Discovery is a side-project for Rostam Batmanglij, keyboardist/producer of Vampire Weekend, and Wes Miles, guitarist/vocalist of Ra Ra Riot. Discovery's LP finds them far removed from their regular indie-pop sound, using armies of synthesizers and vocals swimming in the pitch-adjusting effects of Auto-Tune software.
Interview: 29 July 2009
Did you two actually meet playing in Dirty Projectors?
Wes Miles: “I played sax for Dave [Longstreth] on a tour in 2004, right around when Getty Address was coming out. Rostam and I were already friends then. It was in 2005, though, that we all played that one show together.”
It was only one show? That just happened to be immortalized on New Attitude?
Rostam Batmanglij: “That was just a coincidence. Which definitely makes it seem more permanent than it really was.”
Did Ezra really end up in Dirty Projectors because he reviewed The Glad Fact?
RB: “I don't know, maybe! He was given the assignment of reviewing any record that he thought was interesting, and that was the only record that he thought was interesting. Ezra and I had this folk band back then and, just by coincidence, we ended up opening up for Dave, and met him then. Ezra was also playing sax in a noise band, and they ended up being Dave’s backing-band.”
What was the name your folk band?
RB: “Oh, I’m not sure I even remember.”
Come on, don't be coy.
RB: “I just really don’t want to have to answer that question. [laughs]”
Well, when did you two start making music together?
WM: “When we first met in 2004, we bonded over a mutual interest in vocal harmonies, pop music, electronic music. We started making music, just for the hell of it, in the summer of 2005, tossing around a couple of concepts we'd been dreaming of.”
What concepts?
WM: “When I was in college, I had this idea to have a band where everyone was playing all synthesizers and electronic drums, and Rostam was thinking of making an album of all handclaps.”
RB: “All handclaps and buzzy synths! I got really inspired by these synthesizers. Sometimes you can be aware of something, but not fully aware of it, and then all of a sudden it’ll hit you, and it's all you want to do. That’s how I felt about buzzy synths, those kind of saw-tooth oscillations.”
Was there always a plan to come back to Discovery, even after it got shelved whilst you worked on your ‘main’ bands?
RB: “We were always chipping away at it. Over time, we were always working on things in bits and bobs, to use the British expression. When we were back from tour, we’d get together and hash out a chorus or a verse. Now and then we’d send each other stuff. That’s how it came together. Slowly.”
Have you the desire to do Discovery live?
RB: “I think we have the desire to, but making that desire a reality would be difficult on many levels. Like, I think we’d want some backup dancers, so, maybe for a special occasion. But there’s nothing doing at the moment.”
How does it feel releasing the record right when Jay-Z’s proclaiming the death of Auto-Tune, and Death Cab for Cutie are protesting ‘Auto-Tune abuse’?
RB: “Wait, Wes, what’s the story with Death Cab for Cutie? Weren’t you just hanging out with those guys?”
WM: “Well, I never get the whole story, even though I was touring with them for a month-and-a-half. They were saying it was essentially an inside-joke that got taken farther than they ever anticipated.”
RB: “How can they protest using Auto-Tune when they do use Auto-Tune on their own recordings?”
WM: “I don’t think they were saying that. I talked to Chris [Walla] about producing a lot, and I know it’s his ideal to do things all live, all analog. But I don’t think he’s afraid, as a producer, of doing things differently, especially with his own band.”
RB: “I’m pretty sure Chris Walla told me personally that he uses ‘pitch stuff’ as a euphemism for using Auto-Tune. I have to say, I think that if you are using Auto-Tune in a sort of ‘subtle’ way, you may as well not use it at all.”
Using it in a clandestine way where you’re pretending that’s how someone “really” sounds seems somewhere between deceitful and dull, whereas seeing how extreme you can make the reaction between your voice and the software seems actually interesting.
WM: “We certainly weren’t afraid of making things extreme. We knew going into this that using Auto-Tune would have a polarizing effect. It was something that was fun, and was something that worked well with the concepts we were interested in exploring. We certainly didn’t want to stray away from that just because there was an Auto-Tune backlash building.”
Has there been a polarizing reaction to the record?
WM: “I think so. But that's mostly because it doesn't just sound like a combination of our mutual bands. It’s something completely different. That’s definitely what we wanted to do.”
RB: “I think people have been very shocked, but surprisingly into it.”
Why 'surprisingly'? Did you expect Discovery to be hated?
RB: “Don’t get me wrong: I think there is stuff on this record that is fucking incredible, and I’m so proud of it. I think there is stuff on this record that’s undeniable. If you see it on its own terms, your experience with it will be positive. But, I think a lot of people haven’t been interested in seeing it on its own terms, and maybe thinking about the concepts behind it, and what’s going on on a deeper level.”
What do you mean by that?
RB: “I could write an essay about what I mean! What I’m basically saying is: if we got together and made a record that just sounded like our other bands, that might make some listeners happy, but it wouldn’t make us happy. To us, that would be pointless. If we got home from tour and played music that sounded exactly like those songs we were just playing every night, we’d lose our minds.”
So you relished being able to do something radically different from your rock dayjobs?
WM: “Definitely. I feel like I learned so much making music in a different way: improvising, working electronically. Ultimately, what we got out of it was something we couldn’t have from our other bands. Hopefully we’ll continue to make music together.”
This isn’t just a one-off?
RB: “It might be five years before we make another record. But we will make another record. And it’ll be incredible.”
