Next Sunday, September 8th, catch The Dodos at Neumos (8 p.m., $15 ADV, 21+).
The Dodos latest album Carrier opens with “What is a song? What is love? What does a song hold?” At first, it makes you anxious. These questions hold a lot of weight — ones that you’d rather have the musician answer for you than contemplate yourself. But around the three-minute mark, the song reawakens with confidence.
It’s hard not to let a tragedy overshadow an entire album. Echoes to Chris Reimer — a soft but “stoic” presence for Meric Long and Logan Kroeber — are heard throughout the reflective Carrier. It’s hardly a grim album, but a minimal, optimistic approach to rediscovering who you are within heartache. I talked over the phone with drummer Logan on Tuesday about hot sauce, working with Magik*Magik Orchestra and that fantastic mustache.
The album just came out today — congrats! This is your fifth full-length album, how would you say it’s different than the past four?
Since I play drums, for me personally it’s a lot different because I’ve come full circle to playing with a kick drum and a hi-hat in addition to all the floor tongs and stuff that I usually have. That was part of the writing process for me — trying to incorporate those elements into our music. It’s harder than it sounds. I know a lot of people play drums with the same set up, and I know it’s the most common thing in the world, but we tried to get away from that in the beginning. It feels natural now.
How was the songwriting process different for you?
It’s a real physical thing for me when we’re improvising in the studio, and I’m trying to come up with a cool beat that I think Meric would vibe off of and write something to. It’s hard not to let your muscle memory fall into clichés. It’s more variables for my feet and hands to be playing at the same time. Sometimes it feels super chaotic to have everything be doing something.
It looks like a good workout!
I can definitely get a good workout! But this is more of a workout for the mind.
I read you’ve already started recording album number six. Is it hard for you guys to stay stationary? Are you always looking ahead?
This was just one of those things where I knew we had a bunch of little pieces for some new stuff that I was excited about. However, I was nervous about not going into the studio until we were really ready. We did some preparation for about a week or two before we hit the studio for the newer stuff that hasn’t come out yet. It felt really fresh. I think we came up with 9 new songs.
Already?! You haven’t even started touring yet.
I know, it’s wild. But I’m really excited about the new stuff. We just have rough mixes that we purposefully mixed to sound wrong so we wouldn’t get attached to them. They sound tweaked and weird right now, but there’s a lot of potential there.
I know your friend Christopher (Reimer) heavily influenced this album. Could you tell me about which songs on Carrier are the most important to you?
He was a real stationary presence on stage when he was playing with us. We were always joking with him to try and get him to headbang or rock out somehow, but he was always stoically doing his part really, really well on stage. “Substance” has that part with the crash that a lot of people can’t NOT headbang to. So that song would be looking to him, because he would be doing a head nod, not a full headbang.
The song “The Ocean” performed with Magik*Magik Orchestra is really beautiful, but it isn’t your first time working with them. How is it working together?
Back in 2010, we did a concert with them at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Since then, it’s been awesome to see them become so versatile. You can just talk to Nina and Eddy like, “I wanna try this.” Or you can just give them full carte blanche — which is what we do. They can call in whomever you need. It’s an amazing thing to watch. They can do a full big 30-person ensemble, or a 4-person string section or horns, whatever. They’ve made it their business. I think it’s super rad.
Is there a particular reason you chose to end Carrier with that song? It seems as if you guys reach some sort of conclusion in it.
I agree. The lyrics and also just the tone of the song — it’s like a conflicted note of optimism. And it’s a good way to go out. The repetitiveness of the ending of that song just seems like a good outro. [But it] was in the newest batch of songs that we were less prepared to record. So it seemed really fresh to us. If you were to listen to things chronologically, you might read into it and the next batch of songs really well.
What’s your background? How did you get into playing the drums?
I dabbled in all kinds of music ever since I was a little kid. My dad played music and my brother played music. My dad ran a music store and worked at small record labels. It was always something I was interested in. I got my first real drum kit in junior high, but then I met these guys who played metal band. They found out that I played drums and then it just happened! “Oh you’re the drummer! You’re the drummer we’ve been looking for!” I’m like, “Oh! I guess I am!” After that I got a new kit and got real serious about it. I loved playing drums before, but it was just happenstance where, “We’re starting a band, we need a drummer.” “I play drums.” “Ok, so now you’re a drummer.”
On the track “Substance,” your use of the hi-hat is unique. Did your playing style ever give you a disadvantage in the beginning or has it always worked in your favor?
Certain people would latch onto it as this gimmicky thing, but it wasn’t really negative. It would just generate some curious questions throughout the years. There are some fans that get shocked when they see the new configurations of my drum kit. “Oh my god! You have the kick drum! You’ve sold out!” (Laughs) I think it’s super funny. They’re joking, but it’s just something silly to fixate on.
I like having those sorts of limitations. Sometimes it gets a little too chaotic now that I have all these options in front of me. When I’m working with a more limited kit, it’s more “do the best with what you have.” I’ve been fighting to keep it as minimal as possible.
Kelsey’s Formidable Five:
- Q: I hear you’re really into hot sauce. What’s your favorite kind?
A: Hot floss? Hot fuzz? I don’t know if I’m hearing you right. Oh! I thought it was some sort of spicy dental floss? I could be into that. But hot sauce…. Okay, so Meric and I both fell in love with this New Zealand brand of hot sauce called Kaitaia Fire. But now that I’m at home I’m pretty much strictly a Sriracha guy. It’s not original, but it’s true! And I’m partial to Crystal when I’m on the road. - Q: Everyone asks how you came up with your bandname. If you could have ANY other name — what would it be?
A: (Laughs) Well, it would be too hard to part ways with all things Dodo. It would be nice to push the spotlight back on Meric completely and have it be The Dodo Man Band. He could be The Dodo Man, and I could be The Band. - Q: If you weren’t a musician — what would you be doing?
A: That is such a good and terrifying question. A long time ago, I thought it would be awesome to be a translator. If I learned a bunch of different languages, I figured a bunch of opportunities would pop up. But a computer will probably replace that job sometime soon. It was bad foresight on my part. (Laughs) I recently went to China with the band, and I have a cousin who’s been living there for a long time. He speaks fluent Mandarin, and that’s fucking HARD. He was just slaying it. He was haggling with a scooter mechanic on the street, and that brought me back to my translating dreams for sure. - Q: Favorite cookie?
A: The discontinued Banana Walnut from Anthony’s Cookies here in San Francisco. It’s sad. I don’t go in there very often, maybe it’s just something they have every once in a while. But it used to be a staple on their menu. Now every time I look on the chalkboard it is nowhere to be found! - Q: People seem to really admire your mustache. Do you have anyone’s mustache in particular you admire?
A: I guess I’d have to give credit to my dad. He was running the mustache when I was a kid. No doubt that it was inspiration — or just genetic. When it came time for the hair to start growing out of my face, the mustache was the most common area. Anyways, Rest in Peace to my mustache. It’s sustainable. It can always come back.
