Deerhunter interview transcript

I did this interview with Bradford Cox of Deerhunter a few weeks ago, in advance of their upcoming Aus/NZ tour. The edited article will run in the Age next Friday, but I'm posting the transcript for the curious. It wasn't one of my better efforts, but I only had 15 minutes, and I get awkward when I'm talking to someone whose music I actually like!

You haven't been doing many interviews recently.

I kinda just shut off from that. Cause I just wanted to concentrate on making music rather than talking about it for a while.

How do the rest of the band feel about that?

I’m sure they’re pretty happy about it. It’s never fun when personalities overshadow what’s important, which is songs. That’s what we’re supposed to be concerned with, just having the best songs possible. 

You're such an outspoken person, people tend to want to focus on that.

It’s hard to calm that down, it’s hard to control that. Cause if you get me started I’ll just talk about anything. I still try to be interesting when I do talk, though. I haven’t change my approach to talking, I try to be open.

Which do you like more, Australian or New Zealand music?

Both. I like bands and I like songs, I’ve never been a person who cares about scenes. I’ve always been offended by that, when people approach music as a geographic thing, oh if you’re from this town you’re going to have this sound.

Of course I do love a lot of bands from Australia and New Zealand, but I think of them as individual bands, I don’t always associate them with where they come from.

What happened to Whitney?

Whitney’s a free spirit. It was never such a huge deal when she joined. It was a fun time for all of us, and if she wanted to go on a tour with us she could still go on a tour. We kinda needed to strip down a little bit. It’s just a musical thing, I don’t want there to be a lot of extra guitar. That way when there is a guitar chorus or something I want it to have more of an effect. And Whitney isn’t that interested in experimenting with different instruments. It’s guitar or nothing.

I saw you play in New York last year, with Times New Viking and the Vivian Girls. Have you deliberately toned yourself down on stage?

I think so. The thing about it is not so much a conscious thing of toning down, as much as it is just concentrating more on musicianship, and really just being interested in songs. I mean I’m a geek, I’m way more interested in guitars and sounds of guitars than I am in showmanship. I mean I enjoy shows when there’s a compelling frontperson, where there’s some charisma. I won't name names, but there’s just a lot of bands now that are so playing up their confrontational image.

Not even one name?

I won’t, because I have a rule about shit-talking, and I don’t want to. But there are bands that seem to just want to get as much attention as possible by showing their disdain for their audiences. Which I loathe, I can’t stand to see an artist treat their audience like shit. And also, it’s been eight years in the making for us to be able to come to Australia. I’m certainly not going to get on stage and start goofing off and acting self-indulgent. I’m going to try to put on a really good show for the band.

Has it been the good response the band's been getting that has made you start to restrain yourself?

I don’t think it’s the good response, I just think you get older. I was 22, I was really young when that stuff happened. Now I’m older and I have so many more different influences. It doesn’t make sense to do the same things over and over.

Do you still feel like an outsider?

Perhaps. Always, definitely I do, but at the same time I feel like we have achieved something and that we connect with people. I feel that I have less to prove. It’s a great feeling. When I make songs now, it’s a good vibe.

I have to just come right out and ask this one - are you still a gay virgin?

Oh yeah, I’m keeping that up. I don’t see that going away any time soon. It’s not a burden, I just enjoy my solitude, and I enjoy music more than I enjoy the company of other people most of the time.

Does Marfan's Syndrome make touring harder for you that for the rest of your bandmates?

It’s possible, but I try not to think about it very much because it’s a dark thing to think about, and there’s so many other things to think about. I just generally don’t think about that kind of stuff. It’s a dark thing.

Touring with Stereolab must have been a life highlight.

It was absolutely amazing. I just really adore them, and it was a great experience. Sometimes you meet people that you idolise and it’s disappointing, but not in that case, it was totally fulfilling.

I've met them a couple of times, Laetitia is just amazing.

She is a force of nature, I love her.

Does playing with Stereolab make you feel like there's other things you dreamed about that might happen?

That’s pretty much it. That was pretty much one of my dreams. Jamming with them on stage…and Tim sold me one of his guitars that was always my favourite guitar. It still has Stereolab press badges affixed to it, so everytime I play it I feel like I’m holding a relic from a museum or something.

Is this what you're going to do for the rest of your life?

This is it. Maybe I might try writing or something else, but I’m definitely not running out of gas. I’ve written thirty songs this month. I always have ideas, I’m always listening to new music and getting ideas.

Judging by the procession of your first three albums, is the next Deerhunter record going to be more straight forward again?

We have some material recorded that’s very straight forward. I’m kind of interested in going in a less straight forward direction again. Having more improvisational things. I think that we can do that now, we have a space that we’ve built out that we can record in very easily. We can edit stuff, I’m more interested in doing something like Faust Tapes, where it’s like little fragments of songs edited together. I’m also into Bob Dylan a lot, so I don’t know if that’s going to have an effect.

Sounds like a great combination.

Yeah, Bob Dylan, Faust Tapes, Missy Elliott.