The Magnetic Fields: "Any use of romantic clichés is good, in my opinion"

For brand new psych pop folk opus, Realism, Magnetic Fields go almost totally acoustic. I caught up with Stephin on the verge of the records release.

BEST FIT: So this is your 3rd record in a row without electronics…
Stephin Merritt: Without synthesizer, we have a lot of electronics but not synthesizers.

Was that a conscious decision?
It’s a trilogy, a no synth trilogy. But the next Magnetic Fields album will have synthesizers again. There’s a new crop of synthesizers that I quite like, made by artists rather than by manufacturers. They have new sounds finally. It’s been a long time since there have been new sounds, and now there are.

So it was a kind of dissatisfaction with the technology as much as anything else?
Right. My roots are in electro pop, so I grew up expecting every new record to have new sounds on it. And that hasn’t been possible for a while, but now it is.

Have you played around with Kaoss pads? Kaossolators and all the Korg stuff?
Those are not new sounds, those are new contexts. I wouldn’t describe that as novel enough for me. That’s traditional., filters, the same old model. But the things I’ve been playing around with recently are a different model.

So, although the album is called ‘Realism’ and made with what one could call ‘real’ acoustic instruments only, I find it interesting that, in terms of some of the themes that it seems to cover and the atmosphere and sound of the record it’s, in a way, the most dreamlike Magnetic Fields record yet. Was it a conscious intention that there would be this interesting juxtaposition inherent in the record?
It’s only called Realism because of the production style, not because of anything about the lyrics or instrumentation or anything. Well I suppose the instrumentation is part of the production side. I didn’t mean it to be a theme, particularly. Although of course it’s been taken as a theme, by a few people. Somebody pointed out a few days ago that, unlike on the usual Magnetic Fields album, on this record there are a lot of allusions to mythical creatures and some of the characters are not human. The second song, one of the characters is the moon. And then there are ghosts and werewolves and mermaids. Not usually my stock and trade.

Do you remember your dreams? Are you inspired by things that happen in your dreams?
I remember my nightmares, I don’t remember ever remembering a positive dream, a happy dream. I remember lots of nightmares though.

Is there anything else that you’d like to say about this record in particular?
I think this record wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t moved my studio to LA, before making it. In LA they have these music stores filled with central and south American instruments that you don’t encounter in New York music stores at all, even the exotic ones. So I went happily shopping in the music stores of Los Angeles and discovered instruments I had never heard of. And bought them up and brought them home and played them into the record. So much of the record is me playing instruments I’ve never even heard of before. And of course I don’t play them spectacularly well, but that’s OK, I don’t play anything well. But I did actually take harp lessons, because on harp you really have to play it well or it sounds terrible.

Did you play the sitar on the last track, ‘From A Sinking Boat’?
No, John Woo played the sitar.

I read that that track was recorded in a bathroom, is that correct?
Yes, everything on the last song, "From A Sinking Boat", was recorded in a bathroom, except the piano. Each track has a very different recording style. So the one used for From A Sinking Boat was there’s no reverb except for the sound of the bathroom. All the reverb is just how far away the microphone is.

I’ve been listening to your music for a long time now and I am very moved by a lot of it. I find that, in some of the tracks, certainly tracks on the record and tracks from throughout the back catalogue, like Old Fools and Sentimental Melody for example, there’s so much depth of feeling that you so skilfully articulate in such a short space of time, given the fact you like to keep things concise in terms of musicality and length. How do you manage this?
It’s because I use lyrical clichés that immediately point to whole psychologies from the past. Like ‘My Sentimental Melody’ sounds like you’d be hearing it on The Laurence Welk Show. So

I think what draws people so much to the Magnetic Fields, and as I’m sure you’re aware, you do have a great cross appeal from a more mature audience to the cool young kids and I think it’s because you deal with these universal themes and trade in clichés in a way but you put enough of an edge on it so that it doesn’t become cheesy. It’s sentimental but not naff. Quite an achievement!
I think that what I’m doing is that I use contradictory clichés. So they’re still clichés, but not the usual combinations of clichés. I’m always drawn to the simile that music is like cooking. It’s a great deal like cooking, although I can’t actually cook personally, I can do things that are like cooking. People don’t object to the same old things being used in cooking. And I feel like if you want to make something novel, you use very common ingredients that are not usually found together. I think there are two things that can ever make music interesting as opposed to pretty. Which is cultural borrowing and new technology. ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ (1981 collaboration album between Brian Eno and David Byrne) is filled with both cultural borrowing and new technology, so that’s why that was a very interesting album when it came out. And it sounds great again, by the way. For a good 10 years there it sounded awful, but now it sounds really good again.

So are you looking forward to touring? How do you feel about playing live?
Usually a problem that solves itself quickly. I hate touring and I hate playing live. So I’m dreading going on tour.

So you like to keep it as brief as possible?
Yes, but this year we are actually touring for 2 months.

Wow, that’s quite a lot if you hate it!
Yes

So have you always hated playing live? Is it always something you’ve tolerated out of necessity?
Yeah, I’ve never made any secret of that. I’ve always disapproved of the whole idea of live music trying to have anything to do with the record. I feel like live music and recorded music have nothing to do with each other. When we play live I would rather do completely different music. But then that wouldn’t fulfil the function of selling the album, which is the only reason why you play live.

And I suppose with record sales generally declining would you say there’s more pressure to tour as well?
Well no because ticket sales are also declining! The pressure is to have a day job, I don’t have a day job, some day I will probably have to.

Some of your tracks that I love have these incredible, epic sweeping romance stories that you squeeze into 2 or 3 minutes sometimes, are you interested in more extending story writing? Ever thought of writing a novel?
I have not done any extended fiction writing since I was in college, I always felt that my best writing was in verse. But I have the unfortunate habit of not being able to write verse for very long without it turning melodic. I feel like I get much of my inspiration from rhyming and I find it difficult to write poems that don’t rhyme for very long. I love working in rhyme. If I could speak only in rhyme it would probably be very helpful to me.

Have you ever tried?
Yes. You do find yourself returning again and again to the themes that work best in rhyme. For example you don’t tend to talk about silver and orange, if you’re talking in rhyme.

So you’re coming over to tour, we’ve talked about the next record that’s already being planned. What else is on the horizon for you?
After the tour I’m going to be doing a silent film score at the Castro theatre in San Francisco, where they have this wonderful theatre organ. I’m scoring the 1917 silent version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea on May 4th. One time only, get tickets now.

So, as we’ve discussed, you’re already planning another record…
I’m always thinking about new records.

Any more motion picture soundtracks or collaborations in the pipeline?
Not in the pipeline but yes in discussion.

Well I’m sure our readers will await news on that with baited breath.
I’m also waiting with baited breath.

Realism is out now on Nonesuch Records