Feature: Animal Collective Interview

I recently had some correspondence with Animal Collective member Geologist, concerning everything from how things are in the studio to when cats attack. As most of the blogging community is already aware of, everyone in the band is busy with various side projects, and Geologist does a good job hyping his comrades. Animal Collective is also going on tour with plans of bumming everyone out. We're in.

18+ is fucking proud to present, a moment with Geologist.

First off, I know you guys are recording right now, how does this record differ from previous outings?

Sorry to be a bummer, but the record is not done yet and it'll be a little while before we're ready to talk about it. We've done the live tracking but won't be mixing it for another month (we like to take a break from hearing the songs a million times), and until then, I think we'd rather keep a lot of details about it to ourselves. Even we don't know for sure how it'll turn out until after mixing.

Is it difficult for all of you to work together, considering the vast amount of side projects going on simultaneously? Any kind of power struggle?

I think the freedom to do outside work is what prevents power struggles in AC. If we had a strict rule that nobody could do anything outside of AC then I think we’d get sick of each other. We’ve been friends for a pretty long time, much longer than we’ve been calling ourselves Animal Collective, and during that time we’ve all had more than one project going on in our lives, musical and non-musical, so this really isn’t anything new to us. We’ve always supported each other and hoped for the best for whatever any of us are doing. I mean, I guess projects could conflict with regards to scheduling live performances, but that hasn’t been an issue yet.

I would imagine that, given your previous records, the transfer from recording music in the studio to playing live must be a difficult one to make... do you keep that in mind while recording, or just focus on making the record and then worry about possible problems into the live transition later?

No, because we do it the opposite way. We don't write songs in the studio or in preparation for the studio. We write songs to play live first and foremost. Then we tour with the songs for a couple months on the road to decide what we're happy with, i.e. what is fun to play over and over again, what works between us, find out what energy is created by certain songs. Then after a bit of time (these days about a year), we go into the studio and adapt them for that setting, which usually begins by recording us playing the song live. Overdubs like multiple vocal harmonies or whatever are added later. Even if we write a song that we never play live in front of others, we still write it so that we could perform it live in the studio. Usually after we record a song we stop playing it live, although in the last year or two we've come around to keeping a few oldies with us. For the first few years while people were discovering us - up through Sung Tongs - nobody would ever recognize what we played live because by the time an album had come out, we had already written the next one and that is what we were playing when they came to see us. Sometimes we got two albums ahead. When Sung Tongs came out, we had already been playing Feels songs live for 6 months, so for that period of time, people were still coming to shows hoping we'd play stuff off of Spirit or Here Comes The Indian. Anyways, we still play mostly new stuff live, which bums people out sometimes because they want to hear songs they already know and love. That's cool, we understand that, so we're trying to keep it a bit more balanced between new and old, we just have to make sure it stays fun for us, and playing new songs is more fun. So we don't find it difficult at all to transition the songs. So the short answer is no it's not difficult. Personally I like songs to exist as different versions as far as the live and studio settings. That bums people out as well and they complain that a song on the record has a different energy than it does live, or that when we play a song live it sucks because it doesn't sound like the album. But that doesn't matter to me at all. I mean I'm sorry if it upsets people; I want people to have fun at our shows, and enjoy our records, and I never want to deliberately be a difficult band for people to like. But if you're looking for a band that pretty much plays an exact replica of a song off their album every time they play it live, we're not the band for you, nor would I want to be.

Is there a lot of theory that goes into the records before you record at all? Jamming sessions versus yelling matches?

There is a lot of thought and discussion that goes into the songs. I wouldn't call it theory because none of us really know much about musical theory. We talk a lot in visual and emotional terms. The jamming happens live and after playing a song live for a month straight it becomes clear what works and what doesn't. Yelling matches pretty much never happen, which I find sort of weird because I think yelling between friends is more common among people that have been friends since childhood. People talk and interact with their childhood friends differently than they do with friends they've made as adults. But none of us are really yellers. Even when I do get upset about something, or with someone, it's like the lighthouse keeper forgets to hit the yell switch, and I just talk it out. I guess I yell at my cats when they do shit like steal food off my plate or scratch the wall paper off the kitchen wall. I don't know why though; it doesn't do any good. I got in a vicious battle with one of my cats over a brussel sprout a month or two back that ended up with him getting a free meal and me getting [a] severely bloodied hand.

Both ‘Feels’ and ‘Sung Tongs’ have had particularly unique production, is the way the record sounds an important part of the recording process?

Absolutely. It's just as important to us as the melodies and rhythms. I'd say different people in the band prioritize different things to a certain extent, which comes from the music they listened to and were drawn to when they were growing up, but the differences between us aren't very extreme. And I think that helps the songs because everything ends up being prioritized as important.

Do you guys listen to your own records or find it difficult to?

I don't listen to them very often. It's not difficult in the way it is like when someone hears their voice on an answering machine though. For me it's more like when I was making the record (and I'm including the many months of playing it live prior to recording), I have to hear the songs hundreds and hundreds of times in a short time period, so I get tired of them and I'd rather focus more on new material.

What things have been of particular influence to the new record?

Again, not really ready to talk about the new record just yet. Sorry. But as with all our records, it's very much influenced by what is currently going on in our lives.

What records are you looking forward to in 2007?

Well, not to be provincial, but I'm very excited for Panda's Person Pitch and Avey/Kria's Pullhair Rubeye. I guess that's a cop-out though because I've already heard both and really love them. I haven't been looking at any release schedules though so I don't know what's on tap for the coming year. I named the two AC-related releases because I know about them. I'm sure I'll be excited about other stuff, I just don't know what to expect.

What are some bands that are currently exciting you?

I saw Marnie Stern the other night and really liked her set. I like when the layered vocals take over the song because it's like really pretty icicles that cut through the air all the way to my ears. She played with Barr who is a longtime AC friend and associate. His new album is sweet too, and quite different than his previous outings. I still get excited by our friends in New York, like Gang Gang Dance and Black Dice and Excepter. Scott Colburn, who records our albums, has a new project called Wizard Prison which is sweet. Again, sorry to seem like I only root for the hometeam, but I just don't pay attention all that much. People always think I'm being rude when I say that, but it takes a lot of energy and money to keep up with new music. Things happen so fast these days. I don't have a download program on my computer so I don't know how to do that, and that seems to be the way people really find out about what is new and exciting to them. I've been listening to Don Cherry and Syreeta the most over the last few weeks, and my friend Zach does a dublab show called Turqoise Wisdom and he sent me one of the shows as an mp3, so I've been rocking that on my headphone when I take walks to the store and stuff. I like the laid back 70's vibe.

And lastly, what is something that you wish somebody had told you before you had ever joined Animal Collective?

Hmmm, Well AC grew out of 4 friends who have been playing music since they were 14 or 15, so you'd have to go back to my early teens, and back then, you don't want anyone to tell you anything, except that you already know everything there is to know.