Fischerspooner

We're working on this residency in New York at this small club called the Canal Room. We've just been getting our new band up to speed and playing out in front of smaller audiences because we’re starting over on the live show. Also we've been picking up a couple shows in different places across the US. I love that our first show was in Orlando at downtown DisneyWorld. Then we do the New York shows, we do a couple shows in Europe and then we are starting a residency in Ibiza which is like a Mediterranean disco island.

We're doing a show with this club there called Manumission and they do these over the top, all night long, hedonistic, spectacular shows and we're going to be sort of the resident band there where we'll perform every Monday night.

Aesthetically, but not necessarily literally. It's not like I'm going to be cutting lines of coke with hookers sitting on my face.

My hedonism is actually just being able to do what I want to do.

That's a bit exaggerated. We always worked hard at it. It wasn't such a lark. I think it's the way a lot of people start something is it happens and it's sort of a surprise when it happens. So you’re like, Wow, I thought I was going to go kind of this direction and this opportunity presented itself and it's taking me in a completely different direction. I was anticipating that I would end up being more like Spalding Gray and I think Warren thought he was going to be more like Sonic Youth. So we both kind of ended up in a completely different place that was kind of a combination of all those interests.

Initially when we started, we knew we were onto something from the first show. That there was something we were interested in pursuing. So we worked very hard and created this crazy hybrid between electronic music and this outsider do it yourself pop extravaganza. That didn't happen easily. I think that a lot of times that people misconstrue the sense of humor to it especially in the way that I would act on stage. I would destroy and take apart the huge production that I had built in front of people with a sense of humor that at times was aggressive. But I don't think anybody really knows how successful you can be. You just have to make something that you like and that you think is cool and hope for the best.

Yeah, I've seen them selling music there. Not that I purchased any.

I passed on the Ray Charles.

It was part of a kind of group show. We just invited like a whole posse of performance artists and musicians from Williamsburg and put together this crazy variety show that lasted for several hours. There was a fair amount of people there but we only performed one song in this performance. I think the next show we did three or four songs and that was the first time we incorporated wardrobe and we brought in sound and I even had a wind machine so we really pushed it.

Not exactly but knew it was interesting and that there was something about it that we liked. After we did a second show, we wrote a couple more songs and then we went and recorded those two songs and it was in that first recording that we really kept talking about what had happened and what we liked about it and how we thought it could be. We always imagined it as this weird kind of Kraftwerk meets Busby Berkley, super American outsider pop punk hybrid.

Oh my god, completely. But now I feel like I have to start over. That was seven years ago, so I'm ready to evolve in some way, make a new choice and try something different.

Yeah, I mean, definitely. The big difference is before the whole show was all pre-recorded. So now we're working with live musicians to find ways to translate the music onto a band live. That’s a big difference. I'm still looking for that kind of crazy weird twist on how you perform music live again.

The only way you get there is by trying things. I'm willing to try things and see how they work and do that in front of people so they will witness me evolving. Whereas most people come out like a product, like a box with a neat bow on top.

Yeah, completely different. The difference was before we started, we didn't even know we were making a record. We were making songs and we were making performances and we were making these different weird hybrids between music, art and performance and at a certain point we realized that people wanted the music and we had made everything in these very kind distinct pieces. Once we had enough pieces, we put them together and we were like, Okay, this is a record. We did it without a label and we paid for everything ourselves so it was just much more focused.

David Byrne was a fan and he came to a lot of our shows very early on and he was someone I knew I wanted to connect with. Susan Sontag I had met through a friend also, so that kind of came through a personal contact. Linda Perry was someone I did have a personal contact with and also through professional contacts, so that was sort of a combination but she had no clue who we were at all.

We just met with her and talked to her and she's just a very open and cool person.

When I say produced, it was more like Warren fretting over it. I have input, but definitely he's kind of music captain. But we will never make another record without a producer. The first record we made wasn’t done with any kind of schedule or budget and when you're working piecemeal and over a three year period, it's no big deal. But when it's got to happen in a certain time frame with a lot of people involved a producer is needed. A producer isn't just a creative partner, they also help plan, organize and make things happen.

It's usually about lyrics. The big thing for me is the performability of the song, so he loves to geek out and explore lots of musical devices but what’s really important to me was, would I be able to sing these songs live. So a lot of times he would want to record a whole song where it's me whispering and I'd be like, I am not going to be able to stand in a room full of people and perform this. For me, the ultimate and the easiest song for me to perform is Never Win. That one is just natural.

Not so much.

Yeah, I guess we did. He has two kids now and another full time job at a film production company.

I don't do anything but this. Well, that's not true. I have lots of friends so I go to lots of shows and I know lots of different people that are dancers and performers. Warren doesn't travel to do the shows so I do all the touring.

When we started I was like, I'm going to do this for one year. But I guess I'll just keep exploring this until I feel like it's finished.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck