| INTERVIEW: ELVIS DEPRESSEDLY |
ELVIS DEPRESSEDLY | ROBOTO PROJECT (HTTP://SARAHAILYY.TUMBLR.COM/)
Elvis Depressedly, a lo-fi indie band coming out of South/North Carolina, is just one of those bands that engulfs your whole being and haunts every long drive or train ride you’ll ever take. It’s not a bad haunting in any way, the music and lyrics seem to absorb every kind of emotion or thought you’ve had growing up. From angst to denial to the feeling of freedom that comes with being young, frontman Mat Cothran has put it into words and onto a record. I caught up with Mat and fiancé Delaney Mills after their show in Seattle to talk about religion, the music industry, artistic freedom, and what makes Elvis Depressedly tick.
Q: Most of your albums, especially your newest release New Alhambra, feature many religious themes. Where did this Christian influence come from and why is it so frequently referenced in your music?
M: I don’t know about Delaney, but I had a very strong Christian upbringing. I grew up in an old-school religious environment that was based on being prepared for the end times and the return of the lord and all kinds of crazy shit. I’ve read the Bible several times over with my grandmother and we would stay up watching prophecy shows and stuff like that. It’s just a part of my identity I guess.
M: I don’t really know what I believe in anymore but it’s definitely not something as specific as Christianity. It’s hard for me to believe in something so specific because even my pathetic human life is all over the place so I doubt God would be so planned out. It’s always just been a part of my life so I guess it just comes out because of that.
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Q: You recently signed to Run For Cover Records, which is very exciting. Elvis Depressedly seems like a very DIY, anti-establishment/anti-norm band (correct me if I’m wrong). What made you choose to sign to a bigger record label like RFC in the first place? Why RFC in particular?
M: We waited because it’s so easy to get screwed over. So many of these labels that people think are really hip and nice are actually just scams like all the other labels. They’re dangerous. I know artists who have so much potential and all this critical acclaim and they sign to a horrible label and then get ruined by it and they end up not owning any of their music. We had offers all throughout our existence but we were not gonna take an offer that made us indentured to some kind of system that we don’t want to support.
D: And would cause us to hand over what we’ve worked so hard for, true expression. Run For Cover lets us do whatever we want with our art.
M: They share our ideals they’re a great label to work with. It’s always collaboration with them. I have a friend who signed to a major label and he’s working on his album and it’s going well, and they come to him and they say, “ Oh, well we don’t like this album title, can you change it?” I wouldn’t go up to Van Gough and be like, “Ah, ‘Starry Night’? Can we call it like, Big Blue Church with Swirls?” I wouldn’t do that to him cause he’s the artist. It’s a collaborative relationship unlike any other label that’s why we signed with them and that’s why we waited for sure.
Q: Your previous releases seem to deal a lot with trying to make sense of some terrible feelings and life experiences. However, your new record seems more progressive, more hopeful, and just more forward thinking in comparison to the self-reflective nature of the other releases. Can you speak a little on how this shift came about?
M: It’s definitely just a part of getting older. You stop focusing on yourself so much and start thinking about the world around you.
D: Also I feel like they’re kind of all different. Holo Pleasures wasn’t extremely similar to any of the previous records.
M: Yeah, it existed on an island.
D: All of that shit has been different and I guess New Alhambra was just the direction that we decided to take just for that record.
M: Everything is its own island cause you never know when it’s gonna be your last record. I wanna continue the band for a while, but one of us could be abducted by aliens and that would be the end. Or if the rapture’s true. I tell you, those 7 years of tribulation after the rapture do not sound nice. They sound pretty brutal.
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Q: I have a show on KUPS where I play only home-recorded, bedroom-recorded, and other DIY artists like Elvis Depressedly. Even though I’m sure the recording process has changed since the beginning, you still stay true to that kind of sound. You are also very supportive of other DIY artists like Alex G and Teen Suicide, etc. What drew you to this kind of music? What makes this kind of art valuable, in your opinion?
M: One thing is, [the recording process] definitely hasn’t changed that much. Not at all really. But what got it started was that I didn’t have any money. I still couldn’t afford to go to a studio unless someone gave me money.
D: It also just seems like a giant rip-off. Unless you know what you’re going in for. In our case, we just haven’t been presented with the perfect opportunity to be in this environment with this very skilled person.
M: The machine I’ve recorded every single album on I bought when I was 15 for $1200. It’s an old-ass 32-track digital recording machine and I’ve used it for every single record that we’ve made. And some of the records sound more produced than others but it’s only because we chose to. Being able to do it yourself and do it at home gives you that kind of freedom. I can make it sound as lo-fi or as pristine as I want. I have the time. Plus we’ve grown to learn how to use our equipment to the point where going to try to learn some other method in the studio just wouldn’t make sense. It’s mostly about keeping as much freedom as we can.
Q: Do you think that need for freedom is what keeps a lot of DIY artists in the DIY business?
M: I talked to Alex [G] about it, cause he signed to Domino, and he was making an income and doing his thing. And I said, “Are you gonna buy some new equipment?” And he said, “Nah.” And I was like Really? Cause most people would be like, yeah I’m gonna buy this and this. I was happy because my whole thing is that young people need to save their money and I was happy that he said that. He was like, “You know, I can just do the record on my own the same way that I always have.” They signed him for the sound that he makes, not cause they want him to go and do some kind of high-produced Drake song. They want him to do Alex G. You gotta keep control of your art as much as you can.
Q: A lot of your other stuff is a mix of really sad and sarcastic undertones, which you seem to enjoy juxtaposing. Is this where your band name came from?
M: Yeah, there’s also this very American idea to sugar coat certain historical and cultural icons. We want to pretend that Elvis just died, he just died. When actually he died because he OD’ed on Percocet. He was a drug addict. But we don’t say Elvis was a drug addict ever. We think of Blue Suede shoes and all that but he died overdosing on pills. If you ever see Elvis’s house, he’s got the weirdest shit ever. He’s got a porcelain monkey on top of his TV, they have it the same way he had it when he died. And he was such a bizarre character in itself. He tried to get the Beatles deported. He was really just jealous of them because they were taking is spotlight. Just the humor of all that and the glam of all that, it sounded like a glam rock band name to me and I was always into that.
M: It’s definitely something we always try to do, just be real. We don’t want to mope and bring people down we wanna laugh through it. But also acknowledge the reality of life at the same time.
Q: Mat frequently mentions that you (Delaney) are the musical genius behind Elvis Depressedly. Where does your musicality/musical talent come from? Have you been playing instruments/putting songs together for a while?
D: I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration mainly.
D: I’ve just always played music, it’s just something I’ve always done.
D: Yeah I grew up around music. My dad taught me how to play keyboard. I just have always done shit. I never get afraid of performing cause I’ve always done it, forever. I wish that I was better. My brother is a lot better at music than I am.
D: He’s really technically skilled, I feel like I have better intuition than him. I think that’s where a lot of my skill, intuitively understanding music instead of having like the chops or whatever.
Q: What is it like making music and touring with your partner?
M: I wonder what it’s like for other people. Because for us, it’s like no different than living.
D: It’s a little more stressful. We definitely get in more arguments. We don’t have that many, but I feel like there’s definitely… I do a lot of tour managing and I will tell Mat like do this thing like I’m his boss or something and I feel really bad.
D: It’s awesome though because it has to suck to go on tour and just be thinking oh my partner is at home and living their life. This shit is hard, so I’m very grateful to share it with someone.
M: That’s the best part about it, being on the road with someone who you can trust unequivocally. Home is the people in the home.
Q: I find that I usually am creating art when my life is in turmoil. It’s really hard for me to create when things are going well. Would you say you’re always in the same sort of mindset when you write or create other art? Or does it fluctuate?
M: I think being on a downward trend can make me try to do something artistic. Anytime, no matter if I’m happy or sad or whatever, anytime I start working I become very very overjoyed. Just the process of creating is like instant joy, like my brain exploding kind of feeling. That’s a good feeling whether you’re sad or happy. If I’m happy already, I’m gonna go to the highest level. If I’m sad, I’m gonna pull myself out of this immediately through this manic joy. All creating gives me that feeling.
D: I don’t have that at all. I don’t feel things super deeply, so for me it’s still the idea of transcending something. It’s just trying to transcend an earthly form, that process, rather than saying like, I feel bad about something or good about something. I’m kind of just like, well I’m here so I might as well push towards being there.
M: You’re like pushing towards it, and I always get thrown into it. And my mind is completely off and then all of a sudden I feel spiritual. You’re able to find it and I always just have to be thrown into it.
POLAROID OF ELVIS DEPRESSEDLY | CHOP SUEY, SEATTLE WA
Elvis Depressedly just finished a US tour with the Front Bottoms and Smith Street Band. New Alhambra, and the rest of their discography, can be found here:https://elvisdepressedly.bandcamp.com
Interview recorded on November 9th, 2015
This interview was transcribed from audio recording and edited for length
