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Artist Interviews
Q&A: The Antlers
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 3 June 2010
The Antlers are an indie-rock band based in Brooklyn. They have their origins in a solo project from Peter Silberman, who initially recorded and released the album ‘In The Attic Of The Universe’ on his lonesome, before recruiting Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci and turning The Antlers into a fully-fledged band. The group subsequently recorded two EPs, ‘Cold War’ and ‘New York Hospitals’, and later released ‘Hospice’, their first album as a proper band, in 2009. We caught up with Silberman to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
When I was about six years old my father taught me to play guitar, and after that I was unable to focus on much else in my life. For better or worse, I began to direct every minute of every day toward music. I formed bands with my friends as early as nine years old and wrote songs and recorded albums in bedrooms and barns while ignoring more important things. Ultimately, I realised I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything else.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
‘Hospice’ is the result of a few unfortunate years of my life. The record is a telling of a dysfunctional relationship I was involved in, ruined by someone else’s weighty past and inability to move forward from it. That period of time unfolded in such a way that it felt as if it was a story written by someone else. I decided that the best way to deal with the way in which my life had been put off-track was to turn this story into an album.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
First I find myself writing some lyrics and thinking of some sort of vocal melody in my head, but oftentimes this never becomes attached to anything until I’ve got another piece of music I’m working with. I more or less force the lyrics and vocals into this music in a way that seems appropriate so that the vocals complement the music and the music complements the vocals. At this point I do extensive editing on myself, because I often discover that I hate my lyrics after about two weeks of living with them.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Musically, I can think of a huge number of artists that have been influential. Among them are Elliott Smith, Sigur Rós, Modeselektor, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Dirty Three, Caribou, Four Tet, The Beatles, Portishead, Pink Floyd, Neutral Milk Hotel, Cursive, and of course, Radiohead. But lyrically, I tend to gravitate more toward authors than songwriters. I think authors tend to be more fearless than songwriters, writing about ugly, complicated subjects without worrying about making people uncomfortable. Raymond Carver, Leonard Michaels, Paul Auster and James Baldwin are just a couple of these authors I consider extremely influential.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
To that person, I would most likely say that our music may not speak to you right away, and it may never become something you care about or are at all interested in. But if you give our record some time you may find that there is something about it that you feel connected to, and honestly, all we are aiming to do is feel a connection with the people who hear us and find a way to relate to people. This is the most rewarding thing about music, and something that hopefully will continue and carry on through future albums we create and release and perform.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
My ambitions for ‘Hospice’ have all been reached and surpassed to the extent that I’m unbelievably astonished and curious as to what could possibly happen next. My hope is that more and more people hear the record and that ‘Hospice’ finds a place in their heart, and that someday soon, when we record and finish a new record, after many many months of touring and readjustment to our new lives, that people hear that new record and care about it.
MORE>> www.antlersmusic.com
