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Levithepoet interviewed Anathallo for our latest issue. He transcribed the actual interview and we are now posting it for your enjoyment. So, please do your part: read and enjoy!


Hey Matt! How are you?
Hey! Good, how are you doing?


Pretty well, thanks. Doing some work; writing some random stuff that doesn’t have to do with work, too.
That’s cool! What kind of stuff are you working on?


Uh – with the magazine – just working on a couple of other stories and stuff like that. I just interviewed a guy from Ruth, so I was working on some of that. And then, I like to write a lot. I do a lot of creative writing and poetry type stuff, too. So I was working on a couple things I’ve written for that.
Very cool! What kind of stuff are you into for that?


You know what? I don’t really know. Um, I was never a big spoken word-poetry type of person. Like, I was never big into slam poetry or anything like that. I don’t know why. I think I just get kind of bored listening to people talk non-stop for a long time…
Yeah. And there’s definitely like, a format, or whatever that they subscribe to.


Yeah, and I don’t dig that. You go to a gig and there’s the weird talking and the pauses and the [breath] breaks, and the [breath] breaths and the random stuff. I don’t know. I have a, um … Do you guys every get on myspace?
Yeah. Haha, well I actually just dropped off of it. I don’t know. I just kept getting all of these – like – I wondered for a while whether or not I should drop off of it. I just kept getting all these messages from people and I was like, man, I need to commit to the friends that are in my life and be available to them in a physical, real, special way.


I feel ya.
But, I mean, I still go on there and listen to bands. That was the best thing about it – was that I found all these crazy circles of bands all over the world, you know? Do you write your poetry and post it on there?


Yeah, yeah. It’s kind of cool, I guess. It has a little more “experimental tone thing” to it, to make it better – or, hopefully, to make it better than your random talking “whatever.” It’s at myspace.com/levithepoet.
LevithePoet. That’s easy to remember. Do you spell that with an “I” or a “Y?”


With an “I.” Say what’s up on there sometime, if you want.
I will. Or, well, I can’t say what’s up now that I deleted my account, but I’ll check it out. Haha.


Oh yeah. Well, that sounds good. Cool man, well thanks for taking the time to do this with me for a little bit.
Oh yeah. I’m out in Seattle. I was in Pioneer Square right now. I was in Elliot May Books – the best bookstore ever. If you’re ever in this area definitely check out this bookstore.


You know, my girlfriend did an internship with Tooth & Nail, uh, about nine months ago up in Seattle. I got to come out there for a little while. I swear man – that’s like my favorite city. Ever. I’m living in Texas right now doing some stuff for HM, but my home is Albuquerque, and gosh, I wish – if I didn’t have a girlfriend back home I would totally move to Seattle. Without a doubt. I love it up there.
Yeah, it’s pretty beautiful. Yeah, my girlfriend – well, actually my fiancé… we got engaged yesterday!


Wow! Congratulations!
Yeah! Thanks man! You’re the first person that I said, “My fiancé” to.


Wow! I feel privileged.
She lived out here actually and she lived out here with a group called Seattle Garden Works. It’s like a bunch of kids that lived on the South side and did a lot of work in this community garden and whatever money the generated from the garden, the kids got paid for the produce and stuff. So they have this, like, real, physical, visceral work experience where they saw their hard work turn into sustainable income and stuff. So … yeah, we’re wondering if we’ll end up back out here because it’s beautiful and we love it. But Chicago is our home for now.


How do you like it? That’s something I was going to ask you, actually. How do you like it down there? Out in Chicago…?
I like it really well. I wanted to move there because I think the city has such an insane diversity. Just the cluster of people living on top of each other and figuring how all of these cultures and different backgrounds and financial situations, belief systems, evaluations of space and land – and how they all fit together in such a tight proximity, you know? It’s amazing to go out my door every morning and be like, “I could run into, literally, anyone on the planet right now.” It’s such a shared space. I mean, my only beef – maybe – with Seattle is that it’s a little but culturally homogenous. There isn’t a lot of, uh … it doesn’t have the kind of special freedom and cultural diversity, I guess, as Chicago does. It’s a very vibrant city in that sense. Everyone under the sun lives there. It’s crazy. It’s big and it’s vast and it’s angry and it’s sweet. It’s like, everything. All this stuff … it was an interesting place to write a record, for sure.


That’s awesome. That’s cool. I know you guys have talked to other people in the past about, you know, Mt. Pleasant and stuff like that, just being really influential to your music. So I was going to ask you if Chicago was too, in inspiring you guys.
For sure. I don’t know if … like, I think content-wise, because the space is so congested all the time, you never have this sense of lost ambiguity that you had in Mt. Pleasant where you could just spend six hours at your house in Mt. Pleasant and not even realize that it passed by and never see another person or talk to anyone, you know? In Chicago, there’s constantly people everywhere. They’re “up in your grill” whether you want them to be or not.


Seriously. I went through Chicago after Cornerstone ’07 and man, it was fun, I loved it. I didn’t get to stay long, a day or two, but it was beautiful. I’m a “big-city” person. I love it.
Yeah. It’s amazing just to see how it can work together. I think part of the reason that it’s so enticing to me is because there’s just a hopeful image. Like, seeing all of these different people making a city happen together. It’s really beautiful. Even with all this messed up violence. Like, four blocks from my house, two kids were killed in the last three weeks, I think. It’s just like, you know, there’s a lot of violence and anger and frustration. But what comes with that is like a beauty that you can’t really observe anywhere else in the world. So I think it affected the record a lot in the sense that the pacing of the music has a greater rhythmic tightness to it that the other records, I think. It moves itself along all the way throughout the record, I think. Which is something I didn’t really notice until after it was written. I was like, “Wow! That’s so weird!” Just by being in this space where everything is moving, you know? Like, I’m on a train, I’m on a bus, I’m walking, you know? There’s just this sense of pedestrian movement all the time. That really weighed in on the record. I think a lot of the more social issues, or the content of the record – um, I don’t know if that really permeated the lyrical content, maybe, as much, just yet. It was something that I was still processing at the time that all of the lyrics were written which was pretty near to when we moved there. But like, now, if we were to write a record, it would contain content that may be less focused on perception of truth in nature and more on the realities in people and interaction with other humans, and what that means and what it’s like.


Yeah. That’s cool. Can you talk about the lyrical inspiration? The concept behind the general album?
Sure. Yeah, a lot of it has to do with, like, touching the natural world and observing it in terms of the natural world as a guide, sort of. Like a big theme throughout it was about how we narrate the lives we have and the kinds of stories that we generate in our minds to, like, interpret what’s going on around us. Seeing the natural world as something that exists without consciousness. It’s there. It doesn’t perceive, but we perceive it. Does that make sense? It’s kind of like, the stable rock for us to experience reality through if we can interpret what it’s doing. In the sense of a song like “Northern Lights” – this insane natural phenomenon was happening when Heidi and I were in here backyard one night – really late at night. It’s happening overhead and all of these insane colours are exploding in the sky and everything. It honestly felt for me, like, very scary. I felt in reverent awe of everything that was going on, and it was so absurdly massive to me that I couldn’t even, like, comprehend it. It makes me feel weak, I guess. I guess that’s the only way to explain it. It made me feel sick, thinking about it. I think an experience like that really helped the record. Like, observing phenomenon, and how those sorts of encounters with the natural world inform what we think if we’re paying attention.


Cool.
Yeah. So … the song like “The River” had a lot to do with this experience that Erica’s mom had when she was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail where she was crossing this river and she didn’t know it dropped off. She was wading through it and all of the sudden it dropped off and she was carried away by this really fast current and she thought she was going to die. And when she came to that realization she though, you know, there’s nothing else to do. I can’t get to the bank of the shore. I need to experience this as the last moment of my life and almost relish in how “un-glamorous” the experience was. There wasn’t even a moment to really think, so she just kind of started absorbing the space around her, and realized that every moment of our life can be ceremonious and meaningful if we kind of surrender to our current situation and the place that we’re living in. She said she just kind of like, leaned back on her back as she was floating really fast down the river and looked up at the canopy of leaves above her as the sun was pouring through them, and that observation was so beautiful to her. Even if it was the last moment she ever had it, it was enough. Luckily, strangely, she didn’t die. But then she told us the story later and we were stunned by it and Erica started writing the lyrics and we tied it all together.


That’s awesome. Do you, um … You guys write all of your music collectively, huh?
Um, pretty much. Yeah, usually somebody comes with a little idea. With a notion of what somebody wants to do with the song. And then the rest of the group kind of comes together and starts working on it. That way we all have an active vision that we all start working towards. But yeah. It’s a really slow process for us. I think a lot of groups have a more systematic way of making songs a lot faster than we do. It takes us a lot longer to put out records than other people. I don’t know. I was watching a video interview with Stereo Lab this morning and they were talking about how one of the guys writes al of the music, and then delivers it to the singer and she writes lyrics and goes into the studio and sings it. I think that’s amazing. I’m kind of in awe of the fact that they can do that and produce records that sound so cohesive. But, for us, I just know that we wouldn’t have any interest in working together in that capacity if we weren’t in the room interacting with each other. Or having some sort of dialogue. Maybe it’s not even about being in the room together. But having a dialogue where we’re in the process of making the music and collectively creating it as a group is part of what we’re getting out of it – the process of doing it. Not even what comes out of it as a result, if that makes sense. The act of sitting together in a room is probably more important to us than, like, the songs. It’s kind of weird. It’s kind of backwards and convoluted, but…


That’s kind of cool, though.
You know, that’s the way that we work. We all get a lot out of it and use it to communicate and it’s almost like we’re using the band as a way to grow as people and as artists by being around each other and in awe of each other in terms of interests and … I don’t know. Paul Simon said on time that he thinks each of us is born with, sort of like a river of melody that we naturally move towards. It’s amazing to be in a room with six other people who all have different senses of what that river sounds like an looks like and feels like. You know, all of the different streams of melody coming together and sometimes they don’t and it sounds awful and we’re like, “Wow! This song is totally not working and it sucks, but it’s going to come out on the record.” But at least we learn something from it, you know? So I think it’s really like learning process for us. Hopefully it’s not totally just self-serving, you know? Hopefully people are into that process and also gaining something from hearing it and hearing about it, if that makes sense. But none of us are, like, pros. No one is like, “I have a natural skill!” It’s more like we’re clawing it out. Pulling the songs from our minds.


For sure. There’s a ton of people and a lot of instruments for you guys too. What’s it like live for you guys? Do you run into each other all the time and do crazy crap? Here’s where I come out as the jerk: I haven’t seen you guys live yet. I’m excited about it though.
Haha! No, no! Don’t worry! Yeah it definitely gets crazy. It depends on what the stage is like, who we’re touring with and how much room they’re taking up, you know? But in general it’s a total madhouse. It’s really funny. Things get pulled over and the mic gets thrown down. Somebody’s horn gets knocked over or someone gets hit in the back of the head with a guitar or something. It can get pretty chaotic unless we have a lot of room.


That’s awesome! What’s...
It’s kind of like American Gladiators for music. We just jump around to different points on the stage trying to get to this instrument before the next second begins, but so-and-so is in your way.


Right, right. That’s awesome man – you guys have … well, first of all, your website is awesome, with just all the little simple buttons or whatever in there…
Haha! Yeah! It’s just a joke. We were so sick of design. We were like, “Let’s just pick the lamest, funniest-looking website with all these little Apple symbols…”


Dude, it’s awesome. Everything’s just photocopied onto these white background and it’s so sketchy. It’s great. I love it.
Thanks man. We try to keep it fun and funny. Unprofessional. That’s the vibe.


I think that’s good. I think too many people try to be, you know, like, too crazy, creative about stuff…
Super slick? We just look dumb if we try to, like – whenever we try to do something cool, it just ends up looking ridiculous, so we end up sticking with the funnier, more pathetic version of whatever that is. You always see these horrible bands pictures of people that go to studios and take pictures … Flat ironed?!


Yeah! None of them smile! We are not happy people! Don’t smile, what’s you’re problem? You shouldn’t be smiling!
Yeah. No laughing. No goofing around. It’s not right for us to try to take a picture like that.


That’s right. You guys have had how many CD’s before this? Four? Five?
Five before this one.


Has it been cool for you guys to be able get some national and critical acclaim? Be able to do some crazy tours and stuff like that? Has it met your expectations?
Yeah. It’s been amazing. I never thought that we’d play in front of 3,000 people. That was a ridiculous thing to me. I just laughed about it standing there. We were like, what? We’re seven people from the middle of Michigan trying to have a good time and learn about music and learn about life. Now, somehow, magically, we’re standing on stage in front of 3,000 people. How did we get here? It’s kind of absurd, you know?


What do you think about music as it … uh, well … what are you thoughts on faith? What do you think about music as it relates to ministry, or as it relates to art? Are the two interchangeable, do you think?
Hmm. That’s a really interesting question. A mentor of ours once said to us that if you’re using music as a way to spread the gospel or something like that, why don’t you just shoot off some fireworks and stop wasting everybody’s time? That will get everyone’s attention, and then they’ll show up and you can share the gospel. I was like, wow. That’s kind of painful to hear from someone that I really respect. But I guess he was kind of making a point to us about the inherent value of music. It’s not just a tool. It has value on it’s own. It gets a little hairy, too, because less than half of our band are Christians. I think a lot of people assume that the whole group is, but it’s not. I think that can cause a lot of controversy because people that aren’t Christians are like, this is weird, and why is all this stuff showing up in your lyrics? But it’s just like whatever naturally influences us, I think. We’re trying to cultivate an approach to life that views the whole world and views the self and the experience of the self as something that is inherently valuable, in and of itself, from whatever worldview you’re coming from. And so, I think for that reason, it’s been able to work with all of us, because people aren’t believers that are in the band and don’t believe in Jesus, or something – like, people that are maybe Buddhist or Atheist in the band kind of, like, respect the notion of free expression, if that makes sense? How and individual worldview is worth sharing, no matter what it is, because we’re all pouring into this collective bowl of knowledge, if that makes sense. So yeah. I think that’s probably the best way to answer it because it wouldn’t be fair to say, in any way, that we’re a ministry. Or that we’re trying to be. I think naturally, depending on what the belief system is – the natural belief or idea will influence what we do, if that make sense. It’s more natural than, like … being the people that are trying to convert other people. I don’t think anybody in the band is out to do that. So yeah. You know, we have friends that are artists that are Christians and that aren’t Christians and we love all of them and we view their art for the sake of the art and not for it’s spiritual content, because I think everything has a spiritual content. There’s no such thing as, like, Christian art, I don’t think.


Yeah. True that.
There is art that’s influenced by faith, but I don’t think that there’s Christian art. I think that’s impossible, because art can’t have faith. Art itself. Faith comes from the soul, form the individual person. So I think that’s how we see things, but we’re really open to dialogue. Like anyone who’s interested in talking about that notion, one on one – we’re very interested in talking about it.


Cool. If you had the choice of having any mutant power of one of the X-Men characters, which would that be?
Woah. I’m most mystified by Rogue’s power. I can’t say that I really understand what it is, and she freaks me out because she’s so angry, but I’m still intrigued by it. I’d love to be able to get inside of her head and have that power for a little bit and see what it’s like … but maybe Storm. Because I love when it rains and I think her power is really dramatic. I wouldn’t want any of the physical strength ones. I think those are wack and I could just body-build if I wanted to do that. I want to be Storm because she’s really dramatic, and that’s fantastic.


I think I’d be Nightcrawler. I wouldn’t want to look like him – maybe I’d be one of those jumper guys. You know, get on a lunch break and go to China and say hello to the friends that you made over their, and then just teleport back.
Dude, that would be really good, too. Then we would never have to pay for plane tickets or use up the natural resources that it costs to fly somewhere. Maybe that’s better, yeah!


No gas. No nothing.
Yeah, maybe for a touring band. I think I was just thinking selfishly in terms of my own personal interests. I just want to shoot lightening out of my fingers.


Hahahaha! That’s right. Cool man, well, I, uh … that was all pretty awesome. Thanks for that.
Hahaha!


I think I pretty much covered everything, I just...
I’m sorry. I just kind of ramble in strange whatever-ness and then the dude is left with, like, four hours of work to try to come up with a coherent interview.


Yeah, it’s kind of awesome though. Like I said, I did an interview with a dude from Ruth yesterday, and he kind of did the same thing … but just ended up answering all of the other questions in the process. So, I think that’s what you did.
Awesome! Well if you have any other questions you can feel free to email me, or if you think back on it, and something doesn’t make sense or you want to go further with something, I am all about that, because a lot of times people end up printing the same sort of stuff. So feel free.


Awesome dude! Well, thanks so much for everything. I’m going to catch you guys one of these days, I swear it!
Yeah, awesome. We’ll be down in your area, I think, sometime this spring.


Okay, cool. Say hi to Seattle for me.
Oh, I will.


Alright man, peace.
Thanks man.




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