That's an interesting question, to start with. Yeah, it's intentional-- in hopes that people will turn it up, because their ears do go for the voice, so you need to hear it better. That way the bass notes and the atmosphere is louder and more... inescapable.
Have you heard the new Karl Blau album and do you have any thoughts on it?
Zebra? I haven't listened to it that many times. So I haven't listened to it enough times to form any thoughts.
You are, or you have been, a huge The Big Lebowski fan. What other Coen brothers movies do you like?
That's a good one, that movie. They are all really good; I love No Country for Old Men, that was very beautiful. I like them all though.
Does contradiction inspire you? Would you have delved so deep into the Norwegian hardcore scene, for example, if it wasn't so foreign to you at first?
Contradiction? Yes! Contradiction is super inspiring to me. But, the Norwegian hardcore thing, I don't know about that, or if it was the contradiction that drew me to it. But yeah, I'm into contradictions... like absurdity, the absurdity of "nothing is pure, all the way," everything that everyone does is always partially this, partially that, nothing's black and white. So I'm into embracing that kind of full spectrum.
What visual artists have you been liking lately?
There's this Norwegian fairy-tale artist named Theodor Kittelsen. He's probably my favorite. And he's not very famous, or traditionally "good" at drawing.
Like an illustrator?
Yeah, like an illustrator. In Norway he's kind of like a national hero. But outside Norway, he's not really well-known. But his dark forest imagery is so beautiful and dark. Very dark.
Is that what you're going for?
Yeah, it feels like the type of thing I try and do in music, but like in paint.
Did you ever become self-aware about the fact that you were channeling wind as a metaphor and did you fear that it would come off as contrived what with you having done this with other elements in the past?
I wasn't trying to do so much... I mean, I've never really straight-up tried to do a themed record, like, "I'll channel this element now!" No, I didn't really worry about it being contrived because it was sincerely inspiring to me; I was very sincere about it. It didn't seem like a gimmick at all. Though it does come close on this album to being gimmick-y but... fuck it. I don't care. I was sincerely inspired to do that kind of thing. Whole-heartedly.
There is one photo in the Mount Eerie book that is all grain, all texture. It's pretty much brown but with a bunch of other colors and shapes if you look close. It seemed drastically different from many of the other photos, but it also seemed to resemble the effect delivered by the distortion you've been using live and on your album. Can you say anything about this picture if you remember the one I mean?
I think so. I think it's of moonlight on water. But it's... the camera happened to crop the moon. And the horizon is there but it's just it was so foggy, or not foggy but like... something about the way the light on the film interacted... there's no crisp horizon line and there's no clear water. And the colors turned brown because there was a lot of city lights. But the moon is cropped off so there's just this faint glow. It's like a photo of the space between the moon and the horizon, without the moon or the horizon in it so it's just like this weird... wall of... nothing. I don't know how that relates to music or anything, but that's what the picture's of.
You've mentioned My Bloody Valentine a couple times in connection with Wind's Poem and that you were into them as a teenager. Do you have a preferred My Bloody Valentine song?
No. I don't really listen to music as individual songs. Except for Top 40 hip-hop. But yeah.
Speaking of which, you mentioned The Blueprint 3 as something you were listening to at one point. What's your favorite song there (if you have any)?
I haven't actually listened to it that many times since then because I've been on this tour. And it's always a battle for what you get to listen to in the van. So I don't want to assert my power too hard. So I don't know... I am pretty sick of all the songs they're playing on the radio from that album though.
The singles?
The singles are like Death of Auto-tune...
Empire State of Mind and Run this Town.
Yeah-- Death of Auto-tune's pretty cool though.
One impression I get from you is a de-emphasis on the importance of music. Is this an accurate impression, and if so where does this sentiment come from?
I guess I probably do feel like music is important-- secretly. But maybe because I exist in that world I feel like I want to de-emphasize it because I'm humbled by it all the time. Being on tour, playing with other bands... I love music. I buy records. But I guess maybe what that question comes from is... it is an extravagance, you know? In relation to people trying to subsist in the world. And in the United States all these people, like myself, touring around, living this life of luxury, but basically doing no real work. And playing music, it's like smelling flowers for a living. I just feel like it's important to have that kind of perspective.
So do you distinguish between music as an extravagance and music as it exists in a sub-saharan tribe?
That's a different way of music. I guess the way I'm complaining about music it's...
Like the indie scene in America or something?
Yeah, this sense of entitlement about the importance of music. Of course music is a human thing that's going to happen in all levels of poverty, and that's the beauty of it. It just comes out of people. But it comes out of people after they've eaten.
