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I think the sound of a group comes from how they live their lives and what they surround themselves with. -Josh Dibb (Deakin) |
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One thing that sets Animal Collective apart from a lot of contemporaries is just how bloody fun this music is. I find a lot of what's out there to be pretty humorless. Animal Collective seems dead set on having a good time AND imparting it to others.
 Animal Collective by Sanchez and Kitahara |
Just trying to express life through music, having fun is a really key part to being happy. In our own lives we are dudes that really appreciate a shared sense of humor about life. I think that comes out in the music for sure. I hope it does at least. It's cool to me to listen to music that has a wide range of emotion and color to it - to tread across sadness and pain to joy and happiness to confusion and clarity and laughs, all in the same music. That's a lot of fun for me as a listener, and I hope to do the same for others.
What are the challenges of bringing these studio creations into the live setting? How much gear do you drag around? Are there songs you've found impossible to recreate in concert?
Well, it's actually quite the opposite. With a few small exceptions, we work the other way around. We make music to tour with and play live. Only after we have played a certain set of songs live for a while - really figured out for ourselves what they are about and what their potential is and what their limitations are - then we go into the studio and record what we ideally want to hear. And in a lot of cases that is actually very different from what we were doing live. To us, in many ways, live and studio are very different things and thus are approached with very different goals in mind. But, for the most part, once a song is recorded to tape, that is sort of the end of it for us, at least in that form. We work on something live and in practice for a while and by the time we record it we are ready to move on to something new. Can't get bored!
A few cuts on Strawberry Jam, notably "#1," have peculiar operatic elements. Is there a growing interest in classical music or maybe a multi-disc concept album brewing? Queen's A Day At The Races and A Night At The Opera for the new millennium? Most likely, I'm reading too much into things.
 Animal Collective |
I have no idea what the future may hold. I don't think any of us are too keen on that level of concept album, just never really been our style, but things could change. We have all always listened to classical music. These days, especially, I know that Dave and I both have been listening to a lot of piano music. Some of the songs on Strawberry Jam were originally based around loops taken from classical records. There are a lot of moments in our music throughout the years that have a distinctly classical quality to them, but maybe not in ways that would be clear to anyone else. I'm sort of in my own world sometimes when it comes to things like that. I don't know whether or not Noah was thinking about classical music when he wrote "#1" though.
I've been involved with a few co-ops in my time. Experience has shown me that human nature often scuttles our best intentions. How's life in an animal based collective? Different one hopes.
It feels pretty blessed. We have always really respected, as much as possible, each other's space and growth and needs and opinions. We think of each other as brothers and family, and like all families there are moments of stress and disagreement and hurt feelings. Community of any sort, I guess, has these elements. We have really all been committed to our friendships and lives above anything else, and as a result have weathered some pretty stormy terrain. Anytime there has been any serious conflict it usually leads us to a place where we try and understand where each other is coming from and why we feel a certain way - learning what someone's true character is and why they are the way that they are, all of their wonderfulness and all of their limitations. One thing that we learned very early on was that we actually do not thrive living together. We each need our individual space [away] from each other. That makes our times together that much more special and important and sacred. It's complicated, but like I said, I feel pretty blessed. My friendships with these dudes go much farther back than the history of the band, almost 20 years in the case of Noah. To me, that is the guiding force - not the idea of a collective or a band - but I'm glad we found this way to be nonetheless.
Check out the video for Animal Collective's "Peacebone"
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