Your New Favourite Band: Baths interview

“I’m sorry that I’m far too lazy to type,” a knackered-sounding Will Wiesenfeld told Ragged Words last week, answering a few emailed questions by MP3. Given Will, AKA Baths, recently released the "end-of-year list troubling” Cerulean, it was more than a pleasure to transcribe his replies.

Having recorded quite a lot of material as Post-Foetus, what made you start working under the moniker of Baths? Is there a big difference between the two as far as you're concerned?

I think that with Post-Foetus, a lot of that material was premeditated and I would take a lot of time to consider the ideas before I started recording whereas with Baths, I think the whole idea going into it was that I’d just do whatever I want. Siit down and record immediately and not think too hard about the material I’m working on. Just a very easy flow I guess.

If Post-Foetus records first started coming out six years ago and you're 21, then you've clearly been making music since a very young age (I think I was still into Britpop at the same age...) So at what age did you start recording stuff at and begin getting it out there?

I must have started actually recording music at aged 14, I wasn’t necessarily getting it out there from that early on - I was just recording - but when I was 15 or 16, I started giving my music to friends and burning CDs, like 50 or 100 copies of things that I would finish. And it was at the beginning of this year that I had that first official release.

There's a great mix of beats and real heart and emotion on the album - as songs like 'Departure' and indeed 'Heart' demonstrate. Did your classical training, learning to play instruments before sequencers mean you've always written that kind of a mix?

Yes. I think the classical training has been the most important part of this whole thing because I don’t think of myself as a beatmaker or anything like that. I write songs, I come from a songwriting background and all that instrumentation and spinal memory that I have for playing instruments, it’s made it more interesting I think. I’ve always needed the sound of real instruments in my music. Playing real instruments is important and I’m always trying to brush up on those skills.

Pitchfork dubbed you the "pop voice that the L.A. beathead scene never realized it needed!" Is that a title you could get used to?!? It'd look pretty good on a business card!

(Laughs) I think it’s very cool. With the pop sensibility I have in my music, I don’t want to immediately get locked into the beat scene in Los Angeles because I think that - especially with the next album I’m working on - I’m trying to reach outside of that. I think that’s how it is with a lot of Los Angeles musicians, especially electronic musicians. If you make electronic music and you live in Los Angeles, then people want to put you in the beathead thing but Flying Lotus’ new album is such a far-reaching record and goes so far beyond just being part of LA. It’s very cool and flattering but I want to try and reach further than that hopefully.

That L.A. beathead scene boasts a really impressive cast with the likes of Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer and Daedalus. Are they pretty inspiring guys to share bills with?

Yes, very much so! Very, very much so. I still have moments of celebrity shock or whatever. I don’t know, it’s just like I never really totally get used to it. It’s always very cool and it’s very cool to be able to tell people that. And their sets are so well crafted now. They’ve been doing it for so long that they really know what they’re doing and it’s always fun to watch

With likeminded labelmates like Fog, Why? and a host of others, Anticon seems like a pretty good fit for you. How did that relationship begin?

My manager is good friends with Shaun who runs Anticon - he had heard my stuff a while back and he really wasn’t into it so it’s not because they were friends or anything. Initially, like I say, he didn’t like my music but he heard this newest album and really got into it, and more of my stuff so that’s how that happened. I became friends with Shaun first and through him got to meet other people on Anticon. Everybody I’ve met so far, Jel, Doseone, Dosh, they’ve all been... the Tobacco guys, they’ve all... Son Lux (laughs), they’ve all been wonderful, so nice and so supportive and it’s really thrilling that I’m part of that family.

You're touring pretty much non-stop from now until October. Any bill, venue or city you're particularly looking forward to?

Of course I’m looking forward to the whole thing. I know stops like New York and Chicago are going to be really exciting but for some reason I’m really looking forward to Montana! I don’t know, for some reason I have this image of Montana built up in my head as being the most picturesque place in the United States. I’ve never been there and it just seems very exciting and thrilling to me. It’s in the middle of tonnes of woods and it’s cold. It sounds very much like my type of place!

And finally, who are your new favourite bands?

I’ve been listening a lot to Darwin Deez, spelt Deez, like Deez Nuts. He released a self-titled record this year and it’s the most amazing piece of pop music. It’s so good and the production is what’s so good about it - it’s so minimal, it’s just like drums and guitar and the basslines in it just match the guitar parts. Within those few things, it’s so melodic and complicated and pretty and intricate. It’s such a fun listen all the way through.

Cerulean is out now. Be sure to catch Baths' debut UK shows in November too.