Baths “Maximalist”
(From Cerulean out now on Anticon)

Close your eyes. Breathe. Now go to your soothing place. Can’t find it? Just listen to Baths’ Cerulean, the first full-length under this name for Will Wiesenfeld, the brains behind [Post-foetus]. While his former project explored what he could do with instruments, this one explores what he can do with electro. Inspired by Daedelus (who led him to the Anticon label), Baths is a part of the new electro movement; instead of creating “club bangers,” Wiesenfeld uses his knowledge of classical and contemporary music to create thoughtful electro that fits somewhere in between dub-step and indie. Each track flows perfectly in to the next, with little birds chirping on “Rain Smell” and light wooden flute during “Seaside Town,” like a Pure Moods CD that doesn’t annoy—at least until you get to “Palatial Disappointment.” And quite a disappointment it is! This track and “Departure” sound like early Bright Eyes, and were better left for [Post-foetus]. Despite these two skippable tracks, Cerulean is still beautifully crafted.

—Ilyse Kaplan

Download: Son Lux “Weapons V”

(from the Weapons EP available in February from Anticon)

Download: Jel and Odd Nosdam “Afternoon Tune”

(from the XLR8R ‘Tune In An Afternoon’ session detailed here)

As Anticon’s resident beat maestros, Jel and Odd Nosdam have developed a great kinship over their love and mastery of crafting gritty but emotive instrumentals. Their beats convinced a new generation of kids that music without vocals isn’t necessarily always background music, but also established the perfect platform for the rhymes of their labelmates. This interview by Amorn Bholsangngam.

What do you like best about Low End Theory?
Jel: It’s a very cool spot where people who are interested in a certain sound can come and enjoy themselves. The L.A. beat scene has been catching some good publicity lately with Japan and Europe going crazy over Flying Lotus, so as a place, it’s come up as a whole. It’s good to have a place where producers can come and let loose by playing completely new beats. The focus is on producers getting off—not so much the MCs—which is rare. And there’s an environment here where you feel like you could get some constructive critiquing.
Odd Nosdam: It’s run by Daddy Kev, whom we’ve known for a long time, and it’s got some really dope resident DJs like D-Styles and Gaslamp Killer. The night is dedicated to beat heavy, bass heavy instrumental music played on a big banging sound system.
What’s most special about performing in L.A.?
Odd Nosdam: Playing L.A. is always a unique experience. There’s a strong fanbase for Anticon down here that isn’t quite matched elsewhere. The people that come out to our shows in L.A. seem to be much more dedicated and much more open than other cities. I think the style of music Anticon has become known for makes sense to kids here looking for forward thinking music.
Jel: I’m always exposed to lots of new stuff from the L.A. scene when I play here. I have a ton of old records, so I’m usually not consciously seeking out new music. But sometimes I’ll play with new people and they’ll blow me away in places like L.A. It’s one of the only ways I’m exposed to new music.
You’ve known each other for years—how complicated is your history with each other?
Odd Nosdam: It’s actually pretty simple. I’ve known him for eleven years, and we’ve collaborated in many ways. When I was playing with cLOUDDEAD, Jel played drums on the tour. Although I’m confident enough now in a live setting, Jel’s been playing live much longer, so I felt that he was someone that would be great to perform with, especially since most of our sets are improvised. Though we usually stick to a certain set of sounds, it comes out different all the time depending on the crowds and the atmosphere. We also have a weekly DJ set at the Missouri Lounge in Berkeley. Jel is a master of rhythm; I just try to stay on beat with him.
Jel: When I was living in Chicago, Doseone introduced me to Yoni [Wolf of Why?], and Dave [Odd Nosdam] was working with them in the studio. He had his Dr. Sample, and I brought my SP-1200. He was intrigued with my machine over his, and I showed him how to use it a bit. He always seemed to be around and watching whenever I made music. We collaborated on [Jel’s debut] Soft Money, but we’ve become close friends from living in the same area, starting with DJing together. DJing is what sparked us. The two of us are in sync when we’re DJing a set with one another, and we try to bring that feeling into our live set. I’m probably the person that works with him best because he might piss off other people who don’t communicate as well with him. I love his aesthetic; Nosdam is all about sound. So our friendship and similar interests in sound are what makes this combination good.
Where do you think music is headed in the 2010s?
Odd Nosdam: I can’t even figure out exactly what happened musically this past decade. I would like to see people getting back to hearing music on a record played on a good sound system instead of an iPod. The MP3—especially if it’s at a low bitrate—is the most compromised form; it’s not the way music was meant to be experienced. I’d like to also see the low end aspect of music being pushed. Ambient is going in an interesting direction, and I’ve been incorporating some drum ‘n’ bass elements into my music. I want to get back to putting stuff on beat because the sloppy, off beat stuff gives me a headache sometimes. A steady four-on-the-floor beat would be nice to hear again.
Jel: I think in the next decade, there’s going to be a giant regurgitation of the past—regardless of whether it’s pop, R&B, country, or rock and roll. It’s going to be the same thing. Like Revelations in the Bible, it’s always just a cycle—oversaturation of the same forms of music until they’ve exhausted their commercial potential for the time being. But there will always be hungry motherfuckers making creative shit and changing things that aren’t necessarily selling millions of records. There’s going to be a wider separation between creativity and business; business will always find a way to bastardize creativity. There will always be filthy rich singers and producers that make a bunch of money off the creative people. Lady Gaga will fall the fuck off, Justin Timberlake will get old and have colon cancer. There’s just too much red meat for the future. Nostradamus will come back, and the world will implode. There will be a resurgence of the Fat Boys in 2026.
What decade of music would you feel most at home in?
Jel: Feeling most at home in is one thing, but being intrigued is another. I would probably feel most at home in the ‘60s. There was so much music and creativity bursting from people at the time. From soul to rock to the drug-induced shit—although I don’t care too much about the drugs themselves—it’s a period that I would love to listen to and watch with my own ears and eyes. Maybe in the next few years, there’ll be a way of doing that. I would be intrigued with kicking it with George Clinton during his doo-wop phase or with Can in Germany. I would hang around with them in their church, looping tapes, jamming, and doing acid, although I’ve never done of that myself.
Odd Nosdam: I’d like to say the mid-‘70s in Jamaica—not that I would ever fit in—since some of the most amazing music that I connect with on a deep level was made during that time. The mid to late ‘60s, when people started doing exciting things in the studio and the birth of psychedelic music. Late ‘80s New York—if it wasn’t for hip-hop, I wouldn’t be in California talking to you right now.
If you could construct the perfect song out of elements from any of those decades, what would it be made out of?
Odd Nosdam: I would have drums from the first Meters record, some blown out, fuzzy guitars from Flying Saucer Attack, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry mixing it, and Prince Paul fucking around with the faders.
Jel: Moondog would compose the orchestration, Tony Allen on drums, James Brown can conduct and be one of the backing vocalists but not the lead. And I’d put Tim Dog up front.

JEL AND ODD NOSDAM ON WED., JAN. 20, AT LOW END THEORY AT THE AIRLINER, 2419 N. BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES. 10PM / $10 GUESTS / $5 MEMBERS / 18+. LOWENDTHEORYCLUB.COM. AND ON FRI., JAN. 22, AT THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF CALLING ALL KIDS AT HYPERION TAVERN, 1941 HYPERION AVE., SILVER LAKE. 9 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. HYPERIONTAVERN.COM. VISIT JEL AT MYSPACE.COM/JELANTICON AND ODD NOSDAM AT MYSPACE.COM/NOSDAM.

Download: Michael Nhat “I Love Bread” Mixtape

Rapper Michael Nhat’s new self-titled album releases Tuesday, Oct. 27, on How To Be A Microwave and his record release show is this Saturday at the House of Vermont. He presents L.A. RECORD with a mixtape—which he titled I Love Bread—and a story to go with every song.

Mozart “Fantasy In F Minor”
One of my girlfriends in 1997 played it live at her school and it made me really appreciate classical music because I didn’t before.

Sonic Youth “Panty Lies”
This song influenced me to start rapping. I had been doing it for fun but this one encouraged me to rap professionally. When people ask me one of my greatest influences, I refer to this—Kim Gordon and Sonic Youth.

Wu-Tang Clan “Can It Be It Was All So Simple”
This is what I was listening to in 1993. I bought my first 4-track and was making music for fun. I played this a lot. The beats and the music inspired me because it was at a time when rap had just finished its MC Hammer era and they were dividing themselves on East and West Coast. And I was East Coast.

Wayne Newton “Danke Schoen”
When I was a kid I heard it in the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off movie. I didn’t know who sang it. But this song started my obsession with hunting down songs I would hear places. This was before the Internet.

Etta James “Trust In Me”
This came on in Chicago at a party on the Southside, and it was my first time encountering her. I immediately liked it. I wish I could sound like Etta James.

PJ Harvey “Is That All There Is?”
I heard it when it first came out in 1996 and maybe a little after that my dad died. This is the first song I played after that so it takes me back there.

Radiohead “Fitter Happier”
The writing of this song is probably the deepest influence in how I write my songs. It changed how I see the writing process. I didn’t get it at first. I just liked it for music’s sake. But as I started paying attention—I would say I emulate this style, as opposed to what everyone else confuses me with. People think I am influenced by Anticon and Busdriver. I am not. I’d never even heard of these people until I moved out here.

Johnny Mathis “It’s Not For Me To Say”
This was when I decided to quit making music as a hobby in 1997. I wanted to be normal and go to school and get a job. I had a daughter and this makes me think of her. I was going to school for film and I made a short and put this song in for her.

Otis Redding “I’ve Got Dreams”
This reminds me of the last time I robbed a house. We were looking up obituaries and found someone who had just died and went to his place. We tried to get as much as we could, but ended up just with his guns and sold them. This was something I’d been doing since I was 16. Also at that time, I got in trouble for storing crack for a friend. My dad found it and flushed it down the toilet. My friends thought I sold it or smoked it.

Sesame Street Kid “Sesame Street”
In Iowa at the parties, DJs would play songs like this at the end of their set. It opened my ears to this type of funny happy song. I started collecting songs like that. Eventually this began to influence my music, which is why my songs are so poppy.

MICHAEL NHAT WITH VOICE ON TAPE, HALLOWEEN SWIM TEAM, NARWHAL PARTY, REDEMER, BLUE TAPE RED TAPE AND LUNA IS HONEY ON SAT., OCT. 24, AT THE RELEASE PARTY FOR MICHAEL NHAT’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM AT THE HOUSE OF VERMONT, 1515 S. VERMONT AVE., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM / DONATIONS / ALL AGES. HOWTOBEAMICROWAVE.COM. MICHAEL NHAT’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM RELEASES TUE., OCT. 27, ON HOW TO BE A MICROWAVE. VISIT MICHAEL NHAT AT MICHAELNHAT.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/MICHAELNHAT.

Download: Why? “This Blackest Purse”

(off Eskimo Snow out Sept 22nd on Anticon)

*Read: THUR., MAR. 6: WHY? INTERVIEW

Download: Themselves theFREEhoudini Mixtape

Themselves is producer Jel and rapper Doseone, who detach themselves from the Anticon hive mind to release their own ultra-fractalized riffs on hip-hop and experimental music. Their newest CrownsDown is built on the same frame as Nas and Gang Starr and to fit alongside Doseone’s side gig teaching kids how to rap. This interview by Matt Dupree.

What are you doing right now?
Doseone: Right now I’m working on this thing with Alan Moore. He’s got a book called Unearthing and [Andy Broder of] Fog and I are creating the score. We’re working on that—Andy’s coming out in a couple days. I’m going to have him on my couch. It’s going to be great. Unearthing is very striking and engrossing‚it’s two hours long so it’s not like working on a song. You don’t get to press play at the end of the day and say ‘I’m done with recording! Terrific!’
How exactly does one score an Alan Moore story?
Well, yeah—you’ll have to listen to it. We had a lot of ideas initially but It’s still taking shape. It’s completely different than making a rap record, so it’s been nice to have something else to concentrate on. But I still want to keep its scheme secret for a bit…
When you’re working on Unearthing, do you have to listen to Alan Moore’s voice over and over and over again?
Yes. For days and days and days and hours and hours. It’s like—to be honest, the writing is so dense and deep that it takes a lot of time to digest. The passages just blur past me until like the twentieth time, then they click into my comprehension of them.
Do you ever get any feelings of inadequacy as an artist—like ‘how could I work on something at that high level?’
I don’t know—fuck that. I read Watchmen. That shit got me through puberty. I think that anyone with something that’s formative for them, if they’re not an aesthetic retard, has a way of interpreting it. Alan’s shit worked its way into some of my poems and it affected the way I wrote the Subtle trilogy. So I think I’m man enough to step up and amp up. That’s like a Themselves thing—part of the rap aesthetic. You gotta step up to that shit. If I can wrap my head around it, I’m sure I can make something that sounds cool to go underneath it, and I’m honored to do so.
I’ve heard that you based the new album CrownsDown on Nas’ Illmatic and Gang Starr’s Hard To Earn.
They’re pretty much our template. The way those albums are structured—this album is very familiar to them. The songs, the interludes—not a bar is wasted. Then with each song itself, we greatly observe the records we consider to be classics—what it is that makes them timeless, like what the tendencies of their songs are. There’s a ‘style’ song, a ‘back in the day’ song, a ‘don’t fuck with my DJ’ song, so we did that—our way. There’s a lot of what we consider to be ‘classic rap beats’ and then the rest of it’s an honest-to-goodness Themselves record.
Would it be fair to say that of all your various projects, Themselves lies closest to you as an artist?
Subtle is all written with the epic of Hour Hero Yes in mind, so I’m just a conduit. And 13 & God—I’m speaking for 6 grown-ass men. Themselves is the one where I don’t gotta worry about what I’m gonna say—I’m speaking for myself, clearly. And since it’s been a while, I’ve got a lot of years of built-up writing to edit and project—there’s no like 86-bar over-emo ‘I can’t get out of my head’ verse.
So you’ve had time to figure out what you want to say.
Yeah. And I’ve got my first class teaching freestyle tomorrow at YMR, and that’s really got me back into it. It’s interesting—back when I was doing the cLOUDDEAD records I used to go out on the street and look for like a piece of paper with a word on it that struck me and I’d be like, ‘Uh, that’s it! I’m gonna make a song about this.’ But now I’m going out and teaching kids how to freestyle, and that aligns me. And at the same time Jeff [Logan, a.k.a. Jel, the other half of Themselves] and I were like, ‘We gotta write this rap record.’ So instead of it being more like this confusion on paper being worked out in song, it’s sort of a return to where we started and our strengths. It’s kind of a natural circuit. I got away from it ten years ago because rhyme and rap felt like such a restrictive way of getting ideas across—I didn’t feel I could say what I wanted to say. But our return to its angles and aesthetic have been very natural and healthy for us.
Have you been getting back into battling at all?
Kind of. With the kids I teach, it’s tricky. Some of the kids want to battle and it’s cute—some of them are even getting it pretty well—but you don’t really want that negative energy, you know? You don’t want it to be confrontational yet in many ways rap is about killing it… As Themselves, we invited some challengers on the last tour and it wasn’t all bad. Okay, there were a couple of guys who obviously weren’t ready for it and that was—that was kind of embarrassing. I’m going to do it again on this west coast tour if we can get organized. It’s kind of a fun thing to organize just logistically—it can be difficult with the driving and imminent traffic jams of touring. I was also going to do Skribble Jam but they cancelled it this year. But I will do something that results in rapper-eating this year for sure.
Canceled Skribble Jam? They must’ve been afraid of you.
Yeeeeaah. There was one kid who I could tell was a fan—that was awkward. He had kind of a tentative nature that I’ve had—like when I had to battle [legendary Freestyle Fellowship member] P.E.A.C.E., I’m like, ‘Uh, this sucks.’ So there was another guy—he reminded me of me when I was like sixteen, just trying to fight and not really rap, you know?
Is it weird seeing all your old battles come back to life on YouTube?
It’s pretty funny, man. You put ‘Dose’ in there and it’s like the first thing that comes up. I’d really like to battle again. I have a different perspective on it all. You know, back then I didn’t really know what I wanted out of it. I didn’t perceive what it means, clearly. It’s very much a certain type of rapping, those battles, and I was getting in there as rapper against rapper and I didn’t really have a place there. And then I was in there against like P.E.A.C.E.—whose songs I’ve memorized and whose music was formative to me—that’s how I had to meet dudes. That being said, there are certain rappers I would love to step to in cold blood, but I don’t know. It’s a fine line. I don’t think I’ll ever have a taste for serving somebody who I appreciate. That’s not my style. Because it’s kinda like—you got to have no remorse when you battle. You can’t walk that line—you have to cross it.
So it’s not something you think you could do amiably?
There’s just some people, who I appreciate, who I really can’t pretend to pull a knife on. I mean, eventually, when I get drunk I’ll probably… One time I battled in Portland—at our hotel at the Doug Fir—and there was this women’s roller derby team and they were all there and I started servin’ them shit-faced. After I was done with one, they’d walk away and the next one would step up smiling like, ‘Okay, serve me!’
Is it hard to translate that vicious style when you’re teaching your kids to battle?
No—when I’m teaching the kids I just try to be open. If they’re keeping it mellow, then I keep it mellow. And when they get into it, I sort of approach it like, ‘You know, back in the day, rappers…’ It’s all about showing them how to do it—there’s no exercise. It’s an interesting thing, freestyle. To a certain extent you got it or you don’t, but that’s not entirely the case. Most people can improve just by gradually forgetting where they’re at. So that’s not what I focus on. Every time I come into the classroom it’s like—I don’t know—other lessons come first. The kids barely raise their voices. So you know—I teach them to project, and how to pick their rap names.
Is that a tough lesson? Choosing a rap name?
Yeah—I got fucking stuck with this thing I was writing on my notebooks and on bus stops. My fucking tag name when I was sixteen or whatever. I didn’t really get to pick mine. Some of the kids get to come up with something dope. Some of them are good, and some of them are fucking hysterical. I appreciate all forms of rap names. One time in Europe we saw this guy whose name was Scarhead. Like the European Scarface. ‘Scarhead, comin’ atcha…’
Is it strange to hear non-English Europeans rapping in English?
Oh, I love that shit, dude. That shit gives me a boner. Have you ever heard of Johnny Bass? He’s like the Swedish Sage Francis. Well he’s nothing like Sage—he’s just uber-emotive, you know? And whenever he says it, he goes ‘Johnny BASSSS!’ Like the Chuck D octave drop on bass. And he does songs about his mom. Jeff and I love that shit. There’s something about slang being worded improperly that’s fucking the bee’s knees.
I know when you worked with the Notwist it was their stripped-down approach to English that enticed you, right?
Yeah, but that’s a whole other chord. This is more the genre of music being made with that accent and the amount of words per square inch are what makes it humorous, let alone the content. Whereas with Markus [Acher, of the Notwist], he’s got a great ear for words and content and poetic phrasing. I’m not trying to diss Johnny Bass—he’s got his ear, but it’s not the same. There’s something perfect about the way Markus picks out words and leaves certain words out that aren’t really necessary—that are just subject, predicate, a bunch of transitions or whatever. It has taken me years to unlearn English, in the manner that came naturally to Markus as an outsider to our language.
We talked in 2005 at the El Rey and you said that you were still going to do Subtle and Themselves as well as a new 13 & God record. Since you’ve done both Subtle and Themselves records, when can we expect new 13 & God?
We record in January, and it’ll probably be out next fall. Fall 2010.
I heard it was going to be moving toward the style of the song ‘Superman On Ice.’
We’re going to be doing like some Enya shit. No, we’re going to do it more like a band. The songs we got to at the end and the songs we were playing live were fucking really nasty. So we’re going to jam—eww, the ‘J’ word!—as a band in California this time with Dax [Pierson] because he can’t go to Germany. So we’re gonna do it and all record together, and then do a big edit and completion in Munich like we did last time, with some time in between so I can work on my vocals. I do all my best vocal stuff over time. I write a lot of cadences to the beat so that’ll be the last part of 13 & God to put down. We’ll have like 8 songs, and there’ll be 25 parts I have to come up with. I like having it hit me all of a sudden what I want to do here or there. It keeps me interested. I don’t like doing one song at a time in between long breaks.
I’m glad you mentioned Dax—he just won his lawsuit [against Ford Motors after his car accident] a couple months ago.
Yes, he did.
Has the money changed him?
Yeah—ha! He’s always swimming in fucking gold. No, of course not. I saw him the day it happened and he looked shell-shocked. It’s just a whole other world. He needs that money. He requires personal attendants on a daily basis, and moreover a healthy cushion to fall back on no matter what, so hopefully that money will help calm his nerves and eventually allow him some freedoms. I think though at the moment, he is just overwhelmed by his new tax bracket. In my opinion, this world couldn’t have put millions into better hands.
If it allows him to continue with his music, then so much the better.
Of course. It’s kind of the pinky-toe concern out of everything else he has to worry about, but it’s definitely the thing that’s closest to his heart in many ways. His fervor and ability to make music is just as strong as it always was.
The stuff he’s been putting up on Facebook has been amazing.
Oh, Facebook! I don’t know shit about that. My little sister is 15 and that’s it for her: Facebook! Kids today! I used to be on the corner battle rapping!
I don’t think they’ve made a Facebook equivalent of battling.
You know what I was tripping on was that computer battling. It’s really dead at this point but that shit was classic. These people would type-battle. I can’t even comprehend it. Like stenographers. Aggressive stenographers.
In ten years, that’ll be it.
Yeah, like some of the punks, who are really authentic, will be doing that.
‘YOUR RHYMES ARE OLD. YOU CAN’T STEP TO THIS.’‘
LOL.’

THEMSELVES ON WED., JULY 29, AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. THEMSELVES’ CROWNSDOWN IS OUT THIS AUGUST ON ANTICON. VISIT THEMSELVES AT ANTICON.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/THEMSELVES.

Why? “The Hollows”

Why? Why Y? Much like the character Ellen from Pete and Pete, L.A. RECORD was on its own quest for the answer Why? Rebecca Balin speaks with Yoni Wolf about love, loss, vegan sausages and Why?’s new album “Alopecia” due out March 11, 2008.

So you’re at home and you just got up. Are you still in your pajamas or are you dressed?
I’m in my pajamas.
I won’t ask for anything more personal.
Thanks!
What were you listening to while recording Alopecia?
The most audible difference between Alopecia and Elephant Eyelash in my mind and influence wise is that this new one is more rap. There’s a lot more rap on it. I’ve always listened to rap music since I was a teenager but I went through a long period of not enjoying it that much or not really actively listening. But I guess this past couple of years I sort of got back into a little bit. To be honest, I was listening to a decent amount of Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil’ Wayne, those kinds of people. I think they’re really talented rappers. I think that they’ve influenced me. This is the first time ever I actually sat down to write rap and I did that for maybe three or four songs on the record and that’s a lot more than ever for me.
Have you actually used Purell so much that your hands bled?
Yeah, chaffing! It’ll dry you out.
What was it like when you interviewed Bob Mould?
It was an artist on artist interview. He had some really insightful things to say. I just thought it was kind of cool that he’s been doing this for so long, and I’m about to round 10 years of doing it and he’s just been doing this for a ridiculous amount of time.
On Drowned in Sound you said that on Elephant Eyelash you were trying to win someone over, and on Alopecia you’re saying that you can’t. Are you currently heart broken?
No. I’m over it.
What did you mean by the word “can’t”? You felt that you couldn’t try anymore? Or you just didn’t want to anymore?
There was a breaking point, you know? I think the second song on the record I wrote at the breaking point. I just felt like a zombie for about six months. I didn’t really feel anything for a long time. I’ve actually been dating this girl right now and I like her. It’s crazy to me that I actually like somebody. So that’s pretty cool, but then I go on tour for about three months and she moves to New York. So that sucks. But I’m glad that I actually feel something. It reminds me that I actually can and that’s great. I get so caught up. I had thought that there’s this one person and that this was my destiny—‘the one’ and all this other business that this girl before this one didn’t see, but I saw it and it’s crazy shit, you know? You can’t start thinking like that, though. I thought I’d never feel something for anybody else. That I never could. I’d date girls and be like, “Oh Okay.” I’d get bored and then it’d be like whatever. But I like this one actually so that’s cool.
I didn’t mean to pry too much into your personal love life.
I was just talking about that last night. I just did a bunch of interviews and I was talking to the new girl about it and she asked me how much I did tell these people? And I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I just have trouble not telling fans stuff. It’s just in my nature. If someone just asks something then I’ll tell them. That’s just how I am. She’s like, ‘You can not say stuff…’ I’m never going to do that. I talk about my personal life too much.
But that’s the point of interviews. People want to get a feel for you.
Yeah, you’re right. I ‘m about to cook up these Field Roast Vegan Sausages.
So you’re playing the Natural History Museum with Yacht. I believe the subject has something to do with evolution?
I don’t believe in evolution. But I believe in museums and that they’re trying to bring in a younger audience. and we’re a part of that. Don’t you think that’s what they’re doing? They’re thinking, ‘How can we get younger people to come so that the next generation actually funds our shit and come out? Well, rock music, of course.’
Have you seen any good documentaries lately? I’m really into band documentaries.
I saw a great documentary about Leonard Cohen. I thought it would be about his music career, but it was about before he started making music. It was made in the early ‘60s before he became a musician, when he was just a poet living in Montreal—made by this Canadian film board or whatever. It was like “This is Leonard Cohen, he is a poet from Montreal and blah blah blah” Really kind of stiff in a way but he had all these cool things to say. And he looked so young and handsome.
Are you crushing?
No, I’m not crushing.

WHY? WITH YACHT PLUS DJs ALE AND MATTHEWDAVID (DUBLAB) ON FRI., MAR. 7, AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 900 EXPOSITION DR., LOS ANGELES. 5 PM / FREE FOR MEMBERS/ $6.50-$9 / ALL AGES. NHM.ORG/FIRSTFRIDAYS. WHY?’S ALOPECIA RELEASES TUE., MAR. 11, ON ANTICON. VISIT WHY? AT ANTICON.COM.