On January 17th, CL spoke with Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage about his paintings, the Grammys, and being his truest self. The next day, Parquet Courts released the music video for “Outside,” a song Savage penned for the band’s latest record, Human Performance.
Read our full Q&A below, and check out his Grammy nominated package here.
Parquet Courts play Crowbar in Ybor City, Florida on February 8, 2017. Mary Lattimore opens the show, where doors are at 8 p.m. EST. Tickets are $15-$18. More information is available via local.cltampa.com.
When you created your painting Seizure in a Hallway, did you make it with the intention of it being part of the cover art?
No, no… I painted that in my own separate state of mind. I do a lot of artwork that has nothing to do with Parquet Courts, but it was around the same time that I started working on the Human Performance art, and it kind of just started screaming at me from the corner. It became apparent that it needed to be included, because so many of the same emotions were embedded within that painting were [also] within the lyrics of the record. So eventually it made itself apparent that it was going to need to be a part of it, and it ended up being the cover.
Could you give an example of some of those emotions?
I don’t know — for me, maybe helplessness. I don’t want to get into that too much, since an important part of the process is not spelling out emotions for people, letting them find them on their own, letting people’s minds bridge the gaps between artwork and music and everything that goes into our record.
You were nominated for the Grammy for Best Recording Package — did you file the paperwork yourself, or was that someone at Rough Trade?
It was Rough Trade that did that.
[Read: Here's Andrew Savage's Grammy nominated package for Human Performance]
So when you got the announcement, did you even know that you were in the running?
I guess I knew, technically, I was submitted — that I did know. That I had a snowball’s chance in hell? No. I didn’t even consider that.
Do you think you’ll attend the Grammy extravaganza?
I’m sure as shit going to go to the Grammys. That’s planned. I’m going, but I’m just going there to have a good time and watch David Bowie’s art director win. Maybe I’ll meet Paul McCartney or something. The show [Parquet Courts' year-end show and exhibition] I had at the Knockdown Center was kind of the extravaganza, the unveiling of the painting at hand.
In the title track of your new record, you sing, “Eyes in the fire blink unrehearsed.” As a performer, is the feeling of doing something unrehearsed — like a gut reaction — something you chase?
Well, performances don’t have to be rehearsed. We perform things from our gut, so those two aren’t always part and parcel. And to speak on that, in a literal sense, as a performer of music, an entertainer or artist or whatever you want to call it, a lot of that is rehearsed. Naturally we know these songs, but a lot of elements to our songs involve improvisation, specifically the guitar work that Austin and I do. We’re still performing, although it's not rehearsed. It’s in the moment. And I like that spectrum. I tend to like things that are polar in life, and especially in art. In Parquet Courts’ music one thing I like is the disparity between pop and improvisation, grittiness, or whatever. It’s an important of the identity of Parquet Courts, certainly.
Monastic Living, the record you released prior to Human Performance, seemed to be a little misunderstood when it came out, though it wasn’t the first time you guys had done more experimental, improvisational stuff, like on your first record, American Specialties. Do you ever feel like you’re doing a kind of "one for us, one for them" thing?
I don’t look at it [that way], because it’s all for us, really, and it’s all for them. But I do think it’s more interesting when our first label major record is a noise/drone record rather than what would have been our poppiest record, Human Performance. I also view Parquet Courts as something that occurs somewhat cyclically… there are these cycles that we go through. Like, Monastic Living and American Specialties, they correspond with one another in a way that maybe Light Up Gold and Human Performance correspond with one another. I also agree that you should always be tethered to your point of origin, and the sense of knowing where you came from.
The record closes on a really soft note. You sing [lyrics by Sean Yeaton] “I’m not an impostor/At first old conventions seem staged and uncommon/It’s going to happen every single time/So rehearse with me in mind”— do you worry about feeling like an impostor, or being [one]?
I don’t worry about being an imposter. But sometimes I do worry about being my truest self. To do that you really have to keep yourself in check. It’s easy to be on autopilot, and kind of create this stock persona. I think one of the ultimate performances is performing as you —naked, alone, raw. There’s a certain amount of maintenance… you have to be attentive. I don’t know if that’s specifically what Sean was talking about, I can only postulate, but I think it might have something to do with that.
Parquet Courts play Crowbar in Ybor City, Florida on February 8, 2017. Mary Lattimore opens the show, where doors are at 8 p.m. EST. Tickets are $15-$18. More information is available via local.cltampa.com.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2017.