To put it bluntly yet mildly poetically, Battles' new album Mirrored swirls somewhere in the upper echelons of excellent. There was promise, heaps of it, on the previously released EPs C and B, but Battles have managed to integrate the melody that was found lacking on those two EPs to make an album that spans styles, genres, and time signatures while still retaining the 'what/how the fuck?!' factor that I have come to expect with Battles. The crowd at the band's show at the Troubadour show in Los Angeles in June lacked the 'okay, impress me or shut the fuck up' feel that many LA crowds tend to have. The audience made it very clear that Battles are appreciated not just as a band that makes good music, but as a band that are traversing the frontiers of progressive music.
What separates this album from past ones is that Battles have figured out how to step out of the jarring, cyclical repetition that defines their sound and throw in *gasp* a hook every once in a while. Take, for example, the single "Atlas," a track that I would not be surprised to hear in a nightclub, if, per some extraneous situation, I ended up in a nightclub. This band has figured out how to move your ass while they blow your mind with otherworldly technicality and tightness. I know, I know, i'm gushing, I can't help it. In my opinion, the standout track on the album is 'Rainbow,' which flexes from braintwisting syncopated tightness one moment to jinky, flowing interludes and back again. The band has succeeding in creating an album that is just as enjoyable through passive listening as it is via intricate picking apart of structure and musicality. It's still not for everyone, despite the fact that certain moments may have accessible tendencies does not temper the fact that Mirrored is an album for people who know and love music. To discuss more, I talked on the phone with guitarist Dave Konopka a few days after their last Los Angeles show.
Hate Something Beautiful: I thought your show at the Troubadour was excellent.I really enjoyed myself.
Dave Konopka: Thank you very much. All of us had a really good time that night as well.
HSB: Where are you headed to at the moment?
Dave: We're going to Portland, Oregon.
HSB: What is your means of transportation, are you going in a van?
Dave: Yeah, we're renting a Dodge Sprinter.
HSB: How is being in close quarters for long periods of time?
Dave: (Laughs) It's pretty good. All of us get on really well. Y'know, when you need to take a break you can go on a walk before the show.
HSB: Y'know, the show in LA wasn't actually the first time I saw you guys. I saw you open for Animal Collective last summer in London.
Dave: Oh, at the Astoria?
HSB: Yeah. A lot of bands aren't necessarily openly receptive to this kind of statement, but I went to see Animal Collective that day and you guys completely blew them out of the water. I was really impressed.
Dave: Thanks a lot. Still, its not a competition.
HSB: I know, thus the qualifying statement. But it still must be pretty vindicating to hear.
Dave: Yeah, it's really nice. Really nice.
HSB: Well, listen. This may be a dangerous question to start off an interview with, it depends on your opinions on discussions of this matter. I was thinking about your music and I came to a conclusion that it stands as a juxtaposition between modernity and postmodernity. How do you feel about that?
Dave: I feel pretty good, but at the end of the day we are a modern rock band. We have the advantage of technological breakthroughs that have come about in the past few years that allow us to make almost a different kind of music in the sense that we're disconnected from garage bands or anything. But I definately do agree that we are a modern band while at the same time its impossible to remove yourself from any lineage of postmodernity and where our sound came from.
HSB:What also made me think that was the usage of looping. Repetition and routineare sort of tenets of modernity, but your music is structured in such a way that it is completely separate from modern tropes of music-making--like your style has consumed and understood modern ideals of songwriting but has chucked them out for this weird amalgam that ends up with a new product.
Dave: Thanks, that's a really good way of putting it. I've never heard it put that way before.
HSB: what is your pedal set up?
Dave: For looping I use the Line 6 DR-4's and an echoplex. We have a custom made distortion distortion/clean pedal what we got made. And then I have a couple of other single pedals.
HSB: What is your favorite drug?
Dave: Caffeine. (Laughs). I like to drink coffee, but I don't really do any drugs.
HSB: Well, the reason I asked was because I read an interview that made vague allusions to a long, wild night of debauchery.
Dave: (laughs) Yeah, that was like a one time thing.
HSB: Tell me about your first few shows. I'm sure the Battles sound must have taken a while to come together.
Dave: Well, one of the first incarnations of this band, before Battles, Ian, Tyondai and I played a show together. We practiced for a couple of weeks on some stuff Ian put together. It was more like Ian's solo project and us playing with him. It worked out pretty well and decided that it would be worth pursuing. Ian asked John to play. He was on tour with Tomahawk or something and he came back and we started playing on December 10th and had a show on December 19th. We had like ten days to put shit together. We ate shit on the first song but after a while we began to gel.
HSB: You should talk to John about asking Mike Patton to sing for you guys. He might be perfect.
Dave: Yeah, Mike came to our show in San Francisco.
HSB: How do you feel about 'Atlas' as a single being the more danceable, accessible version of Battles and it being the first impression people have of you.
Dave: I think it's cool and we've all been really pleased with what that song is doing for us. In a sense its like a business card to interest people. It is more accessible in the sense that it's not a crazy, heady Battles instrumental song. We didn't want to be pigeon-holed as a math-rock or a, fucking, instrumental band. We thought that would be a perfect song to lure people in and letting people make up their minds about what we are. Y'know, with the lineage we have and our former bands, its easy for people to throw us into a certain category. We wanted people from, I dunno, different walks of life to be able to enjoy it. To us it's pretty straight forward but there's a lot of fucked up shit going on. It is a fairly complicated song though it is one of our most straight forward ones.
HSB: Was there more of a focus on melody on this album? It seemed less rigid and mathematical than either of the EP's
Dave: Yeah, there was a focus on melody but there is heavy rhythmic content. When you're working with loops and other elements of musical trickery you can fall into a strictly rhythmic type of thing. It was important to us to kind of push our songs further than the looping. In a sense, the looping sets the foundation for a song but we play around, fuck with it on top of that in less traditional ways than just some band that uses loops . I think a by-product of that was a lot of the melodic content that happens on the new material. It's weird, even though on the EP's, people would think we were just some instrumental band from New York or whatever--There's so many different melodies and hooks going on. To an extent, melodies have taken the role of singer or lead vocalist.
HSB: Well, yeah, there's a conception that the lack of a lead singer is something that has to be made up for. It's a weird misconception that i guess is a by-product of mainstream music.
Dave: Exactly
HSB: I actually heard Lynx for the first time today
Dave: You did?!
HSB: I heard the self titled cd today, I really enjoyed it.
Dave: How did you get it?
HSB: I downloaded it. There's a breakdown on the first track that sounds like a Third Eye Blind song to me.
Dave: Oh, shit...(Laughs)
HSB: Listen, how do you feel about filesharing?
Dave: Well, it's like six of one, half dozen or the other, y'know. In some sense, filesharing sucks because you don't sell as many records. But I think that people still buy albums that still download it. And also, there's so many people--when we did a tour and were playing new material, people would start cheering or humming the melodies or some shit. It's like, "uh, how did you know about that shit?". I think at the end of the day, it's not that big of a deal. In a way it helps, it boosts live shows a lot.
HSB: Yeah, it also opens foors for exposure. People can download your album if they've heard your name or have a slight interest as opposed to a the $15 commitment that a CD entails.
Dave: Yeah, exactly. I think like in the 90's before filesharing was big, the growth rate for the band was a lot slower. In a sense, then, it helps us a lot.
HSB: How old are you?
Dave: I'm 30
HSB: Have you been fully pursuing music for the entirety of your adult life?
Dave: Yeah
HSB: So how is it to finally be getting some large scale recognition for your work?
Dave: It feels really good, it's really, really nice what we've been able to accomplish with this band and the style that we play.
HSB: Have you noticed a different reaction to attention from members of the band who have encountered some success before like Ian or John?
Dave: Yeah, like sometimes when we're done playing we'll step off stage and Ty and I will be like "Oh my God, did you feel that energy? It was fucking crazy?!" and John and Ian will be like 'Yeah, yeah, can I get a beer?"
HSB: Where have you gotten the best reaction on this tour?
Dave: Everywhere, man. Even for John and Ian, this has been something else. I mean, even for John, it's been totally different because Helmet did the whole major label thing. I think Battles is stepping into newer territory and is refreshing for everyone. Like Ty had his solo career but playing with a band is something else. And for me, of course, Lynx was cool but it didn't even nearly touch this.
HSB: Well, listen, man, you guys really do deserve all the positive response you've been getting. Your music is amazing.
Dave: Thank you, very much.
