Having visited Australia back in February for the Laneway Festival, where they debuted their just-released Something, CHAIRLIFT make a sneak return for the upcoming Parklife festival. MAX QUINN spoke with CAROLINE POLACHEK about playing European festivals, architecture and music journalism.
Hello Caroline! What’s up?
I’m eating chocolate. This is going to be a good interview.
I read yesterday that there are endorphins in chocolate that are similar to love endorphins.
Uh oh. Is something about to happen between you and me?
Careful. I’ve been hurt before.
Well if I start coming on to you, it’s totally okay if you want me to back off. Tell me to keep my distance.
There’s a lot of distance between us already. Are you at home in New York?
I’m in my apartment in Brooklyn. I’m in the kitchen.
The last time we spoke you had just decided on the cover artwork for the album. Can I get a catch up on the last nine months in your life?
It’s been crazy! But it’s also been well planned for. Our record came out in January. We started touring a little bit before that – we went out with James Blake, which was amazing. Mostly so because we learned that James Blake’s fans are listeners. They really listened and gave us such amazing feedback every night.
So we went from that tour straight to Australia, where we officially debuted our new record. That was for Laneway, which was incredible. We made friends with a lot of bands we’ll be friends with forever. Lots of crazy parties. From there we went straight into touring Europe and the US. Both tours were great. Now it’s festival season, and we’ve been playing in festivals all through Europe – Portugal, Spain, Russia and Italy.
How did you find playing in all of these new places?
It was amazing. Crowds in different cities behave so differently. People in Barcelona just go apeshit, whereas Italians talk through the whole thing. One of my favourite things was seeing all of this beautiful architecture. I’m absolutely fascinated by looking out the window in different places.
Are you a big architecture nerd?
I actually don’t know anything about it – I just like thinking about the way that buildings look and how they correspond to different cities. Even the layouts – how you can tell where the origins of the city are because there’s a port there, or how the crooked and narrow streets are generally older – that kind of thing.
Have you been surprised by how well the latest album has gone over?
I’m surprised that even now people are still catching on to it. It’s been a steady and slow build for us. I’m excited for the second half of the year. I’m thoroughly proud of it as a record. Musically, it’s a little bit different to what I want to be doing now, but I’m still so pleased with it and how well it has been received.
The record has also done quite well critically. To begin with, is that something you care about?
I’m actually very sceptical about press and media in general. A lot of the reviews for our first album didn’t concentrate on the music at all – it seemed like people were only interested in the fact that we’d done an iPod commercial. So I’ve stopped trusting music journalism – present company excluded, of course – because the reaction from the press was so different to the reaction of fans. Fans react to songs that the press never so much as mentioned. I have a cynical view about why people are writing, and what matters to them in the first place. Some writers care more about social signifiers than they care about music. And that’s fine – certain kinds of journalism warrant that – but that’s not what I think about when I make a record.
There’s this great interview with Nick Offerman, one of the actors on the show Parks and Recreation, where he says that the only way you can be successful within creative industries is to ignore the damn industry completely. Is that something that you can relate to?
I definitely buy into that. But you also see examples like Lady GaGa – I feel like she’s trying to ruthlessly harness the industry and put a bit in its mouth and whip its hind legs and use it to its full potential. Say what you will, but I think she’s kind of a badass. There wasn’t a niche carved out for house music on American radio prior to her first album. She did something fairly forward moving by harnessing the industry.
Is that something that you welcome?
I think I welcome it because I don’t see myself as a part of it. I’m off in my own little world – maybe, again, I’m being kind of cynical, but that’s not a game I’m that interested in playing. I guess I just sit back and watch that parade of characters coming and going from FM Radio purely for my own amusement. I don’t see that having any bearing on what I want to do.
At all?
Well, actually, once in a while I’ll have a moment where I really get into some of the sounds that are being used. My favourite things that I hear production-wise are actually hip-hop tracks. I think ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ is one of the most genius songs of the past decade because the production is SO empty. Those are the kind of songs that show me what I want to do. I’d love to do something that is that empty. Those are the most inspiring.
Chairlift perform at the Parklife festival at Centennial Park, Sydney, on Sunday September 30, 2012.