Autumn is upon us and already there is a sense of slowing. The increasingly, albeit slowly, shortening days are filled with a crispness still, colored by a lingering taste of summer’s stunning heat. A change is coming sonically to what we crave musically and Phantogram’s “You are the Ocean,” sums so perfectly the moodiness that the seasons bring. “In the fall I get lonely/In the winter I’m still lonely/Come the knives of the springtime/In the summer, I go crazy” (“You are the Ocean” – Phantogram). 2014’s “Voices” has flooded the airwaves and traversed its way across the globe and is paramount to almost all other music released this year. Recently, we caught up with Josh Carter to talk about the birth of a song, things to remember on the road and Bill Murray’s underwater adventures.
While working on “Eyelid Movies,” Carter and bandmate Sarah Barthel would jam over a drum track, sometimes for hours, waiting on the magic to come together in the form of a song. What followed were rave reviews and a mass hysteria over their inventive and incendiary sound that propelled the band into the international spotlight. In recent years, the duo added a multi-instrumentalist and a drummer, taking their already explosive live shows to, simply put ahhh-mazing. “Voices” brought a change to that process. “Generally that’s how our first album worked. We would jam over a beat. A lot of that happened in the making of “Voices,” but it is different every time. We traded off a lot of the time. I would start working on a beat or I’d start writing a song, and if I got stuck, I’d hand it off to Sarah. It was almost like an exquisite corpse. It wasn’t a total surprise what the other person was going to come up with. It was a way of sharing in that sense. We were also thinking that we wanted more players live, so I thought about who is going to play on this record and who do we have to hire to play synths and samplers and guitar. Right now, we’re really happy with our line-up. It’s a bit more freeing to have more people on the stage balancing out the sound.”
Early in Phantogram’s career, when all of the record labels began calling, the decision to sign or remain independent was carefully weighed. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips confided in them to get their music out there to everyone, to let the world hear it. In many ways, they have followed Coyne’s philosophies on invested interest in all things concerning their music. Both Carter and Barthel are active in the design of their graphics used in music videos and album art, as well as stage design and composition in the live setting. Proving a successful tactic on all accounts, Phantogram is a model for how to do it right. “To me, it is very important. This is our project. We’re not just some band that wrote a couple of songs and got signed and got molded by some label. We’ve got a very solid vision about what we want to do sonically, musically and aesthetically. Everything goes hand in hand. Whether it is designing our light show or the way our t-shirts look, color schemes, photographs, all of these things are very important to the process of the band, especially the more we’ve grown in the band. When you’re super young, and we are still pretty young, when we were young, we didn’t have a clear vision…no, never mind, f**K that, that’s not even true. We’ve always had a vision of what we like. I’m sort of happy about that. “
The duo met in junior high, but would grow into their known selves upon returning to Greenwich, NY, in 2007. Carter had been performing with his brother in a band called, “Grand Habit.” He had begun working on methodically articulating the music he heard in his head. While sharing some of his songs with Barthel, Phantogram, then Charlie Everywhere, was born. “I began writing when I was 18. I taught myself how to play drums, guitar, and piano. I bought myself a four track tape machine. I would save up all my money for drum machines and different synthesizers and just became obsessed with recording. I would just smoke weed and make skits up with my friends or record dumb sh*t or play songs on guitar or songs on piano or make beats. I was really inspired at the time by bands like Guided by Voices and how they would write really short songs, and John Frusciante. The record that he put out when he was on heroin was so desperate sounding, cool and gritty. Another friend got me into, I remember I was tripping on mushrooms, and he turned on Quasimoto. That got me really into that super stoner vision hip hop, so I got more into making beats. Since I started making music, I’ve been influenced by everything from Outkast, The Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and The Beatles to Wu Tang Clan. I would just mess around and make whatever I felt like making on a particular day. It might be a rap song; It might be a skit; it might be a sad piano diddly…ditty (laughing). Diddly or ditty? I don’t know.”
The ethereal nature of Phantogram leaves a lot of room for head space. What we mean to say, is that the complexities of the transitions coupled with the soft transcendental compositions, blended with the tender, revealing nature of the lyrics, will most certainly pull you out of yourself and into the dream like world that they conjure. Their song “Bill Murray” fulfills all of these things remarkably. We can picture Murray as Steve Zissou in “The Life Aquatic,” piloting his submarine. Tragic and forced and out of time, desperately searching in the darkness for that elusive jaguar shark…well you get the picture. “The song had a different name. I wrote that song about ten years ago. For reference, when writing the song on set list, we would just write “Bill Murray,” because we could picture Bill Murray in some kind of lonely, sad scene in a movie, particularly “Rushmore,” where he jumps off the diving board and sits on the bottom of a swimming pool. When we were coming with names for the record, we we’re just like f**k it, let’s just keep it “Bill Murray.” (On the song’s meaning) It’s kind of a self-loathing, lonely feeling. It was such a long time ago. I guess I pictured back then, not having anybody around and it’s the holidays and you’re pressing your face against the glass of somebody’s window and peering into the house watching other people enjoy their lives while you’re stuck on the outside.”
Carter didn’t grow up in a world of music where it was a given that he would excel in the field. He works hard for everything that he has now. Despite his enigmatic showmanship and fun loving nature, he had no plans of taking his music on the road. “I didn’t have any real dreams of performing. I just wanted to make music and listen to music. What got me into it was when I started Phantogram with Sarah. Performances became such an enjoyable thing for me. I mean, then again, I did play drums in a death metal band when I was 18 to 20. That was a lot of fun because of watching people mosh. It was a way to get this aggression out which was fun for me. Generally speaking, I’ve only really enjoyed performing live shows in Phantogram.”
Any fan (or cursory Google search) will tell you about the intimacy of Phantogram’s lyrics. They are a passionate wave washing over you on a warm fall day. Though they tend to lend themselves to the sad side of things, the beat pushes the meaning into more. A typical show (which is anything but typical) will present a room full of sweaty dancers, happily moving to the motion of the moment, so perfectly captured in all of its authenticity by the band. Viscerally sharing their open wounds has led to an intimacy with their loyal legions of fans. It is a wonder, to see people moving so joyfully to a lyrical content that can be so sad. “I don’t think it’s that odd, because a lot of our music, whether it’s lyrical themed or sonic themed, it’s always been about juxtaposition. I sort of enjoy the fact that people get amped and jump around during our music, even though the lyrical content comes from a darker place. It’s like death metal and heavy metal and sh*t like that, that is pretty dark, people rock out to that. Like Nine Inch Nails, its pain driven music that’s dark and sad and isolating. It’s also like hip hop music too, especially if you listen to Kendrick Lamar’s last record, “Good Kid, Bad City,” there’s some really heavy stuff on that record, but it definitely makes you want to move.”
The last several years have been a whirlwind of tour, studio, tour, more tour, 20 minute nap, and back to tour. Phantogram has not only weathered well, they’ve come out of the storm stronger, better, more experienced and expressive artist. “I try to be thankful and count my blessings, because, it went from Sarah and I, touring the entire U.S., in a Prius, just the two of us, in front of five people, every night. And often those five people would be the other band on the bill. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re selling out these really big venues, and I am like, wow, this is so cool. It’s amazing. All this hard work has paid off. Also, there are the people that I’ve always looked up to and respect their music that I get to work with, like Big Boi and Outkast and The Flaming Lips. And, I’ve become friends with Killer Mike and EL-P recently. I’m working on creating some music for hip hop artist. All these really amazing things, that I knew eventually I would get to, have been happening and I’m very blessed.”
Phantogram is currently on an extensive tour and will be stopping in Memphis, TN on Friday, October 3rd, 2014 at Minglewood Hall. Tickets can be purchased at www.minglewoodhall.com. For all things Phantogram, including their 2014 release “Voices,” please check out www.phantogram.com.
