i didn't set out to try and make a
topical record about the internet and
technology it felt really
taboo and weird and i felt embarrassed
about it but it was also the thing that
was so obviously prevalent in my life
and in everyone else's life
that i can't just pretend it doesn't
exist and write like a love song about
driving in a car or something
the new record is called the futures
void
i like that it has kind of a number of
different ways it can be interpreted i
grew up in south dakota really kind of
like growing up in a void so even though
there's nothing there you can kind of
also make what you want
out of the void you can put meaning into
it but it's still terrifying to do so
satellites was one of the first ideas
that i had for the record and i really
like this kind of like this binary harsh
noise deep bass harsh noise deep bass
and this you know the stimilacrum of
like fake human hand claps come in
sonically in some ways like
sums up
a lot of the themes on there
the new record does have more
electronics on it it's just not
electronic music like people think about
it being on a grid it's like
more these synths played by human beings
taking inspirations from tons of
different genres in that way
stylistically i think it's really pro
technology and pro internet
is there a signature sound that we're
looking for in in terms of a certain
type of layered distortion or noise
unconsciously yes and i think that
erica understands that sound very
intuitively and she knows exactly
whether when it's there or not certainly
half if not more of the sounds on this
record are purely digital only software
and the other half are analog or
acoustic and i think that fuzzy sound
that we're looking for is not
necessarily analog or digital uh it's
sometimes a mix there is sort of a
tension here sort of folk music trying
to pull this way and electronic music
trying to pull this way and it's sort of
the intersection of that but then
you know regardless of what's happening
erica's voice and her lyrics are
are clear enough to kind of bind
something as messy like that i think
it's just an aesthetic that i really
have always
liked you know it's something that's
always made sense to me this kind of
noisy pop thing
the most pop song on the record is
probably so blonde people really love
this verse chorus verse thing and it was
so musically easy to write it felt
almost criminal but lyrically was a lot
more difficult whereas if i can kind of
just let my mind go free and improvised
i find that like a lot easier to write
lyrics
a lot of them right now i have to do
with
the language that people use all the
time but hasn't really made it into
music yet
you know people like oh she used the
word interwebs and the song that's so
barf oh i'm not supposed to say this
like there's a rule that i'm not
supposed to use this language like oh
it's perfect and i usually find that
when i'm having
that
reaction
that probably means that i should pursue
it
people love to talk to you about the
internet right now and maybe it's my
fault for putting myself in like a
virtual reality helmet on the front like
maybe that wasn't the smartest idea if i
didn't want it to be taken like a
concept record one thing i just want to
you know let people know it's like okay
it's not all about technology it's not
all about the internet there's some
really like kind of
beautiful
musical
songs
we got a lot of rock shows and
i mean let's admit it you know a lot of
times if
unless you love the band half the way
through you're like that's cool i get it
there's no rule that like a rock band
has to be like
you know four dudes two with guitars
with bass and drums we don't have to
just do that
life has maxed out his credit card
buying
250 000 leds
from
china so he's like
soldering them programming them well
there is all this computation available
to us and there are these magnificent
cheaply
made you know multi-color leds so is it
possible to
you know take that same kind of tool set
that the majors can afford and sort of
do a diy version of that and then we can
sort of inject different energies onto
the stage and try and figure out how to
extend
the
literature of the record
we're interested in technology the
record
deals with technology and we just like
have fun like messing with it makes
sense just to synthesize it
i think it's possible that in the future
it's
this kind of distinction between what is
a construct and what is your in real
life identity that distinction is going
to become more and more irrelevant i'm
myself in real life and then i'm this
other thing
you know online and when my avatar gets
away from me it kind of freaks me out
and i realized maybe one of the ways
instead of
things getting away from me
it's possible that maybe i can create my
own images
that's the void it's terrifying but if
you can figure out a way to fill it then
you're kind of more in control
yes