(Cord Magazine's questions are in blue. Artist responses are in grey.)

At the Mesa Luna on August 23rd, I sat down with Eric Copeland from Black Dice a few hours before their all ages show to chat about the band. Here’s what he had to say:

The visual art world uses negative as well as positive imagery to provoke response, is this a strategy that you employ?

I’m going to say no, just because what we use when we make music… My head is not very much in the game; I’m really stoked that people are showing up, but when I play, it’s really like a conversation between me and the people I play with. The way we talk about it even amongst ourselves has so little to do with other people; I think we’ve all come to terms with the fact that we don’t know what we’re doing, and that trying anything can be way better than talking it out. We can sit there and bullshit our answers for as long as we want, but the idea of something being successful, of rock music, with choruses and verses, that idea is really familiar. To me, once you realize that you’re taking it for granted, you start questioning it. I like that we don’t start on those types of foundations.

You’ve been progressing away from frock and guitar based music. Will you ever do away with the guitars completely?

We’ve built this relationship with our instruments. I mean, Bjorn plays guitar, but I don’t even feel like he plays guitar. I feel he just plays frequencies and notes, and can shift them and change them. We all have our own frequencies and abilities. I like the idea that it’s scary every time we get together to do something new; I guess I feel like we can do whatever we want as long as the three of us are happy. I feel like we’ve satisfied ourselves doing guitar songs and thrash songs.

Do you have any opinion in the ongoing analog vs. digital debate?

I don’t have an opinion, but I definitely have tasted. I don’t respond as much to digital things, solely because I don’t understand it. I actually just got a computer a couple weeks ago, and I’m very slow at progressing on it.

Could you say that your music may be better termed ‘art’ in the sense that it demands more thought and attention that simpler pieces?

I think some of it is a lot more conceptual, and further from Western music, which makes it a bit stranger. To me though, it’s just the music that we make. I listen to rock music, and the things I take away are the same things I take away from our music. I still get into things that I can’t explain. I’ll get into an Ace of Base song, because I think it’s really catchy, and I’ll hold it on the same level as, say, something like Bruce Springsteen, who I’m not even a big fan of. Or like a good movie… I dunno, I forgot your question.

I have a theory that more experimental music such as your attracts a more educated audience on the whole. Care to comment one way or the other?

It’s weird, because to me we sort of have three audiences. One are these young hippie kids, and it’s really new, and I appreciate them just because of what they come for. They come, get fucked up, and they just come to dance, and then they just want to say “I like your band.” Then I think we have this really strong sort of “freaky-do” quotient, where it’s these really intense, maybe lonely, maybe a bit damaged, dudes. And then there’s a really small percentage of intellectuals or artists. Maybe it’s not too small, but I think that people who are really active and come up with ideas the same way we do tend to be curious. I do appreciate that, because it’s the same way I am. I like to be open to whatever is going on.

Do you find that you lose or gain much of your audience because of you shifting styles?

Oh yeah. I feel like every record we put out, we cut about ¾ of our audience away, and then, a little bit stays.

Do you write that material for you live sets, or are you happier putting it on a record?

I feel like we really write sets, and a certain number of things have to get accomplished in them. After a while though, they get picked apart, so after a year maybe a couple things have disappeared. If you can do ten minutes of one thing, say, and it doesn’t get boring, versus ten minutes of another that does. When it comes to making an album, it’s a really different thought process, where it’s final, and it’s a version that people will be familiar with. I like to think that we cater to both. It would be foolish to try to play a show on a record, for me, or play a record at a show.

You’re doing mostly all ages shows now, why is that?

I think it’s way better. I got into music when I was really young; all of us were actually into music by the time we were about twelve, so we’re really sensitive with that. We know that every show can’t be all ages, and that’s a drag. I think young kids are rad; kids get into things way more than some 45 year old man, say.

Do you have strong relationships with other bands that do what you do, Animal Collective for instance?

Well, I live with one of the guys from Animal Collective, and I play with a guy from another band. For the most part, if any of them come to visit, they’ll just crash on our floor, so I’m very fond of them and very supportive. We got them playing shows again, and took them on their first tour, and we just put out a record together, so I feel that there’s stong ties, not even musical ones necessarily. Especially now, because we’re not really playing the same music as them; theirs is very pastoral and pleasant, and we’ve moved to something abrasive. There are a number of bands, Wolf Eyes, White Magic, Blood on the Wall, I just respect how they work.

Elsewhere

By Ryan Ince
Photos : Amazon
Published : November 15, 2004.