Brooklyn-based band The Antlers has been supporting its most recent release Hospice internationally for the past year.The MUSE recently caught up with front man Peter Silberman to discuss his success in the last year.
The MUSE:You guys have had a crazy year &-&-Your album came out almost a year ago.
Peter Silberman:Yeah, it’s a year ago March 3rd.It’s been interesting for sure.It’s turned all of our lives upside down in a good way, I think.I think part of what’s so weird is that it’s been going so long now.Never in my wildest dreams, if this did well, did I expect it to last this long.I keep moving forward and kind of keep getting bigger.It’s bizarre.
TM:When I first started listening to the album it had a really cinematic quality to it.Is that something you were thinking of?Like, a visual component to your music?Have you ever thought of doing a film score?
PS:Yeah, actually we’ve all been talking about doing a film score and hopefully we’ll get a chance to do that soon.In a way I think of music, film and literature as sort of different versions of the same thing. I think a record, even without being a narrative story from start to finish, can flow in a similar way.I think it can also tackle topics in depth, which I hear a lot in music but also witness a lot of resistance to it.A lot of people are uncomfortable with dark ideas or personal storytelling.
TM: How do you mean?
PS: I don’t know, I think with this record, although it’s been received really well, there have been people who really prefer music if they [don’t have to] think about it.It’s the kind of thing where people don’t want to think about death, they don’t want to think about abusive relationships and cancer. They’re happier not, and I can understand that too, because I don’t always want to be watching a heavy movie. I don’t want to always be listening to music that has any effect on me.Sometimes I just want background music. I think films and novels, a lot of them, deal with difficult things and I think music is the one that has the biggest uphill battle with that. That requires the most handholding through it.But, I don’t know, I kind of like that challenge also.
TM:I would have to say that’s one of the strongest points of your album: there are ups and downs.One couldn’t simply pigeonhole it as one thing or another, which is very much like a film score.A movie isn’t entirely depressing the whole time.
PS:Right.That’s also just like when the reaction is something’s depressing it’s just kind of shortsighted.With anything really, unless it’s just thoroughly bleak and there’s no hope provided in it.I wouldn’t want to create something like that.I think a sort of positivity by the end of something can be more easily appreciated if it comes from a very low place beforehand.I think that’s true with life too.
The Antlers played a show with The Editors last weekend at the House of Blues.
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