Q+A Twin Shadow

Twin Shadow’s debut album, Forget, managed to gain a lot of online hype over the last year and now it’s our turn to jump on the band-wagon. So here’s a phone interview with lead singer/songwriter George Lewis, Jr. There’s been some talk of him being the “black Morrissey”, since he takes great care with his lyrics, sings with a deep voice, and happens to have a mother who came from the Dominican Republic. His real skill is writing catchy pop tunes that have a dark aspect to them and enough going on that they can bear repeated listens. Here’s what he had to say for himself…

It seems like you’ve done a huge amount of interviews with blogs since the album came out, but from what I’ve seen, you manage to stay open to their questions, even when some of them were inexperienced interviewers with some pretty left-field questions. I was just wondering how you deal with having to do so many interviews?

[laughs] I like this first question. By suggesting I’m really fucking honest, you’re just asking to be disappointed and this to turn out being a horrible interview. I admire your courage! Last year, I was new to the world in terms of people knowing my music. I just thought it was important to be really honest and speak my mind. So I tried to be kind with people and to be giving with any information that was asked. It’s like – if you really don’t want to do interviews then don’t do them. Though I’ll probably get myself in trouble here, because that might be what I’m like in the future. But at the moment, I’m genuinely happy that people are interested. There are certainly times when I know that someone who’s interviewing me couldn’t give a fuck and they’re just filling their quota, so I might be a little short with them. But, for now, I’m okay with it. I’ve certainly gotten tired of most questions obviously, there’s nothing new or shocking that anyone could ask me. I’m as honest as I want to be and I’ll also lie from time to time. I try to have fun with it, but there’ll certainly be a day where you probably won’t hear me talking because I will have run out of things to say.

The stereotype of indie rock bands is that they’re all skinny white guys. Do you think you have a slightly different perspective, given that you’re part Dominican?

[laughs] I certainly have a different perspective. My father’s white, but my mother’s not white, so my upbringing was a little different. But that’s a really deep question and I don’t think we want to have a discussion about the social sciences. I’m lucky in a way – I get to be in every club. I like rock’n’roll and I like hip hop. I like everything and because I am who I am, you can’t pin me down to look at me, so people accept that I’m into this or that.

Does any of your varied musical influences come from growing up in Florida? I haven’t heard of many bands from there, apart from Flo-Rida and the Miami Bass scene in the nineties, with 2 Live Crew and those bands?

When I was growing up there wasn’t much of a music scene, unless you were into hardcore or punk. But you know Tom Petty grew up in Florida? He likes to pretend that he’s from California, but he’s actually from Gainesville. Personally though, I wasn’t really part of any scene in Florida so I can’t say it really influenced me.

Your music does sound like it’s come out of quite a few different places at once. There’s a lot of interesting sounds on the album. Even Chris Taylor [from Grizzly Bear, who produced Twin Shadow’s album] seemed intrigued by how you’d come up with some of them.

It’s all just a result of the stuff I had around me. For a lot of the record, I played the synthesisers through boombox speakers, because I didn’t use a proper amplifier. My bass amp was a shitty little guitar amp. It was a real ghetto studio situation, so that’s what resulted in the sound. Now I’m sitting here, trying to repeat myself on my new record!

The guitar solos on the album seem pretty emotive – like Prince on ‘Purple Rain’. It made me wonder what your approach was towards guitar solos, since it seemed like there was a period in the nineties when they became pretty derided.

I actually hate them, but I do them on almost every song when we play live [laughs]. I don’t know really. I mean, it can be a funny thing; it can be an empowering thing; it can be ridiculous. If you’re going to have a guitar solo on a record, then it better be a really good fucking guitar solo! But live it’s a different thing – nobody’s complained about my guitar solos, so I might just keep doing them. It’s just me having a laugh.

Maybe you should get an e-bow and really go crazy…

Oh, I’d never never use an e-bow! [laughs] When I’m forty-five I’ll start using an e-bow.

A lot of modern pop music seems to have quite throwaway lyrics, but you seem to put a lot of effort into your lyrics?

Before I’m a musician, I’m definitely a writer. The English language is a beautiful thing and a lot of people take for granted what it can do. Pop music works so well in English compared to other languages and I’ve always felt that music is a way to open people up to listening to words a little more. Why not take the time and take care of the language in communicating the idea? So I put a lot of pressure on myself to take care with every single word on the record. I don’t necessarily think that’s the best way to be all the time. Some great songs have throwaway lyrics, like ‘Oobie Doobie’ by Roy Orbison. It’s just that the very best songs in the world need to have both.

Your lyrics often seem to be looking back fondly on past relationships. It makes you seem quite romantic, but the life of a touring musician can’t leave you much time to have a proper relationship. It seems like there’s a certain irony there?

Life is full of irony – that’s what it does to you, no matter what you’re doing. As far as keeping up a relationship while you’re on tour, I won’t even say it’s hard – I’ll just go ahead and say it’s impossible. But what can I do? I’m selfish that way. I’ll just continue to live life for me and end up being a lonely old man with nothing left to write songs about.

Twin Shadow plays Laneway festival at Silo Park on Monday January 31. Tickets for the event are still available from their official website.