2008 Woodie Awards
Interview: Caribou
Dan Snaith is responsible for one of the best pop records of the year, and he doesn't even care about lyrics
Billy Kalb
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Diversions
When Dan Snaith released his debut People Eating Fruit EP under the name Manitoba in 2000, few listeners could have guessed the dramatic musical transformation that was to come. Over the course of his next three full-lengths, Snaith augmented his standard Boards of Canada-esque electronica with ambient noise, swirling psychedelia, thundering tribal drums and motorized krautrock grooves - and got slapped with legal threats by aging punk rocker "Handsome Dick" Manitoba over his recording name. Changing his moniker to Caribou, Snaith - with the help of peers such as Four Tet and Prefuse 73 - has since been busy redefining the face of indie rock-friendly, hip hop-influenced electronic music.
On the new Andorra, Snaith takes the Caribou sound to new worlds with blissed-out, sugar-high pop songs that bloom like Technicolor flowers and burst with infectious energy, nevertheless staying true to the inventiveness that earns him so much respect in indie circles. In anticipation of Caribou's Chicago performance next week, I spoke with Snaith about his latest album, the art of writing a love song without worrying about the words and his need for musical escapism when he's holed up in the studio for a year at a time.
Phoenix: Judging by the sound of the new album, I'd guess you've probably spent a lot of time listening to some of the poppier British invasion bands of the '60s. Andorra feels like something The Zombies might have done if they'd had access to samplers.
Dan Snaith: Yeah, I mean, The Zombies are definitely the most relevant example [of an influence] for me. The record, for me, was really for the first time about writing melodies and harmonies and countermelodies and chord sequences and arrangements and all those kinds of compositional ideas more than it was … I mean, it's always still about production for me, I guess. But in the past my records have almost exclusively been about production, whereas this time I wanted to write actual pop songs and that kind of stuff.
On the new Andorra, Snaith takes the Caribou sound to new worlds with blissed-out, sugar-high pop songs that bloom like Technicolor flowers and burst with infectious energy, nevertheless staying true to the inventiveness that earns him so much respect in indie circles. In anticipation of Caribou's Chicago performance next week, I spoke with Snaith about his latest album, the art of writing a love song without worrying about the words and his need for musical escapism when he's holed up in the studio for a year at a time.
Phoenix: Judging by the sound of the new album, I'd guess you've probably spent a lot of time listening to some of the poppier British invasion bands of the '60s. Andorra feels like something The Zombies might have done if they'd had access to samplers.
Dan Snaith: Yeah, I mean, The Zombies are definitely the most relevant example [of an influence] for me. The record, for me, was really for the first time about writing melodies and harmonies and countermelodies and chord sequences and arrangements and all those kinds of compositional ideas more than it was … I mean, it's always still about production for me, I guess. But in the past my records have almost exclusively been about production, whereas this time I wanted to write actual pop songs and that kind of stuff.
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katie
posted 8/22/08 @ 8:07 AM CST
I love him and I love his songs, see what I have found on the net, unfortunatelly the website is in french, but the video interview is in english :p http://www. (Continued…)
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