DCist Interview: Blonde Redhead

During the last 10 years, you guys have spent a lot of time touring without a full-time bass player. Yet it seems to me that you've widened your sound palette quite a bit since then--especially with regard to keyboards and electronics. Have you considered bringing additional players on the road with you?

Yeah, it is difficult. I think that the live setup is always a work in progress, it keeps getting better. We’re not doing this because we love electronics—it’s fascinating to have maybe just because we can’t play so many instruments at the same time. If we ever meet someone great, who has a passion to play instruments like we do, maybe…it’s just kind of a tricky one to get into. We’ve had three bass players, gone through three different people.

In the studio it’s different, though. It’s not like everything has to happen at the same time--everyone is a lot more relaxed and a lot of people come in and out and play things on the record. That can happen a lot more genuinely.

Shifting gears a bit, could you tell me a little about the significance of the title of the new album, 23, and how it relates to the themes of the record?

Uh, [the number 23] has been kind of following me around as long as I can remember. I ‘ve always found it everywhere around me and it simply became my favorite number or the number that I think about the most. I just wanted something really simple because we always had a really long title. So I just used something that was close to me. I never give too much thought to these things. So many people ask though, I almost wish I had put more thought into it! [Laughs]

It seems like your last few records, especially the new one, are a bit more accessible than some of your early albums. Was there a conscious decision to move toward more traditional song structures?

Well, we just wanted to practice doing something that wasn’t too comfortable for us. I think we were trying to make things more complicated than they had to be and we decided, let’s just get to the point as quickly as possible. That was something that felt very unnatural but it became something of a challenge and we were fascinated by that. It’s not like we really wanted to be like everybody else.

Do you see yourselves continuing down this path for a while, or do you think you’ll find new ways to challenge yourselves in the future?

Who knows? I don’t know. I think I’ll find something fascinating to do. It did seem like we were on to something of a new path with this one—I hope to at least go on this same path and see how far we can go.

You've traditionally been known as something of a guitar band. Do you feel like that's changing as you move forward?

Uh—I don’t know—I never really thought about us as a guitar band. We have a good guitar player though? I think we do love guitars—it’s hard to tell.

Well, it seems to me that you guys have always been much more interested in layering guitar tracks and in the texture of guitars than most other bands.

Yeah, maybe we just love to fool around with instruments.

Do you think you’ll bring in any new instruments on the next album?

Yeah—I would like to find a couple of keyboards that could do strange stuff, like the ones that come with drumbeats.

Like those old Casiotone keyboards?

Yeah, like those, maybe older.

What's the songwriting and recording process like for Blonde Redhead? How do the three of you collaborate on songwriting?

Uh—I don’t know. We just collaborate? It depends, usually they come to me with some nice chords and I try to sing on it or something. We could be working on a drum beat separately and then we put it together and see what works and what doesn’t.

You mentioned before that you were looking for a place to write and record. Do you feel like your physical or geographical location has some bearing on the songs that you write?

I would always like to try something new if I could. And when you put so much daily work into it, you don’t want to get bored with the place that you’re in. Some people only feel comfortable at home or something. I think we have a little bit of normalcy in us, though. I don't think we’ve ever even recorded in the same place twice.

Blonde Redhead has been a band for 15 years now. How does it feel being referred to as elder statesmen of indie rock?

I don’t think we’ve been a band that long? I think people just keep making it up and making it longer and longer to make us sound more important.

Well, didn’t the band form in 1993?

I don’t know. I think I quit my part time job in ‘98? That was when the second album was out. We were starting to tour extensively. That was 10 years ago. That’s when we really became serious.

Anything you're particularly looking forward to doing or seeing while you’re here in D.C.?

Playing the show? No, I’d like to see my friends—if it’s possible. [Laughs]




Blonde Redhead play Wednesday, January 16th at the 9:30 Club, 7:30pm.

Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski, courtesy of 4AD/Beggar's Banquet