New York City experimental quartet Animal Collective has ripped apart and stitched back together the concept of modern pop music. recess recently sat down with Dave Portner, aka Avey Tare, to talk about the release of their new album, Strawberry Jam and their U.S. tour.
Cat's Cradle is a relatively small venue. Do you like playing small clubs or does the audience react better to the music at a bigger location?
I think the set that we're playing right now, which is more electronic is a little tougher because we use these six speakers behind us just so we can monitor ourselves. I think just because of the setup and the way some of the sounds are it's been going well at a bigger venue, about 1000 capacity or so. But it's really fun to play more intimate shows. Sometimes we end up at smaller clubs and are still able to get a connection with the crowd, and sometimes really big shows can still seem awkward, in terms of trying to reach everybody, but it usually works out these days.
So where does the name Avey Tare and all of the other nicknames come from?
Ah yeah, it's just something that we adapted to when we were younger cause we didn't really have any set name growing up. High school and college is really where the names came from. We just thought we would use the individual names that we recorded and worked with each other under and never really have a band name. So one by one we started making music and calling ourselves by the nicknames. And my name. Avey Tare, is my name Dave, Davey without the D and Tare, like you tear your name apart. I just came up with it, outside, once in high school and thought it would work for what we were doing.
What's the evolution been like from album to album? The contrasts between earlier albums like Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They're Vanished to Strawberry Jam are pretty stark. How do you get to that point?
I think it's just taking into consideration where we are at a certain time and a conscious decision to move to a different location when we record each record, but I think it's a matter of wanting to try something different each time and hoping that each record can have a sound or a world of its own. All the records we liked when we were growing up were all different and we like a lot of bands whose records would sound different which is something that's influenced us as well.
The band moved to different physical locations while recording, or do you mean more mental locations?
Well both really, yeah (laughs).
What kind of music did you listen to growing up? Any favorite bands or albums?
You know, from being really young 'til now, it's hard to pick records. I really liked the band Pavement growing up when I was in high school and I've always liked late-'60s psychedelic music, British psychedelic music, so it's really all over the place, yeah (laughs). We're kinda just coming from all over the place. I really like African guitar music from the '60s and folk music and a lot of techno.
Are the solo projects of the members, like your recent Pullhair Ribeye, affecting the band? Are they kind of your own personal extensions of creativity?
I mean, not really, I think everything forms what we're doing. Every experience and breaking off and having time to do the solo projects makes me realize and remember the freedom of what you can do and not being too blinded by repetition, makes you realize everything can be open, that there are still a lot of possibilities. Solo stuff happens on free time, or because of the extension of a friendship you might have. I record with my wife and I play with my friend Eric sometimes, and it just evolved out of us living together and having nothing else to do. So I think it's stuff that comes up because of friendships or time off from Animal Collective and wanting to always play music.
So how would you describe your recent one?
I would describe it as ambient, acoustic music, I guess. The record is in reverse and it's a topic that's been aired lately it seems amongst people that are fans of ours. I mean, some people are into it, some people aren't. But to us it's just a really melodic, electronic sounding record that's got warm melodies. So we don't really notice that it's backwards so much or anything (laughs).
Are there any subliminal messages?
Well, if you reverse the songs and put them back to normal you would hear other songs, I guess, with lyrics, but there's nothing sensical in the backwards version. No subliminal messages (laughs).
What's you favorite Animal Collective album?
I dunno, it's hard to say. People always hate on Danse Manatee, and I heard Robert Altman, the director, say once that you usually feel more for the ones that people don't like so much. It's like wanting your child to do better. They're all really different experiences so they all pop out for their own reasons. I don't really listen to them that much, so it's hard to say in that respect.
What can we expect at the show tomorrow?
It'll be a good time I hope. About 40 to 50 percent of the show will be new stuff we've been working on the last half-year or so. It'll be a mixture of a lot of stuff.
Animal Collective will play tonight, Sept. 27, at Cat's Cradle, tickets are $15.
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