Tristan Patterson’s video for ‘Alexandra’: whose concept was that?
I’d say half mine and half his. Maybe the first half him and the last half mine. It was a tie in to another video we were shooting that day. I just thought we get away with doing a sort of classic showgirls without looking like JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.
Whatever happened to the novel that you guys were writing as a band?
I was thinking what we should of said is we were taking time off to finish the novel, but I thought of that like three months too late.
Do you still write?
I just wrote an article for this website [for Talkhouse]. The guy asked me to write on the role of the front man, which I … I took a lot of liberties.
So as far as themes and inspiration for this album?
The first major inspiration was the September Of My Years record by FRANK SINATRA. Doing a solo record I wanted to focus everything on the voice. The first two songs were the vibe I thought the record was going to be, but I started working with Rostam and he wanted to write rock n roll. That’s when we started to butt heads, then we came up with a medium where I felt I could really concentrate on my singing and he could write his rock beats and songs behind it. I wanted there to be a lot of variety of singing on the record. By the time the record finished it was about half the original way I imagined it and about half rock n roll. I’m very happy with the record, actually.
So I teach English to a group of German kids, and what we did today was listen to some of the ‘Black Hours’ album today and I had them write some reactions so here is your welcome to Berlin.
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER‘s youngest fans. That’s awesome! Thank you. [reading] ‘5AM makes me feel sad…5AM makes me think of peas?’
He meant to write peace but he wrote peas. Any reactions?
[reading]’5am makes me feel sad’ reminds me of when I was in the studio and I was recording a girl Amber Kaufman and I had my daughter with me and my daughter fell in love with Amber.
From DIRTY PROJECTORS, right?
Yeah, and my daughter was just enthralled, like ‘This is the greatest thing…‘ it’s probably WAS the greatest thing she’s ever seen, she’s only two and a half. Then Amber left and I listening to the song Self-Pity, and I had it kind of loud because my daughter likes the music loud, and it’s a minor key and it’s a bit dreary at first, and I look over and she’s bawling, it was the most horrifying thing.
But that visceral reaction to music: do you think we have more when we are younger?
I don’t know but it hit her pretty hard. I guess it was the minor key? I couldn’t figure out what it was.
Thinking of yourself and your trajectory, as a songwriter and musician, do you think there are certain songs you write with this purity of emotion that exists in your youth, that changes or goes away as you get older? How has your songwriting changed?
I like my songs more these days. You always like what you are working on, that’s why you’re working on it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s simpler back then maybe. But then, the more complicated- sometimes getting complicated is the worse possible idea. Honestly, the same thing never works twice. Right now I would say I’m’ a lot more technically competent with orchestration and guitar playing, but that’s just more like a skill. In terms of songwriting I really like the way it’s going now and I would say maybe it’s more complicated but … I don’t know. It’s hard to ever see if you are expanding on an idea or just garnishing something that shouldn’t be and it’s just crap.
What do hope and passion mean to you?
I think I use those words a lot on the record actually. Big words. My wife loves the word passion so much, because it’s so funny say, ‘I’m full of passion’: it’s just so ridiculous.
Is it like cliché ridiculous?
Yeah, but that’s not why she thinks it’s funny it’s more that it’s just so overwhelming, for some reason it has weight to it. The idea of it is kind of funny, it just seems so cartoonishly happy. I like the word passion.
And hope?
Hope to me sounds sort of negative. Hope always reminds me of ‘Why are you in a situation where you have to be clinging to this pathetic hope?‘ Why do you have a fall back on just your hope? I guess it’s just like a glass half empty kind of perspective.