I probably watch movies more than I actually listen to music, I think.
I've always written stuff based on personal experience, but I've always disguised it by the use of characters.
I don't really care about labels that much. I wouldn't really call our music retro. There are influences of things from the past, which there is in everything. I think we're quite a modern band, actually. We don't record with old equipment. We use computers and programmed drums. We don't use any guitar amplifiers. We're very much a modern band in the sense that we love computers and what they can do to music. I guess we're just good at a different sound.
When you listen to the music, you see little movies in your head, and that's the beauty of it, I think. People can make up their own stories. They don't necessarily have to know exactly what each song is about. It's their way of interpreting of interpreting different feelings or emotions.
I do question a band's longevity, because most of my favorite bands only made one or two good albums. After that, I didn't care about them anymore. Sometimes I wonder if people feel the same thing about us. The way I look at it is, if we can continue to inspire ourselves and write really beautiful music that we're proud of, I don't think there's any intention to stop.
We started out with a lot of bands in the same generation as ours, and there are very few left. Mainly, I think people get into it for the wrong reasons. They either want fame or the girls. I think music has to be a fun experience, but it also needs to be in your blood. I firmly believe I was born to write beautiful music, and that's what I do, and that's why I don't do anything else, because I have no interest and no passion for it.
The key moments in your life are when you realize how exciting music can be, like when you hear Nevermind for the first time. I grew up in the '70s and '80s. I was introduced to hip-hop when it first came out. Hip-hop music will always be my first love. That's why I love playing the drums. Any day of the week, I would rather listen to a hip-hop album than a rock album.
I'm just the kind of person who needs a change every once in a while. I'm not comfortable staying in the same spot for too long. Even 10 years, for me, is a very long time. I usually don't stay longer than a few years in a place.
I always put a little bit of restrictions on myself, and I only do it for my creativity. And I do it sometimes because I want the music to stand out a little bit more than many other bands do. Yeah, I sometimes impose rules on my creativity.
All the songs are written from the perspective of a person, being me, who had trouble with some of the big questions in life, like, are we meant to be together with the same person for the rest of our lives? Or, is it frowned upon if a man goes through many women at all times? What is the meaning of love versus sex? It's just a lot of big questions, I guess, that are really difficult to answer. People see it very differently, but people sometimes suppress their lust. And it's not only sex. It could be lusting for anything that's supposedly very bad for you but can be good for you, too.
If you want to do a movie about aliens coming down to Earth nowadays, you need to do it with a smile. When Tim Burton did Mars Attacks, he tried to make it a little bit kitschy, because it's not scary for people anymore. It's not scary that birds will attack you anymore, but I'm sure it was when Alfred Hitchcock made it. And it still is when you watch it.
I don't know if people come to the shows of the Raveonetteswith any certain expectations. I think that we have fans who know that we're not... hugely entertaining in any way. We don't put on a show, so to speak. We basically just play the music the way it's supposed to be heard - very loud, in a packed club, and in a good setting. People can stand still with their eyes closed, or they can dance. They can do whatever they want. We don't care.
I think you go through different phases when you do albums, and I think that they change according to where you are in your life and what you're inspired by at the moment.
I don't work at night. I'm not very good about working at night. I get tired during the day and I usually like to save my nights to try things out recording.
I very rarely sit down with a guitar and try to write a song. I usually think about it a lot and then I'll try to re-create what was in my head at the time.
I like to get everything done during the early morning hours and the early part of the day.
It's not really a conscious decision to do a quiet album or a noisier album. It's just something that happens, I guess.
I guess my life was in a pretty disorderly fashion, so I think the music came out that way a little bit.
I wanted to do an album that was very simple and very minimal in the context of instrumentation and stuff. I wanted to use as few means as possible to create a very powerful and interesting sound that would breathe.
I always put a little bit of restrictions on myself, and I only do it for my creativity.
I want the music to stand out a little bit more than many other bands do. I still have some stuff where I don't use the high hat, and I don't use any crash cymbals. It just makes for an interesting sound because you don't really notice it when it's not there, but if it was there, you would definitely hear it.
Unfortunately people sometimes suppress their lust. And it's not only sex. It could be lusting for anything really, anything that's supposedly very bad for you but can be good for you, too.
This is the life I live, and this is the stuff I experience. And like any good writer, I should just write about what goes in my life and what goes on around me. So that's what I chose to do.
Once I have something that I think I can work with, then I'll go in and make it on the computer. I'll try to recapture the sound that I had in my head when I was thinking about it. That's usually how I do it.
If you want to do a movie about aliens coming down to Earth nowadays, you need to do it with a smile.
