Bearing the Smear of Madness: An Interview with Autodrone

Popshifter: The funny thing about the MBV comparison is that their vocals aren’t as strong as the vocals in your music.

Angel: That’s why I never got the comparison!

Popshifter: To me your music is more like Cocteau Twins or something with a really distinctive vocal that doesn’t get lost in the sound. It’s a separate thing.

Jeremy: I love Cocteau Twins; they’re totally great.

Umberto Boccioni. (Italian, 1882-1916).
States of Mind III: Those Who Stay.
1911. Oil on canvas, 27 7/8 x 37 3/4″ (70.8 x 95.9 cm).
Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller
Image from MoMA.org

Popshifter: They’ve got an almost pop sound, and I think Autodrone does, too. You mentioned the Britpop thing and I can see that because as much feedback as you have it’s extremely catchy and I find your songs are always stuck in my head

Angel: That’s what we fight about all the time!

Popshifter: Oh, why do you fight about it?

Angel: (laughing) I will write the catchiest thing and Jeremy will write the most. . . not-catchy thing. If I bring in something it’s going to be way catchier than you can even hear after Jeremy’s de-popified it. . . (laughs) if left to my own devices and he wasn’t there, it would be straight-up, trashy pop.

Jeremy and Angel both laugh at this.

Popshifter: Are there any non-musical influences that you have? Any films, books, photography, other art?

Angel: I’m definitely inspired by the Futurists. They have this amazing dissonant music and I feel like they were the first real punks, going against traditional things—like things having to be tuned. That’s influenced me to think outside of traditional formulas. It seems like a lot of people who are classically trained can’t think outside of that.

Jeremy: I know Katie was a classically trained vocalist, but I’ve never taken lessons and I don’t read music.

Popshifter: What about filmmakers? Is there any visual inspiration for you?

Jeremy: As far as filmmakers, I like Atom Egoyan quite a bit. I love how he’ll build tension throughout the entire film, without having anything explosive happening, and then when something explosive does happen, he’ll completely downplay it. Like in The Sweet Hereafter, the whole movie is centered around the bus accident and when you finally do see it happening, there’s no glamour about it all; there’s nothing romanticized and it’s just agonizingly slow and completely painful to watch.

Still from The Sweet Hereafter

Popshifter: That’s the opposite of mainstream Hollywood movies where everything is so hyped up.

Jeremy: It’s like an inverted horror, and really cerebral. I just saw Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant. Oh my god, it’s a really important movie. It’s a cool story told really well. In doing so, it becomes incredibly profound.

Click to read more from Autodrone on. . .

Inspirations and influences
Futurists and filmmakers
Recording versus live shows
The importance of theatrics

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