“It’s a lot to take in… It’s impossible to see,” Jack Cooper sings on Modern Nature’s No Fixed Point In Space. The limits of language fascinate Cooper, who spends much of the album guiding his collaborators, including members of The Necks, This Is Not This Heat, and Julie Tipppets, to a place where words aren’t required. But sometimes language does come in handy, which is why we rang Cooper up at his space near Cambridge, UK, to discuss the album, how the natural world informs his creative process, and the nebulous zone between composition and improvisation.
Category: The AD Interview
Video Age :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
New Orleans duo Video Age are associated with rhythmic, dream pop pallette, but with their latest album Away from the Castle, songwriters Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli augment new wave gloss with a heavy dose of tuneful, guitar-based pop—think Real Estate in a particularly sunny mood or Whitney on a heavy Beatles kick. With all that jangle and strum comes a rededication to their core friendship, complete with “Better Than Ever,” a number that works like a platonic love song.
Joseph Shabason :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
If you’ve ever stepped foot on a skateboard, you’re in the club for life. For Toronto-based saxophonist Joseph Shabason, this revelation provided the inspiration for his latest project: a new album-length score for the classic 1996 skate video, Toy Machine’s Welcome To Hell. With the blessing of company founder, pro skater, and visual artist Ed Templeton (who also provided album art), Shabason’s Welcome To Hell is a passion project dating back to his formative childhood memories.
Mark Mothersbaugh :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On the eve of the new 4-LP Devo retrospective, Mothersbaugh caught up with us from his Los Angeles studio. We discuss the experimental beginnings and future of Devo, the group working with Brian Eno and David Bowie, his fascination with early animation soundtracks, auditioning for Mick Jagger, the NYC scene that brought the band’s breakthrough, the death of the album format and much more…
Allegra Krieger :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
New York’s Allegra Krieger has had quite the year. The cosmic folk artist released her fourth studio album, I Keep My Feet On The Fragile Plane, in July via Double Double Whammy. Across its 10 tracks, Krieger sings measured soliloquies recounting her memories, observations, and curiosities straddling the mortal and divine. Finger-picked guitars float like sunlight, illuminating forgotten corners of the universe where Krieger finds inspiration.
Andrew Savage :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Andrew Savage joins Aquarium Drunkard to discuss his new record, Several Songs about Fire, moving to Paris, poetry, and touring with Cate Le Bon.
“To Actually Tell A Story, It Feels Very Risky.” An Interview With John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats
Mountain Goats latest album, Jenny from Thebes, draws on that love of theater, as well as a cast of characters first brought to life two decades ago. It builds a rock opera out of the story of Jenny from All Hail West Texas, continuing her trajectory from safe house proprietor to murderer on the loose. The album is also loosely based on the Greek tragedy Seven from Thebes and sonically overstuffed enough to keep your average Broadway pit orchestra challenged and happy.
Van Dyke Parks :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Ahead of planning an upcoming concert at the Getty Museum, Van Dyke Parks caught up with AD from his home in Los Angeles. In addition to his philosophies on arranging and composition, we discuss some of the more understated (yet fascinating) parts of his prolific career: the audio/visual unit he created at Warner Brothers, relationship with Haruomi Hosono, fascination with steel drums and tuneful percussion, the moment he was embraced by psychedelia, and much more.
Lou Reed: The King of New York (In Conversation With Will Hermes)
Right at the start of his phenomenal new biography, Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes makes a confession: “If you’re looking for some neat totalizing statement or psychological profile to explain Reed, to fix him like a butterfly specimen, you won’t find it here.”
Recently, Aquarium Drunkard hopped on Zoom to chat with Hermes about all things Lou.
Meernaa :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The calling card of Meernaa is the smoky timbre of Carly Bond’s voice. It’s an instrument of immense warmth and controlled tension, which imprints a sort of charged unpredictability onto her songs. This has never been more true than with the humbly titled, So Far So Good. Bond spoke with us about the joys and terrors of opening a studio, unlearning old ways of thinking, and the powerful themes of love and self-worth on her new record.
Edsel Axle :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Variable Happiness was made available to the world in August 2023, courtesy of a previously unknown artist named Edsel Axle. But it doesn’t take much detective work to determine that Edsel Axle is a nom de plume of Rosali Middleman. As Rosali, she has released a number of albums in the singer/songwriter mode, whereas Variable Happiness is a collection of instrumental electric guitar recordings.
Catching Up With Devendra Banhart
We caught up with Devendra Banhart to discuss his 11th album, Flying Wig, his artistic partnership with Cate Le Bon, his 20-year-delayed concert in Caracas, and the music that, now as ever, he is bubbling over with enthusiasm for. We also explore “Charger” perhaps the most Devendra Banhart song ever, which starts out wide-eyed to the point of parody about the most mundane of things, then touches profundity as the lens widens to cosmic revelation.
Catching Up With Teenage Fanclub
Recently, the venerable power pop juggernaut known as Teenage Fanclub released its 11th studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever, some 34 years after bursting on the scene. The new disc marries the roar of noisy guitars with the sweetest sorts of melodies, and like those earlier albums, it represents a band doing exactly what they like. We took the opportunity to talk to Ray McGinley and Norman Blake about their career so far, their early albums, their partnership with Alan McGee of Creation Records and their fixation with loud, feedback riddled bands like Sonic Youth and the Stooges, as well as more tuneful outfits like Big Star and the Byrds.
Holding Court :: Ryan Walsh on Morphine
With Light in the Attic’s release of The Night and Like Swimming, the story of Morphine unfolds deeper thanks so new liner notes by Ryan H. Walsh. He joins us to discuss the Boston trio’s singular sound.
Peter Case :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Peter Case might have made his name with the speedy rock trio The Nerves and the chiming Plimsouls, but he’s spent much of the last handful of decades following his muse into unexpected territory. His latest albums, Doctor Moan and The Midnight Broadcast, speak to his breadth, drawing deeply from blues and jazz—harkening back to classic works like his 1986 solo debut, which was crafted with T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom. All along, Case has been interested in chasing songs in a very classic and rooted sense, and he’s keen to see where they might lead him—no matter how shadowy the terrain. Aquarium Drunkard rang Case earlier this year to discuss.