ian o’phelan

Download: Pink Mountaintops “Vampire”

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(from Outside Love out now on Jagjaguwar)

Pink Mountaintops is about pinkness the way Black Mountain is about mountainness and songwriter-mastermind Stephen McBean’s newest album Outside Love is the sort of release you might want to eat to gain its heart and courage. He speaks now about food that makes him horny and coffee tables that make him cry. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

When was the last time an inanimate object brought you to tears?
Stephen McBean (vocals/guitar): Inanimate? Oh, that’s like all the time. Like a coffee table. Like one that’s really good at what it does.
It moved you to tears because it was so perfect?
Stephen McBean: Put your feet up on it and life’s beautiful.
Which photo shoot for this album was more fun? The one where you were like, ‘Oh, hello—I was just reading my book and I didn’t see you come in…’ or the one where you were in a bathrobe with a cocktail on the easy chair?
Stephen McBean: I think the bathrobe one on the chair was pretty unique. They were both pretty fine, though. It’s my Joe Boxer bathrobe that my mom got me 10 years ago for Christmas.
What’s the most you’ve ever endangered your bathrobe?
Stephen McBean: It’s easy when I go outside in it. I think it’s mostly during crow season, when the crows are nesting and stuff. Especially around my house there’s a lot of them and they tend to get pretty vicious and crazy. They dive bomb. I figured that if I were a crow, you’re picking people to intimidate and what not, and I definitely look like some idiot out in his Joe Boxer bathrobe so I’d be a target.
Are you baiting the crows when you go out like that?
Stephen McBean: A little bit. I’m kind of scared of crows.
What’s the most heartfelt conversation you ever had with an animal?
Stephen McBean: I actually had this one where a crow was hanging out next to me and he had the hiccups. I was just sitting on a park bench or maybe a stump and it just stared at me—it kinda had this look of embarrassment and it was just hiccupping. It was weird. It sounded so human.
Isn’t there some kind of belief that the crows are messengers from the other world?
Stephen McBean: I think there is some tales and probably truth to that.
What do you think gave him the hiccups?
Stephen McBean: I don’t know. They’re strange because they’re not very nice creatures. They’re pretty abrasive.
If you could have been raised by any type of animal, which animal would you prefer to have been raised by?
Stephen McBean: Probably some wolves—depends what part of the world. Maybe bears or wolves out in the woods.
So you’re into caves and fur?
Stephen McBean: Yeah—with the wolves it’s like, they’re tight with each other. Because being the loner would get to be a drag so it’s like a gang—they’ve got their hood.
What’s the biggest feast you’ve ever eaten in a moving vehicle?
Stephen McBean: I don’t know where we were—I think we were in Canada because I’m pretty sure it was a Tim Horton place and we went in there and we were all starving and it was probably really cold but we were late for the show. And they have really good soup and chili. I remember getting a big chili to go and then we had to drive and it was spilling all over me and half of me was in tears of sadness and half on the verge of a crazy rage of like ‘Fuck this! I just want to eat my thing!’ And it was really hot so a bunch of it splashed me and it would scald my skin. It wasn’t worth it—putting my skin safety at risk.
Did you just throw it on the ground?
Stephen McBean: I was like, ‘Can we just fucking pull over for a minute?’ It worked out okay.
How many conflicting emotions have you experienced simultaneously?
Stephen McBean: I don’t know—there’s a bunch. I get super horny when I eat food sometimes. Like really good food. Just anything really good. Really good Mexican food—generally anything really hearty. Sometimes it’s like overbearing.
How do you deal with that?
Stephen McBean: I rub my legs and shit. I move around like a cricket.
Do you think that’s why crickets do that, too? They’re feeling the exact same thing?
Stephen McBean: I think so.
What is the least sexually exciting food to you?
Stephen McBean: Something like Raisin Bran. Though I do like Raisin Bran.
But not in that way.
Stephen McBean: No.
I was reading that not wanting to get out of bed in the morning is a sign of psychosis—do you agree or disagree?
Stephen McBean: Maybe a bit. When I was a teenager I would sleep a lot—until 5 every day. I would stay up until like 7 AM and stuff. It’s the same kind of thing when its hard to leave the house because your shoes or your jeans are bugging you.
How does that bug you?
Stephen McBean: If it’s a laundry day, you know how you have one or two favorite pair of jeans? They’re like comfort blankets and you do laundry and then you have to wear this pair of jeans that your mom got you three years ago for your birthday, you know?
Your mom gets you a lot of clothes.
Stephen McBean: She does—it’s good.
Boxers with hearts on them?
Stephen McBean: No, but maybe like musical notes.
What do you think when it comes time to make another record, what do you think it will have more songs about—birth, space, or the highway?
Stephen McBean: Birth sounds good. Yeah. Maybe space.
When was the last time you saw something being born?
Stephen McBean: Oh jeez. I don’t know.
What would you like to see born?
Stephen McBean: A butterfly.
I thought you were going to say a wolf.
Stephen McBean: No, just a butterfly.
Which do you think is better for a band to have—no keyboards or no haircuts?
Stephen McBean: I’d say no haircuts. Well, just not matching haircuts. It could be short or long but not a rock-dude haircut.
What is your own worst hair-related mishap?
Stephen McBean: I remember in grade 6 or 7 I got bullied in the bathroom and these dudes duct-taped up my head. And they had to cut a bunch of chunks out so my hair looked pretty fucked up.
That’s like a CIA interrogation technique. I need to ask you something more cheerful now.
Stephen McBean: No, that’s cool. It’s like, ‘Where are they now?’
The CIA?
Stephen McBean: Probably.
When was the last time you were the best-dressed guy in the room?
Stephen McBean: Last night.
Were you having an Emmys party?
Stephen McBean: No—me and my friend Amber were hanging out and as far as like all the dudes there, I looked the best. Well, I was the only one there. But I kept catching my eye in the mirror.
When was the last time you kissed your own reflection?
Stephen McBean: I don’t know. Maybe the last time I was stoned.
Were you a little coy, or did you dive right in?
Stephen McBean: Nah, I was just having a good laugh—entertaining myself.
You have that novel on the cover of your record—if that novel actually existed what would be the first line on the first page of Outside Love?
Stephen McBean: The first line is—I can tell you because it’s sitting right here. Here it is: ‘It was 10 o’clock in the morning when the captain noticed the wind had begun to die.’

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS WITH XU XU FANG AND THE PACK A.D. ON TUE., SEPT. 22, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $12 / 18+. ATTHECHO.COM. PINK MOUNTAINTOP’S OUTSIDE LOVE IS OUT NOW ON JAGJAGUWAR. VISIT PINK MOUNTAINTOPS AT PINKMOUNTAINTOPS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/PINKMOUNTAINTOPS.