In Conversation With: Caribou
Dan Snaith aka Caribou is one of the most highly regarded artists working in contemporary music. He made an indelible mark with his gorgeously evocative debut album Start Breaking My Heart, the success of which he has continually built upon, culminating in the melodic masterclass of 2007’s lavish poptronia masterclass Andorra. With a full band, including two drummers, his live shows propelled the music of Caribou into an entirely different dimensionality. AU spoke to Dan before his recent Irish shows.
You’ve played in Ireland a number of times over the last few years, how have you found those experiences?
In some ways we dread touring the UK. When you think of a UK and Ireland tour you know that there are some places you’re gonna play which aren’t going to be good. Where was that place we played in the middle of Wales? Hmmm, oh Wrexham. We were just like ‘what the fuck are we even doing here?’ The respite from those kinds of shows is the performances in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Belfast. Those gigs brighten up the tour and counteract the weirder shows we end up playing in parts of England. However, one thing I really like about all our UK and Ireland shows is that after the performances people are happy to come up and talk to you, they don’t feel that there is some kind of barrier. I’m more than happy meeting people who come out to Caribou shows, finding out what they’ve thought of it and just chatting about music.
On record Caribou is generally just about you, but live it’s a whole different experience. For those unfamiliar with Caribou as a live proposition how would you describe it?
It’s much more percussive and physical. More involving and overwhelming than people will perhaps expect it to be, I think sometimes there is a notion that it will be somewhat laid back and certainly the records are more tranquil. We want to enjoy playing the shows and we make it as physically exciting as possible, making it louder and crazier by some stretch than it is on the albums.
Do you find the physicality of playing live provides a sense of release for you?
Definitely, that is the main attraction to playing live. Right from the start there needed to be two live drummers, there are so many drum parts on the records. I wanted to be one of those drummers, not only because it’s the easiest instrument to play but because I wanted to be as physically involved as possible.
You are often referred to as an electronic artist and yet it’s clear from your various albums that you don’t in any way limit yourself when it comes to the type of music you make, do you find such tags irritating or limiting in any respect?
I’m not really bothered. I only ever get irritated in the sense that it might turn somebody off listening to us if they hear us described as certain way. I understand that people want to categorise music, to be able to say that ‘this goes with this’, that’s absolutely fine. It’s a non-issue for me, I don’t ask myself ‘am I making electronic music?’ I just do whatever I feel. I tend to always be listening to so many types of music, dance music, bands, solo artists, new music, old music, whatever. I just follow my nose and make whatever is exciting.
Do you see a clear line of progression from what you were doing when say you made Start Breaking My Heart up to the more recent work? Played one after the other they seem so different.
The first few albums were kind of production albums, they were about the aesthetic of the production and how the record sounded as opposed to the composition of the songs. That’s definitely something that’s been added with the last record, it has more in it in that sense. However, I don’t think that negatively reflects on the older records. I think I’ll want to keep that compositional thing with the next record. I enjoyed it, still that could change, I don’t feel I must work that way again and, who knows, maybe I’ll get excited by some minimal drone music and decide that I want to make an album with no rhythm and no melody. If that’s what excited me then that’s what I’d do.
Andorra was emotionally a very warm album, perhaps your most purely melodic to date, is that the direction that you’ll pursue with the next record?
It’s funny because for me the thing that stood out most about the record was the composition and the writing underneath the production. Yet it seemed that what stood out most for the casual listener was that we sounded like a Sixties band. I want to maintain the songwriting aspect but maybe change the production quite significantly, I feel in a way with Andorra I’ve done that particular sound so I’d like to do something different with the aesthetic of the production.
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