Chad VanGaalen interview
Date: 2 July 2009
"Chad VanGaalen is unimpressed, although you wouldn't think it to look at him."
James Cartwright
Chad VanGaalen is unimpressed, although you wouldn't think it to look at him. When I catch up with him in the ICA theatre, post-soundcheck, he looks indifferent, but the vacant face and flat monotone belie an inner turmoil, 'People would just say to me, "You're a songwriter," I'd play all this different music and they'd be like "Yeah, you're songwriter."' How would he prefer to be perceived? 'I'm just like ... a stoner that makes soundscapes.' Chad VanGaalen makes his own music videos and album art, as well as pursuing an illustrious animation career, but his musical endeavours are mostly well-crafted pop songs. So what's the problem with the branding? 'I'm more obsessed with recording and composing ... free jazz and avant-garde sort of stuff. But there'd be a few songs that I'd be writing, and then my friend Ian said, "You should just collect all the songs from over the years and put them out."' And that was the first CD (2004's Infiniheart).
Since then Chad has been busy. He's released two more albums (Skelliconnection and Soft Airplane), signed to Sub Pop, animated videos both for his own songs and for fellow Canadians Holy Fuck and toured Europe, although he's cautious not to spend too much time outside of Calgary, reluctant to leave his wife and young daughter for longer than two weeks. His next record will, he hopes, set him free from the songwriter pigeonhole. VanGaalen is pursuing his instrumental work under the pseudonym Black Mold and, come August 11th his free jazz, avant-garde debut Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz will be available to his expectant fans. It's set to sound more like the electronic synthesisers of Red Hot Drops and TMNT Mask, but, in a marked step away from his previous records, there will definitely be no singing.
For such a prolific artist, both visually and musically, one has to wonder where the inspiration comes from - music, film, past experiences? Oh no. 'I don't really listen to music,' he mumbles. 'I've got a crazy Mexican bird-song record that I listen to.' Naturally. What about the visuals? 'I spent two years doing printmaking 'cause my grades weren't high enough to do drawing [but]... printmaking is definitely not cool, I love it, but it's not cool.' But his animating is cool? (A pause) 'I don't know if I'm down with it, it's like The Simpsons.'
VanGaalen is more comfortable talking about the practicalities of his old four-track than revealing anything about his motivation and inspiration. But then I was expecting as much from a man who is notorious for spending months locked up in his studio with nothing but his instruments and pens for company. On this subject he is also brief: 'I have a home studio. I have a lot of shit to do...it's not like I'm anti-social.'
I disagree.
Thankfully, once on stage Mr VanGaalen abandons his sheepish persona. He jokes with the crowd, mostly about poop, berates his fellow bandmates and shares a garbled anecdote about a friend from home; it's a lot more information than I was able to prise out of him in our interview. His music is stirring; from the heady cheer of Bare Feet On Wet Grip Tape to the paranoid surrealism of Molten Light I am never less than entertained. Regardless of his irritating introversion Chad VanGaalen is a songwriting animator/soundscaping stoner capable of delivering truly beautiful work. Now if only we could get him to talk about it.
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