CANT Interview October 2011
By: Stan Morgan
Stan Morgan caught up with Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear to discuss his solo project CANT, and his heartily Rockfeedback –approved debut album Dreams Come True.
Why did you decide to record a solo album in the first place?
I’ve been working for the past 6 or 7 years without stopping, and finally finished the tour with Grizzly Bear. I just felt the need to check in with myself and see how I was doing both emotionally and mentally, physically even. It was just time to sort some things out that I had put off because of work.
So it was something you had in the back of your mind for a while?
I’d had to put my person life on hold because I was just working and it was really a shame, I felt like I was losing my glow. I just had to get out of the routine, I’d lost all the sweetness in life, it had all just become about work, about making a deadline or something, and it was such a bummer after a while.
Why did you choose to work with George Lewis Jr. from Twin Shadow again after you produced his album?
We just work super well together and became really close through working on Forget and started writing my album about two weeks after finishing his. There wasn’t much of a break between the two. I just had things in my mind that I wanted to mess with, and I trusted him to be the guy I needed to help me get started. We have this really unique and special musical relationship, and we both recognised it. We love working together, so there will be more to come in that department for sure.
Did you write the whole album at once?
We wrote twelve songs or so in about a week and a half, and sorted the base of those songs in that time. Then he had to go and promote his record, which I obviously support, being the one who put it out, and the fact that it’s so good and everyone needs to hear more of it.
Good plug!
Thanks, but it’s true, it’s not hard to plug that guy. So he had to split, and I was sort of finishing it by myself. I had my best friend and also label partner Ethan Silverman to be there just as a guy I could trust who I could ask “Is this lame? Is this good?” For my it’s really hard to answer that question by yourself. I really admire people who can make a record on their own and make that executive call.
Were you worried that the music might become a bit self-indulgent?
It needed to be self-indulgent, but I didn’t want it to sound self-indulgent. I definitely needed to check in with the things that I wanted to do musically, just to get them off of my chest, but at the same time I really value someone else’s opinion, I really feel it adds a lot to the creative process.
When you were writing the album did you have any theme in mind?
No. People reading into it is normal, and I hope that they do, but it’s all very personal material lyrically speaking. If there’s a theme it’s just where I was right at that time, and working out what it was that I was dealing with or going through.
How did you settle on the choice of instruments you used?
It was pretty easy, I had some things in mind that I wanted to include and hear, and just brought those things up to where we recorded, it was pretty easy for me.
Did you want to make an electronic album?
Yeah, in the sense that there are drum machines and programmed drums, but I also put live drums over a lot of stuff to kind of de-centralise that. I really didn’t want it to sound like a laptop record, so I tried to keep things as acoustic as possible. But yeah, I like how tough drum machines are, there’s something really relentless about that that I find kind of strong, and I like dancing a lot, so I wanted to include that kind of feel in the music.
Did releasing the album on your own label take pressure off while you were recording?
Half the reason why I started the label was so I could release my own material without pressure from a label telling me “We really need you to tour this much, and we’re really going to need this from you”. I had to be able to do it all on my own time, and do things in my own way.
Why did you choose to release the album on Warp in the UK?
Well they technically own me, through Grizzly Bear, so they were kind enough to let me release the album on my own label Terrible in the US, but they didn’t have to let that happen. They decided they wanted to take it for the rest of the world, so they’re doing it. They seem to really ‘get’ the record and enjoy it, so that’s all you can hope for.
Do you find it difficult to switch from producing other people’s music to producing your own?
No, because the production side of things comes very naturally to me, it’s just part and parcel of recording, they arrive connected. Producing someone else’s record is a little bit easier for me, because I didn’t write the material, and I can definitely help them finish it, and trying to finish my own record was actually really challenging. You’ve heard it so many times and it’s tough for me to know, if I wrote it, if it’s really a great idea, but if I hear another band and they have an idea that I already think is great and I can think about how I can ’improve’ it then that’s easy, and if I don’t agree with it then I can make it better. It’s much easier to make those calls with someone else’s music than with my own.
What do you see as your main occupation now? As a member of Grizzly Bear or your own solo/producing side of things?
My main occupation is still definitely Grizzly Bear, for sure. I just do other things to keep my life interesting to me. I can’t just be in a band and then spend the rest of my time just chilling out, that’s not really good enough for me, so I like to get involved in other things and challenge myself.
Is there any significance in you choosing not to use your name for the project?
I don’t really think it’s very cool to call your music by your own name, I think it’s a little self-indulgent. Unless your name is Madonna or Prince, I just couldn’t think of a name like that. I didn’t really think about choosing a name too much, I didn’t want the name to define the music, I wanted the music to define the name. Jokingly it was sort of a challenge at first, I find it difficult to finish songs, so if I call it CANT then I have to meet that and beat it, and if I leave it then that’s a pretty pathetic self-defeated state.
What have you got planned next?
I’m getting back together with Grizzly Bear and we’re recording a record right now, the process has just started and it takes a little bit to get the ball rolling. We started in June and we’ve got a couple of things on the skillet. We’re going to continue writing and recording more until it starts to really shape up into something, then we’ll put it out. We have a timeframe in mind, but I’d hate to bum people out. It’s not next week.
Artists in this article: CANT