Album de la Semaine : A Place To Bury Strangers - Transfixiation

A Place To Bury Strangers
Transfixiation

Interview d'a Place To Bury Strangers, par Stephanie Almazan de Culture Collide

It’s business as usual for A Place to Bury Strangers. The Brooklyn noise rockers just released their fourth album, Transfixiation, last week and are going full force into life on the road.

While the band is likely too busy to look back, we can’t help but do just that. 

For those familiar with frontman Oliver Ackermann’s other endeavor Death by Audio, the Brooklyn venue and pedal effects studio of the same name, you'll recall that last fall was somewhat uncertain. A press release went out in September that the DIY music venue would close its doors in November, followed by 75 days of goodbye shows — the final one played by APTBS. Ackermann, along with the local music scene lost a treasured venue. Band member/bassist Dion Lunadon summed it up: “The only venue I know whose shows were curated with such love. Never about the money and always about the quality music.”

In December, we met up with Oliver, Dion, and drummer Robi Gonzalez at their brand new studio to discuss what they love about Brooklyn, but we also came away with a deeper understanding of all the moving parts that make up the sum of APTBS.

A punctual Oliver met us outside a large warehouse building where he moved the pedal effects studio a few weeks ago. He was welcoming, down to earth, allowing us to poke around the small space — though new, it already felt lived in. He flipped through a stack of papers, which turned out to be shipping orders, and showed us a shelf of product [pedal effects] that he needed to get out before Christmas. “Pedals can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.” They build it in parts. "The studio usually does 200 per month, and now they’re up to 400 for December." It makes sense given the press surrounding DBA's closing.

Right away, we get the sense of Oliver’s ingenuity. “I like to work,” he says. As for his pedal business, he figured it out on his own and “had no formal training.” Now he has two business partners — one helped to streamline the business — and is no longer doing custom work officially, but has taken up a project or two for friends. Last year [2013] they got health insurance.

On what he liked about the original location: “It was great because everything [music venue, practice space, and pedal studio] was in one place.” So if he was working on something himself, he could easily walk in and see what everyone else was working on and address any problems.

Our inner fanboy and -girl comes out and we tell Oliver we think APTBS is one of the loudest bands next to Dinosaur Jr. and Swans. Oliver shares a Dino Jr. anecdote — It was one of the first shows he watched early on, and he recalls trying to talk to a friend during the opener, but it was so loud they couldn’t hear each other...And then Dino Jr. came out and they were “ten times louder!”

By this time, Dion and Robi arrive. We decide to get coffee because they say “we don’t really get to hang out.” When they're together, the focus is on the music. We head to nearby Brooklyn Roasting Co. for a coffee fix (cappuccino for Dion). The office/pedal studio and practice space are two blocks apart in Clinton Hill, and they’re still learning the area. “That’s the thing about living in New York, you don’t get to know all the neighborhoods,” laments Dion. Still, there's no place like it: "I've lived in London and Los Angeles, too. New York has been my home for the last eight years and I love this city so much. It's perfect for me. Creative and people get shit done!"

Our next stop is the practice space, a designated room in a warehouse already packed with APTBS’s instruments and equipment. Dion’s band Flowers of Evil also practice in the building, and Dion runs into a fellow band member. We tell them we caught their third show (at the Kanine Records/Culture Collide holiday party). Oliver admits he has yet to see the band perform. On future Flowers of Evil shows, Dion says, “There’s a three-day window for us to perform. We’re all in other bands.”

The coming APTBS tour (which started the day Transfixiation was released) will last about four months. Oliver says he's normally away from home "maybe seven to eight months out of the year." Their tour strategy? Map the tour out months in advance so they can get to do things that they want to do. The band suggests locations that the bookers wouldn’t otherwise think of because most times they “don’t know the distance between cities,” and the veteran band can “avoid traveling 14 hours between shows.” This way, they get to see friends.

As for how they decide on each show’s set list, they “figure out the set list ten minutes before; [it] creates a better vibe.” They tried to do same set list for three days in a row, and that didn’t work out because “you’re up there thinking about other things.” 

This is a band that keeps moving. Back in December, they (and we) were waiting to see how it would all pan out. Needless to say, they're rocking through life at full volume.

Line-Up :

Oliver Ackermann
Dion Lunadon
Robi Gonzalez

Label :

Dead Oceans

Tracklist :

01 – Supermaster
02 – Straight
03 – Love High
04 – What We Don’t See
05 – Deeper
06 – Lower Zone
07 – We’ve Come So Far
08 – Now It’s Over
09 – I’m So Clean
10 – Fill The Void
11 – I Will Die