Used with permission from Maps and Atlases.
Maps & Atlases seem to live for mixing things up. Their latest record, 2012′s Beware and Be Grateful, introduced synthesizers, keyboards, and a pop sensibility into their eccentric guitar-driven math rock. The band has also committed to the refreshing mantra in their performances–they covered Tears for Fears during one of their many Bonnaroo sets–and their appearance–frontman Dave Davison recently shaved off his signature mountain man beard (you can check out the video, set to their song “Old Ash,” here). I was able to speak with Dave, as well as Maps & Atlases drummer Chris Hainey, while buzz was at Bonnaroo over the weekend.
buzz: Beware and Be Grateful has been out for over a year now. It seems like you guys have always been very intentional in the production and songwriting of your records, so at this point is there anything you wish you had done differently or could change now?
Dave: The experience of making the record is one that’s really fun, creative, and interesting, but I think the changes and shifts that take place during the live evolution of the record is another phase of its life. So I wouldn’t want to go back and change anything. It’s interesting when you’re making a record because, at least on our last two records, while we were recording we weren’t playing live. That left a big sense of discovery within the process of making the records. Going to play the songs live and allowing that evolution to take place kept the process alive. It allowed all our ideas, all our emotions, everything that goes into the actual songs to evolve into something new. The songs still feel really lively and fun, but whenever I go back and listen to Beware, it’s crazy how different it feels than how it does now live. It’s a really gradual change that takes place.
buzz: Compared to your older material, Beware sees a bigger change in the aesthetics—like the introduction of new and different instrumentation, and a simplification of the songwriting in favor of a much more straightforward approach. Has playing the new songs live, particularly along with older stuff, changed your perception of them?
Dave: With our first two EPs, the idea of making a record was basically documenting what we had been doing live, without that process of discovery and creativity. The last two records, we focused more on spreading everything out: still experimenting with rhythms, but spreading it out across different instruments or different sounds. When we play those songs live, because we’re relying on those concepts of creative experimentation with rhythm, they fit together better live than we had anticipated. Especially compared with some of the frenetic early stuff.
Chris: I think they fit together surprisingly well. Each release is different from the last, so I wasn’t initially sure how they were going to fit together. But they seem fine, and we always have a nice, cohesive flow regardless of how we put the set together.
buzz: The audience is certainly reacting well, so that’s a positive sign. Everyone seemed especially into your cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” I was curious if that was a standard part of your set.
Chris: We first did it on New Years’ Eve. We don’t normally play covers, so we wanted to do something special at midnight. We learned that song and thought it was really fun and sounded cool. We play it every once in a while.
buzz: What was behind the decision to cover that song in particular?
Chris: The very first time we went to San Francisco, when we crossed the Bay Bridge, we were listening to that song. So I think of that song every time we hit California or the San Francisco area. It was our first west coast tour, so since then the experience has remained synonymous with that song, and Tears for Fears in general. We’re all big Tears for Fears fans.
Dave: It’s also a song that was not only weirdly compatible with our sound, but also not the most obvious song and a big hit that everyone will know. We come across a lot of songs that we agree would be fun to cover, but if it’s a super deep cut, would be totally crazy for us to do. That song is pretty widely known and fits well with the rest of our set. It’s a big-time hit that anybody could recognize, and that’s important when you’re doing a cover song.
Chris: It’s kind of a hard song, too. It’s good to do something challenging. I love playing it.
buzz: You guys were already scheduled to play last night and tonight, then picked up DIIV’s slot after they had to postpone. How did you wind up so busy?
Dave: We actually ended up playing four shows yesterday—some of them were little, private things. We’re excited to be down here, all the events seem cool and fun. We wanted to take advantage of the time we’ve got here. Even though it’s been a lot of shows, we’ve gotten some good hangout-time; we’ve been able to see a lot of friends. You may as well keep buys and try to have a lot of fun as long as you’re down here.
Chris: And we got plenty of practice for later today.
buzz: Let’s talk about your beard.
Dave: Or the lack thereof?
buzz: Exactly. Why?
Dave: I wanted to change it up. It wasn’t a particular statement or anything, although there’s definitely something compelling about seeing this conceptualization of time, obviously the beard represents a great deal of time. So to see it all go away so quickly is compelling and interesting. And I also thought it makes for a weirdly intimate video [for “Old Ash”]. I remember this Blur video where they just had a bunch of cameras in their faces while they were sleeping. There’s something interesting about having the control because you’re setting it up, but whatever happens, it is what it is. I was hoping it would be something interesting to watch. Chris shot it, and did a great job. It was also a thing where, although I haven’t had the beard the entire time we’ve done the band, it’s been a part of our image for the last couple years. We figured it would be cool to show me shaved in the video than to be on tour and have everybody ask what happened to it. Everyone can see what happened to it, and share in that experience.
buzz: What are your favorite sets you’ve caught so far this weekend?
Chris: We actually haven’t had too much time to see other bands yet, but we’re definitely going to catch Paul McCartney tonight.
Dave: I did see Calexico earlier, and they were really cool.
buzz: What has your favorite record been so far this year?
Chris: I’ve been listening to the new James Blake record a lot. I really like the Solange record.
Dave: I really like the Angel Olsen 7”. The Kinks are also great.
Chris: I’ve also been listening to Haim a lot. They don’t have a record out yet, but the singles and things I’ve heard are pretty cool.
buzz: Did you catch their set yesterday?
Chris: We were actually playing at the same time as them yesterday. But we could still hear them in-between songs.
Dave: Oh, I’ve been really digging the new Daft Punk record.
buzz: I was surprised they weren’t playing Bonnaroo.
Dave: Yeah, that would’ve been awesome.
Chris: Maybe they can fill in for Mumford & Sons.
buzz: Are you going to go see Jack Johnson?
Chris: Is he playing?
buzz: He’s who they found to cover for Mumford & Sons.
Chris: Oh, I thought maybe we could fill in [laughs].
buzz: But the call never came?
Chris: Unfortunately.
buzz: With all the different side projects associated with Maps & Atlases, how has your songwriting changed or developed as a result?
Dave: Releasing that Cast Spells EP was cool and helpful, and it gave us all a better perspective on what it is that we all do well when we’re together. When you’re able to take a step back and see how we relate to each other musically, you’re able to let go of any pre-conceived concepts of what the music is. You’re defining it as itself. That was a big part of making that EP, and that certainly translated directly into the making of our record. It helped us expand our definition of what we did and what we could do, both as musicians and on the production end.
buzz: You mentioned earlier that cutting off your beard emphasized to you the passage of time. Since you’ve been a band for a while now, do you ever play songs from the older parts of your catalogue? Or would you want to?
Dave: We definitely do play old songs sometimes, but when you’re in a context like [Bonnaroo], you only have 30 minutes to play and you have to keep things jam-packed. But at the New Years’ Eve show Chris referenced earlier, where we played our Tears for Fears cover for the first time, we played pretty much everything off both our EPs. It’s fun to play old stuff, and it’s a big part of our band and what we do. It’s tough, because we want to mix it up. We want to play stuff for ourselves and also for the people who are attending the show. We want to play the most packed set. When we came out with our second EP, everyone just wanted us to play our first EP. Then when we came out with the next record, people were requesting songs off the second EP. We obviously appreciate that, we love playing all our music in general, but we have to play stuff that’s current. If we didn’t do that, we would still be playing songs off that first EP forever. I would love to do some shows where we get to play all that old stuff again. After revisiting it for New Years’ Eve, it was especially fun. Every single one of those songs brings back so many memories. It’s weird, but it’s fun. It’s like visiting your old street, where you’re still familiar with it, even if you leave it for a while, you can’t help but be right back there in the moment. It’s so much a part of you, once you play something for years and years.
buzz: As long as you’re thinking back on your old songs, and in the context of Beware, what songwriting development are you most proud of? What part of the process have you grown the most positively in?
Dave: We’ve been evolving towards using all the technical stuff, making everything fit better together. The songs seem more subtle and seamless, whereas while all the stuff has remained pretty technical, we’ve pushed ourselves further consistently. What we wanted to do was experiment with rhythm, and I think that we’ve consistently become more adept at seeing the big picture. So we can create something that’s still technical, but also really enjoyable at a basic level. It goes back to one of the very first things you asked about, about the songs fitting together in a set, where people see us performing live and sounds that would normally be performed on a keyboard or whatever are instead done with a guitar. We’re interacting with each other rhythmically, which is reminiscent of our earlier EPs, but we use it in a big picture sense. We’ve also developed lyrically. When we started out, I wanted to write songs that were non-narrative, simply visually interesting and compelling. They had a surreal edge, but were still based on actual experience. Working with that concept, and without offering a really obvious story—here’s this, that happened, and now it’s the end—the lyrics still have a visually evocative edge and a poetic component, but they’re tied up in a way where people can hopefully relate. So those two things I’m proud of: lyrical focus and technical seamlessness.
buzz: Coming from the Chicago area, have you guys remained involved with that scene?
Dave: We’re still friends with a lot of really awesome musicians in Chicago, so we’re there all the time. We’ve been able to hang with a lot of those people while we’ve been here [at Bonnaroo], on tour with their own bands or others’ bands.
Chris: We’ve been fortunate enough to meet so many cool people from Chicago, and it’s been interesting watching them grow and change musically.
buzz: Are you guys still on tour right now?
Dave: We officially wrapped up tour about three weeks ago, so now we’re mostly playing festivals and individual shows. We’ve got some shows with Portugal. The Man coming up.
buzz: So after all of that wraps up, do you have any plans to start writing again or return to the studio?
Dave: I’m sure we’ll figure something out, but we don’t have anything booked or whatever. We definitely want to do something new soon.
buzz: Do you have any intentions to pursue more big changes? Maybe cutting your hair?
Dave: Maybe I’ll get hair extensions, actually. Really, really long ones, to make up for the lack of beard.
buzz: I’m sure that would appease people.
Dave: I still have my beard, maybe I could reattach it to my hair.
buzz: You saved your beard?
Dave: Yeah.
buzz: What are you doing with it currently?
Dave: I keep it in my pillowcase [laughs]. After cutting it off, I had to pick it up off the ground anyways, so I figured I should put it in a bag. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it exactly yet.
buzz: Incorporate it into the next record somehow.
Dave: I’ll cast it out into the ocean.
Chris: Donate it to a hairless animal.
Dave: A dog?
Chris: A mouse.
Dave: [laughs] A baby mouse!
Although Maps & Atlases won’t be returning to the Champaign-Urbana area in the foreseeable future, you can stay updated with their many exciting ventures here.