This interview was conducted in late summer, 2008. OFID had just begun and was working earnestly on the Bahen Centre Project, which would ultimately prove successful. However, at the time nothing was certain and I was working 18 hour days trying to write the design document. I hit upon the idea of asking about Stereolab’s design aesthetic, something I wish I had explored more. Portions originally appeared in Beatroute Magazine.
At 18 years of age, Stereolab has become a funny kind of institution. Long labeled a cult band, they’ve managed to avoid mainstream success and develop a poor relationship with the critics while maintaining a rabid fan-base. After a four-year absence, a best-of collection, and a host of side projects, Stereolab has released Chemical Chords, a tightly wound collection of fourteen new tracks. Via a shaky transatlantic line, we reached Stereolab lyricist/vocalist/keyboardist, Lætitia Sadier in Paris, in the middle of her holiday.
Mark Watson: There has been a lot of talk about the album album’s blue-eyed soul or northern soul influences.
Lætitia Sadier: I guess that the original idea was based on the idea of having loops that were from Motown. Motown loops. Doing something that was quite upbeat, and fun, and bouncy, and joyous. Honestly, I can’t particularly hear the northern soul or Motown – it’s still clearly Stereolab doing their thing. We always have an idea or two when we start the record that will justify making the record. It’s just an idea at the beginning. In the end, it’s going to sound like what it’s going to sound like. I think that’s the point of making a record, to be surprised by the results.
MW: Do you feel, then, that this record is a continuation of the Stereolab sound? Are you any closer or further from the early motorik sound?
LS: I don’t know. It’s a recognizable sound. We’re always trying to recreate or bring new ideas or life to our work. It’s always a sound that’s been quite dense. If possible, it’s denser now than it ever was. We wanted to avoid seven minute or nine minute tracks. Instead we wanted to build towers of music, kind of high-rises, shorter in length and even denser than they ever were. You can listen to them a few times before you can decipher everything. I mean, I’ve been listening to it quite a few times and have heard new things each time. I wasn’t there for the whole of the recording so I’m not exactly what went on. I’m still hearing new things.
MW: I just ask because for maybe the last 8 years, every time a record is released it seems critics say that “Stereolab needs to evolve” at the same time “it doesn’t sound enough like the early material.” I always thought that was a strange position critics were putting the band in. Are you conscious of that kind of critical position? Has the critical response affected how the band operates?
LS: We don’t make records for the critics. I think we would have quit after the first record because the critics were so annoyed with us. They were so annoyed that they could not put us into their little pre-labeled boxes. There is not a box for Stereolab. And now, I think the critics have given up on us, trying to label us this or that. And I think they generally – now I don’t follow closely what they write – generally I feel the critics have given up with us, they’re “Okay, just do your stuff.” I mean, we’ve been doing this for 18 years…and we try to change each time, because, of course, what’s the point of making the same record. [Band songwriter] Tim [Gane] doesn’t think at all like that. You know, even the idea of doing a cover version does not interest him. There are so many songs to be written, why go and rewrite something that has been done already and replay a song that is otherwise perfectly good. It’s just the question of how you look at music and why you do music. As far as Tim and I are concerned, you know, we do music for the joy of discovering new sounds, new songs, and the joy of sounding unique.
MW: At least from the outside, you’ve always seemed like a band that you know exactly what kind of sounds you like and what areas you are going to get something from. It almost seems you’ve been a little bit punished for having a strong aesthetic vision.
LS: Yes it’s true! On one side we’ve been punished because lots of critics are ignorant. And they have a tendency to make people unadventurous and not desire change and to go for what they know and is familiar and reasurring. And people like Tim and I, we get bored with what we know already. We are always seeking something new, some new routes. It’s like me, in the morning, I have to take a different route each time otherwise I get an anxiety… that I’m always doing the same thing.
But there are different kinds of people and also there are different kinds of educations. Obviously, the mainstream wants to keep things as they are. And then, there are certain people that think differently and want to explore new avenues. And Tim, certainly, is nothing if not more about exploring new avenues. And it’s never been a question of anything other than doing that. And indeed we have been punished because there is no path to get to the mainstream for us.
On the other hand we’ve done extremely well, out of our stubbornness, out of doing strictly what we want to do. And 18 years on, here I am talking to you in Canada. I’m going to come to you soon and play shows. I’m quite thankful of that.
B: Still, as successful as you’ve been do you hope, at the back of your mind, for a big single?
LS: You know, maybe in a career it’d be nice to have a big crown to put on: a hit or a golden record or something. It would nice, financially; at the moment we are struggling and we are thinking of moving our studio but where it is going to move to next we don’t know. Financially, it is not easy.
And why not bring some Stereolab music to more people? It would be very nice. You know some people can control this. They can put themselves in certain situations to maybe pump a hit. Personally, I don’t know how this thing is done. And I really don’t think Tim is so interested to know how it’s done and try and achieve this.
I wouldn’t reject it, but I’m not sure I’m prepared to bend over backwards to get it.
MW: Are you going to do a video? YouTube seems to have resurrected them.
LS: Yeah Yeah! There’s two videos already!
One for “Three Women.” It’s a piece of beautiful abstract art, which hopefully you will attach your own meaning to the pictures that you see. It’s very beautiful. And the second one, for “Neon Beanbag,” which should be out, I don’t know, I don’t go a lot on the Internet. I’ve seen the video and I liked it, it’s a woman dancing in it in quite a crazy way. And I find it quite engaging, more engaging certainly that the completely abstract work for “Three Women.”
MW: Your music has been used in art exhibits and movies and commercials. And you had a best-of record come two years ago. It’s a bit of a clichéd question, but is there any major artistic milestone that you have yet to hit?
LS: I don’t know. This record was nine months in the making. It was a big effort, particularly for Tim and [band member and producer] Joe [Watson]. We recorded thirty-four songs, sixteen or fourteen of which are on this record. And hopefully there will be a sequel. This is the “day” record and then there will be a “night” record, which hopefully we will come out in six months. I actually prefer it to the day record.
You know, you spend all this time making it, you put all this effort into it…personally, I don’t feel “Oh, I must do this great thing, I must make it happen” I don’t think that like, I’m in the presence of what I’m doing and try to do my best for now. I hope we’ve gained experienced. And I do believe in improvement, and improving in what one does. So I just look at it step by step.
MW: Changing gears: packaging and design has always been central to Stereolab albums. Does this affect your attitude towards digital album sales or do you see it as a new medium to hire designers to work in?
LS: Very good question — I think we are going to have to think more in terms of the internet and how to promote a certain image. We have been a bit slack about that. We’re still a bit record-oriented, thinking in terms of albums and singles. There is a whole new way to consume music. We’re going to have to get with it… and be creative. Certainly there are ways of being more creative.
