The War On Drugs (10/08/2012)
A chat with Adam Granduciel, founding member of guitar-pedal-pulverising Americana masters, The War On Drugs, is never going to be dull. As well as possessing remarkable skills as a leading guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the Philadelphian quartet, he’s also exceptionally talented at diverting conversations onto curious, yet fascinating detours. A discussion about his band’s upcoming appearances at Harvest Festival was quickly enlivened by his excitable imagination, the sudden confession of an odd fear of monkeys and a cheeky desire to abandon his touring commitments for wild sea adventures.
“I’ve heard Harvest is one of the best festivals,” announces Granduciel, confidently. When informed that the Melbourne event takes place in the picturesque environs of Werribee Park, a short distance from the Open Range Zoo, his imagination is immediately set aflame. “Are there monkeys around?” he fervently enquires. “They’re not going to attack me, are they? I could be in the middle of a guitar solo and all of a sudden, a monkey flies at me and attacks my face. I don’t think we’ve ever played anywhere like that before.”
Their appearances at Harvest will mark the The War On Drugs’ first tour of Australia. Granduciel asserts that the occasionally shoegazing rockers are gleefully anticipating the trip. “All of us are super excited. We’ve toured America and Europe so much, but to go to Australia is a completely different experience.”
Other than performing at Harvest Festival, what does Granduciel want to do during his time on our sunny shores? “I’d like to get a car and drive out into the outback! Or maybe even rent a little motor boat or something, and cancel our appearances at the festival and just disappear on the boat for a couple of weeks,” he jokes. With Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane being the only three cities lucky enough to host the festival, he’s disappointed about missing out on the opportunity to explore the rest of the country… Well, kind of. “We’re not going to Perth, which is too bad, but I don’t know anything about Perth, so maybe it’s not too bad,” laughs the singer.
During the band’s early days, Granduciel admits he found playing music festivals difficult because he “couldn’t hear anything,” which he now attributes to that fact that he “didn’t know what [he] was doing”. Thanks to the wisdom of experience, playing festivals has become one of his favourite activities and over time, he’s grown increasingly appreciative of their music loving patrons. “They spend their hard-earned money to buy this ticket and camp for three days so they can hear these great bands. I’d be an idiot if I was going to complain about only getting to play for 45 minutes or the sound not being good. It’s really just about people coming out and enjoying themselves and the bands doing what they love.”
While rock’n’roll folklore is filled mostly with tales of what happens off the stage, for Granduciel, the most exciting part of touring life is “just playing every night.” However, travelling between events is a chore. “Riding in the van sucks. It used to be fun, but now it sucks because I’ve quite smoking. I could just sit there and smoke all day. Now, being in a van is a lot more difficult.”
“My favourite part is definitely just getting better as a band and playing every night, seeing how it goes, changing stuff around and getting new ideas,” he ruminates. While the live setting gives the band a chance to experiment with their music, Granduciel promises there’d “never be any situation where you’d be like ‘what song is this?’ I think the live thing is a little more rock’n’roll and a little more stretched out, but we don’t do a jazz version of anything - like ‘I think that was the song I like, but they did it jazz.’”
Their critically-acclaimed 2011 album, Slave Ambient, was noted for melding the distinctly folky, Americana songwriting style (similar to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan), with densely atmospheric tapestries of layered guitars (comparable to shoegaze legends, My Bloody Valentine). Granduciel credits this unique amalgamation of influences to the desire to create “a feeling, rather than a sound,” which they aim to recreate every night, rather than trying to reproduce “the exact same sound as on the record.”
“We don’t get a lot of moshpits,” he remarks on the typical The War On Drugs audience. “It’s not that it’s not energetic; it’s a different kind of energy.” Chuckling, he adds “maybe there’s some slow-dancing, here and there, and maybe some make-out sessions. It’s different for every city”
Whilst most childhood dreams of rock stardom unfortunately never actualise, Granduciel confesses it was never a specific goal of his. “I always wanted to play guitar” he states, defiantly. “I just wanted to be involved in arts to some capacity and I just got super obsessed with playing music for a long time. Then, when I finally got to writing and recording, it was kind of a game-changer for me.” However, the inspired song-crafter also had several more visually oriented aspirations. “I always wanted to be a painter, or even a printmaker. Most recently, I wanted to be a landscape architect, because I love gardening. I have a really big garden here in Philly.”
“Baseball!” he exclaims, suddenly. “I always wanted to be a professional baseball player, but I wasn’t very good. I was great fielder, but I can’t hit the ball for shit. Even now, if I went and hit against a 13 year old pitcher, I’d still strike out.”
Lara Moates
“I’ve heard Harvest is one of the best festivals,” announces Granduciel, confidently. When informed that the Melbourne event takes place in the picturesque environs of Werribee Park, a short distance from the Open Range Zoo, his imagination is immediately set aflame. “Are there monkeys around?” he fervently enquires. “They’re not going to attack me, are they? I could be in the middle of a guitar solo and all of a sudden, a monkey flies at me and attacks my face. I don’t think we’ve ever played anywhere like that before.”
Their appearances at Harvest will mark the The War On Drugs’ first tour of Australia. Granduciel asserts that the occasionally shoegazing rockers are gleefully anticipating the trip. “All of us are super excited. We’ve toured America and Europe so much, but to go to Australia is a completely different experience.”
Other than performing at Harvest Festival, what does Granduciel want to do during his time on our sunny shores? “I’d like to get a car and drive out into the outback! Or maybe even rent a little motor boat or something, and cancel our appearances at the festival and just disappear on the boat for a couple of weeks,” he jokes. With Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane being the only three cities lucky enough to host the festival, he’s disappointed about missing out on the opportunity to explore the rest of the country… Well, kind of. “We’re not going to Perth, which is too bad, but I don’t know anything about Perth, so maybe it’s not too bad,” laughs the singer.
During the band’s early days, Granduciel admits he found playing music festivals difficult because he “couldn’t hear anything,” which he now attributes to that fact that he “didn’t know what [he] was doing”. Thanks to the wisdom of experience, playing festivals has become one of his favourite activities and over time, he’s grown increasingly appreciative of their music loving patrons. “They spend their hard-earned money to buy this ticket and camp for three days so they can hear these great bands. I’d be an idiot if I was going to complain about only getting to play for 45 minutes or the sound not being good. It’s really just about people coming out and enjoying themselves and the bands doing what they love.”
While rock’n’roll folklore is filled mostly with tales of what happens off the stage, for Granduciel, the most exciting part of touring life is “just playing every night.” However, travelling between events is a chore. “Riding in the van sucks. It used to be fun, but now it sucks because I’ve quite smoking. I could just sit there and smoke all day. Now, being in a van is a lot more difficult.”
“My favourite part is definitely just getting better as a band and playing every night, seeing how it goes, changing stuff around and getting new ideas,” he ruminates. While the live setting gives the band a chance to experiment with their music, Granduciel promises there’d “never be any situation where you’d be like ‘what song is this?’ I think the live thing is a little more rock’n’roll and a little more stretched out, but we don’t do a jazz version of anything - like ‘I think that was the song I like, but they did it jazz.’”
Their critically-acclaimed 2011 album, Slave Ambient, was noted for melding the distinctly folky, Americana songwriting style (similar to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan), with densely atmospheric tapestries of layered guitars (comparable to shoegaze legends, My Bloody Valentine). Granduciel credits this unique amalgamation of influences to the desire to create “a feeling, rather than a sound,” which they aim to recreate every night, rather than trying to reproduce “the exact same sound as on the record.”
“We don’t get a lot of moshpits,” he remarks on the typical The War On Drugs audience. “It’s not that it’s not energetic; it’s a different kind of energy.” Chuckling, he adds “maybe there’s some slow-dancing, here and there, and maybe some make-out sessions. It’s different for every city”
Whilst most childhood dreams of rock stardom unfortunately never actualise, Granduciel confesses it was never a specific goal of his. “I always wanted to play guitar” he states, defiantly. “I just wanted to be involved in arts to some capacity and I just got super obsessed with playing music for a long time. Then, when I finally got to writing and recording, it was kind of a game-changer for me.” However, the inspired song-crafter also had several more visually oriented aspirations. “I always wanted to be a painter, or even a printmaker. Most recently, I wanted to be a landscape architect, because I love gardening. I have a really big garden here in Philly.”
“Baseball!” he exclaims, suddenly. “I always wanted to be a professional baseball player, but I wasn’t very good. I was great fielder, but I can’t hit the ball for shit. Even now, if I went and hit against a 13 year old pitcher, I’d still strike out.”
Lara Moates