Spin: A very different track is “Teachers,” which has a very deep groove.
It’s very cinematic for me. “Teachers” is all about a psilocybin experience I had in the woods of Dartmoor, which is a very ancient place in Britain, very Celtic. Every year, me and some friends go out and camp next to this Iron Age fort in the woods, and we’ve been doing this for years. We have a fire, and some mushrooms. It’s a very beautiful and amazing experience. They’re always different, and one night, I went out for a walk, it was 1 o’clock in the morning, and these woods are ancient and magical. I was playing around with the chords and I suddenly was like, okay, this is what the song is. It’s about that night.
It’s very cinematic for me. “Teachers” is all about a psilocybin experience I had in the woods of Dartmoor, which is a very ancient place in Britain, very Celtic. Every year, me and some friends go out and camp next to this Iron Age fort in the woods, and we’ve been doing this for years. We have a fire, and some mushrooms. It’s a very beautiful and amazing experience. They’re always different, and one night, I went out for a walk, it was 1 o’clock in the morning, and these woods are ancient and magical. I was playing around with the chords and I suddenly was like, okay, this is what the song is. It’s about that night.
Stereogum: There's so much rhythmic action happening with “Teachers” as well, with the drums and the bass. And that song goes into “Solfeggio,” which is practically rhythmless, and it's almost like you're going from the woods to the ocean, kind of a different landscape. Was there a specific effort to mirror the diverse landscapes of nature with a diverse set of songs?
O’BRIEN: Oh, that's a good question. No, not really. There's never a conscious thing. I've found over the years that if you try and impose your will upon a piece of music, it's usually quite unsatisfactory. What I'm learning is to let go. And the joy of the whole process is the unexpected and the uncertainty. You literally feel what feels right and what doesn't feel right. It's not a mental thing, it's a completely intuitive thing. And the song guides you. I'm guided by the song. And that, for me, has been — we really stepped into that on this record.
O’BRIEN: Oh, that's a good question. No, not really. There's never a conscious thing. I've found over the years that if you try and impose your will upon a piece of music, it's usually quite unsatisfactory. What I'm learning is to let go. And the joy of the whole process is the unexpected and the uncertainty. You literally feel what feels right and what doesn't feel right. It's not a mental thing, it's a completely intuitive thing. And the song guides you. I'm guided by the song. And that, for me, has been — we really stepped into that on this record.