Transmission Talks To Holy Ghost!
Interview by Thomas Lennon
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So you finished the final mix of your album this week, How the experience of the last few weeks?
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The last few weeks we have been strictly mixing the record, doing very little actual "recording." We did manage to pull one new song out of our asses last minute, but these last few weeks have really about mixing. This was new for us - to have the long time period dedicated to mixing. We had the producer Chris Zane (The Walkmen, Passion Pit, Les Savy Fav) working on the mixes with us. He is a much better engineer/mixer then we are and he really took the songs to a place we could have never gotten on our own. In my opinion, the record finally sounds like I imagined it could.
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The album has had a long gestation period, was it a conscious decision not to rush the process?
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Yeah, for sure. We were busy with remixing and DJ'ing over the past two years, so circumstance played a role in the wait too. I’m happy we waited and didn't rush anything. Maybe the next album we will go away and try to sit down and do it in a few months, but for this one the time was necessary.
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Caroline from Chairlift features on the album, how did that come about?
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I met Caroline and Patrick from Chairlift in the summer of 2008.
We were supposed to work on this song I made in my dorm room in college but it never really panned out. Then, if I remember correctly, Nick and I had this song in the works with a fleetwood-mac-y vocal pad thing for the chorus and we both thought of Caroline immediately. We got in touch with her and she did it very quickly and very well. Just last week, we had to have Caroline come back in and re-sing it because we switched the key of the song. If it was possible for her voice to get better, it did. She's a fucking pro. She did an adlib track that gave me goose bumps. She's a star.
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It come across from your music that you have a love for analogue equipment, why do you lean towards it?
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We started buying analog gear and vintage pianos when we were young, 17/18.
We had signed this deal with Capitol Records right out of High School and had a bit of an equipment budget. Our practice space was a few floors down from this vintage keyboard shop and we bought a Rhodes, a Roland Paraphonic, and a Roland Space Echo because we wanted to sound like Radiohead and the Roots. After that, we were hooked. God bless those who can make emulation work for them, but for us, in order to sound like the records we love, we have to use the same equipment they were made with.
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You are in the process of preparing for your live show, how is that progressing?
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It is coming. We made a lot of headway earlier this year but then our drummer and dear friend Jerry Fuchs passed away unexpectedly. He's impossible to replace, both as a friend and as a musician. But we're gearing back up now and we'll be focusing 100% of our energy on Live starting next month. We have new players in place and the first practice is slated for early February. Nick and I are really looking forward to it.
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Any plans in place to bring it to Europe?
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First confirmed gig is Calvi on The Rocks festival in July 2010 in Corsica. That's Europe right? But there may be a few dates before then as well.
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Aren't you afraid of losing or damaging your vintage equipment with your live show?
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As far as damaging our precious vintage gear, sure, we're very worried, that's why we won’t be bringing most of it! We've (more Nick than me) spent alot of time researching newer synths that come close to emulating our Prophet 5, modular synth, and other fragile items. And luckily, we've found some great replacements in the classic Juno 106, Dave Smith's new products ( endorsement please! :-) and the new Moog's. We'll bring a Rhodes and our guitars/bases/drums, but there will be alot of newer synths standing in for the older, more delicate ones.
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What’s was the process you went through writing the album? Did you always start with one particular element and work from there? Not really, each song comes about in its own way. Some are written with just voice and piano, some are written as "beats" with vocals added at the last possible moment. It really depends. Drums are always important.
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The 'I Will Come Back' video features Arthur Baker reprising his role from New Order's 'Confusion' video how did you pull that off?
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Long story short: We were at a club in Manhattan and Arthur was there, along with James Murphy. James has agreed to reprise Arthur's role for our video. I went up to Arthur and said, "Hey man, just want to say I'm a huge fan of yours and we're remaking the video for Confusion. James is going to play you!" And Arthur said, "Fuck that man. If someone's playing me, its me. Buy me a ticket from London (where Arthur lives) to NYC and I'll do it." A few weeks later we were shooting with Arthur in Brooklyn. Sometimes things just work out..
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Your remix of Curses! was one my favorites of 2009, did that come about because you went to high school with Curses!?
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Yep. Luke aka Luca aka Drop The Lime aka Curses! is an old friend. He asked us to do the mix and we we're more than happy to oblige. I (Alex) actually played the piano on the original version too. I think we did that at 5am one drunken night at the apartment where he grew up in Tribeca.
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