2011-01-14 - Broward Palm Beach New Times

Q&A With David Barnes: Of Montreal Concert This Evening Will Involve a Dragon

By Leslie Minora Fri., Jan. 14 2011 at 8:37 AM

False Priest album cover by David Barnes.

​Of Montreal frontman, Kevin Barnes, and his brother, David, the band's artistic director, grew up in West Palm Beach and are returning to their South Florida roots tonight for a show (or, more aptly, an energetic, colorful, costume-laden spectacle) at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale.

The tour promotes their latest album, False Priest, which NPR calls "bonkers," but in a good way. False Priest is as energetic as a candy-addicted toddler and listening to it instantly transports you to a party -- a party full of dancing and dark secret rooms. The music, with its synthetic sound-glitter along with the band's penchant for theatrics promises a Friday night that is border-line otherworldly. County Grind caught up with David, the artistic brain behind both the album art and the performances, known to involve human hair clippings, pig costumes, and a Susan Sarandon cameo...don't worry, we'll get to that.

Your performances are known for crazy costumes and lots of energy, so what do you have planned for Fort Lauderdale?

Our whole thing is really just creating a scenario for escapism, and that's why we do have all the theatrics. Me and the bass player, Davey Pierce, made a bunch of -- we made our own masks and stuff like that out of fiberglass and so we have these weird little school children characters. We have these characters that we call 'the builders,' and they're kind of modeled after Catholic priests a little bit. They kind of are bumbling idiots though. That's a little jab at organized religion I suppose. [And] we have a giant dragon that Kevin rides on.

I heard he rode on a white stallion before so I guess a dragon is the logical next step, right?

Yeah, we have a lot of theatrics going on. We have four performers with us on the trip, and just because we know so many people we tend to grab our friends every now and then.

Earlier, I was watching the clip of Susan Sarandon slapping a pig while on stage during an Of Montreal performance (video below). Was that your idea?

Yeah, it was just kind of a joke because a friend of ours was friends with her son. She could be this harsh school teacher that disciplined the pig characters for biting, and it was one of those surreal moments where what could have been just a funny idea somehow becomes reality.

Were you on stage at that point?

I was a pig, yeah. I didn't get spanked. Sometimes you give the lead character role to someone else so that you can enjoy it more. You can actually see it.

Where do you draw your inspiration for these stage performances and for the album covers you design?

draw a lot, I'm just always drawing, and so if you're always drawing and you're also reading and watching things, somehow it just all blends together naturally. There's definitely a comic book superhero influence for sure. I would definitely prefer it if everyone wore costumes all the time. False Priest, the album cover is kind of based on the idea of a false priest, which dosen't have to be religious. It can just be anyone that pretends to be something that they're not. If you meet a fish that's wearing a gas mask, then he's lying about something because fish would never need a gas mask. Maybe he's not a fish (laughs), or...

Have you ever had any ideas for performances that were just too crazy to carry out?

I have a friend that is a hairstylist, and so I had him save the hair for like two weeks. So, I had three garbage bags filled with hair, and I wanted to drop it onto the audience. The joke was kind of like, "Do you like flowers?" and every one's like, "Yea," like super excited that flowers are about to fall down, and then it's like, "Too bad, you get hair." And then hair drops down. We asked our lawyer about it, and he sent us a letter that I actually still have that's really funny..."Under no circumstances do you drop human hair on the audience." It was just a liability. It wasn't until after it was like no, it's not happening, and I kind of felt some of the hair and realized, "Oh, this is pretty disgusting." I got these weird little boxes and just put a little bit of hair in each box, and threw the boxes up so that it didn't get on them. It was not symbolic or intelligent in any way. It wasn't even really a prank. Sometimes ideas like that are just funny.

How would you describe the general vibe of False Priest compared to other Of Montreal albums?

Definitely more influence by '70s funk bands I would think. Kevin was just listening to a lot of that at the time. And there are some pretty heavy -- like the last song is the darkest ending to any of the records, which is basically God kind of apologizing for the Old Testament, basically -- for the idea that humans should worship God, so God's basically saying, "I was wrong...you guys should start worshiping each other as human beings and take care of each other, and if you're going to put your ideology above your brothers and sisters, you're going to hurt them for your ideology, then that's not right."

Do you think that message is more poignant now with the Tucson shootings?

I don't know if it's any more relevant now. I mean, people die all the time, and every now and then the nation cares about someone dying, but you know, people are being cruel to each other every single second of the day...I went to a Catholic school, so I tend to poke fun at not religion but organized religion in the sense that it's so stuffy, and there are so many rules and the rules are very arbitrary...

Did you and your brother go to the same Catholic school? I went for all four years; he went for, he couldn't even make it through a year so then he went to public school.

Was that an influence behind False Priest?

Probably not Catholic high school, but definitely we grew up in a Catholic household, and so, it definitely effects you. I'm kind of obsessed with the concept of God and religion, I suppose.

What do your parents think?

They're pretty religious, but they're also super supportive. There are certain things we've done on stage that my mom will be -- my mom especially will be like, "Ohh no, why did you do that?" But they're super super supportive and always have been. And my dad's like a business man, so he has this really funny outlook on it where it's like, "I don't understand half of what you guys do, but it appears to be working."

Video, as promised: Susan Sarandon Spanks a Pig

2011-05-04 - AOL Original

Of Montreal's Art Director David Barnes Gets 'Weird' With New Book

• Posted on May 4th 2011 12:00PM by Jill Langlois

Courtesy of David Barnes

Of Montreal not only just released the new EP 'thecontrollersphere,' but the Athens, Georgia-based musical magicians also put out a book by way of David Barnes, the band's resident art director who's also the brother of frontman Kevin.

With packaging and both cover and stage art under his belt, Barnes decided to tackle books, too, releasing 'What's Weird?' last week alongside of Montreal's record.

"I wrote stuff in it, but it's not telling a story," Barnes tells Spinner. "It's more something that you could just open up every day for a year, I would hope, and if you just looked for a second, you'd find something new; it's pretty dense because I draw so small.

Courtesy of David Barnes

"I always imagined that I would do a children's book -- that's just my style. But it's sort of the thing where what I wanted to draw wasn't always appropriate for children. With children's books, you start to think, 'Well, I have put out some things that are inappropriate for children.' And so you wonder if that would affect that, like, if you've ever drawn boobs, you can never draw children's books."

But Barnes says he'd still like to write a children's book -- assuming he hasn't been blacklisted by the book police, that is -- which makes sense, since he loves juxtaposition in his work.

"My favourite thing is taking two things that aren't related and putting them together. I don't know why I find that so much fun. But, I guess, that's kind of the basis of comedy," he says.

"Anything kind of anthropomorphic is kind of good -- any time you can take a part of an animal and attach it to a human. You can spend a lifetime drawing variations on the centaur; it's a man and a squid; it's a man and an eagle."

And Barnes has been working on another odd pairing for his next book.

"It's a graphic novel about a pregnant football player who's kind of dumb and never really says how he got pregnant -- that's not really important. But he's just such a good kickoff returner that no one makes fun of him about it," he says.

"But then also going on in the story is a secondary story of his unborn child, and it takes place in this sort of sci-fi fantasy world. It's based on the idea of what goes on in a foetus' mind. It can't just be blank; there must be something happening. It's the idea that foetuses are on this journey in their minds to reach being born."

2008-11-21 - Paste

Catching Up With... David Barnes, Of Montreal's secret weapon
By Steve LaBate on November 21, 2008 1:00 PM


Kevin Barnes is responsible for the music of Of Montreal, but his brother, visual artist David Barnes is a major factor in the band's aesthetic concept. David has worked on everything from T-shirts and posters to the band’s mind-boggling stage show and trippy album art, including the groundbreaking packaging for Of Montreal’s latest release, Skeletal Lamping (pictured above). While working on our November cover story, Paste associate editor Steve LaBate sat down with David for some insight into his work and relationship with his brother.
Paste: Having done so many of the album covers and so much of the poster art, your work has been tied to Of Montreal for so many years. What do you feel is your creative role in Of Montreal?
David Barnes: I guess I’m just an extension of it. I always think of music and all the other arts tying in together, music being the great unifier. It’s very rare that you meet anyone who makes anything, creatively, who doesn’t listen to music while doing it. From sculptors to painters to—well, I’m not sure about writers, they might need to concentrate more, but at least when they’re not writing, I’m sure they cool down while listening to music. So, I guess I think of it as an extension of that—I’m drawing these pictures and painting these pictures that I thought of while listening to Of Montreal.

Paste: So the art you do to accompany the band’s work, you’re usually listening to a piece of music from the band while you’re doing it?
Barnes: Yeah. Usually by the time the record comes out I’m as sick of it as Kevin is because I listen to it five times in a row while I’m painting, especially when I first get it, when I’m still super excited about it, and trying to figure out all the little nuances. Sometimes when you’re painting, you stop paying attention to what you’re listening to, so if it’s a new song, you’ll listen to the first two lines and then kind of blank out and be like, “Shit, I missed the third line,” so you go back and listen to it again. But, yeah, I definitely listen to it a lot, even if what I’m painting has nothing to do with the music. But I tend to do that with all types of music while I’m working, and ruin it for myself by listening to it too much in a row.

Paste: Do you focus on the lyrics or more just the feeling you’re getting?
Barnes: I’m definitely a lyric person. I know lyrics more than I would know the nuances of the bass part. But I don’t necessarily use the lyrics specifically while working on art for an album; this artwork is more of a feeling than literally taking the lyrics and translating them.

Paste: Tell me about these cool new packaging ideas for Skeletal Lamping and how all of that came about, and what you’ve created for that.
Barnes: Originally, Kevin, Nina [Barnes, Kevin's wife] and I were talking about how the CD as an art form is dying, packaging is dying. I think there will always be people who have a fondness for the LP—collectors and stuff, but that’s so limited. Especially young people, I think, are getting their music straight from the computer and putting it right on their iPods, and so album artwork as a product is dying out. It’s running that risk, so we were thinking, “How could we save it?” When you buy a CD, it usually ends up on the floor of your car. One thing that really hit me was when I stepped on [The Beatles’] Let it Be CD in my car and cracked the case, and I love that album but I just stepped on it, and I wondered how many people are stepping on my artwork, just because they throw it down on the floor and they pick it up and put it on their computer or put it on a spindle at best, and then the CD gets thrown aside eventually, so we were like, “What if it became something else? Like a different product?” A CD case doesn’t do anything for you, really—the best-designed ones are like little books, so you think, “I want to keep this. I’ll put this on my book shelf.” But then we were thinking we could transform it into something else, so once you took the music out of it, it still had a life of its own.

Originally, we were thinking it’d turn into a lantern that you could hang from your ceiling, being literal [about the album title]. It seemed like it’d be an easy transformation, but I just spent days and days with posterboard, doing all this amateur geometry, trying to figure out how to get this big lantern to still fit into a CD. The whole idea was that it could still fit it into a CD, we wanted it to be in the CD stores, so it had to fold into that 5 x 2.4 dimension square or whatever. That was the original idea, but I kept making all these prototypes, and they didn’t seem—even with me and Nina working on the artwork at the same time, and even knowing that the artwork was gonna go on it, it still seemed like, I don’t know, just this big square/rectangle. My big break with it was when I realized that I was literally thinking inside the box, I was literally making a box. Once I realized that, I just kinda went, “Oh, God, it doesn’t have to be a square!” and in like two hours I came up with this beast kind of shape that it’s become now, and then I put in all this artwork I’d been working on, and then Nina took my artwork and put it on her computer and made her version of the exact same images and then added in all of her different stuff. So it was a really fun process. Nina and I hadn’t really collaborated, we’d done some stuff like, “You do the front cover of the 7-inch, and I’ll do the back cover,” but this was the first time that we were really passing things back and forth to each other, and that was really nice. So we ended up doing a lantern also, but it didn’t have to fit inside the CD parameters, so it’s bigger.

Paste: Kevin had mentioned the idea of this multimedia barrage to accompany the album—various happenings, a play, a book you were working on. Is the book still happening?
Barnes: Yeah. All of this stuff just took on a life of its own, and [the band’s label] Polyvinyl has been great. They’ve been working really hard to make all this stuff that we’ve been asking them to make, and we tend to be like, “Lets make this! Let’s make these wall decals!” And they’ll be like, “OK, fine.” But then they actually have to find the company to make them, and they have to crunch all the numbers. So once all this finally dies down, we’ll be able to start the second wave, which will be this book, which is this sketchbook sort of thing.

Paste: Inspired by the album?
Barnes: No, just stuff from throughout my whole life. I thought it was a funny idea for your very first book to be a retrospective on your life’s work, but it’s your first book that you’ve published, so no one has seen any of the stuff before.

Paste: How far back does it go?
Barnes: Well, if I get this box—my great aunt just died recently, and she was the one who encouraged me to draw when I was little, and she saved everything. She had a box full of drawings from when I was like 5, and so we’re trying to get a hold of that box. If I do, it could go back really far.

Paste: When would it come out? Right after the album? Or will it be a while?
Barnes: It shouldn’t take too long, I don’t think. It’s another huge project for Polyvinyl because they’ve never made a book before, but hopefully we’ve given them so many ‘we’ve never made this before’ requests that they’ll have had practice for that sort of thing.

Paste: You’ve been drawing since you were a kid. What was it like growing up with Kevin? Were you both very artistic at a young age? Did you do projects together all the way back when you were kids?
Barnes: Like all brothers, when you’re really young you’re friends and you hang out, and then it reaches a point when the older brother hates the younger brother but the younger brother always wants to hang out with the older brother. So there was a lot of me trying to hang out with him, and in return getting him sitting on top of me giving me a typewriter on my chest or something like that. When we were really young we put on a lot of plays. We saw the Little Shop of Horrors in the movie theater—the second one, with Rick Moranis—and I remember writing and putting on our own version of it for my aunt right when we got home. As we got older, he started playing music like most kids do—because it’s cool and you’re listening to heavy metal, and you want to be in heavy-metal band. But then, at some point, it turns into art. You know, I always drew, my whole life, but it was just drawing, kind of like playing with toys, and I drew battle scenes and things like that, but [Kevin] was the first one who turned me on to the idea that “No, this is actually something important that you’re doing, and it’s called art and you’re an artist.”

Paste: Was he a pretty big influence on you in that way?
Barnes: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I would go to his shows, his open-mic nights, at a little coffee shop with five people. So I’ve been listening to him since—I think I have literally every piece of music he’s ever recorded. At least on tapes.

Paste: I caught Of Montreal’s set at the Langerado Festival earlier this year, and I was really blown away by the part where Kevin was wheeled out, almost naked, in a coffin full of shaving cream. I asked Kevin about it, and he said it goes back to this thing you used to do in college at FSU. Tell me a little about the shaving cream monster.
Barnes: I would go door-to-door, and one of my friends would have a video camera and we would just wander around apartment complexes with me in the shaving cream, and knock on doors, and the person with the camera would be across the street, zooming in, and so you couldn’t hear what the people were saying, you would just see this weird shaving-cream monster go door-to-door and the different reactions from people who would open it for a split second and them slam the door and you’d hear this bolt lock. And some people would be stoned or something—like, five guys with long hair would walk out and be like, “Oh, man what’s going on?”

Paste: Was the shaving-cream monster inspired by anything in particular, or was it just a crazy, random idea?
Barnes: I don’t remember. Maybe I was just shaving, and messing around in front of the mirror and put it all over my face, and I thought it looked funny, and then realized, “Oh, God, you could put it all over your whole body.” But I tried to re-create the human torch, and I put red shaving cream in it not realizing that it would dye my skin, and so I had to go to class the whole next week with like a slightly inhuman red color.

Paste: A lot of stuff like this gag has translated to the band’s live show. I was talking to Kevin about how, since the band has more of a budget now, things have changed. I remember seeing Of Montreal play at a little bar in the suburbs of Charleston in 2003, and [former drummer] Jamey Huggins was out front sewing costumes before the show. But now that you have more of a budget to work with, what has it been like to have a little more freedom to try these different things as the band has gotten bigger? And also, there’s this parade of what seem like these weird non sequiturs during Of Montreal shows—hair in a box, weird masked creatures. Do you think this is fitting for the music?
Barnes: I think so. It definitely fits some sort of spirit of this—there’s never a visual idea where it’s like, “Hey, Kevin I was thinking about doing this,” and he’s like, “No, don’t do that.” So if you come up with a weird idea and you’re willing to make it happen, then it will happen. That’s what’s really fun because a lot of times I don’t really know what’s going to happen. If we go to a festival and we haven’t been on tour for like a month then it’s like, “Oh, God, we have a show tonight.” So we grab a bunch of stuff and right before the show, we’re like, “OK, so what are we gonna do?” And we’ll say, “Alright, you come out and do this, and maybe I’ll be there to do this when you do that…” So it’s really fly by the seat of your pants, which I think is fun. We were thinking of getting dancers for this tour, but then we were thinking, “Dancers are going to want to know exactly what to do, and where it’s gonna be and when it’s gonna happen. But if we get creative, weird people that are willing to do anything, then that’s sets it more up so that anything could happen." On stage, live that person might do something that makes me think of something, so then I do it, and then someone else thinks of something, so it’s definitely that free form versus strict, choreographed live performance.

Paste: What do you have planned out for this tour?
Barnes: We’re gonna be bringing a couple more people with us just to be performers on stage, just because it gets kind of lonely out there when it’s just me. There are limited things you can do by yourself, but once you have two or three people then those people can start interacting. One of things we wanted to do—we were thinking of silent film and how that’s basically just music and people interacting and doing things, and you kind of understand what they’re doing and it’s kind of funny and you seem some emotion, but it doesn’t necessarily have to fit the music. And we have some pretty advanced ideas for the actual stage setup, where the stage will be a character, so it’s this revolving set in the middle of the stage where the insides of it can be changed constantly. So while one thing is up front, people can be changing what’s inside the back part of it, and it flips around and the stage completely changes.

Paste: Is that something you’re going to have to build also?
Barnes: No, luckily Nick Gould, the guy who does our projection, him and Dan, the sound guy, and Davey, the bass player, are all really handy, so they’re going to build it. If I built it, it would fall apart in two days.

Paste: What’s the age difference between you and Kevin?
Barnes: Two-and-a-half years.

Paste: At what point did you start accompanying the band more or less full time on the road?
Barnes: Well, I used to go in the very beginning, while I was on summer break from college. But we had no money and all of our props were made of paper. It was more of an excuse for me to travel, and I’d just get up on stage and do some silly things. Then, two years ago, it kind of started for the same reason. I was like, “I wanna go on tour!” Kevin was like, “Alright, but you have to do something.” So I said, “OK, I’ll go on stage, I guess.” And that was funny for me because I’m a painter, and I realized that I’m a performance artist, too, now. But it really just came out of like, “I wanna travel around, I wanna go to Europe and New York.” But now I really like it, at first I definitely wasn’t—being on stage wasn’t something I felt comfortable with; I was pretty terrified doing it. So I always wore masks because that gives you a certain type of strength, and you’re kind of hidden. And now that’s just sort of become a permanent thing, but now I really enjoy it. And I love—especially with me and Kevin, I don’t know that people would really notice other than us, but there are times on stage when things sort of slow down and we’ll just start interacting with each other and read each other’s minds. It’ll be like, “I’m gonna do this and I hope that he’s gonna do this next, and it just seems like he reads my mind, or vice-versa. He’ll move over and I’ll think he’s going to something, so I’ll go over there and it works out. Those are the really amazing times.

Paste: So you guys have this connectedness, having spent so much time together.
Barnes: My family always says we cheat at Pictionary, because of that connection.

Paste: One more question for you. Were you the ninja onstage at the Langerado show?
Barnes: Yeah. I love that suit now. Whenever we go on tour and I take the suit out—because I’m really big into comic books, so it’s perfect for me. The only way it would be better is if I was actually fighting crime after the show.

2005-04-29 - (source unknown)

John Lennon in the College Tower
April 29, 2005 -
Interview With Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes.

In the Pulse next week you might only get to read one fourth of this so here it is:
It is impossible task to briefly sum up Of Montreal in a small blurb. They are the dignity of American pop music in the new millenium. Kevin Barnes is the wunderkind behind the songs, and the sole performer for most of the last two albums, 2004's Satanic Panic In The Attic and April's The Sunlandic Twins. They are playing at Lamar's on Wednesday. Kevin let me call him while riding through Illinois.

How is the tour going?
--> It’s been wonderful

Sounds like a pretty exhausting tour.
--> Hopefully it won't be exhausting, it’s definitely long.

So how do you feel The Sunlandic Twins has been received as you go out to tour for it now?
--> It seems to be really, really well received. People have been dancing like crazy. There's been a really fun dance party every night. We've been playing some much larger audiences and people have been singing along. Yeah, it's been great.

How do you feel about The Sunlandic Twins in relation to previous Of Montreal albums?
--> I feel happy with it. I feel happy with all our records though, so I don't really have a favorite.

What was your introduction to electronic instrumentation for Of Montreal like? Your first album and this one are definitely two different sounds.
--> Well I used to be really uptight. I could only use things that were done in the Sixties and earlier. I wouldn't give anything modern a chance, till the last three or four years. I sort of got more into what my contemporaries were doing, becoming more influenced by it. I guess that's probably the reason it took me so long to get into it but now I'm having a lot fun working in it- though it’s not really electronic. I don't really consider The Sunlandic Twins an electronic
album. There are some characteristics that are similar [with electronic music] like the programmed drums and stuff. It’s still very much rooted in the Sixties and Seventies.

So that kind of answers my next question, do you consider Of Montreal a band whose influences are rooted in a certain decade?
--> Not really. Just one or two in particular. Our roots, or whatever you want to say, would be in Sixties pop. Just because that was such a great time period for pop song writing. People were breaking all the rules and taking a lot of chances, being more adventurous in the studio. There was this great epoch. That's definitely the main driving force. We're also into the Seventies songs, some weird stuff like krautrock. And into the Eighties, the synth-pop movement, all the angular guitar stuff. So we like everything.

What is the recording process like when you do an album mostly by yourself?
--> It’s putting on the headphones, starting with some idea like a rough structure, and laying down some sort of skeleton of the song. Then it’s overdubbing and watching the thing come to life. Usually I have some idea of how I want it to be, but it just comes together in this organic way over time, working on it every day, ten hours a day.

I spent two hours trying to figure out the chords to Eros Entropic Tundra. Your chord progressions seem to be endless. Where do they come from? Is there a moment where they click in your head? Where is the inspiration?
--> I'm always trying to come up with something that is unpredictable for the listener. I try to avoid clichéd resolutions. If it’s so obvious that the melody line will resolve in this way, then I try to fight that. So maybe that makes for more interesting progressions.

One thing that that does is helps the music form a narrative apart from the lyrics. It’s like the music is going somewhere so the lyrics don't always have to tell the story. There's a lot of instrumental stuff on The Sunlandic Twins, do you consider that stuff to be part of the narrative you’re telling as well?
--> Oh definitely. The goal with an instrumental is to hopefully take the listener some place different. To do the same thing that you would do with lyrics but in a different way. You can create an atmosphere. In a lot of ways it’s more potent and more powerful then something with words. With lyrics you’re automatically sent somewhere specific but with an instrumental everyone can have a different experience or hear something different. Its less linear I guess.

Does the word indie mean anything to you in the context of music genres?
--> To me it's the best possible term to use. You’re independent of the machine; you’re free to do what you want. There are no restrictions, there’s nothing to lose. It’s totally liberating.

So you would justify that as a fitting term for Of Montreal?
--> Yeah definitely. But a lot of people probably have their own connotations. That's what it means to me.

Your shows are pretty exciting and dramatic. How do visual arts and other art forms influence your music or your performances?
--> For the live shows, it’s just that we want to give something different to the audience. We don't just want to get up there in our street clothes and play the songs. We just want to put on a show and want it to be exceptional. We want people to leave saying "Wow that was interesting, I've never seen anything like that before". We just don't want to be producing anything boring.

Your brother’s [David Barnes] album art is always very stylized. What kind of influence does he have on the music as an artist?
--> I sort of bounce ideas off of him. When I was recording the last two records, we were living together in the same house. I'd play stuff for him and get his input. On the new record he told me to change a lot of the lyrics and I think it was good advice. The lyrics that I had settled on weren't that great, maybe they were too generic or something. He was thinking, "Your music is good, maybe you should try and work harder on the lyrics", and so I did. I was happier with the end result than what I thought I had finished before.

How were your intentions with this record different than they might have been with Satanic Panic in the Attic?
--> With The Sunlandic Twins, at least the first half, I wanted to make something that was really dancy, sort of disco. But intelligent disco with some interesting changes, something that would create a party atmosphere. The second half I wanted to be a little bit darker, a little bit more instrumental. With Satanic Panic, I didn't really go into it with a strong idea like "I want this record to be just like this". It just evolved in its own way in its own time. It’s difficult to answer that question. When it’s done, it’s done and this is the character it has, but I don't really start off with a really strong vision or a mission. I just see what happens.

Your arrangements are so intricate and lush, what is the arranging process like for you?
--> It's kind of like the process I was describing before. I have a song on the acoustic guitar or piano and I lay down the basic tracks and then the arrangement is all the overdubbing. Once I put down the basic tracks and the vocals, then I think "What’s it missing?" or “What could really give each song an interesting character or personality?" That's what the arrangement process is, one piece at a time, like putting together a puzzle.

Is there a moment where you sit back and say “That's it. The songs over. That's what I want”, or is it a continuous process?
--> Definetely. I reach that point with every section. I kind of dissect [the song] section by section- the first verse, second verse, bridges, intros, outros. I look at them as separate sections within the whole piece. Once I'm satisfied with every single section, then the songs done.

How do you record bass? Because the bass on the last two albums sounds so full and McCartneyish.
--> I have a Rickenbacker with flat wound strings. I don't mic it. I go direct into my mic preamp. That goes into the board and then that goes into either my tape machine or a computer. I don't really EQ it very much. I compress it a little bit. I just want to get a really direct sound that has a lot of definition and is not very bassy because I don't like super bassy bass. I don't like sub-bass. I play the bass like a guitar and I treat the bass like you would a guitar, a solo instrument. Bass lines are something that I really labor over. We always have, when Derek was the bass player he would do it. And anytime anyone does bass, we take the bass very seriously.

Who is playing bass with you on this tour?
--> On this tour it is Matt Dawson.

So Nina is at home with your new baby?
--> Yeah.

Congratulations.
--> Thank you.

Is it a he or a she?
--> A she. Her name is Alabee.

Hence, the name of the song [“So Begins Our Alabee”]. The song “Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games” is one of the more minimal tunes on the album, was it a struggle to keep such a catchy tune that low key? Or was it even a question?
--> Yeah. I haven't really worked that way. I usually overload every song with a million overdubs. With that one, it just had so much room to breathe. I thought was cool to be sort of laid back, sort of funky. That enabled me to sing in that breathier style. I didn't have to shout over that mix. So I kind of wanted it be sort of sleek and sexy.

I can only imagine that people are really loving that tune live.
--> It’s been really fun. It’s cool because I can take the guitar off and dance around a bit. Most of the song is just bass, drums, and vocals, so everyone can move around and get the crowd hyped up. So that's a real fun number to play.

Do you still have a day job?
--> No.

How long has it been since you did?
--> About two years.

Is that long Of Montreal has been on Polyvinyl records?
--> Same amount of time.

So has that experience with that record label been really good?
--> Yeah it has been wonderful. It’s been by far the best experience, they just do everything properly. With most labels, you wonder how the hell they stay in business. It’s just idiotic the way a lot of labels operate. So Polyvinyl is on top of things and really up front. So yeah, it has been great.

What kind of jobs did you hold before you the freedom to quit a day job?
--> I had a ton of jobs, silly things, like working in video stores, telemarketing. Things like that, temporary work that was noncommittal so I could leave, go away on tour and stuff.

What are the three best feeling you've ever felt?
--> You mean, like three best experiences?

Sure.
--> Feeling true love, feeling really satisfied with an experience- like you have something that's really successful, it was very successful, it was exceptional, what a surprise… And also great heartbreak. You couldn't really call it a good feeling but at the same time it's a different sort of feeling that makes you feel alive in a way that you don't often feel.

If Of Montreal were to be a cover band, who would they cover?
--> Os Mutantes.

What comes after this tour?
--> Hopefully more of the same. I have a whole bunch of songs in my head already that I want to start recording. We're going to do some more touring in August and September. Actually it looks like we're going to be able to go to Japan in September. Do some more touring in Europe in September and October. More touring, more recording, more productivity.

Is the community of musicians in Athens still as strong as it used to be?
--> I think so, I've withdrawn from that community but a lot of people are still really active in each others projects.

Does the fact that you've withdrawn have to do with you getting older or starting a family or anything like that?
--> No, I think that it's just in my nature. Maybe it's getting older, I don't know. I'm not really "older". I'm only thirty so I shouldn't have characteristics of an old person. It’s more just me being satisfied. I'm not really social, so I'm satisfied being at home with Nina and working on stuff. I'm obsessed with being productive. I consider going out wasting time. I'm really boring in that way, single minded. I just like working on things.

So is you being a workaholic the reason Of Montreal has put out so much music in the past ten years?
--> I guess so. I never want to stop. I just want to keep pushing and stay on fire, stay excited.

Is getting old something that frightens you?
--> No not at all, the only thing that frightens me is what other people have gone through. You know? I'm thinking about other people becoming complacent and boring. Like artists. It doesn't happen to everybody but it happens to musicians more than other artists. They just get set in their ways as they get older. That frightens me a little bit. But I guess I'm on top of things, conscious of it and I'm pushing myself. I think that they stop pushing themselves because they get too comfortable or too successful. That's the only thing that I fear about getting older.

What is your method for fighting that? Because it seems like something that even people who feel the same way that you feel succumb to sometimes.
--> I think the most important thing is keeping your ear open. Listening to a lot of what your contemporaries are doing, listening to what the younger kids think, and just staying alert to what's happening. You can't just listen to the same things forever. Then it just becomes really dull, you keep doing the same thing. Staying on top of what new is happening in music, and film, and everything. Just staying inspired by your fellow humans.

What is an example of something new that influences you?
--> Recently, stuff like The Fiery Furnaces, Animal Collective, Carribou.

2005-07-?? - !Earshot

An Interview With Of Montreal
By Bryndis Ogmundson

It is no secret to those who know me, or those who read my column religiously every month, that I LOVE Of Montreal. Last year, Satanic Panic In The Attic was my #1 Album of 2004, and this year I expect that The Sunlandic Twins will take the same spot for 2005. So, it was with absolute pleasure that I was able to do this interview with the Of Montreal mastermind, Kevin Barnes�

!: The Sunlandic Twins is doing very well in Canada, debuting at #7 nationally on our !earshot chart for the month of May. I'm wondering if you know how well it's doing in the States, or if how the album charts is something you even care about?

Kevin: No, it is doing really well actually. On the college charts it's number three, that's where it peaked, and it's been in the top ten for two months.

!: Yeah, it just debuted with us in Canada , it went from nothing to number seven and I'm sure it will go even higher than that.

Kevin: That's awesome!

!: You were one of only three non-Canadian artists in the top ten, which may have something to do with our CanCon thing here. Are you aware of the Canadian Content rule?

Kevin: No.

!: We have something known as CanCon here in Canada , which means that programmers have to play around 35%, or more, Canadian artists. For commercial radio, that means there is a lot of Avril Lavigne and Celine Dion, but it also works in the favour of more indie bands. Do you have any favourite Canadian bands?

Kevin: Oh yeah, there's a lot. I like Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, um�let's see, who else? I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them right now.

!: What are you listening to right now? What's inspiring you to create at the moment?

Kevin: Well, guys like Brian Eno, and Queen, David Bowie, and Talking Heads, Prince. Even some seventies afro-beat stuff, like Fela Kuti.

!: It's funny that you mention Queen. I was listening to Satanic Panic In The Attic this morning and Queen popped into my head.

Kevin: Oh yeah, their sort of vocal acrobatic stuff, I'm really influenced by that.

!: Some of my friends just got back from seeing you perform in Seattle.

Kevin: Oh cool!

!: One of them commented that it was one of the best live shows he's seen. They were actually on their way to the Sasquatch Music Festival the next day. What I want to know is why did you decide not to just hop over the border and play Vancouver?

Kevin: Well, I guess just because it's such a long drive north, and then you just have to drive back south. I mean, I guess I really just don't know how far away it is from Seattle , I don't know, do you know?

!: I think it's about three hours.

Kevin: Oh, it's only three hours, ok. We probably should have done that. (laughter) We played Vancouver once, but it was like early on, so nobody knew who we were.

!: So you're not just banned from Vancouver, sort of like Madonna was.

Kevin: (laughter) Yeah.

(!: I really thought there was a big kafuffle about Madonna being banned from Vancouver with her Blonde Ambition tour, but I couldn't find anything about it after the interview. So my apologies to Madonna, but she was banned in so many other locales that it still seems like an appropriate comment.)

!: That's good. All right, well next time.

Kevin: Yeah yeah, I think we'll definitely try to do it next time.

!: To me, your music has a really great pessimistic-optimistic feeling to it. You celebrate the notion of love wildly, but you retain the ability to be a realist about love as well. My friend and I have been having conversations lately about love. She seems to think it can't last because we are biologically incapable of monogamy. I disagree. I'm like that Blur lyric, "I'm a professional cynic but my heart's not in it". Where do you stand on that?

Kevin: Well, I think it's all a matter of fate in a way. I'm not a fatalist at heart, but I think that to some degree it's sort of true that if you just happen to luck out and the chemistry is so good between you and another person, that it's definitely possible to stay happy with someone. And also I think that because we're always searching for someone we often settle because we get caught up in the moment and get excited about someone that might not necessarily be the ideal match for you. So, that's why a lot of relationships just kind of end after a couple years, or months, or whatever. I definitely believe in true love, I definitely believe that you can be with someone that you can stay with your whole life. Lots of people do it, and they're happy, they're not just codependent or whatever.

!: Exactly. Actually, I just read that you recently did get married.

Kevin: Mmhmm.

!: That's excellent. I'm curious if you did the best indie rock boy thing ever and make a mix tape/cd for your wife when you were wooing her?

Kevin: Oh yeah definitely.

!: Did you! What was on it?

Kevin: Um, there was a whole bunch of stuff like, I put a Robert Wyatt song on. I was trying to think of things that she might not know of, so Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and some Kinks, the more obscure Kinks stuff.

!: I want to talk about your album artwork. It is always so beautifully illustrated, and I know that has a lot to do with your brother David. I actually commissioned him to do a painting for my brother and his wife when they got married.

Kevin: Oh sweet!

!: Yeah, and it was wonderful, it was their favourite gift ever. So I'm curious if you commission him to do the art, or is it something that he enjoys to do, and do you think that makes him part of the band, because he has done the majority of Of Montreal's art?

Kevin: Yeah, sometimes, I think we've paid him a couple times, but normally it's like, "hey Dave, will you do this for me?" and he says, "yeah." It's also a special thing for him to be involved, and it's a special thing for me to have him involved. So it just feels like we're doing something that's really rewarding. So I don't think he expects a big payment and that it's just fine.

!: Your albums are very story-like, have you ever considered doing a children's book with your brother.

Kevin: Yeah, we've definitely talked about it, and he's actually working on one, and it seems like it'd be really really cool. It's so hard because it's so competitive and a lot of people want to do it. And so it's all about having an "in" in some way. So, we actually know this person that I think actually does that, she works at this publishing company that publishes children's books. Yeah, David's been sending her stuff, so hopefully that pans out.

!: That would be excellent. Even if you two did some illustrated adult fiction in the realm of Roald Dahl.

Kevin: Yeah, I love Dahl. Actually, it's funny that you mention him cause he was a pretty big influence on me.

!: I just love his adult fiction, and I think you and your brother could produce something like that.

Kevin: Yeah I love it too; I've read it all.

!: Yeah, it's good stuff. You did a bonus EP of covers, do you think you'd ever do a whole album of covers, or put together a compilation of music the way bands like Flaming Lips and Grandaddy have?

Kevin: You mean that mix tape thing?

!: Yeah, is that something that interests you?

Kevin: That's kind of a funky idea. I was a little bit confused when I first saw that, I saw that Ladytron also did it. It's a cool idea, it's just kind of strange that you're taking other people's songs and then selling it, I wonder how that works. I hadn't really thought about doing that, but I thought about recording a full record of cover songs. That would definitely be fun. It's just a matter of finding the time to do it because we don't really have that much time.

!: Do you guys have a lot of cover songs? Do you perform a lot of cover songs live?

Kevin: Yeah, actually every tour we go on we learn at least one.

!: What are you doing right now?

Kevin: Now we're doing "Alright" by Supergrass. But we also have these two David Bowie covers off of Low .

!: Which ones?

Kevin: "Breaking Glass," and "Be My Wife."

!: Speaking of Flaming Lips, they get invited to do a lot of festivals. I've never seen Of Montreal on a festival line up. Do you ever get offers to play them? Have you done any?

Kevin: I don't know, we haven't been contacted. We've done a lot of University festivals, but we haven't been asked to do any of the big ones.

!: Hmm, yeah I found it weird that you weren't playing the Sasquatch Festival the day after your Seattle show.

Kevin: I think we'd definitely be in to doing festivals.

!: Myself, I prefer the club venue to the festival. I find the club makes for a better show. But it is a good atmosphere at festivals, and you can see 10 great bands in a day.

Kevin: Yeah, the thing that stinks about it is that, the few festivals we have played we have to leave immediately after, so we never get to hang out or watch the other bands.

!: The last show I saw with a bunch of bands was in Vancouver a couple years ago. It was Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Destroyer, and a couple others. And Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips kept coming out on stage during every band's set to check them out. It was cool to see him having fun, but it took away the mystique of having them headline.

Kevin: Destroyer! That's another band I love.

!: Yeah, Destroyer is great. And New Pornographers, do you like them too?

Kevin: Yeah, definitely.

!: What are Of Montreal 's plans for the next year? Is there another album in the works?

Kevin: Oh yeah, Caribou! That's another one. (laughter) Now they're all coming back to me. We're doing a lot of touring actually. We're doing another U.S./Canadian tour. We're going to play Montreal , Toronto and Hamilton again, as well as another three and a half weeks of shows. And then we're going to Japan , and Europe towards the end of the year. Then hopefully we'll have some time off to work on the new record.

!: And celebrate Christmas. (laughter)

Kevin: (laughter) Mmhmm.

!: Thanks so much for talking with me.

Kevin: Oh, thank you!

2005-09-12 - Free Williamsburg

Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal

Interview by Monte Holman

Of Montreal has been putting out smart records since 1997, beginning with Cherry Peel (Bar/None) and prolifically progressing to their latest effort, The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl). Spinning out of the Athens-based Elephant 6 collective, Kevin Barnes has consistently, and constantly, produced sprightly and imaginative recordings.

The Sunlandic Twins is no exception. It takes liberties with traditional song structure and retains a home-recording aesthetic, but this album reels in many of the experimental tangents older songs floated away on. It's tight and danceable, more accessible to the ass-shakers. After bird shit on my shoulder while I was waiting outside the club for the interview with Kevin (he said it was good luck), we sat down and talked about the band.

Go see Of Montreal on this tour if you have the chance. Hands-down the best show we've seen this year. Check out the remaining tour dates at www.ofmontreal.net. Their new record is one of the best of the year.

FREEwilliamsburg: The first time I heard the record, I wanted to turn on the Wizard of Oz without the sound and use The Sunlandic Twins as the soundtrack. Did you go into this album thinking, "this one's going to be cinematic"?

Kevin: I think so. To some degree, that's a goal in all our records, for it to be very visual. I think it'd be great if we found someone who understood what we were doing musically and had a really distinct style, visually, to take the record and make a movie out of it, whether it be animated or live-action stuff. I think it would be a great experience if you could have it on and just listen to the music or turn on the TV and watch the visuals.

FREEwilliamsburg: I love the video the Kangaroo Alliance did for "Wraith Pinned to the Mist."

Yeah, I love it too.

FREEwilliamsburg: It's playful but sort of darkly so, which is another thing I noticed on the record-there's a sort of Shel Silverstein underbelly to an apparent theme of youth.

Kevin: With this one, our influences are a little older-the early records were very gleeful and very childlike and naïve and innocent and sweet. But as I'm growing older, it's becoming impossible not to be influenced by the world. That's sort of filtering through as I'm maturing or whatever.

FREEwilliamsburg: Like you feel like you're becoming a cynic?

Kevin: I'm actually coming through it, I think. I went through a phase of pretty heavy cynicism, but it never really found its way into my music because I feel like the music should be an elevation. It shouldn't become muddled by social diseases you pick up. So I always approach it like escapism. Like this is the personality I wish I had.

FREEwilliamsburg: That comes through, especially in Sunlandic Twins. Lots of make believe. With sharp teeth.

Kevin: (laughs) Right.

FREEwilliamsburg: I read that children like Of Montreal. Do you hear that a lot?

Kevin: It's pretty friendly music. It's not the kind of music where kids are going to be like, "Ew, adults are scary." (laughs) Musically, it's very buoyant, very colorful, and I think kids can identify with that.

FREEwilliamsburg: Your brother, David, who does all the artwork for the band, has a great website (www.thebeewithwheels.com) that you can link to off the Of Montreal site (www.ofmontreal.net)-are you all involved with his site, and is he also involved with the band?

Kevin: The site's totally his thing. And with the band, he's kind of an objective ear. We'll play him something and he'll say, "oh that's cool" or "you should change this or that." He's always there in the creative process, but he doesn't actually play an instrument. He doesn't add any actual music, but he adds these sort of abstract things like, "well, that doesn't really sound right-maybe add a little more, like, lava!" (laughs) And we're like, ok, lava-what would that be?

FREEwilliamsburg: Was creativity encouraged as you and your brother grew up?

Kevin: It's funny because neither of my parents were very artistic, and neither really are my sisters. I have two older sisters. So my brother and I just sort of stumbled upon it and really got excited about art and made it our lives' focus. You can't really trace it back to any specific person. It just happened. We were definitely nurtured in that way, like my dad bought me musical instruments and encouraged me and let me practice my drums in the house.

FREEwilliamsburg: At one point the whole band was living together in the country-how was that?

Kevin: For a brief period, it was wonderful. (laughs) After a while it was just like...too much time together. We were touring together and living together and hanging out together. Living out in the country like that, it's a pain in the ass just to leave the house. You end up spending way more time at home than you would normally. Also, lines were blurred-like people's rolls became confused. Everything was sort of muddled up a bit.

FREEwilliamsburg: Sunlandic Twins was mostly written by you-was it more of a group project back then, when you were all under the same roof?

Kevin: Back then, it was very collaborative. Coquelicot and Aldhil's Arboretum were the two band records that we did where everyone actually contributed a fairly equal amount.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you see things coming back around, or do you like the way it works now with you as the primary writer?

Kevin: We did the last few records pretty much the same way, just sort of layering parts on top of each other, filling it out. But we did a couple recordings together, a 7-inch where every member of the band threw in their own part, and it was fun. It was the first time we'd done that in years. I could see us doing that again, to some extent, probably not a whole record.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you record in Athens?

Kevin: We've always recorded at home. We've always recorded, engineered, mixed, produced, all that stuff, by ourselves. That explains the super lo-fi sound of our records. (laughs) Because we don't know, really, what we're doing. But it's fun to do it that way because you have total creative control-no timeline, really.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you have a preference between recording to tape or doing it digitally?

Kevin: I always used tape until Sunlandic Twins. I only used tape on one song. Everything was on my computer. That was the first time, sort of an experiment. I used to be an analog enthusiast who thought anything digital would just be gross, but then I realized the potential of working in the digital world. You can do so many creative things.

FREEwilliamsburg: You guys are into media and on-tour extras like skits, videos, etc. Are those additives as important as the songs themselves? Like when you're writing the songs, are you also thinking of the possibilities the songs will have with other forms of media?

Kevin: Almost always, I write the song for the song. When we go on tour, we think "what can we do to make this tour special? What can we do to make it visually stimulating as well?"

FREEwilliamsburg: You tour extensively-how do you keep it fresh?

Kevin: The music we're making right now doesn't require too much brain power. (laughs) It's less intellectual. Kind of funkier music, dance music. It's more visceral. It's more fun. It's like being at a dance party every night. Plus, it's really exciting because the response from the audience has been so great. It's so encouraging. It's been amazing-doing such great numbers in places we've never touched upon. We used to be very lucky to have 80 people, and now it's like 480 people.

FREEwilliamsburg: Tonight, for instance, is sold-out (at North 6).

Kevin: Yeah, it's a new development for us. We were laboring away for years and years, (laughs) and no one seemed to give a shit. It's building up in this really cool way, and it's exciting because we feel like we're connecting with the audience more, and they're connecting with the music more.

FREEwilliamsburg: Have the label folks (Polyvinyl) played a part in that?

Kevin: I think the record label has played a big role because they're super artist-friendly, and they're also on top of things like very few labels are. But I also think musically, there's an obvious shift in style, like it goes from very conceptual, bordering on goofy at times, to this new phase, which is a little bit sexier and funkier. I think that people who were turned off by us before, are like "this is Of Montreal? I kinda like this. It isn't so bad." (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Who's on this tour now? Same people as the last album tour?

Kevin: On Satanic Panic in the Attic, Nina, my wife, was playing bass, and now we have a new bass player, Matt. He's been playing with us for over a year now, and he's the only new guy. I've been playing with most of those guys, and girl, for a long time-about seven years or so.

FREEwilliamsburg: Seems like all of you have three or four projects you're involved in. Is Of Montreal everyone's priority?

Kevin: It's been like that. I don't know how long it's gonna last-you can only play someone else's songs for so long. (laughs) Brian has a project, the Late B.P. Helium, that he's going to be involved with. It's great; he's a great songwriter. And Jayme is also a really great songwriter, and he's getting a record together, a couple records, actually, that are going to be released in Sweden. So he's spent a lot of time over in Sweden. It's kind of hard to balance it sometimes, but everyone dedicated themselves, at least for the last year or two, on Of Montreal.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you planning on taking a break after tour or getting back into the studio?

Kevin: Definitely going to get back in the studio as soon as possible. We're going out west again in January. We're going to try to squeeze in as much time in the studio as is possible in between tours.

FREEwilliamsburg: Is the next album written already?

Kevin: Yeah, I've got a majority of it written.

FREEwilliamsburg: You're playing in Montreal tomorrow night.

Kevin: Playing in Montreal is great. Last time was really great. The people there are really nice.

FREEwilliamsburg: Will you ever hear the end of it? I think everything I read about you guys starts with "Of Montreal isn't really from Montreal-hahahahaha."

Kevin: Yeah, you kind of get sick of it. Answering that question. (laughs)

2005-04-13 - WERS.org

WERS.org - Artist Interview: Of Montreal - April 13, 2005

(no longer hosted on the web)

Waiting to record his band’s live mix at WERS, Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes confesses that he was disappointed, touring England for the first time a few years back. He says he romanticized the nation in his head; he imagined a land full of knights and castles and the Beatles.
Instead, he found jet lag, cheap cuisine, and rude taxi drivers. All of these things later found their way into a song on 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic, Of Montreal’s eighth album and their first for Polyvinyl. A critical success, the album heralded an evolution of the band’s sound from the lush, sprawling psychedelia typical of Athens’ Elephant 6 collective, to a new, more streamlined avant-pop. This transition was no doubt made possible partly through a new unity of vision: both Satanic Panic and Of Montreal’s new album, The Sunlandic Twins, were played, written, and recorded by Barnes alone, with merely occasional recourse to other musicians.
In other bands, such a dynamic could be limiting. Not so with Of Montreal. On tour, the band imbues Barnes’ ambitious arrangements with perfect theatrical verve; they perform daubed in glitter, with Nabokov-ian butterflies pinned to their guitars. The Sunlandic Twins continues the tradition of glimmering, propulsive hooks established in Satanic Panic, expanding the sonic palette to encompass influences as diverse as IDM and afrobeat. The songs drive, pull over, and at times meander, through landscapes at once gorgeous and nonsensical, like a canyon lined with daisies. And this, surely, is the key to Of Montreal’s music: it’s an alternative to reality, a place where all romantic expectations are gleefully exceeded.

Where do you get the inspiration for the titles of your records?
Kevin Barnes: That, I can’t really answer. It just sort of happens. This recent one, for a long time, the working title was The Voice of the Vanishing Twin. Because I heard that a lot of women, when their egg is fertilized, they actually have twins for a brief period, and then the one… I don’t know if it eats it necessarily, but it could I guess eat it, but then sometimes it just disappears.

The band name – I’m told it came from being obsessed with a girl from Montreal?
KB: Actually it has more to do with gymnastics. David has to tell the story though.
David Barnes: Do you want me to tell the truth about it?
KB: Tell the truth.
DB: I just don’t want to emasculate you. When Kevin was younger, he was like really into gymnastics. You know, like, boys’ gymnastics. He was actually really good at it; he traveled and competed in out of state meets and stuff. So he went to this competition in Montreal, which was a big deal, and then at the competition, he kind of choked. He was doing the pommel horse, and he fell off of the thing and actually was knocked unconscious for a couple of minutes. Just totally, out of it. And then after that... Kevin what happened?
KB: It was like, too much pressure. I was young.

You claim Montreal in your band name – do you ever get hostility from Canadians who think you’re just repping Canada to be cool?
KB: Yeah. A lot, actually.
DB: It’s just really confusing when we play in Montreal because there are these flyers and it’s like, Of Montreal tonight, in Montreal. And most Montreal people see the word Montreal probably so many times during the day that they just ignore it. Yeah so when we play in Montreal it’s really hard to publicize the gig.
KB: It sucks because a lot of people don’t like local music, so, they won’t go see us play.
DB: They think, Oh, it’s just a bunch of local jokers.

How would you compare the songwriting process when writing an instrumental track as opposed to a vocal track?
KB: I guess, maybe I spend more time on the music, because there’s nothing to distract me from it. Because a lot of time when you’re writing songs with lyrics you want to give the words their own place in the mix, so you probably tend to make things a little bit less busy, but when you’re thinking instrumentally there’s nothing like that.

So your wife’s in the band and I hear your brother does the artwork.
KB: That’s sort of true. Well, she played in the band two tours ago, but we just had a baby recently, so she’s at home. She sings a song on the new record and such. Her spirit can be felt.

Satanic Panic was very well received, from what I gather. What specifically were you trying to achieve with The Sunlandic Twins? Was it a conscious departure in any way?
KB: No, it’s just, I had fun making the electronic stuff on Satanic Panic, and I wanted to push that a little bit further, and experiment more with that genre. Because it seems like there’s this new wave of people just having fun again, and we kinda just want to be a part of it. It’s really fun music to play, and you can see a lot of weird stuff. So I kinda wanted to make an intelligent dance record, you know, that wasn’t just like [sings] “Everybody on the dance floor / Shake your ass for the deejay” or whatever.

-Aaron Ayscough

2008-07-14 - You Ain't No Picasso

An Interview with Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes

July 14th, 2008

Of Montreal’s new record Skeletal Lamping, like the band’s live show, is a take-it-or-leave-it showing of craziness. Songs not only have schizophrenic changes in melody, but are also lyrically at war with themselves from minute to minute. And as you might expect from a group who often perform in dresses, once in the nude and always with makeup, Kevin doesn’t really care what you think. He’s not writing for the fans, he’s not writing to please his label and he surely isn’t writing to please us armchair music critics.

For the first time in over ten years, Kevin Barnes is writing for himself.

This past June I was lucky enough to be invited down to Athens, GA to hear Skeletal Lamping shortly after it was finished. After sitting in silence for about an hour to listen to the record — all the while wishing I’d brought a pen and paper to jot down notes about album (Sparks, Funkadelic and Prince produced by the Dust Brothers?) — Kevin was nice enough talk for a while about a great many things. He shared a lot about his motivation for the new album (the Outback Steakhouse commercial), how his wife gave him the courage to start writing personally again and what it was like to cover his three-year-old daughter’s favorite song.

An Interview with Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes

YANP: Obviously this record is very different from anything you’ve done prior. Was it a conscious decision to move away from the old sound or is that just where your writing took you?
Kevin: For some reason I’ve been gravitating more towards… I mean there’s always going to be more pop sensibilities there because I love pop music, but I try to incorporate different things. Obviously some funk influences and even some hip hop influences.. I feel like I have more in common with contemporary hip hop artists than I do contemporary indie pop artists.

Do you follow any producers?
I always like the stuff that Danger Mouse does, I think he’s awesome. Even like Timbaland’s stuff I think is really cool usually. Pharell, a lot.

Did your time in Norway influence you musically?
Disco is pretty hot over there still. Not like 70s disco, but like club music. Electronic music is big there too. I didn’t really meet anybody or see any bands, but that probably did have an effect on me. You know, that sort of sophisticated electronic music. That definitely played a part. A lot of this record I actually did write and record when I was in Norway last summer, though.

So Skeletal Lamping is a very sexual record. Were those themes in your mind at the time or a part of Georgie Fruit?
It was definitely, for whatever reasons, one of those natural, organic things that just happen. I just was compelled to do that and sing about those things. Those were the things that I’d be singing in the shower and go upstairs and start working on. It wasn’t anything premeditated (laughs).

Is the full album supposed to be taken as fully from Georgie Fruit’s point of view or just occasional bits?
I don’t even separate them in my mind. the Georgie Fruit character is not separate from Kevin Barnes. I can’t really say “oh that was just this role I was playing,” because it’s just a part of my personality. All of it is just a part of me anyways.
Have you seen the documentary This Film Not Yet Rated? No.
It’s about the MPAA and how they focus more on sex rather than violence in movies...
It’s a weird thing. A lot of people think about that: why is sex so dangerous? Why is it a frightening concept.
Well it seems handled differently in this record. All your characters seem comfortable with sex.
Definitely. You should be comfortable.
When I make a record, I try not to let the world in. It’s kind of me in my own little island in my head. The only reason you’d ever feel insecure is from worrying how other people would perceive you; and if you’re the only person in the world, you’ll be totally secure.
Do you still do most of the instruments on the record?
I did basically everything on this record myself. There’s some cello and one song where basically everyone in the band plays something.
I picked up on a couple songs you’ve been playing live for a while. Did anything change in “Softcore” or “Our Last Summer as Independents?”
Some lyrics changed and some new melodic parts were added to Last Summer, but Softcore was basically done when we performed it last summer. We didn’t really change anything.

Was creating this album more about linking melodic sections together or about seeing where the song goes?
Some of the things that seemed to flow better were probably ones where I would make one section and then use that as inpiration for the next section and then use that. And then some of the stuff I just tried to piece together in a collagey sort of way. It’s a very collagey sort of record.
A lot of stuff is me intentionally putting two things together that weren’t written with each other in mind, so it’s kind of awkward when they’re next to each other. But I liked that when I stared doing that. It’s cool because you don’t expect that. Like I said in the blog, a lot of the time you can finish the artists’ sentences. That’s obvious. That’s obvious. It’s always obvious. At times it can be great, but I didn’t want to make anything obvious. I wanted to surprise the listener.

Listening to the album for the first time was so strange. There were parts that would sound really good, and I’d be thinking “yeah, keep that going,” but it always switches before you’re ready. It’s like musical denial.
I think that’s why it has a lot in common with Coquelicot, because nothing is really extended. Even though something might be really cool and you’re like “oh, I wish that would go on longer,” it never goes on longer. It’s always replaced by something new. That could be potentially be frustrating for some people if they like something, but hopefully they’ll go back and listen to it again.

The record kind of feels like … when it starts, the first maybe fifteen minutes are kind of conventional and makes sense but then when you get in the heart of it, that’s when it becomes more dense and more complicated.
Yeah. It’s one of the more forward songs on the record, but ends in that great whirl of layers. It’s a great first song for the record.
Actually, it was intended to be the last song and then everyone was like “man, you should put that first” because it’s the most different as far as coming out of Hissing Fauna into that song. The second half is sort of abrasive…
Yeah… [Laughs] Sorry, I’m still trying to process the record.
I understand. It’s like seeing this complicated movie just one time and then you’re like “God… and then that one part!” You can’t photograph music in your mind like you can with movies. With movies you have all these other things that are being recorded in your mind like dialogue, images and emotional memories and things like that. With music, you don’t have any sort of visual photographs.

Does doing music for movies interest you at all?
It would, if I could get into the movie. It’s weird, because with that stuff — unless the movie’s already done and you’re making music to it — it seems difficult if someone was like “well here’s what I want, make music to it.”

I remember reading how Leone extended the opening scene in Once Upon a Time in the West because he didn’t want to edit down the song Morricone had written for it.
Oh, nice.

What will you remember when you look back at this album?
I think that… I think it really was inspired by the commercial backlash when I was getting a lot of backlash from the Outback Steakhouse commercial. I think it did influence me as far as like “I’ll show them I’m not a sell-out. I’ll show them how talented I am…. I can’t be marginalized. I have a lot of value”
I’d never had to deal with that before because we were always so underground. It was a weird thing to face. You can only have backlash if you have success and we’d never really had success, so I’d never had to deal with backlash. So I definitely think that played a part psychologically in the making of the record.

Who confuses who more: you or your fans?
I definitely am not confused by my fans. It’s hard to tell if people are fans.. because a fan is a temporary thing in a lot of cases. People will enjoy a thing and then get bored with it and move on to something else. So does that make them less of a fan when they were a fan? It’s kind of like love in a weird way: when you break up with someone, does that completely undermine what you experienced together and the good times you had just because you’re not together now?
Dealing with criticism is confusing when you put out records. It can be really distracting and weird. I remember when I put out my very first record, Cherry Peel, I was so excited and so full of the joy of making music and sharing it with the world. It got so many bad reviews that I read that I was like Oh man, the world is a bitch, you know?

Were the escapism and fictional characters in the Gay Parade and Coquelicot reactions to that?
Definitely. In a way, it was to protect myself. I’m not going to make myself vulnerable. …But then those records got bad reviews too (laughs)

When did you make the switch to being comfortable writing about yourself again?
I guess when I got married. I’d always been single. I was basically celibate all through my mid-20s, I never dated anyone and kind of lived in this fantasy world. When I met Nina, she somehow gave me this great sense of empowerment. I have this great person at my side and that’s all I need. I don’t need the rest of the world’s approval as long as I have this one person who believe in me and supports me. It’s funny how that works. Having my brother, having Nina — that’s all I need. If they say “man, you’re doing some good stuff” then I know my work has value.

I caught the “I wish David was here” lyric in new record. That’s really great. I love how you summed all that up in Du Og Meg: “his thoughts were not just rubbish.”
It seemed like that was almost what I needed. Because I had gone through this period of being disconnected emotionally. My emotional world was not really finding itself within my artistic production.
Was that frustrating?
I had become really cynical. In the back of my mind — even though it sounds dreadful — trying to figure out a way to reach people and to have a song that actually mattered to people and wasn’t just throwaway bullshit. I felt like a lot of stuff I had done, just because I wasn’t selling records, I thought “well these songs must not be very good because nobody’s into them and they’re not resonating with people.” But then once I gave up on that, organically it all just worked out and people started caring about us and we started reaching a larger audience.
Was it a coincidence that stylistic chances match up for the ability to be more personal?
There was a weird, almost fascist state of mind in the Elephant 6 collective, at least from my perspective. There were sort of these rules to keep it analog, keep it 60s and 70s. There are sort of unspoken rules in a weird way and I was so influenced by those guys. They weren’t dictating these things, but that’s what they were into and I was so smitten.
But I wanted to branch out. I wanted to do different things. I felt a bit nervous, you know, about drum programming and using midi instruments because those were definitely off limits within that clique. Or at least no one did it and it was not respected. You had to actually be able to physically be able to do it.
Then I realized that was holding me back and I really wanted to explore this other kind of music. We all lived in a house together and I moved out of that house and into a house with Nina and my brother. Then I didn’t have anyone in my immediate space who could influence me. Everyone in my immediate surroundings was very positive and very supportive and everyone wanted me to try something new.
Who all did you live with before moving in with your brother and Nina?
The whole band was living in like a big house together out in the country for a couple years. it sort of became an entropic sort of thing: fighting over stupid things, living in this insular environment that was far enough from Athens that you didn’t really want to leave the house. Even though it was positive at times and we definitely had good times together, I felt smothered by it. If I was going to make a recording by myself where I’d play the bass, Derek would be like “what’re you doing, man?” and if I did drums, Jamie would be like “when am I going to play?” So it was good for me to get out of that and into my own world. Because before I met those guys I used to do everything myself. In high school, that was my great escape from the harsh realities of life: just put on the headphones and lose yourself in the creative process. And when you’re collaborating with a lot of people, you can’t really do that as easily. There’s a lot of compromising that goes on and a lot of political stuff you have to deal with. When you get alone and do it by yourself, I get a great surge of energy that I’d been holding inside for so long. And finally when there was no one to tell me no or to tell me “do it this way” or whatever, it was like an explosion of creativity and I still feel like I’m kind of riding that wave.

Are you writing more songs because of it?
When you’re working with a bunch of people, there are a lot of schedules that you have to deal with. But when you’re doing it by yourself, then it’s whenever you feel like it — which for me is all the time — I just go and work, I don’t have to say “oh, I have to wait for Derek to get off his shift at the coffee shop” to do the bass line, I just do the bass line … I do six bass lines! (laughs)

Has music ever felt like work?
For me, the process is what’s exciting. Listening to the record when it’s done is exciting for a little bit, but I never listen to my old records and I don’t really like playing most of the old songs. So this record is new and it’s kind of exciting to listen to but in a couple months I’m not going to want to listen to it and I’m going to want to do something new.

Is that why you like to debut new material live?
It takes so long for a record to come out — it takes five or six months usually — that I have half a new album recorded.
So I wanted to ask you about Arlene… [Kevin's guitar has "Arlene" scratched into it]
I was living in Minneapolis. When I got out of high school, I moved around a lot trying to find people to play with and I’d heard Minneapolis had a scene. I just happened upon this used guitar shop and I got Arlene there really cheap. And it’s a great guitar.

I don’t know the story behind the etching. It was there when I got it and the guy at the store didn’t know either. I mean, imagine just some weird dude, maybe some metalhead dude just like “this is for you, babe…” No one has ever come up to me and been like “man, that was my old guitar!” but maybe one day. [Laughs]
One day… So what happened to “Feminine Effects?” That’s one of my favorite new songs of yours and it’s noticeably absent from the record.
We’re trying to figure out if I want to do an EP or what. There’s a lot of songs that I cut from this record — about 35 minutes worth of material. So I could do an EP or just have extra songs for bsides or bonus tracks and things like that. I like that song. We’ve only recorded it once. We’re recorded it a couple times, but only once that I liked. I never recorded it in my studio, but we did it live a few times.

Like the MPR recording you used for the Green Owl compilation? That’s one of my favorite recordings you’ve ever done.
Yeah. My brother was like “man, that’s the only version … you can’t do another version. You’ve got to use that version if you’re going to do it.”
Wow. I’d never thought of it that way, but he’s kind of right. Speaking of which, I’ve got to say that I love the return of the piano on the new album. Did I hear some horns on the record as well?
Yeah. Originally we had these kind of electronic sampled horns. Every time I’d listen to it, I’d think “man, we’ve got to get some real horns on this.” So eventually we got the guys from Dark Meat to come in and do some real horns for us.
Oh, fantastic! I love those guys. So when you were thinking of the sequence and flow of the record, what were some albums you had in mind as good examples?
In the Aereoplane over the Sea is one of the best sequence records ever. Everything flows so perfectly through the whole record — it never gets boring. And OTC did that with their two records. That was definitely the spirit that I was using and sort of pulling from. And the Fiery Furnaces stuff kind of hurts the brain a little bit more because the songs are bit more dense and the lyrics are some times impenetrable. That’s what I love about them, lyrically they’re so far ahead of everyone else.
I loved when you all covered their song “Tropical Iceland.”
That was my daughter Alabee’s favorite song for a long time. That was the first song she really connected with. At that time she called ice cream “icey” and she was a big fan of ice cream. So when she heard that song she was like “oh! icey land!”
[Laughs] A land made of ice cream!
[Laughs] Exactly.

2002-07-00 - Rice Zine

From Rice Zine.

intr.o

How did you get started in music? When did you discover the good music you are into now? How did you start creating your own music? Was it an obsession for you or just a talent that sort of developed?

I became interested in music around the age of 14. My first instrument was the drums. I played drums in a couple bands in middle school and high school. I started playing guitar around that time also. I used to sit in my room learning Rolling Stones songs all day long. It was fun because most of their songs have only three or four chords so I was always able to figure them out.

I went through a heavy metal phase in high school and began listening to Motley Crew, Ratt, Kiss...I got really into that music and bought the mags and dressed in ripped jeans and denim jackets the whole nine yards. Sometime around my Junior year of High School I started listening to the Cure, the Church, the Replacements, Flesh For Lulu and different things like that. I discovered the Kinks "Village Green Preservation Society", the Velvet Underground and Nico album,and the Beach Boys "Smile" shortly after high school. Once I moved to Athens I was exposed to os Mutantes, Faust, Soft Machine, the Pretty Things and all sorts of great music.

Since I got my first guitar, around the age of 14, I have been writing a couple songs a month. Most of my early songs were love songs and I used to sing in the style of whoever I was into at the time. I didn't really try to write anything original I tried to write songs that sounded like the bands I was into. It was very frustrating because I never succeeded to write anything that sounded as cool as Brown Sugar or Just Like Heaven or Riders on The Storm or whatever it was I was trying to imitate. When I was about 17 I realized I had a slightly original style of writing and that I should try and develop it.

If I moved to Athens, would I notice all these amazing artist-types walking around with guitars and dreams?

Yes. There are hundreds of bands and singer songwriters in Athens. It is a very cool scene.

athens vs. the whole world

Of Montreal's members are involved in so many side projects! How close are the members of Of Montreal, and does that play into your songwriting? Do you ever have rockstar fights over hotel rooms getting trashed and 'hey i was using that blanket' on the tour bus?

We are really close. I consider them my best friends and I think they would say the same. Jamey, Derek, Dottie and I have all lived together for two years now so we are completely wrapped up in each others lives. Andy doesn't live in the house with us but I feel just as close to him as I do the other members of the band. I'm not sure if the differences in personalities affects the band positively or adversly. We all definitely have very strong personalities. sometimes we get in arguments but we are just like a family in that we all are resigned to living together and don't ever talk of breaking up the band just because so and so and so and so are quarreling over such and such.

Do you feel as if you have done your best work, or that you are working toward something greater than yourself that has yet to be realized?

I definitely feel that of Montreal is a work in progress and that the future is open to any number of possibilities. I don't feel that our best work is behind us. We are always striving to do something different from the previous release and so, though a new album might be considered less enjoyable by some people, at least it won't be a self parody.

idol singers and japan

What has been your biggest fear as an artist?

That I would lose my inspiration for life and art and become a washed up prosaic middle aged bore.

What have you found to be a positive driving force, if anything in particular?

I am very inspired by other people's art. Namely my brother David's work. He is my favorite artist because his style never feels stale. He is alwyas trying to develop his style and work in different mediums and I that encourages me to do the same. We have a special connection.
I am also very inspired by books and film.
Each album was heavily influenced by the writer I was into at the time.

of montreal

How has your experience in music and the success you've achieved effected your writing?

Well I don't really feel like we have been tremendously successful because we all still have to work full time day jobs. My writing has been effected by touring and traveling and just growing older.

Do you think of the band as being successful?

I feel we have been successful artistically but not financially.

Are you happy with where you've come so far?

I feel very good about all of our albums and I am happy that each one has its own personality and charm. I am deffintely not at the point where I just sit back and reflect on all the good times though. I am very excited by the future and think we have a whole lot more left to accomplish.

When are you happiest?

I am most happy when I am free from self consciousness and feel like I am living in the moment. It is rare for me to have that experience but when it comes it is great. I think I am most happy when I am by myself following an entertaining train of thought and oblivious to the outside world.

How would you define your music? New psychedelia? Indie Pop?

I would define it as metamorphosing "now" music with a trailing eye on the past.

Is there one thing that annoys you about reviews for Of Montreal or do you think that your music is well-received, generally?

The only thing that I find annoying about our reviews is when writers dismiss us as childlike and simplistic when in reality our music is anything but simple. I don't think of myself as "deep" but I do feel there is a lot going on musically and lyrically that is over looked by a lot of critics.

james and the giant bee

Your preference in an ideal world:

Analog or Digital?

Analog but using the better elements of what the digital world has to offer.

Vinyl, CD, or Tape?

I prefer C.D.s to vinyl just because I have never owned a hifi turntable so everything sounds muddy on my system. I definitely prefer the art work on 12" and the organic feel of vinyl though.

Promotion or Obscurity?

We have no ambition to remain unknown and unappreciated so we'd definitely prefer promotion over obscurity.

When you are in public places, do you listen in on other people's conversations?

Only if they are talking about Roald Dahl.