10/14/08
Text: John Barundia
Last year’s Cryptograms saw the emergence of Atlanta’s Deerhunter, a five piece that power housed a tripped out, ethereal wash in sound. Critical acclaim was thick but much of the attention made towards the group was focused on front man Bradford Cox who at year’s end became a polarizing figure in independent rock music. No other artist has received as much ubiquitous praise one minute, starch criticism the next than Cox who gained notice not just for his music but also for the fake blood he smeared, flower print dresses he wore and the way too personal blog posts he wrote.
Controversy or not, Cox is a constantly productive artist, more so than any other musician in his age bracket or genre. Having already received much admiration earlier this year for Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, the debut record for his solo project Atlas Sound, Cox returns with his fellow ATL alum―Moses Archuleta, Lockett Pundt, Josh Fauver and the newly added Whitney Petty―for Microcastle, a singular work that incorporates the group’s blissful psychedelic with the timeless sound found with the early doo wop and girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s.
Following a Deerhunter performance in Duluth, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta), where the group was opening for Nine Inch Nails, Cox and I chatted on all things Microcastle from its recording process to its unfortunate leak on the Internet, nearly four and half months before its release date of October 28. Not shy, Cox spoke on a handful of subjects from inspiration to Lil Wayne.
How’s the Nine Inch Nails tour been treating the band?
Absolutely perfect.
Okay, cool.
Yeah I mean it’s just unbelievable how nice they are and gracious. A complete opposite of stuff we’ve dealt with in the past. We have a lot of respect for them because they’re putting on a real fucking mind blowing show. They’re just really professional and nice.
I came across some tour photos of you on the Internet that had you wearing Whitney’s cheerleader outfit. You had previously worn dresses on stage before. Are you revisiting those prior performances, those that confront the audience and illicit a reaction?
I just do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like doing it. I don’t feel like I owe anybody anything. It’s just when I feel like doing that kind of show, we do that kind of show.
Was it a conscious decision to just focus strictly on the music and not any type of stage antic(s) for your recent shows as of late?
I mean you could say that but I’d probably didn’t even think of it much. It just more I do what whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it. Not to sound like a brat, you know. I’m not going to ever do anything that I don’t feel like doing.
You recently participated in an advertising campaign for Converse. By participating in the ad were you trying to show that you were now more comfortable in revealing yourself, particularly image wise to a wider audience, instead of just through your music?
I don’t even think about it. I just don’t. I mean not to be a dick. When you ask me what I think about doing a Converse ad, or if I’m trying, or do I have a motive or am I trying to change my image, I don’t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck about my image. One day I might shave and tuck in my shirt and the next day I might fucking shit myself on a street corner. I don’t care. I don’t even know what I’m into myself. I don’t know what exactly I’d be trying to project. Things like Converse ads and stuff like that I don’t even... I went and took photos somewhere for ten minutes. I didn’t really think about it that much. I mean I’m glad. I was honored that they asked me to do it you know, that’s neat to me. It made my Mom and family excited because they got to go and look at me in magazines. I mean, whatever that’s cool, I don’t have anybody else to impress except my family I mean I’m not interested in impressing fucking hipster kids. I don’t care what hipster kids think of me. I’ve been doing this shit since a lot of those kids were fucking in diapers reading Harry Potter.
Bands who have received massive acclaim/hype from their previous record don’t always achieve the same prior success with their following record. Was it important with Microcastle to try and break away from that mold?
It’s not going to happen to us because we’re not in any way like that. We’re not a hype band. We’re going to be around for a long time. We’re going to put out quality music. My hero is Lil Wayne. I don’t buy into hype.
Really?
Fuck hype, plus I mean we were never that hyped. I mean look at us and then look at other bands. If people want to call us a fucking hype band…call me a hype band when I sell 50, 000 records. Call me a hype band when I’m fucking doing my second appearance on Letterman. We’re not a fucking hype band. We’re an underground cult band; I mean were a cult rock band. That’s what we want to be, we’re not a fucking hype band.
There’s been a noticeable change in the group dynamic not just on the new record but significantly live on stage. As a band do you see more of a focus―in terms of meeting/achieving goals as a group―than ever before?
We were more focused on producing a more cohesive record, A... B... I think that the press and things like that had to do a lot with the last record and this record is not very inward looking. It’s not very personal. It’s more of a rock record. Its got its cathartic moments and I’m leaving it more for the audience, if they relate to that type of catharsis. Put the music to their own experience. We’re not trying to talk as much about my experience or overly invest my own personal life or my personality traits into the music. Let’s just make a record with songs that people can relate to and live their own lives to and have their own stories about, because you know that’s what it’s all about anyways. It’s not about what a song means to me, it’s what it means to the audience. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and being like adolescent, overly nostalgic, you know.
Did the addition of Whitney [Petty] change the dynamic of the group?
Not really, she’s just kind of hanging out, playing guitar. It’s not really a big deal. I mean her position in the group is active I guess. She’s not a writing member of the group. She’s just kind of a touring member that adds, you know, a dynamic live. A lot of the guitar parts on the record were doubled. Lockett and I can only do so much so she helps kick up the sound live. We’re not changed, and there’s no, drama or anything.
This year alone you’ve released two impressive records with Atlas Sound and with Deerhunter. Musically, how do you differentiate between the two bands? When you start crafting demos, do you immediately know which songs will be for an Atlas Sound or Deerhunter record?
To answer your question in two ways: one, yeah there’s pretty much an immediate feeling for me when I’m writing a song whether or not its Atlas Sound or Deerhunter, but I don’t really think too much while I’m writing songs. It’s more of just a stream of consciousness kind of thing and usually I just write a cluster of songs together and if it’s something that I think can be improved by the group, I’ll bring the group of songs to the group to work on. That’s how Microcastle was; the other band members bring their songs into it. Were as if it’s going to remain an Atlas Sound thing I just leave it as it is and that’s what Atlas sound records are. They’re recorded and I play all the instruments and they’re my creation and I don’t want anyone else’s input on them usually. I don’t have a way I want Atlas Sound to sound versus the way I want Deerhunter to sound. I just want to constantly be putting out records. I don’t really care about systems and how things are suppose to work. If I could put out like, I mean, if people are impressed that I put out two records this year... to me that’s, "Oh please." I could put out fucking ten. I could put out 20 records in a year. I could put out two records a month.
That’s Lil Wayne style.
Lil Wayne style.
Were you initially disappointed when Microcastle leaked four and a half months before its release date?
No, I wasn’t pissed off. I was just disappointed with people’s fucking greed, you know. I’m all about giving stuff away for free I mean look at what I do. I’m not selfish; I’m not a hyper capitalist person. I give people free music constantly that’s quality music. I don’t give away people shit. I give quality fucking music for free that I could easily charge for and have some record label slap their logo on it, put a fucking barcode on it but I give it away for free and it’s not enough for people you know. That kind of pissed me off, because I’m trying to do things from a different approach, you know what I’m saying. We’re never going to be a huge band or a commercially successful band really, and so I do feel when we make a record, it’s supposed to be the record that comes out in the store. I go through so much trouble to make sure that people feel rewarded for listening to our music. I give as much as I can without fucking going crazy from working all the time and so I felt a little jaded that people couldn’t take that. I mean some people try to overlook that but at the same time I would download the record if I was a fan so I’m not mad at any of the kids for downloading. I’m not mad at them personally for downloading. I encourage them to fucking download, I don’t give a fuck. I do feel if they want to support us and if they like us enough to download our record and keep it and listen to it... you know I’m not even talking about the kids that download it and listen to it a couple of times and say, "aw this isn’t my thing" and whatever. I’m talking about if you fucking download it if you’re into it, you might want to think about supporting the band because it’s not like I’m fucking raking it in with Converse ads, you know what I’m saying. We work so hard and we don’t make a lot of money. The only way underground culture can exist is if there’s an underground to support it. I’m all about downloading stuff. I’m all about fucking freedom, you know, and discovery, but you know at the same time I feel you should still let the artist who makes the records decide when they want the record available, regardless of when the record came out. It was still going to get on the Internet at some point; they could of at least fucking waited until October to start downloading it.
Was streaming a majority of the record on the Deerhunter MySpace profile around the time of the initial leak, a response to the leak itself?
We didn’t stream the record. We just put up some songs because it already leaked and we were tired of the songs that were up there. And then I immediately got yelled by a bunch of people like my band mates, and the record label. They were all like ‘take it down’ so I took it down. I wasn’t just streaming the record. I was just tired of the songs that were up there on the player, so I just put new jams up.
A lot has been made of how intense the recording process for Cryptograms was. How would you describe the process in making Microcastle?
It was easier than changing a flat tire.
You’ve described the first Deerhunter record, Turn It up Faggot, as essentially pre-cum and that Cryptograms was an orgasm. How would you describe Microcastle?
Somebody that’s jerked off way too much and just has no sexual interest whatsoever anymore.
You mentioned in prior interviews that you wanted to incorporate a micro-structure to the album. Do you feel that you’ve achieved that or was that something...
Oh I’ve achieved that but not with this record.
Was that an idea you’ve wanted for this record?
My process in writing usually revolves around a concept and usually I abandon the concept because I’m lazy and then what happens after it (at the end of the concept) is usually what ends up on the record.
You constantly put up mixtapes on your blog. The songs off Microcastle often bleed into one another in separate but equal parts just how a mix tape would. Is that an effect that you like to establish for your records, especially with a record like Microcastle?
Yeah definitely. I enjoy that concept a lot, the idea of a mixtape. The idea of structuring an album like a mixtape, yeah I mean that’s really interesting to me. I’m really into narrative and I’m really into art as energy like energy art and records.
