Of Montreal @ Shipping and Receiving v Shipping and Receiving
Two important events occurred during the making of White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood. I became
"Simulated Reality" paranoid and I fell in LOVE.
Well a lot more happened during the process of writing and recording, but those are the two big
ones. I also reached a healthy point of self-forgiveness for my failed marriage and became
deeply educated in the lies of America the Great.
I feel like a switch was recently turned on in my brain and now I'm beginning to see through the
lies that have been fed to me my whole life by the masters of media and by those who control
and manipulate the narrative of our cultural identity and social order.
My paranoia began during the presidential election cycle and reached a dangerous peak shortly
after the inauguration. In the meantime I watched and read countless works of art in a mad
effort to be reminded of how many truly brilliant people there are living/struggling among us and
to try to maintain a positive outlook. The works of Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Chris Kraus,
Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and Mark E Smith were all great
inspirations, to name a few.
Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop
singles back in the ‘80s. It's so cool how a lot of the 80's hits had these really intricate and
interesting longer versions that wouldn't get played on the radio and could only be heard in the
clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended "club
edit" of album tracks.
I also decided to abandon the "live band in a room" approach that I had been using on the
recent albums and work more on my own or remotely with collaborators. I used the same drum
sample packs throughout because I wanted the album to have a rhythmic continuity to it. I
wanted the drums to have a strong and consistent identity, similar to how Prince's Linn
Electronics LM-1 drum machine played such an important role on his classic albums. Zac
Colwell also played a huge role on this album, adding saxophones and synths to most of the
songs. I also got a lot of help from long time collaborators, and "of Montreal" touring members,
Clayton Rychlik and JoJo Glidewell.
The two title concept came to me when I was thinking about how difficult it is to frame the
message of a song with just one title, because so often the songs are about so many different
subjects. ‘White Is Relic’ was inspired by James Baldwin’s writings regarding the creation and
propagation of a toxic American White identity. I've come to learn how it's just a tool wielded by
the 1% to give poor white people a false sense of superiority in an effort to keep the masses
placated and numb to how deeply we're all getting fucked by our capitalist rulers. An ‘Irrealis
Mood’ is a linguistic indicator that something isn't yet reality but does have the potential to
become so.
I'm always searching for new identities so this concept of the death of "Whiteness" appeals to
me greatly. Might be the only way to save the world.
Více akcí 8.5.2018
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