Q&A: Matthew Dear

Last year’s Asa Breed, reissued in February with bonus tracks, sports a post-digital fusion of David Bowie and Talking Heads that avoids the kind of retro-worship common to so many hipster new wave bands these days. He’s even put together a full backing band when playing the album live. Then there’s all the other stuff, including but not limited to remixes for Hot Chip and the Chemical Brothers, forays into IDM/glitch and two more aliases: False and Jabberjaw. Rhapsody called Dear, who’s damn busy as always, to learn more about his myriad projects, as well as his roots in minimal techno and microhouse.

Rhapsody: You’re all over the musical map these days, but how did you originally get into minimal techno and microhouse?
Matthew Dear: I was making your average, run-of-the-mill techno, and about seven years ago, it was getting real monotonous. I felt like I had hit a wall creatively. The music wasn’t fun to make or to listen to. Then once I heard the German labels, Profan and Kompakt, it gave me this inspiration. Minimal and microhouse were using more abstract noise. It seemed like they put a magnifying glass over the production process, where you start worrying about every little detail, every little sound. It was just a way for me, as a producer, to keep things interesting.

Do you still find yourself obsessing over every little sound?
Not so much. There were certain sounds I obsessed over at the beginning, but they’ve become a part of my palette, you could say. But there is always a certain level of detail.

Do you see a direct thread, aesthetically, from classic Detroit techno to modern minimal?
Well, Detroit made an impact all around the world, not just in Chicago, New York and Detroit – in Europe as well. And I think European minimal does take a lot of inspiration from Detroit guys.

Looking at it from the other direction, was European minimal popular in Detroit right from the get-go?
It wasn’t huge, but it was really noticeable on the warehouse level. All the smaller parties were playing the German stuff, and folks were going off to it. I think Detroit more than most cities was always looking out for it. I’ve played New York, and it has always been second to Detroit in terms of support.

It seems as if minimal is more mainstream in Europe than here.
It is. The lifestyle is more conducive to it. Plus, club laws are a little more relaxed. Nightlife in Europe is more into electronic music as a whole.

With Leave Luck to Heaven and Asa Breed, you’ve said you wanted to create music for the home listening experience. Was that an organic idea? Or did you one day realize that was something you wanted to try?
I don’t have a system worked out before I do something. I’ve always been just an observer, musically, and my music is simply a product of my likes and dislikes. I like pop music and I like rock music, as well as electronic music. So a lot of those songs that became songs with lyrics – you know, vocal-based music – are really just my influences coming through.

And you’re intent of keeping these different interests separate, as if you have multiple personalities!
Nowadays, Audion is just for my electronic stuff, while my own name follows that pop-rock influence, where more of the songs have been flushed out – verse-chorus-verse.

What kind of non-dance music do you listen to?
Definitely Brian Eno and other minimalist composers of the past: Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich. A lot of that stuff is fun to listen to for ideas. As for pop music, it’s Talking Heads, stuff from the Remain in Light/Fear of Music era. It’s electronic music, it’s repetitive music, it’s rhythmic. You can pretty much hear a loop going on the whole time. The Talking Heads always wore their disco influences well. I think it’s all dance music to me.

Post-punk and new wave could turn people on cerebrally and make them dance at the same time. Although you have that ability, especially on Asa Breed, it feels like a lost art these days.
I agree. And it only seems like that divide has gotten bigger and bigger, even though there’s so much crossover right now in terms of technology. Rock music and dance music are using a lot of the same techniques.

What does the name “Audion” mean?
It sounded right. It looked right. [Laughs.] I typed “audio” once, but it had a typo on the end. And before I deleted it, I looked at it. It had a nice sound, I thought. But I came up with it to really just reflect the music at the time – the harder, more aggressive stuff.

Why did you feel a need to get heavier?
There wasn’t an elaborate plan. I was starting to play bigger clubs, bigger venues in Europe and here. I wanted to make more of an impact. That’s really where it came from – not spending a lot of time on the cerebral. It’s more body oriented, a little more back to basics.

Did anybody complain about Audion sounding too heavy?
I actually heard more praise than I thought I would. [Laughs.] A lot of the pop critics who liked the light stuff also liked the Audion stuff, which I originally thought was only going to be for dance floors. But I was surprised, even though I’m actually doing the same thing as the other stuff.

Are you more popular outside of the United States?
I think so. I do more shows in Europe, but I like playing both. They’re different. Europe is more the Audion thing. It’s more the techno thing, more late night, 4 a.m. sets. Whereas, in America, it’s a little more rock oriented. I do the live shows where I sing.

Folks pretty much freaked for Asa Breed, but were you nervous about singing live at first, especially since you started touring more rock venues?
Not at all. It’s a totally different experience. At a rock show, people are there to basically watch the performer. They might tap a foot or something. That was kind of weird. I wasn’t use to that. In Europe, though, they dance and go crazy. But having an artist up on stage with a microphone changes everything.