!earshot Top 200 of 2021

An Interview With Of Montreal

2 of 3 <Back | Next>

!Bryndis: To me, your music has a really great pessimistic-optimistic feeling to it. You celebrate the notion of love wildly, but you retain the ability to be a realist about love as well. My friend and I have been having conversations lately about love. She seems to think it can't last because we are biologically incapable of monogamy. I disagree. I'm like that Blur lyric, �I'm a professional cynic but my heart's not in it�. Where do you stand on that?

Kevin: Well, I think it's all a matter of fate in a way. I'm not a fatalist at heart, but I think that to some degree it's sort of true that if you just happen to luck out and the chemistry is so good between you and another person, that it's definitely possible to stay happy with someone. And also I think that because we're always searching for someone we often settle because we get caught up in the moment and get excited about someone that might not necessarily be the ideal match for you. So, that's why a lot of relationships just kind of end after a couple years, or months, or whatever. I definitely believe in true love, I definitely believe that you can be with someone that you can stay with your whole life. Lot 's of people do it, and they're happy, they're not just codependent or whatever.

!Bryndis: Exactly. Actually, I just read that you recently did get married.

Kevin: Mmhmm.

!Bryndis: That's excellent. I'm curious if you did the best indie rock boy thing ever and make a mix tape/cd for your wife when you were wooing her?

Kevin: Oh yeah definitely.

!Bryndis: Did you! What was on it?

Kevin: Um, there was a whole bunch of stuff like, I put a Robert Wyatt song on. I was trying to think of things that she might not know of, so Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and some Kinks�the more obscure Kinks stuff.

!Bryndis: I want to talk about your album artwork. It is always so beautifully illustrated, and I know that has a lot to do with your brother David. I actually commissioned him to do a painting for my brother and his wife when they got married.

(!Bryndis: You can get David Barnes to do a portrait for you by checking out the details at his website, www.thebeewithwheels.com)

Kevin: Oh sweet!

!Bryndis: Yeah, and it was wonderful, it was their favourite gift ever. So I'm curious if you commission him to do the art, or is it something that he enjoys to do, and do you think that makes him part of the band, because he has done the majority of Of Montreal's art?

Kevin: Yeah, sometimes, I think we've paid him a couple times, but normally it's like, �hey Dave, will you do this for me?� and he says, �yeah.� It's also a special thing for him to be involved, and it's a special thing for me to have him involved. So it just feels like we're doing something that's really rewarding. So I don't think he expects a big payment and that it's just fine.

Of Montreal!Bryndis: Your albums are very story-like, have you ever considered doing a children's book with your brother.

Kevin: Yeah, we've definitely talked about it, and he's actually working on one, and it seems like it'd be really really cool. It's so hard because it's so competitive and a lot of people want to do it. And so it's all about having an �in� in some way. So, we actually know this person that I think actually does that, she works at this publishing company that publishes children's books. Yeah, David's been sending her stuff, so hopefully that pans out.

!Bryndis: That would be excellent. Even if you two did some illustrated adult fiction in the realm of Roald Dahl.

Kevin: Yeah, I love Dahl.

!Bryndis: I do too.

Kevin: Actually, it's funny that you mention him cause he was a pretty big influence on me.

!Bryndis: I just love his adult fiction, and I think you and your brother could produce something like that.

Kevin: Yeah I love it too; I've read it all.

!Bryndis: Yeah, it's good stuff. You did a bonus EP of covers, do you think you'd ever do a whole album of covers, or put together a compilation of music the way bands like Flaming Lips and Grandaddy have?

Kevin: You mean that mix tape thing?

!Bryndis: Yeah, is that something that interests you?

2 of 3 <Back | Next>