FOURTET AND CARIBOU ///
INTERVIEW TANIA BISWAS ///
BOWERY BALLROOM, NEW YORK ///

Kieran Hebden is hungry. In this era of waifish musicians who can't afford not to fit into their vintage trousers, it's hard to find one who'll admit to feeling the pangs of something so mundane, much less one who scarfs down junk food like your couch potato roommate after a forced fast. Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet, is just such a rarity. But then, you can't blame him.

Fresh off a Coachella slot and on tour in New York with his pal Dan Snaith of Caribou and Manitoba fame, Hebden's dealing with checking his equipment, photographers that want to get another few shots and back-to-back interviews-he practically has no time to breathe, much less eat. The man known as Four Tet (and an erstwhile Fridge member) is in the middle of promoting Everything Ecstatic, his new studio follow-up to 2003's critically acclaimed Rounds, which comes in the wake of a much-touted Madvillain remix release.

By all accounts, Everything Ecstatic proves that Hebden isn't one to sit around and soak up previous glories. On this record, he delves back into his love of free jazz and proceeds to chop it up extravagantly, peppering it anew with the expected effects and spacey beats, while taking yet more novel stylistic gambles.

Hebden's London-based compatriot, Snaith, who as Manitoba ran into a bit of trouble with a certain Handsome Dick of the Dictators, hasn't been slacking either. He may have lost his band name, but the potential that so many recognized from Up in Flames is on its way to being fully realized with Caribou's The Milk of Human Kindness. Snaith starts down a new path here, opting for hip-hop melodics and Krautrock deconstructions, with occasional hints of past forays into IDM and pastoral psychedelia.

But in short, dear readers, Hebden and Snaith are quite the pair of fearsomely talented buddies. And so, to a soundtrack of crunching, munching and crackling chip bags (which, surely, both Snaith and Hebden could work into some exquisite tune), 'Sup challenged the attraction of a coffee table laden with junk food and won (sort of). We managed to ask these friends about their work habits, who buys more records and what they really think of each other.

How's touring been? How are you doing? Everything going well?
Dan: Good. We've done eight shows before this and Kieran- Kieran: I've done nothing! Dan: He just played in the desert [Coachella]! Kieran: I just turn up for the good shows. At Coachella, there was a three-pound bag of potato chips for me and there was, like, three liters of salsa! Dan: I heard [MF] Doom came on with his baby? Kieran: Yeah, he came on pushing a pram with the baby! And he pulls the baby up next to the monitor, and the DJ plays the first beat, and I swear the baby was just like (nods his head to an imaginary beat)! It was definitely the best thing in the whole festival. (laughs)

Do you guys pick up each other's records during the course of your day?
Dan: Yeah, definitely. But there are precious few people whose music I actually like in this world, so-- Kieran: I always get one of Dan's records and play it to death for about a month. Then he goes on tour, and I go to about 53 of the shows, and by the end, I never want to hear any of those songs ever again in my life! (laughs) Dan: You've got to anticipate mutual back-scratching going on. (laughs)

Do you wish there was room in the popular record charts for the kind of music you make?
Kieran: It never struck me that either of us were trying to be "pop." (laughs) Dan: No. I've always just been making music for myself, ever since I was a kid. And I've always figured that only a few people are going to be interested (though I've been blown away by the number of people who are interested) and they're going to be into music that I'm into-weird, different-sounding stuff. I never thought (puts on a blustery voice), "Aw man, we're gonna fuckin' shift a million fuckin' records this time, man!" But if it happened, I wouldn't be like, "No no no no, stop!" (laughs) Kieran: (takes a breather from the chip bag) Life, at the moment, is so much fun! We have the best lives!

Tell us about a day in your wonderful life. Make us jealous.
Kieran: Listen to a few good records, call up Dan and be like, "Shit, man, you gotta hear this record!" Go around his house, listen to the record, then be like, "Oh, I could eat some sushi right about now!" Go eat some sushi when our beautiful girlfriends get off work, then maybe go watch a good movie.

Kieran, you're notorious for not having much of a workspace. Has that changed? Dan, tell us about where you work.
Dan: Mine's as nonexistent as Kieran's is. I record at home. Kieran: (amid much fumbling with snacks) I haven't changed anything. Everyone's been asking me, "What's the new equipment?"; but it's the same as it was on the last one. Dan: I made my three records exactly the same way- Kieran: He's got a room! Dan: No, half of this album was recorded in my bedroom with my girlfriend in bed, her earplugs in, and me just like (rocks out). I now live where there's a room for me to do music, and that's where I did the other half. It's such a flexible setup; I think people imagine that what we're doing is really restrictive, but I do everything in the most disorganized way. Usually, I'm in a pile of records with a guitar trying to play a tape recorder at the same time. Kieran: And the room's just like one swinging, naked lightbulb and him sitting there with his big headphones on, his hair sticking up, and he's (buzzes)! (laughs) Dan: Yeah, I don't go in for any of the trimmings. It's just music, music, music, all over the place.

Kieran, walk me through the progression you see your music as having gone through-from Dialogue to Everything Ecstatic?
Kieran: The idea behind Dialogue was these dance records that claimed to be jazz-influenced. But I knew jazz to be this evil, mad, aggressive type of music, and I wanted to put out a contemporary record that was influenced by that. For the next record, I realized that I was being far too scared about the kinds of sounds I used. You can use the most unobvious sound in a certain context and it can be a big pop record. So I started buying folk records to hear different kinds of instruments, but those records were all about sea shanties and farming! So I thought I'd make a folk record with heavier rhythms. I guess that's when I threw myself into that "folktronica" bullshit. (laughs) If I had a criticism of the first two records, it was that they were a product of their influences. The records that I really admire sound like they come out of nowhere half the time. I set about making a record that was more my sound, where people couldn't pin down what I'd been listening to or where it was coming from. And then I started the new record, where I wanted to change it all up yet again. I'd been doing live music, and the music was getting more aggressive, noisier and more manic. I wanted to make a record that captured that tension.

Can you explain where the tension on your records comes from?
Dan: On Up in Flames, I discovered this sprawling, kaleidoscopic way of making sounds and filling up every inch of the record. I was so excited and happy that the album was joyous all the way through. This album is more varied just 'cause the last couple years of my life have been more varied. There are some songs that are joyous, some that are more tense and some that are more melancholy. Kieran: There's a blues track, and a ballad! Dan: And a Krautrock freakout! Kieran: Everyone's got to have a ballad on their album. I feel it's a big problem in modern music that people are shying away from that. Mine's "And Then Patters" in the middle of my new record.

How do you approach doing a remix?
Kieran: It's a bit of a technical exercise, doing a remix. When you're doing your own track, you can really see your ideas through. Fifty percent of doing a remix is organizing somebody else's ideas so that you can actually work on them. There's a kind of compromise going on, but I think that's a good thing, because it pushes you to do something that you might not normally get involved in with your own music. It keeps you rounded as a musician. But in general, production work is just really, really time consuming. Dan: I don't like to compromise. I approach remixes in a far less professional way than Kieran. I look at how much money they're offering. Kieran: (laughs, grabs another bag of food) Hopefully the mic's not picking up too much of this!

When you perform live, like tonight, do you try to work improvisation into your songs?
Kieran: The whole point of it for me is that it's going to be completely different every night. It's then that I'm willing to take risks and try out mad, new ideas. It's the most boring show in the world, with me standing behind my computer-there's nothing to watch-so the emphasis has to be on the music and my doing something interesting with it. The risk factor is part of the fun as well, especially since so much electronic music is about precision and control. People always ask, "What would you do if your computer crashed?" But if my computer crashed, I'd just start making noise on something else and make do with it. I try not to be indulgent about it though; I believe in entertaining and engaging the crowd. I think it's something I've learned from DJing-if people start dancing, I turn the drums up. And if people don't dance, then I turn the drums up even louder! Dan: I was never happy playing from a laptop, especially because you could be doing something completely different every night, but the audience wouldn't know that you weren't just pressing play on a CD. Now, with two drummers and visuals, that syncs the whole thing. We take the album, disassemble it and put it back together with the aim of making it as boombastic and engaging for the audience as possible. It's also about making it a feral and physical experience for us, 'cause we're sweating and bleeding and fucking hacking away up there. That's what people connect with.

Between the two of you, who's bought more records since you've been in the country/city?
Dan: I've only been here an hour, but I haven't actually bought any records on this tour, which is a bit worrying. The Junior Boys are fucking caning it! They've got all of this disco shit. But I go through phases-after I've just released a record, I won't buy records for a while, but when I was making this record, I was buying as many as I could. Kieran: I bought about 20 records in California. I got Albert Ayler on vinyl, the box set! And I got this record Dan's got that I've wanted for ages-it's this swami guy playing harp, and it's got lotus flowers on the cover! I mostly bought swami records! Dan: (laughs)

Are you planning to go onstage as a swami?
Kieran: Well, my new album's supposed to be my religious album. I'm serious! ///