It feels like people are adding Portland to their tour routes again and with the return of festivals like Project Pabst, there's been a lot of music to hear recently which is great. Speaking of which, do you have any memories of being in Portland or playing there?
Rosenstock: Yeah, I love Portland. I think a lot about the Taxpayers, who are from Portland. My old band, Bomb the Music Industry, played with them a lot at a coffee shop called Backspace. We were always there and did shows there that were fun for all ages. I've been to a few house shows there, and I went to my first camping trip just outside of Portland. Yeah, it's just a beautiful city.
And the people here are always really nice and friendly and cool. The shows have always been really great.
The city sometimes has a reputation for being a little standoffish or having a less than enthusiastic crowd, usually with folded arms and nodding at best.
Rosenstock: Well… a band can’t be boring if they don’t want their audience to fold their arms and nod along.
[Laughs] it's true!
Rosenstock: Whenever I see people getting bored while I'm performing, I'm like, “Okay, okay, that's my fault. I have to try harder.” [Laughs].
Last time we interviewed Dan Ozzi you said that you always loved working on music. Are you still working on music?
Rosenstock: Yeah, I'm working on a bunch of different things. I mean, I'm trying to put songs together that make sense. Right now I feel like they don't necessarily make sense together. So I'm just trying to figure out if it's going to work, if it's going to work. It's still in the very early stages of putting things together. I guess I'm in the stage where I've been gathering ideas and songs for a few years now since recording. HelmodeRight now I'm just dumping them in demo form to see how they sound and how they sit together, but they're really all over the place. So it's either going to be really cool to have them all over the place or I need to fix them. [Laughs] And please try not to let that happen.
Do you sort of lay everything out on the table and keep moving the pieces around until it fits, like solving a puzzle without looking, or is there usually one or two songs that are key to the rest of the album?
Rosenstock: Hmm… I think it's all of them. Maybe both. When I start working on a bunch of songs or an album, I try to work in order. I mean, I have a bunch of demos, and when I listen back to them, I try to listen back to them in the order that I think will work. I feel like that way it's easier to know what to do with the other songs… it saves me a lot of decision-making. [just] I think when it comes to making big decisions, having one or two songs that are the core of the album helps guide you, I don't know if you would necessarily think of it that way, but I think if you have those songs that help you not feel like you're sitting at a blank canvas every day, it gives you a little bit more freedom to go a little bit crazier.
Yeah.
Rosenstock: That's where I am at now. [Laughs]
We talked about writing. Helmode It was a bit of a different process than your other albums. Is there anything different about your songwriting process now, or is there something unique about the way it's progressing?
Rosenstock:: It's different in that I'm doing it at home. The last few records are ones I've been out on. post- and No dreamsI went to a friend's double-wide trailer in the Catskill Mountains, Helmode I went out to an Airbnb in the Joshua Tree area to be totally alone and totally isolated, and I don't know if that will work this time around, so I think being home will feel a little different.
I don't know if this is different, but part of me is always trying to figure out how to get some silence in there and make the record interesting. And that's certainly something I'm thinking about with this album. [new] One is because I feel like the two influences and two vibes that I'm incorporating are maybe different or new. I listen to a lot of metal, but I listened to Dear Nora. Three States We did a lot of triple LP box sets, especially the first part, so we didn't write songs on an 8-track tape recorder and then go to the computer and start demoing and writing songs and seeing what happens.
[I’m] I try to have more drums on the demos, I don't know how that will affect the band songs, but I try to mix it in a bit at a time so I'm not stuck in the process of starting out knowing what I'm doing. Craig of the Creek ending [and] It was totally different because it came directly from the music in the film.
1: Now I am [those skills] If you want to have an orchestra in your pocket, you can, you know how, you've done it. But working long hours in front of a computer and then the new CEO firing you is a no-brainer. Craig of the Creek Even though our show was successful and did well, I think the computer trauma affected me to some extent and prevented me from working on the show itself, which I've been staring at for the last year and a half, which is very sad.
Naturally, doing something like that will result in a little bit of computer trauma.You've said that you enjoyed the job because it allowed you to develop skills like orchestral arranging, but do you see yourself composing music in the future?
Rosenstock: Yes, I'd love to. I'd love to. If someone asked me again, I'd probably do it.
It's that simple. I absolutely loved my job. Craigand I'd love to do it again. I feel like I could. I feel like I'm doing it in a weird way that other people don't do, and if anyone wants that weird way, I'm here for them. But at the same time, I don't feel like I could do it again. That's kind of why I approached it. Craig Like I did, especially in movies, it was like, “Okay, this might be your only movie score, so here goes, a fucking drum ensemble: here goes, a full orchestra: here goes, some sick metal riffs and blast beats: here goes, let's see if some fucking piercing soul-glo sings something, I don't care, here goes, good luck, let's call Ginger, I don't care.”
With this film score, I tried to do everything I wanted to do with film scores, because I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to do it again, so I was like, who cares, let's just go all out.
You've said that your new music is metal-influenced and incorporates metal elements. Craig Soundtrack. What metal do you listen to?
Rosenstock: Well, I've been thinking a bit about death.
That's a great band.
Rosenstock: Death is so amazing. I always listened to early Sepultura. Chaos AD and rootsBut I didn't hear much Under the corpseNow I'm like, “I'm just gonna have to get into Godzilla because that goddamn Olympic performance is the craziest thing I've ever seen.”
That's really crazy.
Rosenstock: It's really cool. I saw a review the other day and listened to a band called “200 Stab Wounds” and I thought, “Oh, what an interesting band name,” and then I listened to it and I thought, “Oh, this is cool.” That's how it felt.
I was doing a lot of Megadeth and Anthrax while I was making the show. A lot of metal for Kelsey, a lot of Megadeth. I did a lot of Iron Maiden/Megadeth twin guitar leads for one of the characters on the show.
I'm originally from Florida,
Rosenstock: OK, you're metal.
If you ask me what the best metal is on the planet, I'd say Death, Obituary and Morbid Angel, not European bands.
Rosenstock: Yeah.
That's probably not true, but in my mind it is.
Rosenstock: No, I don't think Florida ever gets credit for producing death metal, maybe, but it still doesn't get much love for it.
Yes! I feel like Death has become a band that kids are talking about now.
Rosenstock: Everybody loves Death these days! I didn't realize it until I started listening to it more, and then I noticed, oh my God, everybody's wearing Death t-shirts everywhere.