| ANIMAL COLLECTIVE's Panda Bear - personal pitch |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Monday, 21 December 2009 11:09 |
 As if I didn't already know, NOAH LENNOX of PANDA BEAR and ANIMAL COLLECTIVE eminence, extends a friendly hand and says - "I'm Noah by the way... nice to meet you" - we're only five seconds in, but already, any awkward jitters I may have once had, are assuaged. This is Animal Collective's second trip to New Zealand - and since their local debut back in 2006 at the Kings Arms - the band has downsized to a three-piece, released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2009, with 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' peaking at #13 on the U.S. Billboard Albums chart... oh and not to name-drop or anything, but also been given permission for the first ever, legal Grateful Dead sample for 'Fall Be Kind' EP track, 'What Would I Want? Sky'. Of 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' making moves on the top reaches of the American album charts, Lennox is fairly nonplussed - "It is, surprising. It felt really good that people seemed into it enough that they were willing to buy it. It felt good and it was a surprise like I said, but beyond that I didn't really think about it too much, or I didn't read into it or anything." But when conversation shifts to the 'Fall Be Kind' EP and it's Phil Lesh approved sample, Lennox's eyes light up. "It's pretty sweet. I think the sweetest thing about it is that - we had to send an early version of the track to them to approve - and I guess Phil Lesh listened to it and was psyched enough on it to grant the license. So that's probably the sweetest thing about it; that he was into the track."  COUP DE MAIN: Animal Collective's experimental film 'ODDSAC' has been confirmed to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January - do you say O-D-D-S-A-C or odd-sac? - it was four years in the making yeah? NOAH LENNOX: We say odd-sac. I'd say a little more than three years of pretty solid consistent work, but there was ideas being passed back and forth between, even before that. Maybe like five or six years I'd say, in total. CDM: Is it a standalone film, or more of a visual for fans? NOAH: I think, both. The visuals and the audio, could stand by themselves in a way. But the whole idea of the thing, is that they would exist together. So I think together, they're way more of a stronger thing. You could listen to just the music, or just watch the video, but I think it would really mean... obviously it would just be half the experience. It's pretty abstract. To me, it's pretty dark. But I don't think any of the other guys would say that. I have a hard time with extreme imagery. Like I can't watch horror movies or anything like that. I'm always like this... but, it's pretty intense. And there's no story or narrative to it, it's more like a dream. Or Dionysus fever dream; it's like that more. CDM: What are your thoughts on claims by critics, that Animal Collective merely appropriate African music and dress it up for a White audience? NOAH: *laughs* I have no interest in making music solely for a white audience. If that's what our audience is, I don't really feel responsible for that. But doesn't every band sort of appropriate their influences into what they do? I guess that would be my defence: if you're making something, you kinda can't help being a conduit for other things. CDM: It's 2009 anyway, I guess nothing is really, uniquely original anymore... NOAH: I think that's most exciting, to do that sort of thing - rather than do something that's intensely retro. Even though there's stuff that I really like that is just a retro sort of style or whatever, I feel like what I'm most excited by is new mixes of things. Or something that feels fresh in some way... Nobody's ever asked me that before. I guess I feel like; if you're doing something and people are accusing you of appropriating something like that so obviously, then I would feel like I've failed as a creative person. It's just like stealing something and doing some sort of slight alteration to it - I'd feel like I'm not doing my job as a musician, or as a creative person - if it's just obvious like that. I've never - I mean - I'm sure that there are people that are accusing us of that, but I've never had somebody actually confront me with that. But it's a good question. CDM: In New Zealand there is a habitual drinking culture that concert-goers subscribe to. Drug-taking takes that to the next level, a level that a lot of your fans may be at tonight, during your show... How do you feel about your colourful music being linked to altered states? NOAH: Well, I like that a lot. But I would say, at least for me personally, drugs aren't an essential part of having a surreal experience, or what you might call a higher experience. That's a terrible way to put it, but, you know... like a supernatural sort of feeling. Drugs don't have to be a part of that to me, so if somebody says - your music takes me to that sort of place - then I'm really psyched. But if drugs get you to that place, that's fine as long as you're not really hurting yourself, to me. CDM: What's your stand on the viewpoint of: what's the point in paying money to see a show, if you won't be able to remember anything the next day? NOAH: Yeah, well I think you've sort of wasted your time if that's your experience. You've got to try and keep it mellow somehow - tone down your drug usage, you're going too hard at it.  CDM You wrote your second solo album 'Young Prayer' in 2004, as a gift for your father who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Coming from such a personal space and place in your life, do you ever feel self-conscious sharing your emotions so publicly with complete strangers, knowing that listeners will give your songs new meanings of their own? NOAH: I guess I don't really know any other way to do it, it just feels like the natural way to do things for me. Like - if I'm writing a song - it has to have some sort of value. Or it only has some kind of value to me, if it's something really personal. It has to mean something to me. I guess it is a little uncomfortable, or it's a little embarrassing sometimes, to know that stuff that honest is out there. But, when I hand off the thing, when it's totally done and mastered and sent, I kinda feel like it doesn't belong to me anymore. It's like an experience that I had and now, it's something for other people to experience. I guess, in separating the thing in that way, makes it feel okay for me. Like now, it belongs to other people and not me anymore. It's almost like, I'm not that person anymore that I was, when I was doing that thing. I guess that's my defence, is like - even if people think it sucks - it's not me anymore, you know. CDM: Yourself as Panda Bear, as well as Animal Collective, are icons of a tradition of the 'bedroom recording' aesthetic. Are you excited about what new generations of musicians will be able to create in the future, with their shoestring budgets going even further? NOAH: Yeah! I find that really exciting. Principally because, I think even though in a big studio with really nice equipment and stuff you can get really - what would be considered good sounds out of that sort of set-up - I feel like, these days there's so much music and so many bands, that it's exciting to hear when people go through the whole process with their own sort of system of making the music. It gives it a much more personal individual feel, like unique feel, when somebody has a really idiosyncratic set-up, or they just have what might be considered strange ways of going about the process that yields results that are not just cookie-cutter sounds like everything else... and I think that can only be a positive thing. CDM: When you were younger you studied the piano and cello, going on to sing tenor in your high school chamber choir? NOAH: Yeah I was one of two, who could sing that high. CDM: Have you ever thought about reworking any of your songs with classical instruments? NOAH: I've had the idea since high school, of writing music just for voices, just a choir. I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing it, but I'd definitely be excited about trying to pull that off at some point. It definitely seems like an older-me kind of project. Like when I'm sixty, or something, it'll feel okay. Like I won't feel douchey about doing that sort of thing. CDM: How long did you attend Boston University for? NOAH: I was there for two and a half years, at the end of the third I left. CDM: Why did you decide to major in religion? NOAH: It was a pretty bad decision and one I didn't think about very much. I think I felt kind of lost at the time, and didn't really know what I wanted to do. I didn't have a game plan at all. I was lucky enough to be able to have my family be able to put me through college, but I guess I didn't have people telling me - you gotta figure your stuff out. That's not my parents fault, but I wish I'd been more... I wish I'd had a better picture of what I wanted to do, or just thought more about it. So religion was... nobody else I knew was doing it. *laughs* So it seemed sort of interesting in that respect. And also, I didn't grow up as a religious person under any sort of system or anything like that, I just felt like I've always been sort of intrigued by that - how it can make people's lives better - I mean, it's a powerful thing. So I was interested in thinking about that kind of stuff.  CDM: Will you ever go back to playing drums at Animal Collective live performances? NOAH: I'd like to. We haven't talked a whole lot about what we're going to do for the next one, and I think at this point, it'll be a little while before we fully get going with that sort of thing. But I'm really into the idea of playing sit-down drums again. I don't know if it'll end up that way, but as of right now, that's what I'm interested in doing. CDM: When can fans expect the next Panda Bear album? NOAH: That stuff should start to come out like late-Spring of next year? CDM: So, our Autumn? NOAH: Yeah, I would say like April, May? Something like that? CDM: What's next for Animal Collective? NOAH: This is the last tour of the Merriweather songs, and it's been like three years of that, plus two or three years before that of 'Strawberry Jam' and 'Feels' touring, so it's felt like a really long road for us. I think we're all ready to just sit down for a second. I guess I'm not totally taking it easy, because I'm working on my own stuff, and I'm sure the other guys will get up to something musical, but as far as an Animal Collective album and the whole process of touring and press and all that, I think it'll be a little bit before that. So, it's going to be some downtime for a little bit. Lennox is genuinely excited about the his upcoming night; playing to a sold-out crowd at Auckland's The Powerstation. His gentlemanly graces extend into every reach of our interview, concluding with a pleasant - "thanks for talking to me about all this stuff dude" - it's the stuffing, of a genuinely, bighearted Panda Bear. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE's 'Fall Be Kind' EP and 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' album are both in-stores now. Features the singles 'My Girls', 'Summertime Clothes' and 'Brother Sport'.
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