{"id":3147,"date":"2011-08-08T22:09:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2011-08-08T22:09:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:09:29","slug":"of-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/of-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"OF MONTREAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"of<\/h1>\n

OF MONTREAL<\/h1>\n

Getting away from home for a while, thanks to a serious case of the funk flu<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes recorded the group\u2019s previous albums at his home studio in Georgia. But for the act\u2019s new effort, False Priest<\/em>, he elected to work with producer Jon Brion\u00a0(Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple) in a professional studio. \u201cIt was really just a desire to do something different, because I\u2019d been doing it this way for so long,\u201d Barnes says. \u201cIt seemed like a really good opportunity for me to get an education, to see how people who make radio\u00a0records\u2014but not in a cheesy way, good\u00a0radio records\u2014work.\u201d<\/p>\n

After recording early versions of\u00a0the songs at home (with contributions\u00a0from R&B singers Janelle Mon\u00e1e and Solange Knowles), Barnes presented the tunes to Brion in Los Angeles.\u00a0\u201cWe experimented with things we could replace, like all the bass guitars, and added all\u00a0these drums and synthesizers,\u201d Barnes\u00a0says. \u201cIt was kind of cool to hear the\u00a0difference of the bass sounds in my\u00a0home studio and what it sounds like in\u00a0a professional studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came time to record his vocals, though, Barnes felt stymied by having other people present in the studio\u2014unexpected from a guy known for outlandish costumes and provocative stage shows. \u201cI was really self-conscious\u2013I couldn\u2019t even find the pitch. It totally destroyed my mojo,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like writing a diary while it\u2019s getting projected onto a screen that everyone is reading. It\u2019s awkward. That\u2019s what I like about cutting my vocals at home: It\u2019s four in the morning and no one\u2019s around. I\u2019m able\u00a0to get really free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free, in this case, meant channeling the feel of the music that inspired the sound of False Priest<\/em>: funk. \u201cI think I caught this strange funk flu, as if it was a virus or something,\u201d Barnes says with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ve been listening to a lot of Parliament, a lot of soul and funk records from the \u201970s.\u201d Barnes, 36, was just a kid when funk and soul reached their heights in the \u201970s, and he knows better than to try imitating the singers who made those styles so successful. He regards the songs on False Priest<\/em> more as a tribute to the spirit of the era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something magical about that time period,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to romanticize a time period that doesn\u2019t exist anymore, but that\u2019s the one that\u2019s winning in my head. George Clinton, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield were sort of directing this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OF MONTREAL Getting away from home for a while, thanks to a serious case of the funk flu Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes recorded the group\u2019s previous albums at his home studio in Georgia. But for the act\u2019s new effort, False Priest, he elected to work with producer Jon Brion\u00a0(Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2307,2306,1062,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3149,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions\/3149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}