Ten Questions with Noah (Panda Bear) from Animal Collective...

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


What do you do when you’re on downtime between recording and touring?

We really all do different things. We don’t even live in the same city anymore; I moved to Portugal recently, so I guess I’m the farthest away. We’re all from Baltimore originally; Brian (The Geologist) lives in DC, and the other two still live in New York, so we’re kind of scattered. We convene these days for these bursts of activity.

What’s your vice of choice?

Probably weed, hash. It changes all the time.

I don’t know if weed is so much of a vice in this city.

Oh, is it legal here?

No, but in BC it’s our biggest export.

In Portugal, hash is everywhere. You can’t really get weed there. I’m more of a hash man these days.

What’s your favorite venue or city to play and what differences do you notice between your city’s scene and others, or different audiences?

One of my favorites is Bristol, in England. We met a group of kids there, so nice. All the music they do is so simple, and it seems so personal.

What issues and aspects of the world most concern you these days?

I wouldn’t consider myself much of a political person, but I am sort of upset about the political climate here… It must be pretty extreme for me to get upset about it. It wasn’t the major reason I moved out of the country, but I feel like tolerance is very low these days. I feel everyone should travel around a lot, get involved in other cultures.

What’s the one interview question you could care less to hear again?

Only because it’s in pretty much every interview we’ve ever done. I guess people hear that we’ve known each other for a long time, and been friends, which is true. “How did you guys meet?” It’s sort of a long story too, but I’ll totally answer it for you if you want.

If you feel like an abridged version…

Ok, to sum it up. Deacken and I were in grade school together, so we’ve known each other for a long time. Geologist and Avey met each other in high school in 9th grade. Deaken went to their high school, So that’s how we connected. We all had been making music on our own, and together in certain groups, and through time because of mutual admiration, we started practicing together, jamming around. Here we are today, ten years later.

What did you want to be when you were growing up (besides musician)? Did you ever do anything to attain that?

I used to play a lot of sports. My brother is a huge athlete, he’s a tennis pro now. So growing up you look up to your older brother, want to shadow him, you know. It was never something I thought about clearly.

If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be, and what would you hope to accomplish?

I like where I am.

A shark and a bear fight. Here are the rules: There’s just enough water for the shark to live, and there’s a small rock in the middle of the water for the bear to stand on. Neither has been trained, and neither has been fed for a few days. It's the baddest of grizzly bears against the baddest of Great White sharks. Who wins?

The geologist is gonna be real pissed at me, but I’m going to go for the bear. I kinda saw him fighting in my head, and I am the Panda Bear…

If you could ask me one question, what would it be?

I’m trying to think of something good… What was the most exciting moment of your life?

Hmm… I don’t really store ‘moments’…

Well what was the first powerful memory you have?

Not proud, but actually pretty embarrassing: once when I was a kid, I really wanted this super soaker, and my mom wouldn’t buy it…

Those things are sweet.

…so I had a huge temper tantrum, and I finally got it. I still feel guilty about it.

I know what you’re talking about. I have a couple moments like that. You kinda look back at yourself and you’re ashamed, like “I wish I hadn’t done that”.

Thanks a lot Noah.

Elsewhere

By Ryan Ince
Photos : Fat Cat
Published : November 15, 2004.