Interview: Cate Le Bon – Deerhunter & Furniture Maker
Welsh musician Cate Le Bon will return to New Zealand this month for a 5-date tour.
Its been a busy time for Le Bon. She’s just finished a sold-out solo tour of the UK after co-producing the highly-acclaimed new album by Deerhunter. And she has a new album of her own, recorded and ready to release in May.
Fortunately Cate had time to talk to The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda ahead of her upcoming trip down under. Listen in as they discuss her production duties for Deerhunter and what to expect from that new album.
Or, read a transcription of the interview here:
MD: You’ve just come off of a solo tour in the UK, is that right?
CL: Correct.
MD: And how did that go?
CL: It was amazing actually, I kind of was hoping to pop my head around the door and do a little solo piano tour before for touring what would be the new record in May, most of the shows sold out and the reception was really warm and friendly, because I was pretty terrified. I was a little bit surprised that all the people coming out in January because I don’t know what it’s like in New Zealand but people are pretty miserable in January over here.
MD: It’s sunny and warm here, it’s summer time.
CL: Oh, there you go.
MD: I was hoping to initially talk to you about some of the work you did with Deerhunter, is that alright? I’m just curious how you got involved with the co-production of their recent album, how that all came about.
CL: I guess I’ve known Bradford (Cox, Deerhunter front man) for maybe 5 years now, and he reached out to me after I released Mug Museum. He was very complimentary and sweet about the record. We stayed in touch and when I played in Atlanta we stayed in his house. He’s a very sweet and loving man. I guess it was just, we’ve been in touch back and forth since then. just really long phone conversations because he loves to talk, and then we were planning on doing this collaboration in Marfa for the Marfa Myths Artist Residency Collaboration and I asked him to come and work with me on that and then he kind of loved this idea of different projects influencing other projects and having a communal feel to everything and so asked me to come on board and produce the Deerhunter record which, of course, was a real honour to be asked, I think we’re both quite like-minded when it comes to music and making music, so it was mostly harmonious.
MD: The role of producer is a fluid one, it means different things to different people.
CL: Yeah, absolutely.
MD: So I was wondering how, you co-produced it with several other people in the band, so what was your role in the production of the record?
CL: I guess like you say it’s such a nebulous job and it changes 10 times a day, and so off the bat it was the pro-production in Marfa trying to get a feel for the songs and get them to play with each other and play the new songs, and then taking them into the studio and then trying to capture what the essence of the band was. There’s something really magical that happens when that band all play together and Bradford is like the battery pack, when he’s in a room with them they all come alive as the magic happens. It’s incredible really. So I guess it takes a while to pinpoint what the real magical moments are within a band. I’ve only produced solo artists before this so it was a real learning curve in that respect, how the different variations of people, formations of people and what you would get out of different people working together. It was a couple of sessions and then we didn’t quite finish in LA so the band finished it off in Atlanta with Ben Etter who we’ve worked with before, he’s incredible.
MD: So the sessions you were involved in were mostly done in LA?
CL: We started in Marfa, we went to a studio called Sonic Ranch in West Texas just below El Paso and then we reconvened again in LA. It just wasn’t enough time to get it all done.
MD: How did you find West Texas?
CL: To be honest I didn’t really leave the compound. We were on a, Sonic Ranch is on this huge pecan farm which is just unbelievable, it’s so beautiful and we were being given fresh bags of pecans which taste like nothing I’ve tasted before, it was pretty amazing. But I was horribly allergic to the pecan juice, I think they were flowering or something at the time we were there, so I was running from one end of the compound to the other and didn’t really see much outside the compound.
MD: Oh dear. I was thinking that it seems like a lot of people talk about film directors and a lack of female film directors in the film industry but I maybe wrong, it’s even a less common thing for a female to be hired as a producer on a project like that. It just seemed surprising to me but I thought about it and I’m trying to think of other examples, and i was coming up blank. Do you find that that’s the case?
CL: I mean it’s the case in most industries, isn’t it? I’m trying to think, there’s an incredible producer, Marta Salogni, she’s remarkable. And then Mica from Mica and the Shapes, I’m trying to think of her second name, I’m terrible at names. So yeah, there are a few. There are some incredible producers but obviously it’s saturated by males.
MD: Right. Now you’ve got your own album that is due out in April, is that right?
CL: In May.
MD: What can you tell me about it?
CL: It was recorded in Stinson Beach in LA and Joshua Tree, and it was written when I was living by myself in the Lake District and I was attending a furniture school. So there’s a lot of solitude, I was learning a new discipline, living in a really secluded place by myself, all those things kind of fed into each other and influenced the record. It seems to be a lot more intimate than previous records.
MD: And are you working with the same musicians and production team that you’ve worked with before or are you changing things up?
CL: Not in the same formation. I’ve been a lot more involved on the production side and Samur, who’s engineered a lot of records has also stepped up to assist with production, Josiah, he produced the first session of the album, and then Noah mixed it and Stella Mozgawa played drums on it, she’s always a real joy to work with. It’s been a lot of the same people, but the process has been completely different, people’s jobs have been shifted a little bit.
MD: Kind of like musical chairs!
CL: A little bit like that, yeah!
MD: And of course you’re going to be here in New Zealand shortly, do you plan on playing any of those songs? What have we got in store?
CL: Yeah it’s going to be some old, some new songs, some covers of songs that I really love and have influenced me. The shows in UK were…although they were terrifying… really nice and intimate and very warm feeling. They were really special evenings, some of the favourite shows I’ve played.
MD: These shows in New Zealand are with John Thomas, is that right?
CL: Yep, he’s coming to add a little bit of organ line here and there just to give it a little lift, you know? A little bit of punctuation.
MD: You’ve played in New Zealand before, in the tuning fork and The Golden Dawn, a couple years ago.
CL: Yeah that was 2 years ago? Maybe more.
MD: It was 2016, so…
CL: Ugh. Oh my god.
MD: That’s an interesting reaction!
CL: I just… I think my stock answer to everything is ‘oh! that was about 2 years ago’, but no it was 5 years ago or… I think I have a terrible concept of time.
MD: And how would you say, what have you gone through since the time you were last here as far as your music?
CL: As far as music?
MD: Well yeah, I mean your personal business is none of my business, I’m afraid.
CL: It’s been… that was kind of close to the end of touring Crab Day, probably? So I think I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to take a break and kind of re-prioritise things and remember that music was a hobby before it becoming a living and I think that there is this idea that as soon as you’re finished touring a record you’re already being asked about booking your next one and I just think I needed to break the chains of that so that I could fully understand and remember and interact with why I wanted to make music and perform music. So I signed up to this furniture school that I’ve been wanting to go to for a long time.
MD: What exactly is a furniture school?
CL: It’s this small school in the Lake District. I think they take in between 8 to 12 students per year and you learn to, it’s like a master craftsmanship, working with solid wood, doing all the joints, there’s no nails involved. So yeah it’s…patience is a must and it’s something I’ve never really had before. It was kind of a really idyllic existence, doing that in the day time and consuming music in a different way, I would wake up and listen to David Bowie every morning just to…
MD: Oh that’s always a good way to start the day.
CL: I mean yeah, but I’ve kind of forgotten to do that while I was touring and playing music every day, you know. Listening to Sikh music in the workshop with a different head on me and then going home and writing on a piano or just listening to music again and, and so it kind of readjusted my relationship with it which is always a good thing, isn’t it, to just kind of check-in on yourself.
MD: I assume that the name of the new album is something like more songs about tables and chairs, something like that?
CL: Well yeah, there you go.
MD: Do you have a title for the new album yet?
CL: I almost have a title, yeah.
MD: It’s still a work in progress.
CL: Yeah.
MD: How do you feel about the process of just making music these days? A lot of people are not as motivated because of the whole financial climate of streaming and all that stuff. Does that affect your attitude towards putting out new music?
CL: It’s a tricky one. I’m currently laboring over track listing for the record, and one friend said it doesn’t matter because people aren’t going to listen to it as an album as you intend them to. But you know for my own sake it really helps the character of the album and how if flows, the track listing and there will be people who that’s important to and you could get very angry and despondent if you really went down that rabbit hole. But every industry is forever changing, isn’t it? And I still want to make music and it’s a choice isn’t it, no one is forcing you to do it.
MD: For what it’s worth, I listen to albums from beginning to end anyway. It’s a habit! I can’t stop. Alrighty, thank you very much for talking the time to talk to me, I really appreciate it, you’re playing at the Whammy bar here in Auckland, so that will be fun. We’ll see you when you get down here.
CL: It sounds like a fun place.
MD: Yep, it is! Quite intimate and small too, so it will be good.
CL: Lovely.
Cate Le Bon NZ Tour Dates:
Tuesday 19th February – Fifty Gorillas, Dunedin w/ Death and the Maiden*
Wednesday 20th February, Grainstore Gallery, Oamaru*
Thursday 21st February – Blue Smoke, Christchurch w/ Pickle Darling*
Friday 22nd February – Meow, Wellington w/ Dawn Diver
Saturday 23rd February – Whammy Bar, Auckland w/ Purple Pilgrims*
Tickets available HERE via UTR*
