TG: I want to focus specifically on a song in the middle of the record, “Tapedeck”, and how it adds a lot of fantastic electronic and prog elements into the album. We’re a shy band that doesn’t want to be all id, but that’s what came out on this record. The first two records were ego and the third was superego. TG: This would be where a psychology minor would resurface for sure.īA: Tons of id going into this one! This album’s all id, straight up. We almost learn what we were doing when we’re doing interviews because we never had to answer for it before.
TG: So “human-ness” is kind of interchangeable with an internal homeostasis, a most calm self?īA: It’s funny because, in interviews, these just exist to us and when you have to answer to them, it’s interesting to hear how you do it and how we answer it. You always feel better when you’re at your calmest. This record is a reminder to approach everything on your highest ground. “Help me swallow up your better nature” in the song “Cradle” is about how you try to go into any situation with your best foot forward or as your calmest self, but we often don’t achieve that. TG: So then what makes this record so “human” in your eyes?īA: This record is about inner space. We either like to be non-specific or so specific, it only means something to me or us collectively. We don’t write stories, even though they may seem like that sometimes. NM: And this one did feel more like the present, like where we were at mentally and lyrically.īA: I mean, are human really. TG: On a completely different note though, you described your own record, Better Nature, as being your most “human.”īA: God, what did I mean by that? I guess the last record was so nostalgic and in the past. NM: Yep… a lot of vocal experimenting and experimenting with different instrumentation. I wish there were b-roll moments of us in our corners of the studio, doing our noises. Just tearing the ceiling off.īA: Even from the beginning, our producer could feel what we were going for, so we went even stranger. Like, in terms of voices, we just wanted things to zoom in and out and have no body to them. Like a space Western.īA: But not like Muse. With this one, we really wanted it to sound like a quantum-physical circus or the Wild West. When you’re recording, you’re so focused on an album and your interests are so laser-focused that, after you’ve done it and toured on it, it’s all out of your system and the next album that comes about is a reaction to the one before it. Everything is always a reaction, although not always on purpose, and a reaction on what you did prior. To that point, all of your albums kind of have some cinematic quality to them, so what genre would you place Better Nature in that lineage?īA: To me, it sounds like a circus. But if it was a horror movie, it’d be It Follows. The whole vibe felt creepy, but it wasn’t meant to be a horror movie. It also felt different because that was the first record we recorded with our producer, Jacknife Lee, in a garage in the middle of the woods. I remember saying while we were recording that album that it felt there was something rumbling underneath it all, you know? The other albums were explode-y, but that one was designed to be more geometric and never explode-y. I thought you provided some interesting framing with your last album, Neck of the Woods, by comparing it to a horror movie.īrian Aubert: Oh yeah… I think I meant a little more cheekily. Tim Gagnon: I’m definitely going to talk about your most recent record, Better Nature, in a minute, but I kind of wanted to start us off in the recent past.
TAPEDECK BY SILVERSUN PICKUPS FULL
Our full conversation with the band is after the jump: But, of course, it wouldn’t be Silversun Pickups without a healthy dose of angsty meditation and introspection… In my conversation with Aubert and Monninger, the duo’s excitement over the Nature songs are so apparent, they make multiple changes to their setlist mid-chat to include new songs. If anything, their carefree attitude might be in part because of recent developments: their 2015 album, Better Nature, was their first self-released album after a decade with venerated indie label Dangerbird, representing a new-found self-reliance for the band. Conversely, the four piece’s breakthrough came in 2006 with the angst-driven slow burner " Lazy Eye", but both Aubert and Monninger stress the fun in playing their decade-old hit every night on tour. There’s a certain wide-eyed joy to Silversun Pickups that belies a band going on fifteen years together.Ī quick assessment of our conversation before their set at House of Blues last week would suggest their sunny Californian roots as a reason for their cheeriness, but apocalyptic themes have always weighed heavy on guitarist Brian Aubert and bassist Nicki Monninger’s songs like smog descending on their Los Angeles home base.
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