Cool interview.

I know I just posted, but I couldn't resist sharing this link to a fantastic interview with Animal Collective's Panda Bear by my Dusted Magazine compatriot, Rob Hatch-Miller.

In it, PB talks about anti-depressants and where he pilfers his samples. A fine read.

Comments

[jay]

Thanks for the link Casey. I didn't realize they had already wrapped on recording for the new album, and the the live box set & film were new news to me as well.

[greg]

i cant stop listening to the new panda bear record.
i really love it.
there is a live performance of noah playing most of the new album here:
http://mafama.blogspot.com/2007/01/panda-bear-m-fama.html

also the new avey tare & kria brekkan album is really nice too.
well that is if you take all the backwards tracks and reverse them in your favorite sound editor program first......weird move.

[jay]

The Panda Bear album is great; I feel guilty playing it so much when I haven't bought it, but since it hasn't been released yet I guess I have an excuse.

I always used to feel somewhat guilty about composing music on my Dr. Sample, like it was a crutch for my lack of "real" instrument virtuosity. Now I realize that I was just an iconoclast! :) That said, I think we all should take our tax returns and pick up some SP-202s (or 303s or 404s if the IRS is nice enough) & have start an all-sampler band. Rad.

Here's Avey's response to the backlash from fans over the backwards album:

hey guys that is indeed the record, no tricks involved here, no concepts. We just really like it that way. Hope thats cool. Were not bummed. i hope youre not...

Its not really an issue of prefering the songs backwards. Its more of the fact that this is a release we wanted to put out. It has a foreign/other quality and as you said nice warm ambient quality that we like. I wouldnt really say its a noise record. Ive put tons and tons of work into songs noone will ever hear why should it stop me from doing what i want with them. its just because you guys know the songs and can even hear them reversed on your computers that makes you have all these confused thoughts. If you couldnt download bootlegs of the songs and couldnt hear them reversed then you would just say fuck this record sucks..or cool this record rules and youd let it grow on you or you wouldnt. Youd find a place where it works or you wouldnt. Its not hard to flip a reel around and hear it backwards or even decide that it sounds sweet and its not really that bizzare of a record either or that difficult if you can get over the fact that its backwards you dont even need a computer. If you just pass it off as backwards sure ofcourse its not revolutionary or "experimental" youve been able to flip tape for more or less almost 100 years now why would i think its experimental??? Ive heard "i am sitting in a room" okay, i know what experimental music is (hehehe joke).
Its also clear that the bulk of our fanbase is able to put the thing on their computers and listen to it the other way so its not as if we didnt know that was gonna happen either. we dont think it should be heard that way cause songs are sped up, dont have vocals etc. but we know that wont stop you so do what you like, and in a way that is cool.
If there wasnt so much hype and so much of an expectation for us to put out this killer "experimental pop record" then alot of you might never even hear about this record. But wed still be into it and would have faith that some people would too.
we offer this cause we think it is somthing special we made (as equally special as the songs forward) and different from what youve heard and songs that you can get else where. We like the textures and the melodies. And honestly somthing we think our fans can digest. If i thought it was just a "noise record" i wouldnt put it out. If your just passing judgment cause of what youve heard other people say you should atleast check out the record.

by the way it was the 21st of december when we decided this. I think it was a combination of of being stuck in nyc for christmas and seeing that new david lynch movie, so if youre that bummed you can blame the weather and david lynch.

[casey]

That's hilarious! My favorite is the last line, "if you're that bummed you can blame the weather and david lynch."

That's pretty much what I blame everthing on already.

[jay]

Poor David Lynch--always the scapegoat....

I always get such a kick out of Lynch in interviews--you expect this bizarre, brooding artist type & he's just a salt-of-the-earth, happy-go-lucky guy with a midwest accent. You'd never think "Eraserhead" and "Twin Peaks" could have come out of that mind; I love it.

Has anyone seen Lynch's latest ("Inland Empire") yet? I'm pretty excited; it's been getting some good reviews.

[casey]

Well, he is one of those Transcendental Meditation™ dudes. Him and Mike Love.

Doesn't explain the accent, though.

The only Lynch film I've ever loved is Mullholland Drive. I guess I respect him more than I actually enjoy his work. His movies have a definite effect though. But so does codeine.

I feel the same way about Philp Glass compositions. They're repetitive and rather anemic, but they do make you feel numb and fuzzy after a spell.

Maybe I'm just a Steve Reich/Bergman man.

[jay]

I'm big on cinematic atmosphere. Filmmmakers like Bergman, Lynch, Noe, Tarkovsky, Tarr, and Dreyer are just masters of creating a mood that can either be weird and unsettling (Lynch, Noe) or weird and narcotic fuzzy dreamy(Tarkovsky, Tarr, Bergman).

[greg]

hey jay,
where did you find this avey tare response?
from their message boards?

id like to read the whole thread....

[jay]

Greg, I copied it from a post on Gorilla vs. Bear, but it is originally from the AC message board (http://rerz.net/ac/messages/)

[brookezilla]

I once made the regrettable mistake of thinking Muholland Drive would be a great first date movie.

It wasn't.

I blame David Lynch for THAT.

[Eva Sollberger]

Haw, I am sure the Muholland Drive Naomi Watts masturbation/crying scene was particularly first-date-highly-awkward-cringe-inducing.

Gotta love the Lynch.

[Tanner]

that's how all MY first dates end..... ;P

[Neil]

At that point in the date you might as well just take it over the top and elbow your date, give 'em a wink and see how they respond.

[casey]

Yeah, elbow them with a multi-pronged, spiked dildo.

Oh, wait — that's a Cronenberg film.

[Eva Sollberger]

HAW! Or maybe start talking backwards and doing that whacky Twin Peaks red-curtain midget dance!? ;)