10. Daft PunkHomework
It’s huge for me – it can’t be overstated. I used to spend summers just watching TV. My parents didn’t force me to get a job. I was 15, at that age where I could have got a summer job, but instead I had a lazy summer. I just used to watch SportsCenter and late-night MTV. Video after video. I remember the video for ‘Around The World’ coming on and it really stood out. The song was iconic for me. I got the album and it was one of the few things me and my brother could agree on. We were like, "This kicks ass. This is awesome." It was a rare personal moment between us.
Homework and Discovery are a gauge in bending the rules of popular music. They were inspirational to me. Especially now having made a track with them and seeing how carefully detailed every decision is – how considered everything is. The passion they bring to everything. That made a huge impression on me. And on Homework there are some really abrasive moments, but there are some tender, melancholic songs on there. They resonate with me. It didn’t sound retro, but there are familiar elements in the music. They’re super-clever, right down to the way they present themselves. Like I said, it’s all considered. There’s a plan to the whole deal.
Is that how it is with Animal Collective?
I wish we had a game plan like that! I feel like we’re kind of the opposite. In lieu of a game plan, we resort to an instinctual expression. Nothing is considered! Having said that, I’ll get bummed out when I read someone say that we’re tossing something off or we don’t care about what we do or we don’t think about it. We still put a lot of care into what we do. We care about it immensely, but there is no hyper-tailored plan.
The process doesn’t always have to be torturous or considered. It can just be an expression of where you are in that moment.
Yeah, sure. For me, the first third of the project is always just daydreaming and thinking about what might be an exciting thing to do. But as soon as I get my hands dirty I try to remove the mental stuff from the process. After a certain threshold, considering stuff only becomes a destructive force. You’ll talk yourself into stuff being not good enough or too revealing or not cool. It can kill the creative impulse entirely.
