Go! Team's Parton Talks LP, Label Switch, Cheerleaders
"I'm trying to get further away from that four-blokes-in-a-band sound"

With a release and tour schedule once again as busy as his band's Bomb-Squad-meets-70s-
film-soundtracks-meets-playground-chants sound, Go! Team songwriter Ian Parton spoke to Pitchfork about the band's new album, Proof of Youth, which is out September 10 on Memphis Industries in the UK and September 11 in America on Sub Pop.

The band's debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, was released in America on Columbia Records. So we had to know what was up with the jump from Columbia to Sub Pop.

"We parted company with the British label over here, Sony BMG, who were affiliated with Columbia, so it was like a package," Parton explained. "We did fuck off our label in the UK. They thought I wasn't interested in selling records, because they wanted to do "Buy Thunder, Lightning, Strike now!"-type adverts. And when they do that kind of blanket coverage, we say, 'All right, fuck them.' We were not the easiest band-- I mean we're easy people to work with, but our opinion of what's cool and what's not, and what's shit and what's not [is pretty strong]. Sub Pop are pretty clued up and know the score."

The Go! Team have struggled with issues of commerce vs. credibility before, notably late last year when "Huddle Formation" was used in a Honda commercial. As Parton explained then, the song was licensed to pay for the clearing of samples on the second album. And like Thunder, Lightning, Strike, Proof of Youth has plenty of samples. But Parton said, "It doesn't feel quite so cut-and-paste-y. People are saying it sounds live-r, which probably comes down to the way it was done. [It] was quite a shift from the way the first album came about, where it was just me as a kind of hobby band almost.

"This one was done in a room in Brighton, which we took over for six months. I think it's a combination of better microphones, more time, better gear, and I certainly wanted it to kick a bit more. There are quite a lot of almost bubblegum pop moments, but I wanted to take the edge off those with a lot of white noise going on underneath.

"I never really want anything to be a straightforward pop song. I always want to take the edge off in some way. There are some out-and-out noise moments bordering on My Bloody Valentine-style guitars and stuff, but that's kind of rubbing shoulders with yearning to create a catchy melodic song as well."

Parton and co. have been fortunate enough to go beyond incorporating the influences of bands like My Bloody Valentine into their music. MBV mastermind Kevin Shields has remixed them, and on the new album, another hero of Parton's, Chuck D, is added to the fold.

"The label asked me if there was anyone I wanted to work with, and I said Public Enemy is one of my favorite bands. I didn't think it'd happen, to be honest. But I got an email address and mobile number, and we hassled him, basically. We emailed him a track; he dug it. He went to the studio and did a few takes of stuff he'd written, and I inherited them and moved them around and chopped them up a little bit and it turned out be 'Flashlight Fight'. It's a lot dirtier and chaotic than you're used to hearing hip-hop being. I think people will be surprised that [his vocals] aren't more up the mix, but they're still there. It's still obviously him."

While the former Public Enemy frontman is the most famous name on Proof of Youth's guest list, there are plenty of others that are just as interesting, such as Bonde do Role's Marina Ribatski; professional jump rope troupe (and old school hip hop affiliates) Double Dutch Divas; the Washington, D.C.-area Frederick Douglass High School cheerleading squad; and elementary school extracurricular rap group Rapper's Delight Club.

Chuck D and a few boys in Rapper's Delight Club aside, all of these contributions fit into Parton's usual lady-only vocal policy, which he says is the result of both personal taste and a desire to take advantage of under-utilized sounds.

"I have always been a sucker for girl groups, that kind of Phil Spector excitement you get from matched girl vocals. And riot grrrl stuff has always been an inspiration. It's really that and a kind of frustration with having another bloke-winding-on type of thing. I'm trying to get further away from that four-blokes-in-a-band [sound].

"I just stumbled across [Rapper's Delight Club] on MySpace, and they were up for it. It's quite a strange little song anyway. Marina is on it as well, plus [Go! Team guitarist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist] Kaori [Tsuchida]. We got Marina sort of rapping and chanting in Brazilian, and then we got Kaori singing in Japanese, and then we've got these like ten-year-old kids rapping as well, so we're all over the shop. That song's called 'Universal Speech'.

"The Double Dutch Divas, I sampled one of the chants they did from a documentary. I was so pleased with how that sounded, and we got in touch with them and I played the song and they really loved it, which is pretty cool, because they toured with Run-D.M.C. and the Fat Boys in the 80s. They were really easy to work with, and it just sounded right from the outset.

"The cheerleaders was a YouTube thing. It sounded quite hot on some YouTube clip I found, so we just got them to do this thing. They sent over their own local person with a sound recorder and brought it up to one of their practices and put a couple mics on it. I'm not particularly into cheerleaders. People often give me a hard time about the cheerleading sections, but it's more about the vocals and the excitement of that and how it's an untapped thing more than me wanting to conjure up images of pom poms and short skirts. I've really got no interest in it personally. It's more of a sonic thing than an All-American reference."

The Go! Team dates:

06-29 Beijing, China - The Star Live
06-30 Shanghai, China - Absolute House
07-05 London, England – Electrowerkz
07-06 London, England – ICA (iTunes Festival)
07-10 Ibiza, Spain - Ibiza Rocks
07-22 Benicassim, Spain - Benicassim Festival
07-28 Berlin, Germany - Berlin Festival
08-10 Gothenberg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08-11 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
08-15 Saint-Malo, France, La Route Du Rock Festival
08-16 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop
08-18 Brighton, England - Loop Festival
08-26 London, England - Get Loaded Festival
08-31 Argyll, Scotland, Connect Festival
09-02 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
09-07 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival
09-12 London, England - Electric Ballroom
09-13 Manchester, England - Ritz
09-14 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC

Video: The Go! Team: Grip Like a Vice [from the forthcoming Proof of Youth LP]