DiS meets Of Montreal - part #2

in the support essentially of our in depth conversation, brainlove & alcxxk met with kevin barnes on the eve of the inauguration to talk barack obama, lampshade vs cd vs vinyl, 70s funk, dancing buddhas, and what comes next for of montreal.

DiS: Are you feeling positive about the new presidency, like there’ll be real change, or do you think a lot of it’s hype?

KB: “Well it’s definitely good superficially, the symbolism of a black man in power, politics has been dominated by wealthy white men and that’s not healthy. It might seem superficial, I mean Condoleeza Rice was black but she was as white as anyone in her thinking. Just because you’re black doesn’t mean you’re going to be progressive. But I think Barack… there’s a lot of rhetoric and his rhetoric is very positive, so I’m hoping there’s something more behind it.”

DiS: Do you have a suggested to-do list for Barack Obama?

KB: “I think setting up more accountability in the government and in corporations. Republicans feel like the government should stay out of the private sector, and I’m not sure that’s such a healthy thing, because we’ve proven ourselves to be not the most moral characters. You can do a lot of things if you’re protected by it being business. Business ethics is almost like a contradiction in terms, people seem to think they can get away with things that are inhumane because it’s the business that’s doing it not them personally. I feel like we need watchdogs that are gonna make corporations protect their employees and regulate products so we don’t get products that hurt people. We have a lot of crap from China that makes people sick… I’m suspicious of the food and drug administration, and their ability to control quality.

But there’s a number of things… obviously it’d be difficult for one man and one administration to change things, but obviously there’s ecology and more green policies, that’s essential.”

DiS: You guys have been around for a long time now and built up slowly. What do you think about the rapid turnover of bands getting signed and dropped earlier and earlier in their career?

KB: “Well we’ve been around since 1997, and we’ve never ever really had that much support from labels or from the press or the industry in general, but we kept trucking along because we just love making music. What I get from music doesn’t come from the outside world, I get it internally. It doesn’t matter that much to me if it sells and if it gets good reviews and people come to the shows. That’s not the motivating factor. For me the creative process keeps me going. A label couldn’t keep me from making music. I mean, if I wasn’t getting support from my label, I’d just say ‘fuck you’ and go figure out a way to make it work. Forever we weren’t selling shit, you know, we had day jobs. I had one operating a spotlight at a circus, but that was an interesting one - we’ve had miserable stuff. Video stores, telemarketing, soul-sucking non-committal jobs that we could leave and come back in a month from a tour, reapply and just get it again. They need people because nobody can stand to work there for more than a couple of weeks.

Iphone 4g concept

If you think about it realistically and you’re on a major label, you’re an investment. You’re like any other product. These people are investing money in it, and if they’re not seeing a return on that they don’t have a reason to keep you. There’s no big artistic ideas about what they’re doing. You don’t get people thinking “I’m so proud of working at Universal because we get to give the world Christina Aguilera” or whatever, you know? But if you’re on an indie and they don’t expect you to sell more than five or ten thousand records, and their overheads are so low that you can’t really fail as long as you have a good relationship with the label, and they’re into it it and you want to keep doing it cialis ohne rezept, you don’t have a problem. It’s a problem if you really want to strike it rich, that scene is superficial and unhealthy. It’s better to be on a label that doesn’t really expect you to sell a certain amount and they believe in what you’re doing and they wanna be part of it, and it becomes more like a family.”

DiS: How’s your side-project (Blikk Fang) with MGMT going?

KB: “It’s slow going right now, we’ve both been traveling and touring. I’ve been building a studio, I haven’t had a studio for a while, and he’s been out of pocket and doing different things, so hopefully it’ll happen this year. It’s one of my new year’s resolutions to make that happen.”

Related posts: Slain student called 911, but no one came in time, Windixie, Migrants missing near Andamans, Tinseltown, Dexter season 3 episode 8

Recently:

• I 500 snowmobile race
• Ann lee
• Ghost videos
• Wnba salaries
• Comcast porn clip
• Google ocean floor
• Flight of the conchords season 2 episode 3
• Michael phelps marijuana pictures
• Fun superbowl games
• Elmer gantry