Introducing: Mountains

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Ok, so, I might have got this one the wrong way round. We should be Introducing bands BEFORE we feature their albums. But you can’t get it right ALL of the time. For those of you who missed out, Mountains released their debut album Choral, via Thrill Jockey, last week. It’s a fantastic album. Think of the sound Fuck Buttons might have made if they’d smoked more weed and came from the Rockies rather than Bristol.This is the sound of twinkling starlit evenings and the first braking rays of sunshine. The music operates in between these two events. There’s elements of decay and rebirth, of light and darkness, the repetitious drones of life lifted from the mundane by piercing shards of guitar.

Mountains are Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, friends since their middle school days, and sculptures of sounds. Even the cover art for Choral is like the view through a kaleidoscope. Their sound hints at listening to many different artists, from Six Organs of Admittance to the aforementioned Fuck Buttons. But there’s hope, light and optimism to this music that these other artists lack.

We caught up with Brendon and Koen to find out more about the Mountains process.

For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should.
Koen: 1 – Well I’m not really into telling people what they should do but we put a lot of care and very much enjoy making this music so hopefully that comes through in the records. 2 – Curiosity and 3 – We’d really appreciate it.

Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
Brendon: I do remember the first time I played an acoustic guitar. I was about 10 years old and staying over at a friends house. His older brother was in college and had left an acoustic guitar at home. I sat up until late in the night playing it. That was when I knew I wanted to play the guitar. Later, I went to the School of The Art Institute of Chicago for painting but after a couple of years decided to focus on sound instead.
Koen: When I was younger I wanted to be a cinematographer but I liked the immediacy of making music so ended up focusing on that instead.

Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
K: As vague and possibly pretentious as this may sound I think one of our main inspirations is the act of listening. We’re very focused on detail and we spend a lot of time with each little element that goes into a piece. Manipulating sounds in various ways and trying to stretch the temporal possibilities of various instruments via electronics is something we sincerely enjoy so that’s a continuous inspiration. Other then that, other friends work whether that’s music, drawing, video, knitting or whatever. Coming out of an art school environment I think it’s important for us to be a part of a community of people who are creating interesting things and I think that we absorb this energy to a certain extant. Of course I could say ‘records’ but there’s so many I wouldn’t know where to start.

Name your Top 5 records.
K: This would probably be an entirely different list if you asked me tomorrow but for today…
1 – Satwa – s/t
2 – Kathy and Carol – s/t
3 – Relatively Clean Rivers – s/t
4 – Folke Rabe – Wwhat?
5 – Charlemagne Palestine – Four Manifestations on Six Elements

B:
1 – Judie Sill – s/t
2 – Karen Dalton- It’s So Hard to Tell Who’s Going to Love You the Best
3 – Terry Riley – A Rainbow In Curved Air
4 – Roscoe Holcomb - An Untamed Sense Of Control
5 – Robin Williamson – Myrrh

What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
K: One of the first gigs I can remember us playing was as the apestaartje collective which at the time (around 2000) was Brendon and I plus Collin Olan and Joshua Zucker. We opened for Fennesz and Alva Noto at the now sadly defunt Tonic in NYC. It was pretty big event so in terms of audience it was certainly a success. Musically I don’t totally remember but I think we pulled it off.

What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
K: We were doing mostly studio oriented work at the time so the performance was just laptops. There wasn’t any huge critique on this from the audience/friends as it was a somewhat common thing for electronic musicians to do at the time nor do have a problem with purely laptop performances from a listeners perspective. If it sounds good that’s fine by me. But I think Brendon and I realized after doing this a few times that we would be more fun for us if we incorporated some actual instruments which is sort of how Mountains came about.

What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
K: Um, bad movies, getting stuck on the train, looking at hand made guitar pedals on the internet.

If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
B: Painting or sculpture probably.
K: Drawing, making films, perhaps tending to a garden. I very much enjoy making things in general.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
B: Just after college I waited tables at a huge restaurant in Chicago. We wore bow ties and jackets and had to wear beepers so we knew when our orders were up. The manager was always telling me I would get better tips if I would only slick my hair back.
K: I worked at an art supply store called Pearl Paint for two weeks when I first moved to NYC in 2000. It was an easy job to get but they’d just switched over to using bar codes so I pretty much spent the entire two weeks sitting in the isle putting bar codes on markers. It was a good motivation to find another job.

We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
K: Strings
Tomani Diabate – ‘Kaounding Cissko’
Dorothy Carter – ‘Visiting Song’
Jordi Savall - ‘Captaine Humes Pavin’
Suni Mcgrath – ‘Blue Domes Of Isfahan ‘
Michael Chapman – ‘Ponchatoulah’

Mountains on Myspace