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dazedcola · 12.16.2007, 05:58 PM

"I would rather have one song that people actually like than 15 songs that they can barely stand. But that's just me."
http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/im...eeders-sm.jpg? Most of the attention focused on Kim Deal in the last few years has come from her participation in the über-successful Pixies reunion. But she recently turned the spotlight to her other well-regarded, super successful indie rock band, the Breeders. After a recording hiatus of over five years, the Breeders will return with Mountain Battles, the follow-up to 2002's Title TK, on April 7/8 (in the UK/U.S., respectively) via 4AD.

We caught up with Deal to talk about the album, and she was a blast: friendly, funny, and full of anecdotes and ideas. In our conversation, she discussed her recent appearance at the "The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa" benefit, her adventures in speaking German for a Battles song, a technological explanation for the rarity of quality songwriting in the ProTools era, and why a new Pixies album just isn't going to happen.
Pitchfork: It's been five years since Title TK was released. What took Mountain Battles so long to come together?

KD: Well, sometimes we weren't at the studio, we were just at the house in Ohio working on stuff. It's weird, because ProTools has done this-- like, I'm a singer/songwriter, so I could do this in my bedroom by myself, and I would have to just get the...I don't know, web designer, to come over to put the measures up, to pull the ProTools up. It really doesn't matter if anyone else is involved, so that can be quite freeing, and things can be turned around quite quickly like that, if all I'm thinking about is, "What time do I want the spacebar-pusher to come over today?"

But if there's an actual band, and I own actual instruments, and actual tubes have to be replaced, and people actually have to fly in, and they have lives, and you have to go over the song-- because remember, this is tape. It's not like, "Uh...here's the idea of the chorus. We're going to use the Pretenders drums from the first record, 'cause they sound so good," you know? That's not how we do it. Jose [Medeles], the drummer, has to fly in, and we actually have to write a song from beginning to end that sounds cool. And if it doesn't sound cool at this part, it's not like we can just go, "Yeah, let's rearrange that in ProTools," you know? It's just a totally different way of thinking.

I'm not the quickest, most prolific writer either. I would never pretend to be. I don't think prolific-ness is equal to quality at all. I would rather have one song that people actually like than 15 songs that they can barely stand. But that's just me.

Another thing is, I think it's kind of ballsy to sit there and think that [people want to listen] if it wasn't special and we weren't trying to do something we would want to listen to. Why is this song actually here? Why is this song taking up two-and-a-half minutes of my life? Is it just because somebody doesn't have tape anymore and so the amount of recording space is unlimited? That's why I'm sitting here listening to this, because nothing stopped you from doing it, but there's not really a reason to do it? I don't know. If that was me, and I was listening to me, I would get mad, like, "Why are you fucking doing this?" It doesn't have to be great, but it seems like at least there should be kind of a reason. And it's hard to come up with a fucking good reason to write something, I think.

Pitchfork: You keep hinting at one of the issues that would be at the center of making a new Pixies record, namely whether or not it's necessary. In recent interviews, you say it's not, that touring is fun but that a new record might tarnish some of the old memories.

KD: [When] this whole thing started out, we were going to do a couple of shows. Joe [Santiago] said he had one kid and one was on the way, and he said, "Do you wanna do it?" And I said, "Oh God, no, Joe!" And I told everybody this, but nobody believes me. And he said, "Kim, this is really important to me. It will change my school district, where I can put my daughter into school." And I said, "Okay, of course. Of course, I will do this."
I thought it was going to be a couple of shows, and it turned out really good. I had a really good time doing it. People were just so happy we were doing it. It was just so nice, like [an] "it's over, thank you, bye," kind of thing. And so there was never any-- I don't know, I think it gets talked about whenever Charles [Thompson, aka Frank Black] has any release, which is often. I have a feeling that's when he talks about it more than anything. Because him and Joe haven't gotten together to write any songs, so I think it's kind of something to bring up whenever he needs press. That's the only time I hear about it. I have no idea, dude.

Pitchfork: Is there anything different about the sound of Mountain Battles as compared to other Breeders albums?

KD: Well, let's see... I still don't like the ProTools thing, but I guess I'm kind of a dork. I think a lot of people like ProTools. I think a lot of people use it. You know, like, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty...everybody, Dolly Parton. When you think of authentic musicians and players, they don't fucking go on tape. They wouldn't fucking bother with it, you know?

Pitchfork: What about the songs themselves?

KD: I like the songs, actually [laughs]. I did notice this: that each song is definitely its own song. And then, when it goes into the next song, that's its own song. And then it goes into the next song, and that's its own song.

Okay now, I know-- here's the difference of that. You know when you put on a Ramones record, right? And it's the Ramones, so it's great; it doesn't really matter which song you're gonna put on, because they all sound pretty much the same anyway, right? Because it's the Ramones, and that's what they do, right? And that's what I love, but track number five is going to sound pretty close to track number eight. I might like the chorus shout-out better on track one than I do on track number eight, but right away I'll be able to tell it's the Ramones' song.

[It's] kind of the same thing about AC/DC, except that I like the Ramones better than AC/DC. But it's kind of the same thing with AC/DC. Track one is going to sound like a slow blues grunt, and track eight will probably sound like "Slow Blues Grunt II" from AC/DC. I might like track one better because I think it's got a better catch phrase than track eight, but it definitely sounds pretty much the same, right? And those are great records, and I like records like that, but we didn't make a record like that. I'm not even sure if I like that [we didn't do that], but I know that I didn't [make that kind of record]. So that's kind of weird, but I didn't do it on purpose, either!

Pitchfork: It just ended up that way.

KD: Yes, it did. And it doesn't help that Kelley sings Spanish on that song ["Regalame Esta Noche"], and then we sing German on another song ["German Studies"].

12.16.2007, 05:58 PM	#1
dazedcola the end of the ugly Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,075	"I would rather have one song that people actually like than 15 songs that they can barely stand. But that's just me." http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/im...eeders-sm.jpg? Most of the attention focused on Kim Deal in the last few years has come from her participation in the über-successful Pixies reunion. But she recently turned the spotlight to her other well-regarded, super successful indie rock band, the Breeders. After a recording hiatus of over five years, the Breeders will return with *Mountain Battles, the follow-up to 2002's Title TK, on April 7/8 (in the UK/U.S., respectively) via 4AD. We caught up with Deal to talk about the album, and she was a blast: friendly, funny, and full of anecdotes and ideas. In our conversation, she discussed her recent appearance at the "The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa" benefit, her adventures in speaking German for a Battles* song, a technological explanation for the rarity of quality songwriting in the ProTools era, and why a new Pixies album just isn't going to happen. Pitchfork: It's been five years since Title TK was released. What took Mountain Battles so long to come together? KD: Well, sometimes we weren't at the studio, we were just at the house in Ohio working on stuff. It's weird, because ProTools has done this-- like, I'm a singer/songwriter, so I could do this in my bedroom by myself, and I would have to just get the...I don't know, web designer, to come over to put the measures up, to pull the ProTools up. It really doesn't matter if anyone else is involved, so that can be quite freeing, and things can be turned around quite quickly like that, if all I'm thinking about is, "What time do I want the spacebar-pusher to come over today?" But if there's an actual band, and I own actual instruments, and actual tubes have to be replaced, and people actually have to fly in, and they have lives, and you have to go over the song-- because remember, this is tape. It's not like, "Uh...here's the idea of the chorus. We're going to use the Pretenders drums from the first record, 'cause they sound so good," you know? That's not how we do it. Jose [Medeles], the drummer, has to fly in, and we actually have to write a song from beginning to end that sounds cool. And if it doesn't sound cool at this part, it's not like we can just go, "Yeah, let's rearrange that in ProTools," you know? It's just a totally different way of thinking. I'm not the quickest, most prolific writer either. I would never pretend to be. I don't think prolific-ness is equal to quality at all. I would rather have one song that people actually like than 15 songs that they can barely stand. But that's just me. Another thing is, I think it's kind of ballsy to sit there and think that [people want to listen] if it wasn't special and we weren't trying to do something we would want to listen to. Why is this song actually here? Why is this song taking up two-and-a-half minutes of my life? Is it just because somebody doesn't have tape anymore and so the amount of recording space is unlimited? That's why I'm sitting here listening to this, because nothing stopped you from doing it, but there's not really a reason to do it? I don't know. If that was me, and I was listening to me, I would get mad, like, "Why are you fucking doing this?" It doesn't have to be great, but it seems like at least there should be kind of a reason. And it's hard to come up with a fucking good reason to write something, I think. Pitchfork: You keep hinting at one of the issues that would be at the center of making a new Pixies record, namely whether or not it's necessary. In recent interviews, you say it's not, that touring is fun but that a new record might tarnish some of the old memories. KD: [When] this whole thing started out, we were going to do a couple of shows. Joe [Santiago] said he had one kid and one was on the way, and he said, "Do you wanna do it?" And I said, "Oh God, no, Joe!" And I told everybody this, but nobody believes me. And he said, "Kim, this is really important to me. It will change my school district, where I can put my daughter into school." And I said, "Okay, of course. Of course, I will do this." I thought it was going to be a couple of shows, and it turned out really good. I had a really good time doing it. People were just so happy we were doing it. It was just so nice, like [an] "it's over, thank you, bye," kind of thing. And so there was never any-- I don't know, I think it gets talked about whenever Charles [Thompson, aka Frank Black] has any release, which is often. I have a feeling that's when he talks about it more than anything. Because him and Joe haven't gotten together to write any songs, so I think it's kind of something to bring up whenever he needs press. That's the only time I hear about it. I have no idea, dude. Pitchfork: Is there anything different about the sound of Mountain Battles as compared to other Breeders albums? KD: Well, let's see... I still don't like the ProTools thing, but I guess I'm kind of a dork. I think a lot of people like ProTools. I think a lot of people use it. You know, like, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty...everybody, Dolly Parton. When you think of authentic musicians and players, they don't fucking go on tape. They wouldn't fucking bother with it, you know? Pitchfork: What about the songs themselves? KD: I like the songs, actually [laughs]. I did notice this: that each song is definitely its own song. And then, when it goes into the next song, that's its own song. And then it goes into the next song, and that's its own song. Okay now, I know-- here's the difference of that. You know when you put on a Ramones record, right? And it's the Ramones, so it's great; it doesn't really matter which song you're gonna put on, because they all sound pretty much the same anyway, right? Because it's the Ramones, and that's what they do, right? And that's what I love, but track number five is going to sound pretty close to track number eight. I might like the chorus shout-out better on track one than I do on track number eight, but right away I'll be able to tell it's the Ramones' song. [It's] kind of the same thing about AC/DC, except that I like the Ramones better than AC/DC. But it's kind of the same thing with AC/DC. Track one is going to sound like a slow blues grunt, and track eight will probably sound like "Slow Blues Grunt II" from AC/DC. I might like track one better because I think it's got a better catch phrase than track eight, but it definitely sounds pretty much the same, right? And those are great records, and I like records like that, but we didn't make a record like that. I'm not even sure if I like that [we didn't do that], but I know that I didn't [make that kind of record]. So that's kind of weird, but I didn't do it on purpose, either! Pitchfork: It just ended up that way. KD: Yes, it did. And it doesn't help that Kelley sings Spanish on that song ["Regalame Esta Noche"], and then we sing German on another song ["German Studies"]. __________________ "I said I didnt mean to take up all your sweet time Ill give it right back one of these days If I dont meet you no more in this world then uh Ill meet ya on the next one And dont be late " -Jimi Hendrix ...And me just another dream theory, lost inside your eye "when my mind's uncertain my body decides what it will do to get through the hell of the night as I trip on the ocean that leads through your eyes well my eyes can't wait til they finally see through you"
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