing to see. You aren’t anywhere near your house and you’re walking. I’m like “That looks like my handwriting. What the fuck!” That’s just really weird.

NB: Wow!

JM: I’ll never forget one time I moved out of a place, and I left two days worth of clothes in my room. I was totally out of my room, and this was already worked out with the landlord that they weren’t going to have anybody in there. I wasn’t sure when I was going to be getting into the new place so I just left some basic things: a change of clothes and some shoes in a little pile. I go back, and my stuff’s all gone. I’m like “Shit! What happened to this stuff?” A year goes by…a couple of tours and stuff, and I’m in a thrift store in the same town that I used to live in and there’s my fucking stuff!

NB: Whoa!

JM: I bought my shoes back and the two rock t-shirts that I had were on the rack. I don’t know if they had been sitting there all that time or if they had finally made it to there. It was disturbing to buy that stuff back. I moved from Chicago and gave everything that I didn’t need to the Salvation Army. Three years when we move back, lo and behold, I’m like “There’s that fucking casserole dish of ours. It’s 25 cents, but I know its ours.” My whole life is kind of like that. It was most disturbing, though, to find my lyrics laying in the street.

NB: I can see why you’ve taken to shredding, but there’s something to permanence. Do you ever want any of them back out of the shredder?

JM: No. At new years I always ditch all of the songs that are totally unfinished. I burn them.

NB: Very interesting.

JM: I’ve been doing it for years and years, and it’s very liberating. It’s probably not the best thing in the world as far as pollution goes to burn a bunch of tapes. I’m not burning studio tapes here. I’m talking about cassette recordings. Four-track recordings and all of these half-filled notebooks of songs that just didn’t get finished. If I let that stuff accumulate, I’ll have a heart attack because I’ll look at that and think that it’s three years of work in order to get one finished product out of that.

NB: Do you ever read press about yourself?

JM: The label sends me a packet. After a record has been out for a year or something they’ll send me a paper copy of just a spectrum: some of the good stuff, some of the bad stuff, all of the really terrible stuff, and a little of the foreign stuff—just to get a handle on it. They know that I don’t read it all, so they don’t send me everything. I’m intrigued by it. I like to glance at it. A shitty review of a record doesn’t really hurt my feelings except when they’ve gotten it completely wrong on the factual side. This isn’t so much the case now, but in the cycle of Josephine, I’m getting the question all the time and the criticism that it’s been three years since Jason put out a record. What’s he been doing? And I’m like “Fuck you! Why don’t you fucking call me!” Because I did three records that just aren’t out yet and six more since November. So when they take the record at hand to task by saying “Well I guess he just hasn’t had any ideas, or he’s being lazy.” I’m like “Well, no. You’re wrong.” But that passes, in two seconds I couldn’t care less. The reason this is coming up is because no one asked me what I was doing. I would have said. I mean, it’s not a secret. I’m workin’.

NB: If you could be any animal what would you be?

JM: I’m like ten.

NB: That’s fine. You can say all ten.

JM: A wolf. A bat. A ram. Black spider. Snake. Sea serpent. An owl. That’s my starting.

NB: Thank you very much.

JM: That’s a ninja question!

The Awkward Off Vs. Chairlift

At the 40 WATT CLUB in ATHENS, GA members of CHAIRLIFT jabbered with me behind stage.

Any interview that starts with a quote from Dr. Dre is destined for greatness. Although it’s hard for them to escape their iPod commercial fame, Chairlift is proving they have more to offer than the poppy sweetness of Bruises. Patrick, the rhythm behind the band, started the interview and soon we were joined by Caroline. Our talk took us from a desert island with a stereo to dinosaur debates, and although my questions were “too easy” for Patrick, both he and Caroline were great fun.

Anytime you guys are in Austin, I’ll scrounge up some harder questions for you.

Full Transcript: (Audio)
Patrick Wimberly: Before we start this, can I just read a quote from Dr. Dre?
Ethan Silverman (Tour Manager): She already started it.
PW: Can I use a quote from Dr. Dre?
Nichole Bennett: Let’s do it.
PW: In 1993, Dr. Dre said “Everybody has something they can do in the studio. I can take a fuckin’ three year old and make a hit record on him. God has blessed me with this gift.”
NB: So, I’m Nichole, and I’m here in Athens, Georgia at the 40 Watt Club with Patrick of Chairlift.
PW: Hi.
NB: We were just starting off with a Dr. Dre quote that we are all still recovering from. I guess to start us off, if you could kind of describe the story of Chairlift would it be a pop-up book or would it be a graphic novel?
PW: Oh definitely a pop-up book. That’s an easy question.
NB: Would it have pull tabs? Like interactive pop-up books?
PW: Yeah. There would be pictures of us dancing. There would be pictures of us meeting each other, with big smiles on our faces.
ES: I picture a pop-up mountain with a chairlift with the two of you sitting on it.
NB: With a little wheel to make it go around?
PW: This is Ethan, he takes care of us on the road.
NB: You guys have a pretty varied sound. For most people who have just heard the iPod commercial, they get this “Bruises” poppy sound. But you’ve really got more of a darker sound as well. How would you say it all ties together? Or how would you describe your sound to a five year old? Or maybe that three year old that Dr. Dre was hanging out with?
ES: Patrick is really good at talking to three year olds.
PW: First off, I’d like to say that I really like three year olds. “We’re in a band called Chairlift, and we play songs for dancing and for having fun. And for exploring your own mind.” We did play a show recently for a bunch of three year olds, and they got up on stage and danced. It was really cute.
NB: So, if you could take five albums on a desert island…
ES: On a deserted island?
NB: A desert…well, you can have your friends.
PW: Do I have a stereo there?
NB: Yeah, you’ve got a stereo.
PW: I would take Sexuality by Sebastian Tellier because I can’t stop listening to it. What else would I take?
ES: You would take a Rolling Stones record, but I don’t know which one.
PW: I would take a Led Zeppelin record. I would take III.
NB: Three of them?
PW: No, I would take the third one. That’s only two. I would take Abby Road. That’s kind of like a standard. I would take the new YACHT record. I don’t have it yet, and it comes out July.
NB: Hopefully you’re not deserted by then.
PW: Yeah, hopefully I’m not getting deserted on this island until after July, and the YACHT record comes out. And one more: I would make a new one and take it with me.
NB: Just take a blank disk with you.
PW: Yeah, I would record it on the island.
ES: Just bring a four-track.
PW: And I would call it All Alone.
NB: What is your favorite dinosaur?
PW: This is another easy question because I would take the…wait. If I could take any dinosaur to a desert island, it would be a brontosaurus.
ES: I would take the new YACHT record.
NB: My favorite dinosaur is the new YACHT record!
PW: Next question.
NB: So you guys are touring. What is the most annoying thing about touring? You guys just came from Austin, and you are zooming around.
PW: The most annoying thing about touring is…
ES: All these free drinks we get.
NB: Oh, how terrible!
PW: No, that’s not that annoying.
ES: It’s being in cool places but not spending much time in them.
PW: Yeah, that’s it. It’s not having enough time in areas that you want to spend time in.
NB: Do you ever read press or reviews about yourself?
PW: Never. Some other members of our band do, but I never do.
NB: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would you replace them with?
PW: Other arms.
NB: Other arms?
PW: Because I need my arms. They’re important to me because I’m a drummer. I would replace them with Al Green’s. He’s got nice arms.
ES: You should replace them with another drummer’s arms.
PW: Well, maybe if I had his arms, I could sing that well.
NB: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
PW: Crunchy because it has peanuts in it.
NB: What is one question you wish interviewers would ask?
PW: I wish they would ask…Are you going to ask this one in your next interview?
NB: Yeah, maybe. And you can answer it if you like. If it’s good, I’ll steal it.
PW: Probably not. I’m not that good of an interviewer. I would ask me on this desert island…
NB: With a brontosaurus running around.
PW: …I would ask “What would you name a brontosaurus if you had a brontosaurus on a desert island?”
NB: That’s a good one.
Caroline Polacheck: I’m just going to hump into this interview
NB: Sure.
PW: Caroline is here.
NB: Caroline just arrived.
CP: Is this for radio?
NB: This is for college radio.
CP: I should not have said hump. Hi guys, I’m Caroline. I’m in a band called Chairlift.
NB: Thank you for joining us. Well, we should probably catch her up on the important questions. Mainly, what is your favorite dinosaur?
CP: Definitely a pterodactyl.
NB: That’s a good one. Let’s see, I guess the only other good one is: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?
PW: I take that back. It would be Stevie Wonder’s arms because he can do everything with his arms.
NB: This is true.
CP: So it can be other people’s arms?
PW: Anything counts. I would put one hairdryer on one of your arms.
CP: I would probably have a giant snake coming out of one arm…
PW: And a hairdryer.
CP: No. Wait, yeah how will I dry my hair? Well, the snake can be trained to hold a hairdryer. In its mouth. It would be really long. It would be way longer than an arm size. It would go from here to there. But it would learn to coil for transportation purposes. And then the other arm would be some kind of moving light show with speakers in it.
NB: I’d want to hang out with you. Party time, Caroline’s here. If Chairlift had a catch phrase, what would it be?
CP: We have so many. “My dude.” “It’s on.”
NB: What is the most embarrassing CD in your collection? Or are you not embarrassed by anything?
PW: I’m not embarrassed by anything. I have music that people say I should be embarrassed to have, but it’s not embarrassing.
CP: I have some CDs at my mom’s house that are pretty embarrassing.
NB: Do you guys prefer performing in bigger venues or smaller ones?
CP: I like playing in place with good sound and good lights because that affects the show more than size. Playing in an intimate place and the lighting is really moody and the sound is really spectacular and submersive. That makes for a good show.
NB: I asked him earlier: Do you read reviews about yourself?
CP: Yeah, probably more than I should. Less and less. I think it’s interesting. I don’t take it all to heart. It’s like throwing a ball back and forth. It’s interesting watching your reviews consistently change. Like if all of them are saying the same thing at one point in time and all of them are saying another thing at another point in time, then it’s like “Okay, that’s a legit point you made.”
NB: I was talking to Matt of Matt and Kim last night and he said “I want more haters.” The more haters you have, the more people are paying attention. It changes the way I thought about criticism.
CP: To me the most brutal thing isn’t press because you can take that with a grain of salt, but for me it’s live videos. It freaks me out to see myself play live.
NB: What can we expect to see from Chairlift in the future?
CP: Probably Aaron, Caroline, and Patrick. A lot of those people.
NB: Those three.
CP: Yeah sometimes instruments….sometimes clothes.
NB: I will let you guys go grab dinner, but I have one more question: If you were any animal, what would it be?
PW: A monkey. Easy question.
NB: He was ready. He needs harder questions next time.
PW: Next time you come back why don’t you challenge me a little bit, okay?
CP: I think I would be a killer whale. It seems like it would be fun to be a whale.
NB: That would be really fun.

The Awkward Off Vs. Blitzen Trapper

The fellows of BLITZEN TRAPPER met me before their show at the 40 WATT CLUB in ATHENS, GA.

What was an interview soon dissolved into random chatter about the cosmos, the internet, and what to put on French Fries. We became pretty ambitious and decided to start writing criticism of music criticism, and Eric Earley taught us how to escape from carnies. Be sure to catch the audio version for Brian’s half-and-half creamer freakout as well as Monty Python fun facts.

We eventually gave up pretending like this was an interview and decided we would just settle things with a fierce pinball tournament.

Here is a transcript of interview portions of the conversation. You can listen to the audio for the full craziness without our tangents edited out.

Transcript: (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: You’ll get the interview, and it’ll just be “tweet, tweet.” I promise I’m interviewing Blitzen Trapper.

Marty Marquis and Brian Koch: Let’s walk away from the waterfall.

NB: So nice of you guys to show me this park.

MM: Yeah, this is our private Blitzen Trapper park.

NB: Oh man, that white tiger was pretty cool.

MM: So what’s up Nichole?

NB: Not too much. Do you guys want to go around and introduce yourselves to the mp3 recorder?

Eric Earley: I’m Eric.

MM: So, was that everybody? I’m Marty over here, and I’ve got a cable knit sweater on.

BK: I’m Pussywizzle the tiger!

MM: You are going to be able to air like two seconds of this. Can you say pussywizzle on the radio?

NB: You can say…no. My first question is a friend of mine wanted me to ask where the name came from. I heard it was a Winnebago brand. Or that’s the rumor.

EE: That is one of many stories.

NB: It sounds so made up.

EE: The one I’ve been using lately is that it is a children’s cartoon from the early 70’s in Scandanavia.

MM: Yeah, it means “lightening ladder.”

NB: …in German. What are some other stories for it? I read the Winnebago one, and I was like, really?

EE: Yeah, with Winnebagos you have different types. You have the Blitzen Trapper model.

MM: Ticonderoga.

EE: Sunset Chasers.

MM: Yeah those are cool. We almost named the band Sunset Chaser.

EE: But we opted for Blitzen Trapper. You seem suspicious.

NB: No, never. So I guess other than the white tiger, what would be your band’s mascot? Or it can be the white tiger.

EE: Apparently, he’s the mascot. [Pointing at Brian]

MM: Pretty much, look at that beard.

BK: [continues roaring…as he has been since the beginning of the interview]

MM: Every album has a totem creature. Where we come from mascots are called totems. The current totem is the bear.

EE: The bear on the back.

MM: Before that it was the raptor. Before that was the giant cat.

BK: The beaver.

MM: The leopard. And before that was a zebra.

BK: My vote for next year is the humpty-back camel.

MM: I prefer the long windy man myself.

NB: Is this the deciding process for the totem creature?

EE: Yeah.

MM: It arises out of our collective. I think I know what the next creatures gonna be.

EE: You do?

MM: I think so.

EE: Do tell.

MM: I don’t want to reveal at this point. I usually just keep my counsels to myself, and when Eric comes up with what it’s actually going to be, I say “I knew it all along!”

EE: You might already know it.

MM: I had your iPod, so I think I know.

EE: Oh shit. That’s not it.

BK: A faint within a faint.

NB: So how is this tour going?

EE: In what way?

NB: In whatever way you want to describe it.

EE: Well, nobody’s lost a limb.

BK: I would like to respond to that with a tone to describe my experience.

NB: Yes! Where did you guys just come from?

MM: We were in D.C. Two nights ago was D.C. Then we stopped in Charlottesville, VA yesterday and did a little radio thing. We stayed the night in Charlotte.

EE: Ate at a Waffle House.

Erik Menteer: I cover mine in mayonnaise and they make rather inappropriate comments.

MM: He’s half British though.

NB: They put mayonnaise on everything.

BK: That’s no different than having your French Fries in mayonnaise. It’s only a skip away from tartar sauce, which people on the east coast of America are already flirting with.

NB: That should be my new question. I should ask people what they put on their French fries.

EM: I also like McDonalds barbeque sauce.

EE: On my hashbrowns, I definitely put salsa on them.

BK: I only put ketchup on it because I don’t want to taste the shitty fast food fries that I am eating. So I guess I prefer high fructose corn syrup to the taste of bad potatoes. Otherwise I never eat fries.

NB: If you guys were in a haunted house, what would you yell?

BK: Why did you ask that?

NB: I don’t know. Why not?

BK: I’ve just been thinking about ghosts a lot lately.

EE: Why would you yell at all?

MM: If it was real, I would be like…what is your problem?

NB: What if you were working in a carnival, what would you scream at little kids?

EE: Like I’m a carnie? What do I say to little kids? I say, pull my finger.

MM: That’s frightening.

EE: It is because they don’t know what’s gonna happen.

BK: I would say, you have no respect for your elders!

MM: You have to feel bad about people working at carnivals though. For years now they have this thing built up about them being skuzzy and low life. Maybe they are really fucking nice people.

EE: It’s because it’s true. I’ve been chased by carnies.

NB: What did you do to be chased by carnies?

EE: They didn’t catch me.  You were there. Down by the funhouse, after hours.

MM: Yeah I was there. Me and Jay didn’t go in because we hate clowns.

EE: It was me and that red-headed chick.

BK: Can I just say for a moment that I was there!

EE: We waited for it to close, and Bryan was there.

MM: He was the red-headed chick.

EE: We went in, and then the carnies were like, “Hey! Get away from there!” They didn’t catch us though because carnies, by their very nature, are slow.

BK: Can I just say for a second that I was there!

NB: I’ve never been chased by carnies. I’m going to put that one on the life list. If you could replace your arms with anything, what would you replace them with?

EE: I would want this one to be a time-machine slash drill that I could drill into the earth with. This one would not be as technical. It would be a lot more organic.

EM: Like a plant so you could just photosynthesize?

EE: No, like one of my favorite T.V. personalities would be there instead of my left arm.

MM: I’d replace one with the cosmos.

EE: You should give her marijuana to smoke, and she’ll totally be there with you.

MM: I tried, and she refused.

NB: So back to the tour. You guys are going to be at South By Southwest, right?

EM: Yeah, briefly.

EE: It’s going to be a sucker-punch.

NB: How long is this tour lasting?

EM: About a month.

BK: I think the effects will be felt for at least a week or two after.

NB: Do you guys prefer touring or doing stuff in the studio?

MM: They are both fun in their different ways. Touring is a lot more exhausting, obviously. So it’s nice to rest.

EM: It’s a nice exhaustion though. I like being busy and always working.

NB: How would you describe how your band sounds to a three-year-old?

BK: Wet.

MM: Wet. Love. Fun.

BK: Candy.

EM: Sunshine. Licorice.

EE: Would a three year old know these words?

BK: Are you kidding? There are three-year-olds out there like predators on the net.

MM: Animal. Fuzzy. Fun. Love. Play-doh.

EE: Blitzen Trapper is kind of like one of those Tempur-pedic memory foam pillows. You squeeze it, and it stays in that shape. You can put it in the cold, and it freezes. You can use it as a weapon. But enough about three year olds.

NB: Do you guys read reviews about yourself?

EE: I don’t. He does.

MM: I used to.

EM: We read one the other day that was just kind of funny and ridiculous.

MM: I read them because I have a stony heart, and I write reviews of the reviews.

EE: Fuck Marty, that’s perfect. We should start our own blog that is reviews of reviews.

MM: Yeah I wanted to get all of the musicians in Portland together to write criticism of music criticism.

EE: If you are a band in Portland, and there are a lot, you get written about.

NB: And they don’t get criticized.

EE: And they need to be.

MM: Because they suck ass.

BK: They are in the same position as a sound man at a show in that they have a huge impact on how they are seen and viewed by people but they are in the background and in the shadows. They aren’t brought into consciousness. The band is the one that gets the attention one or or the other. If the sound man fucks up, they are listening to you. It’s the same with criticism. Every person with a computer can have a blog.

EM: Plus, in the end it doesn’t even really matter what they say. They are still talking about it. They are putting some sort of importance on it.

[conversation dissolves into the crazies]

The Awkward Off Vs. Bryan Poole (Of Montreal)

While music director at WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC, we celebrated the release of OF MONTREAL‘s latest CD by trying to interview as many band members as possible. By adding BRYAN POOLE to our collection, we had two out of five.

Among his other musical endeavors, Bryan is the guitarist for Of Montreal. Join me on college radio as we talk about gumball machine metaphors, his many musical projects, and how he got his wings.

Note: the interview starts about a third of the way through the file.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: You are listening to WSBF-FM Clemson. I am Nichole Bennett, the music director of the station, and I have something very special for you. In the background you are listening to a track of off Of Montreal’s latest release Skeletal Lamping. The band is currently on tour, and they were kind enough to let us do a phone interview. In a few minutes we will be calling Bryan Poole. He’s the guitarist of the band, but that’s not all he’s been. He’s involved in the whole Elephant Six Collective era of music in Athens. He was the bassist for Elf Power for many years and one of the founding members of Of Montreal. He’s also been involved with Olivia Tremor Control and Great Lakes, to name a few. Additionally, he has a side solo project title The Late B.P. Helium, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to ask him a little bit about that.

Right now I believe they are in Florida. We’ll double check with him. If you want to catch Of Montreal in this area, you can catch them on the television. On December 18, they will be on the David Letterman show. Over winter break you can catch them December 30^th and 31^st at the 40 Watt Club in Athens. That should be an interesting New Year’s show. I’m sure to be there if I can get a ticket. If you miss them at their New Year’s show, you can catch them January 4^th at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Seems like they are circling around the U. S., and then they are headed to Europe.

The way that Of Montreal has worked lately since the release of Sunlandic Twins, Kevin Barnes has just been doing the records himself, and the band has just been a touring band. We’re mainly going to talk to Bryan about some of the stage stuff. If you’ve never seen an Of Montreal show, it’s pretty theatrical. Personally, I’ve been seeing them since my freshmen year, so over time it’s gotten even more and more bizarre. For instance, Kevin Barnes actually hangs himself during the show.

We are going to give Bryan a call, and see if they are ready for an interview. I apologize because the interview was originally supposed to be at 1PM, but I think that Mr. Poole’s phone was dying.

If you are a fan of Of Montreal, you will probably like his work as The Late B.P. Helium. Elf Power shares some of their psychadelia, but it’s a bit darker. About every person who lives in Athens is in Elf Power. Speaking of bands that everyone in Athens is in, I believe Bryan plays with Dark Meat, and I’m going to ask him about that because hopefully they will be coming to Clemson in the spring.

It’s ringing—good. Well, I will give you sample track while we are waiting for Mr. Poole.

I am here with Bryan Poole of Of Montreal and also The Late B.P. Helium. Hey Bryan, how are you?

Bryan Poole: I’m pretty awesome.

NB: You guys are on some sort of crazy tour right now.

BP: It’s pretty good. It’s like a gumball machine. We keep spitting gum out for people to chew. Only good balls, not like pre-chewed gum. It’s like one of those things at the mall that has a big spiral. It’s a big event. You watch that gumball go around and around, and you finally get it. And you’re really happy, hopefully. Unless you wanted the pink one and then you got the purple one.

NB: I keep checking your tours, and you guys keep coming around here. You guys are actually going to be at the 40 Watt for New Year’s?

BP: Yeah, we actually added a second show because I think that one is almost sold out. We added a second show the day before, on the 30^th, which isn’t technically New Year’s. But if you wanted to celebrate two New Year’s.

NB: New Year’s practice?

BP: No, it’s going to be a totally different show. We have The Gerbils.

NB: OH.

BP: Yeah, The Gerbils are going to play with us, and they are not playing on New Year’s Eve. They are old friends of ours, Elephant 6 compatriots.

NB: We talked with Davey Pierce last week about the stage performance. It looks like it’s gotten even more and more theatrical.

BP: Yeah, since you’ve talked to Davey, we’ve probably added a cannon or two. We’re not shooting out people, though. We’re shooting out objects that keep you warm and satiated.

NB: I was wondering if you guys pick your own stage costumes, because I’m a really big fan of the wings that you have.

BP: Yeah, we all figure it out. Those came to me when I was in Tuscon, Arizona about a year and a half or two years ago. I walked by this girl’s shop and looked inside and there they were. They weren’t open, but she let me in. I was her first customer, and I bought those wings. She’s made me a few other sets since then. She’s really awesome.

NB: So you guys are in Florida now?

BP: Actually, we are still in Athens now. We are leaving slowly…slowly. Oh, I was about to say a bad word. We are driving right now, and my little shortcut got messed up. Detour. Road’s Closed. Yeah, we are leaving tonight and going to Florida. We are playing five shows. Florida always seems to get its own tour because it’s the penis of America. Nobody really likes to go there unless they have to. Wow! I say that, and I’ve come across this big truck that says “humpin’ to please” on the side of it. It’s really awesome. It’s kind of a one-of-a-kind. It’s got a camel with a 66 and the stuff that might come out of somebody’s private parts.

NB: I’m really glad you are on-site to report this for our listeners.

BP: Yeah, this is what is happening in Athens. I’m sure this is happening all over Clemson, you know.

NB: I hope. I really hope.

BP: Do you guys know about Greenwood, South Carolina?

NB: Yeah, it’s relatively close.

BP: We have lots of friends from Greenwood, and there are probably some Greenwoodites that decided to go to Clemson instead of Lander. And I’m saying you probably made the right decision on that.

NB: Actually, a lot of the music lovers from Clemson travel to Athens. It’s only about an hour and a half away.

BP: Now, why doesn’t Clemson have the same music scene that Athens does?

NB: That is a very good question…that we are working on. We have good radio!

BP: Yeah? How many watts are you kicking?

NB: We’ve got three thousand.

BP: We’ve got 26,000. But 3,000 is better than 300. I’ve definitely been on some stations where you couldn’t get it past the parking lot. Or cable FM. I played a benefit once in Richmond, Virginia, and we wanted to tune in. They were like, it’s only on the cable.

NB: A lot of stations are internet-only as well. We went to CMJ this year, and I realized how lucky we are.

BP: There’s this thing called Orange Twin. That’s a group of friends of mine, loosely affiliated. My solo records are on Orange Twin Records, and it’s kind of run by Elf Power. It’s turning into this land conservation project. It’s starting to be a grand eco-village on the outskirts of Athens.

NB: I’m so glad you mentioned that. A couple of weeks back I was at the No Age show in Athens, and I got to meet Jim of Dark Meat. They were talking about the conservation project.

BP: Dark Meat is a band that I play in when I can. You must have partied all night to stay at the Secret Squirrel.

NB: Yeah, we are trying to book Dark Meat for our spring concert. Maybe you’ll be able to visit if you aren’t busy with your things.

BP: Yeah I haven’t talked to Jim lately. They got to open up for Quintron and Miss Pussycat, but I was out of town. Dark Meat, one of Athens’ finest.

NB: This is a nice segue to talk about some of your solo work. How do you balance the many bands you are in?

BP: It used to be that we would just tour in the spring and the fall during the normal times that bands tour when colleges are in session. We’re lucky to have a following that we get offers to tour in other times of the year. Once an album comes out, we tour for at least a year or a year and a half almost straight for each record. Then we’ll finally take six months off and recover and Kevin can work on a new record. And then we do it all again. Before, it was a lot easier to be able to have my own band and play with other bands, but to be honest now it’s kind of hard. In fact, I was talking to my friend Josh McKay of this band, Pancha. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. They were the great band of Athens from the early to mid 90’s to the 2000’s. We have a band, and we play ESG covers in Athens. It’s kind of a party band. We have an original project that we’ve been trying to get off the ground, but our schedules never meet because he tours with his band too. I told him we have to do it because I’ve been doing interviews, and I’ll be a liar if this doesn’t happen. I miss Athens and my friends and being a part of the scene when I’m not here, so it’s difficult.

NB: Well I guess we were talking about camels earlier. My favorite interview question to ask is if you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

BP: Besides human being or space alien? I think I would be a space alien because hopefully they are smarter than we are. Supposedly the Egyptians and the Mayans were hanging out with them. They probably come down every now and then, but they’r probably hard to spot. They like doing their own thing. They probably like to be voyeuristic gods. I’d like to be a space alien, and I think that qualifies as an animal if they are living matter. I can’t say from what planet or star system.

NB: That’s justified. That’s good. With that, I’ll say I cannot wait to bring in the New Year with you guys, and I’ll let you get on with your busy day. Thank you so much.

BP: Yeah, for whoever’s listening. If you are looking for a good party, we are having one…or two. Spend the night. Hang out at the Secret Squirrel. Take care. Party on.

The Awkward Off Vs. No Age

Drenched from the rain, I showed up at the 40 WATT in ATHENS, GA to meet NO AGE before their show.

It was my first live interview, so I was nervous to be around a couple of musicians that I admire. Luckily Dean and Randy are some of the nicest guys in music. We had an excellent discussion about everything from personal politics to how to screenprint a skateboard. This interview also contains the best use of the word “shambolic.”

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole. I’m the music director for WSBF, and I’m here with No Age. Dean and Randy of No Age. So you guys just came in from Asheville?

Randy Randall: Yes

NB: Did you play the Orange Peel?

Dean Spunt: No

NB: The Grey Eagle.

Dean Spunt: It was awesome.

NB: Was that your first time in Asheville?

DS: We played one time before. We opened up for Liars, and we played the Orange Peel. One of our favorite restaurants is in Asheville. It’s called Rossetta’s Kitchen. It’s a vegetarian restaurant.

NB: Speaking of vegetarian restaurants, have you tried The Grit?

DS: We are going to go there after this.

NB: You guys are vegan—is that really hard on tour?

DS: Not really. We’re both vegan, so it’s one of the main agendas. We play, and then we gotta find food. We’re both pretty crafty.

RR: I eat more often on the road because there’s a schedule.

NB: Like a never-ending field trip. Everbody stay with your buddy!

RR: Yes. We are the field trip buddies.

NB: One of the questions that some of the people from the station wanted me to ask was about your appearance on CBS.

DS: BOOM. Rando.

NB: Yes, I wanted to talk about the shirt and the censorship.

RR: It was really nice that a show like Late Night with Craig Ferguson. Being before one of the most important political decisions in our country, that it would be apropos to voice my support for Barack Obama. So, I chose to wear a t-shirt. We go through rehearsals and everything. It’s a tiny little stage. You don’t meet anybody. We have five minutes to go one, and one of the people there are like “We’re so excited you are here. The only thing is you can’t wear your t-shirt.” It’s free time. Everyone who is a candidate for president has to be given equal time. That sounds fine—let’s make a John McCain t-shirt. And they were like, no it’s everybody who is running. And I thought this was even better.

NB: Make a list!

RR: We were going to be creative, but due to weird legal…

DS: They just didn’t want you to wear the shirt.

RR: There’s a lot of loopholes around it. I couldn’t really understand what their reasoning behind it was, but they were going to stick to it. We had to make a decision. I was ready to walk away and go home. I didn’t live too far from the place where we were filming. I was done. I didn’t care. It just felt like too big of a compromise.

DS: But, my grandfather was there.

RR: Yeah, Dean’s grandfather was there.

DS: He’s like 81. We should do it.

RR: So I thought we should take advantage of it. We can still do it. So we did it. I flipped the shirt inside-out and wrote “free health care,” which is an issue that I thought was more important even than a political figure. So I thought I would pick an issue and support that.

NB: Yeah, at that point I thought it was funny that equal time didn’t apply to issues.

RR: The reason I even like Barack Obama is that he stands for some of the issues I believe in.

DS: After that, Randy posted on our blog and the media go a hold of it.

[Interrupted by Soft Circle sound check]

NB: Now we are recording! Just a summary of what we just said.

RR: I believe that politics are personal, and its what you believe in. Us as a band…we don’t have a voice or any more of a right to speak than anyone else. No matter who you are, you can do what you believe in.

NB: We were talking about the skateboards earlier. Are you guys getting more into the visual side of things? For our listeners that don’t know, there are some No Age-designed skateboards, and they look pretty rad.

DS: We’ve been doing some stuff with a skateboard company. We curated some t-shirt designs for them, and we are going to make some more clothing designs for them. We never really made a skateboard before that, but it was a cool collaborative effort with AAM. We’ve always wanted to make skateboards

RR: Even before No Age was around, one of the things we wanted to do was create a skateboard company that was just for bands. It costs a little bit of money. More money than we had at the time.

DS: The main thing was that we wanted to screen it. My mom owns a silkscreen shop, so we wanted to screen them ourselves. Skateboard companies don’t easily give out information on how to do that. They are really secretive, and there are only a few companies. It’s weird. The screens have to be bent.

NB: Tell me about how this tour is going.

RR: This tour’s been awesome. We started out in England with Los Campesinos! and Times New Viking, who are really awesome. We then went on to play a few European show with a band from Belgium called White Circle Crime Club. We then started up in New York with Titus Andronicus and Soft Circle.

DS: Then after Titus, we meet up with a band from New York, friends of ours, called Silk Flowers.

NB: This is your first time in Athens, Georgia. What are your first impressions?

DS: It’s awesome. We just ate at…

RR: The Grit!

DS: We have a friend that has lived here for a while in a band called Dark Meat named Jim. He’s always wanted us to come here.

NB: If you could be any animal what would you be?

DS: A kitten. I just got a kitten, so I want to be that little kitten.  A different kitten. I would be it’s buddy. I think years ago when I didn’t have a cat I would be a different animal. Something like a giraffe. What would you be?

RR: I would be…

DS: a potato

RR: That’s not an animal. I was thinking of something along the lines of a mussel or a barnacle. I could just hang.

DS: You could be algae.

RR: No, not quite evolved enough.

NB: And you would get eaten a lot. Maybe a barnacle on a whale. You could get around.

DS: The whale…is America.

DS: I just want to say that No Age is the best band ever and you should buy all of our records. Not! But really, I think that if you are in a band, you should think you are the best ever or there is no point.

NB: What brought you guys in this direction? Your sound is a bit punk-y but experimental.

DS: I think it was just growing up being weird kids, listening to music, skateboarding a lot. Seeing things a little differently.

RR: Are you asking why we sound the way we do?

NB: Was it a choice or did it just naturally evolve?

DS: I think the only choice was that we wanted to make music that was the best music ever, for us. We like pop music, so we like hooks. Or not…sometimes just some noise. Music that we liked.

NB: Yeah No Age spans that barrier between poppy and noise.

RR: It just reflects our taste in music. I would be just as happy to go to noise show one night and a pop, sort of punk, show the other night. I get something out of both things. In one area you can push the boundaries of composition and sound and mind-blowing. And something else can be the perfect pop record.

DS: Yeah, crafting a song.

RR: Like a great hook, and this static sort of euphoria rushes over you, and you are like “I can’t believe they did that.” When a song explodes into complete chaos and is cathartic and it’s a release. You are like, ah, this is shambolic. It’s just as exciting as when a hook comes back around. It’s exciting when it works. It’s what I like in listening to music, so those are my priorities in making music…a crescendo of noise and pop aesthetics spilling over everywhere. That’s what I love to hear. I love listening to music loud. You take The Ramones or Paul McCartney and you turn it up and it all starts to distort. That’s exciting. That’s really fun. Or you hear it from the next room. You’re only catching every other note and the bass is all washing everything out together, and you hear a few ghosting kind of melodies. And then you pull it open and it’s a Brittany Spears song, but from three houses down it sounded like this wave of bass. Sometimes it’s the quality of the sounds you hear that makes the moment. It’s the time and the place.

DS: And I think it is the person too. I think there are lot of people that play pop music who are just crappy people. Or just going to make money. Usually people we like are people that seem to have a different attitude towards it and are writing music for different reasons. Not for money and not for fame.

RR: It’s always clear why this person is here. They are here to have a good time and share an experience with the audience, or they are just there to make a dollar.

DS: And goodnight.