Good Afternoon Playtonics,
I hope you are enjoying one of our most prolific days in the last few weeks. Today we posted some music news as well as philosophy news, but now I present to you “Getting To Know You: Phantogram,” an exclusive interview with Phantogram! Last month we featured Phantogram in our segment on rising bands called “Introducing” and additionally I posted my review of the band’s show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge.
Phantogram (learn more about this word here) consists of duo Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel. While their sound incorporates many contemporary influences and current trends such as drum loops and dreamy electronic accompaniment, their music is dynamic and their melodies are quite catchy. Recently, the Saratoga Springs, NY based band released their debut album Eyelid Moves on Barsuk Records.
With the generous help of Barsuk Records’ PR cordinator Grant McCallum, I was able to get in touch with Phantogram to spark a truly playtonic dialogue. After the jump find out about how the band constructs their live shows, their favorite member of the Beatles, and more!
JL: Hey guys, thanks so much for allowing me the opportunity to ask you some questions. First off, I love the new LP and I am particularly amazed that all the tracks were written, composed, performed and engineered by the two of you. Was the process of creating this album learning on the fly or did you have a lot of experience with production beforehand?
Phantogram: Eyelid Movies was produced by Josh on a old mac laptop with Logic Express 6.0. He had been recording for a few years prior to this album so he wasn’t going into it blindsided.
JL: One of my favorite elements of the album are the beats, especially on “As Far As I Can See” and “Futuristic Casket.” Who are your hip-hop influences and what, if any, current rap are you into?
Phantogram: We listen to a lot of hip hop music. We are huge fans of artists such as Madlib, J Dilla, RZA, Oh No, Flying Lotus, Peanut Butter Wolf, 9th Wonder, Black Milk, just to name a few. We love the dis-conjoined, loose, gritty, and spacey sounds to their beats. It never gets boring.
JL: The album really seems to be taking off, receiving a lot of good publicity and praise. How do you promote the band? Is there any specific tool or technique that you use to do so that you are particularly excited about or that is innovative?
Phantogram: From day one, we’ve been promoting the heck out our band. From designing show flyers and posting them all around our town – to handing out 2 song demos to random strangers on the street, we’ve always had a lot of motivation to get our music out to people. It also helped us understand that we always have to promote and try to make new fans. Luckily now we are in the good hands of Barsuk Records and The Windish Agency to help us with promotion.
JL: Last month I saw you all play at the Mercury Lounge. I noticed that you translated intricate electronic arrangements into a dynamic live performance. What kind of preparation went/ goes into creating your live show and do you plan on/ envision making any changes to your arrangements?
Phantogram: Our initial idea for our live set was to set the audience off into a journey where they travel in and out of emotions which can easily be altered. We do a lot of live looping and triggering to build the sound when during our set and I think we will always want that to be apart of our show.
JL: Throughout your performance, short films projected onto a screen that seemed to sync with the music. During “All Dried Up,” night shots of a barren highway seem to perfectly complement the dark, serene tune. Were those short films created specifically for the songs?
Phantogram: Yes. We’ve got a friend upstate that has been working with us for a while now named Blair Neal. He used to come to our local shows and would use some sort of homemade sampler where he would trigger snippets of his videos to our beats. Unfortunately, we were unable to bring him on the road with us so the next best thing was to have him make the videos and have them running with our beats. Now we can bring them where ever we go.
JL: You seem to be doing a lot of touring in support of your debut LP. What has been your favorite city and venue to play in thus far?
Phantogram: Favorite city of all time- NYC – Music Hall of WIlliamsburg. We got to play with some awesome bands that night at CMJ – The XX, and School of Seven Bells and Depreciation Guild.
JL: Recently it was announced that you will be touring with The Antlers in the spring. If you could tour with any group either currently together or disbanded, what would be your dream band to tour with?
Phantogram: We would LOVE to tour with Beck one day. Radiohead – that’s a given. T.V. on the Radio would be awesome too. oh and James Brown.
JL: Just for fun, who is your favorite member of the Beatles?
Phantogram: Ringo.
Great interview. Phantogram coming to Lewiston, ME in May!
Excellen interview. I hope I’ll be back in Maine for that Phantogram show–is it at Bates?