American indie mavericks of Montreal have revealed that teenage obsession with hair metal.
of Montreal have a wide musical palette. Former members of the Elephant 6 Collective, the band’s output moves between outlandish psych-pop and slice R&B, ticking most of the boxes in between.
The band recently completed their new album ‘False Priest’ which is already garnering acclaim. of Montreal are extremely open minded, yet remain resolutely un-rock ‘n’ roll despite a teenage love affair with metal.
Speaking to Pitchfork, singer Kevin Barnes revealed that he was an enormous Motley Crue fan in his tender years.
“I was really into hair metal like Mötley Crüe and Ratt and Poison” he explained. “Some of those guys were borderline satanists but in a really goofy way, like they’d have all these pentagrams but then drink Jack Daniels and spit it on the audience.”
“I had this documentary called Mötley Crüe Uncensored around that time and it had Vince Neil in a hot tub in his limousine with all these bikini girls, and I was like, “Sick! That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” I was not a party animal but I definitely fantasized about it.”
Continuing, Kevin Barnes revealed that it was only a dearth of like minded friends which halted his metal ambitions. “I really wanted to be in a band but I didn’t know anybody who was into that sort of thing. It’s the story of my life: not being able to find people that want to do what I wanted to do. So my metal band never happened. And my mom wouldn’t let me get metal hair or an earring or ripped jeans.”
However it wasn’t long before the singer was drawn into the of Elephant 6. “Being part of the Elephant 6 collective in Athens was huge” he said.
“We’d have potlucks every week and everybody would bring a record and share music with each other and collaborate. Everyone was on the lookout for the great psychedelic, collage pop album from the 60s that we had never heard.”
of Montreal’s new album ‘False Priest’ is out today (September 13th).
