In the last year, Austinites have had several chances to fall in love with Brooklyn's Yeasayer, as they've been touring in support of All Hour Cymbals for nearly a year. For those who have already been initiated into the band's dark world of post-apocalyptic jazz-dance Bolly-fusion (we're lost, admittedly) know that even one or two shows under your belt isn't enough. Their live performances live up to the brilliantly produced album and exceed with singer Chris Keating's Byrne-like gyrations and bassist Ira Tuton's busty bass lines. Keating took some time to talk with us last week about the future, ecstatic revelry and Bollywood. They'll be performing on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on the Dell Stage.

The spiritual and transcendent seem to be strong foundations of your musical purpose—you've even cited "communal ecstasy revelry" as a desired result of your live show. Could you discuss a bit where you're coming from with this, and how your music relates to notions of the "higher realm"?

The term "communal ecstatic revelry" is just a funny way of saying "dance party." In terms of a "higher realm" this is not something I believe in. In fact, I believe quite strongly that there is no higher realm but I do feel that very powerful music has been made throughout history by a variety of cultures that are attempting through song and dance to create a physical manifestation of the beauty and ecstasy that is supposed to greet us in the afterlife.

For anyone who's seen your energetic live show, or read your interviews, it's pretty clear that communion and togetherness are inextricable aspects of your performative approach. With this in mind, how do you reconcile your relationship with audiences with the transitory lifestyle of touring?

I don't really feel that a transitory lifestyle is necessarily opposed to an idea of communion or togetherness. We give our all every night or a tour and attempt to create a unique experience and achieve a connection with the audience. I suppose ultimately that connection, as with any band or live performer is fleeting but for a few minutes every night, if we're lucky, we create an interesting and unique experience.

Your music is obviously influenced by a wide variety of worldly sounds, but the "World Music" tag is a bit too dopey for what you do. In the past you've come up with all sorts of crazy genres for the music you make, and have also said it's just "pop music"—what classification are you most comfortable with, if you must be classified with something?

Just as long as nobody calls us "freak folk" I don't really care what our music is classified as.

You've cited Gospel and Bollywood as big-time influences for your music. Could you explain a little your relationship to these forms, and how they manifest themselves on your post-All Hour Cymbals work?

We try to keep out ears open for new sounds. We keep our ears naive but our sensibilities sophisticated so as to be able to be excited by all kinds of new sounds. We were really excited by vocal harmonies for the last record and started listening to music that utilized vocals in exciting ways that we hadn't heard in a lot of pop music. Anand had some 1970's bollywood film soundtracks that opened up a new world of rhythm and melody for us to explore. Now we are starting to pilfer whole new areas of music for our next record like techo-gospel-skiffle and acid-whorehouse. Now that's next level.

All Hour Cymbals is a bit of an apocalyptic record—do you think the outlook will be more or less "end-times" on your new album? How will it approach our collective human reality?

I would like to make a positive album. We have some love songs now but I guess my sense of end-time future depends on McCain and Palin...oh no....

Yeasayer appears to be kind of an everyman's band, from your diversity of influences to your laid-back attire—do you put consideration into this type of image, or is it purely organic? What type of guys are you "in real life"?

Is our attire laid back? I have this glittery vest I wear sometimes that would probably get me beaten up in Scranton. But in reality our image took us years to hone and countless meetings with stylists and A & R guys to perfect.

You've had quite an impact on crowds in Austin—how does it feel to be playing at ACL, where you'll have a larger audience than you've had at other venues in the city?

We love playing in Austin. It is one of the most fun cities in America. I think it will be great to play for a giant audience but honestly I think we prefer the energy of 50 people to 50,000. I like to be able to smell the audience and thats kind of hard to do when there 100 feet back behind barriers and security dudes.

Anything else you'd like to add? Any declarations or clarifications, complaints or congrats?

I hope I get to see those bats that everyone talks about. Those freaky freaky bridge bats.

Thanks for talking to Austinist, Chris

Yeasayer [MySpace] [Official]