Love Songs and Mind Control:
by Dan WeissPage 2 of 2
Hidden World had whistling and violins, and [Chemistry] had flute and tabla. What other instruments have you been waiting to use on a Fucked Up release?
MH: If you’d asked me that question five years ago I would’ve said a theremin, but now all the thinking I do for writing new music is just making it simpler. I feel like the weird instruments we used became such a thing, and now we just want to strip it down to guitars and bass and drums. But maybe the next thing we do will be in a weird tuning.
One thing I enjoy is how as your albums get longer, the songs themselves have gotten shorter. Are you becoming tighter editors in general or was it just a necessity in this case?
MH: Well, I mean, the next record that’s coming out is The Year of the Tiger, in September or October, and that’s got one 15-minute song and one 25-minute song. Every record has a different character. The next album could be even more ridiculous and even more pretentious. But for this one, we wanted to see what we could do within the confines of this conventional musical style almost.
I’m going to list some reference points that David Comes to Life reminds me of, and you can call bullshit or not: No Age.
MH: Yeah, I like them, they’re cool. We’re friends with them.
DA: Absolutely. Great friends of ours. Amazing Band. Dean [Spunt] started smoking pot just before I started smoking pot. I thought it was super lame when he started doing it, and then I ended up following in his footsteps.
R.E.M.
DA: Michael Stipe actually came to our 12-hour show at the very end when no one was there anymore, and we got to meet him and talk to him really briefly. R.E.M.’s a great band that has a real deep history in American indie-rock that parallels American punk rock and American hardcore so I have a lot of respect for them. And “Crush with Eyeliner,” Thurston Moore’s part on that is really cool.
Glenn Branca.
DA: I actually have the first Glenn Branca record Lesson No. 1 on my wall. Certainly, the wall of sound, the wall of guitars. The idea of a guitar symphony is such a cool idea. So yeah, Glenn Branca, but also Kevin Shields and the My Bloody Valentine layering was another massive influence.
MH: I don’t even think I’ve ever heard of that.
Steve Reich, especially Music for 18 Musicians.
DA: Oh yeah, absolutely that too. And with a lot of that… it’s funny because, with Mike too, I never know what Mike listens to when I’m not around. He listens to techno and I make fun of him for that. Maybe I should stop making fun of him and then he’ll tell me.
MH: It’s weird, I used to listen to stuff like that and Kirsty Riley or whatever his name is [Terry Riley? –ed]. But I feel like we tried to get away from stuff like that on this record. We just wanted to make something that sounds like the Goo Goo Dolls or something.
DA: [makes a noise] Yeah, see. But Goo Goo Dolls came from a hardcore background too. So.
