Magnet Magazine
Talking to Apples in stereo frontman Robert Schneider is something like sitting around the kitchen table with a few friends and a six-pack while knocking out the screenplay for a new episode of Seinfeld. With Schneider at the controls of this magic-bus ride, he pulls the topics he likes out of thin air like some deranged conjurer, instantly discards and modifies them, apologizes for going off the tracks, backs the engine up to the starting point, begins talking about something entirely different, then excuses himself to take brief notes on some future project while humming a melody that’s just popped into his head. He’s also one of a handful of great songwriters to emerge over the past 20 years, a psych/pop genius whose knack for addictive melodies and memorable lyrics is perfectly obvious on Travellers In Space And Time (Simian/Yep Roc). Schneider will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.
Schneider: Mathematics is my main creative pursuit, besides making music. You use simple rules to play with these intangible structures and patterns that have an almost magical inner harmony, a lot like playing piano or guitar. Sometimes I will be completely immersed in thinking about an infinite series or something, and it is as if the world around me dissolves. I see nothing but these beautiful abstract shapes and colors floating around me, like the astronaut at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Favorite mathematicians: Pythagoras, Descartes, Euler, Hardy, Ramanujan and Martin Gardner, who sadly passed away in May.
Video after the jump.
Detroit natives Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott may appear to love everything NASCAR-related, naming their band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and dressing up in sponsored uniforms, but their music is the last thing you’d expect to hear at a booze-fueled car race. “Nothing But Our Love” is more suited for a day at the beach, with hazy vocals backed by dreamy beats and bubbly electronics. The single is off the Horse Power EP, which was just released by Quite Scientific Records.
“Nothing But Our Love” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/NothingButOurLove.mp3
Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 26-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Celia is snapping dead stems off the potted geraniums on her balcony when the phone rings. The answering machine is not on. She picks up the receiver.
“Hello?” she says.
“Hello, Celia.”
The voice sounds like Marcus. 1978. Marcus who ended up on the psych ward. Marcus who told Celia it was her fault he was there. Marcus who told Celia his psychiatrist said it was her fault. Celia doesn’t remember not believing him. She remembers watching him bounce his leather-slippered foot up and down as he spoke. He was sitting in a common area of the ward, legs crossed, wearing his housecoat and pajamas in the middle of the day. Celia listened to him say that it was her fault that he was there. Marcus’ mental illness was her fault. She had caused it.
“Who is this?” Celia asks.
“I heard you wrote a song about me.”
It’s Guy One. She hasn’t heard from him for three years.
“That’s what I do. I write songs about my experiences.”
“Do I need to hear this song?”
“Need? No, probably not. What constitutes need?”
“Do I need to be concerned about being identifiable?”
“Ah ha,” says Celia. “You don’t want to be identifiable. Well, as it happens, I am not seeking revenge, and I do not reveal identities because it is unnecessary.”
“OK, so what’s the song about?”
“You might catch something about yourself, but it would be mixed in with other stories about other people. Unless you wanted to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I think part of that song might be sort of about me,’ there isn’t really much to identify you.”
“So which part might I sort of hear about if I listened?”
“You might hear about a guy at the border between Mexico and the USA and a customs guy turns over a guitar and a peyote button falls out and it rolls under something and is not found.”
“Really? That’s the overall impression that you took away with you?”
“No. It isn’t indicative of an overall anything. It’s just part of a story, part of a song. What business is it of yours what I write about?”
“You’re paranoid, Celia.”
“I’m paranoid? You’re the one calling me up all worried that I may have written a song called ‘The Nasty Narcissist I Once Knew.’”
“Narcissist? You’re the narcissist, Celia. Nothing I did or said was good enough for you.”
“Look, you got your answer. This song isn’t going to be causing you any problems, so I shall say goodbye and let you get on with your ridiculous interpretation of life.”
Celia hangs up and returns to the balcony to pinch off enough Greek oregano for her scrambled eggs.
Talking to Apples in stereo frontman Robert Schneider is something like sitting around the kitchen table with a few friends and a six-pack while knocking out the screenplay for a new episode of Seinfeld. With Schneider at the controls of this magic-bus ride, he pulls the topics he likes out of thin air like some deranged conjurer, instantly discards and modifies them, apologizes for going off the tracks, backs the engine up to the starting point, begins talking about something entirely different, then excuses himself to take brief notes on some future project while humming a melody that’s just popped into his head. He’s also one of a handful of great songwriters to emerge over the past 20 years, a psych/pop genius whose knack for addictive melodies and memorable lyrics is perfectly obvious on Travellers In Space And Time (Simian/Yep Roc). Schneider will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.
Schneider: I like to have the TV on when I am recording. I like the flashing light and random sounds in the background, unless the microphone is on, of course. At my old studio in Denver, when we were making the Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Minders and other records, sessions would stop for Simpsons reruns between 5 and 7 p.m. Favorite programming: Simpsons, Adult Swim, South Park, Mr. Show, Seinfeld, Fringe, Daily Show, Colbert, shows about UFOs and ghosts. My wife hates it when I watch pseudo-scientific documentaries in bed because the spooky music makes her have bad dreams.
Video after the jump.