Dirty Projectors - Interview - Winter 2007
By: Thomas Hannan
"People unfailingly come up with this 'why?' topic, it's fairly remarkable. It just seemed like a good idea, a new opportunity."
In our defence, it's out of genuine curiosity and not lazy interview technique that we start our conversation with Dave Longstreth this way. Quite often, we explain, when we ask questions to a band it's because we're trying to elicit an answer that will steer the conversation one way or another. When we ask Dirty Projectors figurehead Longstreth precisely what motivated him to try to recreate his favourite childhood record, Black Flag's imposing hardcore punk classic Damaged, from memory as the basis of his own group's new LP Rise Above, we enquire because we're truly intrigued, baffled by the whole idea. We're also dubious, because although Rise Above is a complete corker of a record, one of the best of '07 and totally deserving of the five stars this review gives it (seriously, you need this LP), its calypso alt-rock, sitting somewhere between Paul Simon and the Animal Collective, sounds absolutely f**k all like Rollins, Ginn and co.
"It's not a covers record, not at all. I deliberately didn't listen to the original album. I was trying to re-write it, re-imagine it, without having to concentrate too much on the original. I was just trying to re-create it in a different way. And it's weird what you remember. I worry about my memory."
But of course, though it may have its basis in remembering or re-imagining, Rise Above clearly isn't what Dave Longstreth remembers Damaged sounding like. He knows full well that Damaged is a hardcore punk record - the hardcore punk record, perhaps - not a collection of alt-gospel, Beefheart and Bowie-isms. Whilst he's certainly eccentric (he spends most of our interview hugging his knees, his mouth buried in to the same tatty, thick woven red jumper he'll wear all the way through tonight's astounding gig at London's Bardens Boudoir), he's not insane.
"At some point I just thought, I know this is sounding different, but I'm just going to go down that route. And that kinda took over. There are things you can do, like on the guitar it starts with a little elaboration on the original line, and you can just get more an more in to that. It's like a cancerous piling of ideas, I guess each one is a step further away, but I guess, I hope, the spirit of the original remains."
If anything of Damaged does remain in Rise Above - and I believe it does, this still being a disarming and unashamedly confrontational work, just like the first piece in question - it's down to the fact that although Longstreth sees no problem with running away down every tangent the original music presents to him, he's loathe to touch Rollins' original lyrics for the LP.
"I didn't want to make the lyrics very personal. They were already so raw, I felt to change them would take away a lot from the songs. But when we play the songs live, given what we put in to it and how much we've played them, the lyrics are becoming part of us. I've changed other parts, by accident, but singing those lyrics accidentally changed me."
Longstreth claims not to have listened to Damaged at all whilst recording his take on it, and given the disparity between the two records it's easy to believe he's telling the truth. So has he listened to it since?
"Oh yeah. It was really weird. I did it because I wanted to hear how close I got, and it turns out not very. There were some things that I'd forgotten about, like... well, I forgot a bunch of songs! I knew that I was omitting 'TV Party', I just didn't want to do that one, but I genuinely forgot about all the others. They were like, late on the second side, which as a kid I didn't listen to so much."
Though something of its kind might not have been attempted by anyone before, this isn't the first time the Dirty Projectors name has been put to a record with a definite and recognisable theme. The previous full length, The Getty Address, was strongly thematically tied to the life and times of Eagles member Don Henley. So should we expect Dirty Projectors to be some kind of more quaint, lo-fi version of The Mars Volta, unable to write an LP without a binding concept?
"I've no idea really. I don't particularly think of those albums as being conceptual in any sense, the EP between them certainly wasn't. They just deal with things that happen within a frame of mind, as set of stories. Probably some things I do in the future will be similar and some won't, but I don't consider it essential to have that basis. I don't think many bands or musicians want their music to sound like this very specific thing, or even be influenced by anything specific - what I was listening to at that time was probably very different to what I wanted the album to sound like. Just so long as it sounded like something I loved..."
No arty farty concept necessary then, and neither does Longstreth consider it essential to have other musicians to collaborate with, painstakingly ensuring that every detail of music on a Dirty Projectors record sounds exactly, precisely, as he wants it to sound, with no room for error. The line up of the band seemingly changes with every tour, Longstreth spending long hours in rehearsals teaching fresh line ups songs new and old. I suggest he must find it relatively easy to strike up a rapport with new groups of musicians, and be surrounded by a very talented bunch of people...
"I do, yeah, on most tours. But I just use whoever's around. I'll write a bunch of songs, figure out what they should sound like, and find the people to make it happen. This four is my touring band at this point in time, but we're all going to stick together and be Dirty Projectors (the first time the band has had a fixed line up - ). It's great, because it's really small, compact, flexible. And everybody can do everything. Writing was weird, because I wrote these songs, and then in practices I set everybody their parts, we rehearsed it, took it on the road, took it to Europe for six weeks, and that meant we could come back and record the basic tracks for Rise Above in three and a half days."
As for whether he thinks the rest of the band have any kind of creative role, I'm told I "might be better off asking them", but I get the impression that though alarmingly talented musicians, Longstreth is very much the conductor here. Not that his dictatorial status seems to be a problem, as songs naturally took on different characteristics when handed over to people other than himself.
"Touring before recording meant the songs got a lot tighter, but we were also more fluid as a band. We learnt how to live in the songs. I was actually surprised at how little they changed."
There's no doubting that no Longstreth would mean no Dirty Projectors, but more so than at any other point in his musical career, it seems D.L.'s happy to have the input of others.
"Making things in a collaborative sense with other people would be rad, but it would also be much harder in a way. I just have to have what I want, I know what it has to sound like. For two people to totally agree on something, to share the exact same headspace, that's sort of weird for me. I've been in bands before, but it was sort of idle, more of a social thing."
There's clearly so much going on here, and such a talented and intriguing individual at the helm of it all, that you could forgive people for getting the wrong impression about certain aspects of this fascinating band. Longstreth however seems happy to continue authoring great records amidst confusion and mystery, giving the vaguest answers to important questions in an attempt to convince you that those questions and the process behind the record don't actually matter at all. The resulting music is all that matters. As for myths, there's only one he fancies dispelling...
"Just the name of the band. To me, it's Dirty Projectors."
No 'the'? It's a bit late nineties garage rock, isn't it?
"Is it? I like that stuff, maybe, if you put it that way, maybe I can have my 'the' back..."
You can do what you like, Dave. As with everything that happens to (the?) Dirty Projectors, you'll call the shots - and call the right ones.
Artists in this article: Dirty Projectors