#nick millhiser

Nick: We’ve had to tell this story many times this week.

Nancy Whang: It’s true. We were at a wedding and there were a lot of questions about our origin story…

Nick: …and when we would get married.

Nancy: Well, we met at Plantain Studios which was James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy’s recording studio, the DFA recording studio.

Nick: Still technically James’ for the moment.

JS: It’s still in there?

Nick: It’s still in there, yeah. I mean it could go at any minute, he’s renting it from the new owner of the building.

Nancy: This was 2000?

Nick: No, 2002…

JS:15 years, that’s a long time.

Nick: Yes!

Nancy: Right, it was 2002. Nick’s band in high school got signed to a major label.

Nick: It was called Automato.

JS: Oh yes. I have your record.

Nick: Oh, you’re the guy. You’re the guy who has our record.

JS: And Andrew Raposo, bass player in Midnight Magic and previously Hercules and Love Affair, was in that. I remember bought it at Virgin Megastore.

Nancy: Oh, wow.

Nick: I worked at the HMV record store on 42nd.

Nancy: Yeah, but that was at the ascendance of DFA.

JS: And Nancy, what were you doing at that time?

Nancy: I was just hanging out.

JS: Were you in the band yet, working with The Juan MacLean?

Nancy: We had done The Juan MacLean stuff. I think that was it.

Nick: That was the first one, “You can’t have it both ways.”

Nancy: I had recorded vocals for The Juan MacLean, and I think LCD. The first LCD 12” was out by then.

Nick: No it wasn’t. I remember…

Nancy: It wasn’t?

JS: Just LCD’s “Losing My Edge,” right?

Nancy: Yeah, and “Beat Connection” on the b-side.

Nick: I was living in Bushwick at the time and James was dating a girl who lived in Williamsburg — he would drive me home some nights — I remember one night he came downstairs and he was like, “look what I got, this is a thing I made.” I remember he said “you’re probably not gonna like it.”

JS: So this is a really exciting time in New York with DFA Records starting to come out and make some noise. For me, dance music had stagnated, and after DJing and making records for sometime, I was bored to tears with what was happening. I started getting very excited again because of things like DFA, Output Records and Relish Records, the Gomma label, and all these cool new labels, artists and producers.

Nick: Does Relish Records still exist?

JS: It does, very much so. Robi Headman’s label is putting out some great new stuff. So how did you meet James Murphy?

Nancy: I met James randomly at a party, we had a mutual friend who introduced us and then we just became fast friends.

JS: You were doing music on your own?

Nancy: No, nothing.

JS: What were you doing?

Nancy: I was working for an artist when I first met James. I was working for this artist who published Index Magazine and we met at an Index party. After that I was just doing various art worldly jobs. The office where I worked was like a block away from Plantain so I’d just always be there hanging out. And that was before the label really began.

JS: There was the Plant Bar scene happening then too. A lot of the DFA crew was hanging and working there.

Nancy: The office where the recording studio was was just this hangout, nobody was really doing any work or anything.

Nick: It was a very cool building. It felt very much (and I really don’t mean this in a bad way) like people were almost pretending to have real jobs in hopes that they would turn into real jobs. People would come in at noon because we have a record label. There wasn’t much to do, there was a lot of playing video games.

Nancy: It was very “behavioral psychology.”

JS: The Rapture was the first record released on DFA?

Nick: Rapture was the first, and that definitely wasn’t out yet because I remember them giving us CDs the first time we met with James and Tim. They gave us CDs that had rough mixes of stuff on it and I still have it somewhere, it’s a different version of “House of Jealous Lovers.”

JS: And you knew James because he produced the Automato stuff?

Nick: We met them through that. They hadn’t really done anything yet and we met them after we had signed to Capitol Records when we were 18 in 2000. We basically spent a year plus trying to find producers to work with and we had a really hard time. Honestly I remember meeting them and it’s not like we were blown away by them; in some ways we were way more impressed with Tim because Tim had done all the Mo Wax Records stuff and I was, in particular, a huge Mo Wax fan. The only record I knew that James had worked on at the time was a June of 44 record — weird New York indie rock stuff. And I remember very clearly the day after we met with him and we thought he seemed pretty cool. Alex was like, “well Tim seems cool. James just seems like a kid with a lot of toys. I don’t know what he does.” And then the first day working with him it became very clear that James is maybe the best engineer, also a great producer, but James has very clear talents.

But I don’t think anything was really out. I remember stuff coming out as we were making the record and seeing things happen for them very quickly. The reaction to that stuff was pretty immediate.

JS: You two met around this time at the label? And you met Juan MacLean through James?

Nancy: Yes, because I was just around all the time. Juan was working on this track and he wanted someone to do vocals, he wanted a female vocal, and James was like, “well I have a friend who has a female voice.”

JS: He hadn’t heard you sing at all?

Nancy: No.

JS: Just figured you could…

Nick: — and the defining voice of electro clash was born.

JS: Did you write the lyrics for that first single you did with Juan?

Nancy: No I didn’t. James wrote those lyrics. 

JS: And once the record was out did you guys start playing live?

Nancy: No, it just came out and I don’t think Juan had considered playing live for a while.

Nick: See, this was all happening around the same time. The Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers” was March 2002. We started making the Automato record in April 2002. Don’t ask me how I remember that. And I think at the DFA party at Warsaw Juan played one song. I think was just before we went into the studio. I have some recollection of going to that party and seeing James and Tim and being like “alright we’re going to start work next week.”

JS: And how long after you met did you guys become a couple?

Nancy: Seven years. Eight years.

Nick: A long time. We met then, but we really didn’t even hang out until much later.

Nancy: No, he was just a kid, fresh out of high school, still in his short pants.

Nick: I was a young man. We were the babies. I couldn’t legally drink when I met those guys.

Nancy: I like to say that we met when he was still a teenager, which technically is not true, I don’t think.

Nick: I think I was 20.

Nancy: But he had only just turned 20. And I was…

Nick: …older than that.

Nancy: Older than that. 

JS: And you grew up in New York?

Nick: Yeah, everybody in the band that I was in grew up together.

JS: In Brooklyn?

Nick: No, Upper Westside Manhattan.

JS: And where did you grow up?

Nancy: Portland, Oregon.

JS: And when did you come to the New York ?

Nancy: 1995.

JS: And what brought you here then?

Nancy: To go to school. I went to NYU.

JS: What were you studying?

Nancy: Visual art. I had some notion of becoming a painter.

JS: Do you still do that?

Nancy: No I don’t. I haven’t done it in a long time. Those aspirations quickly dissolved as soon as I got out of school because it was just heartbreak. The New York art world is brutal. I just don’t have the personality for it. 

JS: When DFA was in its early stages did you feel like something special and new was happening?

Nancy: It was for me. It did feel like something. But it was less like “we’re in a watershed moment,” and more a sense of self importance, that this is cool. What we’re doing is cool.

JS: What music did you listen to growing up?

Nancy: I grew up listening to punk and indie rock, just garage rock and stuff like that. So James and I had very similar musical backgrounds as far as what we listened to. And then we both had the same sort of fatigue about indie rock and how boring and joyless it was.

JS: And how about for you Nick?

Nick: I think there was a similar feeling. I’m a child of the 90s — I was born in the 80s, but my musical taste as a kid were for the most part, until the end of high school, very much just the music of the time.

JS: MTV?

Nick: MTV, Nas, Biggie. But what was happening in New York at the time was a lot of great underground hip hop, and that was very exciting for a moment, and then it got very boring right around the time that James et al were getting bored with indie rock. I very clearly remember meeting those guys and the way they ran the label, the way that they were just making music — the aesthetic of the music they were making seemed inherently more joyful and lighthearted. I remember James and Tim always had this thing: it’s important to have girls like the music you make.

If you make music for boys, that’s all who will ever like it. If you make music for girls, guys will also like it because they want to be with girls. And I never thought about it like that. I suddenly became very aware of all those shows in that world of Rawkus Records and Def Jux who were putting out really great music, but it seemed it was just all boys. It was all boys wearing backpacks, holding their backpack straps and, at most, kind of nodding their head.

Nancy: I mean it was the same in indie rock.

Nick: It was the exact same thing. There’s something that felt very cool and fun about going to early DFA parties and thinking, “oh I’m doing everything wrong. I want to do this.” And seeing those guys play was really inspiring, to see people make music that was so immediately gratifying. I remember them playing “House of Jealous Lovers” and James had a white label of “Killing” by the Rapture, which nobody had ever heard before, but every time he played it people went fucking crazy. And there’s something really inspiring about seeing something that was anonymous. It was before people were looking at the DJ or anything, and you could just see if it was good. You put it on, it worked. You had this very immediate visceral answer of good/bad.

JS: Did either one of you have a connection to dance music at this time?

Nancy: I did not at all. Not even a little bit. I remember watching a movie that came out in the 90s about dance music…

Nick: About going to a rave?

Nancy: It was either like Trainspotting or 24 Hour Party People or something like that. But it was more about techno and I remember my friends and I were so baffled…

JS: Baffled, meaning didn’t like it?

Nancy: No, I just didn’t understand it as a “thing.” I understood going out and listening to dance music so that you could dance, but then in this movie there were people who would buy the records, go home and listen to it. It didn’t make any sense to me why someone would listen to it at home. It still kind of doesn’t. But yes, I had no connection to it. I never even really heard of house music until I met James and Tim.

JS: And did they play you stuff and take you to clubs?

Nancy: Yeah, I didn’t understand because of the context of how I was listening. And because when James would DJ he’d play rock records but then he’d also play dance records — it all kind of melded into this one thing.

JS: It started to make sense.

Nancy: Yes, it was like, “okay that was fun.” This is gonna be fun to listen to and to dance to. DFA was sharing an office with Plant Records at the time, which was Marcus (Shit Robot) and Dom Keegan, and Marcus was DJing at Centro Fly every week so we would go there just to hang out with Marcus and drink for free. It was just what we did Saturday nights. But then, eventually, I started recognizing songs and absorbing it more, appreciating it.

JS: How about for you?

Nick: I bought Homework by Daft Punk when it came out. I had some sense of contemporary dance music, but it wasn’t until I was 18 and I moved out of my parents’ house to Cobble Hill, and there was a really great record store by my house called Dom’s. It was tiny, but he had awesome dollar bins. Alex and I would go shopping there, honestly almost every day because I didn’t have anything else to do, looking for samples. At the time every dollar bin’s basically like ELO records, Billy Joel Records and disco records. And as with anything you’re buying, with that mindset of looking for samples, you eventually start to like the stuff you got because of the weird record cover.

But it really wasn’t until — and I remember very clearly Alex and I having developed this very sincere love of it — finding the Loose Joints 12” Is It All Over My Face.

JS: Well that’s a good one.

Nick: I remember meeting James and Tim, the first two days we were in the studio with them, they were like “we’re not going to work, we’re just going to play each other records and talk about what we like about them.” I remember very clearly in the studio they had that first compilation of Larry Levan classics with the black and white photo of him on the cover. It had the Loose Joints track it. He played it to us and Alex and I were both just like “yeah, I know this song. I love it. Is it cool, is that okay to love this song?” I didn’t know because everybody else in the band sort of made fun of us. But Alex and I were getting into finding post-disco, very early hip hop, but still disco stuff. Some of the breaks on those records are awesome.

JS: Enjoy Records, early Sugarhill Records.

Nick: Yeah, I love it. By modern rap standards, it sounded amateurish and fun, but I love it.

JS: That’s how hip hop started, people rapping over disco records and breaks.

Nick: I remember the other guys in the band didn’t get it. There’s always this kind of “wink wink, you guys don’t really like this.” I remember being like “no, of course not.” And yet, if I want to listen to it all the time, it must mean it has a legitimate redeeming quality. James and Tim were the first people I had ever met who listened to that music in that context. Just played that music without a smile on their face. I had a realization that “right, if you like something, that’s just as valid as whether it’s fun or…” The 90s was such a funny time. If it wasn’t super serious and introspective, it wasn’t legitimate. Anything that was just fun was not real music. Everything was a rebellion against the 80s.

JS: There was a time when the 80s wasn’t thought of as cool.

Nick: Yeah I remember that very well.

JS: Now it’s cool, but back then…

Nick: It was the butt of the joke. Everything was just like “sooo 80s.”

JS: When was the change from Automato to Holy Ghost!?

Nick: The six of us had been playing together since we were teenagers and it was just doomed to implode from go. So that band broke up a year after the record came out. At that point Alex and I would write music all together in a room, but there were certain clusters of people who would start things together. Alex and I would always work on stuff together and what we were working on just started to feel dancier and more fun. I think it was even before Automoto played its last show. I started touring with Juan MacLean, filling in as a drummer. I played rough stuff we were working on for Juan, James and Marcus and they were all ready supportive.

JS: And James said “we should do a record?”

Nick: Honestly I think it was Tim first, but James was definitely the one who was the most encouraging at the beginning. There was a point where I was really frustrated with Automoto, I want to say it was New Year’s Eve, and I was venting to him. He was just said, “you should make your own music.” And I said that I didn’t have the equipment to do it and he’s like “well can you play bass?” I was like, yeah, kind of. Kind of a bass player. He was like “oh, do you have a bass?” I was like, no. “Come by the studio, I’ll give you a bass. Do you have a compressor?” I was like, no. He’s like “all right I’ll give you a cheap compressor.” And he gave me a bass and a compressor to do stuff with just drums and bass.

And that was sort of the beginning of Alex and I trying to work on stuff. I did the initial demo for “Hold On,” it was just the drums and the bass and the synth line. I remember playing James a bunch of stuff and James was like, “that one’s really cool.” And it was his ring tone for a while. I remember the rough demo was his ring tone. And he said “you should finish that one.” When we finished it, I remember talking with Tim — it had been done for a while — and Tim matter-of-fact made mention of it coming out. And I was like “what are you talking about?” He’s like “oh, we’re gonna put it out.”

JS: Were they involved in the production or was it just you guys?

Nick: Not until the end. The song was basically finished and then, at the very end when we were basically informed that DFA was going to put it out, Tim was like “if you want it out by this day we should really master it in the next week or two.” At that point James and Tim were sort of already on the outs, but James separately said, “I think you should re-record the vocals.” So we re-recorded the vocals with James, and then James mixed it, but that was all decided and done in a matter of 48 hours.

JS: And Nancy, what’s happening with you around this time?

Nancy: I guess this is around the time that Sound of Silver came out. In 2007 I was in LCD, but was still just a weekend warrior, I still had a job and we were just playing a couple weekends a month, a couple weeks a year. It was like ROTC.

It didn’t take up enough time for it to be something that I could do exclusively, but it took up enough time that I couldn’t hold down a normal job. I started working at this wood shop where we built displays for shop windows or store windows. It was very erratic. We’d be out for a year, and then we’d be home for a year while James worked on a new record or whatever.

JS: Were you involved in the first album?

Nancy: No, the first record James did all by himself. Pat might have played some drums and stuff, but it was really James in the studio alone. Because he started working on it before we even had formed as a band, and then when the second record came around after we had been playing together for like a year, Sound of Silver was a little more collaborative.

I think us playing together on the stage changed his ideas about how to record music. Having other people play at the same time rather than have him play one instrument, record that, and then go back to the next instrument etc, etc. 

JS: More of a band vibe.

Nancy: Yeah.

JS: Did you get involved in writing?

Nancy: No. No one’s ever involved in the writing.

JS: Still, to this day?

Nancy: Yes.

JS: So what’s the process? James presents you guys with a song?

Nancy: James generally has pretty clear ideas of what he wants to record so it’s like, “play this.” And then you play it. And then he takes it and does something to it.

JS: Right. And while this is going on, Holy Ghost! is in the studio making the first record album?

Nick: Yes, it was around the same time. Our first record took a really long time.

JS: And were you recording at DFA studios?

Nick: Some. That record we sort of did everywhere. At some point, we were able to quit our jobs. We were DJing so much, which was awesome, but it’s not like we were making enough money that we could take months off from touring. I remember when Hold On came out we had a Myspace page, and got our first out-of-state DJ gig.

JS: Had you DJ’d? Both of you guys DJj regularly now.

Nick: I had a little bit. I had turntables in high school, like a bedroom DJ. DJ’d a few things here and there; Alex never had. But it was always something I’d wanted, DJing was such a dark art pre-internet, it never occurred to me to pursue it professionally in any way.

JS: No one wanted to be a DJ when I started.

Nick: Right. And again, I think it was meeting James and Tim and that larger circle of people like Tim Sweeney, Trevor Jackson, or Maurice Fulton. All these different people were so interesting. It was a pretty awesome time, you go to see somebody and they were just playing whatever they wanted. That’s pretty great.

JS: And for you Nancy, what was your entree into the DJ world?

Nancy: Basically my first DJ gig was in 2010. It was when This is Happening came out and we were touring that record. I knew that it was going be it for LCD, at least for the foreseeable future, and this is what I do and I don’t have any other skills anymore. I’m gonna have to make a living when this band is done so I better start DJing.

JS: Did James came to you guys and said “It’s over,” or you just knew it?

Nancy: Oh no, he announced it in the press. “This is the last record.” He had said it privately about Sound of Silver, but I was like “that’s not true.” But with This is Happening, we knew that this is the last record. It was the last record while he was making it, and as soon as it came out, we knew that that was it. Our last hurrah.

Nick: And people had been asking you to DJ for years and you had always sort of…

Nancy: Yeah it terrified me. It still does. I’m like, “I have no idea what I’m doing up here.” I remember my first DJ gig was with a friend of mine at Tribeca Grand and we showed up with records and no headphones. I got there like, “how are you supposed to listen to this stuff?”

JS: Did somebody show you how to DJ or you just figured it out?

Nancy: Well, a couple of friends had showed me, “this is what you do with the turntable” and “this is how it works with the mixer,” but it was still beyond me. The first year of DJing was just me playing a record and then playing another song after that song was finished, and playing another song after that one was finished.

JS: And you were also doing shows and records with Juan MacLean at this time.

Nancy: Yes. While James was making This is Happening, I was on tour with Juan. We had just done that record The Future Will Come.

JS: Was that a more collaborative process?

Nancy: Yeah, with me and Juan it’s more of a partnership.

JS: Is that still something that’s on going?

Nancy: Yes, in fact I might record with him tomorrow.

JS: And at this time you guys are a couple?

Nancy: No. This was 2010, beginning of that tour. We played Coachella, we had been to Europe, and then we came back and were going to go on a U.S. tour. We did a run of shows at Terminal 5 before we left and we took Holy Ghost! with us on tour; they also did all the Terminal 5 shows with us. We did that, we went on tour, and then the tour was over, and…

Nick: And we missed each other.

Nancy: And we missed each other. A couple months later we got together. 

JS: DFA is a very incestuous family.

Nancy: Yeah.

JS: There’s a lot of cross pollination with bands, and it’s great.

Nancy: Totally. Andrew Raposo (Hercules and Love Affair’s original bass player) played in LCD for a couple shows because we needed somebody to fill in.

JS: You two both have very busy lives between your bands, your DJing, working on your new house, your dog. I’m impressed with how you manage it.

Nancy: I think it’s actually because we both do the same thing, we understand the life.

Nick: I think there are things about dating a touring musician that’s just inherently difficult. But when you’re in a relationship with somebody else who does that too, a few of those things they understand. They know that you’re going to have to go away and it’s not because you don’t want to be at home.

JS: It’s your job.

Nick: Yes. And when you come home you might be a little fried and might not be able to just jump back into life-as-usual. I see friends who are in a relationship and they fight about touring or it becomes a source of tension in the relationship…that tension isn’t in ours. That being said, it’s still tough because there are times when you’re both busy at the same time. There was one time two years ago when she was away for two weeks, got home the day that I left for two weeks, and the day I got back she left again for two weeks.

JS: So you didn’t see each other for a month or something.

Nick: More. And that sucks, there’s no way around it. I think we make it work better than most people, but it’s not always easy.

JS: Being in a band is like a relationship, and then there is being in a relationship.

Nick: I think that’s the hardest part for people who aren’t musicians or touring musicians to understand. That this something else in your life isn’t more important than you.

Nancy: But sometimes it is.

Nick: But sometimes it is. Or maybe it’s just as important as you.

Nancy: Or today it’s more important than you. Tomorrow you’ll be more important than this, but today this is what’s important.

Nick: It’s a very hard thing to explain to somebody, understandably. It sort of defies the logical brain’s common understanding of what a relationship should be.

Nancy: I always said that the key to dating somebody who’s a musician or an artist or anybody who does something creative, is that you just have to accept that you’re going to be number two, always. If you can be okay with that, then you’re fine. But it takes work regardless, relationships take work.

JS: Yes, just different work.

Nancy: You always have to put in an effort otherwise…

JS: So, you’ve figured it out sort of?

Nick: I don’t know that we’ve figured it out. It’s a work in progress. I think it’s great.

Nancy: That’s the thing, it’s not like you’ve figured it out, not like you’ve solved it and you’re like “okay, cool, we’re good” and you just glide along.

Nick: It certainly comes up.

Nancy: You’re always taking care of it. It requires constant maintenance.

JS: And so Nancy, you’re about to go on a long tour. Were you expecting LCD to get back together at some point?

Nancy: Yes and no. I was expecting it but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

JS: Was there ever a moment where you were thinking about it? Did you know that you wanted to jump back in?

Nancy: I’m still thinking about it. Everyday I reconsider. Is this really what I want to be doing? It’s complicated, but those five years between the last show and us playing again, that was a long five years. It was a long time for me to figure out who I was outside of LCD. I had spent so much time being in LCD and never really gave much thought into what I would do or who I was outside of the band, but all of a sudden I had to face this identity crisis.

JS: You won an award like best DJ in New York City?

Nancy: You know what, that’s just because I was in attendance.

JS: That’s great. Must’ve made you feel good?

Nancy: It was very sweet. 

But just figuring out what to do, DJing, making music. Whatever. Just on my own with other people. It was a very long journey.

Nick: It’s a long five years of forming an identity outside of that band.

JS: And then one day James calls and says “hey let’s get the band back?”

Nancy: Yes.

JS: But the nice thing is, at that point, you have each other too, you were together. And that was cool.

Nancy: Right.

Nick: But having to put in all this work of figuring out what your life would be outside of the band and then all of a sudden — and you missed it — but you could have all your time occupied again. 

Nancy: Yeah.

JS: So did you find you have a lot of free time during those five years and could do some things you weren’t able to do?

Nancy: No, but I did actually, at the end of last year, had amazing free time. I didn’t have anything to do, and I didn’t have to do anything. It was fabulous. But now that free time is going away.

JS: And when you guys got back together and played those first shows at Webster Hall, did it feel like “oh yes, this was the right thing to do?”

Nancy: It was fun. It was really fun. As much time had passed, it felt familiar and like no time had passed. Just back doing this again and it feels good, it’s fun, we like it, and we like each other, and we’re good at it, and we seem to be making other people happy.

JS: When some people were commenting that you guys should not have gotten back together after such a public end, did that affect you?

Nancy: It doesn’t really affect me, I don’t really give a shit. I mean I get it, it seemed like a strategy. But it wasn’t. I mean, I personally thought it was a little too soon, but now we’re here and it’s fine.

JS: How did you feel when you heard that that Nancy was going to go back to her job?

Nick: On one hand, I think I sensed it coming sooner than they did. On the other hand, I was very happy for her, and Pat in particular, because as much as I think the time off was really productive for them, there’s an obvious pride in being a member of that band. There was a certain spring lost from their step when the band went away. 

JS: During the break, Pat formed his own band, Museum Of Love.

Nick: Yeah, which was great. I love that record. 

Nancy was concerned about other things and I was concerned with whether or not she’d be happy. I think having some distance from a band allows you to focus on what you really want from being in the band. What do I need this to be? I think everybody in that band, James included, is better equipped to articulate and actualize what they want this to be. They’re also a bigger band now, so they have the power to manifest this thing.

JS: Can you have imagined that the band would become so big?

Nancy: No. Music was never anything that I aspired to do in any capacity, so everything from the very first thing until now — it’s all just like wow.

JS: When you get on stage in front of many thousands of people at these festivals, are you like “what am I doing here?”

Nancy: Sometimes. I feel very very lucky to be in this, particularly because it’s not something that I worked very hard to achieve. I mean, I worked hard, but it’s not like I was aspiring toward…

Nick: Unlike Al or James or Pat, who always wanted to be in bands.

Nancy: Yeah, since they were kids and picked up instruments, played in bands in their garages, I never did any of that. LCD’s my first band. So I feel very lucky. But I’m not fulfilling any premeditated goals that I had, so I can recognize that everything I do is an achievement. I would be just as satisfied had this thing never happened. Whatever this big show that we did.

Nick: And it was never your dream to play Madison Square Garden in the first place. Had that never happened you wouldn’t have…

Nancy: I wouldn’t have missed it. Having done it now, I’m like “that was amazing,” I’m really glad we did that.

JS: What’s happening with Holy Ghost! right now? Are you working on a new record?

Nick: We’re working on our retirement. We’re going to announce our break up.

JS: And then come back in a few years.

Nick: Yeah, we’re working on a new record very slowly but surely. 

JS: And you two have recorded together here and there?

Nick: Yes.

Nancy: Do I appear on every Holy Ghost! album?

Nick: Not the new one. I don’t think you sang anything on any new stuff. But you’ve been on every other.

JS: And you DJ together?

Nick: Yep, DJ together quite a bit.

JS: Will there ever be a Nancy Whang solo record?

Nancy: That is the question for the ages.

JS: Is that something that you would like to do?

Nancy: I don’t know. On the one hand, yes, now that I’ve sort of grown accustomed to this life of being a musician and having musical aspirations, I like the idea of making my own stuff. But what happens after that is terrifying to me. And I’m not sure I want that.

Nick: That’s certainly terrifying to everybody for what it’s worth.

Nancy: Exactly.

JS: And you guys worked on a record by yourself, just the two of you?

Nick: We’ve talked about it.

Nancy: Family band.

Nick: Family band, we were talking about it this morning. Doris would play a horn in every song. We talked about it, but no more so than half joking. Making weird ambient synth records. Which is basically what we listen to at home.

JS: With so much going on in this country and the world right now, how do you feel about artists speaking their minds on these things? Artists making their feelings known?

Nancy: I do think it’s important. If you have something to say, you should say it. LCD isn’t necessarily a very political band, but there are things that we talk about amongst ourselves and if you have an opportunity, if you have a voice and a platform, then you should use it. Always, but especially now because shit’s gotten so bad. It’s really important to realize that we wouldn’t necessarily be at this place if people had been more engaged before.

JS: What are your feelings on it Nick, as far as Holy Ghost! goes?

Nick: I agree. But it’s not something Alex and I have talked about formally.

JS: He’s been pretty vocal on the internet.

Nick: He has been, but it’s not something that’s come up in the music we make. Is it insensitive to not address it? It’s just the nature of the music we make. It’s just kind of like fun. If it came about organically, Alex wouldn’t censor himself if he felt like he had something to say. But I also think there’s a place for music to be a relief from all that. And right now it’s coming from all sides. I spent a day not watching the news because my sister got married and it felt like I missed the entire war. “Oh you didn’t want the news today?”

Everybody has an obligation to speak out and shouldn’t censor themselves. If I’m most frustrated with anybody, it’s our side politically. Alex and I were talking about this yesterday, why there isn’t somebody on the left to come out and, in strong language, just be like “fuck these people, fuck anybody who is at this rally.” We don’t need to censor ourselves or be inclusive because we’re unequivocally “fuck these people, if you’re on this side you’re on the wrong side of history.” Trump made up this term yesterday, “alt left.” I wish there was an alt left, it doesn’t fucking exist. It’s the first time in my life I really felt a sincere rage on behalf of my family. Both sides have been in this country a really long time, but both my grandfathers fought in the second world war, neither of whom I would say are particularly liberal men, but they fucking fought in this war. If either of them were still alive today to see their commander in chief essentially playing nice with nazis…it’s fucking insane.

JS: How do you feel about how the internet has changed our lives so much?

Nick: Nancy and I are in a really unique position, we’re not on Facebook, we’re relatively…

Nancy: …disconnected.

Nick: It’s weird. In some ways I don’t have any great insights like “it’s made everybody’s lives better” In some ways, I think it’s made people shitty and entitled.

JS: As a DJ and producer, it can be pretty helpful?

Nick: It’s amazing. I don’t think I would have a career if it weren’t for the internet. The avenue for a niche thing to reach people directly didn’t exist when I was in high school. We were talking about it to our friend Jay, saying the first time I ever heard “Liquid Liquid” was on a Grand Royal record sampler that I got at a Beastie Boys show in high school. Then something happened with their reissue of it and I remember trying to find it but I couldn’t find anything about them, I couldn’t find those records anywhere, and it just sort of disappeared from my mind until later when the Mo Wax reissue came out. I missed that aspect of music being mysterious and having to search for things.

JS: Is there anything you guys are listening to now that you’re finding inspiring or just fun?

Nick: Coming back to a lot of music from my peripheral past, listening to a lot of Sonic Youth which was always a band that I really liked but was never my favorite band.

Nancy: Speaking of the 90s, Nick and I watch a lot of MTV classics now, which show a lot of videos from the late 80s early 90s.

Nick: Moderate pop hits.

Nancy: Early rap records, but then also like…

JS: Beastie Boys?

Nancy: There’s some Beastie Boys, but also Pebbles and that kind of dancey R&B that came out of the 80s

Nick: It’s been really fun to be reminded of them. The fact that it made it on MTV made it pretty successful, but somehow history has forgotten, it’s not as celebrated.

Nancy: Pebbles’ “Mercedes Boy.”

Nick: And some weird English stuff too. Post shoe gaze but all very electronic production.

Nancy: We saw this video of this band called Curve, and I’d never heard this song, but it sounded very much like that.

Nick: We were both like “Oh this is from Manchester in 1992.” And they were from Manchester and this song came out 1992.

Nancy: Yeah, just had a very…

Nick: …defined aesthetic.

Nancy: Jesus Jones, EMF kind of sound. 

Nick: Baggy beats. Chorus of guitars.

Nancy: When I started listening to punk and indie, I rejected all that stuff at the time because I thought it was popular corporate music. But it’s good music.

JS: Do you feel a lot of pressure with this new LCD Soundsystem album coming out and how it will be received?

Nancy: Me, no. I feel no pressure. People are going to like it or they’re not going to like it.

JS: Are you really happy with it?

Nancy: I am. It’s weird. It’s different. Not wildly different, but different. It’s dark.

JS: Heavier record for a heavier time.

Nancy: I hope people like it so that we can continue to be a band.

JS: So there will be another one.

Nancy: Probably.

Nick: So not a good time to talk about the Shea Stadium retirement show.

Nancy: Exactly.

JS: Do you think it’s funny that with everything going on in the world that people are up in arms about the cover of your record, people not liking it or upset about it?

Nancy:  This is one of the cons about the internet and what it’s becoming. People just have all kinds of free time to form all kinds of opinions and share all those opinions with everybody.

And again, I would prefer it if people liked stuff that we did and put out, but also “It’s done, sorry.” What am I supposed to do about it? That’s what it is. Take it or leave it.

Nick: One of the things I always admired about LCD is that there was always this sense that the band is never bigger than James. When bands get big there’s always this, “oh it’s out of my hands” and I felt, from an outsider’s perspective, that James really tried to not fall into that way of thinking. This band is only as big as me, no decision gets made without me being close to it. There’s a point where things just grow and they’re sort of out of your control and you kind of have to let them go. The band does become the idea not within your control anymore. That’s true of your band now, you put stuff out there, you put this cover out into the world, and it becomes an article on Newsweek. That’s just the way of the world now.

JS: Are you guys planning to get married?

Nick: We’re for it.

Nancy: We’re for marriage.

Nick: I don’t think we’ll have a wedding.

Nancy: I know we will not have a wedding. I know for a fact.

Nick: We’ve been through enough weddings.

Nancy: This last weekend was a wonderful event, but it drew a line under the fact that we don’t want to have a wedding. I don’t want to participate in that at all.

Nick: There’s been a lot of talk this week, “so what are we gonna do?” Justin, have you been to City Hall for a wedding?

JS: Yes, I was a witness a few times for friends.

Nick: It is really cool.

JS: It’s easy, you stand in front of that little painted sky they have. And then walk over to Chinatown and have a nice lunch.

Nancy: My brother got married at City Hall and we went to Joe’s Shanghai for dinner after they got married.

Nick: There’s something nice about being in this room, everybody’s experiencing the exact same thing, everybody’s in a pretty good mood, it’s nice.

Nancy: It was pointed out a few times that, for being in a government office, the mood was really good. Everyone was really happy, people were excited, people were being nice to each other.

Nick: Everybody’s dressed pretty nice.

JS: People get spiffed up.

Nick: I really like that aspect of it.

JS: Well if you need a witness you know who to call. I’ve got it down now.

Nick: We’ll let you know.