These days, any mention ofFleetwood Mac is bound todevolve into fits of laughtercentered largely around StevieNicks’ witch-like wardrobe. But notin Denton, TX, home of Midlake.The native Texans (save LSU graduate Eric Nichelson) havemade a name for themselves with the same sort of soft rockgentility that Ms. Nicks and her bandmates made thirty yearsago. First Grizzly Bear, now this. Is soft rock the new dance/punk? Doubtful. The music being made by Midlake, GrizzlyBear, et al has serious lasting power. For one, the currentrun of folky-popsters don’t seem to be simply aping theirinfluences. When Midlake’s Tim Smith sings “Let me not getdown from walking with no one,” you may not understandwhat he’s saying but you’re sure he means it. Their lyricsevoke a kind of British sentiment of dreary winters, fresh rainin the woods, and traveling by boat, an amber fog throughsimple mountains. Don’t think the Beatles; that’s too recent.Think Paddington Bear. Or John Keats.Smith has made these landscapes his own with this year’sstellar The Trials of Van Occupanther. Abandoning the franticpop of 2004’s Bamnan and Silvercork for a softer, more gentileside has treated the group well. They have since foundthemselves opening for the Flaming Lips, touring Europe andAustralia, and generally making the calm, pastoral life seempretty cool. I mean, Smith’s a stay-at-home husband; how rockand roll is that? If nothing else, though, Van Occupanther is thesingle most honest record I’ve heard all year. The group’ssongs are largely fictional, but there is a genuine simplicityto the music. I guess that this is what it sounds like whenyou make the music that you want, free from any kind offashion or trend. That said, my favorite record this year wasBruce Springsteen’s attempt at early 20 th Century folk music,so what do I know about honesty?So, given his leanings, I guess it makes sense that Smithwould do his interviews at 9 am.ANTIGRAVITY: Uh, don’t take offense at this oranything, but you’re in a rock and roll band. Whaton Earth are you doing awake at 9 am?Tim Smith: I don’t know, you’ve got to write. It’s cool becauseI don’t have a job anymore, you know. We all used to haveday jobs, but jobs don’t like it when you go on tour, they don’twant you if you can’t be there. So I pretty much got fired frommy day job because of all the touring. So now it’s really cool.I’m not really a rock and roller, anyway. [laughs]AG: Do you write every day?TS: Pretty much. My wife goes to work at eight o’clock andcomes home at five, so in that time I try to write, try to beproductive. It doesn’t always come, you know? I’ll try to write“I mean, there’s nothing specialabout Denton; it’s a small town.But it’s got just enough.”for a week or two and maybe one or two ideas will come. IfI’m not feeling it, I won’t do it.AG: So did you guys all go to UNT [University ofNorth Texas, in their hometown of Denton]?TS: Yeah, all of us except the guitar player, who went to A&M[and keyboardist Eric Nichelson, LSU graduate].AG: How’s the scene in Denton?TS: Well, I suppose there is one, but I’m not exactly clued inon what it is. I don’t get out a whole lot, I don’t really go andwatch bands that much because we see so many bands whenwe’re out on the road. Can’t I just stay at home with my wife?[laughs] There are so many musicians [in Denton], people whowent to the music school or the art school.AG: Do you like living in Denton?TS: Oh yeah, I love it. I’ve been to many places in the worldnow and I just love my home. I mean, there’s nothing specialabout Denton; it’s a small town. But it’s got just enough.AG: Are you from there originally?TS: Well, San Antonio. But I came to Denton for college andnever left.AG: What kind of music influenced you growingup?TS: Man, we didn’t listen to a whole lot of music. I mean, mydad had Sgt. Pepper’s, and I thought that was cool. My favoritesong at the time was “When I’m 64.” But I really didn’t listento a whole lot of music. [But then,] you know, in sixth grade,you have the choice of either being in football or in band, and Ichose band. I thought that the coolest instrument—besides thedrums—was the saxophone; I figured that that would be theone to pick up girls with. So I played saxophone for thirteenyears and totally fell in love with music at that point. I startedreally studying jazz music all the way through middle school andhigh school right up to college. I didn’t really grow up with theradio. I mean, I guess I knew what was going on, but…I don’tknow, in college I think maybe I had a Cranberries tape and Ireally liked them but I thought that the Beatles were really theonly great rock and roll band. I had no clue. Then somebodybrought Radiohead’s OK Computer to my dorm room and itactually didn’t do much for me the first time I heard it. I think Icouldn’t get past that name, Radiohead. [laughs] So he broughtit back to my room and a few months later it was like, “Well,I really like this ‘Paranoid Android’ track, let me just record itonto a tape.” And I listened to that tape every day for over ayear straight. Every day, walking to class, I’d bring it with me.Then I graduated. That was the record that made me want tojoin a band.AG: Looking back, does it upset you at all that youmissed all those years of rock and roll?TS: I don’t know…when I was in high school I picked upguitar. I don’t know, it seems like there are people who maybestarted playing guitar in high school and then, like, ten yearslater they’re still doing what they were doing, you know? Imean, maybe they’re a little better, but you know what I mean.I think for me I would have gotten a little bit tired of it, ofalways listening to punk all the time. I would have eventuallygrown out of it. I’m sure it helped, because when you’re in[high school] band you have to play and listen to a bunchof classical music, and when you go to University for music,you’re exposed a lot to the history of music, so, yeah, I thinkthat all of that was a big help for me. I was never a big rockand roller [laughs], but I can rock out occasionally, you know?It’s hard in my own writing, though, actually. It’s not naturalfor me.AG: Have you noticed that everyone who reviewsyour band makes it a point to mention that, notonly do you like Fleetwood Mac, but you seem tobe pretty okay with that fact? Like it’s some sortof big deal to be honest with yourself and with theworld about what you like?TS: I don’t know, man, but that’s a good point. I mean, thatstuff sounds great to me, they’re great singers. I love that stuff,you know?AG: I just think that that’s so weird, that you’renoteworthy for being honest. Can you tell memore about Van Occupanther, about the recordingof it?TS: I had just really started getting into the old ‘70s folk-rockstuff. That was like right after our first album [2004’s FlamingLips-esque Bamnan and Silvercork] and that was really a biginfluence on the way that it all sounds. We’d always had thatname around [Van Occupanther] in the band and we knewthat we were going to use it somehow. So I just started trying18_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
to write songs very slowly for it. It was quite different from our first album.AG: Just out of curiosity, what’s your favorite Neil Youngrecord?TS: After the Goldrush.AG: Did you get to see that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Youngtour?TS: I didn’t know that they were on tour.AG: Yeah, and it was a weird mix of people. Like, there werepeople my dad’s age, around 55, and there were a ton of peoplemy age, 22. I don’t know, I guess that some music is sortatimeless.TS: Well, you know, it’s good music.AG: Is capturing that same sort of ‘70s sound what you guysattempted to do going into Van Occupanther or is this just theway the music came out?TS: Yeah, I mean, we definitely knew what we were doing. I guess it was a littlebit of both, though. You know, you start falling in love with that style of musicand it’s all that you want to hear and it’s all you want to write.AG: Do you write more for yourselves or for fans, for potentialfans?TS: Mostly for us, but to be honest, when you’re writing a song there’s got tobe a certain something. Like, for instance, maybe it’s better to have a harderguitar. I’m fine with a softer guitar but I’m sure that critics and people who buyrecords want a heavier guitar. It’s a small part, you know, but it is there. Youhave to think about your audience. It’s harder for bands, you know, to be freewithout writing longer songs. It’s hard to write a three-minute song.AG: You guys seem to operate pretty free of current influence,of whatever’s popular and hip. Is that a self-conscious move onyour part?TS: We totally do, so I guess so. I just don’t listen to a lot of what’s going on. Ithink that there are some bands out there who are really, really great. I don’tknow, I guess I know what you’re talking about, this sorta dance-like thing. It’sjust not the music that moves me, you know? I lean more to the classical side,the “beauty” side.AG: Your record is very timeless, sort of a snapshot ofsomething. Like it exists outside of the influence, you know? Isthat timeless quality something that you guys were going for? Imean, it just seems like Van Occupanther will be just as good intwenty years as it is today.TS: Yeah, exactly. That’s it. You don’t want to put something out that’s onlygood for a year. You want to be able to pick it up a few years from now andhave it still sound good.AG: Paul [Alexander, Midlake bassist] said something in aninterview I read like, “Creating beauty, sincerity, and honestyare imperative while we’re writing and recording.” How do youmaintain these things?TS: Well, we all love one another. We all get along with each other becausewe’ve been doing it for so long. We’ve been doing this for so long in our lives,and we always wanted to do it for however long we could make it. It’s happenedreally slowly, you know? Seven or eight years. But, you know, it keeps gettingbetter and better […] I mean, right now, we canalmost start to afford some sort of tour bus. Notto buy, but to rent, you know? And in Europe,not really in the States yet. So that helps out. It’shard, being out on the road, in this one little vantogether, and you’ve got to sleep in, like, one littlehotel room. I don’t know, I can’t say that it’ll lastforever. I’m 31. But right now things are goingpretty well. We love doing this. There’s nothingelse we want to do. I mean, I don’t think any of uswant to go back to our day jobs.AG: Well, that’s about all I have. We’llsee you guys on February 2 nd .TS: Yeah, I think that’s the first day of our tour.Where are we playing again? The Howlin’ Wolf?AG: At a place called Republic. It usedto be the Howlin’ Wolf but the Howlin’Wolf moved down the street. Have youguys played here before?TS: Oh yeah. Once at the Howlin’ Wolf and acouple of times at the Mermaid Lounge. No oneknew who we were though.antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_19
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