FLORIAN OBKIRCHER/RED BULLETIN
I read somewhere that you're still sleeping on a mattress on the floor of your mom's house. Is that true?
[Laughs] Yeah, that is true! I haven't had time to change my home--I'm hardly ever there, so it's quite hard to. I haven't had time to move out, so yeah, I'm just still on a mattress on the floor of my mom's house.
Speaking of your parents, your dad was the tour bus driver when you supported MGMT. How did that come about?
We didn't have any money, and they offered us tour around Europe. So my dad had this camper van, and he said that he'd drive us around. So we clattered around in this camper van, with all the pots and pans shaking, and we were all sleeping on the floor, but it was really fun.
He's not your tour-bus driver anymore?
[Laughs] No.
You were nominated for a Brit Award last year, and performed at the Grammys and the Oscars. Was there a personal highlight?
I really enjoyed the feeling after having just played the MTV Video Music Awards. It was such a huge undertaking, the performance was on such a grand scale. We had 10 blue people, tribal drummers, psychedelic choir people, and I had to sing on rotating platform without falling over in this big, floating dress. I was in shock after we'd finished, and then I realized that we'd done it. I was running down this hallway screaming with everyone I hadn't fallen over, and it wasn't a total disaster. I also really enjoyed playing places like the Greek Theatre in L.A. and san Francisco. Playing those big, beautiful ampitheaters was really enjoyable.
British acts have often had a hard time of it in the U.S. Is success here something you've always aimed for?
I don't know. If things haven't taken off in certain places, I've never really fretted about it. It's not really like my job to worry about that kind of stuff. I'm like, "I don't care, I just want to sing and make music. It's not my job to worry about the numbers.." We'd been doing a bit of stuff in the states here and there, but it was more of like an underground thing, and then all of a sudden it was like [gasps] "Oh my God!"--it was everywhere, and that was so strange, 'cause it happened so late in the game. So when I was doing US tours, I also had to be in the U.K. making the next record. I was still touring the first album while trying to make the second one. I'm really grateful about what happened in the Statesm 'cause they seem to have really embraced it.
Not just the audience. Beyounce cited you as an influence on her album "4." Has she ever told you that in person?
No. not in person, but I have met her, and I think she's so sweet [laughs]. I've been listening to "4" a lot trying to figure out which bit maybe might have influenced her, but I don't know, I can't figure it out. Listening to one song, being like, "maybe this guitar part?" [laughs]. I don't know, you'd have to ask her.
An old pop-music adage claims that the second album is the hardest one to make, because for the first, you had your whole life, and for the second, just a few months.
I think the first album was so hard. I don't know what I was doing. I didn't have an assured idea of who I was as a person yet because I was 21. Everything was so terrifying. I was drunk half the time, because it was my first tour. I was not in stable place, and right now I feel much more ready to cope with things, which is a good place to be in.
What music did you listen to while writing the songs?
I've been listening to a lot of spiritualized, and I was listening to a lot of stack-soul records like Otis Redding. I was also listening to more things, like Fuck Buttons and Suicide. It was real mix of stuff--Ariel Pink and things like that.
The material on your first album was a reaction to a temporary breakup with your boyfriend back then. Was there something similar that shaped the new one?
Not really, I think it's general feeling of conflict between wanting to be safe and secure--and that battle going on within your spirit and your body.
Do you throw yourself into something headfirst, or do you stay on dry land?
I think it's more about a question of growing up and whether or not I want that.
You once said that you're not very good at expressing your feelings in real life, and your songs are a way to do that.
I think especially with people I love the most, I have a hard time with face-to-face emotional interactions. I don't know if that's why I perform, or if it's because I perform--do you know what I mean? I feel maybe it's because in performing, I have such a huge emotional outlet, and everything is expressed on such a grand scale, that when I try to express things in a small, face-to-face way, it almost feels fake. I feel like I'm not doing it properly, because you're tearing yourself open in such a huge way it feels like there's all these layers in front of me, and I can't get past them--and when I'm on stage, they kind of open up.
What was the inspiration behind "What THe Water Gave Me"--the first single on the new album?
Sometimes I like to write songs just from things I pick up in a room, and what you can see around you can be really inspirational. There was this book on Surrealist paintings, and in it there was a painting by Frida kahlo called "What the Water Gave Me." Frida Kahlo has always inspired me, visually and lyrically--just her whole aesthetic, and how she viewed the world, and her clothes and everything. Then I got these images of Virginia Woolf walking toward that river with her pocket full of stones, and it was such a powerful image--that tragedy and that bucolic setting of an English countryside--and I just started thinking about water and my fascination with drowning, and being submerged in something. I don't know...that's kind of romanticizing it, I think.
Does visual art have an impact on your work, generally?
Yes, it really does--it's a really important part of it, actually. "Dog days" was inspired by an Ugo Rondinone installation. I love the artist Ed Ruscha. He just uses massive...what he calls "hot phrases," like "Went out for cigarettes, never came back" in this beautiful Ruscha font that he sometimes paints on these beautiful mountain backgrounds.
You said in reference to your first album that you have to listen to everything to understand the body of work. Do you still believe in the album as a concept of presenting music?
Yeah, I do. I don't mind people who just listen to a song. I do it all the time. I think a record like Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" is a really good example of how the album still stands, because it has such a good flow, and you really have to listen to it from beginning to end. I have tried to do that with this record, too. However people want to listen to it is fine by me.
