A native New Yorker, Elvis Perkins first came into prominence with 2007’s Ash Wednesday, as released by the taste-making record label XL Recordings. His next album, 2009’s Elvis Perkins In Dearland, was another XL title, going on to chart on the Heatseekers and Billboard 200 charts of Billboard Magazine. Aside from an EP put out in 2009, it would be six years before there was a proper follow-up to Dearland, 2015’s I Aubade, which Elvis engineered, produced and released through his own label, MIR.
In support of I Aubade and his upcoming shows at Berlin on Dec. 11th and 12th, I had the opportunity to do some Q&A with Elvis while he was in Italy. In addition to those gigs and a recent album, Elvis also scored the upcoming film February, as directed by his brother Oz Perkins, who you may recognize from Psycho II, Legally Blonde and Star Trek. The release date of February is still pending, but its trailer can be seen at www.screenrelish.com.
In his responses, Elvis – who can be followed online at www.elvisperkinssound.net – came across as someone who takes pride in his craft, while also seeing the big picture of everything. However, fingers are crossed that a proper follow-up to I Aubade does not take six years.
What about your decision to release I Aubade on your own label?
Elvis Perkins: Unlike my other releases, I engineered, produced and arranged this one, so it was all the more appealing to be the master of my own masters. I did test the waters with a few labels but didn’t see anything that would have trumped the present autonomy.
You spent years making I Aubade. For fans that haven’t yet picked it up, how would you compare it to your last album, In Dearland?
E: I guess the most apparent difference would be there being no Dearland or approximation of any other band on I Aubade. In Dearland was made in about a month and in a proper studio — the Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, New York — whereas the latest was made over the course of two years at home, in friend’s places, cross-country hotels and in a trailer in Ojai, California, which itself turned out to be a musical instrument. The AM radio was bound in a mysterious relationship with the fluorescent lighting, so that when the lights and radio were on together, ecstatic static and oscillating waves would come flooding from the speakers. I mic’d hours of that and some classical samples from the FM band also ended up in the mixes. There are other field recordings and cellphone voice memos drifting in and out as well. This is all to say there is a wider and stranger spectrum of frequencies and instruments on I Aubade.
Since it was years between albums, were there good leftovers from the I Aubade sessions? Do you have plans an EP or other sort of release in the near-future?
E: There is a leftover or two, but at present I don’t have plans for an EP. The LP was a mammoth undertaking and I’m still on tour with it, so it remains in focus for now. I did, however, over the summer complete the music for the first film written and directed by my brother, Oz. Whether or not there will be a proper soundtrack release, those sounds will hit ears in theaters sometime next year. The film is February and stars Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton and Kiernan Shipka.
How did it come up for you to be working with your brother Oz on February? Were you his first choice for that project?
E: I was his first choice, yes, and while I almost bowed out due to too much on the plate with the album, I’m really glad I didn’t. I’m very proud of him for making this movie and it presented me with a great opportunity for musical evolution and exploration. We’ve worked together since block buildings and joint tagboard drawings with our father, so the notion came up rather naturally here. And he plays most of the drums on my first album, Ash Wednesday, so it had a nice circular aspect for me to help see his first cinematic baby into being.
Any idea when February will be released?
E: Beyond it landing in 2016, I don’t know anything more specific.
Having partially grown up in New York City, what do you remember about your first gig in New York?
E: I think that was at the now-no-more Mo Pitkin’s, and The Dearlanders and I all had the flu. Jim James was there for a moment and he later told me he could tell something was happening but it wasn’t clear what it was. I don’t think it was to us either. We opened with a long, slow and strange number called “Anonymous,” which was surely a bad idea. The club was presenting a drag show afterward and I remember it being rather difficult getting our gear offstage through a single narrow door and against a tide of boas and heels.
What is it that keeps you a New York resident after having lived elsewhere?
E: I’ve lived in the Hudson Valley — in Germantown and Hudson — for nearly a decade and I guess it strikes a fair enough balance between civilization and the wilderness. I’m currently a short walk from the train station in Hudson with a window on the river and mountains, the tracks and the factories.
Is there something that you wish more people knew about Elvis Perkins?
E: If anything, I imagine it might aid the listener in experiencing my music if they knew less!
Do you have a favorite album for 2015?
E: I haven’t heard but a handful of them and tend to not think in favorites, but I did find the Kamasi Washington to be impressive. And my old friend, collaborator and Dearlander, Nick Kinsey, released his wonderful first album in September. The project is called KINSEY and the title is My Loneliest Debut. He’s on tour with me now, opening the shows — as he will the two in Manhattan — and playing drums in the band.
Finally, Elvis, any last words for the kids?
E: Kids! Be mindful of to whom you are giving your money — remember, corporations are currently people, too. In the material world, which we find ourselves, funding this one or that may very well be the most direct way in which we create and destroy reality — “My 2$” from I Aubade presents a treatment of the notion.
-by Darren Paltrowitz
