In the second part of our look back at artist interviews over the pastyear, we speak to Vampire Weekend, John Steel Singers, Four Tet, The Hives, Yo! Majesty, Death Cab For Cutie, Eddy Current and Pink Floyd artist Storm Thorgerson.

The Hives - Email interviews are more often than not, horribly impersonal. Except in the case of the charismatically rich Pelle Almqvist of the Hives. Andrew Tijs was able to extract from him some of the best one liners we've had the pleasure of being the brunt of. Our favourite?

Q: Are The Hives as good as the critics say you are, or as good as The Hives say you are?

A: Well,I'd say it would be impossible for me not to agree with myself on thisone. Thusly, we are, in my humble opinion, exactly as good as we say weare. - Pelle Almqvist, December 2008

THE HIVES INTERVIEW

--

Storm Thorgerson - - Thorgerson is the artist responsible forall those iconic album coversthat you're not even sure how you know, so damn ubiquitous are they.PinkFloyd, Mars Volta, Muse, Led Zeppelin...all his. The man was exhibitingin Sydney and took time to tell Darryn King - amongst other folklorictales - what the deal is with the cover for Dark Side of The Moon:

"Unlike Wish You Were Here, or Animals,the prism is a singularity. It’s very simple. In a sense it’s verycommon. It’s an attribute of nature. It doesn’t belong to Pink Floyd orme or anybody else. I think that’s what I was trying to do: capture aquality of light that didn’t say anything too particular. It was alsobecause the late Rick – God bless him – was quite keen to have what hecalled a ‘cool graphic’… which may be the same as what Nick means whenhe calls it a logo." - Storm Thorgerson, December 2008

STORM THORGERSON INTERVIEW

--

Vampire Weekend - We struggled with bad reception in our effortto speak to Vampire Weekend bass player Chris Balo, but he was on theline long enough to discuss their meteoric rise, likeminded bands andtrying to write on the road:

"We have sketches for a bunch of songs that we've been working on insoundcheck or whenever we get the chance to. And we have two more fullyfleshed out songs that we've been playing live that will probably be onthe next album. So that's sort've where we are now. I think we mightstart recording when we get little week breaks from touring and then Ithink we kind of wrap up all this touring in November. And then we'llsit down and make the next album." - Chris Balo, Vampire Weekend, May 2008

VAMPIRE WEEKEND INTERVIEW

--

 John Steel Singers - Pete 'Peaches' Bernoth was relaxing on his porch when we spoke to him in the lead up to last year's Laneway Festival. The band were still in the hot flush of having their single 'Rainbow Kraut' on high rotation, meaning Bernoth was just hoping everyone was cool with them.

"Levity operates on a one off EP kinda deal and it's only a 6 monthcontract. They're about just giving an artist a helping hand andgetting them to the next level. Which is really amazing in this day andage with record companies not really making money. They're into it tohelp nurture up and coming bands. We've got no complaints on our end.And hopefully they don't have any on theirs (laughs). - Pete Bernoth, John Steel Singers, October 2008 

JOHN STEEL SINGERS INTERVIEW

--

Four Tet - When Pete Chambers spoke to Four Tet he focused on the man's actual music making; the what, the whys, the hows. And was intrigued to learn that while Keiren Hebden is still pushing the boundaries of electronic music, he's trying his best to stay naive:

"I wish there were so many things that Ididn’t know. I think when you make your first records, you’ve got thisnaivety. A lot of the records I love the most are people’s firstrecords. There’s this amazing naïve magic in there. And you never, everget that back. You become far too knowing about what you’re doing. Forme, there’s nothing I want to know. I want to get rid of it. I spendhours obsessing over the sounds of music, the EQ on a bassdrum, orsomething. When I was a kid I would have given that five seconds, thenmoved on to a million other things. And the usic I would have madewould probably be more interesting for all that. I miss that." - Four Tet, December 2008

FOUR TET INTERVIEW

--

Yo! Majesty - Dan Rule's interview with the outspoken Shunda K of openly gay Floridian female hip-hop group Yo! Majesty was unsurprisingly candid. Nowhere moreso than when describing her reasoning for telling the group's record company to take a hike:

"That’s what I told Domino Records. It was like ‘Look, ifyou’re not going to release me as Shunda K instead of Yo! Majesty, I’mjust going to boycott your shit’. I’m going to get me some t-shirtsthat say ‘I am never wrong’, so y’all can read it because this is myvision. Y’all supposed to be the help mates and make it happen bybringing your resources to the table. You don’t try and take over myshit like you know where it is going to go. And when y’all sit therelooking all shocked like you’re gonna have a heart-attack not knowingwhat the hell to do, and when I’m here trying to give you divineinstruction from the Lord himself, you mean to tell me that you arenever wrong and I just need to listen to you and just deal with thebullshit and take it for the pain (laughs)?! I’m on some other shit man. Nobody’s going to make me feel bad for exercising the greatness I was born with. - Shunda K, Yo! Majesty, December 2008

YO! MAJESTY INTERVIEW

--

Death Cab For Cutie - Some interviews are easy because, well, they just keep talking. Death Cab For Cutie bassist Nick Harmer filled us in on the joys of touring with Neil Young, what it's like being on Obama's iPod, and the nature of trust between a band and its fans:

"I mean I can’t say that I’ve lovedevery album by some of my favourite bands. I can’t say that I’ve lovedevery Radiohead album. But there are definitely a few records by themthat from start to finish I could listen to any day of the week - atany point - and I’m in the mood for it. And I love it, it just connectsto me. I don’t think that means that Radiohead lost their way at anypoint. Some people think ‘Oh they wen’t electronic and they should goback to more Ok Computerstuff’ or whatever. I don’t care what they do they’re fuckin Radioheadman! If they made a free-jazz record I’d go and buy it you know? It’sgonna be amazing, I just know it. They’re good musicians [so] I trustthem.." - Nick Harmer, Death Cab For Cutie, February 2009

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE INTERVIEW

--

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Prior to their win at the recent AMP Awards - and a few days before they drew 3000 people to The Melbourne Zoo on a balmy Thursday night - Eddy Current band leader and guitarist Mikey Young touched on the band's genesis, touring the world and how he's getting better at managing the band's success:

"I'm getting better at giving people reasons why we don't wantto do things. Not that I'm sitting here lying y'know, 'My mother'sill' or something. (Laughs). You just can't do everything. I also don'twant to be one of those bands that plays every festival or every weekand...you just get sick of playing and you don't want to be the band onevery bill that people get sick of." - Mikey Young, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, February 2009

EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING INTERVIEW