Interview: Talking to Telepathe

via Ragged Words

With Brooklyn duo Telepathe, pronounced 'Telepathy' as we were quick to find out, releasing their Dave Sitek-produced debut album next week, Busy Gangnes - one half of the intriguing pair alongside Melissa Livaudais - spoke to Ragged Words.

How is Dance Mother’s release shaping-up?

Busy: It was leaked on the internet back in the summer, so I think a lot of people have been downloading it from blogs, and so it’s sort of already out. It’ll be released in Europe and the UK on the 26th January, and then we have some touring to do. It seems a lot of people are writing about the record, which is cool. I’m really excited.

How do you feel about the album being leaked online, and the concept of downloading?

Busy: I don’t really think it’s a problem at all. I do it myself to find out about new music. Obviously it puts the record labels in danger, but it’s great that so many people have access to all this music for free, and if they want to buy a record then they can. I’m not bothered by it, actually I’m pretty excited about it.

What’s it like living in Brooklyn? It’s quite a diverse and creative music/arts scene.

Busy: I’ve lived in Brooklyn for a few years now and I feel like I’ve been lucky to see live so many interesting and innovative bands over the years. But this past year I feel like I’ve barely lived here, we’ve been touring, so I haven’t actually been out to any shows in Brooklyn. I feel like the scene has become so big that it’s almost overwhelming, I hear about a new band every single day. It can be a little overwhelming to check out and try out all these new artists, and to be a part of that scene. We haven’t actually played in Brooklyn for about six-months, perhaps since the summer because we’ve been touring so much. But we’re playing a really small show soon that should be really fun.

You’ve been compared to fellow-Brooklynites Gang Gang Dance on a number of occasions. Are you fans of them, or friends with them?

Busy: I would consider Gang Gang Dance our friends, though I’m a little surprised by that comparison because the way we write our music is very different. I always thought our music was very different to Gang Gang Dance, but maybe not for other people. We used to be on the same label as them, I performed with them for a month in another band I was playing with in 2005, called Bloodline. By touring with them you get to know each other. I don’t see them very often anymore, though, they’re very busy.

Which other artists in Brooklyn are you friends with?

Busy: I don’t know if you’ve heard of Kria Brekken, she’s really great, I try to see her every time she plays. I’m also friends with the High Places kids, but they moved to LA! Last night, I heard. Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Bunny Rabbit? We’re friends with them too.

Your I Am Sound bio says you ‘put down’ your instruments ‘in favour of the LCD glare of a computer screen’. Do you address the issue of the environment in your music? For example, a recent video and remix of ‘Devil’s Trident’ is filmed in leafy woodland, juxtaposed with the remix – a minimal techno soundtrack.

Busy: Our process used to be much more organic, our music used to be written as all of us together in a room jamming-out. We’re still using guitar pedals and stuff, but it never used to be very electronic at all. It was also the case that we didn’t have a practice space anymore, and at the same time we were into making music on a computer. We sat down and tried to keep things together in a natural way, as in the way we put together samples, the EQ, and programming. I do feel like we still embrace an organic facility in our music but at the same time using as much technology as is available to us. I think a lot of bands have shunned the electronic properties of music, and tried to make things sound completely live. But we try to meld the electronic and acoustic elements together.

In one feature, you said Telepathe’s songs were mainly ‘about love and death, the two extremes’. Can you elaborate on that?

Busy: We kind of have these apocalyptical themes and images in our music, and I’m not really sure where that comes from because we write our lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness style, passing across our ideas and editing them down. We’ll change a word to make it sound right, rather than for meaning. But about love, Melissa and I were in a relationship so typically the content was about our love for each other.

The NME described you as ‘the most intriguing band of 2008’, how was 2008 for you?

Busy: It was cool, but kind of intense. We got thrown into the touring schedule which was quite unexpected at the time. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I had fun doing all the touring, we made it out to Australia and to Europe a couple of times. We got to release a couple of singles which people responded to pretty well. I’m looking forward to releasing our record this year and doing a lot more touring.

In January’s Observer Music Monthly you received a 4-out-of-5 star rating. The reviewer described your music as peculiar. How do you feel about that sort of description?

Busy: That’s great, and I think our music is peculiar. We write it in a kind of unconventional way, we’re kind of trying to sneak in this sort of weirdness amongst pop music, but I think it sounds acceptable. In calling us ‘peculiar’ they were probably right-on.

Words: Daniel Greenwood.

Dance Mother is released on V2/Co-Op on Monday, Jan 26 and will be reviewed later this week.