You are relatively new to the music scene. I'm brand new! [laughs] You are brand new, you're not relatively, you are new. So fans coming to see you for the first time or hearing your song “Carefree” for the first time. What do you want them to take away from that? It's funny that you bring that up. So this is the 10 year anniversary of my brother's passing. I'm not kidding, like today is the day. I moved to LA a little over twoish years ago, maybe just under three, I'm not sure. I came here with this idea that I'd reform myself and retool and like reignite what I was doing. Because I had this band for a long time, and we did a lot of touring, a bunch of festivals and it just kind of became one of those arduous things, like no one could. There was no unity and we couldn't get on the same page about stuff. So I kind of just ended the project and it went through all different transformations and iterations and versions, but I came here thinking ‘oh, you know, I'm going to try and do something so different and really pop and like really go for it and try to make it.’ And then it was like, ‘no, that's not who I am at all.’ I think “Carefree” came about as a byproduct of trying to sort of fit in with what was happening in electronic music, but it ended up being this really nice ambient kind of open piece. The whole song is about my brother. It's sparse lyrics and there's not a lot being said. And one would generally probably interpret it as some kind of love song, and it sort of is, but it’s not directed in the typical fashion of ‘oh it’s about this girl I left behind and it’s a story of this person I loved so much.’ It's more about that connection that I had with my brother that was lost... not lost... but that had changed, had been manipulated by circumstances that led me to completely do that to my own circumstances. Which was come to LA and really try to do this stupid music thing. It actually challenged myself, because the thing about living in Arizona… I feel like you get to a point and it’s like people don't get that drive. It eventually fades away or something. Where as here there's so much amazing shit going on that you're like the fire is always lit under your ass. Like if it’s not, you're gonna die. It's like you're going to stop.
What were the circumstances that brought his passing about? It was a result of an overdose, unfortunately, obviously, but it was, you know... I mean... that's the thing. Where we grew up it was like what do we have to do? Oh, like stupid parties and tons of drugs and getting fucked up all the time. It wasn't like when you come here and people channel those thing into some creative output. I was talking to a friend of mine, and he was like, ‘how are you dealing with this how do you feel.’ And I was just like, ‘I don't want to make a big deal about this thing anymore.’ I just want to be creative about it, and I want to position it in a very creative fashion. And I think a lot of people are weird, ‘cause at that point, they're thinking ‘oh you're going to exploit that and turn it into…,’ but how else do you grapple with tu anything if there's not a conversation? There's not like some result of your actions towards how you feel about it. And it’s like, ‘oh yeah, I've actually sifted course from grieving about this to actually trying to do something about this.’ That's the big difference between (places). There's so much here to make something just to make something, and not try to force something like ‘Oh, I'm a musician so I got to do this thing and blah blah blah.’ There's this whole other part of existence, where it’s like I really have to push in that direction because I don't have a choice. I'm going to get this one way or the other because it completely shifted my life, and now I'm shifting along as a result. I hope that made sense. Shifting down those roads right now with Crystal Castles you can catch The Guidance out through mid-October.
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