Category: The S/T Interview

THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Mark Lanegan

February 6th, 2012 | File Under: The S/T Interview | 3 comments

Photo: Anna Hrnjak

AN APPEARANCE IN THE PARK
A halting conversation with Mark Lanegan

By J. Bennett

When we meet Mark Lanegan at a picnic table in a nearly-empty public park in Burbank, it feels like one of us should be carrying a briefcase full of money. Like there might be a sniper in the bushes, watching two guys in sunglasses make some sort of shady handoff. But really it’s just awkward, mostly because Lanegan clearly doesn’t want to be here, and essentially says as much before we even start the interview. A notoriously reluctant and guarded interviewee, he presumably picked the spot because it’s close to where he lives but not so close that we might actually get a glimpse of his pad. Fair enough, we figure: Privacy is a precious commodity these days. Still, there’re a lot of painful pauses and one-word replies, many (but not all) of which were edited out of the following transcript. But first, some basic facts…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Azealia Banks

January 5th, 2012 | File Under: ST014, The S/T Interview | 4 comments

Photos by Michael Flores
Words by Arye Dworken

In the breakout video for her single “212,” rapper Azealia Banks beams an eager, ever- present smile and dances playfully in front of a blank-canvas brick wall. Her pigtails draped over a Mickey Mouse–adorned sweater, she spits blush-inducing verses like an R-rated Pippi Longstocking. Banks is confident, care-free and, most of all, undeniably intriguing—a girl you feel like you want (need?) to know.

This isn’t, however, the Banks we meet near Central Park. The Azealia Banks we’re chatting with is genial but quite reserved—a slight 20-year-old in pink patent-leather platforms who isn’t afraid to remind us we’ve “already asked that question.” And has no qualms about telling our photographer where she wants to do our photo shoot: near her high school, Fame’s LaGuardia Arts—not at the Harlem neighborhood where she grew up, as we’d previously planned.

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: DJ Shadow

December 29th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Photos by Jimmy Fontaine
Words by Andrew Parks

A sealed box of demos and cassettes sits in the corner of DJ Shadow’s tour bus. The 39-year-old producer recently hit Calgary’s Recordland shop for an after-hours dig and hauled in everything from guy-with-a-guitar throwaways to alt-rock casualties that sound a lot like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Questionable taste aside, the tapes are building blocks, the stuff sampledelic masterpieces are made of—like Shadow’s own seminal Endtroducing… LP.

“It’s just a personal preference,” says Shadow, born Josh Davis, of his antiquated method for consuming music. “When I download music, I don’t feel compelled to judge it on any other basis than ‘Is this the greatest thing I’ve ever heard or not?’ When I listen to one of these tapes, it’s like, ‘Wow, this is a total left turn,’ or ‘Who were these guys?’”

It’s telling that the first record he ever purchased, three decades ago, was “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” a single that drops Blondie, Chic and Queen amid block-party breaks and a seven-minute live mix. Each Shadow album since Endtroducing… has been both thrilling and baffling—whether it’s the divisive bits of Bay Area rap on The Outsider or the brash modern-rock bait of “Warning Call” (featuring Tom Vek) from the producer’s long-awaited new LP, The Less You Know, the Better.

“All of the music I’ve ever been drawn to has been really immediate and raw,” he explains. “At the same time, it’s usually well-arranged and conceived. That doesn’t mean hiring a 50-piece orchestra and all of that pretentious shit. It could be one person and a guitar and amazing in the same way.”

In the following rare interview—an extended version of the one in our enhanced iPad/Web edition—Shadow helps us make sense of it all, from his painstaking creative process to the one record you won’t believe he owns (and loves)…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Charlotte Gainsbourg

December 27th, 2011 | File Under: ST014, The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Photos by Silja Magg
Words by Cassie Marketos

Charlotte Gainsbourg enters the room to a collective intake of breath. Towering and effortlessly composed, she seems built from elegant steel, an impression in no way belied by her polite, soft-spoken manner. Through numerous gritty film roles—her unhinged housewife in Antichrist still gives us nightmares—and high-profile musical collaborations (Air, Beck, Madonna), the 40-year-old daughter of French singer Serge Gainsbourg and English model Jane Birkin has carved her own creative path. Now, with Stage Whisper, a Beck-assisted double album of live and unreleased tracks, the distinction only sharpens.

Charlotte invites us onto the balcony—her hotel room at the Jane proving to be too crowded—and with privacy and a cup of tea, we settle in to talk life, music, pleasure and learning what it means to be worth it…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Alan Howarth & Emeralds

December 13th, 2011 | File Under: Featured, ST014, The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

Check out the first part of our exclusive interview between Emeralds and legendary film composer/sound designer Alan Howarth in the magazine excerpt below (taken from our new issue), right alongside the rest of the conversation…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Oneohtrix Point Never

November 18th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Photo by David Black

Interview by Andrew Parks

Now that he’s gotten featured in The New Yorker; handed the keys to Mexican Summer’s in-house studio and a vanity imprint with the other half of Ford & Lopatin; and wrapped his most universally acclaimed record (Replica) yet, it’s safe to say that Daniel Lopatin’s had a hell of a year. He’s also clearly exhausted from months of cross-continental touring, recording, zine-making and whatever else entails maintaining the self-stylized world of Oneohtrix Point Never. That said, Lopatin took the time to answer some probing questions via E-mail, although he avoided anything related to “hypnagogic pop” or “cosmic synth recordings.” We can’t blame him.

Have a look below, and be sure to check out Lopatin’s classic Needle Exchange mix here…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Elbow

September 20th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Five albums in, Elbow still finds itself in a weird place. The British band is neither overtly arty like Radiohead, nor as sappy and saccharine as Coldplay. Instead, frontman Guy Garvey and his band of brothers are somewhere in the middle of it all—hopeless romantics, men out of time with the goal of evoking genuine emotion from the masses.

Garvey and bassist Pete Turner chatted with us over a few pints about their lot in life as members of a band that is unabashedly romantic. And after the exceptionally evocative record Build a Rocket Boys! was released a few months back, Elbow has even further secured itself as sentimentalists. In fact, during our interview, when we tell the two representatives of the group that the new album is “idealistic, nostalgic, and sweeping,” Garvey thanks us profusely. As if these were the three exact words he had wanted to hear. No, they’re definitely not like other bands, those sappy Brits, but according to Garvey, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Four Tet, Featuring a Stream of His New FABRICLIVE Mix

September 19th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | 6 comments

Words by Mitch Strashnov

Things have certainly changed for Kieran Hebden (a.k.a. Four Tet) since his last album release in 2010; he’s made a transatlantic shift to Brooklyn, taken his sweet time with releasing his own music and collaborated with such iconic figures as Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and his schoolmate Burial. Along with that, he took on a task that was long overdue—tackling the creative obstacle course that is constructing a FABRICLIVE mix. Hebden set out to make it mix not your standard club night fare, as he took Fabric’s historical significance into account along with cues to the city it calls home, London.

self-titled met up with Hebden at a local coffee shop in Park Slope, eager on both ends to discuss his mix for Fabric (which is streamed alongside a track-by-track commentary below) as well as his current artistic and label-centric activity…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: The Bug

July 27th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | 2 comments

(King Midas Sound, L to R: Kiki Hitomi, George Robinson, Kevin Martin)

Words by Andrew Parks

If self-titled had to make a short list of our favorite living producers, Kevin Martin would rank right up near the top, in the spot most people reserve for the Kanye Wests and Aphex Twins of the world. Whether we’re talking about his early post-apocalyptic projects with Justin Broadrick (Techno Animal, Ice, GOD) or the Dick-ish—as in Philip K.—dub of the Bug, Martin has proved to be one of the bravest beat makers in the business.

This is especially true of his current trio King Midas Sound, an ever-evolving entity that’s gone from the dread-chased cuts of Waiting For You to the road-seasoned reinterpretations/remixes of this fall’s Without You collection, which includes contributions from Gang Gang Dance, Mala, Hype Williams and many more. Check out an exclusive video premiere from the eagerly awaited record below, along with an extensive, exclusive talk with Martin about everything from his undying love of Jamaican music to the chances of us hearing another record from his brain trust with Broadrick…

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THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Washed Out

July 12th, 2011 | File Under: The S/T Interview | Leave A Comment

Photos by Shawn Brackbill

Words by Andrew Parks

Madonna. P.M. Dawn. Seal.

Not exactly the names you’d expect Ernest Greene to drop now that he’s finally finished Washed Out’s long-awaited debut LP. And yet those reference points ring true as Within and Without’s singular vision develops like a stack of double-exposed photos.

Don’t worry, though. Greene didn’t lift his loops from “Like a Virgin” or “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss.” He started from scratch instead and simply added certain production techniques—repetitive drum rolls, digital textures that are alien and inviting—to an ever-expanding manifesto of what it means to make a Washed Out record these days.

“I struggled with the direction at first,” admits Greene, “because I wasn’t exactly sure what a ‘Washed Out song’ was. Most of the stuff I tried at first was too psychedelic or too dance-inspired, but I was eventually able to strip away all of the unnecessary bits and figure out the core of [my music]: very simple, but hopefully emotionally-moving songs.

“It wasn’t until the album was starting to really take shape that I started to notice a few similarities to other things that I wanted to explore more,” he continues, “like a few elements of early ’90s pop music. On the flip side, there are a few songs on the record that are a little slower and more spacious that reminded me of Mazzy Star, so we tried to bring that out a bit—the melancholy/ambivalence that I’ve always loved in music.”

The following interview was conducted over E-mail as Greene rehearsed for his current tour back home in Georgia. It’s been edited for style and clarity.

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