“I change shapes just to hide in this place, but I’m still an animal”. If this lyric is not yet doing laps of your cranium then prepare for it to channel through the wind and into your ears like an airborne virus (video below). The nice type, that sounds like the word happiness being banged through synths, and lyrics that could describe the holocaust if they like, such is the warming and infectious tone they are delivered in. Miike Snow are loitering on the cusp of ‘band of the moment’. We are seizing that moment by quizzing lead singer Andrew on all that is the blood which pumps through music: the live performance.
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Hi Andrew! Today we are just going to do a little interview about touring, life on the road and live music in general… That ok?
Great, I love talking about live performances!
Fantastic. So would you say you are a band that records to tour or tours to record?
I dont think our project was that thought out when we started. We just wanted to make music together. Three people just messing about. I don’t think we anticiptated the level of attention that its getting right now. We didnt even think about touring when we started the album. Since we began playing, we have found touring really influential on our music, and what we might make on the next record. I think our next record will be influenced by the way we have put the live shows together, and channelling our energy into it.
To date, what show stands out in your memory as the best you’ve played?
The Sound Academy in Toronto. We opened for Lykke Li, we had already done three shows and we recruited her lighting guy. This was the first time we had someone doing our lights properly. They were swedish too, so we all became fast friends. With the proper lights, the show takes on a whole new level of excitement for us and the fans. For sheer crowd size, our performance at Lollapalooza was so much fun. There was nearly 5,000 people there. I think with our songs, a lot of them fall between 115BPM and 125BPM, so we always aim to make people dance or bang their heads to us. So the big shows feel like such tribal experiences.
What’s the best show (by another band) that you’ve been to?
Without a doubt, Radiohead at Madison Square Gardens. I was standing next to the mixer and I just couldnt believe it. I was so into their music, and it just blew my mind. Also, Animal Collective at the Bowery Ballroom. They did something they never did before… They played their songs as they appeared on the album, in that order. At this point they were into doing kinda freeform sound experiments during the live show too, and hearing all that thrown together with the album order was amazing. It was like being at the opera you know? Like the opera buffs, they know the high note in Nessun Dorma and they know when its coming. They all stand up and scream when that note takes place. Its a very effective response in human beings, your supposed to get excited there, and I am just like everyone else. Oh, and they had great lights! I love my lights. They closed the show with a song from Panda Bear’s solo project called ‘Comfy In Nautica’, and it was just… so sweet. I should also mention DJ Craze, it was in Bangkok that I saw him. Incredible. The loudest show I’ve ever been to.
Say you’ve the budget to put on your ultimate four-band bill, featuring yourselves – who plays and in what order? No bringing anyone back from the dead, but defunct bands can count.
Can I choose to have my broken up bands when they were at their peak?
Sure.
Ok well, Bad Brains is number one. Definitely.
Then Mars Volta.
And The Band.
The us of course. We would play first out of respect.
How does the band keep itself entertained on the road? Any bus games you break out for motorway gridlock?
Horseshoe! We play horseshoe. We have a huge tour bus with a little space in the back for playing horseshoe. So you stand like 16 yard away form the spike and try and get the horseshoe around it.
And finally, its plug time. Tell us more about your latest release ‘Animal’. It’s our single of the week. We love it!
Animal is a very simple song. Its very simply made. Directing your attention to mans underlying nature and how sometimes things in society just don’t work out to meet your needs. And a lot of people end up feeling very dissatisfied. And the way people feel the need to fit into certain circumstances without even thinking about what they want. Oh, and the Fake Blood remix is dope right?
