Photo by Chad Kamenshine
By DCist Contributor Alex Tebeleff
Of Montreal has been an unusual creative force for the past two decades. The style and aesthetic of their music has not only changed drastically over the years, but their output has been downright prolific. At the same time, that genius has revealed songwriter Kevin Barnes to be a restless and driven artist. DCist spoke with Kevin about his music and process in advance of his show at the 9:30 Club this Saturday with Yonatan Gat.
DCist: You have been one of the most prolific songwriters out there over the past couple decades. What do you do to keep your creative energy open and active?
Kevin Barnes: Creating music is pretty much my only interest, so it’s always on my mind. I’m always searching for new forms of inspiration and new ways to expand the sound.
DCist: Tell us a little bit about how your new album Aureate Gloom came together. Is there anything about this album that sticks out in particular to you?
KB: Well, it is very much an open journal set to a prog/glam/punk soundtrack. It documents the last year or so of my life. The recording process was interesting because we went out to work in this cool studio outside of El Paso called Sonic Ranch and lived there for about three weeks. We recorded and mixed the album out there and we were all completely immersed in the project. It was a very communal and collaborative effort.
DCist: My personal favorite album of yours so far has been your most recent 2013 album Lousy with Sylvianbriar It was a big shift in style to me, and you’ve been pretty fearless about doing that through your career. Is there a particular way that you maintain openness to change as an artist?
KB: I try to make each album as if it was for a new band with no history or back catalog. Each album is a chance to become born again, in an artistic sense. It’s very liberating to approach things that way and I find it fairly easy to slip into new characters or to find some new spirit to chase/be inspired by.
DCist: As a musician myself, one of the most interesting things about listening to your music is the huge range of influences and styles you go through. Are there any bands or musicians in particular that you feel have influenced the way you make music?
KB: Yeah, definitely David Bowie, Prince, Kate Bush, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, Ray Davies, Skip Spence, Patti Smith, Sly Stone, Fairport Convention, George Clinton, Richard Hell, Wayne County, Screaming Jay Hawkins…
DCist: Any contemporary bands that you are really listening to a lot or have even influenced you in your more recent creative output?
KB: Deerhoof, Sufjan Stevens, Foxygen, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, Connan Mockasin, Ariel Pink…
DCist: What’s it been like to grow as an artist out of a community like Athens? How do you view it as a music city? The history of bands with unusually great songwriting that have come out of the city is pretty extraordinary.
KB: It’s cool cause it’s such an underdog sort of city, there’s no reason for it to have any cultural impact on the world but for some reason it has attracted some interesting people to it over the years. It must have some sort of cosmic power or something. There is always something happening here musically and it’s usually pretty esoteric and interesting. There is a cool scene happening at the moment with bands and artists like Black Paradise, Shade, Fantasy Sports, Ginko, Wild of Night, Mothers and Wild Abandon.
DCist: Speaking of Athens, Elephant 6 [the recording company] has become quite a legendary scene in itself. How do you feel those relationships have affected you as a musician and a person?
KB: It was great for me to be involved with those peeps early on in my musical journey. They taught me so much and were very supportive and inspiring. They gave me the courage to stand out on my own and to forge my own identity outside of the trappings of mainstream commerciality. They taught me the power of DIY fearlessness and ambitiousness. I owe so much to bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and The Music Tapes.
DCist: Does your stage production ever inspire your songwriting, or does the songwriting always come first?
KB: Songwriting normally comes first. I try not to worry too much about how a song will translate live while I’m writing or recording it. That is a challenge for another time and it can get distracting if I consider it too much during the creative process. Sometimes I do set out to make a song that will be potentially exciting live though. There are a few moments on Aureate Gloom where I was thinking about things on that level.
DCist: You’ve been at this for quite a while! Do you have any advice for other musicians as to how to make a sustainable creative career for themselves?
KB: I mean, you really just need to get fulfillment out of the creative process. If that is a constant then you’ll always want to do it and you’ll never feel too discouraged by the outside world. If you create music for the right reasons then you’ll probably wanna do it for your whole life.
I think artists should challenge themselves. I feel like it’s easy to be kind of unambitious when making music, just because really simple things can feel very good to play, but if you want to “make a name for yourself,” you should probably error on the side of superfreak and not try to make something that just feels good or natural– you should make something that feels foreign and awkward and even slightly unpleasant to you.
Of Montreal play Saturday night at the 9:30 Club with Yonatan Gat. Tickets are sold out, but you can find tickets elsewhere.
