Brian Weitz headlines Center of the Earth Day Fest
Geologist (real name: Brian Weitz) from Animal Collective will perform an uncommon solo set in Chattanooga on April 21—just one of around 20 solo performances he’s ever done.
Making his Chattanooga debut, his set will be a part of the two-day Journey to the Center of the Earth Day Fest happening April 21 and 22 at The Spot at 1800 E. Main Street.
The festival will also feature the visceral and intense duo Pedestrian Deposit from Los Angeles, new-wave pop-star-in-the-making Superbody, the one-man “Scenic Groove” jazz/funk/dance band Tryezz, video artist Tape Canvas, and much more.
Animal Collective has earned critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase over its career, with a constant drive to cover new ground with each album, such as the ecstatically primal Feels from 2005 to the bright yet complex pop nectar of Merriweather Post Pavilion, which was declared “Best Album of 2009” by Spin, Pitchfork and other publications.
The group’s latest album, 2018’s Tangerine Reef, explores watery depths and ties in with Weitz’s interest in scuba diving and marine conservation. (Weitz has an Ivy League graduate degree in environmental science and policy and once worked for a Senate subcommittee on oceans, fisheries, and the Coast Guard.)
Weitz answered some questions for The Pulse in advance of his April 21 show.
The Pulse: You’ve said about Animal Collective that it’s a “big misconception that most of our live sets are improvised.” Regarding your solo performances, how much is improvised?
Brian Weitz: The amount of improvisation depends on the show and context. I’ve done a couple sets with just my modular synth that are all improvised. For sets like the one I’ll be doing on this tour, I leave the modular at home and just turn the parts into stems on my Octatrak.
The patches that make them up are too different to do live at the same time, at least with my rudimentary understanding of modular synthesis. So while the backing modular stems are fairly composed for each song by the time I play, I usually get there through improvising at home.
TP: Do certain ideas fit your solo work better than Animal Collective?
BW: I haven’t done a lot of solo music outside of Animal Collective, but in the few times I have, it’s usually in the same idea zone for both. It’s more a question of how much room my ideas have to stretch out. My solo music is closer to some of the more abstract or weirder AC projects like ODDSAC or the recent Tangerine Reef.
But for our more song-based albums, my parts need to fit into the context of the song that has been written. Sometimes if there are abstract sound collage ideas I’m really into for those albums, we’ll find ways to expand on them in the transitional moments. A lot of the interstitial radio moments on Centipede Hz are good recent examples of that.
TP: Do you have a favorite solo concert memory?
BW: I did a fun one in Joshua Tree last year with an artist named Kyle Simon who builds telescopes that convert the light energy into audible signals. He sent that to my synth as audio and control voltage, and I had to play around what the moonlight was doing. We performed it at the Integratron, which is a resonant dome used for sound baths. It was originally built to communicate with extraterrestrials using resonant frequencies.
TP: Animal Collective consciously tries to not repeat itself; how do you keep things fresh?
BW: It can be challenging for sure! Obviously the more sounds you try the less you have left. On one hand you can say well I can try anything, but it has to still be authentically you. If it’s fake, people can tell.
What I find difficult is over-thinking it if it’s not coming. I’d rather arrive at a new sound than decide on it ahead of time. Usually that comes through the kinds of music that are inspiring to me at the moment, or new pieces of gear.
But if those things aren’t pushing me in a new direction, it’s hard to have patience and not get down on myself for not having new ideas. I just try and stay as open as possible and always treat it as play initially. Usually what excites me is something new, so if I just follow that when I stumble upon it, at least I’ll be happy.