Childlike Wonder

PANDA BEAR (Noah Lennox) takes "paws" from his Animal pals to paint a pretty picture of his newfound domestic bliss

In his "day job" as a member of the experimental New York freakfolk group Animal Collective, Panda Bear, a.k.a. Noah Lennox, has generally taken a supporting role. The release of his new album, Person Pitch (Paw Tracks) puts Lennox at center stage singing a catchy collection of joyful tunes accompanied only by his computer. Lennox took some time to talk to us about recently becoming a family man from his new home in Lisbon, Portugal.

When was the last time you were in the states?
I was just there actually three days ago doing a little solo tour. I played twice in New York, once in Baltimore and once in Philadelphia at the Church. I'd never played there before so it was kind of nice. I think it was the sanctuary because there were pews. Plus there was a video, a guy doing visuals for me, so it was kind of nice just to be able to sit down and watch that stuff.

Was that the only tour you'll go on behind Person Pitch, the little solo tour?
Yea, I think so. It's just hard to find time between my family and the band, which is like my job. And I don't mean that in a bad way, just it's my focus musically speaking. The solo stuff is just an added bonus, and it's hard to find big stretches of time to do stuff like touring.

Do all those other focuses make it a longer process for you writing solo songs?
All the songs on Person Pitch were written in little pockets of time that I had away from the band, and it just came about naturally. Whenever I felt like playing music I would go and do it. It took a little over two years to compile all the songs. I started by doing one single. My friend Rusty used to work with United Acoustic Recordings, and he asked me to do a single, two songs for a 7". I got the idea after I did that of doing an album that's just a collection of singles.

You originally didn't want to release the full-length on vinyl because you were already releasing most of the record as vinyl singles. What changed your mind?
I just got so many people writing to me and asking me, "When are you going to put it out on vinyl?" I talked to my friend Agnes who did the artwork, and we were both excited about the fact that the artwork would be big and look really nice, so eventually I kind of caved in.

How did you feel about Person Pitch being leaked early on the Internet?
Over the two years I was working on the album I got more and more excited about the album being this internet album. Part of the reason that I was really happy about it getting leaked early was that people had easy access to it. I wasn't psyched that the quality was sacrificed, and I wasn't psyched that people wouldn't be seeing all this artwork that Agnes worked so hard on, but like I said, over the two years I was doing it, I did get psyched on the idea that it was an internet-age album.

What attracted you to Portugal?
I met a girl here while I was on tour. That's sort of the beginning and the end of that story in a way.

And you've written and recorded all of Person Pitch there?
One of the rooms of our apartment is my crappy studio. I did it all there. The way technology is today, all you need is a computer. You can get all teched out about it and get analog tape machines. But for my purposes it was perfect.

What's the difference between recording there and recording in New York?
There's totally a different vibe recording in my home space compared to going into some studio you've never been to. When I did all these songs it was just because I felt like playing music. I would just go in there and have fun, whereas with the band, if we're going to record, we go in there at ten in the morning and leave at nine at night, very regimented. With the solo jams it was really loosey goosey.

I feel like there's a bit of childish whimsy on this album. Sort of a magical vibe. There's also a surf-rock influence to the vocals. Were those sounds intentional?
I think that's something that the band (Animal Collective) and I have in us in terms of our sensibilities in music. We're good at really appreciating whatever sounds we're listening to. You could call that childlike, in terms of us being open-minded about sound in general. And it's safe to say that the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, and the Beach Boys, certainly that era of pop songwriting crept its way onto the album. I really like that stuff a lot.

So what's next for you as a solo artist?
Right now, it seems like I'll never make another record. I'm so burnt on myself. Bored of myself. I mean that in the most positive way. Right now, the thing I'm most excited about is working with the band again.

— Lavinia Jones Wright


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