Brightest Young Things

Wild Beasts captured the hearts of indie rockers everywhere with their captivating sophomore album Two Dancers, released last year on Domino.  The hypnotic beats and coruscating guitar work cause immediate "holy shit this is good" reactions, and then when lead singer Hayden Thorpe drops in with his distinctive countertenor voice the world melts away and the beast tears your ass to shreds.  Seriously one of the best albums I've heard in a while, if you missed it, go listen to the songs below and come back.  The UK four piece will be headlining the Black Cat this Saturday in what is sure to be a memorable outing.  I caught up with Thorpe via email a few days ago during their extensive tour...

Wild Beasts
w/ Still Life Still
Sat, Feb 27, 2010, 9pm
$13 Mainstage
http://www.blackcatdc.com/

Cale: Wait, I can’t tell, are you happy or sad?

Hayden Thorpe: Wow, you don’t hang around do you? Straight for the guts. Happiness is always tinged with a suspicious sadness and my sadness always has a comforting happiness to it. I’m getting better at answering such questions without having to confront the things that I don’t want to. This is a heavy start to an interview… lets lighten it up a little.

C: No problem. Have you ever been to Washington, DC before? Going to do any site seeing?

HT: No we’ve never been to Washington DC, it’ll be a first for us and like many places we're visiting at the moment it’s a smash and grab scenario. We must arrive, take in the local delicacies, see what sights we can, get a feel for the place and ultimately conquer before leaving again in the morning. Our DC show is sandwiched between the two NYC shows so we’ll have our work cut out. Though given the chance I would run for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, I hear the place holds many wonders.

C: If you had an infinite budget what would you add to the stage show in terms of props/costumes/special effects?

HT:We would arriveon stage by horseback to be greeted by forty-fivevirgins who would bathe us in olive oil and lavender essence before an endless rain of caviar came down on the audience. No. We tend to be pretty punkish in the sense that what happens musically on stage must be the dynamo, embellishments can be cool but the best art is borne of it’s limitations.

C: Was it a conscious effort to change the sound of Two Dancers from Limbo, Panto? Which does mom like better?

HT: We definitely freed ourselves of the self-imposed shackles of the first record. You have to be forever transitory in art, we can’t really let the culture of comfort and safety to catch up with us because we’ll get bored, and as a result we would be a boring band.

Oh and my Mother fell for the first record pretty hard. Though I tend to think she was just happy to see that her son hadn’t been hanging around in basements and garages his entire teenage life for the wrong reasons.

C: Can you give us a little back story/commentary/notes on a couple tracks from either album and we’ll stream them along with the interview?

We Still Got The Taste Dancing on our Tongues
HT: A song which in my head is very much set in the medieval town we grew up in with it’s intricate maze like alleys and hiding places. Like most teenagers we had nothing to do but get drunk and frolic. We attempted to capture the energy and reckless joy that comes with that time. There is also that twinge of sadness that comes from knowing we will all have to grow up at some point soon.

The Fun Powder Plot
HT: A direct reference to the attack on The Houses of Parliament a few years back by Fathers 4 Justice, a civil rights group for Fathers who don’t have rights to their children. I thought about the power of exposure we have with a song and how we could actually affect a situation in a very small, very crude way. Some stuff that happened during this time made me sympathize with their cause. I was also endeared by what an utterly ridiculous British attempt at protest it was, these guys walked into an open parliament and flour bombed Tony Blair, do you laugh or cry at that? The song went through many re-writes until one day it just fell into our laps and we knew it was right.

C: How do you settle band arguments?

HT: A combination of bribery and brute force, how else do you settle an argument without loosing it?

C: Have you ever challenged Antony Hegarty to a karaoke duel? Who do you think would win and which song would you pick.

HT: This one I would not win. I saw him at the Sydney Opera House a few weeks back and he was devastatingly brilliant. He did a quite fitting cover of Beyonce’s Crazy In Love that I of course bootlegged for myself. Maybe he could sing the main parts and I’d do Jay-Z’s little introduction.

C: You seem like a highly potential candidate for obsessive fandom, have the weirdos started to cry at shows and stalk you yet?

HT: I tend to attract the crazies, it’s fine, and I can see where they’re coming from. I suppose the hardest thing is trying not to disappoint, I know how it feels to put so much emphasis on someone’s work only to feel let down when you scratch the surface a little. You always feel a burden in the company of stranger who you know cares greatly about what you do. Its as if you’ve been given something of theirs to look after and you must treat it with care and respect.

C: Do you ever fuck with fans after a show by talking to them all falsetto and crazy as if that’s your normal speaking voice?

HT: For a second there I thought the first nine words of that sentence made up the question. Few. Sorry I mean, phew. I’m always surprised when people are surprised that my speaking voice isn’t as prominent as my singing one. Athletes don’t sprint everywhere do they? Diplomats don’t address their kids like they do their nation. Actors probably aren’t the best example. You get my point anyway.

C: What are the secrets to keeping your voice in top shape on a long tour?

HT: I don’t smoke, that helps. I drink too much, that doesn’t. There are no real tricks, luck is essential. I tend to get tired and introverted on tour, a coping mechanism I suppose, but the upside is that I don’t blabbermouth my voice away before the show.

C: Can you tell us a little about the album cover of Two Dancers, which happened to make our 2009’s BEST Music Packaging post.

HT:Cool, I didn’t know it had made that list, I’m pleased. I was really happy with the artwork. We decided that our best tactic was to actually use an existing piece of art that we loved and could attach ourselves to. Because of the licensing costs it would haveto be a relatively unknown artist, and also what a great gift to give to a deserving person. It’s important to pass on good fortune I suppose. I’m such a Samaritan aren’t I? I stumbled upon Fiona Morley’s work in a Leeds art gallery. She creates intricate life like wire sculptures of people. Her figures always hold an unguarded position, like when you see someone in a private moment and they don’t know your looking. I liked that idea of voyeurism. In the end we took away the complex wirework leaving just the motif on canvas that had been used to back and color her sculptures. The process of stripping away to the essential elements was quite symbolic of the writing process on the record. The font was taken from David Hockney’s exhibition posters it’s simple, clean, and un-interfering.

C: Speaking of best of lists, I made a (shameless self promotion) DJ mix of all my favorite tracks of 2009 and placed The Fun Powder Plot in between Little Secrets by Passion Pit and Cable TV by Fol Chen. Do you approve of that sequencing? If you were mixing it into a DJ set where would you put it?

HT:I’m so glad we made your list but unfortunately I’m in no place to comment, I have to be solely the worst DJ on earth. The one time Chris (our drummer) and I attempted to DJ we managed to clear an entire room in one foul swoop before getting people back again. Furthermore, just as we were re-cementing our position we fucked up and left everyone in total silence for about two minuets until we figured out the fader was down. I just get it all wrong.

C: Actually that sounds awesome. What is your DJ name (make one up if you don’t have one)?

HT: I would be DJ Butterfingers.

C: Describe how your bedroom is decorated.

HT:My bedroom décor changes every night, every hotel is different, last night’s in San Francisco was true California chic, right down to the mosaiced swimming pool. I moved my stuff back to my Dad’s place recently, I said thanks, I’ll be by to get it in six months.

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Wild Beasts
w/ Still Life Still
Sat, Feb 27, 2010, 9pm
$13 Mainstage
http://www.blackcatdc.com/