Deerhunter interview

By: Tait Ischia
Article published: 21st May 09
Release: Live
To Cure: The hangover

What:
Deerhunter interview

Who:
Tait Ischia speaks to Bradford Cox

Where:
See them live at The Corner, 57 Swan St, Richmond

When:
Second show Thurs June 18, doors 8pm

How much:
Selling fast. Tickets $40 +BF from here

Have you ever had to interview someone before? It makes me nervous. When I spoke to Bradford Cox from Deerhunter I was freaking the fuck out. My arse was sweating and I needed to pee real bad all the time. Don't ask me why, I can't help it. I just get really nervous. Anyway, so I'm sitting there with my little notepad of questions and Bradford calls me. I ask him about his friendship with the Black Lips and the time his face melted off watching My Bloody Valentine. I laughed too hard at some of his jokes but I think he liked that.

Then I asked him a really awkward question about this YouTube video I watched where Bradford recalls participating in a circle-jerk when he was eleven. It was supposed to be the funniest part of the interview. Instead it was a total anti-climax (you'll get the joke at the end) and now I'm bringing it up here so it doesn't sound like such a stupidly random question to ask. Phew! OK. Now that's out of the way, please, read on while I watch this kid and feel better about myself.

Tait Ischia: Hey Brad! How's it going?
Bradford Cox: I'm good! It's good to talk to you.
T: Likewise. Where are you at the moment?
B: I'm actually driving in downtown Atlanta with my friend Kristen. We're going to a record store. She sells records for this guy and we're picking up some records.
T: Hold on, you're driving?
B: She's driving. I'm in the passenger seat.
T: Oh okay, good. I'm glad you're not gonna kill any kids on the street.
B: Yeah we won't kill any kids today.

T: That's a very good idea. So you're coming to Australia soon?
B: Yeah, we're really excited. We can't really tell you how excited we are.
T: Have you been here before?
B: No we've never been. I've always wanted to go though. Everyone from Australia's attitude is just... I mean I don't like using stereotypes...
T: Yeah that's what everyone says man.
B: There's a certain ratio of dicks to cool people that you meet. And if you use this criteria to do an index of people you know, and then you sub-catagorise them as Australian - the dicks to cool person ratio is way on the cool person side.

T: Ha, OK. They're not all like that. Tell me more about this record store you're going to.
B: We're going to pick up records for my friend Kristen's store called Vacation. It's like a rad boutique magical junk shop here in Atlanta.
T: It sounds incredible.
B: Kristen works with Deerhunter a lot - she tour manages us a lot and she's part of the family.
T: She sounds cool. Say hello for me.
B: Hello!
K: Hi!
T: Heh, cool. OK so my first question is about the Black Lips. What's your relationship with those guys?
B: Umm well they're just old friends. We kind of came up together from the same roots. They're some of my best friends.
T: Did you guys get up to trouble together? Did you go steal letterboxes and shit?
B: Yeah things like that were definitely known to occur. I hang out with Cole more than the others. We were best friends. We used to make tapes together. Actually we've been recording some stuff as Ghetto Cross - it's the name we gave our duo. We have an album that's half done - it's actually really good. It sounds like Bob Dylan meets Missy Elliot.

T: Ha, that's a nice combination! I like that.
B: Yeah, I hope people like it.
T: I'm sure they will! What was the place - was it Die Slaughterhouse? Was that where you guys were hanging out?
B: Yeah Die Slaughterhouse. Kristen also had a house called the Alphabet house and then I had my own satellite universe called Notown. Which is out in Marietta, so we all came together from out of town. I was kinda like a transient between the downtown scene and my own little secluded Marietta scene. I like to think that the Marietta scene was way more improvisational and weird. The downtown scene was more rock and roll, you know, it was like party houses and party music.
T: Sounds great.
B: Yeah it was. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely avant-garde weird stuff going on there too. But Notown was a lot more of a place to do really strange stuff.

T: Is that where all the kitchen parties happened?
B: I'm sorry?
T: The kitchen parties. I read somewhere about these kitchen parties...
B: Oh the kitchen parties! They were always at Slaughterhouse or Kristen's house. There was just a lot of old dilapidated Victorian houses around downtown that random girls would live at. We didn't know them so we didn't care about trashing their house. They'd throw parties and there'd be gigs in the kitchen. One time one of my friends flew through a giant Victorian plate glass window on Halloween. There were all these gangs - you know, they were the outsiders, everybody was in gangs - and sometimes the greasers would hang out with the squares for one night, and then everybody would end up fighting. The evil villain, his name was John Harley, he was this skinhead, and he'd beat people up and put them in hospital.
T: What a loser.
B: It was a very fairytale time. Now it's boring. Now it's like Starbucks.

T: So that scene doesn't exist anymore?
B: No it doesn't exist anymore and I'll tell you why. It's the kids that have inherited the baton or whatever. They're not really as extroverted or from outta space - I mean we all had nothing to lose. And we had no expectations either. Like we never thought any of us were going to get any attention outside Atlanta. We weren't trying to be rockstars or trying to be well known. We never thought anybody in Australia would know what we were doing in Atlanta. You know what I mean?
T: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
B: It was just anarchy. And now that there's been a tension - like I think the younger kids would be doing this outta space shit, wondering what they should do to cash in or be recognised.
T: Yeah, get a Pitchfork review.
B: Yeah, it's just not as natural. What we had going on was really natural because there was no ego or expectation. You'd be fighting over a third-tear billing opening up for The Fall. That was a big competition. The biggest competition was who was going to be the third billed local opening act for The Liars.

T: Well it sounds like you guys had a pretty awesome time around that stage.
B: Yeah it was very fun.
T: Hey, P.S., You guys are out here, I don't know, I think you're in Melbourne on the 12th of June, and I'm leaving the country on the 10th of June.
B: Oh cool, where are you going?
T: I'm going to New York baby! But I'm really pissed off cause I'm missing you guys. So I'm going to be there for a couple of months - are you guys going to be playing any gigs there soon?
B: We might be yeah. I think I will be with Atlas Sound at some point too.

T: That'd be awesome! What's the deal with Atlas Sound at the moment? What are you guys doing?
B: Oh I've been finishing up my, uh, my new album it's called Logos.
T: Sounds cool.
B: A version of the demos leaked last year but, I mean, really the new album, the new version of it, is just totally different. It's not different because of the leak. It's not like I've changed it because I was pissed because it leaked. It's because those were demos. So when people hear the finished thing and they note all the differences I don't want them thinking that it's because it leaked that I changed stuff. It's just that when you're making an album, it might go through a hundred revisions, you know, the majority of the songs on it are not anything anyone's ever heard - there's a lot of surprises and guests on it - some cool thoughts.

T: How does something leak? Who's the shit that leaks something?
B: Oh it was me. Probably. I probably did it.
T: Right. I see.
B: But let's not get into all that, it's just a long story.
T: Yeah, yeah, right, OK, we don't have to go into that one.
B: It wasn't my fault! I was trying to share it with one person and I ended up sharing it with a lot of people.
T: Ohh I see. That's so lame.
B: Yeah, it's lame. But you know, that's why you've got to be careful with the internet.
T: I was just looking at your blog. I've been looking at it for the last couple of days. I just downloaded the October Micromix.
B: Oh yeah?
T: Yeah! I was really digging it! I love it.
B: That's a good one, it's kind of moody.
T: Yes very moody! It's a lot like some of the songs on Microcastles, in the middle.
B: Yeah those were songs I was listening to when we made that album too. So, you know what I mean? There's a lot of that mood there.
T: Yeah you can really tell.
B: And actually as I talk we're in fact driving past a Microcastle.
T: No way! That's incredible!
K: Hahaha.
B: Haha. Yeah. I'm not joking. There's some kind of ancient kind of Micro/Medievil structure.

T: I completely believe you. I know that you're a big fan of My Bloody Valentine. A friend of mine just gave me Loveless the other day and I've been listening to it non-stop. I read somewhere about you guys went and saw My Bloody Valentine and your faces melted off?
B: Yeah that's true. We saw them a few nights in a row at London at the Roundhouse - it was really incredible.
T: Some friends of mine and I saw Mogwai at a festival recently and it was so fricken' loud and our faces melted off for that so I can't wait to see My Bloody Valentine.
B: Yeah totally! Mogwai's sound guy is the guy who does sound for My Bloody Valentine so there you go.
T: Oh of course! That was the connection I was going to draw. They're incredible!
B: He's got these computer programs that use dolphin-type technology where you bounce sound around the room and it finds out where the sound is going to travel, and it creates a digital image of the room with his computer. And then it tells him where to put the speakers.
T: Wow.
B: So it can be really loud. I'm not even making this up.
T: That's incredible.
B: The dolphin computer!
T: That's so awesome.
B: I'm not kidding - it sends out sonar signals to find out where the bass traps are. He's the best sound guy on the planet.
T: You should get him for some of your gigs.
B: Oh I don't think we could afford him.
T: You might be able to soon...
B: I like our sound guy. We're like a rough and ready rock band. We're not really like My Bloody Valentine.
T: You might become one you never know.
B: I'm not as into effects really. We play all these different types of venues and sometimes we get there and there's just one little speaker for the PA. And if you have this super fancy sound guy he's really not going to be able to do much with a small PA.

T: There's one question I really wanted to ask and that was, in an interview on YouTube I uh, saw you say something about having a circle-jerk with some mates when you were eleven. And you couldn't come so you pissed. Is that a true story?
B: Um, yeah I think that was a true story. I think I was a little stoned when I told that story. But yeah, that's a true story.

T: Uh yeah. Umm. Oh, there was another thing I was going to ask you - you know that picture of your mum on your blog - I love that picture! It's awesome. What does your mum think of the band?
B: Oh she loves the band. She's always listening to, you know, Microcastles or Cryptograms, which is really funny cause whenever I get in the car to go to like the grocery store or something, it'll be on 'Activa', or like one of the stranger songs, like, I just find it funny that my mum drives around listening to weird-ass ambient.

Phone cuts out. Shit. Did he just hang up on me?

B: Tait!
T: Hey, Brad!
B: Sorry about that! It must have been cause I'm driving under a bridge.
T: No, no, that's okay. That's it I suppose.
B: Oh really? Well it was so fun to talk to you!
T: Yeah I had a hoot! I'm going to tell all my friends and they're going to blow their load! Bradford fucking Cox!
B: Oh yeah. Maybe they'll blow their load or maybe they'll just piss and pretend they blew their load.
T: Ha! Umm, I sure hope so. I'll probably see you guys in New York or something.
B: Yeah totally. I'll see you in New York.