“When I was writing those Burst Apart lyrics, I was really down on love because I could only focus on the things that disguised themselves as ‘love’ but weren't even close. I Don't Want Love was originally in my head as ‘That's Not Love’, which is, in a way, more what Burst Apart is about- we're often our own biggest obstacles to finding and appreciating love when we've got it. Love isn't love until it's reciprocal in the way we treat each other. But to wrap my head around this stuff, I felt like I had to put myself into it. It's easier to declare some definition of love or not-love as a thesis statement, but it's more challenging and important to recognize that your own understanding of it is kind of fucked up and backwards.”
Album art for 2009 'Hopsice' by The Antlers.
Songs about heartbreak have become such a cliché that ‘sad’ lyrics barely register with me anymore. With The Antlers, it’s a whole new ball game – to the point where I recommend tissues to first-time listeners. Peter says he writes constantly and tries to make his environment attuned to that need. “Most of my lyrics are a semi-fictionalization of my experiences, and I rarely know if they're transparent to the people that inspire them. I tend to use a lot of specific references that maybe only me and the inspirer would pick up on, which helps me trigger specific feelings in myself. And a lot of my lyrics are conversational, so sometimes they're my way of communicating with someone I care about when I don't know the right way to articulate it in person.
I asked Peter which albums had dramatically changed the way he viewed music and what he thought of musical piracy – his answers definitely won me over. “Most of my favourite records have done that, and I'm always looking to challenge what I think I know about music. Talk Talk's Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden taught me the importance of space. Highway 61 Revisited continues to teach me abstract narration. Kid A reminds me to call everything into question and avoid comfort zones. The Soft Bulletin has revealed itself to be incredibly meaningful to me at wildly different times in my life. Those are just a few of the big ones for me that have stood the test of time, but throughout my life, I've found inspiration in unexpected places,” he says. “I think it's inherently more important for people to hear music than buy it and I hate the idea that anybody would be priced-out of that experience. But it’s not that simple. There are so many of us depending on record sales to keep doing what we do. The idealist in me wants a total overhaul- for everyone to embrace the suddenly infinite shareable library of music on this planet and find a new way to fairly compensate the people contributing to it.” Yet to visit our fine shores, I asked Peter whether we were on their tour radar. He said he would love to come here at some point as the country looks beautiful from afar, but has no immediate plans. Bummer. For now though, it’s back to work on the next album. “We're working on something new now, but we'll be working on it awhile longer and I don't think it'll come out for a bit. We're taking time to really ‘be’ in our lives and explore them, while we've got time off touring. We're taking everything in.”