Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti spoke to SPIN about their upcoming album, the follow-up to 2010’s acclaimed Before Today. They’ve been recording for the past six months, and are currently mixing and mastering the new album in Beverly Hills. Of the 13 or 14 songs he’s recently written, Pink said “sonically, it’s comparable” to Before Today. “There are definitely not any links to my lo-fi origins. It’s so diverse but so different from anything I’ve done before,” he explained. “In a sense, its really the record I wanted to make back when I made Before Today, but couldn’t due to pressures and different factors. We had time to let our hair down and try new things.”
The interview also explores how producer and former Haunted Graffiti member Cole M. Greif-Neill joined the band in the studio, where he attempted to emulate Pink’s mouthbox effects. “Since I write a lot of the stuff in my head, its very difficult to have a drummer translate those ideas,” Pink revealed. “But [my mouth percussion] became a guide for Cole to beat match with real drum sounds.”
Pink even goes on to talk about his love for his new phone: “Getting my first Android phone changed my life,” he said. “I don’t have to memorize everything. I can put ideas down on the fly and save them for a rainy day, which is something I never had the luxury of doing in the past. I’ve got this great talent for co-opting memories at random — this time I’ve got a hundred ideas on a moment’s notice.”
Pink said the new album is tentatively set to be released in late August via 4AD, with a tour alongside James Ferraro. He also mentioned the possibility of playing more upscale, pricey venues: “I think all the hipsters who came to all of our shows as teenagers have grown up now,” he says. “Hopefully they can afford it.” In an interview several months ago, Pink said the album was tentatively called A Death in Hollywood and, was “[loosely] based on a childhood movie that I made with my cousins, basically a combination of Ghost and [The Adventures of] Ford Fairlane. It’s like a rock-and-roll detective story. There’s a rock star who dies onstage and his brother wants to get to the bottom of the caper.” No word on if that’s still the focus.
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Also, two of the MP3 postings yesterday — Kids and Marissa Nadler — were actually in WAV form, so here are MP3 versions for those that prefer it:
Marissa Nadler – Apostle (post)
Kids – Indian Paintbrush (post)
Kids – Seleh (post)
