GC: It's very striking.
CK: That's for him.
GC: "Icktums" [on hanDover] contains a chant, "system's overloaded," and there's a frenzied feel to the music, like things are speeding up, going out of control. Is technology liberating us more, or enslaving us more?
CK: Well, I think it's harder, like when you've got a million paintbrushes and you want to just, paint. It's like you just look at all of them and not end up really painting, but thinking about how you want to do it. So, what I don't like about always having endless choices is that in itself. You can't really settle in on what it is you're going to say until you settle on what it is you're going to limit yourself to thinking. So to me, technology has been overwhelming, it's way beyond what even Dwayne [Goettel] and I used to joke about, you know, back in the day, which is kind of funny.
When we first started using a computer to steer sequences on an Atari computer, that we joked there would one day be ability to just simply record audio into a computer. When you think about how much further it's gone. And then grasping that when it comes to composition, and then putting that all in your head and stuff, it really takes a lot of time to figure out it all, and then become comfortable again with basically being simple.
Getting your emotions out, sometimes technology can cover up all that. And that's what I learned about the giant collaboration of being in a band with too much technology, it can take away a lot of your personality, I think. I dunno, it's a fine line you have to walk. But certainly I'm impressed with the modern state of technology. But for myself though, even just the fact that I'm getting into releasing modular [material], taking it back to this pure analogue and the beginnings of the synthesizer again, I'm really impressed with the interest in people in getting back to the purist form, so there's an amazing advancement in computers and technology, but there's also been amazing advancements in the modular world.
GC: "Brownstone" on the new one is a spoken word piece that reminded me of something like "The Gift," John Cale's classic narrative with The Velvet Underground, with more technology added.
CK: Cool, thanks.
GC: Is that something you were going for with that song?
CK: It's kind of funny that you would say that, because we started working on this album in 2008, then some things were written, 2009 more things were written, then the record label started going kind of under.
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