Deerhunter on Intuitive New LP, Using Shotgun as Percussion
Deerhunter have been one of indie rock’s most consistently original bands for a decade, but to hear singer-guitarist Bradford Cox tell it, there’s a lot of blind chance in what they do. “If you say, ‘Sit down and write a Deerhunter song,’ it’s not easy,” he tells me over the phone. “It’s almost always an accident. If you get too obsessive, you start shutting down the unconscious.”
That openness to serendipity became particularly important while Deerhunter were working on their seventh album, Fading Frontier, out today. “When you put out seven albums — and that’s just Deerhunter, I’ve put out a lot more music than that — you do say, ‘Oh, am I just repeating myself?'” he says. “It’s easy to keep up the same frequency of output, until you start to feel old and you start to feel less inspired. I had to wait for things to make themselves obvious.”
After 2013’s Monomania, Cox says, “There were two years where I sort of floated. Sometimes I was depressed, sometimes very happy and content. I didn’t feel the need to say a lot.” Eventually he arrived at a place of radical creative freedom. “My concept for this album was to avoid dogma,” he says. “Stop thinking that you write your music. It’s a very arrogant concept. It’s like trying to exert dominance over nature. The fact is, you’re a moron.” The fool he’s addressing is himself. “I play guitar; I play drums; I play bass. But I don’t control where ideas come from.”
“I don’t feel that I control my music at all, and when I try to control it, it’s like pushing a puppy that’s not ready to be trained.”
Strong words, but Cox is just warming up. “I don’t feel that I control my music at all, and when I try to control it, it’s like pushing a puppy that’s not ready to be trained,” he continues. “It’s just going to revolt against you and frustrate you. Ultimately, the only kind of music I’m interested in — the only authentic music — is music that cannot be controlled. And I’m not just talking about experimental or avant-garde music. Get out a Rolling Stone list of the greatest songs of all time: I don’t hear a lot of ownership. I don’t hear a lot of real-estate agents arguing over property lines. I hear great moments of inspiration that came out of nowhere.”
Before recording Fading Frontier, Cox made the choice to leave behind Brooklyn, where Deerhunter recorded Monomania and several of its earlier triumphs, and record with producer Ben H. Allen in the band’s hometown of Atlanta. “We needed a change of air — just a little more circulation of the blood and the spirit,” Cox says. “I wanted to stay close at home and feel more relaxed.”
Last December, while working on the LP, he was hospitalized after being hit by a car while he was walking his dog — but he warns against any attempt to tie this incident to the narrative of the album. “It’s a great story. It’s a great press release. The label will love you. But it’s not true,” he says. “Most of the songs were already done. Some of these songs are many years old.”