Daniel Lacksman has pioneered European pop and electronic music for decades. Now Real Gone Music reissues his early work. He joins Robert Ham for a look back at his long and varied career, early synthesizers, and getting to Eurovision by making fun of Eurovision.
Category: The AD Interview
The Narrative Is Always a Broken Narrative :: Rob Mazurek on Dimensional Stardust
On November 20, Rob Mazurek returns with Exploding Star Orchestra and a new album of sci-fi poetry and avant-jazz, Dimensional Stardust, via Nonesuch and International Anthem.
Aquarium Drunkard’s Jason P. Woodbury reached Mazurek to correspond via email over the last few (eventful) weeks to discuss occult science fiction mysteries and the desert.
Josh Kaufman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Guitarist, producer, and journeyman Josh Kaufman joins Mike Behrends for a talk about hanging with the best record makers in the business—and recording music for Taylor Swift in his closet.
Lambchop :: The AD Interview
Late in 2019, when the world was just starting to hear rumors of a new flu in China, Kurt Wagner of Lambchop had an idea. He was short on material and wanted to bring the band together. Why not make a covers LP?
As November wore on, the song titles drifted in—a couple of Motown tunes, a George Jones classic, an A-side from an obscure garage band, an unreleased tune from James McNew (Yo La Tengo/Dump) and finally, the Wilco song “Reservations.”
Cut Worms :: The AD Interview
Bursting with melodies and completely unironic passion, Cut Worms latest hits like a golden-hour cigarette on a fire escape, and that won’t change anytime soon. The fact that it’s one of the best records of 2020 feels irrelevant; it could have been one of the best records of 1960, given the vintage production sound created at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, and to some crate-diggers down the line, if there is still such a thing, it should be one of the best records of 2080 too.
Garcia Peoples :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
New Jersey’s own Garcia Peoples open Nightcap at Wits’ End with an arch, vaguely evil-sounding riff that signals what’s to come: a set of songs that would feel equally at home soundtracking a backyard hang, a rousing game of D&D, or a solitary night at home considering the universe. Founding members Danny Arakaki and Tom Malach join us to discuss the band’s progward drift and open source creative flow.
Black to Comm :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Black to Comm’s Marc Richter has been making electronic music since the early 00s, piecing found sounds into intricate, multilayered compositions.
We caught up with the composer as he talks about his beginnings in music as a young man in the Black Forest region of Germany, the experiences that pointed him towards electronics and the art and artists who have inspired his latest work.
Earl Freeman: Poems and Drawings
Earl Freeman was a bassist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, and artist. We spoke to Adam Lore from 50 Miles of Elbow Room and Michael Klausman from Wry Press about Earl Freeman: Poems and Drawings, the origin of the project, and the man himself.
Going Home With Kevin Morby
Kevin Morby fled the midwest as a young man. What’s brought him back and how has it inspired his new album, the accepting and fervent Sundowner?
Tobin Sprout :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Tobin Sprout was the other songwriter in early-1990s Guided by Voices.
But, in addition to his historic stint with one of lo-fi’s most exuberant bands, Sprout has done a lot of other stuff. He’s a well-regarded photo realist painter, an author and illustrator of several books and, every few years, a solo artist. In 2020, he released his eighth solo album, Empty Horses, a gorgeous but somewhat unexpected detour into Americana sounds and Civil War imagery. We talked about his new focus on country sounds, his art and his books and the band that started it all for him, all those years ago.
Angel Olsen :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“They’re very different songs, even though they’re the same songs.” That’s how Angel Olsen puts it regarding Whole New Mess, an alternate timeline vision of the album that would become 2019’s All Mirrors. But the record isn’t a mere collection of demos. It’s a snapshot of Olsen at one point in a ongoing processing of thoughts and feelings, alive in a single moment.
A Terrible Word Called Kismet :: Tim Heidecker on Fear of Death
On Tim Heidecker’s Fear of Death, one of the funniest, most absurd, surreal, and reliable entertainers on the planet gets serious, about life’s truest inevitability. But let’s be clear: Heidecker isn’t all doom and gloom. In fact, the record’s rather buoyant and spirited, uniquely and retroactively American in a way—cynical and sharp as a Salem cigarette.
Sylvie Simmons :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Author, songwriter, and legendary music journalist Sylvie Simmons latest album, Blue on Blue is intimate, dreamy and beautifully melancholic. It carries a lifetime of in-depth musical exploration, but also the devastating experience of a life-altering accident.
Wendy Eisenberg :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Wendy Eisenberg is an improvising guitar and banjo player with an extraordinary command of their instruments, flitting effortlessly from intricate, off-balance jazz riffs to oblique 20th century classical motifs to rock and folk and Latin sounds. Trained in classical music and jazz, the artist employs considerable skills in the service of what sound like enigmatic pop songs, which draw on soul-wrenching experiences in a very formal, well-regulated way.
I Don’t Know is a Good Mantra :: Catching Up With Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart is well aware of how good he’s got it right now. While he’s taken a financial hit by not being able to tour and has the occasional freakout about the state of the world, the singer-songwriter is in a comfortable enough position to be able stay home and stay busy. He’s continued to work, demoing a new record that he’s making with his regular collaborator Noah Georgeson and, with his longtime backing band, remotely recording a dreamy, elegiac cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Franklin’s Tower” …