Some Questions with Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear has received a ton of accolades from media outlets of the highest order to the lowliest suburban blog. Their 2006 record, Yellow House was on many top 10 lists back in December and they seem to have developed a strong fan-base seemingly overnight. I had a conversation with Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste in the dead time before having to play a show in Tucson, Arizona. I would like to thank Ed for being such a delightful interview subject and making this process as painless as possible, not to mention taking time out of what I'm sure is an impossibly busy schedule. At one point, I felt like I was the one being grilled but that was a nice change of pace. I would like to apologize to the City Of Dallas for my barbecue recommendation in the interview. I don't know what the hell I was thinking.

So, we'll start with a question about your label if that's okay?

Yeah.

Warp is a pioneer in electronic music and though you have some electronics featured in your music, most of the music seems to be based more around the song-writing. Did you grow up listening to artists on Warp? What else do you think has influenced the electronic elements of your music?

I grew up...I guess I wasn't really fully aware of Warp. Actually, the first Warp artist that I became a fan of was Broadcast, probably in '98 or '99. I mean I was well aware of Aphex Twin but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, at that age at least. And it was after Broadcast that I started investigating other artists that they had, and I was really into a lot of their stuff. Definitely. We were really excited about being on the label just because we felt like, especially in the last few years they've been making changes. And they're doing exciting new stuff with bands like Battles. And we just thought that they were really cool. And also it really came down to, with them, when we were meeting with labels they were instantly the most personable people that we met with. We just got a really good feeling from them.

Would you make another remix record or do you see that as more of a one-off experiment?

I think it's pretty one-off. That would be a huge douchey move to do it again. It's like one of those things you can only do once. I feel like when most people do it, it's just a reason to to sell more records, and you know, get people to buy shit. And it was mostly, for me it was just sort of a fun side/vanity thing that started growing out of control. Because it started with one or two people involved, and then it evolved into something else and it just ended up being a fun thing. I didn't want anyone to have to pay for it because I feel like I was always annoyed when people would release those things. So we gave it away for free with the CD when we rereleased the CD with better distribution. Remixes come and go. We like the Girl Talk one but I don't think we'll ever do a full-on remix album again. I think that definitely had it's moment.

Does it bother you that people constantly write about the fidelity of the recordings and that they sometimes measure that standard along with the standard of music? I've even seen one review that suggested your recording quality still needed to improve and I think that's somewhat ridiculous. Do you agree?

Well, I just think that that's... Yeah, I guess I do agree [laughter]. You know, I don't even really think it's that lo-fi and I think that (Chris) Taylor did an awesome job recording it. I don't know which review you're referring to, but I guess I've seen some people mention that it could improved on. But I think the textures and the sounds and the atmosphere are really great and really sort of important because they represent the environments we were recording in and they're very true to the spirit of the recording at the time. I don't know. I mean we definitely are not interested in working in the studio. We just had to do an itunes session in one and it was kind of the opposite of the way we like to work: under a tight schedule and working with random producer man who sort of doesn't really get it. It just was pretty tedious in a weird way. I think we'll be recording the next album ourselves again but of course with each project that Chris does for other bands it gets better and better. So maybe the next album will be a step forward in production. He's shaking his head right now, so I don't know. Maybe not. Just joking. [laughter]

I hear people mention 70s British folk as far as your influences go. Do they actually tend to be of that era? Are they more current? Or do you just listen to 78s?

Well, I think the whole concept of just listening to one thing is sort of impossible to apply to any of us really. Just sort of that concept of, "Oh, I'm just strictly a Nineteen-Thirties waltz man myself!" None of our musical taste can be defined so strictly. That said, I do think that I do, personally speaking, tend to listen to more contemporary music and my band-mates may listen to a bit more older music, but we all listen to everything basically. The whole influences question is a very popular question and I think it's hard to answer because I can't really imagine being able to pick one album or artist that was the whole inspiration for any of us for writing the music or not. I think that, personally speaking, that every album you hear, good or bad, is going to influence you in some sort of minute way. You might be like, "Oh, I never want make a sound like this again or like this person's making and I have to actively avoid that.". I think nine times out of ten when things influence you it's not exactly conscious. It's not like you're like, "Let's bite this style...and then derive from here...." You know what I mean? It's like when you're writing music, you're writing what feels right at the moment and of course you're going to be influenced by your surroundings and what you've listened to and what you've grown up with. But I just think it's impossible to write down one thing and sort of inaccurate. In the beginning I would just name different albums when each person would ask it and just change it every time. It's impossible to say.

Right.

Sorry. That's sort of a cop-out answer.

No, no. It's almost standard that you ask that but it is a really difficult question to answer.

A cop-answer for a cop-out question [laughter].

Exactly. You have mentioned that other New York artists have inspired you. Do you care to mention any that are particularly inspiring?

I definitely think that being in New York is inspiring in that there are so many creative people and there's constant music production at every corner you turn. I think just being around that, it's like there's an energy and it's kind of hard to just sort of lay back and be sort of complacent when there's so much going on. Yet at the same time it can be kind of distracting because there's too much going on. But I find it inspiring. As for names, it's not even necessarily my favorite bands that I've enjoyed being out attending shows of. Like Akron Family, Animal Collective, and Gang Gang Dance. There's a ton of artists that are really cool as well as a lot of ones that no one's ever heard of before. I used to like going to see this band called Big A Little A that would do these really crazy thirty minute power-drone sets and they've barely released any recordings, but they were always fun to check out live. So those were kind of fun too. I like Diane Cluck a lot. I don't know if you've ever heard of Diane Cluck?

No I haven't.

You should check it out. There's a song by her called "Easy To Be Around" that's amazing. She's kind of folk and does things around New York. I'm not sure she's done too much touring or playing outside of New York, but she's really great.

What has your general impression of Texas been?

Texas?

Uh huh.

I have a very limited impression of Texas. It's either of San Antonio as a child because my grandparents lived there, so I used to go to San Antonio all the time. We would go to the zoo. My other impression is just sort of recently. The last time we played in Texas was two years ago at South By Southwest. So we've never really played our own sort of show there, and now it's three Texas dates and we're quite excited about it. I know that Midlake is from Dallas and I'm quite a fan of that album, and I'm just really excited to see it do so well because it's really awesome. I guess the only city that I really feel like I know as of recently is Austin, because I have some friends that went to school there and I've visited a few times previously and because of South By Southwest two years ago. I'm excited to play and I feel like there's a really huge music scene in Texas. And that's really cool because if you'd asked me four years ago I'd have never guessed that. But the more that I've become involved with music and toured the more I've realized it was a definite, great destination to play music. Or so it seems. Maybe only twenty people will show up to Dallas and I might be completely wrong.

No, I think that will definitely be a well attended show.

I'm excited for some barbecue! Can you maybe like, give us a hint for some barbecue in Dallas?

In Dallas? Oh, let me think. Everybody seems to like uh, Spring Creek Barbecue.

Spring Creek. We have a GPS so I'm just going to type in Spring Creek Barbecue when we get to Dallas and we'll stop in. I'm excited about it. We have a very busy day there you realize, we're doing the Good Records thing. And some sort of recording thing for Gorilla VS Bear.

Oh, wow.

So another, another... Is it your rival? Your rival blog?

Oh, no, no, no. Not at all.

Are you guys friends?

No, yeah. Uh, we're very friendly with Gorilla VS Bear.

Okay. I was looking at your site after you guys contacted us and not that I'm aware of how blog hits work or how big a website is, but I always think to myself, "Are there a lot of comments?". I looked at it recently and you guys got a shitload of comments! [laughter]

Yeah. For whatever reason, there is a lot of debate on the blog, which I think is good.

The same five people debating with each other over and over again?

It might be. If it is the same five people they must have a lot of time on their hands. Which they might. As long as the debate's constructive, we're happy about it. It isn't always but...

How many of you run the website?

It's a small group but it's basically just two of us for the most part.

Now I know one of the names. So half of the secrecy is un-shrouded. 

Yeah, I guess you could ruin us if you wanted.

You mean you won't introduce yourself at the show then?

If we can be discreet about it, we will. I introduced myself to Dr. Dog a while back. I was a fan and I couldn't resist. So a couple more questions. You had good reviews in the New York Times, and Pitchfork, and lots of blog praise. Which did you think had the biggest impact?

I don't think it was necessarily one specific thing. I think it's just sort of lots of little things happening at the same time. So when you say blogs, it's probably twenty blogs that really helped do it together in a way. Of course Pitchfork and The New York Times are hugely influential, and people take note of it that maybe aren't blog readers? I don't know. I don't which comes first. There's probably a lot of debate about that amongst the community: Which comes first? Pitchfork or the blog? That's for you guys to debate with each other. [laughter]

Definitely.

I think all of them play equally important roles in different ways. How's that for diplomatics?

That's good. Now that people have stopped saying "freak-folk," you definitely felt it was a media fabrication or a hindrance to bands and artists?

Yeah. I do. I think it was just sort of an image thing. When some of those artists first came about, you know Devendra, Cocorosie and all of those, you can't deny they definitely had a visual vibe, so to speak. So I feel like maybe that's where it came from. But I think that people have dropped it because ultimately it wasn't a very meaningful or everlasting term. It wasn't meant to be.

Grizzly Bear performs tomorrow night at Club Dada.