“I don’t consider myself to be very famous. I’m recognizable in certain contexts but even that kind of recognition sometimes puts me off terribly because it’s uncomfortable in a way. I want people there not to see me, but to think about the music. A lot of young people are forgetting about the most important thing, which is the music. They’re thinking about their career and the character that goes with it. The clothes they believe they’re meant to wear, which again is fine. I understand the importance of fashion and aesthetics within art. I like the elegance of design but it’s not the substance of something, particularly if you’re primarily about making music. Another piece of advice I’d give—maybe the only piece of advice is you’ve got to have something that you really need to say. That’s why you’re doing it. If you’ve got nothing to say then maybe become a recording engineer? Don’t be a writer. I desperately want to speak French so I can read some of the great French novels in the language they were written. I wish I could read Don Quixote in Spanish. Same with Portuguese or Latin or something, except I don’t have that learning ability. I wish I could direct a movie but it’s not something I’ve ever been able to do. I don’t have the story to tell yet, and I’m not going to go out and make something that’s visually cool but has no story. It was always my ambition to make films when I was growing up. I thought that was much more valid. I never wanted to be an indie rock musician. I wanted to make really important films. Epics, classics, except I’ve never had the idea or story come to me. Just because you can be in a band, just because you can make a film, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. You have to ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing needed? Is what I’m doing valid?” So people reading this might think, “Is Deerhunter valid?” To me, yes it is. To me, I’m making an album that no one else is making right now. I’m always open to any genre of music that can affect me. My most listened to artist of last year according to Spotify was Whitney Houston. I adore her. Her voice, her personality, her presence, what she brings to the songs. Anything that has life in it, and has that much inherent value, I’d fall at the feet of that artist today. People, like Whitney Houston, she gave everything to her audience, and she had a tragic ending. She never had a chance. I don’t have the capacity to do that. It’s not needed. The audience are happy with what I give and I’m happy with what they give in return. We have a nice arrangement and I’m very satisfied with it. I like my life as it is. I don’t have anything that I’m wishful of. Everything I’ve ever wanted I have. That’s the biggest source of depression for me in many ways. It probably sounds really shitty to someone who’s in poverty but in my world I have it all. Other people want more material items but in my world it’s not important. I can have that guitar if I want it. I don’t want a fancy car or to live in LA or New York or Paris. I want to stay here with my dog. As far as I’m concerned there is no up, up, up. I don’t want to expand. I’m just an entertainer like anyone else but I’m lucky to know my place. Not be unsure of my place and think it should be a palace. I don’t want to go to parties. I want to stay at home with my dog and watch old Humphrey Bogart movies. I’m very content. I guess it comes back to the question of why has it taken four years for this record? I don’t know. It’s hard to go out. I sometimes force myself to. It’s hard enough making the music and putting it into a document, talking about it endlessly then running it into the ground. I’d put out a new song every week if I could but I’m not sure that’s the way it’s done now, unless you’re a pop star. My real priority is to my dog. More than my music or anything else. If you told me something was going to happen to my dog while I was on tour I’d cancel the entire tour. It’s painful enough being on tour. I see Lockett looking at pictures of his kids on the bus and it’s painful. When I’m lying on the bottom bunk of a bus after a show at 3 a.m. riding through the French countryside and I’m staring at pictures of my dog, it’s painful. But then there is the ecstasy of the show the next night. In the future, here’s hoping there’ll be some kind of technology where we can see our loved ones. One of the greatest things about my life has been taking this music across the world. I love everywhere we go. It’s getting there that’s the misery. It’s the jet lag, it’s the exhaustion, it’s the dehydration. It doesn’t matter if you’re a huge band either. I’ve toured with some of the biggest and I’ve seen it. Even in the most glamorous and decadent of situations there’s a lack of health there. And there’s a lack of space. Most importantly, there’s also a lack of solitude. And peace. You’re under fluorescent lights. I’ve played Madison Square Garden a couple of times and it’s actually quite depressing. The backstage area is like a government office building. It’s not pleasant. You’ll play a small club and the backstage area is more like being at home. Sometimes it’s awful but I guess what I’m saying is it doesn’t matter how big you are, there’s some kind of human comfort that can’t be bought and brought to you everywhere. Even if you have 50 assistants, you’re still sat under fluorescent lights in a dressing room designed as a locker room for a hockey team. It’s not artistic or inspiring. When you look at the all time greats such as the Stones or Bob Dylan that only play arena shows, you get to a point where you’re not meeting people any more because the only people around you backstage are the people you’ve put there. So you become more and more isolated. I don’t tour arenas specifically unless I’m opening for someone, but I’ve seen it and it’s not healthy. The greatest thing about being a young band and getting into a van is that everywhere you go, you make new friends. You meet people and get talking to them. It’s not awkward or like you’re alienated or different from them. Doing that you’re usually in your 20s so you don’t have kids at home missing you. Your home is probably some kind of squat or apartment so you don’t tend to miss it as much. That’s when it’s easiest to be in a band. It becomes harder as you get older and you actually have a home to go back to. I can’t stress how important solitude is. As I get older I require more and more solitude. I just want to be alone. I’m a committed asexual, which might be hard for people to understand, but there’s nothing more amazing to me than coming home from a tour and being utterly alone except for the company of my dog. Not talking or having to give, give, give. But then if I got my wish and stayed home all the time I’d start going crazy! I want to play music to people, I want to make people happy, but the humanity of it hasn’t changed. Human condition has not changed. That’s when I think about Whitney dying in a bathtub alone. It leaves a sour taste for me because she finally found solitude but it came in death. People lose track of their needs. They start letting ambition replace their needs.”
vaporwave
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