THE Q&A: OLIVER ACKERMANN, SONIC RUFFIAN

"Bring earplugs," a friend IM'ed me recently when I told him I was going to see the band A Place To Bury Strangers perform at the Barfly in London. "I think they might be going in a more poppy, Joy Division direction now, but they're still fu*!ing loud."

For about six years, the New York-based three-piece band has won over audiences–and driven some away–with an ample supply of volume. The New York Times credited them with "reviving the ominous, feedback-drenched drones of the 1980s", while the Washington Post described them as "the most awesome, ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you'll ever hear."

At the 2008 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, the band ended its set with a ten-minute-plus sonic meltdown that surely inflicted some hearing loss. At some point during the show I had to stuff my ears with tissue-paper from the bathroom; I could still hear them ringing afterwards. Yet I never considered leaving early.

In October the band released their second album, "Exploding Head", on Mute, a London-based label. There's been much chatter about how their sophomore effort is weaker, softer, more drab, too much like My Bloody Valentine or Jesus & Mary Chain. But others have praised the new material as "noisily cathartic and epic".

More Intelligent Life recently caught up with Oliver Ackermann, the band's lead singer and guitarist. He spoke about his aim to convey our "ambiguous textured world", his affinity for body-enveloping loudness and the "clearer" sound of their new album.

More Intelligent Life: What are the band's goals for 2010, and what are you looking forward to most?

Oliver Ackermann: I've got a lot of ideas for more songs I want to write and inspiration from the past year. It can just be so hard to really have time to work things out, and I am excited to finally have the time to do it.

MIL: When you set out to record your most recent album, what did you hope to accomplish? What were you focused on, musically?

OA: I wanted to create a huge soundscape using as few tracks as possible and focus on getting the right sounds to convey the ambiguous textured world. I pretty much let the feeling dictate what goes on in the music. I guess I could say I was focused on what was appropriate, but I always let that come to me.

MIL: Did you accomplish your goals for the record?

OA: Yes, it is the only thing I could do. The record is finished and I could not have done anything different.

MIL: I saw you perform in '08 at SXSW, and again recently at the Barfly in London. Some things felt very similar (still three people, still loud), but some things felt different (the sound of the music). How do you think your music has changed since you first started?

OA: Well, every show is quite different, and the Barfly was very different sound-wise than every other show on the entire tour. I think what interests me changes over time, even depending on the day, so we kind of work with what we feel at that time. On this tour we had an amazing sound engineer, David Levin, and we tried to create something more organic, with the sonic spectrum changing as the shows would go on. I think when we started we were also doing something a little more spacey and now it is more aggressive.

MIL: I'm curious if you can explain how you produce the volume that you do. Is it just as simple as turning up the knob, or is there more to it? Do you write your music loud, or do you experiment with ideas quietly first, and then add the volume later?

OA: I keep the amps at a pretty low volume so I can control the dynamics of the sound. The thing is I have got a lot of potential voltage that I can run into them so I can go from about one to louder than they are intended to go. Some of it is perceived volumes through frequency shift, phase and the sounds of something being overloaded. Then we also like for it to be able to get loud so that it can envelop the body. Some of the music is written loud and some is written quiet. There is really no defined method. If I come up with an idea for a song and like it I record it.

MIL: Is there music that influences the band's sound that listeners might be surprised by? For example, are you fans of Henry Mancini or Britney Spears? How do specific influences come through in your songs?

OA: Sure. Bongo Joe, Au Revoir Simone, Andrew W.K. and lots of others. I think it influences the songs by mimicking the feeling I perhaps get when listening to some of these artists. Others have influenced our live show. The non-stop energy of Andrew W.K., the building layers of Au Revoir Simone, and the minimal experimental drum dynamics of George Coleman have shaped to some degree what I write.

MIL: What are a few musicians/artists working right now that you enjoy?

OA: I really like Crystal Stilts and Reading Rainbow because of their awesome ethereal and old sound. Both bands give me that feeling I used to have when I was 16, driving around, being young, living free. I also am a huge fan of Coin Under Tongue. My friend Joe Kelly writes some of the best riffs hands down.

MIL: I've heard people say that you've gone more "pop" or "melodic" or "emo" in your newer music. What do you think about that?

OA: I think they could be right. This record definitely has a clearer sound to it than the last one. But to say that is the direction we are heading in, I am unsure. I have been writing some more popish kinds of songs and then some really heavy stuff so I guess we'll have to see what ends up happening with the direction of the band.

See the official website of A Place to Bury Strangers

~ GARY MOSKOWITZ

Picture credit: Maryanne Ventrice (via Flickr)