What do you know about MSTRKRFT? Wrong! The guys in MSTRKRFT lie in interviews all the time. Al-P told us about the lies he makes up to entertain himself during other, boring interviews. (They’re not named after Kraft slices? Revelations!) Listen as the dude in the duo who isn’t the guy in Death From Above 1979 overfills your ears with his yummy ear candy. Mmm.
Read their lies after the jump, then check out their last video if you so like. Their website features our favorite taco stand on Vine in Hollywood.
What’s up, Al-P?
Um, just basically trying to build the new studio in the midst of being on tour constantly. It’s literally a half-block away from our old location, which doesn’t make it any easier. You still have to pack everything up and move it in a vehicle. Which is kind of funny, since you can see it from the old place.
What are you doing up so early?
At 3 pm?
Oh wait, you’re in Toronto, huh? Wait, how late is an average night for you?
It varies. You know, sometimes we’ll work all night ‘cause we won’t get home till 4, then we’ll have to catch a flight at 8. So it varies.
What is it that makes Canadians so cool? Is it all the loonies?
I think it might be the weather. It’s always cool.
Oof… Do you still suffer through Canadian winters, or do you try to go on tour then?
Actually the winter is probably the time when we’re home the most. It’s like Christmas and stuff, and then January is usually slow. It’s a terrible month to be home.
You must be a masochist.
Yeah, maybe.
So give me the obligatory story of how you guys met.
Can you hold on one second? I’m doing some shopping for my sister’s wedding.
Multitasking?
Yeah, I know. I was booking a golf game right before you called. I was like, “What the hell is this call about now?”
So you’re moving studios, booking a golf game, shopping and doing an interview?
Yeah, but I just left the shop. But how we met was… So many times I’ve told this story.
Make something up. Throw in a cape and sword and set it in medieval times.
Well, we have a bunch of different lies that we turn to normally. Like, one is that we were both DJs on a Carnival cruise ship, playing in two different clubs. And we kept seeing each other going to the two different clubs with the DJ bags. We were always wondering what the other guy was playing, and then we realized we were playing the same thing, so we decided to try to make a track or two together.
Carnival wouldn’t fire you for playing the same music in both clubs?
I don’t know. Maybe.
Maybe Princess would do that.
Yeah.
So how did it really go down?
I was recording Jesse’s groups, engineering and producing his punk bands and stuff. That’s how we met. Then I left Canada for a while and when I came back he had Death From Above going. I came back into town just in time to start recording their albums, and then we… Sorry, I just saw a puppy.
That’s fine. So is MSTRKRFT in some way a dedication to Kraftwerk?
That was more of a retroactive identification. We couldn’t spell it with a C because there’s a corporation in Canada called Mastercraft. So we went with a K and we were like, “Hey, it’s perfect, it’s like Kraftwerk!” You justify things after the fact, even though it could’ve been either way. But we did notice that and pat ourselves on the back after the fact, like “Perfect. Let’s make some music.”
So what are you listening to right now?
I’m listening to… Um, I actually pulled out some old Thrill Jockey records last night. I was listening to Tortoise’s TNT on Thrill Jockey, which I think came out in like ’99? When it came out I remember everybody being kind of disgusted with it, in a way. It covers a lot of ground, musically. It’s not really a fixed genre record, ‘cause it had a lot of other players from the Thrill camp coming in and out on that, like they did with all their records. I think it was the biggest departure from whatever you could consider a Tortoise sound, because there’s like some westerny sounding music on it, some full-on electronic, some ambient stuff, some indie rock instrumentation-style stuff. It was all recorded really well, like it didn’t sound like an indie record at all. I remember when it came out it had really mixed reactions. But I was listening to that. It’s a great album. But the last real study I did was Lenny Breau, who was a guitarist from Toronto in the 60s. He was excellent. His technique was amazing. Like a lot of geniuses, he ended up dying under mysterious circumstances after a long drug addiction. It’s sad because not a lot of people talk about Lenny Breau, but he’s really one of the greatest guitar players ever. I feel funny championing him like that, because I’ve never been one to be into players so much, like, “Oh, man, listen to that solo!”
You collaborate with just about every type of artist. How do you pick your projects?
It’s never been one factor. It’ll be like an offer, or someone will express interest, and then the timing’s right and the money’s okay. There’s been a lot of stuff that’s fallen through that I wish we could’ve done. But the one thing about us is that we’ve somehow gained a reputation for having a miraculous turnaround time, because we didn’t know any better when we started. People would ask us for a remix, and we’d be, “When do you need it?” “Today.” We’d be like, “Well, how about in two days?” And they’d say, “I guess that’s okay…” Then we’d do it in two days, and then we’d be like, “Wow, that was a close one.”
You were being abused.
Yeah. We seem to always get these ridiculous requests. Someone will ask us for a remix while we’re on tour, and then management and record labels will be like, “Well, you guys are on tour now, but aren’t you going home for two days? Can’t you do it then?” We can, I guess. It’s only been recently that we’ve started to be a little stricter with our requirements, and what we need to be able to put 100% into a remix. But we still get those unreasonable requests.
What was the song that really brought you guys out of the shadows?
I think “Easy Love,” just because it has a great pop appeal but it’s still dangerous sounding enough to be played in a club. And the video for that song got us a lot of attention. It’s pretty much a pop song hidden with electro production. I guess I’ll take that one.
Would you describe MSTRKRFT as a group, band, DJs… What do you call what you do?
I always like to say that we’re a production group. Now whether we’re producing our own music, other people’s music, producing remixes or great DJ sets at nightclubs around the world, you can take your pick. But I always shy away from the perception that we’re artists, because I never wanted to be an artist. I think being an artist is a pain in the ass. You have a responsibility to stand behind what you do as an artist. But what if I just want to fool around and make some hot beats? I’ve always come from the background of being able to put things together well. I have a knack for making something out of nothing, kind of. The body of work should speak for itself, so that I don’t have to explain something.
That’s like writing about music.
What did Frank Zappa say? “Writing about music is like dancing to architecture” or something like that.
Touché, mon ami.
Tags: Al-P, Electro, Interview, Lenny Breau, MSTRKRFT, Music
