Under The Rotunda

[Note: This interview was originally published via audio format last April. However, since I can't host the mp3 forever, I'm revisiting the interview in article format, for internet posterity.]
Caribou have always been an interesting band. From their intensely intricate albums to their stunning live shows (such as a few weeks ago at Pitchfork), they’ve consistently been a powerful musical force. The man behind that force is Dan Snaith, and I had a chance to chat with him before a stellar performance in Boston last April. Ever since the beginning of his musical career, back when he was called Manitoba (more on that later), Snaith has been the only one behind the records. He does all the writing and recording himself, and then works with a group of musicians for live performances. “The records are all me… As far as the guys in the touring band, we just get together before the tour and after the record’s been made, basically. Having four people really makes everything gel together and allows us to do things we couldn't [otherwise] do. It allows us to go off on tangents and be more comprehensive in the way we play the songs. The live show is a collaborative thing. We kind of take the record apart, and decide which tracks to change, and how to play the songs live. It’s not just me telling them. Then the songs kind of evolve as we tour along. But the records are all just me at home.” Since some songs are more electronic and sample-heavier than others, they can't play everything in the live setting. "There are some songs that we're never gonna play, and that's fine. I don't want to not make a track because it won't be able to be played live. But also, we have the ability to trigger samples on stage, so that we don't just have to have songs that are two guitars, drums, and bass. We have more flexibility with that. That's an enjoyable part of the process, starting with the songs on the record. Some of them we play fairly faithfully, some of them we rework quite substantially when we're touring."

For Caribou's latest album, Andorra, Snaith attacked the songwriting process a little differently than he had in the past. “One way it did change with this record is that instead of building the tracks out of loops – as I did in the past – this time I wanted to really write songs and focus on composition, writing melodies and harmonies and squishing them into pop song formats. I planned out the record, I wrote the record, before I started recording it. Whereas in the past I just started a loop and built things on top of it. It was more of a premeditated process this time. With this album I was trying to make really carefully crafted pop songs, carefully arranged. It's hard to avoid bands like the Zombies or the Beach Boys, that kind of style, putting together baroque pop music -- those are definitely two big influences." He made sure to clarify just how much music he listens to (a lot), adding on, "But so is Timbaland or Albert Eiler or Neutral Milk Hotel, all sorts of different people." Snaith also utilized his vocal cords heavily on Andorra, singing more than he has in the past. He started singing on Up In Flames, and it has continued to engage him. “I was interested in having a vocal carry the melody of the song – more classic song role. That’s been something that’s continued to interest me.” While he seemed nervous at the mention of calling himself a singer, he explained how he's "learned how to get the sound that [he] wants" with practice. Touring, and having to sing every night, doesn't hurt either. "I'm becoming more comfortable with it, more able."

When not writing, recording, or performing music as Caribou, Snaith has been known to persue another interest -- mathematics. "They're both things that I've done just because I enjoy doing them. I started as an undergraduate doing mathematics before I was releasing music. It seemed impossible to be releasing records and touring the world then. So at that point, I was doing mathematics because I loved it. But also, sure, I can imagine being a math professor. As music took up more and more of my time, I realized this was obviously what I wanted to do. But I did want to finish the pH. d. A lot of people say 'It's good that you've got that to fall back on', which I suppose is true, but it doesn't have much to do with why I was doing it. I'm the kind of person that I'm always gonna fill up my time doing things I want to do. I rarely sit around and veg out. The last year of finishing the pH. d, and recording the previous album, and being on tour all the time was insanely hectic. But I enjoyed doing everything I was doing, so I wasn't upset."

While his work in math has never hindered Caribou's music, he did hit one road bump a few years back. As I mentioned earlier, Snaith used to record under the moniker of Manitoba -- until he was forced to change his name due to an absurd lawsuit. "This guy "Handsome Dick" Manitoba who was in this band the Dictators from the late 70s (a punk band from New York) sued me for exclusive rights to the word 'manitoba' -- which is also a Canadian province. Everything about it was hilarious but so frustrating. There was no way I could emphasize with his point, because it didn't make any sense. So that was hard to come to terms with, I have to change my name because of this totally ridiculous lawsuit. It came down to the cost of hiring a lawyer -- it would have been half a million dollars. And he had a quite reputable trademark lawyer in New York working for him for free. So I would have been running up these totally unmanageable bills while he was just, not. Put in that perspective, I was like, 'There's no way I can fight this case'. Once I got my head around that I started thinking, even if I could, do I really want to spend a massive amount of money and a year in court when I could be making music? Once I got into that frame of mind, that just moving on was the best thing to do, all I had to do was go back to making music again, announce that I'd changed the name, and there we were. Everything moved along. I worried, because I thought maybe people won't catch up to the name change, people won't be aware of it. But one announcement on the internet and probably 80% of the people who were interested knew about it already. It just didn't end up being as big a deal as I thought it would be."

Thank goodness for that. It would have been a crying shame to have wasted Snaith's time and musical talent, and deprive his fans of what he does best (besides mathematics, of course). I know he'll stay busy in the future, and I can't wait to see -- and hear -- what Caribou will be up to next.

Caribou - Lord Leopard (from The Milk Of Human Kindness)
Caribou - Irene (from Andorra)

Labels: Interviews