5. Dean BluntThe Redeemer
He has this crazy approach to record-making that reminds me of early Smog, and it’s remarkable to me. There’s something really special about that period when Bill Callahan really didn’t give a shit and was piecing it all together, trying to figure it out, and I feel like I’m getting a similar sense of humour from Dean Blunt’s stuff. Those records were like a massage, they made me really relax about stuff and stop worrying about trying to make things perfect, just go with whatever vocal take. Shortly after I moved to Montreal, this girl Sarah Krug, who I met by virtue of her being my next door neighbour, at the time was dating d’Eon, the harpsichord player who did that split with Grimes. At the time I was hanging out with the two of them and she at one point was like "you have to listen to this record" and gave me a copy of The Redeemer and it completely destroyed me. It was making me relax about things, not be so fussy. I hope I took that to the new record, though It’s hard to make me completely unfussy – I’m always going to be fussy, but hopefully in the future I’ll lose all of my exoskeleton and completely relax.
