Music Interview and Giveaway: A Chat With Ratatat
Monday, September 15
Stubbs (801 Red River)
$17, All Ages, Doors @ 7pm
[info] | [tickets]
We recently talked to Ratatat's Evan Mast about this fall's tour, musical influences, and film music.
You guys have played Austin often in the past few years. How do our audiences compare to some of the others you've experienced?
It's been one of our favorite spots to tour, for sure. We've had really good crowds at Emo's.
This is a bigger gig this time around - you're playing outdoors at Stubb's, which is a big change.
Yeah, we've played at Stubb's once before a long time ago, but it was in that little room inside.
What brought you to the Catskills to record your new album? It seems pretty out of the way.
It's really not - it's only a couple of hours from the city, but it's a good way to get away from distractions. When we did Classics, we were mostly recording at home and you get to spend an hour or two a day recording....then you have to get back to your life, your girlfriend, you family, or whatever else is going on. So it's hard to focus when there's so much else to think about. Getting away made it a much easier thing, because we could focus on music the whole time we were there.
When you write, obviously you're not starting with lyrics in Ratatat. What is your music writing process like?
It happens differently for each song, but when we started recording, I brought in 30 or 40 beat ideas to the studio. So quite a few songs started there - we'd just start playing over it. Some of the others have started with guitar chord progressions, but really, there's no real formula to it. It's kind of a free for all with no strict divisions.
because we could focus on music the whole time we were there.
Not really. We've gotten approached, but the right project hasn't really come along. We've licensed some songs for TV and film, but we haven't been commissioned for anything. We're not against it, but it would need to be the right project.
How's Ratatat configured for a live show? Who else is on stage with you?
Right now it's just three of us - our friend Martin is playing keyboards. We might expand that for some upcoming tours, but I'm not sure yet.
Do you have some big visuals in the live set?
The visuals are a big part of the show. We have separate videos for each of the songs that sync to the music. Some of them are meant to be background, and others are really a focal point for the song.
The new album has so many influences - do you have a current favorite genre or artist?
The favorites change a lot - we'll get really into a certain album or genre for a couple of weeks and then it flips to something else. Lately it's been a lot of African music, but I wasn't really listening to any of that when we recorded LP3. Then, I was really into some Iranian drum stuff - I don't know, it changes a lot!
Would you have any interest in producing other records?
It depends on who it is! I would never do it just as a job. I would only want to work with people who I could have a close relationship with and a similar vision.
Thanks for talking to Austinist.
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